Transport Topics

Class 8 U.S. retail sales in November reached 17,803, down 4% compared with 18,545 a year earlier, according to a report Thursday from WardsAuto.com. Sales were able to draw close to that year-over-year parity essentially on gains from two truck makers — Freightliner and International. Freightliner, a brand of Daimler Trucks North America, notched 7,709 sales, up 9.4% compared with the same period...

General Motors’ self-driving car company Cruise is sending out vehicles with nobody behind the wheel in San Francisco as it navigates its way toward launching a robotic taxi service. Cruise’s self-driving cars have been allowed on California public streets for several years with humans poised behind the wheel to take over in an emergency. Now, Cruise is confident enough to send out its self-drivin...

FedEx and UPS executives are supposed to be among the attendees Dec. 10 when Congress will press the industry on distribution plans for COVID vaccines. Richard Smith, regional president of the Americas and executive vice president at FedEx Express, as well as Wesley Wheeler, president of global health care at UPS, are among the freight industry witnesses who will appear before the Senate Transport...

The national average price for a gallon of diesel fuel increased 2.4 cents last week to $2.526, according to the Energy Information Administration. The biggest rise came in the Central Atlantic, which recorded an increase of 3.3 cents. The smallest rise came in the Rocky Mountain region, where diesel ticked up just one-tenth of a cent. Diesel climbed in all but one of the 10 regions of the country...

Doctors and diabetes experts say a growing number of truck drivers and Americans in general are unaware they have Type 2 diabetes. Many are ignoring common signs of the disease, which include profuse sweating, irritability, a lack of coordination, blurry vision and shaky hands. Ignoring the signs of Type 2 diabetes can lead to ulcers on the feet or legs that can ultimately result in amputations. S...

Fleets and dealers placed almost 52,000 Class 8 orders in November, the fourth-highest monthly volume in history. That’s according to Act Research, which cited truck makers’ preliminary data. North American orders reached 51,900, according to Act, about triple the volume of 17,512 last November. The record for Class 8 orders was 53,040, set in August of 2018. Orders were driven by a mix of pandemi...

XPO Logistics has announced plans to split itself into two publicly-traded companies. XPO, a perennial rankings-topper on the Transport Topics Top 50 list of the largest logistics companies, shared the news after markets closed Wednesday. It said it will spin off 100% of its logistics business while maintaining trucking and freight brokerage operations as a stand-alone business. When the deal clos...

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced yesterday that it has taken regulatory measures to facilitate the safe and rapid transport of the much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration extended its emergency declaration offering hours-of-service relief to truckers who provide direct emergency assistance. That includes vaccines, medical supplies and equip...

Truck drivers and other workers in critical and essential jobs could be among the earliest people to receive COVID-19 vaccinations as several major pharmaceutical companies begin working with major transportation firms to deliver the vaccines. Distribution, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, could start as early as mid-December, according to a committee within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent...

Members of Congress return to Capitol Hill after Thanksgiving to close out a post-election lame-duck session that will include government funding legislation and the possibility of a new round of COVID-19 relief aid. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intend to proceed with fiscal 2021 appropriations legislation prior to a Dec. 11 funding deadline. The congressio...

Truck tonnage in October declined a seasonally adjusted 8.7% when compared with year-ago levels, according to the American Trucking Associations index released yesterday. This marks the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines. When measured month-to-month, the ATA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 6.3% after an increase of 5.7% in September. Still, analysts are holding off from s...

The national average price of diesel rose again, this time by 2.1 cents per gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration’s weekly data released yesterday. Diesel now costs an average of $2.462, which is its most expensive mark since April 20. The increase follows a spike reported by the EIA last week, when diesel shot up 5.8 cents — more than twice the previous weekly increase high f...

Manufacturing has improved greatly since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but a lot of work remains, experts said during a panel discussion Nov. 19. The National Association of Manufacturers, in its quarterly industry survey released Sept. 10, found that 66% of manufacturers were positive about their outlook. That is up from 33.9% in May. Respondents were asked in the survey when they expect...

A case that alleges ocean carriers are overcharging truckers for use of container chassis at ports will proceed after a judge denied a request for dismissal filed by the defendants. An administrative law judge with the Federal Maritime Commission this week rejected a motion from the Ocean Carriers Equipment Management Association seeking dismissal of a claim filed by the Intermodal Motor Carriers...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted Nov. 18 to redeploy airwaves assigned 21 years ago for a vehicle safety system that hasn’t come to fruition, rejecting carmakers’ efforts to hold onto the frequencies. With its vote, FCC opened the way for billions of Wi-Fi devices to use frequencies once destined for a safety system to be used by vehicles linked to roadside gadgets. The change foll...

State and federal transportation officials are contributing to an emergency response effort after a truck crash damaged the Brent Spence Bridge, which links northern Kentucky and Cincinnati and carries interstates 71 and 75 over the Ohio River. The double-decker span has been closed since a fiery crash involving two commercial motor vehicles occurred Nov. 11. Inspections showed that the structure...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has determined that Washington state’s meal-and-rest-break rules for commercial truck drivers are pre-empted by federal hours-of-service regulations. The determination, included in a notice scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Nov. 17, honors a petition submitted by Washington Trucking Associations in April 2019. According to the noti...

U.S. trailer orders for October soared to 54,200, the third-best month in industry history, according to an ACT Research report. A year ago, orders were 31,786. The all-time record is 58,228, set in September 2018, with that October claiming the second-highest volume with 55,399. Frank Maly, director of commercial vehicle analysis and research at ACT, said, “Current production rates would result i...

Class 8 U.S. retail sales in October remained 18.4% below year-ago levels, but closed in on 19,000, according to a WardsAuto.com report yesterday. Sales were 18,774 compared with 23,001 a year earlier. It was the second-highest tally of the year, trailing only 19,126 in September. All truck makers in the month posted lower year-over-year sales except Western Star, the smallest, which rose 2.8% to...

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has overturned the award of a potential nine-year, $19.9 billion contract to a New Jersey company for moving military household goods worldwide. The lucrative Global Household Goods Contract, first awarded in April to American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier Group, or ARC, of Parsippany, N.J., is intended to address military families’ long-standing problems with...

The truck making world will soon have a new kid on the block. Fully embracing an alliance begun in 2017, the boards of directors at Traton SE and Navistar International approved over the weekend a definitive agreement to merge. The merger is subject to Navistar shareholder approval, but major shareholders in that company have already agreed to vote their shares in favor of the transaction. The dea...

A previously unidentified New Orleans attorney alleged to be a co-conspirator in a sweeping federal investigation into staged accidents with tractor-trailers was named in a federal indictment last week for his alleged role in the conspiracy. Danny Patrick Keating Jr., 51, unnamed but only identified as “Attorney A” in several previous indictments, was accused of being a participant in as many as 3...

While the presidential race remained up in the air Nov. 5, a number of Congressional campaigns had already claimed victory. For the top transportation decision-makers on Capitol Hill up for re-election, a majority of voters responded favorably to their campaigns, sending them back to Washington to work on an agenda that includes an update of the country’s highway and infrastructure policies. In Ma...

Though the presidential election was coming down to the wire Nov. 4, the fates of two transportation-related issues in two states were officially settled at ballot boxes on Election Day. In Arkansas, 55% percent of voters approved a measure to make permanent a sales tax dedicated to supplying revenue to state and local transportation infrastructure purposes. The existing 0.5% sales tax was establi...

Volvo Trucks North America and other industry associations and companies have helped facilitate the modification of California utility rules to give private entities the ability to sell electricity as a motor fuel. The rule modification would apply at publicly accessible charging stations for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles. Electric utilities in the state had been guided by a California...