Zach Strickland fills in for Kevin Hill and takes a look at the pre-Thanksgiving freight markets with Michael Vincent
Headlines with Andrew Cox
General Motors has changed its stance on California’s fuel economy rules, choosing to align with the Biden administration instead of fighting for the rollback of emissions regulations supported by President Trump.
Autonomous truck company TuSimple has raised $350 million through a Series E startup fund supported by the same backers of the Nikola SPAC. TuSimple intends to start selling shares via a traditional IPO and has the goal of having fully autonomous trucks on the roads by 2021.
J. J. Keller & Associates has been granted the ability to mount dashcams lower on the dashboard, despite driver concerns about privacy and obstructive views. The exemption is good until Nov. 24, 2025.
Multiple maritime carriers are seeing massive growth in revenue through Q3, with French carrier CMA CGM reporting a 1,160% growth from Q3 in 2019.
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SONAR market update with Zach Strickland
There is a big shift in freight markets across the country with busy markets moving from west to east.
Strickland said there is more freight being spread out across the East Coast, driving down volume from Los Angeles and other West Coast markets.
Economy update with Anthony Smith
Consumer confidence has seen a slight tick down to 96, which coincides with the uptick in initial jobless claims as reported last week.
Retail is slowing down on a year-to-year basis but is still trending steady on a month-to-month basis.
“There’s still growth, but it’s not as fast,” said Strickland.
Vincent asked how presidential administration changes affect consumer sentiment and Strickland replied, “I don’t know if the party line influences the consumer as much as it does businesses.”
Ocean market update with Chris Richards
Chris Richards, international sales manager with Steam Logistics, talked about ocean carrier rates and a lack of space for ocean freight moving on the trans-Pacific.
Richards said maritime carriers are keeping rates high for longer than usual simply because the demand is so high.
He also talked about how capacity and space issues for shipped goods are continuing due to lack of available shipping containers.
Return of the Boeing 737 MAX supporting air cargo
FreightWaves air cargo editor Eric Kulisch joined the show to discuss the slight dip of air cargo traffic despite a growth in revenue and yield.
He also talked about Alaska Airlines being the first airline to add the Boeing 737 MAX into its fleet and how the approval to fly again impacts the freighter market.
You can find more Midday Market Update recaps and recaps for all our shows here.