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J.B. Hunt Transport Services said there is more intermodal demand than available capacity, and it downplayed the likelihood of an imminent freight recession.

Recent gains in manufacturing activity, including consumer goods production, suggest continued expansion of US freight demand while dampening worries about retail spending.

The US Surface Transportation Board has given its blessing to CSX Transportation’s acquisition of short-line operator Pan Am Railways, saying the benefits outweigh any anti-competitive risks.

Norfolk Southern is shortening how much free time a shipper will have before storage penalties apply, an effort to speed cargo flow as the railroad struggles to provide reliable intermodal service.

Logistics provider Valor Victoria is looking to reduce port congestion in Los Angeles-Long Beach by purchasing slots on Union Pacific trains and shipping containers to inland hubs such as Salt Lake City.

Trucking revenue broke records in 2021, riding on a wave of mergers and acquisitions as well as swelling rates and unrelenting demand, and analysts forecast that 2022 will continue the positive trend.

Truckload spot rates have cooled considerably in the last 45 days, but a larger freight recession may not be on the horizon given demand remains strong in other modes of commercial transportation.

Better use of existing trucks and trailers is creating truckload capacity and reducing transportation costs, but it’s not clear how long that fresh capacity will be available, DAT principal analyst Dean Croke says.

This year was expected to be a year of rebuilding for domestic intermodal, with recovery of some of the recent significant share losses; it isn’t working out that way so far, writes JOC analyst Larry Gross.

A recent resurgence in international intermodal volumes is causing BNSF Railway to struggle to provide consistent service, disrupting the flow of containers between Los Angeles and Chicago.

Union Pacific Railroad is reducing its surcharge on certain loads in 53-foot containers out of Oakland and Seattle because more boxes are available for shippers.

The shift of containerized freight from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast and Southeast is absorbing truck capacity in those regions and pushing up spot rates, including rates from Houston to California.

Forwarding software provider Magaya is wading into the less-than-truckload technology market with an automated pricing tool meant to help its customers quote faster to shippers.

A major disruption in Kansas City Southern’s terminal near Dallas is causing some shippers to wait more than a month to get their containers, and there is no timeline on when KCS will return to normal operations.

Fresh off a seed funding round in February, truckload pricing intelligence provider Greenscreens.ai has built connectivity with procurement technology partners FreightFriend and 3Gtms.

Shippers and their service providers exiting the China-Europe rail route through Russia has slammed the brakes on a trade lane that expanded by almost 30 percent in 2021.

Freight marketplace Emerge has designs on reshaping the truckload procurement space in North America, with an ambitious target of $20 billion in freight spend through its platform this year.

US Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl Bentzel said China’s dominance in container and chassis manufacturing is the direct result of the Communist government’s support for the sector.

West Coast ports and terminal operators say rail container dwell times have exploded of late, bringing back memories of last summer’s rail meltdown that led to congestion problems and equipment shortages throughout the inland supply chain.

The reluctance to ship China export rail cargo through Russia to Europe is keeping forwarders busy, but the only available options come at a cost.

Marine chassis pools are getting tighter after a jump in international intermodal volume from West Coast ports in February, but stakeholders are hopeful of avoiding a repeat of 2021 when BNSF and Union Pacific terminals were overwhelmed with cargo.

Base US truckload spot rates are falling, but higher fuel costs and market volatility are limiting over-the-road savings for shippers.

XPO’s intermodal division has been sold to STG Logistics, an LCL provider that primarily transloads international cargo in Los Angeles and Long Beach and uses 53-foot intermodal containers to distribute goods across the US.

After two incredibly tight years, the availability of truckload equipment and drivers is on the rise in the US, but constraints on capacity growth remain in place.

Norfolk Southern Railway is again restricting container traffic at its Jacksonville terminal, this time after a crane fire earlier this week.

Norfolk Southern Railway has struggled to maintain fluid operations in Jacksonville for more than a year, with the latest disruption involving chassis shortages, late-arriving trains, and overhead cranes breaking down.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services will grow its box fleet by 40 percent to 150,000 containers within three to five years as it seeks to win market share from Union Pacific Railroad and its intermodal partners.

Growing e-commerce and import-export business is pulling Northeast regional LTL carrier A. Duie Pyle south to Virginia, where it plans to open three terminals and connect to ports.

For China-Europe rail shippers, there are precious few alternatives to the northern corridor that passes through Russia and Belarus and handles almost all the volume moved on the land bridge.

The sudden increase in fuel-related shipping costs caused by the war in Ukraine is already changing how shippers plan to move goods within the US, forcing them to consolidate shipments and even change modes.

While truckload rates off the West Coast have fallen in the last two months, analysts believe rising fuel prices will spur a rapid increase in shipper costs in the coming weeks.

Less-than-truckload provider Yellow denied liability but agreed to settle a longstanding allegation that it charged the US Department of Defense too much for certain shipments before 2013.

Trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) volumes have been fading away for years and may be nearing the end game as a “tidal wave” of new private 53-foot containers enters the US domestic intermodal system, according to JOC analyst Lawrence Gross.

Shippers are frontloading cargo on Canadian Pacific Railway ahead of a potential Teamsters strike on March 16, causing a surge in volume and delays getting containers onto trains.

Insurance technology provider Loadsure plans to use an $11 million funding round to expand in the US freight market and serve forwarders managing international shipments.

Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern have run their first-ever Mexico to US Midwest international intermodal train together as the US Surface Transportation Board reviews the merger of the two railroads.

The truckload and less-than-truckload markets are closer than ever, as retail demand and inventory replenishment put pressure on capacity, Knight-Swift CEO David Jackson says.

XPO Logistics is spinning off its North American truckload brokerage business and looking to sell off its intermodal group.

Combined revenues among the 25 largest US LTL trucking companies jumped more than 20 percent in 2021, and the market conditions that allowed for that record-setting revenue growth remain firmly in place in early 2022.

Double-digit increases in tonnage and volume at two of the largest less-than-truckload carriers in February reflect strong overall demand from US retail and industrial shippers.