Mexican trucking companies are urging lawmakers to stiffen penalties against cargo robberies, with a group representing motor carriers saying the escalation of crime this year has turned much of the country's highways into "no man's land."

By design, blockchain resists regulatory oversight, but maritime regulators still need to understand the technological potential of a trail of records that payment and other applications can be built upon and keep an eye on how the industry adopts this, shipping and tech experts argue.

The global air cargo rally picked up pace in May with traffic soaring 12.7 percent, up from an 8.7 percent year-on-year increase in April and more than three times higher than the five-year average growth rate of 3.8 percent, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported.

U.S. shippers importing goods from Mexico say they are looking for new transportation options, such as rail, as truckload capacity along the border gets tighter.

U.S. domestic intermodal growth slackened slightly as the economy slowed in the second quarter, but the transport of international containers on the rails has its healthiest showing in the period since 2008, according to the Intermodal Association of North America.

Rising transportation costs and tight truckload capacity are creating more opportunities for intermodal rail in 2012, according to logistics executives.

U.S. rail shippers don't appear to be heeding the warnings of a national economic slowdown. Intermodal volume in May on the major U.S. railroads hit the highest level in history for that month, according to the Association of American Railroads. Intermodal traffic last month was 3.5 percent higher than the same month a year ago. Although carload volume was down 2.8 percent year-over-year in the same period, the big losses were because of slumps in the major commodities of coal and grain.