The $6 billion deal announced Monday will establish Knight-Swift Transportation as the largest truckload operator in the United States.

Despite an uptick in volume in July, trucking executives see a long road ahead before truckload rates rise.

Capacity is beginning to exit the trucking market, a trend that will accelerate by the second half of the year, the president of Knight Transportation says.

The JOC Truckload Capacity Index contracted for the first time in eight quarters, reflecting efforts to better match capacity and demand by large carriers, many of which expect capacity to tighten in the second half of 2016.

Excess truck capacity is tugging at the earnings of truckload carriers, including Knight Transportation. The company believes truck capacity may have peaked, but much depends on the strength of consumer demand and retail inventory levels in 2016.

If U.S. shippers feel less pain when it comes time to pay freight bills this year, they can thank the worldwide oil glut. With the third quarter under way, the very significant impact of the collapse in oil and fuel prices over the past year on U.S. freight transportation is clear.

Large, diversified truckload carriers found detours around the "soft patch" in the U.S. economy during the first quarter, with most increasing revenue and profit. A lack of drivers may have held back some companies.

Knight Transportation is using sustainable profit to finance sustainable growth, both through acquisition and organic growth, raising driver pay and adding trucks in a tight market.

Specialized truckload operator Daseke acquired Lone Star Transportation and will add the Texas-based heavy hauler to its growing family of trucking subsidiaries.

Truckload operators are increasingly willing to pay more to secure the truck drivers needed to deliver trucking capacity to shipper customers.

The first quarter was warmer for trucking than you might think — at least financially.

Two trucking outfits at least managed to shrug off the winter snow and substantially increase first-quarter profits, while others lowered earnings estimates and froze growth plans.

The Journal of Commerce Truckload Capacity Index rose unexpectedly in the third quarter to a four-year high, but that doesn’t mean more tractor-trailers rolled onto highways and up to shipper docks. Instead, the leap in the index reflects a gathering concentration of capacity at the top of trucking’s food chain, as larger motor carriers acquire and absorb smaller companies to secure drivers, equipment and freight revenue.

Hub Group has lowered its expectations for the third quarter of 2013 to a range of 48 to 51 cents diluted earnings per share.

Knight Transportation is trying to acquire all of the outstanding shares of USA Truck, despite a recent rejection of its acquisition bid by USA Truck’s board of directors...