News

A 40-year-old Montana trucking company and freight brokerage has shuttered operations, leaving nearly 275 truck drivers and office personnel without jobs.

Like with most shippers, 2022 started out tough but by the beginning of 2023 it had all changed. In this Q&A, Fresh Del Monte VP describes the stark difference.

Owner-operators say Titan Transportation Services Inc., doing business as Sunset Logistics, still hasn’t refunded their $1,000 in escrow or maintenance account funds that were withheld from their paychecks after the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company abruptly ceased operations on Sept. 29.

Geopolitics has always been a key driver of global shipping markets. How could the war in Israel affect rates?

A Tennessee court will take more time mulling over a complaint from shareholders claiming they have the right to vote on Forward Air’s merger with Omni Logistics.

Executives for shuttered logistics operator Tiger Cool Express have restarted an intermodal project in Washington state.

UPS has stopped flying to Israel while competitors DHL and FedEx have maintained air service to the country, which is at war.

India’s population — and its designation as the most populous country in the world — is one of its biggest advantages. The sheer number of people in India contribute to both the nation’s plentiful workforce and its huge consumer market.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by Andrew Silver; Marcus Cooksey; Curtis Garrett; Alan Adler; Justin Martin

Truckers under age 21 serving the agriculture sector will continue to receive an exemption to avoid interference from law enforcement.

GLP-1 drug use and wariness of ultraprocessed foods could hit sales.

Startup Hyliion Holdings is pausing orders of its Hypertruck ERX as costs rise and electric trucks get better.

Supply chain software provider e2open has parted ways with its CEO while the CCO has laid out problems with its sales operations.

Uber Freight has rolled out new technology solutions for its TMS, procurement and use of generative AI.

As the diesel futures price starts to rise due to the Israeli conflict, the benchmark for most fuel surcharges has moved down.

“AI-powered insights help customers take informed action, like seeking alternative suppliers, tracing their raw materials, identifying potential geographic concentrations and targeting risky supplier networks,” says Altana Technologies’ Amy Morgan.

In this issue of the WHAT THE TRUCK?!? newsletter: Lego as an investment; Tesla Semi back in black; Prime Day’s real value; and more.

Advances in the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 provide hints to the next Freightliner eCascadia.

In 1978, when paper was king, a persistent error cost one company hundreds of thousands in extra charges. But who was responsible for the mistake?

OSM follows the lead of work-share partner U.S. Postal Service in not imposing peak-season delivery surcharges.

A quarterly survey of shippers suggests the trucking market is still distanced from a material recovery.

Blasting inspections, Mexico’s president says Texas’ governor has a “hostile attitude.”

Trucking companies and drivers will see shorter windows on regional emergency exemptions provided by the agency.

The traffic jam of freight at Qantas Airways facilities in Australia is slowly abating as the airline makes efforts to remediate problems caused by a new cargo system.

CN has released its operational plans for the 2023-2024 winter season. But the Canadian railway says new regulations create some uncertainty.

Most of the styling and design ideas from Volvo’s SuperTruck 2 freight efficiency exercise probably won’t ever see production, but some might.

Peak season demand propelled imports higher in September, although softening spot rates point to a fourth-quarter slowdown.

FedEx and UPS have paused flights to Israel, while DHL continues to operate to the capital city of Tel Aviv.

Not everyone will agree with the results of project44’s on-time parcel-delivery performance survey, the survey’s leader says.

Texas-based Arrive Logistics recently added an office in Toronto to service its growing Canadian customer base.

World Socialist Web Site pressures UAW by inflaming members to seek better deals than their negotiators bring.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by Matthew Leffler; Sam Watts; Thomas Wasson; Nathan Ebel

Jeremy Daily, a cybersecurity expert and presenter at an upcoming conference on the issue, discusses the Estes hack in a Q&A.

The incumbent TMS provider is unifying its carrier and shipper platforms to generate network effects.

Barge rates on the Mississippi stabilized in the past week and are still well below where they were a year ago.

U.S. freighter lessor ATSG makes its first sale in Bangladesh.

United Auto Workers-represented employees at Mack Trucks will strike for the second time in four years after rejecting a tentative agreement.

This week in Borderlands: Cargobot sees big opportunities with global cross-border trade; Lineage Logistics expands cold chain footprint in Texas; Stitch Fix closes Dallas logistics hub, lays off 558 workers; and Mexican seaport blocked as truckers protest wait times.

Spot and contract rates have stabilized with an unnaturally large gap between them. Is this sustainable or just a pause before the fall?

About 90 truck drivers and office personnel who worked for Titan Transportation Services Inc., doing business as Sunset Logistics of Grand Rapids, Michigan, say they are owed their final paychecks and escrow after receiving a string of emails from company executives notifying them that the trucking company was closing its doors.

While phone calls can open up lines of communication, their effectiveness at creating well-rounded, nuanced connections is limited. This is especially true when conversations revolve solely around the details of doing business.

Chicago commuter rail system Metra filed a lawsuit against the Surface Transportation Board over its decision to approve the merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.

Union Pacific will be offering intermodal service between two cities in Mexico and the U.S. Southeast.

A report by project44 said delivery performance was the highest since March 2020.

On Friday, Unite the Union announced it registered a dispute over the increased medical standards on maritime pilots in the U.K.

In this episode of Taking the Hire Road, Jeremy Reymer, founder of DriverReach, is joined by a great industry friend and fellow compliance nerd, Stacey Gibson. Gibson is personnel operations manager at TLC Cos.

Even as a Wall Street bank counts up the possible losses at Estes, the LTL carrier tells customers things are looking up.

Motorcycles had a two-decade run at the U.S. Postal Service, but that helped push the industry into new ways of mail delivery.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by Raj Subbiah; Chirag Modi; Dustin Koehl; Mark Vickers; Joshua Gonzalez

The Daimler Truck Board of Management has extended the contract of North America CEO John O’Leary through 2026.

Investigators still haven’t released the name of a truck driver who was fatally shot by an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper during a traffic stop that turned “physical” on the Turner Turnpike in Creek County on Sept. 20.

In addition to financial benefits, rail offers shippers a simple, well-established way to ramp up their focus on sustainability and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Higher labor expenses, reduced volumes and regulatory uncertainty were among the third quarter’s headwinds for railroads, according to Susquehanna transportation analyst Bascome Majors.

The September truck transportation jobs report, with revisions to August’s numbers, suggests some Yellow losses have been recaptured elsewhere.

International freight forwarder Flexport is undertaking a second round of mass layoffs this year.

Can Outrider hold onto its healthy lead in distribution yard autonomy as competition begins to form?

Truckers save 35 cents a gallon on fill-ups with Georgia’s fuel tax suspension.

Careers in the supply chain are an integral part of global commerce. But the complexity of today’s supply chain requires a true education.

An integration among Reliance Partners, Loadsure and McLeod lets asset-based motor carriers and freight brokers obtain A-rated all-risk cargo insurance on a per-load basis directly from their TMS.

Qantas Freight is still scrambling to recover from an IT meltdown that has gummed up its air cargo network.

Trucks delivering products from Mexico continue to face hourslong waits at Texas ports of entry due to state-run inspections.

Amazon has added the first of 10 Airbus A330 freighters to its fleet.

Tanker giant Frontline is poised to dramatically expand its fleet, while Euronav is on a path to privatization.

In this chilling episode of Tracks Through Time, we delve into the never-solved 1995 disappearance of truck driver Devin Williams, who vanished without a trace in the heart of Arizona’s Tonto National Forest.

U.S. intermodal volumes actually grew in September, according to the Association of American Railroads. And with the harvest season in full swing in the fourth quarter, expect rising grain volumes.

FreightWaves on Tuesday interviewed Angela Acocella, postdoctoral researcher at Tilburg University and researcher with the MIT Center of Transportation and Logistics looking at the impact of ghost lanes on shipper and carrier networks.

A FedEx cargo airplane made a hard landing in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after a landing gear failure.

Families mourn the victims of a deadly Illinois ammonia truck crash as police locate a vehicle that may have been involved.

Qantas’ freight division had trouble smoothly deploying a new cargo reservation system and shippers are livid about lengthy delays moving their goods.

Practically every retail chain in the U.S. has been sounding the alarms on external theft. It’s not as simple as it seems.

A federal judge has ruled that Total Quality Logistics — the second-largest freight brokerage in the U.S. — violated federal law and owes overtime pay to thousands of former employees who worked more than 40 hours a week.

An article from 1978 in American Shipper showed that the efficiency of the Panama Canal was an important factor in shipping — something that resonates today with the drought that has created a water level crisis in the canal.

A change in a new five-year contract between the UAW and Mack Trucks would extend the work day for 30 minutes for about $3,000 more a year.

Uber drivers will pick up return parcels and deliver them to postal, FedEx and UPS locations.

Estes Express has opened up a web portal to communicate with customers amid a cyberattack on the LTL carrier.

Equity research analysts are taking less-than-truckload earnings forecasts higher following the industry’s successful absorption of defunct Yellow’s freight.

The National Transportation Safety Board will focus on CSX’s safety training of railway carmen as the agency continues investigating the death of a carman at a CSX yard in Ohio.

Azerbaijan cargo airline Silk Way West took delivery of its first Boeing 777 freighter.

FTC complaint highlights challenges that sellers face on the largest e-commerce platform.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by Thomas Healy; Steve Cox; Tom Shea; Trey Griggs;

The logistics warehousing market is setting up for an acute supply shock by the second half of 2024 if tenant demand recovers, a CoStar report says.

Uber Freight Exchange is designed to unlock operational efficiencies and compress the time it takes to procure, eliminating the back-and-forth of traditional mini-bids by bringing the process onto one single tool.

The TJX Cos., headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, is a global leader in off-price apparel and home fashions, including its T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores, has been named a Shipper of Choice.

With 2024 orderboards open, Class 8 truck orders hit their highest level of the year in September and suggest fleet optimism.

Battery-electric trucks and the infrastructure to charge them require joint development, a lesson fleets are learning from early adopters.

Investors have been burned for years by dilutive share offerings by micro-cap shipowners. Backlash is building.

An internal system update caused internet connectivity issues at CN on Tuesday, affecting the Canadian railway’s customer service portal.

Amazon Air is downsizing operations at Leipzig/Halle International Airport.

Radiant Logistics has acquired a Florida-based logistics partner that provides forwarding services to the cruise lines.

Brad Jacobs, who founded XPO and its spinoffs, didn’t provide any details on what his next venture is going to focus on.

Some companies have found success by taking a unique approach to the turnover problem. Those organizations are abandoning the age-old sleeper cab – or at least reducing their dependence on it. 

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito want the Surface Transportation Board to “move swiftly” on reciprocal switching.

A September supply chain survey suggests the freight industry is coming out of a recession.