Recently, there were a couple of Facebook posts from owner-operators asking for advice on where to look for new insurance. One poster said their insurance company was dropping them because their “maintenance scores” were too high. What, they asked, did that mean?
The Canadian province of Ontario has announced an electric truck rebate of 60% of the incremental purchase cost compared to an equivalent conventional fuel vehicle, up to a cap of CA$75,000 per vehicle, under the new Green Commercial Vehicle Program.
An unstable Polar Vortex first warmed the Great Lakes and then brought Siberian temperatures to the region, creating disruptive snowfalls and historically low end-of-year temperatures. These weather events only add to numerous factors keeping spot rates sky-high.
JP Morgan likes FedEx, Schneider, Canada Pacific, and JB Hunt–‘sells’ include Union Pacific, Knight-Swift, and CH Robinson.
Roads across the world have remained the same for generations, but that is slowly changing as research labs across the world are working on introducing electrically smart roads into the primitive niche.
39,000 citations issued during the 2017 Operation Safe Driver initiative? The results sounded alarming, especially when compared with the 2016 results of 20,648 total citations or warnings issued throughout the United States and Canada.
Travel around the DuPont area of Washington remains snarled this morning as officials work to clear wreckage from the Amtrak derailment over Interstate 5, just south of Tacoma, that killed at least 3 people and injured dozens more.
Navistar delivers massive quarter, blowing away estimates and showing tremendous year-over-year growth. This reinforces the view that the freight market is strong, as carriers purchase new trucks to take advantage of freight demand.
On Saturday, two days after taking medical leave from CSX, CEO Hunter Harrison died. Investors have serious concerns about the railroad’s commitment to executing Harrison’s vision, while some observers disagreed with his approach entirely.
Go99, a digital freight-matching marketplace based out of Vancouver, Canada, has achieved a major revenue milestone and now it is setting its sights on expansion with the rest of Canada and busy lanes in the U.S. on its target.
Trains are easier to run with autonomous vehicle technology, so they should come before self-driving cars, right?
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has issued a letter to state attorneys general in all states asking them to review potential problems surrounding upcoming enforcement of the electronic logging device mandate.
The process of sending bills-of-lading with cargo has changed little in generations, but the problems have remained: BOLs arrive at different times than the cargo, causing delays and added cost. But blockchain could eliminate these expenses and streamline the process.
Anheuser-Busch’s private fleet is among the leaders in the country when it comes to efforts to cut carbon emissions through alternative fuel use. The company is taking another step, announcing it has reserved 40 Tesla Semi electric tractors.
ZIM, MTI, and Maersk have all announced trials of blockchain-based solutions for shipping, from bills-of-lading to cybersecurity protections.
As the talks concluded last week on Round 5 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the 3 NAFTA ministers included among the 30 negotiating parties agreed to “step back” to give negotiators additional time to “analyze proposals and conduct internal consultations,” according to LandLine Magazine.
Following on the heels of a 90-day waiver from the ELD rule for agriculture haulers, and several other exemptions granted by FMCSA in recent months, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has submitted a new exemption request to the agency.
NetraDyne, a company based out of San Diego, is using artificial intelligence and computer vision to track drivers through intelligent and situationally aware cameras on deck.
The man behind the trucker march on Washington last month is back with a new group and a new billion-dollar lawsuit. James Lamb and his Small Business in Transportation Coalition has sued Indiana over the collection of Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) fees.
Ag shippers are raising the alarm about the ELD mandate’s effect on livestock hauling and asking for a two year delay before the new requirements take effect. Livestock haulers face shrinkage and contamination risks as they cope with strict limits on hours of service.
According to a recent report by Bloomberg, American negotiators are advocating to remove Mexican long-haul trucks from the NAFTA Chapter on cross-border services.
Steadily rising global copper prices have spurred US production, up 21% since 2011. Although Chinese demand has softened somewhat, copper from mines in the Southwest should flow into Texas, Florida, and California as they rebuild from natural disasters.
Many commercial trucking companies will never be impacted by cargo theft, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be prepared. Cargo theft is a multi-million-dollar problem, and like all problems, somebody is going to pay for it.
Cargo and vehicles can become damaged en route, and often carriers are on the hook for those damages. But a new startup, PEIR, is providing photographic proof of conditions to help protect carriers.
Riskpulse predicts a somewhat colder, wetter winter for the western and northwestern US; warmer, drier conditions should prevail in the southeast and eastern seaboard.
A one-day brake enforcement inspection by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance resulted in 14% of commercial vehicles in the U.S. and Canada being placed out of service for brake violations. A full 22% of vehicles were placed out of service for some kind of violation, CVSA said.
Argus Transport Canada, a technology-driven Montreal based trucking and 3PL today announced it has joined the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA).
In the tussle to improve conditions of the freight marketplace for both the carrier and shipper community, a lot has been left to be desired for the truck driver fraternity. A community-driven application named Road Hunter is now trying to take center stage – helping truckers on the road with essential information on truck stops, fuel stations, repair shops, and even weather updates.
Winter is coming. The National Weather Service is call for several inches of snow to blanket Minnesota, Wisconsin, and parts of the Dakotas this weekend, with over 90% confidence.
Fullbay, a cloud-based management platform for independent truck shops, has joined the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA), formed by seasoned logistics and technology professionals who will work together on the first set of transportation and trucking blockchain standards.
One of 2017’s biggest stories in the emerging autonomous vehicles industry—Waymo’s $2.6B lawsuit against Uber over stolen trade secrets—revolves around a single piece of technology that is currently fueling a frenzied global competition for investment dollars, engineering expertise, and manufacturing capacity.
We need NAFTA. That was the general consensus from Bob Costello and Derek Leathers on Sunday during a general industry update session at the American Trucking Associations’ MCE 2017 conference in Orlando.
Some of the most prominent stakeholders in Canada voiced their concerns over NAFTA at an event organized by the Truckload Carriers’ Association (TCA) entitled “Bridging Border Barriers.”
A jury has awarded $15.57 million to Isaac Espinoza, who was struck by a tractor-trailer driven independent contractor Ricky Hatfield while assisting a friend on the side of I-81 north. The jury also held the broker who contracted with Hatfield partially responsible.
C.H. Robinson will implement Omnitracs’ Virtual Load View (VLV) application as it seeks ways to improve visibility into load tracking. The system will run alongside C.H. Robinson’s own Navisphere system.
Sandeep Kar, one of the commercial vehicles industry’s most respected names has joined the TransRisk Board of Advisors. He brings decades of research and insights on the commercial vehicle market, along with a perspective on the impact of autonomous, electric, telematics, and blockchain technologies will have on the trucking industry.
A new report says the U.S. will lose 50,000 auto parts industry jobs if the country pulls out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), according to Reuters.
James Hoffa, Teamsters’ president, doesn’t want anyone to forget the safety of trucks operating on American and Canadian roads. In an op-ed piece for The Detroit News, Hoffa noted that Teamsters chapters in the United States and Canada have joined forces to push an initiative for policy changes that will be beneficial for safety.
While the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued an exemption to the electronic logging device (ELD) rule for certain rental vehicles, the exemption has opened up several questions, including whether there is a potential loophole in the rule.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has granted a waiver to the Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) that will exempt all commercial rental vehicles from the electronic logging device (ELD) rule for drivers using a “property carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) rented for 8 days or less.”
With the freight marketplace widening exponentially every year, the growing communication divide in the community is also significantly felt. Fr8Hub, a digital freight marketplace startup is looking to improve peer-to-peer interaction by creating transparency and injecting efficiency in freight hauling.
Following the devastation Hurricane Maria delivered to Puerto Rico, there have been many places to levy blame as the island nation has been slow to recover. An aging electric grid that was destroyed, a country mired in debt that has been unable to maintain basic infrastructure, an arguably slow government response. One segment that received blame, unfairly, was the nation’s truck drivers.
Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to acquire a 38.% stake in Pilot Flying J with the right to obtain an additional 41.4% stake in 2023, the company announced.
The potential for the hyperloop technology to take the world by storm is growing. Silicon Valley start-up Hyperloop One has finally chosen what the company views as the best areas to build its first hyperloop tracks.
In a quest for more business in China’s booming e-commerce markets, parcel companies in that country are waging a pricing war, threatening to eat up profits and pressuring margins for companies already facing razor-thin operating budgets, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review.
For the second time in just over a month, Canada’s TFI International has chipped to help the relief and rescue efforts of those devastated by a hurricane in the U.S.
The Truckload Carriers Association and CarriersEdge are accepting nominations for the annual Best Fleets to Drive For survey. Nominations for the 10th annual survey will be accepted until Oct. 31, 2017.
Blockchain has become the latest buzzword to enter industry lexicon. While many still may not know what it is, it is likely to be a technology that transforms trucking and the way it operates. Fleet Complete is one of the companies that has recognized its potential.
As most of the nation turns its attention to Hurricane Irma, people in Texas continue to recover from the devastation left by Hurricane Harvey at the end of August. True to its nature, the trucking industry has been there to help.
C.H. Robinson has acquired Milgram & Company, a Canadian provider of freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and surface transportation. C.H. Robinson paid approximately $50 million in cash for the company.
FEMA disaster relief logistics highlights the need for blockchain implementation. Blockchain is an emerging technology that promises to bring transparency and visibility to transactions.
Is a trailer just a box on wheels or potentially a portable battery charger? That is one of the questions that could be answered through the continued innovation of commercial vehicles.
Singapore might be world’s smartest city. When you think of tech, you reflexively picture Silicon Valley. While Palo Alto may reign in the west, a tiny island nation of 5.6 million leads the east… and it’s turning to blockchain.
It’s finally here. Eclipse day. And as many have predicted, traffic around the country is clogging the highways, causing delays.
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 Canadian town of Innisfil was looking for a way to reduce its public transit costs. It turned to Uber, and may have found an inexpensive way to help its residents get around.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
The Indian trucking market is not unlike that of the U.S. Technological change is happening, albeit a little slower in India, Numadic is one company that is trying to quicken the speed of change.
Researchers from the National Academies of Science, following a mandate from Congress, have recommended changes to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountabilty (CSA) program.
After five days, the port truckers strike in Los Angeles and Long Beach came to an end on Friday with striking truckers delivering a petition with 10,000 signatures on it to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia.
Seven fleets will participate in the North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s Run on Less program to showcase the benefits of fuel-saving technologies.
After a few years of “rest” XPO Logistics is again in acquisition mode. CEO Bradley Jacobs, speaking at a supply chain conference in Chicago, says the company is looking for potential takeover targets, including options in Europe.
In another step into the food space, Amazon has announced it will buy Whole Foods for $13.4 billion plus debt, giving the e-tailer a physical presence in the $700 to $800 billion consumer grocery world. But like many things with Amazon, the end game may be something different.
In its latest State of the Freight webinar last week, FTR experts laid out their expectations and timelines for freight disruption, and as expected, sections were devoted to NAFTA and autonomous trucks.
McKinsey & Company has recently issued a report on potential impacts to the trucking and rail freight industries in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The report, “Four forces to watch in trucking and rail freight,” identifies critical structural issues that executives must pay attention to in the immediate future.
The news out of the Middle East on Thursday that OPEC would continue recent production cuts in an effort to boost oil prices may have upset some oil traders, but it shouldn’t have much effect on diesel fuel prices at the pumps, according to experts.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been teasing audiences for months on the company’s secretive electric truck project. At a TED Conference in Vancouver, Musk posted this shadowed picture of what the truck may look like.
President Donald Trump’s decision to place softwood lumber tariffs on Canada this week might be an indication that the administration is set for a reset on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It is a gamble that potentially puts billions of dollars in NAFTA trade shipments at risk – much of it hauled by trucks.
The U.S. has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. But is that a wise decision? Experts differ on the manufacturing impact in the U.S.
