Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

ARLINGTON, Va., July 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, American Trucking Associations revealed the official 2019 National Truck Driver Appreciation Week logo and thank-a-trucker toolkit. The association also announced Trucking Day at Nationals Park, an event in which professional truck drivers will sing the National Anthem, receive mid-game recognitions from the fans, and participate in on-field activities.

SACRAMENTO The California Transportation Commission allocated more than $533 million for 120 State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) projects throughout California, including more than $229 million for 42 fix-it-first projects funded by Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. Projects allocated SB 1 funds at the June CTC meeting will improve 11 bridges, more than 346 lane miles of pavement, upgrade 547 congestion reducing devices, and repai

Cabless trucks do not have a drivers cabin. These trucks are completely autonomous trucks and can be attached to any kind of trailers. Trucks are a prominent and reliable mode of transport for freight and commodities. Adoption of autonomous vehicles is expected to lead to significant reduction in expenditure over labor, significant decline in delivery time, and notable increase in vehicle performance and efficiency. Cabless trucks have reduced weight and smaller size, which makes them

DETROIT - The Michigan Department of Transportation recently announced it will begin 30 construction projects Monday around Metro Detroit. MDOT expects the projects to be completed between the middle and end of July. Check out the complete list of freeway and road closures below: Beginning the week of July 8: I-75: Oakland - NB/SB I-75 ramp to NB M-24, ramp closed, Mon 5am-Thu 5pm. Oakland - NB M-24 ramp to I-75, ramp closed, Mon 5am-Thu 5pm. Oakland - EB/WB E. Holly ramp to SB 75, ramp close

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana lawmakers have written rules of the road that companies designing self-driving commercial vehicles will need to follow to truck commerce across the state. Significant use of the vehicles may be years away. But Louisiana's new regulations take effect Aug. 1, recently signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards. The legislation received near-unanimous support from lawmakers who want to try to lure companies that build the trucks and to get ready for self-driving vehicles.

Transportation and logistics are the life blood of the economy, moving goods over the nations road, rails, and waterways in the economic equivalent of arteries. Thats one reason investors pay close attention to the sector, believing it is a leading indicator for the economy. On Tuesday, Loop Capital Markets analyst Jeff Kauffman cut his ratings on four logistics companies because of weak demand for road and rail services.

Hubert Thompson of Whiteville won $200,000 in the Blazing 7's game of the North Carolina Education Lottery. RALEIGH, N.C. Hubert Thompson, a truck driver from Whiteville, delivered a $200,000 prize to his retirement account Friday after winning the first top prize in the North Carolina Education Lottery's new Blazing 7s game. Thompson, whos been driving trucks for 41 years, said he likes to try new games, so when he saw the $5 Blazing 7s tickets at Tim

Eassons transportation group. Thanks to the very kind gentleman that was driving truck on 401 my son was getting upset being stuck in the traffic jam due to construction by big apple and the guy honked his horn and made him smile then as we got further up and came to a stop he stopped his truck and handed damion a hat made his day big smiles for our little man topped our day with toronto zoo and chuckie cheese this was very awesome day. Thanks for making his day respect truckers its not easy

The U.S. Farm Belt is fighting to prevent an industry nightmarethe loss of its best customer for its biggest export.

An Associated Press report this week told the story of Lucson Francois, a truck driver from Opal, Virginia, who was on his way home and had to stop five minutes away. He wasnt out of fuel. He wasnt broken down. He wasnt sick.

One way to look at detention times is to parse out the locations in which truckers are waiting the longest. Truckers waited at shipping docks for 2.5 hours per job on average in 2018, according to June FreightWaves SONAR data from its 135 markets. The average wait was as high as 4.7 hours in El Paso, Texas.

Truck drivers have joined the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) today to share their thoughts on the national truck laws. As part of the 'Coffee with a Cop' initiative, truck drivers operating on the Hume Highway stopped by Marulan BP Southbound to join the ATA and officers from NSW Police to chat about current issues and discuss ways to work together, over a free coffee provided by ATA Sponsor BP.

The national average van rate for June was 10 cents per mile higher than May. Prices were up in major freight markets such as Los Angeles, where they rose 14 percent; Memphis, which saw a 12 percent increase; and Atlanta, where rates were up 11 percent. That indicates higher truck demand and tighter capacity as freight flows inland.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. The U.S. Transportation Department is aiming to ease drive-time rules for truckers nationwide. The move comes on the heels of the anniversary of a tragic truck accident on I-75 in Ooltewah. In 2015, six people were killed and many more injured after an impaired and fatigued truck driver crashed his truck into stopped traffic. A jury found the driver who caused the wreck, Benjamin Brewer, guilty in January, 2018.

Semi-autonomous & Autonomous Trucks Market reports provides a comprehensive overview of the global market size and share. Semi-autonomous & Autonomous Trucks market data reports also provide a 5 year pre-historic and forecast for the sector and include data on socio-economic data of global. Key stakeholders can consider statistics, tables & figures mentioned in this report for strategic planning which lead to success of the organization Look insights of Global Semi-autonomous &

Orders for heavy trucks plunged by 69% in June compared to June last year, to 13,000 units, after having plunged by 71% in May, to just 10,400 units, FTR Transportation Intelligence reported today. It was the eighth month in a row of year-over-year declines. So far in 2019, the year-over-year declines in orders for Class-8 trucks ranged from -52% to -71%, which, as FTR said in the statement, makes it the weakest six-month start to a year since 2010:

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has agreed to make unspecified new purchases of farm products from the United States, President Donald Trump said after meeting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Japan.

The median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $42,480 in May 2017. The median age of a truck drive in the U.S. is 49. Melton Truck Lines says the average driver for the company will make $70,000 annually, with the top drivers earning up to $90,000. Starting pay with the company is in the mid-$50,000 range.

OPAL, Va. (AP) Truck driver Lucson Francois was forced to hit the brakes just five minutes from his home in Pennsylvania. Hed reached the maximum number of hours in a day hes allowed to be on duty. Francois couldnt leave the truck unattended. So he parked and climbed into the sleeper berth in the back of the cab. Ten hours would have to pass before he could start driving again.

If our water flows freely when we open the tap, most of us dont think much about the reservoir where it originated or the plant where it was treated. We are even less likely to think about the network of pipes the water passed through to reach our sink. Similarly, when we buy a product in a shop or pick up an online purchase delivered to our doorstep, few of us consider the complex links in the supply chain that put that product in our hands. But a truly efficient supply chain that is

A new report from Oxford Economics predicts the U.S. could lose over 1.5 million jobs to robotics and automation by 2030. Globally, China stands to be hit the hardest, losing almost 12.5 million jobs over that same period. According to the report, manufacturing, logistics, maritime shipping and port operations will be hit hardest over the next decade as increasingly specialized robots and driverless vehicles become more efficient than their human counterparts. Higher income demographics will

WILLMAR A Willmar man died early Tuesday morning after falling from a grain elevator. The incident was reported at 4:22 a.m. at the Farm Service Elevator, 3939 First Avenue South in Willmar. According to a news release from Willmar Police Captain Michael Anderson, a 56-year-old man fell from a balcony area over a grain truck and struck his head.

Last week, for likely the first time, a heavy-duty commercial truck drove for 9.4 miles on the Florida Turnpike with no one inside. The "driver" was 140 miles away, operating the rig remotely.The big picture: Automated freight delivery is expected to begin long before self-driving cars are here, and at least a half dozen truck companies are working on the technology, with tests in various stages of development. Starsky Robotics' Florida demonstration was be

The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered a Kentucky trucking company to rehire a driver who they fired for refusing to drive in dangerous winter weather. Freight Rite Inc. was ordered to reinstate an unnamed fired driver and to pay him $31,569 in back wages and interest, $100,000 in punitive damages, $50,000 in compensatory damages, and reasonable attorney fees, according to a June 28 news release from the Department of Labor.

Chart of the Week: Average hourly wages Transportation and Warehousing, Maintenance cost per mile, DAT Van Freight Rate Index National (SONAR: EARN.TPWH, MAINT.VCF, DATVF.VNU ) The longest freight market bull-run in over a decade is over as spot rates have fallen back to where they were two years ago. The problem presented to many carriers is that many of their costs have not. In this weeks chart, comparing wage and maintenance costs to average daily national spot rate

WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Senators David Perdue, R-Ga., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., are leading a bipartisan effort to level the playing field for the transportation of agricultural products. The Agricultural Trucking Relief Act will expand the definition of an agricultural commodity to include horticultural and aquacultural products, promote consistency across all federal and state agencies and ease regulatory burdens on the trucking industry. This bill is cosponsored by U.S.

Truckers using older electronic logging technology should switch to ELDs now, and not wait for a December deadline, the head of the US truck safety watchdog agency said.

DETROIT (AP) Two U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would electronically limit tractor-trailer speeds to 65 miles per hour, a move they say would save lives on the nations highways. Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Chris Coons, D-Del., introduced the measure Thursday, saying it would take the place of a proposed Department of Transportation regulation that has languished in the federal process for over a decade.

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Curt and Susan Russell have announced that they will sell WW Feed & Supply to the families of current employees Ryan Davis and Robby Froman. The Russell's have owned the business since 2000 and expect the sale to close in July. Davis and Froman have been key employees of the business and will be principals in the new ownership. Davis, a native of Las Animas, earned his associates and bachelors degrees from Northeastern Junior College and Oklahoma Panhandle State University, respectively.

A long wait came to an end Monday for three Pratt County farmers as they watched wheat kernels pour from the combine into a waiting grain truck. On the first day of 2019 wheat harvest, this moment was long-anticipated and the crop coming in looked good for Gary Slief, Danny Quint and Mark Peachey. Shorter than average stalks and heavy clouds of dust could not diminish smiles as the 63 test-weight wheat filled the truck. “This is right at 12 to 13 percent moisture,” said Slief, who rode shotgun o

(CNN)Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue cited weather patterns and said "it rained yesterday, it's a nice pretty day today" when asked about the cause of the global climate crisis in an interview with CNN. Perdue joins President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence as the latest senior administration official to question the near universal consensus in the scientific community that the global climate crisis is man-made. Perdue told CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich in the interview released Tuesd

A group of stakeholders is pushing for the congressional repeal of the federal excise tax on the sale of heavy-duty trucks and trailers. At a forum June 19, the Modernize the Truck Fleet coalition urged federal lawmakers to pass the Modern, Clean, and Safe Trucks Act of 2019.

One of the events we make certain we block out time for at CES is IDCs annual Analyst Briefing. Its the best tech overview/snapshot youll find at the we will change the world event. While Tom Mainelli, devices and AR/VR VP/program manager, gave us some inputs before the presentations regarding the state of products/companies (more in the future); the discussion shifted to autonomous vehicles, which were everywhere at the show. One of the ladies at our table

https://www.bulkloads.com/tools/podcasts/connecting-grain-companies-with-farmers-through-agrihound/

The announcements come several months after the company began production at its modernized flour mill in Oklahoma and a few months before commissioning a completely new flour mill in Illinois. As previously announced, ADM also will close its Chicago flour mill when the new mill begins operations in Mendota, Ill., 90 miles west of Chicago.

Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) has announced plans to close one of its two Minneapolis, Minn., flour mills as well as its flour mill in Salina, Kan. Modernization of Flour Mills The announcements come several months after the company began production at its modernized flour mill in Oklahoma and a few months before commissioning a completely new flour mill in Illinois. As previously announced, ADM also will close its Chicago flour mill when the new mill begins operations

Some states are more truck-friendly than others when it comes to pay. According to Seek Business Capitals Best and Worst States for Truck Drivers list, Nevada is the best. Although not a state, Washington, D.C., ranks as the worst. According to Seek Business Capital, demand for truck drivers is up, which means so are salaries. Pay for truckers in nearly every state has gone up, but some states have larger salaries than others. Although the report mentions the

The 64-year-old man was honored Thursday in Omaha, Neb. for driving 2 million miles without an accident. He retired at the end of January after driving 27 years for Werner Enterprises. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy the scenery, Georgeff said when asked about the secret to his success. If you just do it for the miles, youll get bored very quickly. The way he sees it, being part of the 2 million miles accident-free club is a rarity.

CONCORD, NH (WGME) -- The pickup truck driver involved in a crash that killed seven people in Randolph, New Hampshire, is facing seven counts of negligent homicide.

(Ripley County, Ind.) - The Indiana Department of Transportation will divert all Interstate 74 Eastbound traffic onto State Road 46 at the Batesville exit Monday night. INDOT crews have to perform work on guardrails on I-74. The project will require the eastbound lanes of I-74 to be closed from 7:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. Monday, June 24, weather permitting. Traffic will be detoured onto State Road 46 heading east for seven miles. Motorists will be allowed to re-enter I-74 Eastbound at the Sta

The Arkansas Department of Transportation blamed a semi truck crash and a resulting fireball on the truck drivers confusion about her route. The crash happened on the afternoon of Sunday, June 23, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Jim Cohen said as he waited in a long line Saturday at Volvo Group near Hagerstown that he never drove a big rig before. The Bethesda, Md., resident seemed a little surprised when he climbed into the cab and saw the simplicity of state-of-the-art push-button gears. It was great, he said at the end of the ride. It was easier than I expected. ... I could drive that for a living if I had to. It was like driving an Escalade an Escalade on steroids. Cohen was on

SCHUYLER, Neb. (AP) A state highway in eastern Nebraska thats been closed since devastating floods in March is set to fully reopen next week. The Nebraska Department of Transportation says construction and repair work on Highway 15 and a Platte River overflow bridge south of Schuyler will be complete Monday and will fully reopen to traffic. The roadway and bridge had been opened to one-lane traffic controlled by temporary traffic signals since June 1.

State legislatures wont be able to ban the transport of hemp through their states once the U.S. Department of Agriculture publishes hemp production regulations later this year, according to an advisory opinion from a lawyer for the ag department. The opinion also said states already cant ban the transport of hemp that is grown legally under a 2014 law, and it took issue with a recent ruling in a pending case involving 6,700 pounds of hemp seized in Ada County in January.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s potential rulemaking to define which drivers are allowed to run under hours-of-service exemptions for agriculture commodities has been approved by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, paving the way for its publication by FMCSA. The “pre-rule,” also known as an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, won’t offer any specific reforms. Rather, it’s a solicitation for comments from industry stakeholders about the definition of an agric

There is no shortage of shipping options when it comes to moving your freight, and choosing the right service provider is a challenge for every business. While the available shipping options have stayed consistent over the years shippers have traditionally had the choice of parcel, FTL, PTL, and LTL shipping the ever-evolving logistics industry has led to changes in what qualifies freight to be moved by these methods. Fluctuating rule tariffs (set by individual carriers) and n

CLOVERDALE Two truck drivers were injured in a dust explosion at POET Biorefining Friday afternoon. The incident took place around 12:30 p.m. in the grain-loading facility of the plant at 2265 E. CR 800 South, north of Interstate 70 near Cloverdale. Two truck drivers not POET employees who were unloading corn were injured in the blast. They were taken to the hospital by Operation Life ambulances.

Running a successful trucking business today is increasingly difficult. Your business may be affected by increased competition, rising expenses and many other factors. Many trucking companies like yours are also impacted by several hidden costs. When you understand what these hidden expenses are, you can take steps to properly plan for them in your budget. You may even strategically execute plans to reduce their impact on your companys finances. These are among the more common hidden c

A while back I mused about the possibility of driverless trucks that performed only the middle part of long-haul journeys. Basically, theyd operate from depot to depot, with ordinary human-driven vans filling in for the last mile of local delivery. Apparently this future is nearly here for Walmart:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The upper Mississippi River reopened to barge traffic on Friday as vessels were cleared to ship through St. Louis harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) said, and the situation quickly became a logistics nightmare as dozens of towboats and hundreds of delayed barges tried to maneuver upriver.

June 20 (UPI) -- Texas police officers recently found a live rooster in a truck during a traffic stop for reckless driving. The live rooster "that had been hobbled," was found in a toolbox in the rear truck bed of the vehicle during an inventory of the truck last night, the Aubrey Police Department said in a Facebook Post Wednesday.

A coalition of 10 trucking-related stakeholders, including several lobbies for specialized carriers, is calling on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to conduct a rulemaking if the agency intends to change how it analyzes and publishes data on motor carrier crashes. According to a June 19 press release issued by the nonprofit Alliance for Safe, Efficient and Competitive Truck Transportation, the petition was filed on June 14 by the Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform coalition, which

The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) has released an in-depth research whitepaper that provides a strategic blueprint and resources for asset-based companies to start and grow a brokerage. The opportunities in the market are ripe for companies of any size, said Robert Voltmann, TIAs president and CEO. Logistics and supply chain research and consulting firm Armstrong & Associates estimates that net revenues for U.S.-based 3PLs grew by five percent in 201

Shares of Nvidia and Swedish automaker Volvo rose for their third straight day Thursday after the companies announced a deal that will use Nvidias autonomous driving platform to build self-driving vehicles. U.S.-traded shares of Volvo and Nvidias stock have both jumped by about 7% since the announcement early Tuesday of plans to use Nvidias artificial intelligence for commercial vehicles, specifically public transportation, freight transport, refuse and recycling, constru

Yes. Its another piece about autonomous trucks. But if youll bear with me for about three minutes, Ill tell you a story about some folks who are doing it right. And if youll hush up with the yelling about taking your job away and read on, youll understand why. Three years ago, Stefan Seltz-Axmacher and Kartik Tiwari formed San Francisco-based Starsky Robotics and set out to perfect their own version of an autonomous trucking program. They reali

PROVIDENCE New lane shifts are coming to Route 95 starting next weekend, the state Department of Transportation has announced.Beginning Friday, June 28, all southbound lanes between Exit 18 (Thurbers Avenue) and Route 195 will shift to the left. The current left-lane shift on the northbound lanes will remain in place. The DOT says it expects minor delays as a result. No exits or on-ramps will be closed.

Learn how the UN, Microsoft, Amazon, Nokia, the Church of England, and others are using tech to make it easier for people to recognize and report potential victims of human trafficking.

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. -- One man is dead after an eight-car pileup on Interstate 80 near Milton that closed part of the highway for hours. State police say initially, two cars and a tractor-trailer crashed in the eastbound lanes because of heavy rain around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Minutes later, four more tractor-trailers and a truck crashed in the westbound lanes. Earl McCormick, 74, of Berwick, died in that second crash. I-80 eastbound and westbound were closed between the Milton/Williamspo

Shares of graphics chip specialist NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) popped 5.4% on Tuesday after the company and AB Volvo (NASDAQOTH:VOLVY) announced they were teaming up to develop self-driving commercial trucks, buses, and industrial vehicles for a wide range of applications. That brings NVIDIA stock's year-to-date 2019 return to 14.9%, which slightly trails the S&P 500's 17.5% return. Nonetheless, due to challenges in its gaming and data center businesses, the former market darling's stock price i

The job of a freight broker is to connect shippers who have goods to transport and carriers who have the capacity to move those goods. Todays freight brokerage market is rich with opportunity, but taking advantage of the ease of getting started and straightforward licensing requirements does not guarantee future success. With countless licensed freight brokers coming into the mix every year, it is essential to know what it takes to be successful -- and profitable -- from the start. Tha

MANDEVILLE, LA. Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. has signed an agreement to lease nine grain elevators from Big River Rice and Grain, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Agspring. The agreement includes seven facilities in Louisiana in Crowville, Dunn, Hollybrook, Lake Providence, Mer Rouge, Monticello and Pioneer and two facilities in Arkansas in Eudora and Parkdale. We are pleased that area producers will directly benefit from this transaction with CGB throug

CORA, Ill. Just as their customers are fighting high waters, the work team at Gavilons new grain elevator and barge terminal in Jackson County have found themselves in the flood fight, as well. Opened in late 2016, the elevator is situated on the dry side of Little Levee Road along the Mississippi River in Cora. While the complex is situated on high ground, other issues from the Mississippi floodwaters have created challenges to keeping the business open daily. First is the hig

The Mississippi River has been swollen for several months, disrupting commerce up and down its 2,300-plus miles. Historic flooding has ruined billions of dollars worth of crops and farmland in the Midwest, and the damage has been spreading downstream, all the way to Louisiana. The flooding has also damaged levees, dams, bridges and roads, putting stress on the commercial river traffic that is crucial to American industry. Rich Teubner is vice president of Seacor AMH, a company that operates t

After a raucous 2018, 2019 has seen retailers and manufacturers moving less, according to the Cass Freight Index. Freight rates have dipped year-over-year for six months straight. Loads on the spot market, in which retailers and manufacturers buy trucking capacity as they need it rather than through a contract, have fallen by a chilling 62.6% in May year-over-year.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The impacts of this years flooding on the U.S. Inland Waterway system on grain shipments both on and off land along multiple rivers have a long tail. Because many locks and dams have been closed or are operating on a limited basis, river market grain elevators are threatened by storage backups, creating pressure on farmers trying to deliver grain to buyers during the recent market rallies.