Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - North Dakota has a truck-driver shortage. According to state lawmakers, the answer isn't the size of the workforce; it's the size of the trucks. Which is why they're working on a resolution to let the state exceed length and weight limits. The American Trucking Association reports that the nation is short more than 60,000 drivers. And that number could go up 160,000 drivers by 2028.

The company reported net income of $3 billion in its fiscal year through May, up 17% from the previous year and its fourth-highest ever, according to audited accounts reviewed by Bloomberg News. Cargill, the worlds largest agricultural commodity trader, broke with a two-decade tradition earlier this year and stopped releasing its results publicly. Still, the company shares financial results with its bankers and others.

Momentum has seemingly continued for the freight recovery that began in late May, in some ways bucking seasonal trends as spot market freight and rates havent seen the usual June-to-July drop off. Thats despite a resurgence in coronavirus cases since mid-June and major holes in the economy remaining, such as sluggish manufacturing output, a halted entertainment and events sector and record-high unemployment.

Officials from Archer Daniels Midland Co. confirmed on July 30 that two of the companys dry mill ethanol plants remain idle. The company is taking a data-driven approach to determining a restart date for those plants, and indicated the strategic review of ADMs ethanol business in ongoing.

If truck driver Lynn Jackson passes you on the road, we promise youll take notice. Thats because hell be the guy in the acid green and velvet purple Peterbilt dubbed The Joker in honor of the iconic Batman villain.

July 29 (Reuters) - U.S. grains merchant Archer Daniels Midland Co on Wednesday posted a second-quarter profit that doubled from a year earlier, boosted by growth in its nutrition and agricultural services businesses. Net profit attributable to the company rose to $469 million, or 84 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30 from $235 million, or 42 cents per share, a year earlier. (Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

Several flatbed carriers and two of the nation's top freight brokerages are among the major unsecured creditors owed thousands after the lumber supplier filed bankruptcy on July 27.

AUSTIN Governor Greg Abbott has waived certain regulations related to commercial trucking in the state of Texas. These suspensions will allow commercial drivers to more quickly deliver supplies, specifically electric power poles, to communities in the Rio Grande Valley and the Coastal Bend that were directly impacted by Hurricane Hanna.

PT Corporation would like to announce the internal promotion for two of its own. As of Monday, July 20, 2020 Matt Kositzky and John Powell will assume their new roles as Director of Operations and Director of Business Development, respectively.

Its been the scourge of trucking for decades, chipping away at carrier revenues. Yet, many fleets dont have reliable data on how bad the problem of empty miles is. Nor do many of them have a clear understanding on how to tackle it. Until recently, empty mileage estimates ranged from 14% to 20% for all types of trucks, including light- and medium-duty vehicles. All that changed in August when the trucking startup Convoy shocked the industry by saying the real number is 33%, and f

The Three Gorges Dam, which is nearly 1.5 miles long and taller than the Washington Monument, was strategically placed on the Yangtze River in Chinas Hubei province to control flooding and generate electricity to power the countrys rapid industrialization. Due to the record deluge of rainfall, the worlds largest hydroelectric dam, which has a volume of 39.3 billion cubic meters, is at risk of breaking, which would kill or displace millions, flood Chinas cradle of m

The advisory – a copy of which has been circulated among various media – follows best-practices advice from private industry warning on the potential security vulnerability of ELDs and other technology that has the potential to cause severe financial damage to companies within the trucking sector, including carriers and brokers. An FBI spokesperson told FreightWaves that the agency does not comment on notices provided to its private industry partners, or on whether the FBI has detected recent ac

Elon Musk has confirmed Teslas plan to build its electric semi truck, the Tesla Semi, at its upcoming new factory in Austin. At the unveiling of the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker said that the electric truck would be coming in 2019, but the vehicle has since been pushed to low-volume production in late 2020.

After a years-long court battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court, a Missouri-based trucking giant is settling two class-action suits with its truck drivers, said a court filing from Monday. Up to 26,000 current and former drivers are eligible for a $28 million payout from New Prime Inc., known as Prime, the filing said. Both of the class-action suits Oliveira v. New Prime and Haw

SACRAMENTO Over the last few months, commercial drivers have made it possible for essential businesses to receive the supplies they need. Thanks to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, those commercial drivers in California can continue delivering essential products and supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic without worrying about an expiring license or medical certificate. In accordance with updated guidance from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the DMV is issu

FMCSAs final rule on hours of service offers four revisions to the existing HOS rules, which are as follows: Flexibility has been added for the 30-minute break rule by requiring a break after 8 hours of consecutive driving and allowing the break to be satisfied by a driver using on-duty, not driving status, rather than off-duty status. The sleeper-berth exception has been modified to allow drivers to split their required 10 hours off duty into two periods: an 8/2 split, or a 7/3 split&

FarmInsect co-founder Wolfgang Westemeier doesnt want to sell farmers insect meal. He wants to see farmers around the world do what they do best, and start raising insects of their own. The 2-year-old German startup is the latest in a series of companies to raise a significant round of funding on the promise of making insect meal a mainstream animal feed ingredient. But while most of their competitors plan to raise the insects themselves, selling the finished insect meal, FarmInsect is

Burdensome regulations under the guise of safety plague the trucking industry, causing some of the safest drivers to leave. If safety advocates really want safety, keeping experienced drivers in the seat is key. How do we do that? Smarter regulations and better pay. This idea discussed during a Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee meeting on July 14 after Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer suggested an end to pay-by-mile as one of a series of solutions to

John McGee of Simsboro, Louisiana, began driving truck in 1985, buying his first one and going into business for himself six years later. He got his start hauling for a brother-in-laws logging business in the North-Central part of the state, where hes lived his entire life. Then oil field work in his area started picking up around 2004 and he leased to an oil-services hauler. The company sold out in 2010. When he did that, I acquired some of his customer base the new comp

Professional drivers considering whether to become owner-operators need to collect savvy information for the basis of their decision. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association wants to help. That is the focus of OOIDAs Truck to Success course. This year it will be available online. Truck to Success is scheduled for Oct. 26-28. OOIDA debuted its Truck to Success course in March 2019 as an in-person course. The coronavirus crisis has forced the format to change. Even so, the 202

Impacts on farm supply and marketing cooperatives from the past three years of agricultural trade upheaval, industry consolidation and four months of a global virus pandemic are as varied as Americas 1,700 or so such co-ops enterprises themselves.

A change to the HOS laws, which affect how truck drivers use their ELDs, will save serious dough for taxpayers, says the Trump administration. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP

Hyundai has begun shipping fuel-cell based heavy duty trucks to face off against battery-electric trucks in the commercial hauling market. Battery electric vehicles, more commonly known as electric cars, have finally begun to take on the world in real numbers. However, theyre not the only game in town when it comes to green transportation. Fuel cells that use tanks of hydrogen to generate electricity with H2O as the main byproduct have long promised to take the pollution out of getting

WHAT is a farmer? Those of us with any remote connection to agriculture know the urbanised stereotype of flannelette shirt, overalls, gumboots, battered Akubra and maybe even a token pitchfork, is a long way off the mark. These and other stereotypes that we allow to be created could be limiting outsiders perceptions of agriculture and restricting our capacity to attract the best and brightest into our industry.

OMAHA, Neb., July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Green Plains Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE) today announced its subsidiary, Green Plains Wood River LLC has installed a separate 25 million gallon facility engineered and constructed by ICM, Inc. to produce FCC Grade alcohol for domestic and export markets and expects to upgrade the production process to produce USP Grade alcohol over the next four to six months. Leveraging our operational expertise from our decades of experience at Green Plains York,

One of the biggest action movie stars of all time crafted a new video to recognize American truckers for answering their countrys call and keeping the nation supplied during the Coronavirus crisis. Illinois-based carrier GP Transco teamed up with box office bada$$ Chuck Norris to show American truckers how much their hard work in keeping the country fed and supplied during the pandemic is appreciated. Norris has been a familiar figure in trucking after he played trucker J.D.&rdq

Green Plains filed the proposed class action with the U.S. District Court of Nebraska, where it also claimed that senior ADM officials knew of the alleged manipulation. ADM did not respond to a request for comment.

BORING IS THE new sexy in Silicon Valley. As the coronavirus crisis has turned America upside down, it has become in vogue to just do the basic things right. Quantum computing may come eventually, and everyone still wants a moonshot. But for now, people are just asking for their video conferences to work and their doctors to have face masks. And that explains partly why Microsoft is courting a new class of customers: Americas cows.

Increasing the size and weight limits of trucks on the nations highways would divert a potentially huge amount of goods from rail to roads, further damaging the nations infrastructure, causing greater environmental harm and undermining highway safety, a new report has found. The report, by economist Mark Burton of the Appalachian Transportation Institute Marshall University, found that relaxing weight and size limits would also lead to increased crash-related casualties,

While much of the trucking industry is in turmoil, a family-run North Dakota-based trucking company is reporting remarkable success and stability in spite of challenging times. Mapleton, North Dakota-based trucking company Great Plains Transport is getting attention for what theyre not doing theyre not laying off workers, even though many other trucking companies have been forced to cut jobs. Theyre not shutting down, even though the trucking industry is facing ne

A new report commissioned by the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks (CABT) highlights how legislation allowing bigger and heavier trucks on the nation's highways would result in a "major diversion" of freight from rail to roads.

It's not enough to know just the cost of a truck or rail rates or barge freight when moving corn or soybeans to market. Transportation costs include the base cost of transporting these products, as well as costs associated with delay. Delay consists of wait times and congestion. The study done by TTI encompassed the base transportation cost, additional transportation costs due to traffic congestion and costs with scheduling and loading delays each step of the process. And it can determine a f

Temperatures reached the mid 90s outside, but Thorbahn stayed cool in his cab as he methodically went back and forth across the field, leaving small mounds of wheat straw in his wake as the combine's hopper filled up with grain.

The well-known adverse driving conditions exception to the hours of service regulations allows for two additional drive hours (in conditions defined in 49 CFR 395.2) to complete the run or to reach a place offering safety for the occupants of the commercial motor vehicle and security for the commercial motor vehicle and its cargo.

More than 3,200 companies in the two main government classifications that comprise long-distance trucking received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in excess of $150,000, according to data released this morning by the Small Business Administration. The two categories that make up long-distance trucking companies under the North American Industry Classification (NAICS) are 48412, General Freight Trucking Long Distance, Long Distance, Truckload and 484121, General Freight Trucking, Long

Canadas livestock and livestock transportation industries continue to look for ways to ensure the comfort, health and welfare of farm animals during transportation. Last year, the Canadian Animal Health Coalition (CAHC) teamed up with Transport Genie Ltd., a technology company based in Guelph, Ont., to launch a two-year research project that uses remote wireless sensors to monitor environmental conditions inside livestock trailers. The project comes as the countrys livestock and

Want to increase your income and become a more successful freight broker? SPI Logistics, one of the most successful operators out there, has a few tried-and-true trade secrets that can help.

MERRILL, Iowa Farming and trucking are two professions that often run in families. TJ Kounkels family has a tradition of both. In addition to farming 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans in northwest Iowa, his family operates a livestock-hauling business. Driving farm equipment and even trucks on the farm were just part of growing up for Kounkel. I started driving at 18, driving intrastate. I know every road in Iowa, he told The Trucker, adding that talking about hims

The coronavirus pandemic and an ongoing trade war with the United States have accelerated the threat China faces of businesses moving manufacturing operations elsewhere, but the effects those potential shifts have on U.S. trucking operations depends largely on where, ultimately, companies choose to move. Gartner in survey results released in June found that 33% of global supply chain leaders had either moved sourcing and manufacturing activities out of China or planned to do so in the next tw

In a press release last week, GROWMARK FS in Hartley and STAR Energy FS in Manson revealed they are merging into one. The new company will be named GROWMARK FS, and will offer its farmer customers with a full line of agronomy, energy, and grain marketing needs. The new company will be headquartered in Manson with STAR Energy FS General Manager Jeff Manthei serving as the GM. Current GROWMARK FS General Manager Tim Berkland will continue as the agronomy department manager of the new organizati

D&D Ingredient Distributors of Delphos is an independent business that specializes in manufacturing and distributing for the animal and pet feed industry. Their donation to the West Ohio Food Bank totaled nearly $14,000 and will help around 73,000 food-insecure families and individuals in need in the surrounding 11 counties. This donation was a portion of the proceeds from their involvement in the Food for Hope program, with several other agricultural businesses. Altogether