Maritime
February 3: Maersk-Hapag Alliance to Send Ships Through Red Sea with Naval Assistance – The Maritime Executive
The alliance between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will start for the first time to send vessels through the Red Sea as part of its gradual return to the shipping routes. The carriers, however, emphasized their focus on safety, noting that “All transits will be secured by naval assistance.”
The Gemini Cooperation, launched by the two carriers a year ago, has yet to send vessels through the Suez Canal–Red Sea corridor, although Maersk had begun trips through the region on some of its independently operated routes. Starting in mid-February, they report that the alliance’s route that connects India to the Middle East and the Mediterranean will switch to the Suez Canal.
The Gemini Cooperation said it is planning to send two other services, routes between Asia, the Adriatic ports and Turkey, through the Red Sea and Suez Canal at “a later stage.” It said no further changes, however, are “foreseen at this stage.”
The naval assistance will come as the EU NAVFOR Operation Aspides marks its second anniversary. The European Union launched it as a defensive effort to protect vessels in the Red Sea against the Houthis’ attacks.
February 8: U.S. Will Stick with the IMO, But Aims to Defeat the Net Zero Framework – The Maritime Executive
The United States appears committed to staying with the International Maritime Organization and attempting to win arguments on the inside, in contrast to its decision to withdraw entirely from some other international organizations, such as the World Health Organization, that it considers lost causes.
This was apparent from the attendance last week of Marco Sylvester, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs, at the 16th Annual Capital Link Greek Shipping Forum held in Athens, and his participation in a Ministerial Roundtable on February 5. But he also warned that the future of the IMO was threatened if IMO Council decisions were adopted without “explicit acceptance,” the IMO’s procedure for only adopting proposals with a clear majority.
The focus of attention at the meeting in Athens was on how to proceed after the IMO’s draft Net Zero Framework (NZF) failed to secure the necessary support for adoption, with members voting instead for an adjournment to rework the framework and present it afresh. The IMO’s Marine Environmental Protection Committee will consider how to proceed once again at its MEPC 84 session scheduled for April 2026.
February 9: U.S. Urges U.S.-Flagged Ships to Stay ‘as Far as Possible’ from Iran’s Waters in Strait of Hormuz – CNBC
U.S.-flagged ships have been advised to stay “as far as possible” from Iranian waters when navigating the Strait of Hormuz as tensions between Washington and Tehran remain elevated.
In a notice issued on February 9, the U.S. Maritime Administration said ship captains should decline permission for Iranian forces to board U.S. vessels.
Boarding attempts, including moves to force commercial vessels into Iranian waters through small boats and helicopters, have occurred as recently as February 3, the agency under the Department of Transportation said.
The advisory recommended that ships transiting eastbound in the Strait of Hormuz stay close to the Omani side of the waterway.
February 16: Hapag-Lloyd Buying Zim for $4.2 Billion – American Shipper
In a merger of two of the world’s largest container shipping lines, Hapag-Lloyd of Germany will acquire Israel’s Zim Integrated Shipping Services for $4.2 billion. Zim confirmed the news in an announcement on February 16.
Zim said the sale is structured so that a new Israel-based company, New ZIM, will acquire a portion of its business. Zim did not provide further details. But the new company, financed by an Israeli private equity investor, ensures state control of the carrier’s owned vessels, for security purposes.
Hapag-Lloyd is one-third owned by state funds of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The deal, which requires approval by Zim shareholders and regulators, is expected to close in late 2026.
February 16: Israeli Opposition Emerges as Hapag-Lloyd Signs Deal to Acquire Zim – The Maritime Executive
Hapag-Lloyd officially signed the agreement to acquire Zim and sell its domestic operations to FIMI, an Israeli private equity company, while extolling the benefits of consolidation for customers and shareholders. However, with Zim viewed as a national asset, opposing voices quickly emerged to the deal, including from the workers committee representing the approximately 1,000 Zim employees in Israel.
“Zim is an excellent partner for Hapag-Lloyd,” said Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd. “Customers will benefit from a significantly strengthened network on the Transpacific, Intra Asia, Atlantic, Latin America, and East Mediterranean.”
The head of the workers’ committee, Oren Caspi, emerged from a meeting with the company on February 15, immediately announcing a warning strike. The committee had been a vocal opponent of the sale, and Caspi told the media outlet Globes the board was “ignoring and evading us for two weeks.” He said talks had broken down with the company, and the headquarters employees would strike.
The Histadrut (General Federation of Labour in Israel) also told Globes it was backing the workers’ committee. “Zim is not just another company in Israel. It is a strategic asset of the State of Israel, representing a critical link in national security, in the stability of supply, and in the ability to maintain trade by sea even in emergencies. Any harm to the stability of the company or to its employees means harm to the national interest of the State of Israel.”
February 25: ONE Announces CEO Succession Plan – American Journal of Transportation
Ocean Network Express Pte. Ltd. (ONE) has announced planned leadership transitions, which will be effective in the coming weeks.
Till Ole Barrelet will join ONE on May 1 as Chief Executive Officer-Designate. He will succeed Jeremy Nixon as CEO on July 1, at which point Jeremy will transition to the role of Senior Advisor.
Till brings over 20 years of maritime and logistics experience to the role, most recently serving as CEO of Emirates Shipping Line (ESL). He has deep expertise in ship owning, financing, container shipping, trade development across Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
To better position ONE for its next phase of growth, ONE will transition to a new Executive Management Team structure comprising the CEO and seven representatives from across all divisions. The new Executive Management Team, together with a further six regional leaders, will report into the CEO. This expanded leadership structure will facilitate closer collaboration across a global matrix structure at ONE.
February 28: Iran Radio Broadcast Bans Hormuz Strait Transits After U.S.-Israel Strikes – gCaptain
Oil and gas tankers are increasingly avoiding the Hormuz shipping strait that links the oil-rich Persian Gulf to the open seas after the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran, with a large number of vessels holding outside of the waterway while some already transiting have turned back.
Ships reported hearing a radio broadcast purporting to come from the Iranian navy announcing that transit through the Strait of Hormuz was banned, and while there hasn’t been any official communication from Iran on the status of the waterway, most shipowners are taking a cautious approach. The U.S. earlier issued a warning to shipping in the Middle East that vessels in the region should stay 30 nautical miles away from its military assets.
February 28: Houthis Signal Renewed Red Sea Shipping Attacks After U.S.–Israeli Strikes on Iran – gCaptain
The maritime security environment in the Middle East deteriorated sharply on February 28 following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, with Yemen’s Houthi movement signalling that it intends to resume attacks on commercial shipping in and around the Red Sea after a pause of several months.
Two senior Houthi officials, speaking anonymously to international media because there was no formal public communique at the time of reporting, said the group had decided to restart missile and drone operations against maritime traffic in response to the U.S.–Israeli military action against Iran. The officials indicated that renewed attacks could begin imminently and would target shipping routes previously struck during the group’s 2024–2025 campaign in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Air
February 5: Airfreight Options Narrow in 2026 as Supply Chain Volatility Reshapes Global Lanes – Air Cargo News
Shippers have less airfreight shipping choices in 2026 following a year of global supply chain disruption, according to Rhenus Logistics.
The company said that, after a volatile 2025 marked by geopolitical tension, policy shifts and uneven demand, service options are becoming more standardized, reducing flexibility for shippers, despite capacity increases.
Rhenus said that “capacity remains available but (is) increasingly lane-specific, particularly across trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic routes affected by tariff uncertainty and regulation change.”
The company said that, in contrast to trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic activity, there are now more options for goods being moved within Asia Pacific.
February 28: Airspace Closed, Airlines Halt Flights as U.S., Israel Attack, Iran Responds – Al Jazeera
A wave of American and Israeli strikes on Iran, and retaliation by Tehran on targets across the region have forced much of the Middle East’s airspace to shut down, with reverberations across the globe.
At least eight states declared their airspace closed as the conflict erupted on February 28, including Iran, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Syria also announced it had closed part of its airspace in the south along its border with Israel for 12 hours.
The closures came after the U.S. and Israel carried out attacks across Iran that U.S. President Donald Trump pledged would raze Iran’s missile industry and destroy its navy. Iran, which had been engaged in negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program right up until the attack, pledged a harsh response and soon began waging retaliatory strikes in Israel, as well as several Gulf Arab states that host U.S. military assets, including Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain.
“All American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become a legitimate target,” a senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera. “There are no red lines after this aggression, and everything is possible.”
The Middle East has become an important route for flights between Europe and Asia, as Russian and Ukrainian airspace is closed to most airlines due to the war there.
Trucking
February 4: FMCSA Designates English Proficiency ‘Safe Zones’ – FreightWaves
The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has released new guidance defining the boundaries of where truck drivers are effectively immune from being placed out of service (OOS) for failing to speak English.
Last year, the Trump administration initiated strict, national enforcement of English language proficiency (ELP) by requiring that such violations result in truckers being designated OOS and being taken off the road.
But FMCSA has now clarified that there are geographic exceptions to enforcement: Drivers stopped within specific commercial border zones – ranging from three to 20 miles from the border, depending on the size of the population within the municipality – will not be grounded if they fail a language evaluation. Instead, inspectors are directed to cite the violation but let the driver proceed.
This exception applies “irrespective of the driver or motor carrier’s country of domicile or whether the driver holds a U.S. CDL, Mexican Licencia Federal de Conductor, or Canadian CDL,” the FAQ states.
February 11: Trump Wants 100% American-Made EV Chargers. Some See Sabotage. – E&E News
The Trump administration is proposing to require that federally funded electric vehicle chargers be fully U.S. made, an all-but-impossible target that could kill a multibillion-dollar effort to build a nationwide charging network.
“This proposal is designed to provide a strong incentive for manufacturers to rapidly shift their processes toward domestic manufacturing,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, adding it would “protect Americans from foreign-made EV charger components that use technology with cybersecurity vulnerabilities.”
But a chorus of EV supporters and industry experts said on February 10 that the new rule would be next to impossible for federally funded charging stations to meet. It is not yet clear how rigorous the 100-percent rule will be; it’s in proposal stage and open for public comment.
“It’s hard to imagine 100 percent of any product being domestically sourced,” said Jay Turner, a professor at Wellesley College who maintains a database of clean-energy factories.
February 12: U.S. Inspections Blitz: 71% of Drivers Removed for Insufficient English Proficiency – Transport Routier (translated from French)
As part of Operation SafeDRIVE, the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and law enforcement members from 26 states and the District of Columbia conducted targeted actions along major transportation corridors.
Between January 13 and 15, 8,215 inspections were carried out, resulting in 704 drivers being taken off the road, nearly 500 of whom (71%) were dismissed for insufficient English proficiency. In addition, 1,231 vehicles were taken out of service and 56 arrests were made.
February 19: U.S. FMCSA Issues Mandatory Non-Domiciled CDL Directives – FreightWaves
New guidelines released by the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reveal just how aggressive the agency plans to be in enforcing its final rule cracking down on non-domiciled CDLs.
The new FAQ provides details on a federal purge of unvetted foreign drivers, introducing mandatory operational changes not detailed in the final rule issued recently.
The most significant escalation in the new directives targets the nomenclature found on the licence.
Under the final rule, all eligible licences must unmistakably display the term “non-domiciled.” However, the new FAQ goes further, revealing that licences marked with terms like “temporary” are no longer just out of date but are non-compliant. FMCSA is now “strongly encouraging” states to immediately revoke and reissue these specific credentials rather than waiting for them to expire.
In addition, simply adding a “non-domiciled” restriction code to a standard design is explicitly forbidden, according to the new directives. Instead, the word must be “conspicuously and unmistakably” located on the face of the card.
February 24: Legislation to Kill Double Brokering Hits U.S. Senate Floor – FreightWaves
A legislative effort to purge fraudulent brokers from the supply chain is now eligible for consideration by the full U.S. Senate after being placed on the Senate calendar on February 23.
The Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act takes direct aim at fraud in the household goods sector, but its enforcement provisions and registration requirements would apply to all freight carriers and brokers that register with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
If passed, the bill would restore and codify FMCSA’s explicit authority to assess civil penalties for unauthorized brokerage activities – after a 2019 legal ruling had stripped that power away. FMCSA would be able to bypass the Department of Justice for many types of fines, enabling faster action against double-brokering – which scams carriers out of their freight payment – and other unauthorized brokerage schemes.
Carriers and brokers would be required to provide to FMCSA a valid physical business address, not a P.O. box, before receiving operating authority.
February 26: From Sharpies to Vinyl: The Professionalization of Truck Identity in Cargo Theft – FreightWaves
For years, the industry has joked about fraudulent trucks showing up with handwritten signs taped to the doors. A company name written in marker on a piece of paper became the stereotype of cargo theft. If you were paying attention, you could usually spot it. That environment is changing. Criminal groups operating in freight are getting more organized, and the physical appearance of legitimacy is becoming easier to create and harder to challenge in the moment when decisions are made.
We are now seeing patterns that suggest actors are using rapidly produced vinyl decals to create temporary truck identities within hours. The goal is not branding. The goal is access. A truck only needs to look legitimate long enough to remove freight from a facility. Once the freight moves, the identity can disappear just as quickly.
Most fraud prevention conversations still centre around documentation. Carrier packets, certificates of insurance, operating authority status and email verification are all important, but they address only part of the exposure. Modern cargo theft increasingly combines digital deception with physical impersonation. A fraudulent carrier identity may exist online long enough to pass onboarding checks. By the time a truck arrives for pickup, the paperwork often appears reasonable on the surface. The final step is making the equipment visually match the identity that was booked.
February 27: FMCSA Spotlights U.S. Trucking’s Multimillion-Dollar Insurance Gap – FreightWaves
The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has warned Congress that a massive “insurance gap” is leaving the American trucking industry more vulnerable than ever.
In its 2026 quadrennial report to lawmakers, the agency laid out a precarious new reality for the industry: The 12 billion tons of freight for-hire interstate property carriers move are now subject to a median “nuclear” verdict that has skyrocketed to $51 million.
At the same time, with current federal minimum financial responsibility levels remaining unchanged since 1985 – at $750,000 for the transportation of property – a carrier’s mandated insurance now covers less than 1.5% of a median major award.
Rail
February 18: UP, NS to Resubmit Merger Application to STB on April 30 – Progressive Railroading
Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway have informed the Surface Transportation Board that they anticipate filing a revised application on April 30 for their proposed merger.
The Class Is had to let the STB know by February 17 whether they would revise their proposal calling for UP to acquire NS. The railroads filed their initial application with the STB on December 19, 2025; they announced their plan to merge in late July 2025.
On January 16, the STB unanimously ruled that the application was incomplete because it did not include certain information required under STB regulations.