Trucking labor

The pace of hiring at US for-hire trucking companies continues to slow as low unemployment and alternative work challenge recruiters.

Seven of the top 10 critical issues facing trucking directly involve truck drivers, with pay and detention joining the American Transportation Research Institute’s annual list.

YRC Worldwide achieved its latest labor goal, another step toward its long-term recovery plan.

The driver shortage has diminished, but not disappeared, the American Trucking Associations says. Demographics, freight demand, and pay are the key issues.

Negotiations this week will attempt to cool the tensions building among freelance truckers in Brazil, who are unhappy with new minimum rates the government attempted to implement.

The FMCSA is seeking comments on plans for a second pilot program testing whether 18- to 20-year-olds should drive trucks in interstate commerce.

Leandro Carelli Barreto, a director for consulting firm Solve Shipping, tells JOC.com recent concessions granted to truck drivers don’t address underlying overcapacity.

Virginia port truck drivers sent a letter last week asking operators to pay higher rates when Norfolk-area terminals are congested, but trucking companies say they already do.

A 20-point second-half drop in driver turnover rates at large truckload carriers indicates aggressive wage increases attracted drivers in 2018, helping to reset capacity in the trucking market.

Warehousing and storage companies increased employment a healthy 7 percent in February, outpacing overall US employment growth of 1.6 percent.

The DOT OIG's audit of FMCSA medical certification procedures and examiners is one example of how federal regulators are cracking down on truck and bus drivers in an effort to keep unqualified drivers off the road and reduce accidents and fatalities.

Brazil’s new administration is treading carefully but firmly in handling truck and port labor disputes that have bubbled since Jair Bolsonaro took office as president in January.

Flatbed and specialized trucking carrier Daseke is testing a new driver pay program that includes a base salary, plus mileage, and safety bonuses in an effort to attract and retain top talent.

Even owner-operators work under ‘contracts of employment,’ the US Supreme Court said, which means claims of misclassification, ‘stolen wages,’ can’t be forced into arbitration.

For the first time in a decade, LTL operator YRC Worldwide enters contract talks without an existential threat to its survival looming.

Trucking companies want Ontario to allow overseas recruitment of truck drivers; the union says raise wages.

Even with a US recovery in its 10th year, the transportation and warehouse sectors continue to register strong monthly job growth.

With competition for truck drivers strong, firms are deploying new tactics to recruit talent.

The battle for truck drivers will determine who gets truck capacity in 2019 and at what price.

The FMCSA published 10 decisions rejecting petitions for ELD exemptions Friday, a sign the agency has drawn a sharp line when it comes to pleas for relief from the year-old rule. Instead, expect more focus on the hours of service rules themselves.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) shippers must scramble to find alternatives and anticipate higher pricing, as UPS Freight stops taking freight ahead of a Teamster vote on its ‘last, best, final’ contract offer. Freight is unlikely to be stranded, but it will probably move at a premium, as LTL carriers prioritize freight from existing customers.

For shippers, the results of the latest vote on a Teamsters union contract at UPS were nothing if not confusing. But don’t panic. There’s little chance the wheels will stop turning at UPS or UPS Freight.

The port authority, after discussions with rule-implementer the New Jersey Department of Labor, is disseminating detailed information to truckers on the new rules, which the authority believes will have little impact on the drayage fleet and won’t affect many truckers.

Tuesday’s job actions prompted an exchange of charges among the parties. The current round of picketing that began on Monday is expected to continue at least through Wednesday.

The job actions were organized by Justice for Port Drivers, which is affiliated with the Teamsters union. A Teamsters spokesperson said picketing is scheduled to continue at least through Wednesday over 200 miles stretching from the Southern California desert to the Mexico border.

Justice for Port Drivers, a Teamsters-sponsored group that has promoted picketing and other job actions over the past five years, will participate in job actions at the ports, two motor carrier facilities, warehouses, and rail yards beginning Monday morning.

Shippers and business groups argue the current truckers’ freight rate table is too generous and would increase shipper costs and retail prices by double digits. The truckers’ union wants a fair rate table and said it will strike again if it is not obtained.

The suspension decision was implemented after delegates from the National Sindifisco and a politician close to Brazilian President Michel Temer reached an agreement.

Although the truck strike has ended, Brazil’s transportation bottlenecks need a bigger government and private sector fix.

Shippers in Argentina, hit Friday by a one-day customs officers' strike in Buenos Aires, had breathed a momentary sigh of relief this week, after truck drivers accepted a 19 percent pay increase and did not strike.

By week’s end, truckers are expected to go on strike and blockade Argentina’s main arteries to secure a 27 percent pay increase, which union leaders claim is necessary to cover the nation's inflation rate.

The China head of a global logistics provider said that a number of local less-than-truckload drivers in Anhui and Jiangxi provinces called for a boycott of a trucking platform provider over mismanagement of their capacity.

There are many issues on the bargaining table, and no single overriding issue this year, though the Sunday delivery issue comes close. Shippers, coping with tight US surface transportation, are hoping for a constructive outcome. "This isn’t something we need right now,” one shipper said.

Shippers that send cargo through the Port of New York and New Jersey may want to monitor the outcome of the debate over how a truck driver is defined — as an independent contractor or an employee — to determine whether a trucking group is correct that a change in the regulations could diminish the drayage service at the port.

The truckers' strike is already affecting terminal productivity, according to gate move statistics.

Along with an increase in transport demand from the strengthening US and global economies, the truck transport capacity gap is being widened by a shortage of drivers. But can the sector raise wages enough to compete with the construction and oil/energy services sectors?

Beneficial cargo owners who contract with XPO for drayage will closely watch a class-action misclassification lawsuit in Los Angeles seeking wages, damages, and a permanent injunction preventing XPO from classifying drivers as independent contractors.

Changing the hours-of-service rules could give US truckers more flexibility or mask shipper inefficiencies.

Expected and unexpected challenges have marked the start of the electronic logging device mandate era — magnifying shipper concerns about inadequate truck capacity and rising rates.

An unexpected diversion of freight to rails in the wake of last year's hurricanes will cost the trucking company.