Transport Topics

Shipping has started for the third COVID-19 vaccine. Johnson & Johnson’s version was cleared by U.S. regulators over the weekend, allowing for the delivery of almost 4 million doses early this week, according to CEO Alex Gorsky. The company is looking to immunize 20 million Americans by the end of March and a total of 100 million by the end of June. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine differs from the P...

TravelCenters of America Inc. reported a fourth-quarter loss and a decline in revenue while also noting it is preparing for the alternative energy market. The company reported a net loss of $7.2 million compared with a net profit of $43.1 million a year earlier. Revenue fell to $840 million compared with $1 billion in the 2019 period. TA said it will be onboarding dedicated leadership and finalizi...

Based on January sales of used Class 8 vehicles, ACT Research is projecting a 6% increase in total sales this year compared to 2020. Roughly 20,700 used Class 8’s were sold last month compared with 18,000 in the same period a year earlier. ACT Vice President Steve Tam expects demand to pick up in the coming months. In other news that reflects the demand, Ryder System announced it will purchase fle...

Trucks traveled more swiftly on historically congested roads in 2020, as the pandemic kept some automobiles off the road. That’s the finding of a new report from the American Transportation Research Institute. The ease in traffic was substantial. ATRI’s 2021 Top Truck Bottlenecks List found that peak truck speeds across the top 100 worst sections improved 34% in 2020 compared with 2019. Learn more...

January truck tonnage fell 2.1% compared with year-ago levels, but ticked up 1.4% over December 2020 — a continuation of several months’ worth of sequential gains, American Trucking Associations announced yesterday. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said tonnage has increased a total of 3.3% over the past four months. He also noted ATA’s truck tonnage index still is off 2.8% from the high in March...

Yellow Corp., the company formerly known as YRC Worldwide, announced a new initiative yesterday that seeks to bring up to 1,500 new truck drivers to the industry. The effort comes amid a persistent driver shortage that some economists believe has worsened during the pandemic. Yellow will offer an eight-week paid CDL training program at 12 locations. If the student is away from home during the trai...

A district court judge in Chattanooga, Tenn., wants prosecutors and defense attorneys to decide on a fall date for the retrial of former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood and two other defendants. The three were convicted by a Chattanooga jury in February of 2018 in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme to siphon fuel rebates away from thousands of truckers. But in October a ret...

For the second summer in a row, COVID-19 has forced the cancellation of the National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships. The competition had been scheduled for Aug. 11-14 in Minneapolis. American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear announced the news in a letter to the truck driving community this week. He said, “Know that we do not take this decision l...

Details of the Biden administration’s infrastructure package haven’t been unveiled, but that day might come soon. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters this week that the Biden administration is considering shifting its focus to infrastructure once a new COVID-19 relief bill is signed. Federal policymakers from both parties have signaled support for considering legislation that woul...

Daimler Truck A-G announced Tuesday it appointed John O’Leary as the next president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, the leading truck maker in North America, effective April 1. O’Leary succeeds Roger Nielsen, who will retire April 30 after 35 years with the Portland, Ore.-based company, the last four as president and CEO. O’Leary was chief transformation officer for Mercedes-Benz Trucks i...

Kenworth introduced its T680 Next Generation on-highway flagship truck that includes a 15-inch digital display, fully LED headlamps, additional advanced driver assistance systems and a high-tech design that balances aerodynamics and serviceability. Kenworth says the 15-inch high-definition digital display is the largest standard factory display available in any North American truck to date. Learn...

Texas and Ohio, which serve as important freight hubs, earned mediocre grades on the infrastructure report cards released by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Texas earned a C grade, and Ohio earned a C-. For both states, road infrastructure remains a challenge, with each receiving a lower score on highways and roads than their overall grades. ASCE plans to release its national report card...

Utah-based motor carrier C.R. England this week filed a civil lawsuit alleging that a New Orleans law firm and six co-conspirators were paid nearly $5 million in a fraudulent settlement for a staged accident. The accident in question involved a C.R. England tractor-trailer in 2015. The 98-page lawsuit includes allegations that several groups participated in a total of 150 staged accidents with tra...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will quarantine for 14 days after being in close contact with a member of his security detail who tested positive for COVID-19. Buttigieg, who has since tested negative and has shown no symptoms, said late Monday that he was feeling fine and that the agent had no signs of the coronavirus other than testing positive. Buttigieg was confirmed as transportation...

Daimler AG’s plan to spin off its truck division has earned praise throughout the industry since its announcement last week. But perhaps no one is happier than the man in charge of the company’s global truck operations. Martin Daum, head of the Germany-based Daimler Trucks, didn’t hide his excitement in an interview with Transport Topics. He said, “I was pushing for this for years and finally it c...

The company formerly known as YRC Worldwide, now going by Yellow Corporation, released its first earnings report since its name change, reporting Q4 net losses widened to $18.7 million compared with a loss of $15.3 million in 2019. Other trucking companies fared better, however. Universal Logistics Holdings reported its highest fourth-quarter earnings on record, showing net income of $16.2 million...

North American Class 8 orders are off to a stronger-than-expected start in 2021. ACT Research reported 42,200 in January — a 146% improvement from a year earlier. The January figure is a 17% dip from December, but still reflects competition for truck makers’ remaining build slots, according to ACT Vice President Steve Tam. His organization is expecting a 40% increase in production in 2021 compared...

Freight operations in the Northeast are resuming after a snowstorm walloped the region and caused some temporary restrictions on commercial vehicle travel. Leaders in several states enacted truck travel restrictions ahead of the Nor’easter on Monday — to the dismay of industry leaders. While the storm dropped more than a foot of snow in places like New York City, its effects were less severe in ot...

The U.S. Department of Transportation has a new leader in Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 presidential candidate and the former mayor of South Bend, Ind. Buttigieg was confirmed to become secretary of transportation by a Senate vote of 86-13 yesterday. Buttigieg, who succeeds former Secretary Elaine Chao, will lead a department tasked with ensuring the safety of the nation’s mobility networks, managing the...

The Senate will vote at noon today on the nomination of Pete Buttigieg to head the Department of Transportation. During his Jan. 21 confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Buttiegieg conveyed an ambitious agenda for infrastructure transformation. The committee responded warmly to the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and on Jan.27 voted 21-3 to move his nomination to the Senate...

The Maryland Department of Transportation has released its latest strategic highway safety plan, identifying actions to help eliminate fatalities on state roadways. Maryland has set a goal of zero vehicle-related deaths and serious injuries by 2030. Currently, about 318 police-reported traffic crashes occur in Maryland every day, and one person is killed every 16 hours as a result. The plan would...

Used Class 8 sales rose in December, marking a seventh consecutive month of year-over-year increases. Sales reached 21,500 compared with 19,300 a year earlier, according to an ACT Research Report. The average price of a used Class 8 sold in December also rose — 17% over the year-ago value. ACT Vice President Steve Tam said, “The buyers could have gotten better prices if they’d bought earlier in th...

Navistar announced yesterday it would develop a zero-emission longhaul truck using fuel cell systems supplied by General Motors. The goal is to bring an International RH Series FCEV model to commercial markets in 2024. Before that happens, longtime Navistar customer J.B. Hunt Transport will deploy some of the trucks in a pilot program starting in 2022. Navistar also announced it had taken a minori...

Trucking has embraced risk management and technology that drives efficiency in response to the coronavirus pandemic. That was the assessment by XPO Logistics CEO Brad Jacobs and FedEx Custom Critical CEO Ramona Hood during a panel discussion Monday. The symposium was part of the SMC³ Jump Start 2021 conference. Jacobs said health risk wasn’t as high on the list of priorities before COVID-19, but f...

The for-hire trucking world saw a major change yesterday, as news broke that TFI International was acquiring UPS Freight in an $800 million deal. According to TFI, the UPS division generated about $3 billion in revenue last year and was approximately break-even from an operating income perspective. Under the deal, UPS Freight’s less-than-truckload segment will operate independently within TFI’s LT...