This week we make a clean sweep of the headlines and all the freight and logistics action. It’s a tough balancing act, getting it all in a single live episode of What the Truck?!?, but if anyone can do it, Dooner and Prevost can. Just look at how we demonstrate the power of gravity with the NASA broom challenge. Prevost first broke Dooner’s orbit by placing the broom against the wall. Only post-show did he get balanced with Dooner’s gravitational pull.
As for the headlines, it’s not good news, but it’s essential. Two carriers shutdown this week. Rodgers Trucking Company of San Leandro, California, announced it will cease operations after 48 years in late April. Alan Osofsky, safety and compliance manager of Rodgers Trucking, told FreightWaves on Thursday that the high cost of doing business in California, as well as the financial challenges of being a union carrier vying for loads against low-cost nonunion companies, finally proved too much. Earlier this week, Tennessee-based Howard Baer Inc. ceased operations after 69 years. In both cases, the owners decided to shut down and retire.
If Celadon didn’t have enough bad news, it now finds itself tangled up with a North Carolina towing and repossession company. It accuses Triangle Recovery Services of falsely advertising itself as a surrender site for equipment belonging to Celadon. To date, Triangle has not returned the equipment.
Wayfair, the e-commerce furniture and home goods company, which employs 6,000 employees between its two Back Bay offices, has made some deep cuts in what they’re calling moves to increase efficiency. Some had seen this coming as their hiring seemed to be outpacing their sales growth.
We get on the horn with Brandon Bay of Traffix. He fills us in on Nashville Transportation Club’s big forthcoming educational event. FreightWaves’ president, George Abernathy, will be speaking at the event at the Cabana in downtown Nashville. Tickets will go on sale March 2 for the March 26 event.
Kevin Hill covers the DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index. He also recaps this week’s Put That Coffee Down on how to keep the funnel running, as well as teasing next week’s episode about dealing with the tough task of cold calling. He’s also hosting Saturday’s FreightWaves Radio show with Dooner, which can be heard on SiriusXM’s Road Dog channel 146.
Lakeshore Records‘ Brian McNelis dials in to update us on how a fire at a US vinyl record factory could cause massive disruption in the music supply chain. The story first broke from The Desert Sun that Apollo Masters, a manufacturing plant that supplies the lacquer used for making master discs used to make vinyl records, suffered a catastrophic fire at its manufacturing and storage facility in Banning, California. Apparently, there are only two companies in the world that make lacquers at that scale. The other, MDC in Japan, already had trouble keeping up with demand before the development. McNelis is braced for disruption, but so far Lakeshore is weathering the storm.
Finally, is it good news or bad news for XPO, FedEx, UPS, the coronavirus, Spotify, dogs, and Rebecca Black?
And what do our readers have to say? Check it out in Comment Section Rodeo.
Did you know?
California produces 60 percent of the roses that are sold in the U.S. every year, but most of the 1 billion roses sold in the first weeks of February for Valentine’s Day are imported from South America, mainly Columbia.
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