The Department of Transportation’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works program, known as FLOW, represents one of the more operationally significant efforts undertaken by the Multimodal Freight Office since the office’s establishment in September 2023. The initiative operates as a public-private data partnership, collecting purchase order information from importers alongside logistics supply, demand, and throughput data from participating companies, then returning to participants an aggregated daily view of overall logistics network conditions that exceeds what any individual firm could observe from its own operations alone.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Department of Transportation failed to meet a core statutory obligation tied to its Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy: periodic reporting to Congress on the office’s activities, staffing, and program administration. The finding, released April 20, 2026, carries immediate weight as lawmakers prepare to deliberate on the reauthorization of federal surface transportation funding, which expires at the end of fiscal year 2026.

The authorization underpinning federal surface transportation programs expires at the end of fiscal year 2026, placing Congress in the position of deciding not only the funding levels for the next authorization cycle but the institutional structure through which freight policy is conceived, administered, and coordinated across the federal government. The Multimodal Freight Office, established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and still in an early operational phase, sits at the center of that decision.

Congressman John Garamendi (CA-08) and Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24) last week introduced the Transit Workforce Development Act, legislation that would restructure how federal bus grant funding can be deployed to address workforce shortages and training deficits confronting public transit agencies nationwide. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where Garamendi serves as a senior member. The legislation targets existing grant mechanisms under 49 U.

The nationwide shortage of safe and accessible commercial truck parking has surfaced as one of the more concrete and actionable freight challenges facing the U.S. transportation system, drawing attention from the Department of Transportation’s Multimodal Freight Office as a problem that crosses modal boundaries and resists single-agency resolution. A recent GAO review of the Multimodal Freight Office found that representatives from three of five transportation associations interviewed specifically identified truck parking as an area where the office could drive meaningful progress through improved coordination.

Two major freight disruptions in recent years have placed the resilience of the U.S. multimodal freight system under sustained official scrutiny, exposing both the interconnected fragility of modern supply chains and the value of having a federal office capable of coordinating cross-modal responses in real time. On March 26, 2024, a cargo ship departing the Port of Baltimore struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, triggering its collapse and closing a major interstate highway corridor through the city.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) — the country’s powerful central economic planner — summoned executives from Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) last month and delivered an unambiguous message: cease operating the Balboa and Cristóbal ports on the Panama Canal immediately. The Financial Times confirmed the directive on April 15, citing two people familiar with the talks. Neither shipping group, nor Beijing’s foreign ministry, had responded publicly by the time of publication.

J&T Global Express Limited (1519.HK) reported total parcel volume of 8.326 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, a 26.2% year-on-year increase, with average daily volume of 92.5 million parcels. Non-China parcels accounted for 35.1% of the total, up 4.3 percentage points quarter-on-quarter, reflecting the company’s accelerating international diversification. Southeast Asia was the standout performer. Regional parcel volume climbed 79.9% year-on-year to 2.768 billion, with average daily volume of 30.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed in 2021, directed the Department of Transportation to conduct a travel demand data and forecasting study by November 2023 — and to repeat it at least once every five years thereafter. The study was supposed to produce best practices and guidance for states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations to use when forecasting travel demand for future transportation investments. As of the GAO’s March 2026 review, the study has not been completed.

Metropolitan Planning Organizations and transit agencies have not been passive in the face of post-pandemic travel disruption. The GAO’s 2026 survey of all 410 MPOs found that at least 80 percent reported taking one or more actions in each of three domains — transit, vehicle use, and housing — since 2019. The range of those actions, and their uneven results, sketch a useful map of where American cities stand. On the transit side, roughly 80 percent of MPOs reported that providers in their communities adjusted service in some form.