Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

According to the American Trucking Association, in 2019, trucking demands represented 80.4 percent of the freight costs spent in the United States, providing this business category with a gross freight revenue of $791.7 billion.

This one is a little different from our normal episodes. Jared brings on Jesse Figueroa, owner of Big Jess Express, to simply hear his story. Jesse's story of becoming handicapped and still having the motivation to work in the bulk industry is inspiring. You can hear his passion for the trucking industry by the way he talks. Check out Big Jess Express:

The Illinois State Police (ISP) and the Illinois Trucking Association (ITA) recently teamed up with an Illinois trucking company to nab distracted drivers and encourage safe driving around commercial vehicles. ISP, ITA and Nussbaum Transportation took part in a Trooper in a Truck detail on Illinois roadways, according to a July 28, 2022, ISP news release. The purpose of the detail is to allow troopers to use the higher vantage point of a semi truck to spot distracted driving and

Spot (linehaul) to contract rate spread (w/fuel base at $1.20/gallon), Van Contract Rates Initial Report SONAR: RATES12.USA, VCRPM1.USA

Wow! Another week has flown by already! It has pretty much been a blur. Except for trying to finish fertilizer on a couple of fields, the irrigators have been sitting still this week.

Furst-McNess Co., headquartered in Freeport, Illinois, has acquired manufacturing and transloading facilities as well as a retail storefront in Lake City, Florida, previously operated by Central States Enterprises (CSE). McNess has provided commodities, blended feeds, and nutritional products to dairy, beef and poultry producers in Florida and Georgia for more than 30 years, and the transaction further enhances Furst-McNesss ability to serve customers throughout the Southeast.

U.S. trucking CEOs expect to maintain pricing power even with volumes softening in the second half of 2022 as retailers, manufacturers and consumers adjust to disruptions from Covid lockdowns, the Russia-Ukraine war and inflation. A recent survey of customers by SAIA, a trucker for Starbucks, Home Depot and Lowes, found the majority of companies are still working to figure out their next step and what the new normal is for their business, according to CEO Fritz Holzgrefe.

With the recently completed acquisition of La Porte-based TIBC Rentals and Transportation, the company grew its fleet by more than 400 containers, including frac tanks, watertight roll-off boxes, vacuum boxes, 25- and 50-yard trash roll-off boxes, dewatering watertight roll-off boxes, and dewatering vacuum boxes.

Chemicals, coal, construction materials, crude oil, paper, lumber, auto parts and new cars stop moving. Wheat, corn, soybeans, animal feed, beer, birdseed, canned produce, corn syrup, flour, frozen chickens, sugar and wine sit where they are. All those intermodal containers with names on the side like J.B. Hunt, Schneider and Swift arent going anywhere either.

An Illinois freight broker has filed a lawsuit accusing Liberty Mutual of overcharging it by demanding payment of workers compensation premiums for independent contractors who are ineligible for benefits.

JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) -Eight Gavilon Grain Silos in Montana and North Dakota have been acquired by Columbia Grain International (CGI). This includes 3 facilities in Wolf Point and Chester, MT and Valley City, ND, which have been operating since 2014. Additionally, CGI has acquired the assets and employees in Moore, MT, Fairview, MT, New Rockford, ND, Carrington, ND, Rogers, ND, and Jamestown, ND.

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., rejected a union challenge to the Trump administrations regulatory changes that eased rules governing maximum hours commercial truckers can operate.

Since July 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has authorized just under 186,000 new trucking operations. To put that into perspective, the strongest 22 months of carrier growth prior to the pandemic, March 2018 through December 2019, saw fewer than 82,000 new carriers.

Stimulus money padded consumer pockets, and many companies turned a bit frothy. It was one of the longest stretches of so-called easy money periods in history. If you wanted to move a lot of freight, its likely you were able to. And with spot rates reaching historic heights, its likelier still that you were paid well for doing so. Sure, fuel costs climbed steadily throughout the year, but that felt manageable. Your services were in high demand, and there were plenty of loads to

I am a 1966 graduate of the Motor Carrier Fleet Safety Supervisor School at UC Berkeley, and was a truck dispatcher in San Jose from 1966-1970 during the Vietnam War for Southern Pacifics truck subsidiary Pacific Motor Trucking. Ive practiced transportation law for 42 years, and am a member of the Transportation Lawyers Association. Ive done post-doc study of transport law and policy at Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies, SJ

The city of Portland will soon seek public comment on a possible ban on the sale of diesel fuel within city limits.

When Indiana-based Altom Transport learned its old hardware was approaching obsolescence due to this years 3G sunset, safety leaders moved fast to onboard new technologyand keep the cameras rolling.

The National Industrial Transportation League (NITL), whose member companies are major customers in the trucking industry, does not believe the bill will gain much momentum.

Getting to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 means we must aggressively cut down the largest source of emissions: the transportation sector, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in April 2021.

Western Kansas farmer David Schemm says winter wheat harvest exceeded his expectations despite severe to exceptional drought in areas of the state. Surprisingly, it turned out relatively good for us. We did have a wide-range of yields for us on fields ranging from 11 bushels-per-acre to 70 bushels-per-acre.

The new data shows that half 51% of carriers that Truckstop.com defines as small fleets and owner-operators are considering job changes in the next six to 12 months, even though 32% of respondents said they have plenty of business and are making 50% to 74% more money.

When long-haul trucker Deb LaBree sets out on the road to deliver pharmaceuticals, she has strategies to hold down costs. She avoids the West Coast and the Northeast, where diesel prices are highest. She organizes her delivery route to minimize deadheading driving an empty truck in between deliveries.

If Americas truck drivers have safely delivered relief loads under an emergency declaration waiver for more than two years, then why are strict hours-of-service regulations needed? Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., posed that question to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a House committee hearing on Tuesday, July 19.

The Consumer Price Index shows that all items saw high inflationary pressure, amounting to 9% all in, meaning including volatile food and energy costs. However, he noted, the Core CPI number, which excludes food and energy, is starting to go down. Thats in the 6% range, which is too high. We want to see it down at 2% to 2.5%.

Guess who opposes overtime pay for drivers, something that could attract more drivers to the industry? The same people who cry about a driver shortage big truckload carriers and their big club, the American Trucking Associations thats who.

Last month, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration asked for input from the trucking industry to help guide the agency in developing future guidance on the definitions of broker and bona fide agents, as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), legislation passed last year by Congress and signed into law by President Biden.

Jaypur Logistics, a Houston-based trucking company with a fleet of 18 trucks, was shut down for widespread safety violations by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on May 7. The owner of Jaypur Logistics continued to operate as another trucking company, using a different carrier number he had been granted from the federal Department of Transportation under the name of JPL Logistics LLC, the FMCSA said. JPL also used the same trucks and drivers that had been part of Jaypur Logistic

Until now, the legal age to drive trucks for interstate supplies was 21 years old, but now an apprenticeship program launched that allows 18-year-olds to become truck drivers to combat rising supply chain issues in the state.

Cameras are an indispensable element of an effective safety program in an increasingly litigious environment for truck fleets. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently acknowledged their importance by amending federal regulations to make it easier to install windshield-mounted dashcams in commercial vehicles.

Just off I-80 in Iowa, CNN's Ryan Young visits the largest gathering of American truck drivers to hear their take on the state of the US economy.

Marco Perez Jr., 37, used his company, Permian Basin Proppants, Inc., between 2017 and 2022 to perpetuate a Ponzi scheme by soliciting investor money based on misrepresentations, according to a press release from the United States Attorneys Office Western District of Texas.

Total grain rail cars loaded and billed dipped slightly in the second quarter of 2022 from 381,000 cars in quarter one to 373,000 cars in quarter two. This 8,000-car difference is half the decline from quarter two 2021, a year ago, when 391,000 grain cars were loaded and billed across all carriers. In other words, railways loaded and billed fewer grain cars than last quarter and this time last year. BNSF and UP, railroads that processed 64% of all grain rail cars in quarter two 2022, shipped

Trucking companies and truck owner-operators are scrambling to figure out how to operate under a new California law that toughens definitions of nonemployee drivers, upending decadeslong practices that have allowed truckers to work as independent contractors.

These load boards essentially serve as an information marketplace for entities in the transportation industry, said Chris Burroughs, VP of government affairs for the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), a major broker group. TIA firmly maintains that load boards should not be considered to be brokers, as they are technology companies providing data and serving all entities in the marketplace.

BulkLoads.com founders Jared Flinn and Matt Fredin are set to unveil a new company focused on insurance for bulk transporters as they continue to build out the BulkLoads ecosystem of services. Bulk Insurance Group will officially launch on Wednesday and provide insurance coverage for both the transportation and commercial sectors. Our goal 11 years ago and still today is to help the needs of small trucking businesses. Insurance is a requirement and we want to solve the pain points by p

Acme Truck Line, Inc. is an industry leader with a fleet of more than 1,500 trucks, more than 40 service points, and nationwide and Canadian operating authorities. The Acme of 2022 is a nationwide operation headquartered in Gretna, Louisiana. According to the companys website, its success is due to its pledge Serve our customers by keeping their freight moving safely and on time with the best and most highly trained employees in our industry.