Freight Forwarding and MAP-21
Robert M Milsop
What the paper says
This article considers the impact of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), signed into law in 2012, on freight forwarding. The author notes that, for motor carriers specializing in trailer load or container load transportation, MAP-21 prohibits “convenience interlining,” also known as total subcontracting to another carrier. Now, in order to legally engage in convenience interlining, the carrier of record must also be registered as a freight forwarder with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) and post the required $75,000 bond. The author discusses how this regulation came about, the history of regulations for freight forwarding, the different types of freight forwarders, piggyback carriers (trailer containers on flatcars), shippers’ agents and shippers’ cooperative associations, the history of forwarding merchants in early rail transportation, “despatch” companies, short haul versus long haul profitability, changes during the CivilWar and during World War II, and cargo liability and insurance issues. The author concludes with a brief section of recommendations for legislative revisions.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.00 × 0.4 = 0.00 |
| M · momentum | 0.20 × 0.15 = 0.03 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.