Trucking News

An auction of Yellow’s 174 owned terminals is scheduled for Tuesday, with winning bids to be disclosed on Friday while a separate battle continues over 149 leased terminals.

The CO2 charge on commercial vehicles is aimed at incentivizing the use of green fuels and lower-emissions trucks, but it will come at a significant cost to the road haulage industry.

With its systems restored, the LTL carrier plans to “lean into” technology development and investment for greater security and visibility.

Large LTL trucking providers are raising tariff rates 5% to 8% on average, but the LTL PPI slowed its growth to under 1% in October.

Although small trucking firms are folding, there is still a large supply of carriers and trucks keeping a lid on pricing amid soft demand. 

The expedited less-than-truckload provider has asked a Delaware court to let it kill the controversial deal that has caused its share price to plummet and raised the ire of activist investors.

The need for greater supply chain stability, not just control over on-time service, is driving growth in the number of private fleets run by shippers even in a time of cheap truck rates.

Jack Cooper Transport wants to outbid other truckers for the assets of the bankrupt less-than-truckload provider, but it’s not clear how the bid would work.

An uptick in the West Coast share of Asian imports has already translated into heightened demand for surface transportation.

The largest US freight broker expects more companies to follow Convoy and exit the market as demand remains weak and rates stay low. 

Freight forwarder Omni isn’t giving up on a merger with Forward and is moving to force completion of the deal despite Forward’s cold feet. 

It is unlikely that supply and demand for dry van trucking will reach an equilibrium before the second quarter of 2024, and that is likely an optimistic date, writes analyst Jason Miller.

With hundreds of terminals on the market, LTL trucking companies are setting their sights on Yellow’s sites and other properties as they expand and optimize networks to handle more freight.

The apparent change of heart from Forward management comes as Forward activist investors opposed to the $150 million deal try to oust the company’s chief executive.

Less-than-truckload freight once hauled by Yellow is being “reallocated” among carriers, and rates are rising, but an underlying economic impetus for a surge in LTL demand is still missing.

The demise of truckload broker Convoy has highlighted how difficult it is to create differentiation in a market with no dominant player, with Convoy itself to blame for stoking more competition through its technology focus.

US truckload shippers are showing more “sensitivity” to supply and service issues, supporting a new spot market pricing floor but not giving rates much lift, according to trucking and logistics executives.

Transfix’s investment being announced on the same day Convoy told employees it was winding down operations highlights some of the differences between members of a group broadly defined as “digital brokers.”

While sudden, the impact of Convoy shutting its business should be muted in a truckload brokerage market where shippers have access to low spot rates and plentiful capacity.

The company has long been a lightning rod in the truckload industry, one of a cohort of so-called digital brokers to emerge in the 2010s backed by venture capital investors with an ambition to make the industry more efficient through digitizing processes.

Ancora Alternatives is seeking a special shareholder meeting to replace members of Forward’s board of directors, including CEO Tom Schmitt, with the ultimate goal of killing the acquisition of Omni, which Ancora blames for a steep drop in Forward’s stock value. 

State truck inspections are adding to existing problems clearing rising amounts of freight entering the US from Mexico as migrant numbers arriving at the US border surge.

The bidding process needs to be “revolutionized” to save shippers money, with more emphasis on strategic relationships, speakers said at the NITL Engage Conference.

Motor carriers may be concerned that in what is still a tight job market, any employees who are let go temporarily would not be available when demand rises again.

The fourth-largest US less-than-truckload carrier said it had restored many of its core systems by Sunday, while continuing to pick up and deliver freight despite a week of disruption.

While light commercial vehicles are not typically used on a large scale by the ocean carrier, it has a significant landside presence where the electric vehicles could be used to lower emissions.

The shipping giant is running four dry-van round trips each week on the approximately 400-mile route between the two cities.

Excess capacity in the truckload market is a chance for shippers to examine whether they or their freight brokers have the right technology tools to effectively price in the contract and spot markets.

Brokered LTL freight may be the first freight diverted away from Estes, and it may be harder for those transactional shipments to find alternate carriers.

A systems outage that has left less-than-truckload carrier Estes grappling with email, website and data exchange issues is the latest such incident to befall the logistics and transportation industry.

Cross-border trade with Mexico is one of the few hot spots in trucking, but fuel prices and other costs are putting more pressure on rates.

If history is any indication, it is unlikely intermodal providers will be able to implement a rate increase in 2024 contracts until the trucking market rebounds.

Rising labor costs — both behind the wheel and at the warehouse, elevated diesel prices and cross-dock scarcity in major cities are making it more costly to run transportation networks, attendees at the Journal of Commerce’s Inland Distribution Conference were told.

Solar panels and energy drinks are among the top targeted goods for truckload theft, with major markets such as Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago particularly ripe for those crimes.

Less-than-truckload freight once hauled by Yellow is being redistributed among other carriers in waves as shippers shop for the best fit in price, capacity, technology and service.

A US bankruptcy court approved a $1.525 billion bid by Estes Express Lines to be the “stalking horse” that sets the floor price for Yellow’s terminals at auction, controlling their sale in November.

Cuts in oil production and increased fuel use globally are pushing up trucking fuel surcharges and, in turn, transportation costs for US shippers.

The division of BNSF Logistics between BNSF Railway and J.B. Hunt is aimed at helping to improve service to joint customers at a time when freight demand is weak.

Estes Forwarding Worldwide, a subsidiary of the LTL trucking provider, is buying Superior Brokerage Services, a step that increases Estes’ ability to offer end-to-end logistics services as other providers look to do the same.

Steady gains in US-Mexico cross-border truck freight have spurred the logistics provider to open a 400,000-square-foot cross-dock warehouse in Laredo, a US border entry point already bursting with freight.