Trucking News

Old Dominion Freight Line is adding a second terminal in St. Louis, Missouri, expanding its less-than-truckload service in the city and the Midwest.

Old Dominion Freight Line is proving by example that there is plenty of life in the less-than-truckload model that served as the blueprint for trucking from the 1930s through deregulation in the 1980s.

The electronic logging mandate that takes effect in late 2017 will have a big impact on shippers, as well as carriers and drivers, especially when coupled with the driver coercion rule. Supply chains will have to adjust as technology brings both transparency and "rigidity" to driver hours.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association will sue the Department of Transportation in a bid to block a rule requiring truck drivers to use electronic logging devices, the association's executive vice president said today.

The American Trucking Associations welcomed a mandate requiring 3 million truck drivers to use electronic logs by 2017, hailing the safety benefits of the technology. Other trucking groups may not be so happy.

U.S. truck drivers using paper logs to record their work hours must switch to electronic logging by 2017 under a new regulation, a step that means big changes for drivers, carriers and shippers.

Apparel wholesaler S&S Activewear is the latest company to set up distribution operations in the Kansas City area, expanding its overnight delivery footprint in the Central U.S.

U.S. trucking companies added 2,300 workers in November, after watching payroll drop from an eight-year high in September and October. The uptick may indicate stronger holiday freight demand, but trucking's hiring rate has slowed since 2014.

Transporation holding company Arcbest, the parent of ABF Freight, expanded its asset-light business by adding truckload broker Bear Transportation to fast-growing ABF Logistics.

From a near-meltdown at U.S. West Coast ports to a wave of mergers and acquisitions, with hints of more in the container line industry, 2015 has been full of plenty of surprises.

Class 8 truck orders fell to their lowest level in at least three years, the latest sign of how motor carriers are pulling back on adding capacity as freight demand slows.

Freight brokers are in a unique position to take advantage of the weak economy, BB&T Capital Markets says.

The value of goods shipped between Mexico and the U.S. continues to climb, while the goods value in U.S.-Canada trade is dropping. Lower fuel prices and the strong U.S. dollar are partly to blame, as well as the surge in Mexican manufacturing aimed at the U.S.

Old Dominion Freight Line barreled past signs warning U.S. shipping was slowing in the first two months of the fourth quarter, handling more shipments and higher freight tonnage.

The surge in acquisitions keeps building, as truckload carrier Transport America, acquired last year by TransForce, buys logistics company Optimal Freight.

Freight transportation is a hot target market for companies that want to emulate the success of Uber, kayak.com and Airbnb. A truck is not a taxi, however, and the "shared economy" in the freight world will likely look different than it does in other markets.

The worst reading from the Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers Index in three years signals a slowdown in freight for less-than-truckload carriers to haul.

Werner Enterprises, the fifth-largest truckload carrier in the U.S., is raising solo driver pay by an average of $5,000 annually, the latest sign of how motor carriers are forking out more to keep and attract drivers ahead of serious demographic headwinds.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released on Friday the final version of its coercion rule, the first in a number of regulations that could impact U.S. truck capacity moving forward.

For-hire truck tonnage reversed two months of decline in October even as inventories remain a drag on truck freight volume, according to the latest figures from the American Trucking Associations.

Transportation stakeholders received something to celebrate this year as 44 percent of the new $500 million round of the Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program went to projects dedicated to moving freight.

The National Automobile Dealers Association raised its forecast for 2016 U.S. car and light truck sales to 17.7 million units, a record high that will drive automotive freight and logistics demand.

Less-than-truckload shipments increased marginally in the first nine months of 2015, as freight revenue plummeted, thanks largely to the drop in fuel surcharges, SJ Consulting Group says.

It may come as no surprise that an Atlanta highway interchange known as “Spaghetti Junction,” topped the list of the worst truck bottlenecks in the U.S. this year.

Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group, the world’s largest leading logistics and mail communications company since 2008, will share his views on the current and future state of global supply chains on Feb. 28, 2016, at the 16th Annual TPM Conference in Long Beach, California.

Tis the season for cargo theft — and transportation companies and shippers are advised to be on guard this Thanksgiving weekend.

Shippers are cheering emergency legislation that ended nationwide blockades by Brazilian independent truckers.

Several long-anticipated rules and proposals for trucking may hit the Federal Register in the next two weeks, including the electronic logging mandate, a final rule on driver coercion and proposals on carrier safety ratings and truck speed limiters.

ODFL is offering some shippers a chance to ditch fuel surcharges, a step that could lead to LTL pricing more closely aligned with service and actual costs.

An increase in inventories in the third quarter and September is skewing the pre-holiday shipping season, depressing imports and overland freight demand.

Last year's increase in truck orders is showing up on U.S. highways and at large truckload fleets, pushing up the JOC Truckload Capacity Index to a seven-year high. But those new tractors are rolling into a soft freight market.

After building to a crescendo in May and April, the number of U.S. transportation job openings has slipped for five straight months, though the numbers are still higher than a year ago.

Spot truckload rates have fallen relentlessly this year as U.S. freight demand dried up and contract capacity increased. Excluding fuel surcharges, however, dry van spot rates have "flattened," and contract rate increases slowed, DAT Solutions' Mark Montague says. Whether the market will change substantially any time soon is another question.

An increase in the amount of freight transloaded at the U.S. border means Mexican trucking company Fletes México is using more of its own equipment to haul shipments to a U.S. crossdock facility. The trend has been noted by U.S. logistics operators, who claim it can help reduce a capacity imbalance at the U.S.-Mexican border.

The Cass Freight Index, both for U.S. freight shipments and payments, dropped a step in October, as shippers worked through piles of inventory.

Mark H. George, chairman, IMC companies, discusses new technological developments sweeping the trucking industry and how those changes will impact the driver shortage with Alessandra Barrett, senior content director, JOC, at the JOC Inland Distribution Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, in October.

Consolidation continues in Eastern Canada's trucking market as Kriska Transportation Group acquires its second truckload carrier in two months. Access to cross-border shippers and their freight is one of the goals.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services says it expects to see income and revenue gains in 2016 in line with the gains the firm has seen in the recent third quarter and earlier this year.

Logistics operators at the U.S.-Mexican border are handling more transloaded truck freight, as rising volumes clash with the weak peso and imbalanced capacity.

For-hire trucking companies slow hiring as payrolls hit seven-year highs, wait for signs freight demand will strengthen.