With the start of a new federal rule requiring digital tracking of the number of driving hours truckers log only weeks away, drivers critical of the regulation are launching sporadic protests and hoping for a last-minute congressional reprieve.
This ex-trucker has some questions about the Tesla Semi
This is not an over-the-road truck. This truck suits line-haul – routes that run between a company’s terminals, like from one regional Wal-Mart distribution center to another. When Musk made the case for a 20-percent savings over a diesel truck, he based the numbers on a 100-mile trip – fifty miles out, fifty miles back. […]
Truck capacity ‘imbalance’ slows US-Mexico freight
At the US-Mexican border, a long-term, costly imbalance in north- and southbound tractor-trailers threatens to slow cross-border supply chains just when higher freight volumes demand faster shipping. The imbalance hits shippers hard in the spring and early summer, the peak produce shipping season from Mexico, and in recent years it has been getting worse. The […]
United States looks to block Mexican trucks in any NAFTA deal
According to a recent report by Bloomberg, American negotiators are advocating to remove Mexican long-haul trucks from the NAFTA Chapter on cross-border services. Under the current NAFTA agreement, the U.S. has long been restricting trade over the Mexican border. The 1994 protocol provision opened up the United States to Mexican long-haul truck transportation, which was […]
DOT website suffers ‘bot’ attack over ELDs
When the Department of Transportation (DOT) in early October asked for the public’s help with identifying regulations that should be repealed, replaced or suspended, it didn’t expect to be inundated by “bots.” Federal agencies are used to receiving large numbers of comments from people who are part of well-organized, grassroots write-in campaigns, but this time […]
Shippers, 3PLs agree on US truck capacity, but not rates
US shippers and logistics service providers (LSP) expect significant change in truck capacity and pricing next year, but they are far from agreeing on the extent of that change. LSPs expect much sharper and broader rate hikes and a greater negative impact from the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate than shippers, according to a survey […]
Driver pay expected to increase along with carriers’ rates
An expert on truck driver pay and a report from a major investment firm agree that market conditions appear to be setting the stage for improvements in trucker compensation. With the trucking economy ripe for a capacity crunch in the coming months and rates trending upward, carriers increasingly will turn to pay increases and bonuses […]
Truckers Take to Social Media to Get Trump’s Attention on ELD Mandate
Independent truckers are trying to get President Trump’s attention in the hopes that he will halt or delay the pending electronic logging device mandate before its Dec. 18 implementation deadline.
US surface transportation pricing on the rise
An index for truckload pricing rose 4.2 percent year over year to hit an all-time high in September, as intermodal pricing rose 4 percent and evidence of strong US economic expansion driving higher volumes and US surface shipping rates continue to grow. Growth in truckload pricing is accelerating, having increased for the past six months […]
Truckers Aren’t Quitting Because of ELDs
Little evidence exists that truckers are leaving the industry ahead of the Dec. 18 deadline for adopting electronic logging devices, according to a just-released comprehensive survey of carriers and owner-operators.