The long run-up in spot market truckload rates and truck freight demand may be reaching its peak, but don’t expect a quick descent, speakers at the Transplace Shipper Symposium said Wednesday.

Transplace has begun providing managed transportation-like services to customers that have their own transportation management system but want to be able to benchmark against the data of the $11 billion of freight the 3PL manages.

Shippers shouldn’t be worried about large carriers shutting down, but smaller trucking firms are vulnerable as the freight market softens.

Truck registrations are surging, but shippers are getting better at their game, creating new capacity through efficiencies, speakers say at the Transplace Shipper Symposium.

Transplace, with headquarters in Frisco, Texas, near Dallas, has been growing rapidly in recent years and expects to move $8 billion through its network this year.

If the word for the 1960s was “plastic,” the phrase for the current era may very well turn out to be “third-party logistics provider.”

Private equity firm Transplace management to buy company as shippers increasingly demand not just technology, but also realizing the value of that technology.

USAT Logistics, the non-asset arm of USA Truck, opens a Mexican subsidiary.

Third-party logistics provider Transplace is making further inroads into Canada after acquiring Lakeside Logistics.

Logistics operators at the U.S.-Mexican border are handling more transloaded truck freight, as rising volumes clash with the weak peso and imbalanced capacity.

Transplace has appointed Brian Kenney, a long-time logistics industry executive, as senior vice president of Transplace Capacity Services.

Transplace is expanding in Western Canada and Quebec as U.S.-Canada cross-border traffic speeds up, along with the U.S. and Canadian economies.

Logistics provider Transplace is building up its chemical business by acquiring Logistics Management Solutions, a 3PL with a strong chemicals customer base.

Truck capacity is tightening along the U.S.-Mexican border, forcing cross-border shippers to become more innovative, says Sonney Jones, a former shipper and now director of sales in Mexico for Transplace.

The normal excess of northbound versus southbound truck freight between Mexico and the U.S. is being exacerbated this year because of a high volume of northbound Mexican agricultural goods that is replacing produce normally shipped from California but lost due to the massive drought.

New software could help trucking companies enforce truck driver detention policies and collect fines from shippers that keep drivers waiting beyond agreed limits.

Shippers aren't convinced 2014 will bring a truckload “capacity crunch" and don't expect rates to rise that much. Carriers have a different view, based on increasing freight demand and rising costs.