Trucking

Echo officials described EchoDrive Preferred as a tiered program comprised of three levels of benefits, with what it called a strategic approach to attract and reward the most loyal carriers and drivers.

Truckstop.com said this week that Book It Now will be available for free for a limited time to freight brokers using Truckstop.com Load Board Pro, adding that it is free for carriers and will appear on their Truckstop Mobile application.

For September, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI reading came in at -2.94, which is at its lowest level going back to May.

The ATA’s advanced seasonally-adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index for October, at 118.1 (2015=100), fell 0.3% off of September’s 118.5 reading, which was upwardly revised from an initial reading of 117.6. The ATA’s not seasonally-adjusted (NSA) index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment and the metric ATA says fleets should benchmark their levels with, came in at 125.4 (2015=100), topping September by 8.4%.

A challenging third quarter freight environment pushed the parent company the largest unionized trucking company back searching for the road to sustained profitability.

Here are the top trucking trends that all shippers should be aware of, according to the American Transportation Research Institute.

After earning $2.9 million in the 2018 third quarter, YRC sustained a $16 million net loss in the most recent quarter. The quarterly loss was exacerbated by an $11.2 million loss on extinguishment of debt associated with a refinancing of the term loan agreement, which resulted in a negative impact of $0.34 cents per share for the third quarter 2019.

With a focus on facilitating seamless domestic and cross-border loads, Uber Freight, a subsidiary of the ubiquitous, ride-sharing service Uber, whose proprietary app matches trucking companies with loads to haul, announced today it is expanding into Canada.

The American Transportation Research Institute's survey data collected in 2014 and 2018 shows that detention continues to be a significant issue for the trucking industry.

This American Transportation Research Institute report presents the findings of the 2019 annual survey and analysis and compares the findings of previous years’ results, providing insight into both the changing and emerging priorities of the trucking industry.

The American Transportation Research Institute, the trucking industry’s not-for-profit research institute, unveiled its annual Top Industry Issues report on October 6, 2019, and for the third year in a row, a shortage of drivers is the top-ranked issue for trucking fleets.

The report’s National Shipment Index, at 131.7 (2011=110.1), was up 0.3% from the second quarter to the third quarter, which was well off the 9.7% gain from the first quarter to the second quarter, and was down 0.1% annually. On the spending side, the report’s spending index, at 200.7, slipped 0.3% from the first quarter, the second sequential decline over the last three quarters, and rose 7.4% annually, topping the 6.4% annual gain from the first quarter to the second quarter.

IANA reported that total September volumes, at 1,489,303, fell 3.7% annually. The AAR reported that September U.S. intermodal container and trailer volumes, at 1.06 million, were off 5.9%, or 65,989 containers and trailers, annually. And it also pointed out that weekly average intermodal originations in September, at 265,371, represent the lowest September tally going back to 2016.

The ATA’s advanced seasonally-adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index for September, at 117.6 (2015=100), headed up 0.2% on the heels of a 4% (upwardly revised from 3.2%) August decline, which came in at 117.3. The ATA’s not seasonally-adjusted (NSA) index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment and the metric ATA says fleets should benchmark their levels with, came in at 114.8 (2015=100), which was off 7.5% compared to August’s 124.

After nearly two decades, the federal government is finally close to establishing the first national database of drug and alcohol-impaired truck drivers. The database is expected to improve highway and heavy truck safety but at the expense of perhaps a few thousand drivers who fail random drug and alcohol testing but still manage to evade the system to find jobs in the trucking industry.