Truck brokers

Total Quality Logistics increased total revenue 31.3 percent in 2014 to $2.1 billion as the U.S. economy grew faster and shippers came up short on truck capacity.

ABF Logistics, a subsidiary of transportation holding group ArcBest, expanded by acquiring truckload brokerage Smart Lines.

Truckload carriers are increasingly optimistic about 2015, with 76 percent expecting freight volumes to increase and 86 percent forecasting higher rates, according to a Transport Capital Partners survey.

USA Truck is opening a brokerage office in Jacksonville, Florida and expanding its Chicago presence as shippers seek additional truck capacity.

The likelihood that truck drivers will have different hours of service rules next year is increasing, as Congress wraps language that will change suspend some 2013 HOS changes into its $1 trillion spending bill.

The proposed acquisition of truck brokerage Freightquote.com is much more than attempt by C.H. Robinson to gain more business or e-commerce sales; the $365 million deal underscores and perhaps accelerates a major change in the U.S. less-than-truckload market.

The U.S. trucking industry is committing to hire 100,000 military veterans over the next two years to fight a shortage of truck drivers as the military begins to reduce the number of active service members.

The largest U.S. freight broker, $12.8 billion C.H. Robinson Worldwide, is buying one of the largest Internet-based truck freight brokers, Freightquote.com. The $365 million cash deal will open new opportunities for C.H. Robinson in e-commerce and less-than-truckload markets.

Spot market dry van truck rates in the U.S. rose in the week that ended Nov. 22 and are more than 9 percent higher than in the same week a year ago, DAT Solutions said.

Collaboration, cooked with perspiration and flavored by imagination with a dash of desperation, is the main course being served at the National Industrial Transportation League’s annual conference and TransComp Exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Logistics provider Transplace is building up its chemical business by acquiring Logistics Management Solutions, a 3PL with a strong chemicals customer base.

The third quarter was 'transformational' for XPO Logistics, CEO Bradley S. Jacobs says. The question now is, will freight activity get even hotter in the fourth quarter?

After declining for two weeks, the DAT Solutions national average spot market rates for dry van and flatbed truckloads moved up in the first days of October, propelled by higher freight demand.

Spot market truckload rates for dry van equipment dropped for the second straight week last week, but flatbed and refrigerated rates stayed stable, DAT Solutions said

Advances in technology and shipper demand are leading trucking companies toward the 'connected enterprise' and closer ties to customer supply chains.

Fast-growing third-party logistics companies are tuning into and tapping broad trends driving logistics growth in the U.S. and globally, including increased cross-border trade and the expansion of intermodal rail. Here are seven trends picked by XPO Logistics CEO Bradley S. Jacobs.

Transportation analysts hailed the $700 million investment XPO Logistics won from three global funds yesterday. The question, they said, is what XPO will buy with that money.

Three global funds will invest $700 million in XPO Logistics, accelerating the fast-growing company's acquisition plans for 2014.

XPO Logistics will add more than half a billion dollars in revenue to its top line by acquiring New Breed Logistics for approximately $615 million.

The U.S. freight economy is humming in June. Rising industrial demand is colliding with tight truckload capacity, sending spot market truck rates rising.

Echo Global Logistics’ $37.3 million acquisition of the Watsonville, California-based transportation brokerage firm One Stop Logistics this week is expected to help the third-party logistics provider increase its domestic less-than-truckload brokerage business.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Technology similar to Uber and other apps that allow big-city users to call a taxi or black sedan with their smartphones could soon hit the U.S. trucking industry, potentially displacing freight brokers that fail to adapt, a senior equity research analyst warned on April 12.

The 50 largest U.S. trucking companies raised their combined revenue 5.5 percent last year to $106.6 billion, but expanded at a slower pace than in 2012.

A national standard of care is needed to give freight brokers guidelines on how to use federal CSA safety data when contracting carriers, the Transportation Intermediaries Association says.

With truckload capacity tight across the U.S., carriers are rethinking their rate expectations for 2014, preparing for higher price hikes, a first quarter Transport Capital Partners survey shows.

Encouraged by signs of a stronger U.S. economy and recent acquisitions, XPO Logistics is raising its revenue run rate target for 2014 to $2.75 billion, almost triple the $1 billion run rate the company achieved in 2013.

Shippers aren't convinced 2014 will bring a truckload “capacity crunch" and don't expect rates to rise that much. Carriers have a different view, based on increasing freight demand and rising costs.

Shippers must be more proactive to mitigate rate increases, meet truck capacity and supply chain challenges in 2014, says Andy Moses, senior vice president of global products at Penske Logistics.

Shippers that were complacent about reports of tightening truck capacity in 2013 could be in for a shock this year, especially if weaknesses in transportation networks exposed by this winter’s severe storms are taken as a warning sign.

Despite the noise from winter storms, holiday backlogs and an early Chinese New Year, there are signs that higher manufacturing activity is boosting freight demand and transport revenue, speakers say at SMC3's JumpStart 2014 conference.

Shippers have a new way to book less-than-truckload freight and compare LTL truck rates — an online LTL spot rate marketplace launched by uShip and 16 asset-based LTL carriers.

At a recent supply chain conference, Bradley S. Jacobs heard a “financially compelling” case for investing and doing business in his country from former Mexican President Felipe Calderón. “Mexico is positioning to chip into China’s status as one of our major trading partners,” said the chairman and CEO of XPO Logistics.

XPO Logistics is strengthening its expedited business and its technology infrastructure by acquiring two supply-chain subsidiaries from Landstar System, NLM and A3i.

XPO Logistics has acquired Optima Service Solutions for $26.6 million.

Recent acquisitions and strong in-house growth powered a 173.3 percent leap in total revenue at XPO Logistics to $194 million in the third quarter.

The acquisition of 3PD Holding by XPO Logistics seems a detour from the fast-growing logistics company’s relentless pursuit of truck freight brokerage business. But XPO Chairman and CEO Bradley S. Jacobs says 3PD, a last-mile delivery logistics operator, not only complements XPO’s freight brokerage business but will open new routes deeper into shipper customer supply chains.

Transportation group PTA Holdings plans to acquire a Midwestern intermodal trucking company, the company said July 22.

XPO Logistics has agreed to pay $365 million to acquire all of the common stock of 3PD, a non-asset, third-party provider of heavy goods, last-mile logistics in North America.

Though focused on building XPO Logistics' truck brokerage business, CEO Bradley S. Jacobs hasn't ignored the company's Express-1 division, the fifth-largest expedited trucking company.