Welcome to the WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Newsletter presented by XPO. In this issue, the Port of Los Angeles sees its lowest import volume since 2009; autonomous trucks come to Ikea; what truckers think of modern cabs; when bees attack; and more.
Splashdown
Every day is Black Friday … for ocean container rates into the Port of Los Angeles. Gone are the days of $20k spot rates as POLA had its lowest container volume since 2009. As FreightWaves’ Greg Miller reports, “The day before, the neighboring Port of Long Beach posted its weakest import total for September since 2016.”
Not only does the Port of Los Angeles have to deal with decreased volumes, now they have to wonder if shippers who moved to the Gulf and East Coast will come back when ordering cycles pick back up.
“[The shift to East Coast ports] is likely to continue until a West Coast labor contract is in place — and that can’t happen soon enough,” explained Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, during a news conference on Wednesday.
Shooting blanks — Shipping is a game of capacity and when there is too much of it, carriers lose control of rates and they do so rapidly. Splash24 reports, “This new wave of new capacity delivery could not have come at a worse time as the shipment volume has started to soften since mid 2022.” How do the carriers control that? Just like bad teams tarping seats, the liners skip sailings and calls. However, demand has dropped so rapidly that these measures have proven ineffective.
Shippers tell suppliers that they’re cool for now, killing peak season — With all the retail freight volume evaporating from ports, truckers are feeling it on the roads too as tender rejects fall to 4.5%. SupplyChainDive reports, “To clear inventory, [Levi’s] cut its Q1 receipts by 25% and will institute heavier markdowns, and it expects levels to normalize by the second quarter next year.” With more and more retailers doing massive ordering cuts, that’s even less freight as capacity on land, sea and air grows. What’s this all mean? If you’re a shipper, put that pressure back on your contracts. If you’re a carrier, get to hustling.
Ikea goes autonomous with Kodiak
Not when, now — As experts argue about the viability of autonomous trucks, for companies like Kodiak the argument is already over. Right now, seven days a week an Ikea distribution center in Baytown, Texas, has a Kodiak autonomous truck delivering to its Ikea retail store nearly 300 miles away in Frisco.
“The exciting thing about this is that it takes it out of the theoretical and puts it in the hands of actual people,” Kodiak co-founder and CEO Don Burnette said. “If you bought furniture in the Frisco area at Ikea in the past couple months, chances are a self-driving truck brought it there.”
Hopefully Kodiak’s next move is to build a robot that can assemble that Ikea furniture for you. We caught up with Burnette Wednesday on WTT; watch the segment here.
How do drivers like the inside of modern cabs?
A house of digital mirrors — Forget autonomous trucks, the inside of modern truck cabs are starting to change dramatically! Drivers jumping in the seats of new trucks are starting to see staples of safety like mirrors transition to fully digital displays. But what do veteran drivers think about this shift?
The Redditor who posted the image above says: “I enjoy them … took me about 2 weeks max to get fully used to them. alot of perks to these thats for sure.”
Back The Truck Up’s SuperTrucker thinks: “It flattens the skill curve of the driver behind the wheel. I’m also concerned about parts/repair costs and wait times.”
BTU’s Rooster is concerned about repairs and rule 34: “How long until someone hacks it and has the ball game or porn on it?”
Redditor ScottieTheGoonie says mirrors themselves are an obstruction: “The biggest perk I see is losing the gigantic obstruction in view that are the side mirrors themselves. There are times when they are in the exact wrong spot to see oncoming traffic, nevermind what’s behind me.”
But Redditor Hobbs512 feels like he’s being watched: “Yeah it’s okay I guess. Problem I dont get is why every screen has to have 2 driver facing cameras. It’s not like they detect light to determine screen brightness, you can cover them up and they dont change the brightnes, atleast on mine. So now there’s a total of 8 camera lenses looking at me at all times in my cab lol.”
What’s your take? Are modern cabs a welcome improvement or a dystopian nightmare further encroaching on our humanity? Email me.
Bees on flatbed used against police
Your firearms are useless against them — A woman in western Massachusetts hottshotting a flatbed full of beehives reportedly turned a recent police eviction into a sting. According to police, on Oct. 12, Rorie Susan Woods, 55, of Hadley showed up at an ongoing eviction and allegedly started knocking hives over, unleashing a swarm of bees.
News10 reports, “Woods put on a professional beekeeper suit to protect herself, then put a tower of bees near the front door of the home to stop the eviction.” What’s weird is this wasn’t even her residence. It’s unclear if Hadley is an actual beekeeper or simply weaponizes bees like a midlevel video game boss.
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Three more stories worth checking out
Alabama trucker looking for escape artist emu
Tesla claims 50,000 Semis on the road by 2024
Watch: The Lady of the Gobi, a great documentary on a woman who lives out of her truck on Mongolia’s Coal Highway
WTT Friday
Meet the man behind the biggest company in FreightTech — Friday on WTT we’re talking to project44 founder and CEO Jett McCandless about building the company in FreightTech and what he’s seeing in the market.
Plus, Reliance Partners’ Robert Kaferle tells drivers how to prep their trucks for winter. Consultant Phil Hyland drops in the studio to shred and we’ll cover the biggest headlines of the week.
Catch new shows live at noon ET Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on FreightWavesTV, FreightWaves LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube or on demand by looking up WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on your favorite podcast player.
Now on demand
Inside the huddle on college game day logistics
Trucking at 1/64 scale
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Don’t be a stranger,
Dooner
