Every major railroad serving the U.S. got a letter from the Surface Transportation Board. 

One year after launch, FreightWaves takes the top spot for news in the freight and logistics industry according to Amazon's Alexa.

Shippers move more freight into the contract market to avoid higher spot market rates

Energy and financial markets economist joins the FreightWaves data-science team. 

Driver recruiting, media, data application expert, Ken Smith, joins the FreightWaves team as CTO. 

Leading commodities, markets-data news, and blockchain expert joins FreightWaves as Executive Editor and BiTA's Head of Member Engagement.

Senior UPS Economist, Ibrahiim Bayaan joins the FreightWaves team as Chief Economist. 

The Baltic Exchange is changing one of their signature indices, the Baltic Dry Index, which averages shipping rates for raw materials like coal, ores, and grains. Baltic is hoping to make the BDI a more attractive benchmark for futures investors.

Telematics and data expert joins FreightWaves to help develop thought leadership and a forum for interpreting telematics and market data for the freight markets 

George Abernathy, an industry veteran, joins TransRisk as the company accelerates growth

TransRisk, the developer of the first trucking futures contract, raises a venture capital round led by Bill Ford's mobility venture investment fund. Seven other venture investors participated in the capital raise. 

One of the largest financial exchanges in the world has partnered with DAT and Chattanooga-based TransRisk to launch a futures contract based on trucking spot rates. The venture brings together the benchmark pricing index with one of the largest financial exchanges in the world. 

Founded with the purpose of addressing volatility for brokers, carriers and shippers in major shipping lanes through risk-management solutions, TransRisk is one step closer to doing just that. The company, along with DAT Solutions and Nodal Exchange jointly announced an agreement to develop, market and list the first and only trucking freight futures and options on futures contracts.

Sandeep Kar, one of the commercial vehicles industry's most respected names has joined the TransRisk Board of Advisors. He brings decades of research and insights on the commercial vehicle market, along with a perspective on the impact of autonomous, electric, telematics, and blockchain technologies will have on the trucking industry. 

TransRisk, a pioneer of solutions designed to allow transportation industry participants to efficiently manage price risk in the North American freight transportation market, has added nationally recognized transportation markets leader Donald Broughton to its team.

Former Thomson Reuters Senior Executive Eric Frank has joined TransRisk's Board of Advisors.

Glenn S. Goldberg, president of GSG Advisory Services, has joined the TransRisk LLC Board of Advisors. TransRisk builds financial instruments that provide price discovery, transparency and demand balance for the trucking industry.

The nation is about to heat up starting this weekend, and that could drive more volatility to already rising spot rates for agricultural haulers and shippers.

When capacity is tight, spot market rates increase, and that hurts brokers. There are other factors that affect rates, of course, but 3PLs have had few options to manage the underlying fundamentals that so negatively hurt their businesses. That is about to change.

With weather delays costing the trucking industry as much as $3.5 billion yearly, the impact is enormous, especially on shipping rates. TransFX is seeking to offer trucking futures contracts to help brokers, carriers and shippers better manager their exposure to volatile rates. As part of that effort, it has tapped into the expertise of Riskpulse, a leading supply chain risk analytics firm.

A futures market will react to the underlying fundamentals of its physical market because in the end, the futures price is linked to the physical market. But, the opposite is also true. A physical market can look to a futures market for transparency and guidance on rate structure. A developing trucking freight futures market might be the answer to solving these industry issues. 

Since the dawn of the shipping industry, brokers, carriers and shippers have struggled with rate price swings, sometimes due to conditions outside their control, such as weather or politics. TransFX, a Chattanooga-based company located in Freight Alley, is trying to help change that by offering "freight futures contracts."

Amazingly, there's one area of the country where more than 80% of the nation's freight travels through on its way to its final destination. It's not Chicago, New York or Dallas. It's not even in the center of the U.S. Meet Freight Alley. 

Those on both sides of the freight business have struggled for years with volatile shipping rates. Contracts get locked in for months or more with no assurance that the contract will reflect current prices when loads are delivered. TransVix believes part of the solution to this problem is the creation of a Trucking Futures Exchange.