trucking

In a move geared towards augmenting its end-to-end supply chain service offerings, Copenhagen, Denmark-based A.P. Moller Maersk, an integrated container logistics services provider, said yesterday it inked an agreement to acquire El Segundo, Calif.-based Performance Team, a provider of warehousing and distribution services.

January shipments—at 1.022—fell 9.4%, marking its largest annual decline going back to 2009, while also dropping 2.9% compared to December, and January expenditures—at 2.568—fell 8% annually and were down 5.7% compared to January 2019.

Fourth quarter revenue—at $4.14 billion—was off 6% annually, but net income attributable to common shareholders—at $96 million—was up 14%.

YRC’s total revenue for last year fell 3.4% to $4.871 billion from $5.092 billion in 2018. YRC reported consolidated operating revenue for fourth quarter 2019 of $1.16 billion and consolidated operating income of $9.8 million. By comparison, in the fourth quarter 2018, YRC reported operating revenue of $1.247 billion and consolidated operating income of $55.1 million.

The report’s National Shipment Index—at 126.5—was down 4% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter and off 5.4% annually. On the spending side, the report stated that the spending index—at 195.2—was off 2.7% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter and off 2.5% annually.

Seattle-based digital freight broker Convoy announced a significant milestone today, as it said it has reached 100% automated brokering of loads to carriers—comprised of matching and pricing in lanes in top United States freight markets—which it called an industry first.

For October, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI reading was -1.04, marking an improvement over September’s -2.94, the lowest reading since last May.

Truckload pricing, which measure linehaul rates, fell 2.5% annually in October, following declines of -2.6% and -2.0% in August and September, respectively. On the intermodal side, the Broughton report said October represented the 37th consecutive month of annual gains for intermodal transportation costs, with the caveat that the differential has been narrowing for the past 12 months (through October 2019).

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.

Seattle-based digital freight broker Convoy said it has made continued inroads on the investment front in securing $400 million in Series D funding. Company officials said that a key objective with this round of funding is to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars of waste in the trucking industry.

Freight transportation and logistics services provider Schneider and Truckstop.com, a load board and provider of spot market freight matching services, announced this week they recently completed a pilot program that provides intuitive advanced functionality to Schneider carriers, entitled “Book it Now.”

TruckerTools LLC, a Reston, Va.-based provider of trip planning, shipment visibility and freight matching solutions said today that West Chester, Ohio-based non-asset-based transportation and logistics services provider Kingsgate Logistics Services is now fully using TruckerTools’ “Book it Now” offering, a cloud-based software platform that fully automates the process of booking truckload shipments with carriers.

Following what it called an urgency on behalf of shippers to move freight prior to the end of the third quarter, data recently issued by DAT, a subsidiary of Roper Technologies, in its DAT showed a more quiet beginning to the fourth quarter for spot market activity.

If a market participant is interested in using trucking freight futures for hedging or profiting, they should understand a few things about pricing before they start taking positions in the trucking freight futures market.

The ATA’s advanced seasonally-adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index for July, at 122.7 (2015=100), saw a 6.6% annual gain, on the heels of a 1.2% June decline, which came in at 115.1. And on an annual basis, July SA tonnage rose 7.3%, for its largest annual gain going back to April.