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The addition of 22,500 trucking employees in May after a 14,900-gain in real jobs in April reveals a trucking sector confident in continuing freight demand as markets realign in 2022.

The US Department of Transportation awarded Georgia $6 million to improve tracks that connect Savannah with the state’s first inland port.

Union Pacific Railroad and Schneider National have engaged intermodal shippers in recent weeks to discuss their new partnership and attempt to dispel any concerns about service disruptions during the transition from BNSF.

The acquisition of Smith Transport by Heartland Express points to continued strong freight demand as the shipping market seeks a new balance between contract and spot freight.

The only real option at present for rail cargo from China to Europe is the so-called “middle corridor,” even though the transit is often longer than ocean and 30 percent more expensive than the largely out-of-bounds northern alternative through Russia.

A new multi-year agreement will allow Canadian Pacific to handle the majority of CMA CGM’s freight through Canada, underscoring the railroad’s aggressive approach to gaining international intermodal volume.

Expanded use of trailer pools will help ‘consolidate truckload services’ and speed goods more efficiently, but first trucking companies, brokers, and shippers need more trailers.

BNSF Railway is congested in Chicago, Memphis, and Kansas City with not enough chassis to move ocean containers, but the railroad is taking several measures to alleviate the congestion.

Union Pacific Railroad is warning that chassis supply could get tight soon in several US markets and it will not allow shippers to use their own private chassis if DCLI, TRAC Intermodal, and Flexi-Van Leasing run out of equipment.

That growth in trucking volumes has outpaced that of intermodal over the past seven years should be cause for concern for the intermodal industry, writes Larry Gross, president and founder of Gross Transportation Consulting and a JOC analyst.

Drayage technology rollup Envase has added GeoStamp, a GPS-based port and drayage visibility and analytics provider, to its roster of tools for port carriers and intermodal providers.

Domestic containers have been idling in a Norfolk Southern terminal in eastern Pennsylvania because of a chassis shortage, but the railroad said it is delivering new equipment to the region and repositioning chassis from other markets to deal with the disruption.

An unexpectedly large drop in spot market capacity last week during the annual “Roadcheck” program pushed dry-van and refrigerated spot rates up for the first time since January, according to DAT.

Norfolk Southern Railway is hopeful that intermodal service in Jacksonville, which has been inconsistent since January 2021, will improve as damaged cranes are repaired in the next two months.

US Labor Department data that includes contract rates shows no drop in overall truck pricing in April, despite a truckload spot market rate plunge.

Technology provider Draying.io wants to use its experience in developing a transportation management tool for carriers to help shippers automate the sourcing and pricing of port moves.

For some US retailers, inventories are too high, but others are steadily building stockpiles to mitigate supply chain risks ahead of the year-end holidays, keeping freight demand high.

Norfolk Southern Railway is reducing service on 120 international intermodal lanes to simplify its network and improve service, but some companies are worried it will harm exporters and chassis supply.

Increases in industrial production and retail sales in April suggest continuing strength in overall freight demand, despite tumbling truckload spot rates.

US truck driver detention continues to disrupt landside supply chains, but 3PLs and technology firms are redoubling efforts to help shippers optimize the flow of trucks through their gates.

Chassis shortages are disrupting rail ramps in Chicago for the second consecutive year, but cargo flow through other inland markets outside the Upper Midwest is more fluid than a year ago.

The debate over whether a freight recession is starting in US trucking is getting hotter as spot rates decline but other demand and pricing indicators stay positive.

Amazon Freight has created its first direct integration with a transportation management system provider, piping its capacity of 40,000 owned trailers and third-party drivers to MercuryGate’s base of shipper users.

Demand for LTL capacity is rising even faster than carriers can add terminals and doors, pushing rates higher still.

Truckload spot rates out of California have fallen for five straight months, but some believe demand will rebound as the COVID outbreak in China subsides and front-loaded cargo ordered to beat potential labor disruption on the West Coast hits the ports.

Forward Air is acquiring a Seattle-based drayage company as part of its strategy to direct more transloaded international container freight to its expedited LTL network.

For-hire trucking employment soared past seasonal expectations in April, underscoring strong demand despite declining spot market pricing.

Intermodal shippers saw record-high savings under contracts signed in Q1, but a recent slide in the spot truckload market could diminish the savings that rails can provide on one-off business over the next three months.

Shipper demand for more integrated port-to-door logistics is driving development of new, denser distribution networks, with facilities popping up in previously overlooked locations, Ryder System said.

More than 40 percent of drivers at small truckload carriers surveyed by technology provider SmartHop have entered the industry over the past two years, but many are considering moving to larger carriers for stability.

Union Pacific Railroad at the end of June will begin revamping how it builds domestic intermodal trains in Southern California in a bid to improve service for all shippers.

The longer the Chinese lockdowns last the more intense the scramble by US importers to secure factory production and transport capacity, potentially mirroring the whiplash of order cancellations in early 2020 that were followed by unprecedented demand.

Federal Maritime Commissioner member Carl Bentzel said US Class I railroads need to hire and invest more to boost their intermodal service if the nation’s ports are to avoid future meltdowns and congestion.

As domestic intermodal volumes rise, non-asset intermodal marketing companies are worried that US railroads are not buying enough 53-foot containers to support their shipper customers.

Knight-Swift now gets 13 percent of its revenue from its regional less-than-truckload subsidiaries, as it adds terminals and expands from a “super-regional” to a national footprint.

COFC will buy 5,500 new containers in the next 12 months to provide a BNSF Railway alternative for Schneider customers who do not want to switch to Union Pacific Railroad in 2023.

US shippers’ need for truck capacity guarantees in a volatile market is pushing more freight away from the spot market to contract carriers, especially the largest fleets such as Knight-Swift.

Intermodal volumes and service metrics declined in the first quarter for CSX and UP, though both US railroads believe they can hire more labor and haul more ocean containers in the coming months.

Venture capital investors have plunged $410 million into Convoy, as one of the more notable digitally native freight brokers seeks to expand its reach to small truckload carriers and large shippers.

Carrier executives say US transportation markets are stabilizing, with spot rates falling as freight shifts to contract carriers, but new approaches to contracting and planning are needed to control costs.