Trucking labor

Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute will undertake a key study that could determine the future of truck driver hours of service rules in the U.S.

The annualized driver turnover rate at large truckload carriers rose to 97 percent in the third quarter, despite the efforts of some carriers to keep drivers by raising pay.

The largest U.S. truckload carrier could add 700 to 1,100 trucks this year, if higher rates, higher freight demand and higher pay keep drivers in truck cabs.

Congestion and delays at U.S. West Coast ports meant UPS had to scramble to get containerized goods into its inland delivery network and to customers. Higher purchased transportation costs were a factor in lower fourth-quarter earnings.

The Teamsters union suffered a pair of setbacks this week in its drive to organize FedEx Freight, the largest U.S. less-than-truckload carrier.

Fresh fruit and vegetable will continue to flow through a major New York produce terminal if the Teamsters approve a new proposal for a three-year contract with Hunts Point employers.

Efforts to unionize owner-operator drivers in the New Jersey could get a boost from a state Supreme Court ruling that limits companies’ ability to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

Twenty-five years after a consent decree settling a federal racketeering lawsuit reshaped the Teamsters union, the government agreed to phase out direct oversight of union affairs.

Warnings about U.S. truck driver shortages are on the verge of coming true, Robert Voltmann, president and CEO of the Transportation Intermediaries Association, told JOC.com.

For-hire trucking companies tracked by the Labor Department hired 7,300 employees in December, capping a year-end hiring surge.

With a big wave of orders for new model trucks and strong U.S. economic growth, a scarcity of truck drivers is now the biggest check on trucking growth and any plans to add capacity.

It’s not clear how many rules the FMCSA will be able to complete in the last two years of the Obama administration, and rules on driver coercion and electronic logging are likely to be challenged in Congress or in court — which could delay their implementation.

An American Trucking Associations survey of 130 trucking companies places median truck driver pay in a range from $46,000 to $73,000 a year, depending on the type of company they work for and freight they haul.

Con-way Freight workers in Miami Lakes, Florida, voted to join the Teamsters union, making their facility the third in Con-way's LTL network to go union. Three other terminals have rejected the Teamsters.

Regional LTL carrier Holland commits to hiring 500 veterans, seeking drivers and other workers as the U.S. military reduces its overseas forces.

Labor organizations and retiree advocates are attacking a proposed amendment to the $1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would let troubled multiemployer pension plans cut benefits to vested retirees.

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.

An amendment that would suspend the current 34-hour restart provision in the truck driver hours of service rules pending further study is buried deep within the omnibus spending bill being crafted by Congress. Will it survive as Congress struggles to pass spending legislation before midnight Dec. 12 to avoid a government shutdown?

Midsize trucking companies are increasingly bullish on the economic outlook and their ability to hire new employees, including drivers, in 2015, according to GE Capital Transportation Services.

Trucking employment jumped 2.5 percent from a year ago last month, riding the biggest wave of hiring in the U.S. economy in three years and pushing the JOC For-Hire Trucking Employment Index up to 98.3, the highest reading for the index since late 2007.

The Teamsters union drive to organize FedEx Freight, the largest U.S. less-than-truckload carrier is hitting a few roadblocks. The union withdrew an election petition at the less-than-truckload carrier’s Nashville, Tennessee, terminal this week.

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.

U.S. shippers dependent on congested ports face a tough year ahead, FTR Associates says. But that doesn't mean 2015 will be easy — or cheap — for anyone shipping freight in the U.S.

Recent case law involving the independent contractor model in trucking indicates that companies must cover all bases in order to convince the courts and government agencies that owner-operator drivers are not direct employees, a Southern California attorney told the Harbor Transportation Club this week.

A Teamsters-affiliated group in Southern California on Friday said it halted picketing that began this week at facilities operated byPacer ACartage, Harbor Rail Transport, LACA Express, QTS and WinWin Logistics.

A Teamsters union election for drivers at a FedEx Freight terminal in Richmond, Virginia, has been canceled, the third election withdrawal in three weeks.

The Port of Long Beach today will be the focus of attention by a Teamsters-affiliated group that is attempting to organize drayage drivers in Southern California.

Employees at a Con-Way Freight facility in Manchester, New Hampshire, yesterday rejected calls to join the Teamsters union in National Labor Relations Board.

Road and city drivers at a FedEx Freight terminal in Newark, N.J., voted against joining the Teamsters union — the second victory for FedEx Freight in four elections.

Truck turn times at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex have increased more than 30 percent since last year, according to statistics provided by the Harbor Trucking Association to JOC.com, a result of crisis-level congestion.

The JOC For-Hire Trucking Employment Index rose 0.3 percentage points to 98.1 in October, as hiring boosted trucking payrolls to levels not seen since December 2007.

The Teamsters union won a representation election at a New Jersey FedEx Freight terminal Oct. 31, but called off another vote at a less-than-truckload terminal in Pennsylvania.

One of trucking’s fastest-growing segments, dedicated contract carriage, is feeling the same driver shortages that are hammering other parts of the industry.

LONG BEACH — A Los Angeles-Long Beach port truck driver who said she was misclassified as an independent contractor was awarded a check for $9,000 in unemployment benefits by the California Employment Development Department this week, giving Teamsters fuel in their campaign to organize local drayage drivers.

Employees at two Con-way Freight terminals in Southern California rejected the Teamsters while those at another voted for the union. The company could face more elections.

A senior executive of XPO Logistics, one of the largest and fastest growing U.S. third-party logistics providers, says the company sees potential in driverless trucks and is closely following advancements in the technology.

British freight forwarders and shippers are struggling with a trans-Atlantic problem: a shortage of skilled truck drivers.

Federal regulators will spend $1 million to help U.S. military veterans train for careers behind the wheel and alleviate what trucking companies say is a growing shortage of skilled drivers.

The Harbor Trucking Association will explore the possibility of filing a class action lawsuit against the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland as congestion worsens at the California ports, the association announced today.