Truckload

The pandemic-inspired shift to online shopping will have lasting effects on shippers’ transportation choices, according to the CSCMP State of Logistics Report.

Payroll Protection Program loans could keep struggling small trucking companies in business, and prevent a truck capacity crunch shippers fear — if enough carriers apply for them.

This month’s seasonal burst of truck freight shipping is expected to fade after Independence Day, putting more pressure on small trucking operators struggling to stay on the road.

The addition of Gusgo Transport to its operating subsidiaries gives TFI deeper access to international containerized freight moving between the US and Canada.

Economists with American Trucking Associations believe the US economy will contract this year at the highest rate since 1946, and that although numbers will look much better in the second half of 2020, it will be another 12 months until markets return to pre-COVID pandemic levels.

Lower fuel prices are helping small trucking businesses survive the worst economy since the 1930s, according to Donald Broughton, which means shippers may find more truck capacity and less pricing pressure than expected this fall.

After spiking in March owing to increased demand for essential goods amid the COVID-19 pandemic, truck detention has receded but remains a disruptive factor for truckers that can backfire on shippers when capacity is needed.

Spot truckload rates are inching up as the reopening of many businesses shifts cargo, and capacity, to the contract market. That’s tightening spot capacity as loads increase.

Produce shipments from western and southern US states provoked a refrigerated spot rate spike in May, and some truck shortages in California.

Tightening truck capacity will collide with rising freight demand by 2021, flipping pricing power back to truckers next year, Coyote Logistics predicts, but consumer behavior is a wild card.

The JOC Truckload Capacity Index indicates large US carriers are making deeper cuts in their fleets after an unprecedented 10-quarter expansion in available capacity.

Comcar’s bankruptcy is a transfer rather than elimination of capacity, with new owners buying its subsidiaries and assets.

Produce season and the reopening of some states to business are beginning to jump-start truck demand and spur higher spot rates in some lanes, but a long recovery is forecast.

Regulators are expanding the area covered by the short-haul exemption to trucking hours of service rules, and that brings opportunities to drayage and e-commerce delivery carriers.

The new final US hours-of-service rule gives truckers more flexibility in how they use their daily hours, but shippers get a gift of capacity that could help extend their pricing power.

A new technology platform at Werner Enterprises is designed to break down communications barriers between the truckload carrier, its drivers, and customers, and automate more of the truck driver’s workflow.

With tensions on the rise, groups representing ocean carriers and truck companies are open to meeting to resolve their differences on chassis.

The recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has erased years of trucking employment gains, bringing payroll headcounts below 2006 levels, US data shows.

A survey by two US trucking organizations reveals a shift in capacity to shorter haul lanes as the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly changes trucking markets and the mix of freight.

Many US shippers and truckload carriers are putting off contract talks after the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted them in mid-stride.

Trucking companies large and small are focused on getting through the next month or two, after which they hope freight volumes will begin to recover. But that recovery may be a long one.

An American Transportation Research Institute analysis of vehicle location data across six states shows trucking activity plummeting 8 to 10 percent in April as the COVID-19 lockdown spread across the US.

Daimler and Volvo will combine efforts to develop hydrogen fuel-cell technology for heavy electric trucks to meet future emissions and shipper sustainability targets.

Job losses, damage to small business shippers, and diminished expectations for a fast restart for truck freight push pandemic recovery into 2021.

Detention is a problem for truckers in the best of times. It’s worse amid the pandemic as shippers handle high volumes with fewer dock and warehouse workers available.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services acknowledges a rough second quarter is ahead, while there’s much unknown about how severe the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on business conditions will be.

Although some hope for a strong restart for trucking within months, others believe a long, staggered recovery is more likely, thanks to layoffs and small business bankruptcies.

Freight and rates in the spot market are starting to fall after shooting up in March, as the shutdown of a large swathe of the US economy sidelines shipping.

Trucking companies need plans to keep their drivers healthy, financially whole, and on the road amid the coronavirus outbreak. They need plans for when they get sick, too.

With freight volumes expected to plunge over the next six months as the US falls into recession, shippers should remember their strategic trucking carriers and work together to weather the storm.

US trucking companies are preparing to brake hard once the current surge of essential freight fades. The loss of demand and capacity will complicate the eventual recovery.

Demand for essential goods and medical supplies is drawing truck capacity even as business shutdowns dry up other sources of freight, a trend that could result in displaced capacity.

Truck drivers can both drive and work beyond regulatory limits if they’re hauling essential goods during the COVID-19 pandemic, and shippers need to do whatever they can to make that easier.

The truck plant shutdowns follow a wave of broader automotive factory shutdowns the previous week, led by the big three automakers, Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, who were followed by Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen.

Spot truck rates are up about 5 percent since the end of February on demand for consumer staples, even as the US economy slows. Pricing may still be elevated when Chinese imports hit US ports and produce season puts the screws to US trucking capacity.

Truck capacity is being tightened in drive-thru-sized bites as restaurant and rest stop closings delay drivers.

As COVID-19 response unfolds, restricted business operating hours, potential closures could complicate deliveries, solidifying a soft trucking market.

DCLI has invested $80 million in upgrading chassis, including going to all-radial tires in Memphis and the Gulf Coast, a major benefit of controlling its own equipment rather than outsourcing to a cooperative, the company said.

Truck demand and spot rates are rising as consumers stockpile goods amid the spread of the coronavirus, but truckers worry about potential loss of work due to quarantines.

The forward truckload freight contract platform has raised $20 million in capital to fuel growing demand to connect shippers and carriers with a binding agreement that lets them focus on more variable supply and demand issues.