Trucking News

Softer freight demand could blunt pay increases in 2016, but lower unemployment and higher demand for construction workers could push pay higher.

Shippers with overstocked inventories and plenty of available trucks are looking at a market they wouldn’t have recognized a year ago. What’s not clear is how quickly the balance between demand and capacity might shift again.

Starting Monday, truckers will face fines if they fail to send electronic shipment manifests to Canadian authorities before arriving at the border. Shipments could be delayed.

For-hire trucking companies hired 9,000 people in November and December combined, reversing a decline in preceding months.

Regional less-than-truckload carrier Land Air Express of New England, shut down for nearly 10 days, was cleared to resume operations after reaching an agreement with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Net orders for Class 8 heavy trucks rebounded in December, rising 70 percent from November, showing demand for new trucks still exists. Year-over-year, however, orders are down, following a big surge in 2014 and early 2015 that increased U.S. truck capacity.

If an uncertain global economy wasn’t enough for shippers and transportation providers, 2016 will be filled with major changes, from the massive container shipping weight mandate to liner consolidation. Other threats and opportunities will likely emerge during the year, but the 10 trends outlined here will definitely be in play and impact global supply chains. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Land Air Express of New England missed a 60-day deadline to respond to a proposed 'unsatisfactory' safety rating, leading to the Dec. 29 out-of-service order that shut the less-than-truckload carrier down. But the company has a chance to get back on the road, if regulators find it is making a "good faith" effort to improve safety fitness.

Transportation and logistics companies of all sizes felt the urge to merge in 2015, as the number of deals large and small sent acquisition activity to nearly frenzied levels by year-end. Hardly a week went by last year without breaking news of a buyout, or new majority shareholder, or a fold-in acquisition in non-asset and asset-based sectors of logistics and transportation.

The refrigerated freight market has experienced some unseasonally high demand this winter, according to DAT Solutions. That comes on top of growing demand for refrigerated, or reefer, equipment in general.

The U.S. government closed one of the largest trucking companies in the Northeast, Land Air Express of New England, last week, but has not released details to the public on why the carrier was shut down.

This year, the U.S. transportation industry will receive the first funding from some $205 billion allocated for highway and $48 billion allocated for transit projects, and approximately $10.8 billion in grants for freight projects allocated over the next five years, the largest allocation over the longest period of time in nearly a decade.

U.S. domestic intermodal spot rates continue to fall thanks to plentiful capacity aided by mild weather and weak demand, according to third-party logistics provider IDS.

U.S. shippers and motor companies have one more thing to cheer about heading into the New Year after the average price of diesel hit the lowest point since the spring of 2009.

Truckers in Los Angeles-Long Beach are buying as many new and post-2007 model trucks that they can get their hands on in order to take advantage of a tax break that took effect Dec. 18, but time is running out. The accelerated depreciation provision expires at midnight Thursday.

Cargo thefts increase on long holiday weekends such as those of Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but shippers can protect themselves from cargo loss if they make a list of security precautions and check it twice, according to Tom Mann of TrakLok International, a freight security firm.

The California Labor Commissioner ruled in favor of 38 drivers who claimed that drayage company Pacific 9 Transportation misclassified them as independent contractors, awarding the drivers a total of $6.9 million in stolen wages, with an average individual award of $182,270.

For-hire U.S. truck tonnage growth in November hit the lowest speed since February 2013, as shippers’ high inventories and weak manufacturing and energy production pulled down demand.

The government of Russia expects container tonnage hauled by truck to end 2015 down 30 percent from last year because of the country’s economic crisis and ongoing protests by long-haul truckers over a federal transport tax applicable to trucks over 12 tons.

Excess truck capacity is tugging at the earnings of truckload carriers, including Knight Transportation. The company believes truck capacity may have peaked, but much depends on the strength of consumer demand and retail inventory levels in 2016.

A new federal registration system for several types of transport operators isn't ready for prime time, but federal regulators are launching its “first phase.”

U.S. trucking interests won one battle and lost another on Capitol Hill this week after negotiators agreed to an omnibus appropriations bill requiring industry regulators to meet new standards before re-imposing certain suspended hours-of-service restrictions, but did not provide for an increase in tandem trailer length long pursued by trucking companies.

Truckload contract linehaul rates continued to rise in November as intermodal rates fell, according to pricing indices from Cass Information Systems and Avondale partners.

Stubbornly high inventories of retail goods, coupled with drop and hook distribution strategies, is seen as driving demand for dry van and refrigerated trailers, despite a drop in Class 8 tractor demand.

Cargomatic is expanding its "Uber-like" truck and cargo-matching service to San Francisco, and eyes further expansion in 2016, both in terms of territory and services.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association made good on its promise to challenge a new federal rule mandating the use of electronic logging devices by most truck drivers, filing a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Former Coyote Logistics and Con-way Multimodal executive Tommy Barnes joins project44, a Chicago-based company building a real-time transportation management system.

Shipment volumes in the U.S. were flat in November from the previous month, but shipper spending dropped, according to the Cass Freight Index.

Old Dominion Freight Line is adding a second terminal in St. Louis, Missouri, expanding its less-than-truckload service in the city and the Midwest.

Old Dominion Freight Line is proving by example that there is plenty of life in the less-than-truckload model that served as the blueprint for trucking from the 1930s through deregulation in the 1980s.

The electronic logging mandate that takes effect in late 2017 will have a big impact on shippers, as well as carriers and drivers, especially when coupled with the driver coercion rule. Supply chains will have to adjust as technology brings both transparency and "rigidity" to driver hours.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association will sue the Department of Transportation in a bid to block a rule requiring truck drivers to use electronic logging devices, the association's executive vice president said today.

The American Trucking Associations welcomed a mandate requiring 3 million truck drivers to use electronic logs by 2017, hailing the safety benefits of the technology. Other trucking groups may not be so happy.

U.S. truck drivers using paper logs to record their work hours must switch to electronic logging by 2017 under a new regulation, a step that means big changes for drivers, carriers and shippers.

Apparel wholesaler S&S Activewear is the latest company to set up distribution operations in the Kansas City area, expanding its overnight delivery footprint in the Central U.S.

U.S. trucking companies added 2,300 workers in November, after watching payroll drop from an eight-year high in September and October. The uptick may indicate stronger holiday freight demand, but trucking's hiring rate has slowed since 2014.

Transporation holding company Arcbest, the parent of ABF Freight, expanded its asset-light business by adding truckload broker Bear Transportation to fast-growing ABF Logistics.

From a near-meltdown at U.S. West Coast ports to a wave of mergers and acquisitions, with hints of more in the container line industry, 2015 has been full of plenty of surprises.

Class 8 truck orders fell to their lowest level in at least three years, the latest sign of how motor carriers are pulling back on adding capacity as freight demand slows.

Freight brokers are in a unique position to take advantage of the weak economy, BB&T Capital Markets says.