Trucking labor

Transportation and warehousing businesses added 23,000 jobs in September, mostly in transit and passenger transportation, as total nonfarm employment increased by 148,000 jobs, the U.S. Labor Department said on Oct. 22.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has mailed ballots to authorize a strike against ABF Freight System by its employees covered under the Central Region Local Cartage supplement.

Economic growth remains sluggish, but those sectors that are doing well — housing, automobile sales, manufacturing and energy — are big generators of freight for motor carriers, according to Bob Costello, chief economist and vice president of the American Trucking Associations.

Schneider National CEO Chris Lofgren says shippers, trucking companies "must come to grips" with truck driver pay, address growing pay gap with average U.S. wages.

New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie has vetoed the Truck Operator Independent Contractor Act, which would have reclassified port truckers and parcel delivery truckers as employees...

A faster-paced economy wasn't evident in the August employment numbers for freight transportation industries.

The nation’s largest refrigerated truckload carrier is raising pay for company drivers and owner-operators following a “stronger fiscal performance.”

Marine terminal gates at the Port of Oakland were beginning to reopen at noon Monday following a morning-long blockade by owner-operator truck drivers protesting slow turn times at marine terminals.

The latest changes to the truck driver hours of service rules are being challenged by a congressman from New York.

ABF Freight System and the Teamsters union extended their current contract through Aug. 31, as the less-than-truckload carrier and union work on supplemental agreements rejected last month by ABF’s Teamster employees.

Buoyed by stronger confidence in business trends, truckload carriers plan to add capacity — but not too much capacity, according to a second quarter survey.

Truck drivers now have a narrow time window to hit if they want to actually use the 34-hour restart provision of new hours of service rules within 34 hours. Unless they go off duty between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. at the end of their week, the restart becomes a much longer layover.

The turnover rate at large and small truckload carriers rose as a result of the improving economy and continued competition for well-trained, professional drivers...

Trucking companies may have to hire as many as 60,000 additional drivers in the second half of 2013 to compensate for constraints on productivity from new hours of service rules that took effect July 1, according to FTR Associates.

As temperatures rise, truck drivers hauling livestock will get a 90-day reprieve from a 30-minute rest break provision of the new hours of service rules. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said July 8 it will grant the temporary exemption “to ensure the well-being of the nation’s livestock” during transport.

Starting July 1, truck drivers and motor carriers must comply with new federal regulations that are likely to cut the number of hours many drivers spend behind the wheel each day and week or risk high fines and civil penalties.

UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters extended their existing contract and supplements as they prepare for talks over several supplements rejected by union members.

Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have voted to approve a national master agreement with ABF Freight System, Inc., although some local/area supplemental agreements were rejected.

UPS has a new national master package contract, but Teamsters in many regions threw up roadblocks by voting down key supplemental agreements and a UPS Freight contract, forcing a new round of negotiations.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ union members at UPS Freight, UPS’s less-than-truckload unit, have voted to reject a five-year contract proposal that was already approved by the company and union leadership.

Truck owners in Russia are threatening to set up road blocks to protest new fees for 12-ton trucks using federal roads, The Moscow Times reports.

Employment in transportation and warehousing climbed 1.4 percent in May, as the U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has requested a rehearing on its challenge to the Department of Transportation’s cross-border trucking program between the U.S. and Mexico.

Federal regulators are preparing an in-depth survey on whether electronic onboard devices used to record truck driver hours of service could be used by motor carriers to harass tired drivers, asking how to prevent potential abuse of the technology.

The leaders of about 160 Teamster locals approved a multiyear contract with ABF Freight System that will cut wages 7 percent in the first year of the contract.

The New Jersey General Assembly approved a bill to create a presumption that drayage and parcel delivery drivers are employees instead of independent contractors, but the legislation appears unlikely to become law.

Legislation to classify port drayage owner-operators as company employees has stalled in the New Jersey General Assembly.

UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have reached a tentative agreement on two new five-year contracts for package and freight workers.

YRC Worldwide and its mechanics may have dodged a bullet by reaching a tentative contract agreement and avoiding a potentially costly and disruptive lockout.

YRC Worldwide reached a tentative contract agreement with the International Association of Machinists, avoiding a potentially disruptive lockout of about 200 mechanics at several YRC Freight and Holland terminals.

The seemingly endless debate over truck driver hours of service stretches back to the 1930s and includes five rulemakings and four final rules issued since 1995. Explore the history of today's 11/14-hour HOS rule.

There’s been no shortage of market-defining action in the first three months of 2013. Who's up and who's down?

As ABF and the Teamsters union resume talks April under a contract extension and head for an April 10 day in court, one analyst warns shippers to plan for all contingencies.