Trucking News

In the U.S., the spring of 2016 isn’t a bad time to be a shipper. Sure, there’s the SOLAS problem, but soft demand combined with excess capacity on land and sea and low fuel costs is pushing down transportation costs and giving shippers more bargaining power in annual contract bids, whether in the trans-Pacific maritime trade or U.S. domestic truck lanes.

DP World-operated Chennai Container Terminal said it has made significant progress in easing truck bottlenecks that have long plagued India’s second-largest public container gateway and busiest gateway on the east coast.

At a time when many transport operators say prices are being beaten down, less-than-truckload freight haulers in the U.S. are winning rate increases in annual contract bids.

U.S. shippers expect to ramp up their conversion of freight from truck to intermodal rail to the highest level in a year and a half, according to a new survey.

The cost of transshipping containers by truck using international motor carriers in Russia has doubled.

Could U.S. freight volumes rise and overall economic growth slow?

The debate over dimensional-weight pricing has shifted from if to when it will be applied to less-than-truckload freight, the CEOs of some of the largest LTL trucking companies said at the 2016 NASSTRAC Shippers Conference.

Driver turnover continues to pose problems for the trucking industry, particularly large truckload carriers.

U.S. shippers and trucking companies ride a pricing 'roller coaster' with more stomach-punishing ups and downs than the Coney Island Cyclone. Derek Leathers, president and COO of Werner Enterprises, would like to shut the ride down.

A strong surge in dedicated trucking business helped balance falling fuel surcharges for Marten Transport in the first quarter. The trucker bucked trends and increased revenue.

Diversification, an acquisition and a change in its dimensional weight factor in its expedited less-than-truckload business helped drive first-quarter revenue and profit higher at Forward Air.

Swift Transportation plans to cut another 200 tractors from its massive fleet to counter softer demand and truck pricing.

Despite handling higher freight volumes across the board in the first quarter, revenue dropped at Landstar System, underscoring the effect of lower truck pricing on trucking’s top carriers.

Werner Enterprises' first-quarter revenue dropped 3 percent year-over-year to $482.8 million because of lower fuel surcharges and a "challenging" rate market.

Capacity is beginning to exit the trucking market, a trend that will accelerate by the second half of the year, the president of Knight Transportation says.

The government of India, buoyed by the success of a three-day maritime investor conference last week, is looking to speed up the award and construction of highway projects in fiscal year 2016 to 2017, which began April 1, as part of a larger scheme to revamp the country’s transport system.

Truck tonnage increased year-over-year in March but dropped 4.5 percent from February, when the American Trucking Associations' For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index shot up to unusual height.

Freight volumes sputtered in March, climbing 1.4 percent from February and dropping 1.5 percent year-over-year, while shipper spending on transportation dropped 1 percent from February and was down 7 percent from March 2015, according to the Cass Freight Index.

U.S. retail sales may have dropped in March, but demand for toys, especially those related to Disney’s hit movie Frozen, created a surge in containerized toy imports and boosted sales for Hasbro.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services posted better-than-expected earnings in its first quarter of 2016 with fuel surcharge revenue declines offset by volume growth across the company’s segments, increased contract pricing and improved network operations.

The number of deaths on U.S. roads caused by fatal crashes with large trucks dropped 5 percent in 2014, ending a four-year increase, the Department of Transportation said Friday.

Steve Russell, who founded and led the Celadon Group's transformation from a small dry van carrier in 1985 into one of the trucking industry’s most formidable firms, died on Friday. He was 76 years old.

Many of the same problems that sapped trucking revenue last year — high inventories, weak consumer demand, excess capacity and lower fuel surcharges — are still present in 2016. Here are five key takeaways from the 13th annual Top 50 Trucking Companies report, prepared by SJ Consulting Group and JOC.com.

The U.S. economy may be crawling along, but Estes Express Lines is moving faster, opening a new less-than-truckload terminal in the Chicago area.

An unexpected economic detour slammed the brakes on revenue growth at the largest U.S. trucking companies in 2015, sending many companies down the financial equivalent of a runaway truck ramp as inventories piled up, fuel surcharges dropped and freight demand slumped.

Truckload rates are dropping as weak demand feeds pressure on shippers to reduce U.S. transportation costs, logistics providers and brokers at the Transportation Intermediaries Association conference learned.

Walking through the exhibit hall at the Transportation Intermediaries Association conference, one might mistake it for a technology convention. Freight brokers believe technology is the key to expansion in a “modest” economy.

Trucking bankruptcies in the United States nearly doubled in the first quarter, but the loss was not big enough to put a dent in excess truck capacity, trucking analyst Donald Broughton told members of the Transportation Intermediaries Association on Saturday.

The truck driver shortage is more a problem for large trucking operators, as the total number of drivers and small fleets grows, said Jeff Tucker, chairman of the Transportation Intermediaries Association and head of Tucker Company Worldwide.

Private equity firm Bregal Sagemount invested an undisclosed amount in Internet Truckstop Group, the parent of spot market load-matching service Truckstop.com, to help ITG rapidly scale its services, extend its market reach, and develop new products and services.

Sweeping new food safety rules are moving from the regulatory menu to the plates of U.S. shippers, logistics operators and carriers engaged in food transportation.

Canada’s Dicom Transportation Group is driving deeper into U.S. markets as it pursues cross-border and last-mile freight and packages.

Three acquisition-hungry companies, XPO Logistics, Celadon Group and Daseke, were the fastest-growing businesses on a list of the 50 largest U.S. trucking companies in 2015.

Intermodal equipment providers are in the early stages of using GPS technology to track their chassis in seaport and inland locations, and if the return on investment is adequate, IEPs anticipate greater use of the technology.

Old Dominion Freight Line opened its 21st service center in Texas as shipment volume increases in the Lone Star State.

The U.S. economy gained jobs in March, but not the trucking industry. The number of employees on for-hire trucking payrolls dropped for the second straight month in March, send a warning to carriers about wages and shippers about capacity.

Russian railway monopoly RZD is offering significant discounts to shippers in a bid to remain competitive with over-the-road trucking, which carries the largest share of Russia’s cargo volumes.

In certain parts of the country, especially the Southeast, the U.S. spot truck market is showing some early signs of renewal, as retailers gear up for their spring shipping season.

John Simone, who as CEO led USA Truck back to profitability after years of losses before taking a medical leave of absence last year, has died at the age of 54 after a battle with lung cancer.

TRAC Intermodal, the largest U.S. chassis lessor, has canceled plans for a $485 million bond offering that would have been used mainly to pay a cash dividend to owner Fortress Investment Group.