From spot market rates to repair and labor costs, stabilization is the theme for this week’s Economic Trucking Trends. Spot market rates may have bottomed, analysts report, volumes held steady, and even repair and labor costs are normalizing.
The US truck transportation industry entered a freight recession in the third quarter of 2022. The Michigan State University (MSU) trucking ton-mile index for April 2023 places ton-miles about 2% below where they were in the same month last year.
A cornucopia of shipper-carrier arrangements drives freight movement nationwide. Shippers can select how to move their freight from a broader range of service offerings than ever, as motor carriers and other asset- and non-asset-based service providers work nimbly and quickly to meet shipper requirements while dealing with various market forces.
Longtime independent owner-operators Daniel and Phyllis Snow have worked the spot market consistently for the last decade or so -- that is, up until about two months ago.
If the old saying is true, owner-operator and small-fleet businesses that make it through to the other side of the current freight environment, declining for the better part of a year, will be as tough as they come.
The newly formed Advisory Committee on Underride Protections recently met for the first time. We recap the inaugural meeting, during which both sides of the issue made their respective cases, as NHTSA considers a side underride mandate for trailers.
New labor disruptions at U.S. West Coast ports are setting off alarms for importers and raising the stakes in longrunning contract talks.
Shipwell, provider of the award-winning Shipwell TMS platform, today announced its new integration with DAT Freight & Analytics, North America's most extensive and trusted freight marketplace.
Industry leaders had expected an economic recession in the first half of this year, but they got a freight recession instead. Freight demand remains soft, and capacity is loose.
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s effort to slow the economy by raising interest rates without triggering a recession may have failed if conditions in the trucking industry are any indication.