With a year plagued by severe weather and coronavirus recovery, ports and airports across North America are clamoring to stay ahead of the cargo backlogs and shipments.

Although it remains unclear when the flow of international freight will return to normalcy, the companies on the Transport Topics 2021 Top 50 Global Freight Carriers list are doing their part to ensure that cargo continues to move via ship, truck, train and aircraft.

After a once-in-a-lifetime deadly pandemic, the world’s supply chains are realizing a new normal as industries meet the challenge of rebuilding and managing them in a post-­recovery era.

Toyota Motor Corp. is targeting a level of output in December higher than what it’s seen in recent years, a sign that supply disruptions may be receding.

The Department of Defense U.S. Transportation Command has awarded a potential $20 billion contract to a Houston firm that will manage an estimated 325,000 annual moves of military families worldwide.

Trucking is continuing to see an active mergers and acquisitions market with several deals recently announced.

President Joe Biden will use the Baltimore port as a backdrop Nov. 10 in his campaign to promote the $550 billion infrastructure legislation Congress cleared last week, $17 billion of which would go to ports.

Ongoing supply chain challenges experienced by commercial ports and freight corridors will be examined when the transportation panel in the U.S. House of Representatives meets for a hearing Nov. 17.

BALTIMORE — The Biden administration is relying on infrastructure dollars to help fix the clogged ports and blanket the nation with internet access — but a series of initiatives rolled out on Nov. 9 show that the urgent pace might not be fast enough to address the immediate needs of an economy coping with a supply chain squeeze and a shift to remote work.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will allow the Georgia Port Authority to build storage for shipping containers at sites near the Port of Savannah using $8 million in unspent federal grants, part of a new plan to relieve supply chain bottlenecks at U.S. ports.