While still strong, conditions may be moderating for the trucking industry as key indicators are slowly retreating from recent highs.
After seeing the fleet-wide fuel economy average climb 3% in 2015, the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) says that the increase reported in its Annual Fleet Fuel Study was not as dramatic for 2016.
IBM has announced 10 companies that will begin running trials of its blockchain-enabled technologies, including major food supplier Nestle SA, according to Reuters.
In the Gulf of Mexico, storms can happen quickly. That is the case with the remnants of Tropical Storm Harvey, which are moving into the Gulf and could potentially threaten the coast of Texas later this week.
Solar power is most known as a source of electricity, but it is now proving that it belongs in other applications. Within the trucking industry, the use of solar is growing and it’s showing itself quite capable of the demands.
Roadrunner Transportation Systems has officially announced the sale of its subsidiary Unitrans Inc., Business Wire reports. Unitrans, a Los Angeles-based cold chain logistics business, is being sold to New York-based full-service priority transportation and logistics company, Quick International Courier for $95 million.
To solve inefficiencies in the supply chain, project44’s goal since day one has been to focus on the automation, optimization, and visibility of the freight movements by replacing legacy technologies with its “one-to-many” connectivity.
It’s finally here. Eclipse day. And as many have predicted, traffic around the country is clogging the highways, causing delays.
The eclipse will result in slower freight volumes this week as companies adjust their normal production schedules. This will have a small drag on rates. According to one study, the US economy will take a $700M hit while people go outside and enjoy the once in a lifetime opportunity (for most) to see a total eclipse.
As the numbers of electric-powered vehicles grows, questions about whether the electrical grid can handle the power demands are growing. Michael Barnard of Clean Technica looked at the possibility of electric-powered vehicles breaking the grid by the years 2021 and 2040.
An impending terminal crisis in net energy is looming over the global economy, according to Jonathan Rutherford of Insurgent Intelligence. The kind of growth that some multinational companies have been conducting is “green growth,” he notes with no signs of “degrowth.”
The Commerce Department’s housing starts and building permits data released this week shows a mixed bag when it comes to the housing market.
Blockchain entrepreneurs have an opportunity. The logistics industry is ripe for disruption and blockchain technology is ready to take the lead.
This is the latter part of the summer and it so happens to be among the busiest times for truck drivers. The vacation season is coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean the fun is over, for some, it’s just getting started.
KeepTruckin has partnered with Foley, a leader in FMCSA compliance solutions, to offer KeepTruckin’s electronic logging device to fleets. Any size fleet will have access to the KeepTruckin’s ELD and IFTA solution.
Many people don’t realize it, but construction firms have many of the same problems with truck visibility and tracking that less-than-truckload and truckload carriers have. And a truck arriving late can throw off an entire project’s schedule. That’s why Truck IT has introduce an app to help.
An unlikely alliance has formed between FedEx and UPS over a common problem. Their respective chief executive officers co-wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in an attempt to get the attention of Trump administration and policy makers regarding needed industry reforms.
The latest craze in logistics is the “uberization of trucking,” i.e. digital freight brokers (DFM). In reality, though, DFMs are not new, with the first iteration of them appearing in the early 2000s with companies such as Power2Ship and TransMarkets. They have gained steam lately thanks to technological advances, but there is still some question about whether they are here to stay this time.
President Donald Trump once again took to Twitter this morning to lash out at Amazon, targeting the company’s alleged non-collection of taxes.
Siemens has been awarded a contract by the German state of Hesse to build an overhead catenary line to run electric trucks along. The line will be built on a 10 kilometer stretch of the A5 federal autobahn.
Money is flowing into trucking tech startups, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. According to CB Insights, the industry is on pace for its first billion-dollar year in cumulative funding. But the question remains, how much of this windfall of funds will end up in companies that truly make a difference in the trucking space?
Two separate deals kicked off this week’s big transportation news as Greenbriar Equity Group has acquired Transplace and Descartes said it was acquiring MacroPoint.
The I-95 Corridor Coalition is moving forward with research that will help it determine whether a mileage use tax is the right approach to taxing in Pennsylvania and Delaware, according to NBC 10 Philadelphia.
As interest in alternative fuels continues to grow, ACT Research is making it easier for fleets to compare different fuel types.
Uber threw its hat into the trucking industry with its own app earlier this year, but now it is upping the stakes with new features, The Verge reports.
Picture a 40-foot container traveling from Mainland China to a suburb of Los Angeles. It often experiences more complications between the Port of LA and final destination than it does during its international trip. Is blockchain the solution to these problems?
The truck productivity hit that many have feared from electronic logging devices (ELD) may not be as severe as thought, but the implementation of the devices may hit the industry hard in other ways.
In recent years, disruption to routes along the Gulf Coast and East Coast because of hurricanes – which can spread hundreds of miles wide and leave widespread flooding and infrastructure damage in their wake – has been minimal. That could change this hurricane season.
The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) has made changes to the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC). The changes, which took effect on Aug. 5, will impact how some items are packaged and costs to shippers, particularly those shipping via less than truckload.
Oil or electric? The future of transportation power is still unclear, but electric is making a strong push amid oil price volatility.
A new month, but the same old story. Spot rates rose again according to data from DAT, with the national van and flatbed rates each climbing 3 cents per mile and refrigerated rates rising 4 cents for the week of July 30 to Aug. 5.
The Trump administration is considering tariffs on foreign steel as a way to boost the purchase of American steel. But will this Buy American approach lead to an in increase in vehicle and other manufacturing costs?
Lifestyle is considered one of the main risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes and individuals with Type 2 diabetes have the potential to require insulin if they do not properly care for their diabetes. Long haul truck drivers are of no exception to this statistic.
Just days after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it would no longer seek a federal rule to test train and truck operators for sleep apnea, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted the agency and demanded it reconsider the rule.
The boost in one sector of the economy ultimately leads to boosts in other sectors, either directly or indirectly. This is the case with oil extraction in North Dakota and it has helped drive the growth of trucking services in that region and nearby Canada.
Mercedes-Benz Trucks, a Daimler brand, has successfully made its first 3D printed repair part. The part, a thermostat cover for a Unimog model has passed all the stages of the stringent quality assurance process, Mercedes-Benz said.
According to PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) global transportation and logistics deals soared in the second quarter of 2017, rising 127% over the first quarter and 26% year-over-year. One of the reasons is e-commerce.
One20 has partnered with C.H. Robinson to offer its F-ELD logging device to C.H. Robinson carriers at a discount. Those carriers also have access to One20’s membership benefits in a partnership that should help everyone involved.
Have you ever been driving down a highway only to be passed by a hulking 18-wheeler? Have you secretly wondered what it would be like to drive across the country and get paid to do so? You may have been born to a truck driver.
For most high school seniors, it is ingrained from a young age that the only path to success is through a four-year university. Students are warned that if they don’t go to college, they will be stuck flipping burgers for the rest of their lives. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
Since everyone’s favorite game these days is guessing what is behind every move companies like Uber and Tesla are up to, it was likely only a matter of time before someone came up with the idea that Tesla could be building its own freight network.
One of the early entries in the “Uber for trucking” movement, Convoy found immediate big-name backers with the likes of Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff and Henry Kravis when it launched in 2015. Since then, hundreds of companies have tried to enter the field of digital freight matching, but Convoy has remained near the top of the class.
Volkswagen has continued to increase its stake in Navistar following its initial buy-in in 2016. The company purchased approximately $10 million worth of shares in July through five transactions, according to documents filed with the SEC.
Following a report by Josh Sandbulte in the Wall Street Journal on Amazon’s use of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for package delivery, USPS Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett responded with a letterclarifying and refuting some of the points of the article.
When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration laid out the parameters of its electronic logging device (ELD) rule, it seemed pretty simple: Trucks newer than model year 2000 were required to have the devices. But the language, as is often the case, left some room for confusion.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services has opened a new 144,000-square-foot corporate building in Lowell, Ark. The new building grows J.B. Hunt’s headquarters to over 494,000 square feet.
A USA Today investigation into port trucking operations in California has led to three U.S. Senators sending letters to national retailers demanding they crack down on trucking companies and their alleged unfair labor practices directed at drivers.
Autonomous vehicles are alive and well, and now crossing borders. While many states have yet to authorize the testing of autonomous vehicles, a demonstration took place Monday between Michigan and Southern Ontario.
Amid sluggish freight rates and oil prices, overcapacity issues, and the Baltic Dry Index pointing to a looming slowdown in global trade growth, finding innovative ways to solve repositioning problems is now a major part of a wider effort to reduce costs in the container-shipping industry.
According to a report published by Josh Sandbulte in the Wall Street Journal, USPS has been picking up the tab for Amazon’s package delivery.
Contract pricing, which has affected second-quarter earnings for a number of 3PLs, remains weak according to the latest data from FTR.
A push in on to go electric with more countries planning a ban on sales of gas and diesel cars. Few, though, address commercial goods movement specifically, which is primarily handled by diesel-powered trucks. So what happens to the diesel truck?
One comic character in the Hollywood film “Prince of Persia” said that there are only two things that are permanent in this world – death and taxes. For some, proposed border taxes may sound like punishment for not supporting American-made products.
Survey results released last week by the National Safety Council tell a sobering tale of just how tired American workers are, and how that fatigue could be impacting safety on the job.
Echo Global Logistics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECHO) on Friday announced a rise in revenue for the second quarter, but the resulting $245,000 loss for the quarter and a tough environment for supply chain logistics companies led to a sell-off of its stock on Friday.
While eclipses don’t normally cause traffic problems, officials are warning drivers for heavier-than-normal traffic and stopping vehicles as the path of the Great American Eclipse on Aug. 21 will follow closely with several major interstates.
There is a new option that companies are flocking to quickly raise capital: an ICO – initial coin offering. But there are inherent risks in doing so, and they may be too great to overcome for transportation firms.
While a proposal to increase minimum insurance levels is off the table for now, that hasn’t stopped advocates from pushing carriers to increase those limits above the current minimum of $750,000, which was set in 1983.
Shippers trust carriers to move their goods, but how do they know the carrier they have chosen can get the job done? A new Cerasis blog post lists the 12 data points every shipper should monitor when choosing a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier.
A host of carriers have reported earnings with mixed results. Knight Transportation, UPS, Landstar Systems and Covenant were among the carriers reporting.
A ride-sharing company could be the perfect fit to solve the last-mile delivery problems of e-commerce. Here’s why a Walmart acquisition of Lyft could be the edge it needs to overcome Amazon.
Following years of complaints from the trucking industry that carriers are unfairly penalized for crashes that are not the driver’s fault, FMCSA is launching a 2-year demonstration program that allows carriers to dispute the findings of a crash.
Paccar reported strong earnings yesterday, in particular growing its parts revenue 8.8% year-over-year for the second quarter, showing the power of aftermarket support.
California Assembly Bill No. 398, otherwise known as The California cap and trade extension, has become but a blip in the news cycle, since the law was passed. The bill extended the state’s cap and trade program that aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions until 2030. But it could mean much higher fuel prices.
After a start to earnings season that saw both J.B. Hunt and C.H. Robinson miss expectations, transport stocks received a boost as both Werner Enterprises and Swift Transportation reported better-than-expected reports.
While the industry continues to argue of the value of electronic logging devices (ELDs), it turns out that some of the data they generate can be very useful to carriers and their drivers. Keep Truckin has compiled some of the data its ELDs have collected and done a deeper dive, coming up with valuable insights into roadside inspections, of all things.
Four of the defendants in the Pilot Flying J federal fraud trial have reached plea deals with prosecutors, according to documents filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Paul Svindland’s appointment as the new CEO of Celadon Group has been enthusiastically by many, including investors who have pushed up the company’s stock in recent weeks. But, Svindland faces many challenges in the weeks ahead.
Just a week after hitting a record high and signaling good things for the market, the Dow Jones Transport Average (DJT) tumbled last week, falling 2.79%. What’s in store for this week?
J.B. Hunt has acquired Specialized Logistics Dedicated for $136 million. The move expands the firm’s access to last-mile distribution services.
The latest legal troubles for the U.S. Postal Service are just part of a problem in the agency which has seen billions of dollars in losses each year. The impact of these issues could significantly impact the broader trucking industry, which has a large stake in USPS’ success.
Plenty of load boards and brokers exist for trucking companies looking for freight. There are nearly 600 found on a basic web listing – and likely many, many more. But there are few, if any, like Sleek Fleet.
FedEx Freight announced that drivers at its Croydon, PA, facility have voted to leave the Teamsters Union. This comes just two weeks after drivers in Charlotte, NC, did the same.
C.H. Robinson’s second quarter earnings report missed Wall Street estimates, in large part because of the rise in spot rates in the quarter which compressed margins, even though the company reported a rise of truckload and less-than-truckload volume.
Freight, orders and optimism continue to populate the minds of many carrier and shipping executives these days as more data points suggest the economy is continuing to improve. And it’s optimism that even uneven retail sales and consumer confidence can’t hide.
While platooning vehicles are close to real-world operation, the world itself may not be ready for them. According to a guide for legislators created by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the varied nature of state laws may limited where platooning vehicles may operate.
Google Glass, those futuristic glasses created by Google a few years ago are back. Discontinued after meeting with only minor success despite great introductory fanfare, they have now made a reappearance with a focus on corporate America.
The on-again, off-again saga over the electronic logging device rule is back on again after language was inserted into a House appropriations bill this week directing FMCSA to review the rule and make a determination if the rule should be delayed or changed.
A world with zero fatalities caused by road accidents sounds pretty idealistic — but is it realistic? The communities around the world backing the Vision Zero initiative think so.
The long-awaited U.S. outline for the goals of a renegotiation of NAFTA has been unveiled, and there are few surprises in the 17-page document. The document outlines the U.S. top priority of shrinking trade deficits with Canada and Mexico.
Last week, Volvo Trucks announced that it would soon be adding Apply CarPlay to its lineup as an optional package. More connected trucks will soon become commonplace, and maybe in the commercial transportation space, technologies such as this, Android Auto and WiFi will be welcomed additions.
Starting with just two trucks in Joplin, MO, in 1951, Contract Freighters Inc. (CFI) built a reputation for quality service, professional drivers, and being a good community partner. Today, CFI – after several name and ownership changes in the past 15 years – is reconnecting with the Joplin community and its customer base. The truckload carrier is home, even though it never left.
Fleets outfitting their tractors with 6×2 axle are still finding benefits, but adoption of the configuration has been slow according to a North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) and Carbon War Room update to its 2013 Confidence Report on 6×2 axles.
This week kicked off a series of 16 customer and dealer events at Volvo’s new Customer Center here. It was one of several big news events for the company – the others being an update on its new VNR regional tractor model which was introduced in April, and the first unveiling of an updated VNL line.
According to a report in a German newspaper, Daimler has now been swept up in the emissions cheating scandals that have been raging across Europe in recent years.
A surprise national brake safety inspection day on May 3 netted nearly 12% of commercial vehicles inspected with brake violations, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance announced this week.
Calling it the “most innovative, most exciting trucks from Volvo in 20 years,” Volvo Trucks North America officially took the wraps of its updated VNL family of trucks.
When the U.S. auto industry came roaring back to life, it was a boon for carriers who made their business hauling autos and related products. But as sliding sales in 2017 show, nothing lasts forever. And it’s possible that the future is even murkier for carriers who rely on the auto business for their livelihoods.
Someday real soon, vehicles will self-diagnose themselves, order the repair parts, and maybe even replace the part themselves. Vehicle maintenance is already partially of the way there. but the U.S. Marines are going a step further.
Surprisingly, a new survey from SOTI has found that nearly 70% of transportation and logistics executives have not grasped the importance of rugged handheld mobile devices in the field.
Multiple reports have indicated that Walmart has threatened to withhold business from any trucking company that continues to haul goods for Amazon. Walmart has denied making any such threats, but the mere suggestion of it raises questions that carrier executives need to address.
Seeking to build “greater lane density to improve utilization and yields through more efficient dispatch and capacity allocation,” Heartland Express Inc. announced it is acquiring Interstate Distributer Co. (IDC) of Tacoma, WA, from Saltchuk Resources.
Are you ready for electric vehicles? A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) says that electric vehicle (EV) sales will account for 33% of all light-duty vehicles on the road by 2040.
Following a disappointing retreat in orders in May, Class 8 truck orders rose in June according to data just released. That reinforces the outlook for the remainder of 2017 as many of the orders are for fourth quarter delivery, according to FTR.
Shut downs of operating systems due to cyberattacks are complete handicaps for logistics companies and lead to significant amounts of lost business as well as productivity. But can they be prevented?
The trucking turnover rate at truckload fleets remains near historical lows, but it did tick up a bit in the first quarter of 2017, said the American Trucking Associations.
The Department of Transportation has revised and renamed its FASTLane program to “align [projects] with national and regional economic vitality goals and to leverage additional non-federal funding,” it said.
The logistics of transporting fresh produce from fields and warehouses to store shelves is already complicated by regulations and the seasonal nature of the products, but Amazon’s entry into the market could further complicate the journey.
The first unofficial pictures of Waymo’s self-driving truck have emerged, creating a stir among the companies racing to become the first to make a production autonomous truck available.
Across the nation, rising freight volumes, a strong produce season and the ongoing oil boom are driving up spot rates, but how long will the current trend continue?
