Surface

The company expects a slight increase in truckload demand during the peak season amid uncertainty about the duration of the freight recession and the potential impact of Yellow's financial troubles.

The desire to improve rail and intermodal visibility for bulk and breakbulk customers has led transportation management software provider IntelliTrans to partner with hardware vendor Nexxiot.

That mismatch between container supply and demand has forced intermodal providers to stack boxes, with J.B. Hunt saying it parked about 18% of its container fleet in the first half of the year.

The missed payment erases a measure of optimism that existed after creditors, including the US government, last week gave Yellow more time to resolve its restructuring dispute with the Teamsters in return for heightened financial oversight.

DAT and freight broker Convoy had challenged each other in federal court over business practices related to Convoy attempting to set up a rival load board.

Truckstop is building on its 2022 purchase of carrier monitoring provider RMIS with the acquisition of freight-matching technology provider FrieightFriend.

A Teamsters strike against UPS Aug. 1 and a shutdown of Yellow are not inevitable, but shippers are bracing for disruption and higher costs.

Truckers are having difficulty locating available chassis in Chicago because many units have been taken off the street to be serviced after heavy usage over the last two years.

DHL will spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the region over the next five years as the company targets customers looking to globalize their business and diversify sourcing.

US businesses may have passed the inventory peak, but data shows stockpiles remain high, and a weak wholesale retail market is depressing imports and surface freight shipments.

Three new visibility products — from a hardware provider, a forwarder and a data provider — are evidence of a diverse cargo visibility market that is expanding options for shippers.

Yellow’s lenders, including the US government, gave the company short-term waivers for certain loan conditions, extending its “runway” for winning Teamster support for a restructuring plan.

The problems flared in recent weeks after Ocean Network Express shifted a vessel service out of Jacksonville’s other primary container terminal, Dames Point, causing a volume imbalance between the two terminals.

For-hire trucking companies have been expanding their workforce since February, but a soft freight market is cutting into weekly hours worked by drivers and dockworkers, BLS data shows.

The largest US truckload operator will continue to add terminals to its LTL network as it absorbs truckload carrier U.S. Xpress.

UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are battling on the brink of a potential strike, with both sides claiming the other has walked away from the negotiating table.

The ABF-Teamsters contract is the first of three major negotiations the union is conducting this summer to make it past the finish line, with UPS and TForce Freight talks still ongoing.

In a letter Thursday, less-than-truckload provider Yellow asked President Biden to intervene personally in its dispute with the Teamsters and break an impasse it claims threatens 22,000 union jobs. 

Time is ticking away for less-than-truckload carrier Yellow, which is suing the Teamsters while its cash reserves shrink, and UPS, which got a new deadline for contract talks from the Teamsters.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is generally viewed within the Canadian shipping industry as having acted too slowly — and weakly — when containerized supply chains were significantly disrupted over the last three years, notes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

The railroad said the partnership with the ocean carrier is designed to attract cargo owners who may want to avoid Southern California or are looking for a shorter transit for freight destined for the US Gulf Coast.

US inventory levels are still high, depressing demand for trucking services and keeping a rebound in check, analysts said at the SMC3 Connections conference.

The link would offer an alternative to the Meridian Speedway that pre-merger Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern Railway have partnered on since 2006.

Union Pacific and BNSF partner COFC Logistics are cutting contractual rates on low-volume shippers through the end of the year in a bid to spur demand in a weakened domestic intermodal market.

Nuvocargo will use the new funding to expand its service footprint to all major over-the-road border crossings between the US and Mexico.

The largest unionized trucking employer in the US is taking its restructuring fight with the Teamsters to court, claiming union leadership is agitating for its demise.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City is continuing to invest in temperature-controlled intermodal as part of its Mexico-to-US offerings via a new partnership with warehouse provider Americold Logistics.

Freight demand is supporting a buildout of Roadrunner’s direct LTL network after cutbacks in 2022, with new lanes connecting shippers with Las Vegas and the Port of Virginia.

The largest US trucking company will close 29 terminals to better match its footprint with lower freight demand as it prepares for a “reset.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and UPS say they’ve made progress on non-economic issues, but there’s still heavy lifting ahead for the largest labor pact in the US private sector.

Leaders within the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have endorsed a tentative contract reached with ABF that would set a high bar for other unionized carriers in the largely non-union less-than-truckload sector.

Despite a sharp decline in rates amid slowing demand and higher costs, total revenue for truck transportation companies remains elevated, and that could keep capacity in the market longer, writes Professor Jason Miller.

Despite disagreement over Yellow’s restructuring plans, the Teamsters union is taking a first step toward opening contract talks by surveying 22,000 union members online.

While demand for domestic rail freight in the UK grows, the network’s ability to handle the more complex smaller shipments has been criticized by cargo owners.

Air conditioning, heat shields and air intake vents are coming to UPS package cars as the Teamsters and their largest employer move closer to a tentative five-year labor agreement. 

Tiger Cool Express was an innovator in the intermodal industry, one of the first to fully embrace containerized reefer intermodal when it began ramping up operations in late 2013.

Flexible transactional pricing is helping ArcBest LTL subsidiary ABF Freight increase shipment volumes and attract new shippers despite reduced demand from core customers. 

Norfolk Southern is a step closer to consolidating its Michigan intermodal business at one site after receiving a grant from the state for improvements at the Livernois yard.

Data from analysts and carriers shows less-than-truckload providers are staying disciplined when it comes to pricing despite a freight recession and softer US economy.

Yellow claims its ability to “continue as a going concern” is being impaired by Teamster opposition to its restructuring.