The Daily Dash is a quick look at what’s happening in the freight ecosystem. In today’s edition, we highlight the Postal Service’s reaction to increased package delivery demands, a conversation with Nikola’s CEO and more.
The High Five
1. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers that the U.S. Postal Service needs to make significant changes if it hopes to survive — and the biggest of those likely will be further adjusting to consumers’ growing appetite for package delivery. John Gallagher from Washington: Postal Service earmarking $40B to boost share of package market
2. At UPS, a project aimed at cutting one day from transit times for all its U.S. ground parcel deliveries has been dubbed “Our Fastest Ground Ever.” It is indeed an ambitious endeavor to merge UPS’ network infrastructure and technology to shrink the time between pickup and delivery of 15 million or so daily shipments. Mark Solomon with the details: UPS needs to play weekend warrior to catch FedEx
3. Now that it can buy cheap electricity to make hydrogen in Arizona, Nikola Corp. no longer needs fueling station partners who balked after the startup’s months of distractions and ongoing federal probes into fraudulent claims. “Things are changing,” Nikola CEO Mark Russell told FreightWaves. Alan Adler has more: No partners, no problem: Nikola may do hydrogen stations solo
4. Former trucking company owner Michael Chaves was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty last year to falsifying government records, aggravated identity theft, bank and wire fraud, and tax evasion. Chaves also was ordered to pay restitution to Amazon for an alleged package return scam that bilked the company out of more than $640,000. John Gallagher with the story. Former auto hauler sentenced to 30 months for faking FMCSA records
5. In a move that had numerous precursors to its ultimate implementation, the Biden administration has formally withdrawn a Trump administration rule on the definition of independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act. John Kingston has the news: Biden administration kills Trump rule on independent contractor classification
Five more to check out
GM extends auto plant closures due to chip shortage
111 people found in tractor-trailers during smuggling attempts in Texas
Molson Coors says cyberattack hits shipments, brewery operations
PPP money flowing to transportation, warehousing at same rate as before