TPM26 was a success, and the conversations around capacity, partnerships, and the future of freight did not disappoint. Held March 1 through 4 at the Long Beach Convention Center, the Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference once again brought together the most senior minds in container shipping, drayage, 3PL, and supply chain strategy. Taylor Distributing was proud to be represented by Chaz and the team, and the insights we gathered from the floor have us more energized than ever about what we can offer our partners heading into the remainder of 2026.

Events like TPM26 remind us why being present and invested in the broader logistics community matters. This is not just a conference. It is where relationships deepen, freight strategies shift, and the future of supply chains is mapped out in real time.

What Is TPM26 and Why Does It Matter?

TPM, organized by the Journal of Commerce by S&P Global, has been the premier conference for the trans-Pacific and global container shipping and logistics community since 2001. The event attracts shippers, ocean carriers, freight forwarders, technology providers, trucking operators, railroads, ports, terminals, and third-party logistics providers for an intensive week of networking, negotiations, and relationship building. Think of it as the annual summit where the tone for international freight is set for the year ahead.

For a Cincinnati-based drayage and 3PL provider like Taylor Distributing, being at TPM is not just relevant. It is essential. The decisions made in Long Beach ripple outward to every port ramp, chassis pool, and inland delivery point across the country, including the corridors we serve every day.

The Big Themes from TPM26

1. Cost Pressure Is Reshaping Freight Strategy

The dominant theme at this year’s conference centered on cost. With US companies facing average tariff levels that analysts have called the highest since the 1930s, shippers are no longer treating logistics optimization as a back-office function. It has become boardroom-level strategy. According to data from Goldman Sachs cited at the event, through mid-2025 US companies were absorbing the majority of tariff costs, putting intense pressure on every link of the supply chain to find savings.

This pressure is being felt upstream and downstream. Shippers are exploring new sourcing arrangements, renegotiating carrier contracts, and scrutinizing detention and demurrage charges more carefully than ever. For freight partners, this means the bar has been raised. Rate alone is no longer sufficient. Reliability, transparency, and the ability to execute consistently across a complex network are now the price of entry for any serious logistics relationship.

64%

of US tariff costs absorbed by American companies through mid-2025 (Goldman Sachs)

25%

above pre-pandemic levels: where average ocean contract rates still sit despite recent declines (Drewry, 2025)

$4.65B

projected drayage services market size in 2026, up from $4.26B in 2025 (360iResearch)

2. Drayage Capacity Is Tightening, and Timing Matters More Than Ever

Perhaps the most operationally urgent conversation at TPM26 involved drayage capacity. A convergence of regulatory enforcement actions, rising carrier insolvencies, and shifting inland routing strategies is reshaping the drayage landscape in ways that will affect every shipper moving containers through US ports and rail ramps. According to a December 2025 report from ITS Logistics cited by Commercial Carrier Journal, these pressures are “culling the 2026 capacity pool of both inland and drayage providers, which will likely result in swift capacity crunches as demand returns.”

The Cincinnati market is not immune. C.H. Robinson’s February 2026 drayage update specifically called out Cincinnati ramps as areas of elevated risk, noting chassis shortages, metered releases, and extended turn times at the NS Sharon terminal. For shippers routing freight through this region, having a local drayage partner with deep market knowledge is not a nice-to-have. It is a competitive necessity.

“Drayage capacity in 2026 will not disappear. It will reallocate. It will move away from reactive execution and toward operators who understand how supply chain trends reshape timing, sequencing, and constraint behavior.”Book Your Cargo, December 2025 Supply Chain Outlook

3. Partnerships Are Replacing Transactions

One of the clearest signals from conversations across the floor at TPM26 was that the shipper mindset has shifted. The freight market of the last several years taught shippers hard lessons about fragility. Companies that optimized purely for lowest cost found themselves without capacity when markets tightened unexpectedly. As a result, more shippers are now prioritizing predictability, responsiveness, and integrated partnerships over transactional rate shopping.

This shift aligns directly with how Taylor Distributing is built. Our relationships with carriers, port operators, and intermodal providers are not just business arrangements. They are the infrastructure that allows us to protect our customers’ supply chains when conditions become unpredictable, and in 2026, unpredictability remains the defining characteristic of the market.

4. The Alliance Landscape Is Changing

Ocean freight procurement is also being reshaped by major carrier alliance restructuring. The breakup of the 2M partnership between Maersk and MSC, the formation of the Gemini Cooperation between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, and the creation of the Premier Alliance among ONE, HMM, and Yang Ming are altering service patterns, port calls, and capacity availability on key trans-Pacific lanes. Shippers who do not have a strategic freight partner helping them navigate these changes risk being left behind.

What This Means for Your 2026 Freight Strategy

The logistics market entering the second quarter of 2026 rewards preparation. Shippers who arrive at carrier negotiations with clean data, defined routing strategies, and trusted 3PL partners will have measurable advantages over those who are still reacting to conditions as they materialize.

Whether you are managing trans-Pacific imports, navigating inland intermodal complexity, or trying to build more resilient drayage coverage around Cincinnati and the Midwest, the conversations at TPM26 confirmed that the window for reactive logistics strategy is narrowing. Proactive freight planning, grounded in real partnerships and real market intelligence, is the differentiator that will separate companies that thrive from those that struggle.

The drayage services market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.18%, reaching $7.88 billion by 2032 as demand for agile, technology-enabled port-to-door solutions accelerates. (360iResearch, 2026)

Taylor Is Built on Partnerships

Representing Taylor Distributing at TPM26 was not simply about attending an industry event. It was about being embedded in the conversations that shape freight for the year ahead, so we can bring those insights directly back to the shippers and partners we serve every day.

Taylor Distributing specializes in drayage, intermodal, and third-party logistics solutions rooted in the Cincinnati market and built to extend across the broader supply chain. We are a 3PL that believes logistics is fundamentally a relationship business. Rate matters, but it is the relationship, the communication, and the consistent execution that keep freight moving when conditions get difficult.

If any of the discussions at TPM26 have you thinking differently about your freight strategy for 2026, we would love to be part of that conversation.

Ready to Talk Freight Strategy?

Whether you are rethinking your drayage coverage, exploring intermodal options, or looking for a 3PL partner who understands the Midwest market, our team is ready to help.Get in Touch with Taylor