The improvements in 3D printing technology has boosted the hopes that one day supply chains will become shorter as products are printer on-demand in close proximity to end users. Deutsche Post DHL Group and IT logistics provider Axit recently showcased how replacement parts could be produced and shipped in the same day.
The news out of the Middle East on Thursday that OPEC would continue recent production cuts in an effort to boost oil prices may have upset some oil traders, but it shouldn’t have much effect on diesel fuel prices at the pumps, according to experts.
The cost of traffic congestion each year to the transportation industry is staggering. In 2015, the industry experienced over 996 million hours of delay because of congestion. ATRI determined the cost to be $63.4 billion, or $63.70 operational cost per hour for trucking. But going inside the numbers tells an even deeper tale of the cost to society.
The recent surge in U.S. oil drilling has helped keep gas and diesel prices depressed, despite oil production cuts by OPEC. This infographic provides a quick glimpse of what is happening in the sector.
The Northeast has exited a period of cloudy, rainy weather that has held down freight volumes into and out of the region. That is just one of the weather-related stories this week that have affected rates across the nation.
“If the thesis is that all of these small carriers who’ve been running illegally will be put out of business were they to comply with this mandate, there is no incentive for them to comply.” That is part of the reasoning that Stifel analysts have used to suggest the ELD mandate will not drive up shipping rates.
Good morning. Hope the roads are clear where you are today. As it turns out, that is not often the case for many of us. The American Transportation Research Institute reported that congestion on U.S. roadways cost the trucking industry $63.4 billion in 2015 and resulted in 996 million hours of lost productivity, which is equal to 362,243 truck drivers sitting idle for an entire year.
While in-store sales have been declining in recent years, retail sales as a whole have not due to growth in e-commerce. That is resulting in a shift in freight movement, with more heading to a growing number of distribution centers and less heading to brick-and-mortar stores.
There has been a narrative in the U.S. that retail is dying a quick death. The reality is that is just not true. So far in 2017, there have been nearly as many store openings announced as store closings. This FreightWaves infographic details some of the trends in retail and how trucking is responding.
They say farm to fork, but without trucks, the farm never makes it to the stores, much less the fork. And that’s why ag haulers are so in tune with their shipping partners. When farmers suffer from crop delays for any reason – trucking is affected.
This Week in Trucking, Elon Musk adds some details to his electric Tesla Semi program; the U.S. trade gap with Mexico is growing larger and Amazon faces a carrier lawsuit for refusing to pay shipping fees.
The Republican health care bill has received both criticism and applause from a divided nation. But what does it do for trucking? Well, like the rest of the nation, that may depend on what side of the industry you are on.
To highlight the impact weather can have on trucking, and to highlight their new partnership, TransFX, which is seeking to offer trucking freight futures contracts, and Riskpulse, a supply chain risk analytics firm, have produced an infographic that provides a few surprising facts about weather-related delays.
With weather delays costing the trucking industry as much as $3.5 billion yearly, the impact is enormous, especially on shipping rates. TransFX is seeking to offer trucking futures contracts to help brokers, carriers and shippers better manager their exposure to volatile rates. As part of that effort, it has tapped into the expertise of Riskpulse, a leading supply chain risk analytics firm.
Whether you are a large or small trucking company, or even a driver, there is a lot to like about President Donald Trump’s proposed tax plan, even if many of the specifics are lacking at this point.
President Donald Trump’s decision to place softwood lumber tariffs on Canada this week might be an indication that the administration is set for a reset on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It is a gamble that potentially puts billions of dollars in NAFTA trade shipments at risk – much of it hauled by trucks.
Is the trucking industry over-regulated? Good luck finding anyone in the industry that would say no. But ask which regulations should be repealed and chances are each one will be mentioned at least once. But will repealing regulations actually make the industry safer?
This Week in Trucking, President Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan is hitting some bumps in the road; economic indicators continue to favor improving conditions for the nation’s trucking fleets and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is making a last-ditch effort to stop the upcoming ELD mandate.
A futures market will react to the underlying fundamentals of its physical market because in the end, the futures price is linked to the physical market. But, the opposite is also true. A physical market can look to a futures market for transparency and guidance on rate structure. A developing trucking freight futures market might be the answer to solving these industry issues.
The upcoming electronic logging device (ELD) rule is a great example of the type of mandated technological change coming to the trucking industry, and yet it serves as a great reminder of the importance to perform due diligence before adopting such technologies.
Unlike some technologies, blockchain technology is not likely to displace many workers in the trucking industry. It does promise, however, to streamline financial operations and compliance reporting to make those operations more seamless, potentially saving fleets tens of thousands of dollars.
Once a disparate group of entities, the modern supply chain is becoming more akin to a well-oiled machine thanks to technological advances. As it becomes more digitized, the business case for blockchain technology becomes more powerful.
“The potential here is phenomenal. The match between what blockchain offers and the industry pain points is incredible,” says Bridget McDermott, vice president of Blockchain Business Development for IBM. So what exactly is blockchain?
Blockchain is a relatively new term used to describe a series of distributed databases that act as a tamper-proof, verifiable ledger. As with any new technology, blockchain has its own terminology. Here is a listing of some of the most important terms and their meanings.
As many drivers and small fleets worry about the impact on productivity and cost with the upcoming mandate to install electronic logging devices, one overlooked aspect is what impact ELDs will have on their insurance rates.
Amazingly, there’s one area of the country where more than 80% of the nation’s freight travels through on its way to its final destination. It’s not Chicago, New York or Dallas. It’s not even in the center of the U.S. Meet Freight Alley.
Weather disruptions such as Winter Storm Stella that is dumping up to 2 feet of snow on the Northeast today can have a ripple effect throughout the supply chain, driving up rates as freight pickups and deliveries are delayed and cancelled.
The required implementation of electronic logging devices later this year has created plenty of worry within industry circles. Beyond the logistics of installing the devices, though, carriers and shippers need to be worried about the business impact: specifically lost productivity and rising rates.
Those on both sides of the freight business have struggled for years with volatile shipping rates. Contracts get locked in for months or more with no assurance that the contract will reflect current prices when loads are delivered. TransVix believes part of the solution to this problem is the creation of a Trucking Futures Exchange.
Steve Sashihara, CEO of Princeton Consultants, recently spoke about disruptive technologies and Big Data in the transportation space. Here are 9 areas of impact he identified. Each slide represents the belief that industry stakeholders surveyed have in digital disruption. (Click the arrow to scroll through).
As transportation providers begin reporting their earnings for the 4th quarter, a common theme is developing – while profits are down slightly, the outlook for 2017 remains positive.
