Global third-party logistics had a mixed year in 2011, and 2012 could be more of the same. But the signs are highly promising, at least in certain areas, that the industry's fortunes are indeed looking up.
On any given week, three to seven CP Rail trains laden with crude oil from the North Dakota Bakken field whisk across North America, bypassing the pipeline bottlenecks in mid-continent that are depressing oil prices and unaffected by the noise in Washington, D.C., that is holding back the Keystone XL pipeline.