Trucking News

Insight into the location and predicted arrival of freight across modes can no longer be confined to a single entity in a freight environment where outcomes between trading partners and service partners are intricately linked.

The electronic logging device (ELD) eventually will help shippers find trucks more quickly, help trucking companies better manage drivers, and help drivers better manage hours. But more integration of ELD data with other systems and more development are needed to deliver bigger benefits.

El sector de camiones mexicano ahora tiene una demanda disminuida que permite a los consignadores exprimir a los camioneros para obtener mejores tarifas, a medida que la economía se desacelera y el sector aún se ajusta a las regulaciones de horas de servicio que entraron en vigencia a mediados de 2018.

Una nueva regulación que entra en vigencia en el estado mexicano de Jalisco en enero es la última regla que ha enojado a los camioneros mexicanos al limitar el movimiento de los camiones o cobrar una tarifa para ingresar a un área en particular, o ambos.

Gaining visibility into truckload movements allows shippers to improve transportation execution and efficiency, as well as accurately benchmark carrier performance and enforce minimum service standards for providers.

The country's government is looking to improve cargo fluidity at key seaports and border crossings — and reduce traffic on congested roads — via increased use of intermodal rail and a new marine highway program.

The high-profile financial failings of so-called disruptors like Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, Blue Apron, and WeWork should serve as a warning to investors in the budding digital freight brokerage space.

Chronic cross-border trucking delays serve as a reminder of how fragile the freight connection between the United States and its largest trading partner continues to be.

Going into 2020, chassis providers in the US are hopeful that fleet upgrades over the last two years have made the network more resilient, while also acknowledging that there is still little they can do to absorb sudden, unanticipated spikes in cargo.

The Mexican trucking sector is now a buyer’s market, with diminished demand allowing shippers to squeeze truckers for better rates, as the economy slows and the sector still adjusts to hours of service regulations that went into effect in mid-2018.

Virtually every notable new domestic freight broker in the US tied up at least one direct integration with a major transportation management system (TMS) provider in 2019, a trend that will likely continue in the coming years.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers maintained pricing discipline and focusing on their bottom lines in 2019, but the overall outlook for the sector in 2020 still depends largely on a flagging US manufacturing industry.

A new regulation that takes effect in the Mexican state of Jalisco in January is the latest rule that has angered Mexican truckers by limiting truck movement or levying a fee to enter a particular area, or both.

The US truckload freight market took some bruising in 2019, but there are signs that a rebound may be around the corner in 2020.

While carriers have long had options to get paid quicker than payment terms would guarantee -- by accepting a discount on invoices -- freight broker LoadDelivered is testing whether drivers would trade early payment for providing visibility and capacity loyalty.

With the number of truck drivers in the United States expected to continue rising steadily, motor carriers in the coming years will be focused on to getting the most out of existing drivers' miles and ensuring drivers earn enough money to keep them behind the wheel.

New legislation will take effect in California Jan. 1 that would make it much more difficult for truck drivers to retain independent contractor status, but owner operators are stuck in limbo pending a court decision on a legal challenge to the new rules.

With economic growth expected to slow and relations between the United States and its largest trading partners still in flux, cargo owners are expecting low but sustained demand and increased pricing pressure in the coming year.

The Cass Freight Index suggests the bottom of the trucking market has passed, although the data doesn’t provide a clear picture of when pricing power will flip toward carriers again.

The latest data from the American Trucking Associations shows large truckload carriers cutting drivers and smaller fleets ramping up hiring.

Changes in package delivery market are leading FedEx to rethink its air express and ground strategies, as it struggles with a slowdown in global trade.

Seattle-based Convoy is challenging freight brokerage incumbents by saying it has developed capability to automate freight matching and pricing in widely-used US truckload lanes.

Year-to-date declines in metal, chemical, and forest product shipments will depress future truck volumes, creating an overhang that will affect pricing, a transportation economist says.

Driven by consumers and end-customers, more shippers say they are looking for precision in on-time delivery from trucking suppliers, and placing it before price.

A four-year-old logistics technology platform founded in India sees itself as the digital connective thread between the country’s long-haul freight market and the disorganized urban delivery sector.

Shippers may find capacity tighter on a carrier-by-carrier, lane-by-lane basis when the final phase of the ELD mandate takes effect Monday.

Truckload spot rates leaped upward in the first week of December, rising 12 cents per mile above their November average according to DAT Solutions as the final holiday retail push got underway.

A ‘freight volume headwind’ blew hard against YRC Worldwide in November, driving down tonnage at YRC Freight 10.2 percent year over year. December is looking better, the carrier says.

Gary Cohn, former director of the National Economic Council under President Donald Trump and former president of Goldman Sachs, was named as the opening keynote speaker of the 20th TPM, the world’s largest container trade conference, organized by IHS Markit.

Chicago-based startup Transship is teaming with TradeLens and other tech companies to create an automated shipping and forwarding platform for containerized perishables shipments.

Partnerships between core logistics software providers continue to expand, the latest example being SAP integrating North American and European visibility from project44 for its TMS user base.

Although a large carrier, Celadon’s fleet size and revenue are just drops in the US truckload bucket. The biggest impact of its bankruptcy may be in Mexico.

Brokers with digital freight marketplaces continue to partner with widely used TMS providers to give users of those systems direct access to electronic capacity and booking capabilities, while the marketplaces get an influx of direct shippers customers.

IHS Markit points to a “modest upturn” in the US economy, with consumer demand keeping freight in motion.

The best shippers have transportation and procurement teams that are in sync with each other, but cheap truck rates make for a difficult balancing act between pricing and loyalty to carriers.

With a deadline looming for US truck drivers to switch to ELDs, one telematics provider is banking on luring drivers onto its platform via a new carrier-centric smartphone app.

Less-than-truckload tonnage trends are still negative year over year in the fourth quarter, but they’re “stabilizing” at Old Dominion Freight Line, CEO Greg C. Gantt said Wednesday.

Cass Information Systems is partnering with the University of Tennessee to enhance its benchmark truckload and intermodal pricing indexes, and explore new data opportunities.

Shippers may pay more to move freight in December, as rising retail sales and faster delivery demands begin to tap underutilized capacity.

Austin-based technology company Shipwell has in the past been dubbed a freight marketplace, a broker, and a software provider, but bolstered by a large funding round in October, the company is focusing on automation and connectivity for shippers.