Surface

Chronic cross-border trucking delays serve as a reminder of how fragile the freight connection between the United States and its largest trading partner continues to be.

Going into 2020, chassis providers in the US are hopeful that fleet upgrades over the last two years have made the network more resilient, while also acknowledging that there is still little they can do to absorb sudden, unanticipated spikes in cargo.

The Mexican trucking sector is now a buyer’s market, with diminished demand allowing shippers to squeeze truckers for better rates, as the economy slows and the sector still adjusts to hours of service regulations that went into effect in mid-2018.

Virtually every notable new domestic freight broker in the US tied up at least one direct integration with a major transportation management system (TMS) provider in 2019, a trend that will likely continue in the coming years.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers maintained pricing discipline and focusing on their bottom lines in 2019, but the overall outlook for the sector in 2020 still depends largely on a flagging US manufacturing industry.

A new regulation that takes effect in the Mexican state of Jalisco in January is the latest rule that has angered Mexican truckers by limiting truck movement or levying a fee to enter a particular area, or both.

The US truckload freight market took some bruising in 2019, but there are signs that a rebound may be around the corner in 2020.

While carriers have long had options to get paid quicker than payment terms would guarantee -- by accepting a discount on invoices -- freight broker LoadDelivered is testing whether drivers would trade early payment for providing visibility and capacity loyalty.

With the number of truck drivers in the United States expected to continue rising steadily, motor carriers in the coming years will be focused on to getting the most out of existing drivers' miles and ensuring drivers earn enough money to keep them behind the wheel.

New legislation will take effect in California Jan. 1 that would make it much more difficult for truck drivers to retain independent contractor status, but owner operators are stuck in limbo pending a court decision on a legal challenge to the new rules.

With economic growth expected to slow and relations between the United States and its largest trading partners still in flux, cargo owners are expecting low but sustained demand and increased pricing pressure in the coming year.

The JOC.com editorial team has identified 10 trends every shipper, carrier, and third-party logistics provider should be watching in the upcoming year.

The Cass Freight Index suggests the bottom of the trucking market has passed, although the data doesn’t provide a clear picture of when pricing power will flip toward carriers again.

The latest data from the American Trucking Associations shows large truckload carriers cutting drivers and smaller fleets ramping up hiring.

Changes in package delivery market are leading FedEx to rethink its air express and ground strategies, as it struggles with a slowdown in global trade.

Seattle-based Convoy is challenging freight brokerage incumbents by saying it has developed capability to automate freight matching and pricing in widely-used US truckload lanes.

Year-to-date declines in metal, chemical, and forest product shipments will depress future truck volumes, creating an overhang that will affect pricing, a transportation economist says.

Traffic problems that slowed trucks in BNSF’s Lot 16 outside of Chicago have been resolved through a partnership between the railroad and an Intermodal Cartage-owned yard operator.

Driven by consumers and end-customers, more shippers say they are looking for precision in on-time delivery from trucking suppliers, and placing it before price.

A four-year-old logistics technology platform founded in India sees itself as the digital connective thread between the country’s long-haul freight market and the disorganized urban delivery sector.

Shippers may find capacity tighter on a carrier-by-carrier, lane-by-lane basis when the final phase of the ELD mandate takes effect Monday.

Truckload spot rates leaped upward in the first week of December, rising 12 cents per mile above their November average according to DAT Solutions as the final holiday retail push got underway.

A ‘freight volume headwind’ blew hard against YRC Worldwide in November, driving down tonnage at YRC Freight 10.2 percent year over year. December is looking better, the carrier says.

Gary Cohn, former director of the National Economic Council under President Donald Trump and former president of Goldman Sachs, was named as the opening keynote speaker of the 20th TPM, the world’s largest container trade conference, organized by IHS Markit.

Chicago-based startup Transship is teaming with TradeLens and other tech companies to create an automated shipping and forwarding platform for containerized perishables shipments.

Partnerships between core logistics software providers continue to expand, the latest example being SAP integrating North American and European visibility from project44 for its TMS user base.

Although a large carrier, Celadon’s fleet size and revenue are just drops in the US truckload bucket. The biggest impact of its bankruptcy may be in Mexico.

Brokers with digital freight marketplaces continue to partner with widely used TMS providers to give users of those systems direct access to electronic capacity and booking capabilities, while the marketplaces get an influx of direct shippers customers.

IHS Markit points to a “modest upturn” in the US economy, with consumer demand keeping freight in motion.

The Port of Baltimore has moved a step closer to sending double-stacked trains to the Midwest through the Howard Street Tunnel, securing the last portion of the $466 million needed to fund the project.

The best shippers have transportation and procurement teams that are in sync with each other, but cheap truck rates make for a difficult balancing act between pricing and loyalty to carriers.

With a deadline looming for US truck drivers to switch to ELDs, one telematics provider is banking on luring drivers onto its platform via a new carrier-centric smartphone app.

Less-than-truckload tonnage trends are still negative year over year in the fourth quarter, but they’re “stabilizing” at Old Dominion Freight Line, CEO Greg C. Gantt said Wednesday.

Shippers looking to move cargo through Central New York State now have the option of using a new inland port opened by CSX Transportation in Syracuse.

Cass Information Systems is partnering with the University of Tennessee to enhance its benchmark truckload and intermodal pricing indexes, and explore new data opportunities.

Shippers may pay more to move freight in December, as rising retail sales and faster delivery demands begin to tap underutilized capacity.

Austin-based technology company Shipwell has in the past been dubbed a freight marketplace, a broker, and a software provider, but bolstered by a large funding round in October, the company is focusing on automation and connectivity for shippers.

Despite the lifting of Russian sanctions on the transit of agricultural products through its territory, some big issues stand in the way of rising volume.

The bluster of trade war rhetoric continues on both sides of the Pacific as a Phase One deal is hammered out. Until then, look to the intermodal system to show the truth on the movement of trade.

If the heavy support of subsidies from China was withdrawn quickly, it is likely only higher-value products would be viable on the China-Europe rail network.