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China has signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand to build 542 miles of double-track railway from Nong Khai on the Laos border to the Thai industrialized eastern seaboard.

China, Serbia and Hungary have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a new 230-mile rail link between Belgrade and Budapest with construction work expected to start by the middle of next year.

North American intermodal volume in November shrank 1.9 percent year-over-year, a rarity for an industry that has experienced steady for years.

Trailer orders in the U.S. reached the second-highest point ever in November, after hitting an all-time high the month prior, reflecting motor carriers’ expectations of strong demand in 2015.

Though many retailers initially began the holiday season with early shipping deadlines, shops clamoring for last-minute customers are testing fate with extended deadlines once again.

A key indicator of U.S. trucking activity surged in November, reflecting strong retail sales and manufacturing output.

Truckload rates and intermodal pricing continued their year-over-year climb in November, spurred by stronger freight demand and port congestion.

Truckload operator The Dart Network is raising pay for its company drivers and owner-operators, joining a growing legion of carriers boosting pay to attract truck drivers.

Rising volumes propelled FedEx profit up 23 percent year-over-year to $616 million in its second quarter ended Nov. 30, the second-largest U.S. transport operator reported today.

Montreal area shippers will now have improved access to the intermodal network of CSX Transportation after the railroad opened a $100 million terminal near Montreal at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec.

An American Trucking Associations survey of 130 trucking companies places median truck driver pay in a range from $46,000 to $73,000 a year, depending on the type of company they work for and freight they haul.

U.S. intermodal trains on average are moving faster, but they still have a ways to go before delivering the level of service shippers had come to expect before last winter.

Encouraged by strong manufacturing activity and freight demand, less-than-truckload carriers are raising their non-contract and contract rates. Old Dominion Freight Line is the latest LTL carrier to issue an average general rate increase of 4.5 percent effective Jan. 5.

The Mexican Congress is expected to approval legislation this afternoon that would protect concessions held by the country’s three largest railroads and create a rail regulatory agency.

India’s Ministry of Railways said it will postpone previously announced container rail increases, providing a temporary respite for shippers struggling with port congestion and rising transportation costs.

Federal regulators are proceeding with a negotiated rule-making on minimum national truck driver training standards, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Dec. 12.

Con-way Freight workers in Miami Lakes, Florida, voted to join the Teamsters union, making their facility the third in Con-way's LTL network to go union. Three other terminals have rejected the Teamsters.

Truckload carriers are increasingly optimistic about 2015, with 76 percent expecting freight volumes to increase and 86 percent forecasting higher rates, according to a Transport Capital Partners survey.

Regional LTL carrier Holland commits to hiring 500 veterans, seeking drivers and other workers as the U.S. military reduces its overseas forces.

Changes to truck driver hours of service rules under the cromnibus spending bill could increase truck capacity, giving carriers a quick productivity boost for the holidays.

As large LTL carriers and international shippers begin to develop density-based pricing alternatives, the classification system still dominates LTL costing and, by extension, pricing.

Opposition by Democrats and some Republicans to the $1 trillion, rider-festooned spending bill is keeping Washington on edge as the legislation nears a midnight deadline.

EUROGATE Container Terminal Bremerhaven this week handled its 1 millionth standard rail container, as more intermodal trains served the German gateway this year than in 2013.

Spot rates for dry van trucks jumped 5 cents in the week after Thanksgiving, the biggest leap for spot truckload rates since July, as strong freight demand kept trucks rolling toward the holidays.

Twenty-one days after leaving the east China manufacturing city of Yiwu more than 8,000 miles away, a freight train carrying 40 containers arrived in the Spanish capital of Madrid this week, potentially opening yet another land bridge between China and Europe.

USA Truck is opening a brokerage office in Jacksonville, Florida and expanding its Chicago presence as shippers seek additional truck capacity.

Labor organizations and retiree advocates are attacking a proposed amendment to the $1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would let troubled multiemployer pension plans cut benefits to vested retirees.

A road improvement project will help make the industrial development around BNSF’s relatively new intermodal rail terminal in the Kansas City area more attractive when work is completed in 2016.

The likelihood that truck drivers will have different hours of service rules next year is increasing, as Congress wraps language that will change suspend some 2013 HOS changes into its $1 trillion spending bill.

Starting in January, shippers can ship containerized goods by rail between Rotterdam and Milan via a dedicated Samskip intermodal service.

FedEx and UPS have boosted their on-time delivery performance to 91 to 95 percent, compared with 83 to 89 percent a year ago, bolstering hopes for a happier holiday season.

Freight shipments and spending by shippers dropped slightly in November, but remain at a post-recession high point, according to the latest Cass Freight Index.

Starting Dec. 18, U.S. truck drivers in most cases will no longer have to file a report if an inspection of their equipment shows no maintenance issues and safety defects, saving the industry nearly $1.7 billion annually, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

An amendment that would suspend the current 34-hour restart provision in the truck driver hours of service rules pending further study is buried deep within the omnibus spending bill being crafted by Congress. Will it survive as Congress struggles to pass spending legislation before midnight Dec. 12 to avoid a government shutdown?

Midsize trucking companies are increasingly bullish on the economic outlook and their ability to hire new employees, including drivers, in 2015, according to GE Capital Transportation Services.

Transplace is expanding in Western Canada and Quebec as U.S.-Canada cross-border traffic speeds up, along with the U.S. and Canadian economies.

As consumers raced to stores, spot truck rates rose higher in the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, DAT Solutions reports.

Trucking employment jumped 2.5 percent from a year ago last month, riding the biggest wave of hiring in the U.S. economy in three years and pushing the JOC For-Hire Trucking Employment Index up to 98.3, the highest reading for the index since late 2007.

The overwhelming majority of shippers surveyed by RBC Capital Markets expect U.S. and Canadian truck pricing to rise up to 6 percent in 2015.