Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

SEYMOUR - Two southern Indiana agricultural cooperatives have merged to create Premier Companies, headquartered in Seymour. The former White River Cooperative Inc., headquartered in Loogootee, and Premier Ag Co-op Inc. have now joined forces. Premier was started in 1927 and grew to over 3,000 farmer-members.

Hurricane Ida barrelled into the Louisiana coast on Aug. 29, bringing 150 mph (230 kph) wind gusts, torrential rain, and widespread power outages to New Orleans and the surrounding region. It also brought all shipping traffic through the mouth of the Mississippi River to a grinding halt, snarling supply chains at the start of a crucial period for US grain exports.

As the U.S. harvest season kicks into high gear over the next month, grain shippers will be watching whether freight railroads train speeds will be able to keep up with a potentially sudden ramp-up in demand, according to shippers at the recent annual National Grain Car Council meeting hosted by the Surface Transportation Board. Low grain demand over the summer has masked velocity issues, grain shippers said. However, the rail network could potentially find itself stressed over the nex

After 41 years, a family-owned dry and liquid bulk trucking company ceased operations as of midnight Tuesday, sources familiar with the matter told FreightWaves. Dillon Logistics Inc., doing business as Dillon Transport, was headquartered in Burr Ridge, Illinois. The carrier had 342 drivers and 323 power units at the time of its closure, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations SAFER website. Former drivers, employees and other logistics firms started posting about

Corn harvest has started in parts of Tennessee. According to the USDA, hot dry conditions in the western part of the state last week allowed 1% of the crop to dry out and be harvested. One-quarter of the crop is mature with 76% rated good to excellent. Cotton is 96% is setting bolls and 5% opening bolls, with 62% of the crop rated good to excellent. 90% of soybeans are setting pods, with 72% rated good to excellent. Tobacco is rated 64% good to excellent with 95% of the crop topped and 33% cu

According to social media posts by members of some trucking groups, a number of drivers plan to idle or slow their rigs to a crawl on Tuesday, Aug. 31, in protest of mandatory workplace COVID-19 vaccinations and virus-related travel restrictions. Omnitracs Distracted Driving v1 300x250 Although its unclear just how many truckers will actually participate in the one-day protest, social media groups, including StopTheTires2020 and The Disrespected Trucker on Facebook, both primarily foll

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) hereby declares that the continuing national emergency warrants extension of the expanded modified Emergency Declaration No. 2020-002. The extension and amendment of the expanded modified Emergency Declaration continues the exemption granted from certain requirements in Part 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) for the fifty States and the District of Columbia as set forth below.

Whenever Ben Jackson visited his aunt at her home in Australia, she not only stocked the pantry full of snacks and cooked his favorite foods but also sent him and his sister home with handfuls of lollipops. My aunty had a tremendously generous soul, Jackson, who lives in Guyra, a small town between Brisbane and Sydney near Australias east coast, told The Washington Post. She was one of these types of people that never, ever forgot a birthday you know, the t

The Transportation Department regulates the number of hours a truck driver can operate, although exemptions exist for moving livestock and other agricultural commodities that are at risk of spoiling or dying due to delays.

Law enforcement is seeking the publics help in locating a central Missouri truck driver charged in the deaths of his former girlfriend and her daughter as a manhunt enters its fifth day.

Jared brings on a podcast fan favorite, Tim Brady, to discuss competition in trucking. They talk about the steps that carriers need to take to increase their rates with shippers and how to cut costs within your operation without cutting quality. Tim also mentions good tactics to keep good drivers/employees around. Tim Brady <

The march of innovation is relentless, thanks to engineers, chemists and plant breeders. Their goal is to improve your productivity, crop yield and income and they kept on working even during the pandemic. Now, they can finally show you their progress in person.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday granted full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, and it didn't take long for President Joe Biden to urge employers to mandate vaccinations across their workforces. "If you're a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader who has been waiting on full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do that," Biden said. "Require it."

There isnt anything were hauling with published rates, says Jeff Jerue, president of John J. Jerue Truck Broker, Inc., BB #:123544 based in Lakeland, FL. It used to be $3,000 to $3,200 a load; now you cant find someone to haul it for $5,000 or $6,000. The law of supply and demand is a great thing. People are going to get back into the trucking business.

The Biden administration should reject the notion that there is a shortage of truck drivers and instead focus on why carriers find it difficult to keep drivers in their ranks, according to the largest small-business trucking lobby. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association pressed the departments Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness (ACSCC) to resolve the underlying causes of excessive driver turnover &ndas

The trucking industry is all about its people. For nearly 30 years, Donna England, VP of safety and member services at the Tennessee Trucking Association, has been developing relationships with those within the industry, meeting new faces and staying connected with long-time industry veterans.

The corn and bean harvest will soon begin, as well, which means drivers in the Upper Thumb will now contend with an armada of large, crop-hauling trucks traversing area roadways. Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson said now is a great time for motorists and truckers alike to reflect on their driving habits, so the long harvest season is safe for everyone on the road. They should ask themselves, Am I being a safe driver?

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday said drivers for a defunct trucking company were "engaged in interstate commerce" even though they did not cross state lines, and the company could not require them to waive an exemption from having to arbitrate legal disputes under federal law.

Two years after relocating its global headquarters to Chesterfield, agriculture trader Bunge Ltd. has restructured its operating model and reformed its bottom line. Now, it says it's ready to grow again.

GROWMARK and Legacy Farmers Cooperative are excited to announce they are forming a joint venture to purchase and operate a grain facility west of Defiance, Ohio. Together, GROWMARK and Legacy Farmers Cooperative will form a new Retail Grain Unit called Apex Grain Marketing, LLC which will purchase the facility from Consolidated Grain and Barge Co.

Not so long ago, it could be broken down into two categoriesasset-owned operations and brokers. The difference is easy to explain: asset-owned companies actually own the trucks making the deliveries; brokers do not own the trucks but serve as middlemen between the trucker (or trucking company) and the shipper.

Its only an idea for now, but Pennsylvanias proposed switch from a fuel tax to a miles-driven fee to help generate more money for transportation could be a boon for the trucking industry.

Most benchmarking rate tools divide rates into two categories: either shipper-to-carrier contract rates or broker-to-carrier spot rates. There is a third category that nobody really talks about: broker-to-carrier contract. Let me set the stage first. One of the most reliable ways that the tools gather their information is to ask motor carriers and brokers to export their load information to them every night in Excel or some flat file. That information is separated into those two categories ba

Its only an idea for now, but Pennsylvanias proposed switch from a fuel tax to a miles-driven fee to help generate more money for transportation could be a boon for the trucking industry and a big hit in the wallet for drivers of passenger vehicles.

For Wayne Transports, that effort begins with fielding the right equipment. Throughout the Midwest and Central Canada, the company hauls a range of fuels for producers, distributors, and retailers. Among its nearly 600 power units are more than 250 company tractors and tankers dedicated to hauling petroleum products.

In trucking, gains and losses on asset sales typically center on the sale of revenue equipment like tractors and trailers, and to a lesser degree real estate. The gains booked on the disposal of assets can provide meaningful swings in quarterly earnings, sometimes determining whether a company beats or misses expectations.

Freight levels moderated in June, but only by a little, according to reports from several sources. Supply chain issues, like shortages of semiconductors (silicon chips) used in a variety of products and record prices for steel are responsible for some of the slowdown in shipments. The driver shortage is also being blamed.

Gold Star Feed & Grain, a New York State-focused division of Tulare, Calif.-based J.D. Heiskell & Co., purchased the business and assets of Gramco Inc., a retail and wholesale distributor in southern Erie County that focuses on custom dairy feed. The companies did not announce the deal, and Gramco's president and CEO, Robert Mattison, declined to reveal the full purchase price. However, Gold Star paid $4.5 million for Gramco's Springville facilities at 299 Waverly St., according to th

FREEPORT, ILLINOIS, US Easy USA Holdings Inc. has acquired Furst-McNess Co., which among other things markets feed ingredients, commodities, wet brewers grain and specialty feeds throughout the United States and Canada. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

In this episode, Jared brings on Chairman and Co-Founder of ELAP Services, Steve Kelly. They discuss healthcare in the trucking industry and what you should be cautious about when choosing insurance. ELAP Services focus on helping companies and employees take control of their healthcare to lower insurance spend. www.

The U.S. Senate approved a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Tuesday that mandates several requirements for trucking previously approved by the U.S. House and will likely make it into a final bill. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was approved by a vote of 69-30 that was presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris, is the first major infrastructure package passed by the Senate chamber in decades. It injects $550 million of new funding into expanding and maintaining roads an

Roland Wohlgemuth is an enterprising farmer who grows wheat, canola and peas on his 3,000-acre spread near Benito, Man. Hes been at it for 20 years, and like most producers, Wohlgemuth is well versed in finding solutions to problems that inevitably arise from time to time on the farm.

After weeks of debate, the United States Senate passed a massive infrastructure spending bill with several provisions that could have a huge impact on the trucking industry. By a 69-30 vote, the Senate passed a bi-partisan infrastructure bill designed to bolster the nations highways, bridges, railways, and water systems on Tuesday.

Things are going well for the states publicly traded transportation companies, and not just because the Interstate 40 bridge spanning the Mississippi River between Memphis and West Memphis finally reopened. The second quarter of fiscal 2021 was good for companies such as J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell. J.B. Hunt reported income of $172.2 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2021, a 41% increase from the previous year.

The approximately $4.5 billion deal values the poultry giant at $203 a share

Frank Beelman Jr. began working as a teenager at the East St. Louis-based hauling company founded by his father, building it to one of the St. Louis region's largest transportation carriers.

Grains traders suddenly found themselves forced to scale back how much they pile onto cargo ships, afraid to get them stuck in the rivers shallow banks, and then either add to their load once they reach deeper sea ports or contract out more vessels. Both are expensive, time-consuming options that have hamstrung an industry that pulls in more than $20 billion annually from exports. Gustavo Idigoras, head of Ciara-Cec, a crop export and processing group whose members include Cargill Inc.

(Bloomberg) -- Commodity powerhouse Cargill Inc. has cashed in on booming agricultural markets with the most profitable year in its 156-year history. The largest private U.S. company, which dominates markets such as corn, had almost $5 billion in net income during its 2021 fiscal year through the end of May, according to annual financial reports seen by Bloomberg News. The profit boom shows the bonanza enjoyed by commodity merchants during the Covid-19 pandemic.

COLORADO, USA — It’s a tough time to be in the business of transportation. Troy Hill can list the many reasons why: “Between driver shortages, fuel shortages, normal construction season, and now Mother Nature and I-70,” said the owner of Hill Petroleum,

Theres a lot about trucking among the 2,700-page bipartisan infrastructure bill up for consideration in the Senate. The bill, which totals about $1.2 trillion, would increase safety systems for commercial vehicles, focus on finding new drivers and other workers for the trucking industry, and test out ways to tax the alternate-powered vehicles of the future.

Columbus Mayor Jim Bulkley said he knows of four people who have been tested for carbon monoxide, but he did not say the cases had been officially linked to a coal fire that has been smoldering at the Columbus Archer Daniels Midland facility for three or four weeks.