Walmart is raising trucker salaries in its push to hire 900 more drivers this year across the United States, including Texas, where it has a big concentration of large distribution centers where empty trucks get filled.
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Rail Traffic for the Week Ending January 26, 2019
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending January 26, 2019. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 522,026 carloads and intermodal units, down 4 percent compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending January 26 were 248,937 carloads, down 4.7 […]
AAPA: $4 billion needed to protect ports, supply chain security
The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) has identified nearly $4 billion in “crucial” port and supply chain security needs over the next decade, according to a new report. In the fourth edition of its “The State of Freight” report, the AAPA recommends refocusing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Port Security Grant Program to “better meet the security infrastructure needs […]
Asian airlines report growth in 2019 despite end of year slowdown
Asian Pacific airlines recorded an “encouraging” increase in air cargo volumes in 2018, despite a slowdown towards the end of the year. The latest figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) show that air cargo volumes increased by 3.9% year on year in 2018. However, growth continued to slow as the year progressed, […]
Air Cargo Supply Chains to Remain Profitable for Carriers, Says IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts the global airline industry net profit to be $35.5 billion in 2019, slightly ahead of the $32.3 billion expected net profit in 2018 (revised down from $33.8 billion forecast in June).
Fed Chair Powell says economy will make back most of shutdown effect in the next quarter
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday afternoon that the American economy will recover most of the lost economic output lost during the federal government’s partial shutdown.
Steve Forbes: Passing US/Mexico/Canada Deal would bring big benefits to our economy
After months of painstaking bargaining by President Trump’s negotiating team, the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), now rebranded as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), looks to set a template for modern American trade agreements in the 21st century. By all initial measures the USMCA lives up to frequently promised, but seldom delivered, concepts of free, […]
Thanks to Trump, China’s economy is rapidly decelerating — Here’s what could happen next
President Trump is exposing China’s economic vulnerability, showing that the communist nation cannot maintain its rapid growth without it patently unfair mercantilist trade policies. The Chinese government recently announced that its GDP growth for 2018 of only 6.6 percent – the country’s slowest rate of economic development since 1990. Growth in the fourth quarter declined to 6.4 percent. For the […]
Industrial outlook cloudy but solid overall economic fundamentals rosy for trucking industry
Mixed economic signals are proving to be somewhat of a Rorschach Test for shippers trying to gauge freight demand levels heading into the strongest part of the 2019 freight season.
ATA Truck Tonnage Index Has Best Year in 20 Years
Truck tonnage closed out 2018 on a 20-year high with an annual increase of 6.6%, American Trucking Associations announced. The result was the highest for the federation’s seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage index since 1998, when truck tonnage rose 10.1%, ATA said. And last year’s gain came despite a downturn in December, when tonnage dipped 4.3% […]