In this issue, trucking market enters dog days of summer; Nikola sales numbers; Yellow talks intensify; and more.
The freight recession’s impact on small fleets and owner-operators gained mainstream media attention on Monday with an article by Shannon Pettypiece, a senior policy reporter for NBC News. The article related the story of Arnesha Barron, a 39-year-old driver who in 2021 became an owner-operator after working at a trucking company for six years.
In this edition: One state has over $20 in fireworks per resident; Yellow struggles with negotiations; and a double broker AMA hits Reddit.
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Negotiations between the Teamsters union and Yellow Corp. remain ongoing, with the fate of the nation’s third-largest LTL carrier hanging in the balance. Yellow is facing stiff resistance from the Teamsters over proposed operational changes that would consolidate operations between purchased regional carriers New Penn and Holland and integrate them into Yellow’s nationwide network.
In this edition: It might be time to change the password; new Container Atlas findings; and is it double brokering if it’s “responsible”?
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Consulting firm Kearney recently released its 34th annual Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) report, “State of Logistics 2023: The Great Reset.” A major theme of the report is the great rebalancing from the carrier-dominated market of the past two years to a shipper-focused one as freight volumes fell against a backdrop of higher truckload capacity. The report notes that total U.S. logistics costs rose 19.6% in 2022 to a record $2.3 trillion or 9.1% of U.S. gross domestic product.
In this edition: The FMCSA has issued final guidance on the broker and agent divide and there are big doings in the West Coast labor talks.
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Battery chemistry will play a critical role in advancing electric trucking beyond regional and drayage hauling.
A proposal by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to alter and expand reporting categories for crashes is drawing criticism from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which argues the FMCSA should take stronger action to protect driver safety records.
In this edition: Comparing freight broker commission rates; Stopping corn at the border; and some C-suite shuffling.
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Megawatt charging is too much for pretty much every electric truck save for the purpose-built Tesla Semi. But that is slowly changing.
Inside the WHAT THE TRUCK?!? newsletter: Why trucks sales are up in a freight recession; Optimus returns; glue spills; Tesla supply chain exec jumps to Rivian
At the recent UBS Global Industrial and Transportation Conference, Heartland CEO Mike Gerdin and Vice President of Finance Josh Helmich highlighted freight market weakness and outlined the retention impact of their driver minimum pay program.
In this edition: West Coast labor union talks get ramped up a notch; Canada goes head-to-head with Mexico; and C.H. Robinson finds a new CEO.
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Class 5 electric trucks have a broad customer base and a lot of manufacturers chasing the space where regulation comes soon.
