Preliminary Class 8 order numbers look promising for November, but tariff uncertainty adds risks as 40% of Class 8 trucks for the U.S. market are currently built in Mexico.
ACT Research forecasts an end of the Great Freight Recession in the for-hire truckload space, but private fleet expansion is tempering expectations.
ATA economist Bob Costello cites macroeconomic “return to normalcy” as a promising sign for trucking amid stagflation and private fleet growth.
ACT Research and FTR Transportation Intelligence reported strong September Class 8 net orders as OEM order books open up for next year.
A recent FTR Transportation Intelligence conference highlighted continued poor freight market conditions that are forcing fleets to do more with less.
ATRI’s recently released study on the costs and impacts of driver detention found detention times exceeded four hours in 4.9% of stops.
A recent ATA Driver Compensation Study shows median truckload driver salaries are up 10% in two years despite the poor freight market.
A recent survey by the National Private Truck Council highlighted the growth of private fleets in size, volume and freight value.
J.B. Hunt announced the completion of 50,000 autonomous long-haul trucking miles in a collaboration with autonomous trucking company Kodiak Robotics and Bridgestone Americas.
Two key reporting agencies saw a slowdown in truck orders last month.
Heartland Express’ Q2 earnings saw a net loss of $3.5 million as it works to improve its operating ratio and profitability
Recent data by Motive suggests the freight recession is closer to an end as more robust June restocking spurs higher July retail sales.
The FMCSA recently delayed rulemaking on truck speed limiters, pre-2000 engine ELD mandates and automatic emergency braking systems to 2025.
OOIDA and other industry groups are suing over the EPA Phase 3 final rule on greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles.
Orders for new Class 8 trucks rose significantly in May, according to two research firms.
Trucker Path released its annual Highest-Rated Major US Trucking Corridors results. The I-90, I-5 and I-44 corridors took top spots in parking availability, truck stop ratings and fuel prices.
Overdrive recently surveyed owner-operators about their views on who is hauling cheap freight.
Recent reports from Ryder System and Knight-Swift highlight significant total cost of ownership and poor range for electric trucks.
New Class 8 truck orders in April up from a year ago, down from March.
Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, highlights regulatory challenges at the FreightWaves Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Summit.
J.B. Hunt and Knight-Swift reported higher pressure from customers to cut contracted rates in Q1 bids in an effort to extend savings before the market’s eventual turnaround.
Phase 3 greenhouse gas emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles covering model years 2027 through 2032 mandate more zero-emission commercial vehicles.
Class 8 new truck orders were down in March, but the research firms that track them did not see it as significant.
Ahead of Q1 earnings reports, analysts are adjusting their earnings expectations for truckload companies as excess capacity continues to weigh down pricing and margins.
The latest figures from ACT and FTR show a new truck build market that remains solid but that slowed from a month earlier.
Knight-Swift President and CEO David Jackson stepped down Tuesday after a nearly 24-year tenure at the company that saw many mergers and acquisitions, including an expansion into the LTL market.
Charles Gracey of Hot Seat Services says recruitment can be difficult even in the best of circumstances, with only a tiny fraction of applicants getting an offer and successfully completing orientation.
The overcapacity of on-highway trucks would look worse without underlying support from Mexico and strong vocational demand.
In December, a federal appeals court ruled that company team drivers’ time spent in sleeper berths after eight hours can be compensated under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The case involved a former CRST trainee who sued CRST in 2016 alleging that the team-based driver training program violated the FLSA based on the carrier’s compensation policy.
New Class 8 truck deliveries have fallen for four consecutive months even as vocational equipment sales rise.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Monday published a notice in the Federal Register that the state of Florida is seeking an exemption to the CDL testing regulation pertaining to skills testing.
Class 8 truck orders hit a 14-month high in November, surpassing 40,000 bookings amid a mired freight market.
The evidence is far from overwhelming, but the worst of the price depreciation for used trucks may be over.
FreightWaves’ Rachel Premack wrote an article on Wednesday outlining her experience attending a truck driver training conference in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the National Association of Publicly-Funded Truck Driving Schools (NAPFTDS). Premack sought to get more information on a fundamental disagreement in trucking that involves driver turnover and whether there is an ongoing driver shortage.
Specialty trailer equipment got a boost in October as overall orders rose, but dry and refrigerated vans didn’t keep pace.
Fleets waited two years for back-ordered Class 8 trucks. Now largely met, demand has shifted to replacement needs.
Natural gas has long been a bit player in a diesel-driven engine world. That may change with Cummins’ beefier 15-liter offering.
On Wednesday the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) released its latest Cost of Congestion study showing U.S. highway traffic congestion added $94.6 billion in costs to the trucking industry.
Several data points provided by ACT Research on Wednesday showed the trucking market may be shaking off the downcycle.
ACT Research, a leading transportation research firm, is on the side of the debate that sees significant penetration of alternative fuels for trucking.
Proposed rulemaking on automatic emergency braking (AEB) introduced in June by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is getting more pushback from a coalition of state law enforcement officials and brake manufacturers that argue more dialogue is needed before moving forward.
Class 8 truck orders rose in July, but they are still in the summer doldrums and trail replacement demand.
The saga of less-than-truckload carrier Yellow may be coming to a close based on reporting that Yellow’s senior vice president of sales told staff their last day would be this Friday, and that the carrier would file for bankruptcy on Monday.
Trailer orders hit their monthly low for the year in June, but seasonality had more to do with it than a lack of demand.
Truckload and multimodal carrier J.B. Hunt told analysts on an earnings call Tuesday that it’s still too early to tell how the 2023 peak season for freight will turn out.
The first meeting of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Truck Leasing Task Force (TLTF) discussed and drafted recommendations on Tuesday regarding limiting or eliminating the power a trucking company has over lease purchase agreements with drivers.
Class 8 orders in June remained muted as manufacturers focused on reducing their backlogs of unbuilt trucks.
Negotiations between the Teamsters union and Yellow Corp. remain ongoing, with the fate of the nation’s third-largest LTL carrier hanging in the balance. Yellow is facing stiff resistance from the Teamsters over proposed operational changes that would consolidate operations between purchased regional carriers New Penn and Holland and integrate them into Yellow’s nationwide network.
Consulting firm Kearney recently released its 34th annual Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) report, “State of Logistics 2023: The Great Reset.” A major theme of the report is the great rebalancing from the carrier-dominated market of the past two years to a shipper-focused one as freight volumes fell against a backdrop of higher truckload capacity. The report notes that total U.S. logistics costs rose 19.6% in 2022 to a record $2.3 trillion or 9.1% of U.S. gross domestic product.
May’s Class 8 truck orders rose, but a truer measure of manufacturing health is the industry’s still-elevated backlog-to-build number.
Using the California Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule, the Biden administration’s proposed Phase 3 truck rule sees the EPA potentially imposing stricter standards on carbon dioxide emissions for truck makers and buyers.
Unprecedented high prices for used trucks a year ago have plummeted as new truck production moved past supply shortages.
Skimpy orders of Class 8 trucks in April mean little because OEMs have lots of backlogged orders to build and bill.
The demand for skilled technicians to keep shops and maintenance terminals running continues to challenge recruiters due to high demand. A major source of lost utilization for fleets on the road is getting their vehicles repaired in a timely manner. A lack of technicians continues to plague shops, creating extra downtime and work order backlogs.
Truck manufacturers booked about 19,000 Class 8 truck orders in March, a manageable load that lets them whittle away at backlogs.
Rachel Premack, editorial director at FreightWaves, was interviewed Tuesday about her article on the impact of the ELD mandate five years later.
Class 8 truck orders defied estimates of flattening in February as fleets show they still have money to spend.
On Tuesday, FreightWaves Research released survey data suggesting declining freight conditions are impacting owner-operators especially hard. An important takeaway is the potential for many more owner-operators to leave the industry if conditions do not improve.
Rush Enterprises will curb its enthusiasm for stocking additional inventory of used trucks until prices begin to rise again.
After a surge in orders in December, trailer OEMs follow truck manufacturers in reporting slower bookings with large backlogs.
FreightWaves’ Noi Mahoney reports that, according to CargoNet data, a surge in cargo thefts near the end of 2022 led to an estimated $223 million in goods being stolen across Canada and the U.S.
Class 8 truck orders in January fell year over year for the first time since August, lightening the 2023 backlog.
Josh Smith, vice president at Variant and over-the-road operations at U.S. Xpress, spoke to FreightWaves about the Variant program and how technology and operations are vital to success in trucking.
El aumento de la fabricación de camiones nuevos ha contribuido a invertir los costos de adquisición en subastas y al por menor.
After months of downward moves, used truck prices ended the year closer to pre-pandemic levels than anytime since COVID hit.
As valuations of SPAC-backed startups plummet, one autonomous trucking developer that avoided the FOMO and stayed private is thriving.
Trailer manufacturers took in 57,300 orders in December, the second-highest monthly total since tracking began in 1996.
A Republican-backed bill introduced by U.S. Rep Brian Mast, R-Fla., seeks to exempt underage truck drivers from rules that prohibit them from hauling containers to and from marine terminals.
On Tuesday, FreightWaves interviewed Josh Bouk, president of Trax Technologies, about the recent Securities and Exchange Commission rule-making recommendation back in March 2022 regarding scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 is a part of a larger greenhouse gas emissions overhaul by the SEC, the intent being for companies to disclose their impact on the environment.
Class 8 truck backlogs enter 2023 in healthy shape despite three consecutive months of lower orders after a record September.
Drivers who paid top dollar for a used truck in the past year are probably kicking themselves, if not just taking the hit and walking away.
Even as the economy shows signs of slowing, trailer manufacturers see strong demand and few cancellations.
Solid Class 8 orders in November still marked the second straight month of decline as backlogs grow and supply and labor issues persist.
As supply chain logjams lessen, improving new truck production levels put downward pressure on used truck prices.
Uncertainty in the supply chain and commodity price vagaries are stretching out trailer orders beyond traditional cycles.
After nearly a year of accepting only orders they were sure they could build, heavy-duty truck OEMs fully opened orderbooks in September.
urricane season can frequently — and unexpectedly — change the trucking dynamic. Part of this involves the positioning of equipment in anticipation for hauling FEMA freight.
The outlook for trucking companies buying new or used Class 8 trucks can best be described like a 2005 Facebook relationship status — “It’s complicated.”
Truck manufacturers began to fill build slots for the first quarter of 2023 in August but pent-up demand for equipment remains unstated.
The second FreightWaves Autonomous and Electric Vehicles Summit will feature leaders in autonomy and all things electrification.
Rusty Rush not only operates more truck dealerships than anyone on the planet, he also knows technology. And he has opinions on just about everything. So, buckle up. It’s Rush hour.
Lego bricks can help explain a lot of things, including a very messy supply chain. Penske Truck Leasing’s Paul Rosa got creative .
A severe recession deserves some mindshare among scenarios that could play out in coming months, ACT Research economist Jim Meil says.
Fleets are holding off on Class 8 truck orders because supply shortages continue to delay acceptance of 2023 bookings.
FreightWaves recently conducted a survey of owner-operators outlining business issues and outlooks on profitability in 2022 compared to the previous year.
A common theme during the downward swing in the cyclical freight market cycle is the movement of owner-operators in and out of large fleets.
Cautious OEMs allowed the smallest number of trailer orders so far this year, pushing back bookings until late summer.
Experts expected a closing of the gap between record-high auction and retail used truck prices. Now both are in retreat.
New rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding disclosure of climate-related risks and greenhouse gas emissions could greatly impact the trucking industry.
Don’t expect the restrictions that truck manufacturers are imposing on Class 8 order intake to last. There’s too much at stake.
Los conductores que persiguen las tarifas al contado se rinden ante la caída de las mismas
Auction prices for used trucks are dropping as more equipment shows up amid cooling spot freight demand.
Trailer makers continue to push away orders as supply chain issues in different areas vex production amid stable pent-up demand.
Class 8 truck orders fell in May for seasonal reasons and because manufacturers kept a tight lid on bookings.
Used truck auction prices started to ease in April as freight demand slowed, but they remain more than twice as expensive as a year ago.
War, pandemic shutdowns and supply chain woes resulted in a nearly 60% month-over-month decline in trailer orders in April.
Class 8 truck orders fell to a seven-month low in April as manufacturers continued to restrict bookings over supply chain uncertainty.
New trailer orders surged to their highest level in 15 months in March, but a supply chain fraught with trouble means it could be an anomaly.
Seeking to avoid the embarrassment of canceling fleet orders last year, truck manufacturers are keeping a tight lid on bookings.
Trailers relegated to storage units are being cleaned up and hooked up to return to service as fleets wait out the supply chain crisis.
