The Daily Dash: Daimler’s product news, BMO’s earnings

The Daily Dash is a quick look at what is happening in the freight ecosystem. In today’s edition, we highlight a big announcement by Daimler, significant money raised by an insurtech startup and another encouraging sign for the future.

Building medium-duty engines

Cummins Inc. announced it will build a medium-duty engine plant within a Daimler Trucks Mannheim complex in Germany to localize medium-duty engines that comply with the Euro VII emissions. It is the first major product announcement since Daimler AG said Feb. 3 that it would split off trucks and buses into a publicly traded stand-alone company. Alan Adler has the details: Cummins will build medium-duty engines for Daimler Trucks

Startup raises $4.5 million

Koffie Labs, a New York City-based insurtech startup focusing on commercial motor vehicle insurance, has raised $4.5 million in two seed funding rounds led by Anthemis Group and Lerer Hippeau. Koffie Labs was born out of a simple fact about commercial vehicle insurance: It keeps getting more expensive for truckers, but it still isn’t profitable for insurers. John Paul Hampstead with more: Koffie Labs raises $4.5M to transform trucking carrier insurance

Lavalle buys automotive parts hauler

Lavalle Transportation buys shuttered Rush Trucking

After news that Rush Trucking had shuttered operations, a Lavalle Transportation employee confirmed to FreightWaves that the automotive parts hauler had been sold in December to rival carrier Lavalle. Clarissa Hawes with the story: Lavalle Transportation buys shuttered Rush Trucking

Another positive sign

The quarterly earnings of BMO showed that the financial condition of the trucking market is continuing to get healthy. BMO, the former Bank of Montreal, is a leading lender to the transportation sector. John Kingston with all the numbers: BMO’s transportation sector numbers are strong