Cass Information Systems

Shipments and cost data for May show no letup in the freight downcycle.

FreightWaves SONAR and Cass Information Systems announced on Tuesday a channel and integration partnership on supply chain intelligence.

April data from freight payments platform Cass shows freight demand remains near cycle lows.

March provides little relief from the freight downturn, contrary to what carriers had hoped.

Excess truckload capacity continues to push down rates and change shipper behaviors to a more transactional approach.

Charles Gracey of Hot Seat Services says recruitment can be difficult even in the best of circumstances, with only a tiny fraction of applicants getting an offer and successfully completing orientation.

Cass freight data for January shows continued weakness, but the month included harsher-than-normal winter weather.

On Wednesday, autonomous trucking startup TuSimple went private after voluntarily delisting from Nasdaq following two years of stock and boardroom drama. FreightWaves’ Alan Adler writes, “TuSimple was the first autonomous trucking company to demonstrate driverless operations on an open highway. One of its trucks traveled 80 miles with no human on board from Tucson, Arizona, to Phoenix in December 2021.”

December data from Cass Information Systems shows further rate stabilization, albeit at depressed levels.

Data from the November Cass Freight Index shows both shipments and expenditures remained pressured.

On Wednesday, FreightWaves hosted the Domestic Supply Chain Summit, a virtual event with RXO Chief Strategy Officer Jared Weisfeld as the keynote speaker. The interview, conducted by enterprise trucking carrier expert Thomas Wasson, included an outlook for 2024 and highlighted the biggest supply chain challenges and opportunities.

The changing freight media landscape was on full display at the F3: Future of Freight Festival last week in Chattanooga Tennessee, as influencers, salespeople, presenters and executives intermingled during and after the events.

October freight data from Cass Information Systems showed continued softness into peak season.

Seattle-based digital freight broker Convoy on Wednesday canceled all shipments from its marketplace and company representatives promised more details of a business transition were forthcoming. By Thursday, company employees were told in a meeting that Convoy was “closing down its core business operations.”

Cass’ shipment data was up sequentially for a second straight month in September and the truckload linehaul index was positive for the first time in more than a year.

A report published Tuesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) must make its complaint database more transparent and publicly available.

Monday data from Cass Information Systems showed slight improvement from July to August but the comparisons to 2022 worsened.

On Thursday, self-driving trucking company Kodiak Robotics and Pilot Co. opened their first truckport for autonomous vehicles at the Pilot Travel Center in Villa Rica, Georgia. According to the news release, the truckport will be used by Kodiak to launch and land its autonomous trucks and serve as a hub for drivers to pick and drop off loads for first- and last-mile deliveries.

The first meeting of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Truck Leasing Task Force (TLTF) discussed and drafted recommendations on Tuesday regarding limiting or eliminating the power a trucking company has over lease purchase agreements with drivers.

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.