Surface

President Joe Biden will most likely get the federal government involved in US railway labor talks this week if he hopes to avoid a nationwide strike that would further disrupt the country’s supply chains.

The US economy likely contracted in the second quarter, but analysts see signs of growing freight activity ahead.

US warehouse woes are now showing in lower train speeds and on-time performance among Class I railroads, as stakeholders turn up the heat on retailers for not retrieving their cargo fast enough from depots and terminals.

Like a candle in an otherwise dark room, new reporting requirements from the US Surface Transportation Board are illuminating at least one the factors that has inhibited the growth of US intermodal rail volumes, writes intermodal analyst Lawrence Gross.

For-hire US trucking companies have added more than 62,000 real jobs since April, a record number for the period fueled by continuing strong contract freight demand.

Truckload dry-van spot rates in California are likely to fall below 2020 and 2021 levels in the coming months, but prices on a historical basis will probably be slightly better than the pro-carrier market of 2018.

Small truckload fleets want access to online insurance quotes and coverage, which led low-cost transportation management software provider AscendTMS to partner with trucking insurance specialist CarrierHQ.

Pittsburgh-based Pitt Ohio is filling a gap in its regional map by acquiring Teal’s Express, a New York-based less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) transportation is more than it used to be, and that’s leading to acquisition and expansion in a US trucking sector that is slowly becoming more international in its focus.

Peak season import volumes amid ongoing supply chain woes are raising the stakes if labor unions and US Class I railroads can’t return to the bargaining table without disruption.

CloudTrucks is arming small carriers that struggle to get access to traditional credit lines with a product that facilitates routine operational expenses like fuel and lumper payments.

Older container trucks serving the Port of Vancouver will begin to be phased out from mid-September as the port looks to replenish the fleet with cleaner-running vehicles.

Despite uncertainty over how implementation of AB5 will play out, California trucking executives say truck capacity in the state’s ports will not suddenly dry up with the peak-shipping season at hand.

Union Pacific Railroad will temporarily re-align its domestic intermodal network in Northern California to accommodate a construction project meant to expand container capacity in the region ahead of Schneider National bringing more volume in 2023.

Elevated demand for rail cargo on the only viable China-Europe rail route continues to overwhelm the existing infrastructure, with congestion building at Central Asian intermodal points.

FedEx expects its trucking operating profits to keep rising, despite what could be a rocky economic road in the second half of 2022, executives said at an investor meeting.

The less-than-truckload industry is positioned to ride through a rocky soft patch in the economy and even a short recession with higher pricing, carrier executives at the SMC3 Connections conference said.

Despite an almost 10 percent drop in the Port of Halifax’s first quarter volumes, Canadian National Railway has added a second daily train service in anticipation of a cargo rebound.

With bottlenecks at inland rail hubs in Toronto and Montreal building and rail container backups likewise mounting in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, Canada’s West Coast ports could experience congestion problems for some time.

BNSF Railway is stacking ocean containers outside Dallas as cargo owners struggle to unload inventory in a timely manner and chassis providers scramble to reposition equipment sent to Houston earlier this year.

European logistics company DB Schenker will offer US shippers a more integrated package of domestic and international services by adding truckload carrier USA Truck to its Land Transport division.

Arrive Logistics is seeking to help owner-operators navigate a slowing freight market by opening opportunities to private fleets, which grew in number during the capacity-constrained pandemic period.

Long-haul LTL carrier Roadrunner is cutting transit times in 66 lanes and adding more direct routes and truck drivers as freight demand from its shippers remains strong, company executives say.

Three FMC members ask the STB not to approve the proposed merger of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern, saying the deal would result in the loss of cargo to Canadian ports.

Freight procurement specialist Transporeon has added a freight matching component to its product suite to help brokers tender spot freight to carriers already in their network.

Despite softening spot rates in some modes, overall supply chain costs are rising, with higher interest rates putting more pressure on inventories, according to the CSCMP State of Logistics report.

A new Norfolk Southern incentive program for ocean carriers in New York-New Jersey and Virginia should help grow volume while encouraging a balanced flow of rail cars between inland terminals and the two ports.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide says the changing trucking market is driving up demand for automated spot pricing quotes by double-digit percentages.

P.A.M. Transportation’s purchase of Northeastern carrier Metropolitan Trucking is the latest in a string of regional acquisitions by large national companies aimed at expanding services for shippers.

US producer price indexes show overall transportation costs and total trucking costs moved higher still in May, and S&P Global expects the trend to continue.

Some US intermodal shippers are forgoing trains to put their spot freight on trucks because the cost savings associated with rail have narrowed significantly since January.

Recent IPI activity shows that despite the focus shifting to railroads ahead of the next West Coast bottleneck, the decisions made by ocean carriers are the root cause of the problem, writes JOC analyst Larry Gross.

A drayage technology provider in the ports of LA and Long Beach that has prioritized dual transactions for its driver network said it is seeing a majority of moves in 2022 involve coordinated empty container drop-offs and laden import pickups.

Pall-Ex Group, a franchise network of more than 700 truckers hauling palletized freight across Europe, wants to set up shop in the US and is looking for a beachhead in the LTL market.

A chassis shortage is forcing Norfolk Southern Railway to meter international intermodal loads through five inland markets as the railroad moves to keep its network fluid.

US spot truckload rates are showing signs of stabilizing after recent declines, but analysts are uncertain how the market will play out as retailers determine their appropriate mix and level of inventories.

Acquisitions are a tool with which profitable large carriers such as Schneider National and Heartland Express are expanding their footprints and their portfolio of services, despite market headwinds.

The cooling of trucking’s transactional spot market signals a “realignment,” not a contraction, as shippers cement contractual agreements and freight demand rises, albeit more slowly.

Canada’s Class I railroads have been dealing with a surge of freight from Vancouver that has taxed a shrinking pool of available truckers across the country in Ontario.

The chassis shortage is affecting Norfolk Southern despite a 5.1 percent decline in volumes handled by the railroad between January and May compared with the same period in 2021.