trucking

In anticipation of the launching of “Trucking Financial Markets 360°", Logistics Management, together with Lakefront Futures’ Trucking & Derivatives Group, will be publishing a series of articles over the next five weeks on the “A-Z” of trucking freight futures. This debut article provides an overview of the paradigm shift occurring in the trucking market and the increasing trucking rate volatility impacting trucking carriers, shippers, & 3PLs.

A new look may be coming to motor carrier hours-of-service (HOS) rules, with the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) geared towards HOS changes, with an emphasis on increasing safety through updating existing commercial motor vehicle driver regulations.

SaaS-based transportation management system (TMS) provider MercuryGate International Inc. and Uber Freight, a subsidiary of the ubiquitous, ride-sharing service Uber, whose proprietary app matches trucking companies with loads to haul, have formed a partnership in which Uber Freight’s extensive carrier network is now available on the MercuryGate platform.

Late last month, Uber Freight, a subsidiary of the ubiquitous, ride-sharing service Uber, whose proprietary app matches trucking companies with loads to haul, announced it has expanded into Germany.

In 2018, trucking industry revenue rose 12.2%, from $700.1 billion in 2017 to $796.7 billion in 2018, according to ATA data.

While it is true that 2018 marked what could be described as a boom year for the freight economy, a new report issued this week by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) revealed that the trucking sector needed 60,800 more for-hire over-the-road truckload drivers at the end of the year to meet the nation’s freight services demands.

The ATA’s advanced seasonally-adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index for June, at 115.2 (2015=100) fell 1.1% in June after a 4% May decline (upwardly revised from a -6.1% reading). And compared to June 2018, SA tonnage was up 1.5%.

The Department of Transportation is quietly moving to make truck drivers’ hours of service rules more flexible.

The first quarter turnover rate for large fleets with more than $30 million in revenue increased 5% to 83%, which was lower than the 2018 average rate of 89% and down 11% compared to the first quarter of 2018. For small fleets, the ATA said the turnover rate fell 4% to 73%, from the first quarter to the second quarter.

For May, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI was -2.3, a retreat from March’s -1.18. March represented the first time the TCI turned in a negative reading for the first time “in several” years,” according to FTR.

Chicago-based transportation management services provider Coyote Logistics, a subsidiary of freight transportation and logistics services bellwether UPS, this week introduced a new program and digital freight platform upgrades to better meet the needs and challenges shippers and carriers are facing.

YRC Worldwide, still struggling to find its financial footing in one of the best freight environments in a generation, is trying to cut its way back to prosperity. The less-than-truckload giant is shuttering the Lebanon, Pa., administrative headquarters of regional LTL subsidiary New Penn and consolidating those operations at its Overland Park, Kan., corporate headquarters.

Convoy said this offering leverages algorithmically evaluates and continuously optimizes how loads can be grouped in real-time, all without human intervention.

XPO said that the registered number of United States carriers using Drive XPO for XPO Connect reached 18,000 in April 2019, 12 months after its initial launch, and it rose to 22,000 carriers in May.

A December 2019 deadline for adopting new systems for carriers to record truck drivers’ hours of service could cause a short-term blip in capacity as truckers convert to the new system. At issue is a Department of Transportation regulation that makes Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) stricter. Come Dec. 16, carriers no longer will be allowed to deploy the Automatic On-Board Recording Devices (AOBRDs) that were grandfathered in for the first two years of the ELD mandate.