Trucking News

Truckload capacity is reportedly loosening, but carrier executives say it could tighten again quickly for US shippers in a market that remains in flux.

Seasonal trends in over-the-road trucking are re-emerging — but not pre-COVID pricing — as the market realigns, truckload carrier executives say.

Shelley Simpson, who has been behind the development of J.B. Hunt’s shipper portal and overseen double-digit growth in its trucking and intermodal units, will become the company’s president next month.

A shift of freight to contract trucking providers and rising fuel prices boosted shipper spending on trucking across the US in the second quarter, even though volumes fluctuated by region.

J.B. Hunt is in talks with primary rail partners BNSF Railway and Norfolk Southern Railway on how they can improve service in the second half of the year.

Marten Transport increased its driver pool by more than 15 percent year over year in the second quarter, as the truckload carrier and its competitors seek to balance capacity, freight demand, and profitability.

Retailers are beginning to pare back bloated inventories, but manufacturers are adding stock as they search for the elusive ‘golden screw.’

A 2.4 percent drop in the long-haul truckload producer price index for June shows contract truckload rates are softening, but prices shippers pay for LTL and specialized trucking continue to rise.

Tension is rising at the Port of Vancouver, where pending changes to the port’s clean truck program call for 5 percent of vehicles serving the port to be replaced by November.

The Cass Freight Index shows volatility in shipment volumes, rates, and modal mix with the US economy in a “soft patch” in June.

The US economy likely contracted in the second quarter, but analysts see signs of growing freight activity ahead.

For-hire US trucking companies have added more than 62,000 real jobs since April, a record number for the period fueled by continuing strong contract freight demand.

Truckload dry-van spot rates in California are likely to fall below 2020 and 2021 levels in the coming months, but prices on a historical basis will probably be slightly better than the pro-carrier market of 2018.

Small truckload fleets want access to online insurance quotes and coverage, which led low-cost transportation management software provider AscendTMS to partner with trucking insurance specialist CarrierHQ.

Pittsburgh-based Pitt Ohio is filling a gap in its regional map by acquiring Teal’s Express, a New York-based less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) transportation is more than it used to be, and that’s leading to acquisition and expansion in a US trucking sector that is slowly becoming more international in its focus.

CloudTrucks is arming small carriers that struggle to get access to traditional credit lines with a product that facilitates routine operational expenses like fuel and lumper payments.

Older container trucks serving the Port of Vancouver will begin to be phased out from mid-September as the port looks to replenish the fleet with cleaner-running vehicles.

Despite uncertainty over how implementation of AB5 will play out, California trucking executives say truck capacity in the state’s ports will not suddenly dry up with the peak-shipping season at hand.

FedEx expects its trucking operating profits to keep rising, despite what could be a rocky economic road in the second half of 2022, executives said at an investor meeting.

The less-than-truckload industry is positioned to ride through a rocky soft patch in the economy and even a short recession with higher pricing, carrier executives at the SMC3 Connections conference said.

European logistics company DB Schenker will offer US shippers a more integrated package of domestic and international services by adding truckload carrier USA Truck to its Land Transport division.

Arrive Logistics is seeking to help owner-operators navigate a slowing freight market by opening opportunities to private fleets, which grew in number during the capacity-constrained pandemic period.

Long-haul LTL carrier Roadrunner is cutting transit times in 66 lanes and adding more direct routes and truck drivers as freight demand from its shippers remains strong, company executives say.

Freight procurement specialist Transporeon has added a freight matching component to its product suite to help brokers tender spot freight to carriers already in their network.

Despite softening spot rates in some modes, overall supply chain costs are rising, with higher interest rates putting more pressure on inventories, according to the CSCMP State of Logistics report.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide says the changing trucking market is driving up demand for automated spot pricing quotes by double-digit percentages.

P.A.M. Transportation’s purchase of Northeastern carrier Metropolitan Trucking is the latest in a string of regional acquisitions by large national companies aimed at expanding services for shippers.

US producer price indexes show overall transportation costs and total trucking costs moved higher still in May, and S&P Global expects the trend to continue.

A drayage technology provider in the ports of LA and Long Beach that has prioritized dual transactions for its driver network said it is seeing a majority of moves in 2022 involve coordinated empty container drop-offs and laden import pickups.

Pall-Ex Group, a franchise network of more than 700 truckers hauling palletized freight across Europe, wants to set up shop in the US and is looking for a beachhead in the LTL market.

US spot truckload rates are showing signs of stabilizing after recent declines, but analysts are uncertain how the market will play out as retailers determine their appropriate mix and level of inventories.

Acquisitions are a tool with which profitable large carriers such as Schneider National and Heartland Express are expanding their footprints and their portfolio of services, despite market headwinds.

The cooling of trucking’s transactional spot market signals a “realignment,” not a contraction, as shippers cement contractual agreements and freight demand rises, albeit more slowly.

The addition of 22,500 trucking employees in May after a 14,900-gain in real jobs in April reveals a trucking sector confident in continuing freight demand as markets realign in 2022.

The acquisition of Smith Transport by Heartland Express points to continued strong freight demand as the shipping market seeks a new balance between contract and spot freight.

Expanded use of trailer pools will help ‘consolidate truckload services’ and speed goods more efficiently, but first trucking companies, brokers, and shippers need more trailers.

Drayage technology rollup Envase has added GeoStamp, a GPS-based port and drayage visibility and analytics provider, to its roster of tools for port carriers and intermodal providers.

An unexpectedly large drop in spot market capacity last week during the annual “Roadcheck” program pushed dry-van and refrigerated spot rates up for the first time since January, according to DAT.

US Labor Department data that includes contract rates shows no drop in overall truck pricing in April, despite a truckload spot market rate plunge.