Transport Topics

Truck drivers traveling alone in their cabs are exempt from a new interim final rule mandating that employees for large private companies get COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a statement by U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Nov. 4 announced the rule mandating that private companies with 100 or more employees ensure that their workers are COVI...

The new vaccine requirements, which were first previewed by President Joe Biden in September, were announced Thursday and will apply to about 84 million workers at medium and large businesses. By Jan. 4, Americans who work at companies with 100 or more employees will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or get tested for the virus weekly. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration r...

Federal trucking regulators are warning truckers that mobile carriers are shutting down their 3G networks as early as next year to make room for more advanced network services, including 5G. When the changes happen, many older cellphones and other mobile devices will be unable to use data services, and may not be in compliance with electronic logging device technical specifications, according to F...

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced a partnership with agencies in California to address freight connectivity concerns related to the national supply chain. The Emerging Projects Agreement is meant to assist with the transport of freight at key West Coast hubs where stakeholders have identified supply chain disruptions. Under the partnership, announced Oct. 28, USDOT’s Build America Bu...

Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are signaling we could see a vote on large portions of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda this week, including much-anticipated infrastructure measures. Progressives and moderates within the Democratic party say they are arriving at an understanding on those measures, as well as a number of social policy tenets of Biden’s agenda....

Traffic fatalities in the first half of 2021 were up an estimated 18.4% over the same time period in 2020, according to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA estimates 20,160 people died in motor vehicle crashes on U.S. roadways from January through June, which would be the most fatalities in that time period since 2006. NHTSA says driving patterns and behaviors hav...

In an attempt to clear a backlog of containerships, the Biden Administration has launched a new initiative. The Emerging Projects Agreement marks the first time the federal government has teamed with a state to develop and fund a range of supply chain projects at once, rather than taking a piecemeal approach to specific initiatives, according to Port Envoy John Porcari. The accord will make availa...

For much of Harold Sumerford Jr.’s adult life, he has risen at 4:30 each morning and worked 11 hours a day, six days a week. But it’s never felt like the daily grind. “I’ve been doing this for 43 years,” said Sumerford, CEO of Birmingham, Ala.-based J&M Tank Lines and newly confirmed chairman of American Trucking Associations. “But I’ve never, ever felt like I went to work a day in my life.” Sumer...

A new Department of Transportation Inspector General audit concludes that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s information technology infrastructure is fraught with security weaknesses that are at risk for compromise by hackers and the placement of malware. The audit, made public Oct. 20, said the IG itself used “basic hacker technique” to gain unauthorized access to FMCSA’s network....

Will the Highway Trust Fund reauthorization deadline of Oct. 31 provide an impetus for an agreement on the larger social infrastructure proposal before Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agrees there is urgency for approving a surface transportation policy update, and that the best way to deal with it is to pass the bipartisan infrastructure framework. Congressional Democratic leaders appear rea...

American Trucking Associations has sent a letter to government officials expressing “grave concern” over potential damage that it says President Biden’s plans for a COVID-19 vaccine mandate could cause trucking companies. The federation warns that motor carriers could lose up to 37% of their drivers if a vaccine mandate is ordered for companies with 100 employees or more. The emergency temporary s...

In a letter signed by 160 Republicans from the U.S. House of Representatives, some lawmakers are pointing at President Biden and his senior team as one of the culprits for the slowdowns at commercial seaports, and the steady spike in the cost of consumer products. In the letter, House Republicans, such as Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking member Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, and M...

Meera Joshi, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee by a vote of 22 to 6. The Senate Commerce Committee oversees trucking and freight policy. If confirmed on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Joshi would go from deputy administrator to confirmed administrator. In a separate area of transportation nominations,...

Truck tonnage hit a 2021 high in September, increasing both on a sequential basis and year-over-year. The American Trucking Associations For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index reached 112.9, marking a 1.7% increase over year-ago levels, and up 2.4% compared with August. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said, “It is good that tonnage rose in September, but it is important to note that this is happening becau...

The price of diesel continues to climb by leaps and bounds, with another 8.5-cent increase this week pushing the national average for a gallon of trucking’s main fuel to $3.671. That’s an increase of 26.5 cents a gallon just over the past three weeks. Diesel is $1.28 more than it was a year ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

J.B. Hunt Transport Services experienced both revenue and net income growth during the third quarter of 2021, the company reported Friday. The carrier posted net earnings of $199.8 million for the three months ending Sept. 30, and total operating revenue of $3.14 billion. All segments contributed double-digit revenue growth versus the prior year period. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc...

As Democrats craft a multitrillion-dollar budget package, Republican transportation leaders have ramped up their criticism of congressional leaders and the Biden administration. Senior Democrats in the Senate are insisting climate change-centric proposals be included in the final budget reconciliation bill. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Chris Coons of Delaware are among the lawmakers pushing for...

Fixing the broken supply chain will take time and patience, substantial amounts of money, imagination by key leaders in the transportation and logistics industry, and significant policy changes. Those are the conclusions of experts closely watching the upcoming holiday shopping season, but, as they said, the rush to buy items amplifies how stretched the system is. “What we have is a storm within a...

Members of the House of Representatives last night pushed through a short-term increase to the nation’s debt limit, ensuring the federal government can continue fully paying its bills into December and temporarily averting an unprecedented default that would have decimated the economy. The $480 billion increase in the country’s borrowing ceiling cleared the Senate last week on a party-line vote. T...

XPO Logistics has named its chief information officer, Mario Harik, to run its less-than-truckload division in an acting capacity. Harik is replacing Tony Brooks, 59, who is retiring. The change takes effect immediately, although Brooks will stay on for an undetermined period of time to assist Harik with the transition. Harik will continue in his role as XPO’s CIO, a position he has held since XPO...

Mergers and acquisitions in the trucking industry are heating up as buyers and sellers look to make moves while a confluence of factors drive activity. Included in those factors are high valuations for motor carriers, deals that have gotten backlogged during the pandemic and concerns over potential changes to capital gains taxes. According to Lee A. Clair, a managing partner at Transportation and...

One year from now, some of the world’s brightest and most highly trained young adults will gather in Shanghai for the 46th WorldSkills Competition. The event, rescheduled because of the pandemic, is set for Oct. 12-17, 2022. And again, the U.S. is sending a representative to compete in the heavy equipment category. Gabe Krebs, 20, of Lonsdale, Minn., is a 2019 graduate of the Heavy Duty Truck Tech...

North American Class 8 orders in September dropped 11.8% compared with a year earlier, ACT Research reported. Truck makers struggled to match pent-up demand amid a badly out-of-kilter supply chain and a production schedule that continues to defy typical certainty. Orders slid down to 27,400 compared with 31,100 a year earlier, according to ACT, citing truck makers’ preliminary data. FTR pegged pre...

The national average price for diesel fuel soared 7.1 cents to reach $3.477 a gallon, the Energy Information Administration reported. That’s the highest price the nation has seen for diesel since the week of December 8th, 2014, when it was $3.535 a gallon. The one-week spurt is the largest since a matching 7.1-cent increase from the first week of March to the second. Learn more about your ad choic...

Shareholders of Daimler AG agreed to realign the company by spinning off its truck and bus unit by the end of the year to form Daimler Truck Holding AG, which will be publicly traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Daimler AG will be renamed Mercedes-Benz Group AG effective Feb. 1. Daimler generates about $48.8 billion in revenue and sells more than half a million trucks and buses in a typical ye...