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A growing gap between inventory and sales in many US business sectors is projected to drive replenishment, expedited shipping, and high levels of imports for months to come.

Old Dominion Freight Line is closely following big box retail customers, adding new service centers as e-commerce spurs construction of new distribution centers.

Increasing US truck freight demand from ports to factories may slow the decline in spot truckload rates seen by DAT, while contract motor carriers take on more business.

Investment continues to surge into technologies that enable small truckload carriers to improve administrative and operational aspects of their businesses, with SmartHop’s $12 million funding round the latest example.

The loss of 84,300 trucking and warehousing jobs in January -- actual numbers before seasonal adjustment -- makes prospects for tighter capacity and higher rates for US shippers in the months ahead more certain.

As cost-conscious India shippers seek “more for less,” value-added services have begun to occupy center stage in freight contract negotiations, including bespoke intermodal services.

The problem with a later peak week is that it leaves precious little room for recovery; when things go wrong or the unexpected occurs, the system appears not to be agile enough to avoid stock-outs and disappointment.

The former YRC Worldwide is expanding, not shrinking, Yellow CEO Darren Hawkins says, with plans for streamlined pricing and more regional services as it radically overhauls its business.

Shippers may see intermodal savings evaporate in the first quarter if rail contracts rise more than 10 percent and spot truck rates continue to cool off and pressure truck contracts.

Fewer trucking companies are responding to shipper bids, as contract truckload pricing rises by high single-digit percentage rates, Transplace executives said Tuesday.

A significant number of truckload shippers delayed annual bids with the largest US truck freight broker in the fourth quarter to avoid spiking contract rates.

Software providers say the proliferation of integrations between transportation management systems and domestic freight brokers in 2020 hints at a future in which a TMS will no longer be merely a static system, but a living platform.

Policy experts told the virtual SMC3 Jump Start 2021 conference they expect a renewed push to limit truck driver hours of service, but also truck driver detention, during the Biden administration.

Another new entrant in the small carrier TMS space, Dallas-based Axele, portends more market structure and available capacity for shippers to tap into.

A surge in demand for Shipwell’s technology-focused managed transportation approach, with freight under management tripling in 2020, is a sign of shippers’ increased reliance on an outsourced approach to logistics.

Additional acquisitions will fuel growth for both XPO’s transportation and contract logistics businesses, soon to be separate companies, chairman and CEO Bradley S. Jacobs said.

The sale of its $3.1 billion less-than-truckload (LTL) subsidiary narrows UPS’s focus and gives TFI International a much bigger presence in the North American LTL market, from Canada to Mexico.

Maersk has teamed up with intermodal rail giant Container Corporation of India to offer block train movement from Kolkata to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to feed the carrier’s weekly long-haul sailings out of the busy public harbor.

Companies such as Werner Enterprises, Schneider National, and U.S. Xpress are taking an active role in the development of autonomous trucks, but not, they say, to replace drivers.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services warns customers that intermodal prices will rise more than 10 percent in some US markets to recoup costs of restoring fluidity to the network and to support growth.

Motor carriers must do more than raise driver pay to counteract the current shortfall, including driving greater efficiency in their networks and at shipper facilities to allow existing truckers to make more trips in a given day.

US truckload carrier Heartland Express improved revenue and profit in the most recent quarter and is raising driver pay, investing in new equipment, and focusing on improved utilization in 2021.

After a sharp rebound in freight demand in the second half of 2020, US less-than-truckload (LTL) operators are operating more profitably and seeking higher rates for 2021, while shippers are prioritizing capacity and on-time performance.

Rising industrial freight volumes will keep pressure on truckload capacity and pricing in 2021, even if demand for goods peaks, according to FTR Transport Intelligence analysts.

More than half of 300 retailers responding to a recent survey cited increasing delivery costs as a major challenge in meeting growing e-commerce demand.

A chassis shortage has caused some containers to idle at BNSF’s ramp in St. Paul, Minnesota, an offshoot of the congestion in Chicago, but not as disruptive given the relative small rail volume in the Twin Cities.

Major US retailers in 2020 responded to COVID-19 lockdowns and last-mile delivery constraints by expanding customer fulfillment options like curbside pickup, buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), and same-day delivery, demand for which continued to increase even as stores reopened.

European truckload broker sennder has vaulted into the upper reaches of venture capital-based logistics startups with a $160 million funding round and a $1 billion valuation.

Shippers have used the spot trucking market to account for volume surges in 2020, but they can use data to better calibrate their contracts, including short-term deals, freight procurement expert Heather Mueller tells JOC Uncharted.

Union Pacific Railroad’s decision to rescind record-breaking surcharges on the West Coast beginning Jan. 17 will lower prices for importers moving cargo through Los Angeles.

The China-Europe rail network is creaking under the same space and equipment shortages, and soaring rate levels, that are disrupting air and ocean markets.

Retailers and parcel carriers are expanding returns networks to handle record volumes and drive down transportation costs for carriers.

Buoyed by rail upgrades, intermodal haulers in India are hoping to convince traditional road shippers to switch to rail, accelerating a modal shift critical to meeting government targets on cargo dwell times.

Intermodal should have a good year in 2021, but its long-run fundamentals that were in place pre-pandemic have not been significantly altered.

Intermodal marketing company (IMC) executives say US intermodal rates charged to shippers will rise between 3 and 10 percent in major lanes and between 3 and 5 percent in secondary lanes this year.

DCLI ran out of chassis last week in Chicago, and cargo owners are frustrated because Union Pacific will not release their containers to draymen with trucker-owned chassis.

High demand for consumer goods and tight capacity will keep pressure on US contract and spot truckload rates in the early part of 2021, but pricing could begin to recede again by mid-year.

Trucking’s peak season extended well into December, blunting a seasonal decline in actual trucking employment numbers and boosting seasonally adjusted job gains, according to data released Friday.

The chassis network on the East Coast has held up during the recent import surge due to better communication and data, and more reliable equipment.

A new law that requires the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a plan to use X-rays or similar technology to scan all cars, trucks, and freight trains entering the country could cause a flare up of chronic congestion issues at the southern border.