Truckload

A stronger manufacturing recovery is needed to increase demand in both the truckload and LTL sectors, speakers said during a Journal of Commerce webcast.

Some freight brokers are increasing the number of loads they can book per day with software that automates repetitive components of the booking process.

Freight marketplaces report a new storm-related surge in spot volume, lifting transactional pricing as trucking heads toward its peak holiday season.

The truckload spot market is cooling after a surge in rates and volume, but seasonality is expected to give it another boost as year-end holidays approach.

As damage from Helene and Milton is being tallied, logistics experts say the storms won’t do much to accelerate spot and contract truckload pricing in the long term.

Following Hurricane Helene by less than two weeks, Milton will draw more truck capacity to the Southeast, upsetting market balance and pushing spot prices higher.

Although ongoing softness in the US freight economy is tempering forecasts for higher truck pricing, both truckload and less-than-truckload carriers expect pricing gains next year.

Shipping executives say domestic intermodal rates are set for a rise as trucking pricing expands, but they’re not expecting significant increases.

The US economy will grow in 2025, but not by leaps and bounds, with consumer spending forecast to drop while freight rates rise, according to speakers at the Journal of Commerce Inland Distribution Conference 2024 (Inland24).

Recovery efforts are barely under way after a deadly and destructive storm ripped through several southern states, but reconstruction will draw on truckload supply nationwide.

GenLogs, a technology provider aiming to help US brokers track trucks, uses a network of roadside sensors to passively collect truckload carrier locations.

Brokers looking to tap into the booming US-Mexico trade now have a tool to serve shipper requests to handle cross-border truckload moves.

Higher-than-expected retail sales in stores and online last month helped increase truckload shipments, but excess capacity is keeping rates in a holding pattern.

Shipper-paid spot truckload rates out of Southern California rose 6 cents per mile in August from July, despite the national shipper-paid spot rate average falling 6 cents during the same period.

Post-Labor Day retail demand is tightening capacity in key distribution markets, but overall demand is depressed, partly because of a slowdown in manufacturing.

Investors have put $6.3 million into a startup aiming to provide a procurement and transportation management software alternative to enterprise-focused solutions.

Disruption to inland supply lanes and the location of truck capacity would be possible if rail and port strike threats prove real, analysts told a Journal of Commerce webcast.

Producer price indexes and the Cass Freight Index show slight increases in truck pricing and volumes in July, but not a rapid turnaround.

Despite the nearly $140 billion invested in logistics startups globally from 2012 through 2023, most of the industry’s major inefficiencies remain and the underlying structure of the industry has hardly changed.

Economic indicators and mid-year reports show contract truckload rates still trending downward, with a truckload recovery proving to be slow going.

The return of seasonality, tender rejections and an end to discounting all hint at a coming uptick in truckload demand in the second half of the year and higher rates next year, the largest US truckload operator says.

Demand fundamentals do not signal a substantial uptick in trucking volumes for the second half of the year, meaning a strong bull market pricing cycle will have to wait, writes analyst Jason Miller.

The company believes shippers will benefit from a payments network it has created to help brokers and carriers bill shippers accurately before an invoice is sent out.

Speakers at the SMC3 Connections Conference this week warned that US truckload pricing will rise slowly heading toward 2025, although others expect a faster move.

The $1.025 billion acquisition gives RXO growth not otherwise available in a weakened brokerage market and narrows UPS’s focus to package deliveries.

The average US transactional dry-van truckload rate rose “a fraction” above its year-ago level Wednesday, following strong year-over-year gains in spot market volumes, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.

Despite a 7.1% unadjusted month-to-month increase in mostly contractual truck tonnage, more data is needed before the American Trucking Associations will call it a “recovery.”

Produce shipments by weight have dropped in 2024, and that’s helped maintain “adequate” truckload capacity in most parts of the US, the Department of Agriculture said.

This year’s truckload spot rates are hugging the baseline set in 2023 as the freight recession drags on; a major increase seems unlikely anytime soon.

The preliminary agreement avoids a strike that could have created traffic jams along the US-Canada border, disrupting trade and manufacturing. 

Shippers need to consider contingency plans for truck shipments crossing the US-Canadian border in case Canada’s Customs and Immigration Union calls a strike this week.

Last month’s actual trucking employment gain was lower than expected as the US economy added more jobs in service industries such as hospitality and healthcare. 

One of the first “digital-native” brokerages, Transfix is shifting its focus to selling software as a service to other brokers, including NFI.

The post-pandemic resilience of small fleets has been attributed in part to driver reliance on apps such as the one Convoy built, which Flexport purchased last November.

Amid growing interest in making the truckload appointment scheduling process more efficient, the US visibility provider has added weight to an initiative started in late 2022.

US shippers are playing a direct role in keeping the for-hire truck market soft as they tactically shift freight to in-house fleets, according to Cass Freight Index.

Amid a range of efforts to automate and standardize truckload appointments, a new provider has launched a neutral platform to reduce manual work and errors associated with the process.

Average US truckload pricing has hardly risen since last June, while less-than-truckload costs continue to climb due to tighter capacity.

Increased negative sentiment toward inventory growth among surveyed shippers points to “no-build-and-hold” leaner inventory strategies that would dull freight demand.

The Journal of Commerce Truckload Capacity Index dropped to its lowest level since 2017 as large truckload carriers cut trucks loose, but excess capacity remains.