Trucking News

Cross-border supply chains need to become more integrated and efficient to increase capacity on both sides of a constricted border, logistics executives say.

Shippers once saw small variances on freight bills as a nuisance too insignificant to dispute, but technology is enabling more efficient scrutiny across transportation modes.

Those companies are combining to get the terminals, talent and technology they need to compete as larger carriers increasingly seek business in their markets.

Less-than-truckload volumes may be down as much as 15% from 2021, but carriers are pushing for rate hikes in single-digit percentages as they plan expansion.

A stronger manufacturing recovery is needed to increase demand in both the truckload and LTL sectors, speakers said during a Journal of Commerce webcast.

Some freight brokers are increasing the number of loads they can book per day with software that automates repetitive components of the booking process.

Trucking companies large and small are considering adding more LTL providers to their portfolios, but finding the right acquisition targets is a challenge.

Freight marketplaces report a new storm-related surge in spot volume, lifting transactional pricing as trucking heads toward its peak holiday season.

The truckload spot market is cooling after a surge in rates and volume, but seasonality is expected to give it another boost as year-end holidays approach.

As damage from Helene and Milton is being tallied, logistics experts say the storms won’t do much to accelerate spot and contract truckload pricing in the long term.

Following Hurricane Helene by less than two weeks, Milton will draw more truck capacity to the Southeast, upsetting market balance and pushing spot prices higher.

Although ongoing softness in the US freight economy is tempering forecasts for higher truck pricing, both truckload and less-than-truckload carriers expect pricing gains next year.

Shipping executives say domestic intermodal rates are set for a rise as trucking pricing expands, but they’re not expecting significant increases.

The US economy will grow in 2025, but not by leaps and bounds, with consumer spending forecast to drop while freight rates rise, according to speakers at the Journal of Commerce Inland Distribution Conference 2024 (Inland24).

Recovery efforts are barely under way after a deadly and destructive storm ripped through several southern states, but reconstruction will draw on truckload supply nationwide.

A court has cleared the sale of the last batch of properties from the bankrupt LTL provider, more than two dozen of which are located near container ports.

Drayage and trucking firms say they are busy pulling containers from East and Gulf coast ports, sending them across the US on rail networks while locating storage space ahead of the Oct. 1 strike date.

GenLogs, a technology provider aiming to help US brokers track trucks, uses a network of roadside sensors to passively collect truckload carrier locations.

Brokers looking to tap into the booming US-Mexico trade now have a tool to serve shipper requests to handle cross-border truckload moves.

Cutting terminals as freight volume drops, FedEx Freight is positioning itself for growth and a possible separation from its parcel carrier parent company in 2025.

Higher-than-expected retail sales in stores and online last month helped increase truckload shipments, but excess capacity is keeping rates in a holding pattern.

An analysis of quarterly and monthly Labor Department data puts trucking employment at 2019 levels, and that could signal a quicker change in capacity if freight increases.

A soft freight economy and improved shipper scheduling and loading procedures are contributing to a decline in driver detention time, the American Transportation Research Institute says in a new study.

Shipper-paid spot truckload rates out of Southern California rose 6 cents per mile in August from July, despite the national shipper-paid spot rate average falling 6 cents during the same period.

The latest year-over-year comparisons are clearing up LTL market distortions caused by Yellow’s failure and revealing weak demand, but tight capacity is pushing up rates.

The ocean shipping line is the latest to plant a stake in a key manufacturing region along the US-Mexico border.

Post-Labor Day retail demand is tightening capacity in key distribution markets, but overall demand is depressed, partly because of a slowdown in manufacturing.

Investors have put $6.3 million into a startup aiming to provide a procurement and transportation management software alternative to enterprise-focused solutions.

The possible sale of DHL Freight’s US regional LTL arm to Jack Cooper would be the latest in a series of acquisitions aimed at building larger LTL networks.

Reduced overall capacity, higher pricing and more dense and efficient networks are defining characteristics of the post-Yellow LTL market.

The BlueGrace Logistics Confidence Index shows an uptick in negative sentiment about revenue and orders in late 2024, despite gains in freight volume this summer.

It may take a week or more for the trucking disruption caused by last week’s brief Canadian rail stoppage to stabilize and for long-haul intra-Canada spot rates to drop.

Private fleets owned by shippers are increasingly hauling freight once moved by for-hire carriers, and those truck counts are expected to keep expanding, according to an industry survey.

The wave of cargo thefts hitting the US and Canada grew rapidly in the first half of the year as criminals became more sophisticated, a study from risk management firm Overhaul shows.

There’s not enough truck capacity to haul the volume carried by CN and CPKC in Canada, and that’s causing a dislocation of truck supply across the country and on the US border.

Most of Freightos’ traction in air and ocean freight procurement has centered around spot pricing, but the purchase of Shipsta will give it access to contract data from enterprise shippers.

Disruption to inland supply lanes and the location of truck capacity would be possible if rail and port strike threats prove real, analysts told a Journal of Commerce webcast.

Producer price indexes and the Cass Freight Index show slight increases in truck pricing and volumes in July, but not a rapid turnaround.

Despite the nearly $140 billion invested in logistics startups globally from 2012 through 2023, most of the industry’s major inefficiencies remain and the underlying structure of the industry has hardly changed.

Some non-asset logistics providers are adding LTL volume and revenue as truckload brokerage keeps declining.