Drilling Deep with John Kingston

In this week's Drilling Deep podcast, Kurt George of Property Damage Appraisers joins host John Kingston to talk about the current strong freight market from the perspective of the companies that insure those trucks. His company is not an insurer itself but works with enough of them to know what they're thinking...and what they're doing. Are insurance company actions having an impact on driver sup...

Alabama Motor Express is a growing truckload company that just added a terminal in Atlanta.   This may not sound like a big deal, but for the company that makes such a decision, it's a lengthy process to get the point of yes/no.   On this week's Drilling Deep podcast, Jared Moore of AMX joins host John Kingston to discuss the decision-making that goes into what is a monumental step to deploy capit...

On this week's Drilling Deep podcast, two attorneys from the Benesch law firm, Helen Schweitz and Jonathan Todd, join host John Kingston to discuss the ownership of the growing stream of data that trucks are producing on every trip. Whether it's through an ELD, a camera system or a wired trailer, there is a lot of information that trucks are throwing off these days. Figuring out the ownership of t...

When you advise independent owner operators on their finances, you get a good look at how they're doing. And Todd Amen of ATBS likes what he's seeing.   Amen, president and CEO of ATBS, sat down with host John Kingston on Drilling Deep to discuss what he's seeing in the finances of the independent fleet. The market is great and it's showing up in their performance. Also on Drilling Deep, Kingston...

Of all the tough parts of the supply chain, getting products into a person's home is the most challenging.   That mission brought together hundreds of attendees to an exhibition in Philadelphia recently. FreightWaves' Brian Straight was there, and he'll sit down with Drilling Deep host John Kingston to talk about what he saw and heard at this show that went on despite the pandemic. Also on the pod...

Truckers need diesel to operate and diesel comes out of refineries.   The U.S. refining industry is challenged by a drop in demand and weak margins. This week, it was reported that a large U.S. refinery has been put on the sales block. Will there be a buyer for it or will it go the way of other refineries that have been closed? Host John Kingston discusses that on this week's podcast. Also this we...

On this week's Drilling Deep, host John Kingston sits down with Jay Delaney of Trimble to discuss the landscape for transportation management systems. What are customers demanding today and how ready is the industry to provide it? Kingston will also talk about an unexpected snag in the march to more renewable diesel: the price of the stuff needed to make it is getting out of hand. Today it's soybe...

On this week's Drilling Deep podcast, host John Kingston kicks things off by looking at the unexpected call by the Biden administration for OPEC to put more oil on the market. The call may be coming just as the need for it is starting to fade.   Also on the podcast, the guest of the week is Eric Wanberg, the head of inventory management at Taulia. His company recently produced a paper on that subj...

Amit Mehrotra of Deutsche Bank stopped by with host John Kingston for the Drilling Deep podcast to talk about the just-completed earnings season.   A few companies are on his discussion list: Saia, Old Dominion Freight and Kansas City Southern, among others. He reviews them in a compelling discussion. Also on the podcast: Kingston talks about the contraction in upstream oil exploration spending an...

It's been a long time in coming but the market is on the verge of XPO spinning off its contract logistics business into GXO. On this week's Drilling Deep podcast, Mark Solomon of FreightWaves, a long-time observer of XPO, talks about the reasons behind the move and what it means for the new company about to be created, as well as the company it is leaving behind. What can XPO do now that it's been...

The bull vs. bear showdown is present in markets at all times. Freight is no exception. Noel Perry, long-time freight economist who works closely with the Transportation Intermediates Association and Truckstop.com, talks about the reasons for both arguments on this week's Drilling Deep. Also on the podcast, host John Kingston discusses the wild ride that commodity diesel prices have been on the pa...

It's not just a big deal in terms of dollars. The acquisition of LTL carrier AAA Cooper by Knight Swift is radical in that it joins an LTL carrier with a truckload carrier, one of the biggest.   The two businesses are very different. How will they integrate? On this week's Drilling Deep podcast, FreightWaves JP Hampstead talks about the road ahead for this most unusual and groundbreaking of transa...

David Roush is the President of KSM Transport Advisors and he's been watching trucking markets for a long time. As a result, he's well positioned to talk about how long he thinks the current bull freight market can keep roaring along on this week's Drilling Deep podcast with host John Kingston. Roush also will talk about how this current market has made some changes in how companies do business th...

When a hurricane hits, how long does trucking get impacted?   That was the focus of a recent study at Omnitracs. Dr. Ashim Bose, the chief data and artificial intelligence officer at Omnitracs, led that study. He'll join Drilling Deep podcast host John Kingston to discuss what they found. Also on the podcast, Kingston talks about why a statistic coming out of the federal government this week signa...

The dust has mostly settled now on the fate of Kansas City Southern; it has agreed to be bought by Canadian National. But consideration of what that is going to mean for the rail industry is just beginning. Long-time industry expert Jim Blaze will join host John Kingston on this week's edition of Drilling Deep to talk about the impact of this mega-merger between two class 1 railroads. Also on Dril...

There is almost nothing that is not being impacted by rising commodity prices and tight availability in the supply chain. Add the humble pallet to the list. In this week's Drilling Deep, host John Kingston speaks with an expert on pallet markets, Matt Zielenski of the Freedonia Group, on how the price of lumber is affecting pallets and where there are other signs of squeezes in the pallet supply c...

With diesel prices at levels they have not visited since the end of 2018, Drilling Deep takes a look at some of the fallout from these lofty levels. Justin King of Comdata, which among other things processes fuel purchases made through the Comdata card, joins host John Kingston to talk about how the higher prices have impacted some purchasing patterns, including what the reaction he saw from the s...

On this week's Drilling Deep, host John Kingston talks about how diesel markets fared during the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline.   There was so much focus on gasoline supplies, gasoline lines and the hoarding that created it that it raises the question: how did diesel do during this unprecedented time? Also on this week's podcast, Kingston is joined by Todd Fowler of KeyBanc. Fowler sits in on...

Steve Viscelli popped up on the trucking sector's radar several years ago when he wrote "The Big Rig." He had been a truck driver turned academic and he wrote a first-hand look at the life of drivers on the road.   In particular, he took aim at lease purchase deals, arguing that they were distinctly bad deals for drivers.   Viscelli joins host John Kingston on Drilling Deep today to talk about how...

U.S. Bank is a major factoring company. That gives Bobby Holland, vice president and director of  Freight Data Solutions, strong insight to what markets are doing. Holland joins Drilling Deep host John Kingston this week to talk about what he has seen in the markets. Just how strong are the trends? Also on Drilling Deep, after several weeks of quiet diesel prices, with a somewhat downward trend, m...

Did somebody just apply for a truck driver job at your firm? You'd better act quickly. Tim Crawford, the CEO of Tenstreeet, joins host John Kingston on Drilling Deep this week to talk about the trends he's seen in driver recruitment and retention from his perch. Tenstreet works with fleets through the entire application process, so he sees the data on the numbers of applicants, and the actions of...

The factoring business has always been highly fragmented. But on this week's Drilling Deep podcast, Marius Silvasan, the CEO of eCapital Corp., talks about his own acquisitons in the sector and why he thinks it is an industry ripe for consolidation.   Also on this week's podcast, host John Kingston talks about two reports out of the oil patch that on their face seem to contradict each other but ma...

With capital pouring in and acquisitions being made, the fight to become the dominant player in the visibility space is in full swing. JP Hampstead, the director of Passport Research at FreightWaves, has been closely following the developments in that sector. He joins host John Kingston on Drilling Deep to talk about the biggest players in the market, gives a definition of visibility and reviews j...

Lease purchase agreements, to put truck drivers in the seat and possibly on their way to ownership, have long been controversial. There are plenty of lawsuits kicking around over deals that went bad. Some media coverage of lease purchase agreements have been devastating.   In this week's Drilling Deep, Matt Harris of Pathway Leasing joins host John Kingston to give his views on the success stories...

With the rise of more gig economy jobs, the implementation of AB5 in California and changes in Washington, defining independent contractors has never been more tricky and uncertain.     On this week's Drilling Deep podcast, host John Kingston speaks with Aaron Hageman, the owner of Delivery Drivers Inc., a firm that works with both independent contractor workers and the companies that employ them....