AskWaves

FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller analyzes inflation in the supply chain.

People use the term “contract rate” in trucking and think that it is binding. It is not. In reality, it just means a prenegotiated rate both parties have the right to reject at the time of the tender.

The naming of hurricanes was changed in the 1950s to simplify their tracking and improve communication of storm information.

Small carriers are opting to bring only a power unit to a brokered transaction.

This AskWaves looks at what separates truck dispatchers from truck brokers.

“We believe that every sector has to make a contribution toward global decarbonization,” Fernando Rangel Villasana, senior technical manager at SBTi, told FreightWaves.

A FreightWaves poll found that 65% of 1,120 truckers who responded have been vaccined but nearly 73% of the holdouts would quit if forced to “get the jab.”

The AN-225 is not your average plane pull. It’s the biggest plane in the world and doesn’t budge easily.

The global airline industry still has a steep climb out of its financial hole. U.S. airlines are doing better, but watch out for the delta variant.

Sustainable fuels and technologies are up against decades of perfecting the efficiency and economies of scale of the fossil fuel industry.

Spike in parcel delivery demand is lifting the good ship S.S. Consultant to new heights

Unlike hurricane names, which come from predetermined lists, wildfire names are a bit more arbitrary.

AskWaves takes a look at gains on the sale of revenue equipment and how they play into the financial results of truckload carriers.

AskWaves recounts the history of the eight-lane, $128 million World Trade Bridge, and its importance to commercial truck traffic between Mexico and the United States.

The Department of Energy’s Earthshots Initiative is allocating $52.5 million for clean hydrogen R&D.

Canada is reopening its borders to vaccinated Americans. AskWaves explains why this will help fuel demand for freight in the hospitality sector.

Lawmakers controlling the purse strings in Congress urge FMCSA and NHTSA to take action on their safety directives in 2022.

Americans were expected to divert disposable income away from goods as the economy reopened to travel, lodging and entertainment. It isn’t happening, most observers say, and the supply chain implications are profound.

FMCSA urges truck drivers affected by the Philips recall of nearly 4 million CPAP or BiPAP machines “to work with their medical providers to find alternatives wherever possible — and for CPAP manufacturers to provide all available assistance to drivers impacted by recalls.”

Nuclear materials couriers are well trained and armed for their job of transporting nuclear materials to sites across the U.S.

What happens to ocean vessels when they’re retired? AskWaves explores how this initiative is striving for transparent ship supply chains.

An in-depth look at CEO compensation in container shipping, bulk shipping and the cruise industry

In this AskWaves, we look at the potential for a driver wage boost if a critical exemption in federal labor law were lifted.

Updating climate normals can help people plan for changes in commodity production and demand, impacting freight capacity down the road.

Double brokering has been around since shippers started relying on brokerages to find trucks to haul their freight. However, double brokering is fraught with risk and becomes illegal when a shipper specifies that its loads are not to be re-brokered.

AskWaves looks at the primary ways of comparing data, using year-over-year and sequential comps, and how sharp changes in demand during the pandemic have made it necessary to view the numbers through a different lens.

Powerful windstorms called derechos pose a serious threat to truckers, especially in the summer.

As frightening as they appear, ransomware attacks are based on a simple concept of locking up data and effectively holding it hostage.

Environmental regs could extend future dry bulk and tanker upside, while consolidation could change curve of container-shipping cycle.

Transport deregulation’s long game has left much of the asset-based carrier field with few players. Will the cycle turn to usher in a cast of competitive newbies?

B Corps are held to the highest standards of social and environmental impact. B Lab and B Corp representatives tell FreightWaves how to pass the rigorous assessment.

Pilots fly a fleet of specialized aircraft into hurricanes to advance science and save lives.

A commonly seen financial term — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) — and why it’s used is explained.

The CHIPS Act aims to subsidize companies that can set up domestic manufacturing plants to create a more resilient supply chain for the future demand of semiconductors.

A VMT user fee has support from “Secretary Pete” — but not from trucking.

AskWaves explores the different ways to capture CO2 from the air, how much it costs and what happens once it’s captured.

AskWaves: Forget the base rate. Shippers need to worry more about the impact of accessorials.

Law enforcement will be on the lookout for unsafe drivers on roadways throughout North America starting Sunday, July 11, as part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) annual Safe Driver Week.

All commercial motor vehicles carrying hazardous materials must stop

Doppler radar has raised the bar for meteorologists when it comes to analyzing severe weather.

Silk Way Airlines is flying freighters to Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. One of its airplanes may be delivering goods to an airport near you.

COVID has been great for stocks. In ocean shipping, container and dry bulk shares rode the wave. Tankers stocks sank.

As companies purchase carbon credits to help meet net-zero emissions goals, AskWaves digs into the positives and negatives of carbon offsets.

Congress is considering several options to keep the Highway Trust Fund afloat.

Buyers and suppliers have turned to supply chain finance to manage liquidity needs for decades. However, supplier finance programs have seen increased scrutiny from regulatory bodies, which seek greater disclosure.

FreightWaves examines ways carriers can limit their GHG emissions that won’t cost them an additional investment in electric vehicles.

This AskWaves column explains why investors and other transportation stakeholders look at operating ratio as a way to gauge a company’s financial health.

Relying on fossil fuels to move people and goods creates a massive carbon footprint that the transportation industry is only starting to address.

The average truck’s carbon footprint is 201,834 kilograms or 223 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

CVSA inspectors will focus on lighting and hours of service during the annual 72-hour safety blitz throughout North America on May 4-6.

Scope 3 emissions are often left out of corporate emission-reduction goals and disclosures, but “they have to be on someone’s books,” said Lila Holzman, senior energy program manager at As You Sow.

Ghost flights — passenger aircraft with no passengers, only cargo — were never a thing before the coronavirus pandemic. In the past year, airlines have operated thousands of passenger aircraft as mini-freighters. Who are the industry leaders?

By and large, trucks from Canada and Mexico can’t move domestic loads within the U.S. But things get a little more complicated in the nitty-gritty of federal cabotage regulations.

The TWIC program provides drivers with government identification cards, like a driver’s license, to access secured maritime facilities and vessels. U.S. citizens and certain immigration categories can apply for the program.

A customs broker can help navigate cross-border freight. But companies should know what to look for in a customs brokerage.

FedEx and UPS have invested billions of dollars to replicate the favorable characteristics of B2B traffic for B2C. The long battle seems to be turning in their favor.

Truck driving can be stressful when carrying unusual freight. These are five fairly odd loads that have been lost.

Tanker and bulker spot rates can go sub zero — some tanker rates are there now. What do the negative numbers really mean?

Positive train control, also known as PTC, is a safety technology aimed at automatically stopping a freight or passenger train before a collision. This Ask Waves article describes what it is, its history and its future implications.

A half-dozen basic tips on what drayage truck drivers must consider when picking up a container chassis from a pool.

A half-dozen basic physical characteristics of ocean containers should be considered before shippers or their packers stuff them.

Putting on a virtual event is a complex and difficult process. FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller provides an overview of what went into putting on the recent FreightWaves LIVE @HOME, a three-day virtual event that raised the bar.

The clear difference between contract and spot rates.

Chris Henry writes about the true costs of “unseated” trucks and what carriers can do to keep their number of unseated trucks as close to zero as possible.

Tender rejections are often a leading indicator of spot rates and thus contract rates at a lag.

Learn about nine different types of truck driving jobs that are available.

Many turn to factoring to ease cash crunches.

Charley Dehoney writes about digital brokerages and what they really are and do…

The gig economy is one more challenge for truck drivers.

The key metric “net revenue per truck per week” is explained by Chris Henry.

Why are Class 8 orders a deeply cyclical, lagging indicator of truck demand?

Kayla Matthews writes about options if you are interested in starting your own trucking company.

What is a Freight Recession?

Breakbulk refers to (almost) every cargo that’s not containerized or shipped in bulk.

Trucking insurance continues to get more expensive. Chris Henry and Daniel Pickett provide information about captive insurance agencies.

FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller writes about methods to lower diesel fuel expenses for large and small trucking companies.

A global container index offers a big-picture perspective on the worldwide supply/demand balance.

The amount of fuel carried on a container ship varies based on the engine capacity and size of the ship, which themselves are a function of the particular trading route […]

There’s one pairing of numbers that indicate the U.S. is energy independent. But beneath those numbers, it gets a lot less clear.

Consistently meeting expectations goes a long way toward keeping drivers on board.

Chris Henry runs fleet profitability benchmarking and analytics for FreightWaves and facilitates the TCA’s TPP program. If you are interested in benchmarking your fleet’s performance with the best operators, join […]

The global logistics industry is big and getting bigger.

Introducing AskWaves, a place to search for answers in the logistics, transportation and the supply chain industry. With AskWaves, you can ask the FreightWaves team of experts and journalists anything about transportation, logistics, supply chain or freight and they will attempt to answer your question in a future article.

Precision Scheduled Railroading, or PSR, is the operational method of running a railroad for maximum asset utilization by which freight movements are scheduled and managed on the individual carload (rather than entire train level). That contributes to efficiency improvements by, for instance, using more direct point-to-point routing, bypassing classification terminals, and having the flexibility to use long mixed-commodity trains.

The trucking world can be confusing at times and no where else is this more obvious than the trucking world’s use of the term mile.

Diesel prices, like all commodities, are priced based in real-time based on the balance of supply and demand. Before we dive into how diesel prices are generated, we should discuss the two most important factors in what prices consumers will see at the pump: retail and wholesale.

The amount of capacity allocated to the amount of freight moved is the most important factor in determining freight rates.

Major weather events such as hurricanes, blizzards, and historic flooding can produce immediate volatility as well as lasting effects on supply chains, depending on where they hit.

The overall GDP number is not very useful when looking for insight into freight conditions in the economy. The U.S. economy is dominated by the service sector, which includes segments like healthcare, education and financial services. These areas make up over half of all of the economic activity in the U.S., but do not play a significant role in freight movements in the economy. As a result, as long as the service sector is healthy, the U.S. economy can continue to grow even if the production and transportation of goods is stalling.

Brent and WTI refer to indexes that measure the price of oil

Most big rigs in the U.S. have tanks that range in capacity from 120 gallons per tank up to 150 gallons and depending on the radius of operation, may have one tank for shorter hauls or two tanks for longer ones.

Sleep apnea is one of the more than 80 different sleep disorders that can be life-threatening if left untreated. ‘Apnea’ is Ancient Greek meaning ‘without breath’, which is at the heart of why this sleep disorder is so deadly.

Big rigs are limited by federal regulation to a maximum loaded weight of 80,000 pounds including cargo, so the actual amount of cargo a big rig can carry really depends on the type and weight of the truck when empty.

Rail intermodal is the transportation method of moving freight on the earth’s surface by two modes, by railroad and also by truck. The freight can be carried in either trailers or containers; containers has become the larger and faster-growing category. The freight is moved on a railroad during the long-haul portion of the move with local trucking (known as drayage) taking the trailer or container to its final destination.

High-profile accident leads to database aimed at keeping drug users off the road.

The operating realities of long-haul, for-hire trucking translates into working conditions that require both employee and independent contractor drivers to be away from home, and alone for days and sometimes weeks at a time. This combined with transit delays (both on the road and at customer facilities), and lifestyle-related health pressures (sleep deprivation and poor eating choices) are the primary causes of both short and long-term turnover.

IMO2020 is an environmental rule effective January 1, 2020 that regulates how much sulfur a ship can give out in its exhaust.

For all containers moving in and out of the U.S., rates (both contract and spot rates) are required to be filed with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) 30 days in advance of the containerized cargo being shipped. This adds an additional layer of complexity to the way ocean container rates are negotiated and governed.

The 2020 version of the Roaring Twenties will be drastically different for society and freight than the decade that kicked off in 1920. We take a look back at what life and freight were like in those days.

Railroads are the most efficient transportation mode for moving goods on the earth’s surface. Railroads are of particular importance for the movement of commodities that heavy and moved in bulk over long distances where the transportation spend represents a large portion of the total delivered cost.