News

U.S. box shipments are declining at their fastest rate since the worst of the Great Financial Crisis, with trends having deteriorated as the first quarter progressed, according to the third-largest North American containerboard producer.

Pam Transportation saw first-quarter earnings fall as the truckload market searches for a bottom.

The benchmark diesel price used for most fuel surcharges declined Monday, continuing a trend that goes back six months.

Amazon drivers and dispatchers in Palmdale, California, have won recognition to join Teamsters Local 396 in Los Angeles.

Legislation giving FMC more power over alliances is aimed at preventing anticompetitive container carrier agreements.

FedEx is shrinking its network of pilot bases in an effort to cut costs. The move follows a recent decision to transfer a major maintenance facility at LAX airport to Indianapolis.

Yellow confirms that it has asked the Teamsters to open up the National Master Freight Agreement a year early as talks around proposed network changes have stalled.

Toyota expects to deliver incentive-supported, Kentucky-produced heavy-duty fuel cell kits to U.S. customers this year.

There is growing sentiment that higher trans-Pacific spot rates will not hold and prospects for shipping lines remain weak.

Unions representing locomotive engineers and train conductors are still working through some sticking points with railroads regarding work schedules, sources told FreightWaves.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by gCaptain’s John Konrad; Nick Souza and FreightWaves’ Donny Gilbert

The final panel at the TIA annual meeting echoed a theme of the whole meeting: Double brokering and fraud are surging.

General Motors is recalling 40,000 medium-duty trucks built by Navistar that can catch fire because of leaking brake fluid.

TruckParkingClub.com is launching hourly parking with a pilot program at a Kentucky McDonald’s restaurant.

FreightWaves will host the Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Summit on Wednesday with a full day of industry insights.

TravelCenters of America brings up failed deal in argument for BP purchase.

The pandemic may have exposed long-term weakness to the railroads’ intermodal growth plans.

This week in Borderlands: $102M cold storage warehouse planned for Houston area; auto parts supplier opens $34M plant in Mexico; steel manufacturer, distributor expands Texas operations; and CBP seizes $21M worth of fentanyl in green beans shipment.

Geoff Kelley’s departure from Transportation Insight Holding Co. is part of a restructuring at the Atlanta-based company.

Despite what may be a lot of available parcels, Amazon may have better things to do with its capital than to chase UPS customers.

Layoffs continue at the FreightTech unicorn, Flock Freight, as 45 employees were fired at a recent all-hands company meeting, four months after 60 workers were let go.

A company with just under a 5% holding in TravelCenters of America wants the board to speak with Arko, whose bid for the company has been rejected so far.

Shippers are in a strong market position. At TIA, they talked about what they want from the brokers who serve them.

FreightWaves has won a top award for commentary journalism in the 2023 Jesse H. Neal Awards.

A shipment of gold and other values was pilfered at the Toronto airport in Canada this week and police have few leads so far.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by Ross Kennedy; Kodiak Robotics’ James Reed; AIT Worldwide Loogistics’ Ray Fennelly

“There have been companies that have introduced [dashcams] with great success and haven’t lost any drivers at all, and then there are other companies that have lost quite a few drivers because of it,” Reliance Partners’ Brian Runnels said.

One of the drawbacks of hydrogen adoption as a transportation fuel is the lack of infrastructure. Guess what? A network of hydrogen fueling already exists.

“The Premier Partner Program expands our carrier family to include an even higher level of qualification of carriers that can meet the needs of participating shippers,” said president George Abernathy.

Service improvements at CSX come as headcount levels are at “a good number,” officials said during the company’s first-quarter 2022 earnings call.

The Silver Bridge collapse has a unique folklore, but it also completely changed how we look at safety regulations for bridges. Hear about the collapse and the stories surrounding it. Then get an inside look with West Virginia DOT’s Tracy W. Brown, a state bridge engineer.

Schneider said Friday it will be a strategic intermodal carrier for the Canadian Pacific Kansas City rail line from Mexico to Chicago.

FreightWaves SONAR has added several features to increase pricing efficiency and strategy effectiveness for transportation teams everywhere.

WestJet can’t catch a break when it comes to starting its new cargo airline. Service began Thursday but could shut down in less than a month if pilots go on strike.

The potential widening of broker liability in the Miller case against C.H. Robinson is creating fears among 3PLs, but attorneys see a potential reversal.

Localz offers a differentiated platform, logistics IT firm Descartes says.

Paccar Inc. is taking a $600 million pretax charge against first-quarter earnings from settlements in a 2016 European price-fixing scandal.

Knight-Swift Transportation has recalibrated its 2023 outlook after posting an earnings miss to start the year.

Union Pacific’s earnings guidance for the year is based on the assumption that a recession won’t occur, officials said during the railroad’s first-quarter 2023 earnings call Thursday.

Mainstream tankers have moved into the Russian crude export trade. The price cap might push them back out again.

FreightWaves’ ‘State of Freight’ webinar suggests the freight market could remain flat for most of 2023.

DHL Express is ordering nine passenger-to-freighter conversion aircraft to modernize its large fleet.

Inside the WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Newsletter: Have truckload markets found the floor; taking a semi to prom; 420 for truck; and more.

Biden’s labor secretary pick says she’s ready to step in if West Coast dockworkers and their employers cannot resolve their remaining issues.

Volvo Group reported record sales and deliveries in the first quarter, projecting a positive note as the first truck manufacturer to release financials.

Lineage Logistics has opened a facility in Georgia designed to ease chokepoints for imports of produce at mid-Atlantic ports.

Trucking companies should include better legal care options for drivers.

Link Logistics’ customers will be able to do a better job of managing energy consumption under a collaboration with Carrier Global Corp., the companies said.

A large European pulp and paper company issued a profit warning as “the whole packaging market is currently weakening.”

Deregulating trucking made modern supply chains achievable — but it also carved out one of America’s essential blue-collar professions.

XPO fills vacant chief operating officer role with an Old Dominion veteran.

Air cargo professionals hope demand has hit bottom and will start to improve soon, but there could be further downside if some barometers are true.

Executive Director Mario Cordero says the Port of Long Beach is “ready for a rebound in retail.”

A case involving the theft of expensive freight may have led to a legal precedent benefiting brokerage liability.

A page from American Shipper’s archives exhibits how shippers felt in 1978 through an eye-catching speech.

In the most recent year of fully available data — 2020 — only 21 states improved the conditions of their roads and bridges, according to Reason Foundation.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by Health In Transportation’s Bob Perry; Big Rig Parking’s Benton Ozburn; FreightWaves Alan Adler and Justin Martin

BNSF is conducting further analysis on a piece of fractured rail from the March derailment of a BNSF train in Minnesota, according to an initial investigation report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

SC Ports’ Inland Port Dillon handled record rail moves in March, although volumes for the port authority overall were down year over year.

There is a lot more competition waiting to take a UPS parcel if workers go on strike, consultant Satish Jindel says.

Propane haulers were unable to convince federal officials that a work-rule exemption could be provided without boosting crash risks.

Federal regulators are rolling out a rule proposal as a first step to potential new and costly requirements aimed at reducing truck crash fatalities.

Truckload carrier Marten had a first quarter in which it drove more miles than last year but made less money.

United Airlines posted a quarterly loss and said cargo sales fell more than a third from a year ago, but was optimistic about strong travel demand the remainder of the year.

Nikola Corp.’s hopes for a zero-emissions trucking future may be realized without the startup being part of it.

At its core, Bitfreighter is an integration enablement platform. The company’s driving principle is to make integrations affordable and accessible by stepping away from the transactional pricing model and offering unlimited everything.

“We are starting to see ocean carriers systematically take geopolitical risk into consideration,” says Xeneta’s Erik Devetak.

Logistics real estate operator Prologis believes headwinds facing the supply side will prop up occupancy and rents into 2024.

NFI Industries has acquired warehousing and fulfillment provider SDR Distribution Services in Canada.

Trammell Crow and CBRE Investment Management have acquired 192 acres in Arizona and are seeking companies interested in developing facilities on their rail-served site.

Warehouse operator Prologis reported first-quarter results in line with expectations Tuesday.

As negotiations get underway between UPS and the Teamsters, here are key considerations for shippers navigating a period of uncertainty.

FedEx celebrates its golden anniversary of operations with its most intense few years in decades ahead of it.

J.B. Hunt missed first-quarter expectations Monday as weak intermodal and trucking trends plagued the quarter.

Jefferies’ Omar Nokta believes container shipping investors are starting to look toward “the end of the destock and beginning of the restock.”

The benchmark used for most diesel surcharges rose for the first time in 10 weeks, but the market is not otherwise looking strong.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services missed analyst expectations for the first quarter on Monday.

As their populations grow, Class 8 electric trucks are proving as susceptible to safety recalls as diesel-powered units.

Israel Aerospace Industries has added a second overseas facility to carry out passenger-to-freighter conversions of the Boeing 777-300.

On demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by Remcoda’s Cole Garson; Reliance Partners’ Robert Kaferle; Tive’s Richie Daigle and Travelers’ Chris Hayes

An industry trade group advisory questioning the safety of wheel sets manufactured by National Steel Car has been canceled, National Steel Car said.

TA expects to be bought by BP next month, but spurned suitor Arko is continuing to hone its offer for the truck stop giant.

Shipco Transport pairs strong company values with deep expertise and broad coverage to deliver concrete results to its forwarder customers.

A Daimler Truck recall of Western Star models for a windshield wiper defect has grown from a few hundred to more than 54,000.

Navistar is recalling about 45,000 older trucks because insufficient current to the HVAC blower motor led to melting and fires.

The Teamsters meet with UPS on Monday in Washington to discuss progress on supplemental agreements as main negotiations begin.

AskWaves: Can landlords look beyond the money and understand what warehouse workers want?

This week in Borderlands: Production and exports of Mexican-built cargo trucks soared in March; Walmart is closing a logistics facility in Fort Worth, Texas; Target announced three distribution centers in Texas; and Maersk opened a global service center in Mexico City.

Southern California markets were flush with transportation activity during the pandemic. That has eroded and then some. This has not only left transportation networks exposed operationally but also created pricing gaps.

The FedEx pilots’ union is asking members to vote on a strike authorization for possible later use.

Transportation shipments and rates back up during March, according to Cass Information Systems.

Predictive maintenance analytics for autonomous trucks could provide a reverse benefit for human-driven trucks.

In 2022, 4,000 fulfillment centers were added to the global building stock. Interact Analysis forecasts that number to be cut in half this year.

Today, automation can mean launching a fleet of autonomous robots that can unload shipping containers without human intervention. In 1974, a remote-controlled “bow boat” was considered a major launch.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is talking about a trucker charity concert, heavy haul logistics, rail safety and stranded drivers

Splitting ammonia to get hydrogen is the approach of Amogy, another startup seeking success in the transportation energy transition.