News

Pittsburgh is experiencing a rise in both outbound and inbound tender volumes simultaneously.

Old Dominion Freight Line’s 69.5% operating ratio during the second quarter was not only a company best but a best-ever result for a public carrier.

Has Nikola managed to rebound? Plus, a unique cold chain visibility tag; something stinks at Slync; autonomous convoys and more on WHAT THE TRUCK?!?

A federal appeals court upheld the FMCSA’s hours-of-service rules by rejecting a challenge filed by safety groups alleging the 2020 changes make the roads less safe.

In proposing a minimum train crew size of two members, FRA reverses its stance that crew size questions should be left to the railroads and the unions.

Preparing your fleet for an inspection is a continual process that requires monthly monitoring of safety data.

Self-flying drones from Vimaan will be the eye in the sky for a PFS warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee.

Union Pacific on Wednesday enlisted Wabtec to modernize 600 locomotives to improve fuel efficiency, reliability and haulage ability.

European airports have experienced plenty of headaches this summer. A strike at Lufthansa is adding to congestion and frustration.

Anticipated strength in domestic intermodal and higher grain volumes will support CN in the back half of this year, company executives said during the Canadian railway’s second-quarter 2022 earnings call.

Shopify posted a $1.2 billion loss in the second quarter a day after it announced it was slashing 10% of its workforce.

Boeing landed some freighter contracts at the big Farnborough air show but wasn’t the only manufacturer making sales on the cargo front.

Paccar Inc. defied analyst estimates and posted top- and bottom-line beats in second-quarter revenue and income.

Slync.io CEO Chris Kirchner retaliated against some executives at the financially troubled company after learning he was being suspended, a source says.

Container, crude oil and petroleum shipments rose as ports in Houston and Corpus Christi recorded strong freight volumes in June.

Trevor Milton claims Nikola Corp. is violating his constitutional rights by seeking a protective order to block use of company conversations.

Despite a murky economic outlook, Covenant remains optimistic about the company’s business prospects through 2023.

Fallout from the Ukraine-Russia war and concerns over power supply in Europe and Asia support demand for seaborne coal.

A top regulator says more staff is needed to properly carry out new ocean carrier reforms signed into law by President Joe Biden.

Consumer demand, vessel diversions and efforts to avoid congested West Coast ports drove the Georgia Ports Authority to break its record for annual volumes.

Shopify cites slowing growth in e-commerce as it cuts 10% of its workforce.

Kodiak Robotics is taking a simpler approach to mapping highways for autonomy, focusing on connectivity over detail

The transportation and logistics industry is still dealing with the residual effects of the pandemic, including accelerated technological advances, a tough labor market and an inconsistent supply chain.

Walmart has announced a partnership with Platform Science to equip the retailer’s private truck fleet of 12,000 drivers with telematics tablet devices.

The Atlanta-based company also reveals a plan to improve on-time performance across its U.S. network.

Shippers have already begun negotiating lower contract rates, and carriers should prepare for this trend to continue. This will prove especially important for small and mid-size carriers who often do not have the profit margins to weather a storm.

Like a mechanic, we maintain and repair moving parts of your transportation machine; we don’t drive the machine, we fix it.

Senators and two U.S. House representatives from Illinois object to the railway merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern as currently proposed, saying the Surface Transportation Board should respond to their constituents’ concerns.

Produce shipper WP Rawl has found PowerFleet’s solution to have a surplus of benefits.

Many delivery providers use a delivery management system, but costs can escalate quickly if proper planning was ignored.

Flexible supply chain firm Stord has secured space within Fresh Del Monte facilities for customers looking for cold storage capabilities.

Last year was historically strong for some maritime businesses, terrible for others. No matter what the sector, maritime CEOs made millions.

Kuehne + Nagel continued profit growth in Q2 by charging customers more for extra service to keep supply chains fluid.

The benchmark diesel price used for fuel surcharges now has declined five weeks in a row.

Covenant Logistics Group’s truckload revenue increased 29% year over year to $218 million, despite unprecedented cost inflation and higher insurance costs.

Seattle, a traditional backhaul market, is now experiencing headhaul market activity.

All the pipes of trade are connected. If one pipe starts to have empty-container constriction, container prices will be influenced across the board.

CPC Logistics and NASCAR honor drivers; how to intern at a port; what insurance says about the trucking market; biofuels and more on demand on WTT

Truckload carrier Heartland Express said it expects freight demand to exceed its available capacity for the rest of 2022.

Three new sortation centers in Chicago and Denver bring Target’s facility count up to nine.

Solutions like route optimization and real-time visibility are beneficial regardless of what is happening in the market, but these money-saving tools can prove crucial during times of tighter margins.

The Surface Transportation Board will conduct a three-day hearing in late September to find out from Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern directly about issues related to the railways’ proposed merger.

If you’re an owner-operator, chances are that money-wise 2021 felt pretty good to you. Has 2022 been quite as generous?

Storefront delivery platforms exploded during the pandemic, but for many retailers the loss of customer control could be costing them revenue.

TransForce, long a provider of drivers to carriers, is rolling out its proposal for independent contractor compliance with AB5.

FAA sources told Insider that new crashes are putting Amazon’s drone delivery program further behind schedule.

Fully mobile transportation management systems will help the remote workforce be more effective, enabling them to do their jobs from anywhere.

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Nowports aims to be supply chain ally for Latam trade; US files labor complaint against auto parts plant in Mexico; Tesla suppliers have dedicated lane at US-Mexico border bridge; and Laredo CBP seizes $4.3M worth of meth from tractor-trailer.

New Cummins Inc. CEO Jennifer Rumsey talked about mentoring and reaching the company’s Destination Zero carbon goals in a FreightWaves interview.

Unit responds to contractors’ cost concerns by partially ditching the controversial program.

As truckers protest for the fifth day, workers at the Port of Oakland have been busy setting up orange barricades at all four of the marine terminals in case demonstrations over controversial state law AB5 spill over into next week.

Pent-up demand for railcars will support GATX even as rail service clears up.

Ocean carrier Maersk is buying three Boeing freighters and outsourcing flying to Amerijet to penetrate the U.S.-Asia air cargo market.

Outbound volumes are rising in Joliet but rejections are decreasing, pointing to a higher acceptance rate of contract loads.

Small shipper battles TQL over lost plant shipment; AB5 fallout; the intersection of FreightTech and people; brawl at Disney

Consulting firm FTR Associates says the freight transportation markets will find support amid a still-growing manufacturing sector, despite perceived softness in the U.S. economy.

Since the pandemic started, many shippers found their existing contracts unable to ensure carrier compliance. Supply and demand were especially volatile, and so spot rates, which are more sensitive to changing market conditions, handily outpaced contract rates.

Nikola’s could keep adjourning its annual meeting as it pursues unvoted proxies to raise the number of authorized shares.

With billions of square feet of warehouse space to automate, leading robotics providers are gearing up for the opportunity.

With over $170 million from investors, executive leadership from legacy companies and a restructured plan for long-term growth, Emerge’s leadership is looking forward to continuing its core mission of modernizing procurement processes.

Public comments reveal most truckers believe a proposal to require engines to have speed limiters will make roads less safe.

FedEx Ground said it will drop Sunday residential deliveries the week of Aug. 15 in unidentified low-population markets.

Exhaust gas scrubbers are allowing tankers, bulkers and container ships to keep burning dirtier — and much cheaper — marine fuel.

Union Pacific executives said it wasn’t precision scheduled railroading but running the network too tightly that brought on the service issues.

Indianapolis’ outbound volume caused the Headhaul Index to increase 36.1% week over week, and outbound loads within 100 miles of the San Francisco market are being rejected as a result of protests.

A better question is, what can carriers do to lower their rates?

Triumph Bancorp posts strong second-quarter financial results while remaining “cautiously optimistic” for a relatively flat trucking and transportation market through the end of 2022.

The Farnborough International Airshow was a relative success for Boeing, capped by large preliminary commitment for freighters from Cargolux.

The Uber Eats update lets customers order groceries even when stores are closed and provides real-time order tracking.

Automation is changing the American workforce, and companies need to start investing in the workers of tomorrow by offering the training necessary to compete, Walsh says.

Logistics warehouse capacity utilization remains extremely tight, with an additional 800 million square feet needed to ease the pressure, a Prologis report says.

A trucking recession is coming. Longtime truckers are closing their businesses as pay drops and expenses soar.

Creative and strategic solutions for recruiting in the logistics space.

This white paper explores the challenges in the logistics procurement market and the tactics best-in-class teams use to regain control of capacity and cost while ensuring procurement excellence.

Cargo vessels allegedly are meeting at sea to transport stolen Ukrainian grain to Turkey and Syria.

Port of Oakland officials are imploring truckers to end their protest over AB5 as the independent contractors prepare to block the terminals for the fourth day on Thursday, bringing container movement at California’s third-largest port to a standstill.

Amazon on Thursday announced the long-awaited debut of electric delivery vans from Rivian in more than a dozen U.S. cities.

Broker Landstar System missed second-quarter expectations but noted pricing metrics are holding firm.

A recent report shows how far the transportation industry remains from the net-zero goal.

An unanticipated high attrition rate among new hires has affected the pace of CSX’s planned operational recovery, according to executives on the railroad’s second-quarter earnings call.

New leaders, an electrification push and Scania influence mark the first year after the Traton’s $3.7 billion takeover of Navistar.

Knight-Swift Transportation rode higher revenues and better margins in all of its divisions to a beat-and-raise second quarter.

Aldi, one of the fastest-growing grocery chains in the U.S., has been named a FreightWaves Shipper of Choice in 2022.

Passenger travel carried United Airlines to a second-quarter profit, while cargo sales eased for the first time in two years.

Outbound tender volumes for Dallas begin to trend upward, and LA is beginning to see more lanes than usual under 250 miles.

Around 450 protesters opposing California’s independent contractor law, AB5, were blocking all of the terminal gates at the Port of Oakland, forcing TraPac and Oakland International Container Terminal, also known as SSA, to close operations on Wednesday.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services announced the promotion of 28-year company veteran Shelley Simpson to president on Wednesday.

“This allows Samsung to set a new bar of service levels for logistics customers, and Vizion supports this through hyperfocus on enhanced visibility technologies,” said Kyle Henderson, co-founder and CEO of Vizion.

Kansas City Southern de Mexico will invest nearly $200 million in a railway bypass. The railroad will have exclusive rights to the bypass for 10 more years.

The Postal Service says it also will procure 34,000 off-the-shelf vehicles to augment its initial 50,000-unit order of electric vehicles.

Ports of Boston and Baltimore shorten supply chains with infrastructure buildouts; another day of protests of Ab5 protests?; rail off the rails and more

Quiet Platforms and American Eagle are building a shared logistics and fulfillment network, with Atlanta as the latest addition.

COVID continues to crush Cathay Pacific’s business, but the cargo fleet is now back at full force.

Legislation approved by the House transportation committee provides dedicated funding for competitive grants aimed at expanding truck parking.

FreightWaves announces a new Chief Revenue Officer and its Q2 earnings.

Emissions-reducing technologies that can help make supply chains greener are available for vehicles of all sizes.

Freight payments data from U.S. Bank showed sequential increases in volumes and costs during the second quarter.

Two years after he predicted supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic, the supply chain scion says the ecosystem remains broken. All that has changed, he says, is an acknowledgment of that reality.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services beat second-quarter expectations despite persistent rail congestion and supply chain bottlenecks.

The STB is sifting through hundreds of pages on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of a merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.