Surface

Business leaders urged the Canadian government to help resolve the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference’s strike against Canadian National Railroad as the job action entered its second day.

Asset-monitoring technology will help Canadian Pacific and intermodal shippers to locate and better utilize the railroad’s chassis pool.

Both Coyote Logistics and DAT Solutions see spot rates moving into inflationary territory early next year, but the US economy will signal how high rates might climb.

Canadian National Railroad said it will continue talks with the Teamsters Canadian Rail Conference despite the union’s decision to launch a strike at 12.01 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday.

The number of violations issued to drivers for exceeding hours of service limits has dropped significantly since the ELD mandate took effect, but false log violations rose last year.

The divide sharpens between those who see looming recession in freight numbers and those who see sustained, albeit slower, US growth.

Intermodal growth north of the border supports the scenario that once the Precision Scheduled Railroading transition is completed, the stage is set for intermodal gains. But a closer review calls this assumption into question.

YRC Worldwide is keeping its well-known brands separate, but blending its regional and national terminal networks, as well as sales and management.

The freight broker Convoy has landed the second biggest single funding round in North American logistics technology industry, as its investors more than double down on the idea of technology solving inefficiencies and waste in the truckload market.

In the heart of what is supposed to be peak season, rail container traffic is not only much slower than a year ago, but also behind 2017 levels as well — and truck seems sluggish, too.

A shift to time-based truckload rates will come, eventually, as electronic logging and detention disputes reshape supply chains, a TIA report finds.

Inland container depot movement by train has steadily gained traction over the past three months at India’s JNPT in the wake of a more collaborative rail arrangement sealed between the port and terminal stakeholders.

Unless the Los Angeles-Long Beach ports attract more cargo, they could wind up stuck with a hefty bill for the intermodal corridor’s bond debt, a report says.

The number of speeding violations handed to US truck drivers jumped 7.8 percent in 2018, but speeding has been a problem since long before that. Shippers need to help solve it.

Moving a 238-metric ton transformer over the road from Houston to New Mexico requires meticulous planning, detailed route surveys, and the building of a massive transport trailer.

Regulators are accepting comments on a petition to exempt small carriers from the ELD mandate, as the final compliance deadline for truck drivers and carriers approaches.

The rail freight transit times from China to Europe are shortening as forwarders adjust service routes to avoid bottlenecks at major train transfer hubs.

As spot intermodal rates begin to save shippers more money than earlier in 2019, shippers are seeing reduced savings on contract business.

The pace of hiring at US for-hire trucking companies continues to slow as low unemployment and alternative work challenge recruiters.

Multiregional LTL carrier Saia generated more revenue, volume, and profit through expansion into the Northeast and in ‘legacy’ markets.

Top intermodal providers had few positives in describing the current state of the market with little to no seasonal uptick in container volumes on rail.

Large truckload carriers continue to shed trucks, according to the JOC Truckload Capacity Index. Logistics providers, however, report ample available truck capacity.

Freight brokers believe spot market rates will remain lower than historical norms through the first half of 2020 despite a recent seasonal bump in rates.

US motor carriers blamed “an oversupply of truckload capacity” for greater-than-expected pressure on earnings in the third quarter.

Increased use of dimensioning equipment and more detailed cost analysis is seen lifting the floor for LTL and truckload pricing in the future.

A venture capital-backed freight broker wants to create carpooling opportunities for LTL by using technology instead of physical terminals to aggregate shipments.

Europe’s largest inland port is about to become even bigger as it partners with an international consortium to develop a new terminal.

US freight shippers are eyeing transportation budgets cautiously in 2020, as the truckload pricing cycle approaches its next turn in a slow-growing US economy.

The third blockage this year of the main rail line into the Mexican Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, which is operated by Kansas City Southern of Mexico (KCSM) will likely add to shipper fears that moving cargo by rail is unreliable.

The stress imposed on the trucking sector by slower US economic growth is likely to be apparent across the board in third-quarter motor carrier financial reports.

Forty-seven of the top 50 global transportation providers saw revenues rise in 2018, benefitting from a strong global economic growth and growing anticipation of reciprocal tariffs between the United States and China.

Shippers and 3PLs would like to find ways to reduce the volatility in freight markets by communicating about costs, service, and safety.

Technology will drive a revolution, not an evolution, in the trucking market in the next decade, solving some capacity issues by utilizing a driver’s time much better.

A survey of small businesses shows truckers still looking for growth ahead, despite a tough market in 2019.

CSX Transportation and Union Pacific Railroad reported weak intermodal volume for the third quarter, but insisted their networks are lean, efficient, and ready to fully capitalize when the market rebounds.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services said its intermodal volume was flat in the third quarter, a positive given the 4.5 percent decline in total intermodal volume across the industry.

There is no driver shortage, says the author. Trucking added drivers last year during a time of record-low unemployment, and presumably, the most competitive conditions possible in terms of available career alternatives to life in the driver’s seat. That doesn’t square with a hypothetical chronic shortage.

Shippers are being urged to plan carefully for 2020, as signs begin to indicate the US truck market may swing again next year.

Coyote Logistics’ chief strategy officer urges shippers to prepare now for a truckload market in 2020 that could look very different than today’s.

Two refrigerated intermodal carriers, Marten Transport and KLLM Transport, have acquired 53-foot containers as US Class I railroads have been disincentivizing intermodal trailer use.