Today’s Pickup: the future of football and freight; drone deliveries come to Canada

Good day,

Can the freight markets predict the outcome of sporting events? Very unlikely. The two data sets have absolutely nothing to do with one another. After all, the freight market is a reflection of the balance of supply/demand and college football scores are reflections of the quality of the team and the play-calling ability of the coaches.

But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun with our fundamental freight market data and try to use it to predict outcomes of college football games.

Read about how we’ve used our fundamental freight market data and our SONAR platform to predict the outcome of a game with the start of season opening this weekend. 

Did you know?

The American Transportation Research Institute’s annual survey of the top issues in the trucking industry is now available. “Completing this survey only takes a few minutes, but its impact can be immeasurable,” ATA chairman Dave Manning, president of TCW, said in the ATRI statement.

The survey can be found here.

Quotable:

“The global supply chain has reached a critical juncture. There’s an immense opportunity and need to automate critical supply chain processes and improve collaboration,” said Kirchner. “Our partnership with FreightWaves enables us to join the conversation with many industry leaders as well as equip more companies with the technology and resources they need to digitize key processes and improve supply chain performance.”

—Chris Kirchner, CEO of Slync

In other news:

Nordstrom tackles its ‘last frontier’ with new omnichannel hub

Nordstrom’s anniversary sale caused logistics costs for the company to rise, but its CFO Anne Bramman anticipates them to return to normal. The addition of a West coast fulfillment center, “opening a new omnichannel fulfillment center in California to serve customers faster and facilitate a symbiotic relationship between in-store and online sales.” (Supply Chain Dive)

Smucker needs to fix peanut butter and jelly

J.M. Smucker reports growth in Dunkin’ Donuts Keurig cups and pet food markets, but has seen sales decline in its older products like Jif peanut butter and the company’s jellies and jams (Wall Street Journal).

FMCSA Seeks Public Comment on Revising Current Hours-of-Service Regulations for Interstate Truck Drivers

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is seeking public comment concerning various exemptions and regulations. “In addition, the ANPRM seeks public comment and relevant data on two recently submitted petitions requesting regulatory relief from HOS rules (1) pertaining to the 14-hour on-duty limitation and (2) pertaining to the 10-hour off-duty requirement.” (FMCSA)

Schedule for limited access to the north shore of Kauai for Hurricane Lane  

As Hurricane Lane has strengthened to a Category 5 storm, the Hawaii Department of Transportation is bracing for its impact, adding more shuttles to and from Wainiha and Haena. The schedule change is at the request of community members that asked for more access to aid in their hurricane preparation activities in advance of Hurricane Lane.” (Hawaii Department of Transportation)

DDC pilots the drive for more drone delivery trials in Canada

Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has made strides this summer, testing flights beyond the “visual line of sight” in Quebec. Drone technology could be key to delivering supplies to remote areas of Canada. These test flights will study drones carrying letters, packages, and medical products to Moosonee, Ontario. (The Loadstar).

Final Thoughts:

Returning again to SONAR data, FreightWaves’ Chad Prevost predicts the top 5 spots for Amazon’s second US headquarters. Amazon refuses to comment further about the timeline, but there is widespread speculation it could narrow the list of finalists as soon as this month.

Using outbound tender market share (OTMS) data, which measures the number of accepted loads in individual markets in relation to total accepted load volume for the day in the U.S, his predictions are as follows:

5. Los Angeles

4. Austin

3. Chicago

2. Atlanta

1. Northern Virginia

Read more here.

Hammer down everyone!