Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

Shipments declined by 3.2% in January from December levels, but no more than they usually do, according to the latest Cass Freight Index for Shipments, part of a monthly report issued by Cass Information Systems. The Cass report called the January results better than expected and credited mild weather, along with improved auto production, for the results.

BOOTH 65120 in the WEST Wing! We loved meeting our members last year at MATS, we can't wait for this year! BulkLoads will be there along with our sister companies, Smart Freight Funding, and Bulk Insurance Group! We'll have a huge booth for our members to relax and visit with us. We'll have many big-ticket items to give away each day of the show, including a hopper vibrator from Cleveland Vibrator! We're giving away FREE VIP tic

Electronic log book laws have been put in place, effective January 1, 2023, in effort to increase safety on the roads, which of course is the number one priority, however, there are some unintended consequences especially for the livestock industry that require more discussion.

Just before 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, February 21, 2023, reports of crash involving a tractor-trailer along MO-171 near Redbud Road alerted Jasper County E-911.

The only thing predictable with the freight market today seems to be its unpredictability. Before COVID-19, there was some ability to foresee highs and lows in freight volume based on seasonality and historical trends, adjust available capacity, and anticipate rates to be paid. Thats no longer the case. Seemingly overnight, volumes go from all-time highs to record lows and rate structures respond accordingly. Yesterdays readily available carrying capacity quickly becomes a lack

As the transportation industry falls back to Earth amid lower post-pandemic freight volumes, one quieter factor hurting bottom lines for trucking companies is the rising cost of liability insurance driven in part by high-dollar accident settlements involving semis.

We know this because Labor set up a safe rates scheme in 2012, but it wasnt until 2016 that the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) started dictating trucking rates. It was a disaster for the 35,000 affected self-employed, long-haul truck drivers. Large numbers of these truckies were in the process of being bankrupted. Several suicides resulted before the Turnbull government passed legislation to close down the RSRT in 2016.

The federal government projects truck crash-related deaths to increase 10% in 2022, according to the most recent data, and is a primary reason why safety advocates support a proposal that would limit the scope of emergency waivers that temporarily exempt carriers from certain federal regulations.

Iowa lawmakers are considering legislation aimed at providing liability protection for trucking companies with drivers who cause accidents on the job.

As a result, truck drivers hauling gasoline, diesel and jet fuel into Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming in direct support of the emergency are exempt from Part 395.3 (maximum driving time) of the hours of service regulations through March 17 or until the end of the emergency, whichever is sooner.

Truck detention, where drivers must sit idle while waiting for their trucks to be loaded, is an almost universal challenge in the industry. According to a 2020 survey, 87% of truck drivers spend 17 to 29% of their possible driving time in detention. Logistics companies must address this issue if they hope to reach maximum efficiency.

A bill that would raise the speed limit for trucks on certain Indiana roadways advanced to the full Senate Tuesday despite opposition from the states largest truck drivers group.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to change the way it evaluates trucking company safety by upgrading its current ranking model as opposed to installing a new one. In a notice to be published Wednesday, FMCSA announced it has determined that an advanced statistical model known as Item Response Theory (IRT) a model touted by the National Academy of Sciences is overly complex, and therefore the agency would not be using it to regulate carrier s

If passed, the bill would require shippers and brokers to use carriers that are not deemed unfit to operate safely under current federal regulations, whether that means having an Unsatisfactory rating or whose authority is otherwise out of service. Additionally, within 18 months of the bills passage, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would be required to issue a rulemaking to update and revise its regulations to provide a procedure for determining if a motor carrier is no

The leading trade group representing the brokerage industry is diving anew into the double-brokering issue. In a white paper recently distributed to its members, the Transportation Intermediaries Association focuses to a large degree on instruction and precaution as well as advocacy. Double brokering has multiple definitions. But it has a consistent meaning for the TIA, according to Vice President of Government Affairs Chris Burroughs.

The Freight Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters says it is preparing for upcoming national negotiations on new collective bargaining agreements covering more than 15,000 Teamsters at TFI/TForce Freight (CCJ Top 250, No. 4) and ABF Freight (No. 18).

U.S. farmers are planning to boost corn acreage in 2023, eyeing lower prices of fertilizer needed to grow the crop and hoping for a bumper crop after a late season drought withered last years grain harvest and left U.S. corn supplies near a decade low.

The move comes four months after global investment firm KKR & Co. acquired a majority stake in one of the companies.

So what does that mean for freight and rates? Well have the details on that and more in todays Market update.

Long gone are the robust days of 25% outbound tender rejects (OTRI). Now carriers are taking any and all contracted freight thats coming their way as OTRI has fallen back to earth like a Chinese spy balloon. FreightWaves reports, The one-two punch of OTRI falling to new floors and the deterioration of spot rates iscontract rates are no better.

Negligence claims arising from motor carrier collisions have typically focused on the driver, owner and/or operator of the subject vehicle involved in the accident. This traditional model allowed freight brokers, direct shippers and third-party logistic providers to sidestep the escalating transportation claims, insurance costs and potential nuclear verdicts.

In this episode, Jared brings on Niko Anderson, Co-Founder of Aventine Ridge Partners. Niko's company is looking to acquire and operate a single, high-quality business. Jared and Niko walk through the process of how this is done and lay out exactly what Niko is looking for. Check out Aventine Ridge Partners: https://aventineridge.com/

U.S. farmers are planning to boost corn acreage in 2023, eyeing lower prices of fertilizer needed to grow the crop and hoping for a bumper crop after a late season drought withered last year's grain harvest and left U.S. corn supplies near a decade low.

Between 30 and 40 employees that oversee the power co-generation plant at the central Illinois site are on strike and the company has brought in replacement workers, the union said.

Cargill has closed its grain elevator at Burns Harbor in Portage as of Jan. 31, saying a variety of current and expected market conditions led to the decision to not renew its lease.

Banghart Properties LLC faces maximum civil fines totaling $70,000 for purchasing hundreds of truckloads more than the $5 million that a Class B license annually permits, as well as lifetime grain-licensing bans against its ownership and management team.

FedEx will cut more than 10% of its management staff as the delivery giant contends with sinking demand, President and CEO Raj Subramaniam said in a message to staff Wednesday.

The bill would exempt businesses from paying damages in cases where their employee was found negligent in a trucking accident. Kellie Paschke, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association for Justice which representing trial lawyers, said the bill protects bad actors who fail to maintain trucks or tell drivers to stay on the road when theyre supposed to be resting.

Road safety, however, was a real issue. For decades, regulators had debated the introduction of electronic logstamper-proof devices, hardwired to trucks engines, that could digitally track the time truckers spent behind the wheel. Truckers were, to put it gently, resistant to the idea. Long-haul trucking is not a good job (its poorly paid, lonely, bad for your health, and dangerous), but at the very least it was compensated by access to mythological status: truckers, as c

There's a quite simple design behind the one-truck owner-operator business of Minnesota-based Kelvin Schmidt. "I've been doing this myself with my own authority since 2011," Schmidt said. The key to his success? "I figured out how to make money and not spend money," simply put, today pulling the van trailers of T Bros. Logistics out of his home state to points East, West and South.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has much bigger potential than Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for regional and long-haul trucking, according to Lars Mrtensson, Director of Environment & Innovation at Volvo Trucks.