Transport Topics

Legislation to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing while improving freight access along the nation’s supply chains was sent to President Joe Biden’s desk July 28. The legislation, which drew bipartisan support and which is strongly endorsed by the commercial transportation sector, was approved in the U.S. House of Representatives 243-187, a day after its 64-33 bipartisan passage in the Sena...

Operations at the Port of Oakland in California have resumed after a pause due to protesters, who were there to speak out against AB 5. The law, which has gone into effect after a lengthy legal battle, aims to reclassify owner-operators as employees of carriers. Some protesters remain on site, but are using “free speech zones,” and not impeding operations, according to a port representative. One o...

Researchers from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and ParkUnload are conducting a truck parking pilot study to better understand how truck drivers use existing parking spaces and to test the benefits of using a mobile parking app. The study, funded by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration under a cooperative grant program, will select certain tr...

The price of diesel has fallen for the fifth straight week, and yet it remains nearly $2 a gallon more than a year ago. This week’s 16.4-cent drop brings it to $5.268 for the national average, down by 54.2 cents from its all-time high of $5.81 on June 20. One region, the Gulf Coast, slid below $5 a gallon, as a 17.2-cent drop brought the price down to $4.911 a gallon. Learn more about your ad choi...

Net U.S. trailer orders in June rose to 25,444, ACT Research reported July 22. It was an increase of about 10,000 orders compared with the preliminary number issued only days before. At the time the preliminary order volume of 15,300 was released, four leading trailer makers told Transport Topics they had not opened their 2023 order boards. Three then confirmed that remained the case after the rev...

U.S. trailer orders in June fell to 15,300, by far the low point of the year, ACT Research reported, citing manufacturers’ preliminary data. A year earlier, net orders were 10,952, according to ACT. FTR pegged June preliminary orders at 14,400. Dry vans made up half the orders in June, according to FTR’’s Don Ake, and there is still room for refrigerated trailer orders, but not much for flatbeds o...

One of the largest trucking companies in the U.S., J.B. Hunt, recently announced Q2 earnings and some executive news. The carrier reported more than $250 million in net earnings compared to the same period in 2021, along with a 32% jump in revenue to $3.84 billion. Those numbers handily beat Wall Street expectations. Additionally, the company announced Shelley Simpson will be taking on the role of...

Truck tonnage in June soared 7.9% above the same month last year, according to American Trucking Associations' For-Hire-Truck Tonnage Index, which was released July 19. Sequentially, from May to June, the index increased by 2.7% after showing a 0.3% improvement in May. The increase in the June index is the 10th consecutive year-over-year gain and the biggest jump since June 2018, according to ATA...

A number of California owner-operators have taken to protesting the AB 5 law at the state’s busy ports. The law, which was first passed a few years ago, is now in effect for trucking companies after the Supreme Court chose not to hear the case. It requires companies to reclassify owner-operators as employees, but, among other concerns, remains lacking in clarity. A spontaneous protest broke out at...

President Biden took action on Friday to keep 115,000 rail workers on the job while arbitrators that he appointed develop a set of contract recommendations for the railroads and unions to consider. Biden had to act before today to prevent a possible strike. If the railroads and their 12 unions can’t agree on a contract within the next 60 days, Congress likely would step in to prevent a strike by v...

With an Aug. 1 deadline looming, states are finalizing their electric vehicle infrastructure deployment plans. Plans must be submitted to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Then the Federal Highway Administration will approve eligible plans by Sept. 30 before funds are issued from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (NEVI). With $1 billion earmarked annually fr...

Retail sales of Class 8 trucks in June hit the highest point of the year and improved 12.7% compared with the previous June, Wards Intelligence reported. Sales jumped to 22,358 after reaching 19,840 a year earlier. Year-to-date sales rose 0.6% to 112,255 compared with 111,552 in the 2021 period. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

XPO Logistics’ new technology-enabled brokerage platform that is set to begin operations in the fourth quarter will be called RXO, Greenwich, Conn.-based XPO announced July 12. In March, XPO announced it planned to spin off its brokerage platform into its own separate, publicly traded division. Drew Wilkerson, President of XPO’s North American Transportation division, has been tapped to be CEO of...

It’s officially mid-July, which means the congressional August recess is looming. Relevant on the Senate side is an emphasis on fuel-centric and semiconductor measures. On the House side, Democrats are planning to schedule a vote this month on fiscal 2023 funding legislation. The committee-passed transportation funding bill would provide the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration with $367.5...

Before the August recess, congressional leaders intend to finalize supply chain-centric legislation designed to boost domestic manufacturing of semiconductors. Policymakers already gave bipartisan backing to the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which would seek to enhance programs at the Department of Energy. A final legislative product is likely to dedicate about $50 billion for the semicondu...

The U.S. Energy Information Administration yesterday released diesel prices covering a three-week reporting delay caused by a network problem. The lapse in data, caused by a voltage irregularity that sparked a hardware failure, came during a time of historic highs in diesel prices. Per the new data, the national average price for diesel fell 10.8 cents to $5.675 a gallon last week. The new data al...

The U.S. Energy Information Administration plans to release diesel prices today for the first time since June 13. EIA says at 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time it will release diesel price data for the weeks ending June 20, June 27 and July 4. Weekly releases had been delayed due to a hardware failure, and it came on the heels of the use of new methodologies to calculate the weekly average prices natio...

Volvo Group is looking to expand its autonomous and electric truck programs to build market share in its key U.S. market and drive revenue and profits higher, top executives said during a recent presentation. At the same time, Volvo Group is taking a “step by step” approach to strengthen its supply chain, according to Martin Lundstedt, CEO of the Sweden-based truck maker. Different dates are being...

The U.S. Energy Information Administration is delaying its weekly release of national diesel prices for a third week in a row due to network issues. EIA usually releases national diesel and gasoline prices together on a weekly basis but has not released diesel prices since June 13. EIA says it won’t be able to release diesel prices today but says it is still able to collect data. It says a data vo...

A record number of drivers are expected to hit the road this holiday weekend and although the roads will be crowded, drivers can expect some relief from record-high gas prices. Average pump prices have been falling for the past 16 days to $4.857 a gallon as of June 29, down from a record $5.016 in mid-June, according to AAA. Around 42 million people will hit the road this Independence Day weekend,...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said state police will begin inspecting tractor-trailers crossing the border from Mexico in response to the deadly migrant tragedy that killed 53 people this week. Abbott’s inspection plan comes little more than two months after a prior such program was suspended when Mexican state governors promised to enhance vehicle checks on their side of the border. During that dispute,...

Shippers are looking at developing their own truck fleets due to low service levels and greater affordability, a leading logistics report says. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals released its 2022 “State of Logistics” report June 21 that was produced with consulting firm Kearney and Penske Logistics. It discussed annual comparisons of freight costs in the U.S. supply chain. It pr...

To test the use of liquid hydrogen as a commercial vehicle fuel, Daimler Truck announced it is putting a prototype heavy-duty truck and filling station into operation in Germany. Series production of hydrogen-based trucks suitable for longhaul applications is planned for the second half of the decade, according to Daimler. They are intended to have a range of up to 621 miles. “We have signed agree...

USA Truck announced Friday it is being acquired by DB Schenker in a $435 million deal. Under the terms of the agreement, DB Schenker is acquiring all outstanding common stock in USA Truck. All USA Truck cash and debt is included in the price. The stock being acquired is valued at $31.72 per share. The USA Truck board of directors unanimously approved the deal, but it’s still subject to regulatory...

As China lifts its latest coronavirus lockdowns, there is concern the resulting influx of goods flowing from the country could renew bottlenecks at ports in the United States. Earlier this year, Shanghai and other Chinese port cities returned to lockdowns in response to a re-emergence of the coronavirus. On June 1, Shanghai reopened and some companies resumed production output. Since then, some bo...