Trucking

The state of the freight economy was a key theme at the SMC3 JumpStart 2024 conference held in Atlanta late last month. Avery Vise, vice president of trucking, for freight transportation consultancy FTR, offered up his views on the freight economy, at the moment, and where things could be headed.

Chicago-based Uber Freight is rolling out a pilot program based on a new scheduled application programing interface (API), which it said will represent the “first activation” of the Scheduling Standards Consortium (SSC) Technical Standard.

FTR reported that preliminary January net orders, at 26,400 units, snapped a three-month stretch of sequential declines, with a 2% gain over December, while posting a 35% annual increase. ACT reported that January preliminary North American Class 8 orders, at 27,000 units, rose by 600 units compared to December and climbed up 45% annually.

The company’s expansion in Nashville is part of an ongoing effort to invest in its facility infrastructure and demonstrate its commitment to its customers, its associates and its future, adding that Averitt wants to be on the leading edge when it comes to technology, equipment and facilities.

Ryder officials said that bringing Cardinal into the fold will help to enable the company’s growth and also further strengthen its position as a leading customized North American-based dedicated contract carrie

While this week’s fourth quarter earnings call, for Atlanta-based global freight transportation and logistics services provider UPS, was replete with interesting information and data, including nearly 8% revenue decline and 12,000 layoffs, another interesting takeaway was related to its truckload brokerage business, Coyote, which it acquired in 2015.

IANA reported that total fourth quarter intermodal volume, at 4,367,940 units, rose 3.1% annually, marking the first time there has been annual growth in the past nine quarters. Full-year 2023 intermodal volume, at 16,669,980 units, was off 5.9% annually.

Taking steps to expand its national network, Downers Grove, Ill.-based Roadrunner, a national less-than-truckload (LTL) services provider, with a focus on long-haul metro-to-metro shipping, said today it has rolled out new LTL service offerings into Portland, Ore., as well as service into Toronto and Montreal via Detroit.

Bozeman discussed his acclimation to C.H. Robinson, coming over from Amazon, where he served as Vice President of Amazon Transportation Services, and leadership roles at Caterpillar Inc., Harley-Davidson, and Ford Motor Company prior to that. Other topics covered in this wide-ranging interview included: the freight econonomy; various initiatives C.H. Robinson has focused on in recent months, and the increasing role of the supply chain, among others. Their conversation follows below.

The survey’s findings were based on feedback from more than 1,400 North American shippers across various sectors and was conducted late last year. Topics covered in the survey included measuring the use of and interest in various supply chain services compared to last year’s survey, if businesses are predicting an increase or decrease in shipments in 2024, how important a carrier’s sustainability program is to a shippers’ decision making, and identifying the biggest challenge with international shipments in 2024.

The ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, for December, at 115.7 (2015=100), was up 2.1%, following 1.2% November decline.

The company added that over the past year, 17,240 of its customers have leveraged the eBOL, with the expectation that the tally will increase in 2024.

For November, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI reading, at -1.35, marked an improvement compared to November and October’s respective -6.07 and -8.97 readings.

The December edition of the DAT Truckload Volume Index (TVI), which was recently issued by DAT Freight & Analytics, highlighted what the company described as the most significant narrowing in the gap between spot and contract van rates, going back to March 2022, a period when truckload prices nearly were at their highest point ever.

The new edition of the TD Cowen/AFS Freight Index, which was recently released by New York-based investment firm TD Cowen Inc. and Shreveport, La.-based 3PL and freight audit and payment company AFS Logistics LLC, highlighted the impact of muted demand for truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), and parcel activity, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter.