Trucking

As the Biden administration moves ahead with planned deployment of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle electric charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructure from 2024 to 2040, trucking industry officials are warning of excessive costs associated with such electrification.

The new edition of the Trucking Conditions Index (TCI), which was recently issued by freight transportation consultancy FTR, saw some signs of improvement but again remaining short of growth.

Challenging market conditions on various fronts, for freight transportation brokers and intermediaries, were the main themes of the new edition of the “3PL Market Report Fourth Quarter 2023, which was issued this week by the Alexandria, Va.-based Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA).

The liquidation of Yellow Corp., once the largest less-than-truckload (LTL) and the nation’s 13th-largest trucking company when it ceased operations last August, has continued to prove that Yellow’s assets were valuable even without operating as a functioning trucking company.  

In this podcast, Jeff Berman, Group News Editor for Logistics Management and the Peerless Media Supply Chain Group interviews Evan Armstrong, President of Brookfield, Wisc.-based supply chain consultancy Armstrong & Associates.

On March 11, a new rule from the Department of Labor goes into effect. Detractors say it will wreak havoc on independent business owners and freelancers throughout the country. Save Independent Work, a coalition of independent workers and advocacy groups, announced its new campaign to overturn the rule that would reclassify hundreds of thousands of independent workers, including independent business owners and freelancers, as employees.

Rising heavy truck insurance costs have become a byproduct of  mounting financial pressures in the trucking industry.

PepsiCo's supply chain evolved after COVID, adding more products and efficiency in its operation.

ODFL reported that revenue per day rose 1.2% annually, driven by an increased in LTL revenue per hundredweight, which was slightly offset by a 3.0% decrease in LTL tons per day. The company added that the change in daily LTL tons was attributed to a 3.2% decrease in LTL weight per shipment that was partially offset by a 0.2% increase in LTL shipments per day.

FTR reported that preliminary February net orders, at 25,700 units, were down 9% compared to January and headed up 11% annually. ACT reported that February preliminary North American Class 8 net orders, at 27,700 units, saw a 600-unit gain over January, while posting a 16% annual increase.

Electric truck startup Range Energy announced $23.5 million in new financing as it helps trucking companies make their diesel trucks more environmentally friendly.

The cessation of Yellow continues to have repercussions throughout the $58 billion LTL market. Now, a shuffling of the capacity equation is causing strategic changes, and shippers need to adapt to the new alignment of resources to find operational success.

The company announced today that Shelley Simpson, JBH president, has been appointed as chief executive officer, in addition to her duties as president, coupled with her nomination for election to the company’s Board of Directors.

For December, the most recent month for which data is available, the SCI was essentially flat, coming in at 6.4, edging out November’s 6.3 reading. October had topped October’s 4.3 by 2%, with FTR saying at the time reflected the most favorable market conditions for shippers since June 2023.

Total estimated 2023 global 3PL market revenue was off 18.5% annually, coming in at $1.2 trillion. But even with that decline, the firm observed that this tally still represented a 25.3% increase, when compared to pre-pandemic 2019.