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Truck driver pay must rise between 15 and 25 percent if the trucking industry is going to keep up with freight demand in coming years, a truckload executive said yesterday.

U.S. intermodal should see another year of robust demand, provided that rail service recovers following service disruptions in the first quarter, according to an executive from Hub Group.

Two trucking outfits at least managed to shrug off the winter snow and substantially increase first-quarter profits, while others lowered earnings estimates and froze growth plans.

Norfolk Southern Railway said it expects to “get some uplift in intermodal pricing” for about a third of its intermodal business, as truck capacity tightens and over-the-road rates increase as a result.

Heartland Express passed the first major mile marker on its route to becoming a billion-dollar truckload operator this year, increasing first-quarter revenue 67.2 percent from a year ago to $224.5 million. Much of that additional cash comes from freshly acquired Gordon Trucking.

Canadian Pacific Railway said it is increasing its domestic intermodal volume at a pace that by the end of the year will more than offset the loss of three container line contracts.

Truck tonnage increased 3.1 percent in March from a year ago — the largest annualized gain this year — and 0.6 percent from February, as trucking companies and shippers recovered from disruptions caused by severe winter weather, the American Trucking Associations said.

Dry van truckload rates on the spot market are dropping from first-quarter highs, but shippers could see rates climb higher as freight demand rises this spring, DAT Solutions warns.

Arizona authorities are urging the federal government to consider some Mexican cross-border truckers’ complaints of unfair treatment and prevent a possible blockade at the largest port of entry in the state.

The Port of Tacoma is working with the two western railroads, its local provider (Tacoma Rail), cargo transloaders, Washington State exporters and trans-Pacific ocean carriers to enhance intermodal rail service from the port.

A “meaningful improvement” in freight demand this winter is pushing truckload rates higher this spring, as shippers look to lock down truck capacity for the fall peak shipping season.

SANTA TERESA, N.M. — There’s not much out here other than roads, warehouses and cacti — and now a sprawling Union Pacific Railroad intermodal terminal and fueling station. Secluded as it is, what happens at this $400 million facility in a desert framed by mountains ripples through UP’s 32,000-mile U.S. network and taps into one of the largest trends in transportation rail: domestic rail growth.

EL PASO, Texas — The trucks here crossing the border from Juarez, Mexico, with “Project 21” decals are cleared by U.S. and Mexican customs agents faster than those trucks without the sticker, allowing drivers to get their goods from Mexican factories to U.S. customers faster.

U.S. spot market truckload rates dropped slightly in mid-April, but not by much, a sign truckload capacity remains tight as shippers roll into the second quarter, putting across-the-board pressure on rates.

Ten years after its launch, online shipping marketplace uShip is pursuing both commercial freight and consumer shipments, expanding an innovative LTL spot market and partnering with eBay.

Kansas City Southern Railway appears confident the Mexican government won’t require it to open up its track to competitors as legislation had threatened last fall.

U.S. rail traffic is returning to normal after one of the coldest winters in recent memory, Bradley Thrasher, vice president and general manager of industrial products at the Union Pacific Railroad, told the Los Angeles Transportation Club April 15.

The United States’ largest trucking companies kept tapping their brakes in 2013, slowing revenue growth for the second consecutive year as the economic recovery remained a modest one.

CSX Transportation said rail service will “gradually” improve and that it was reasonable to expect operations to return to normal by the end of June, following a harsh winter that snarled operations and created a backlog of freight.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Technology similar to Uber and other apps that allow big-city users to call a taxi or black sedan with their smartphones could soon hit the U.S. trucking industry, potentially displacing freight brokers that fail to adapt, a senior equity research analyst warned on April 12.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services appears back on track for intermodal growth, reflecting a broader pickup in intermodal following delays, disruptions and depressed volumes in the first quarter blamed on severe weather.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The severe capacity constraints shippers experienced on U.S. roadways in the first quarter will become the norm unless the federal government acts to offset the impact of new regulations with productivity-enhancing measures.

Old Dominion Freight Line is the latest less-than-truckload carrier to raise its tariff rates this year, as trucking costs rise across the board.

Federal investigators are trying to piece together the last days of a FedEx truck driver for clues as to why he crossed a highway median and struck a tour bus, killing 10 people.

The 50 largest U.S. trucking companies raised their combined revenue 5.5 percent last year to $106.6 billion, but expanded at a slower pace than in 2012.

The 22 publicly owned trucking companies tracked by The Journal of Commerce reported $9.6 billion in combined revenue in the fourth quarter, with LTL carriers increasing revenue 5 percent year-over-year on average and the truckload group increasing revenue 9.5 percent. Gains in truckload revenue came largely through acquisitions at Celadon, Roadrunner Transportation and Heartland Express.

A national standard of care is needed to give freight brokers guidelines on how to use federal CSA safety data when contracting carriers, the Transportation Intermediaries Association says.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Intermodal service delays at Union Pacific Railway and CSX Transportation will end in roughly two to four weeks following a harsh winter that wrecked havoc on the railroads’ networks, rail representatives said at a conference on April 10.

Federal authorities are investigating why a FedEx Freight truck crossed an Interstate highway median and crashed into a charter bus, killing 10 people.

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and David Vitter, R-La., are calling for a six-year transportation bill that would maintain current spending levels but adjust for inflation, while drawing funding from tax reform — not higher fuels taxes.

Bulk rail shippers ranging from agriculture to coal producers told the U.S. Surface Transportation Board today that poor rail service must be solved before their business suffers even more.

The Senate yesterday confirmed President Obama’s nomination to the Surface Transportation Board, thrusting Debra Miller into the rail regulatory agency as it grapples with a myriad of issues.

Shippers moved more freight and spent more to do so in March and the first quarter, despite weather-related supply chain disruptions, Cass Information Systems finds.

Contract truckload rates are set to rise higher than anticipated, BB&T says, as carrier try to recoup high costs and compensate for lower earnings following this winter's disruptive storms.

Orders for Class 8 trucks in North America continued to be “solid” in March, the fourth consecutive month with net orders above 25,000 units.

Three Texas-based companies are rushing to stake a claim in the shale oil and natural gas boom, merging to create a new energy transportation and logistics firm.

One of the largest Mexican rail shippers said it supports more regulation of the country's three major railroads but is against a proposal being debated in Mexico City that would require the country’s two rail concession holders to share their lines with third parties.

FTR Associates’ Trucking Conditions Index for February, published in the April issue of Trucking Update, fell to a reading of 7.54, down slightly from the previous month...

After three years of acquisitions, Celadon is selling its truck leasing portfolio for 600 tractors to Element Financial for $53 million, reducing debt and paving a route to greater expansion.