These days, you don’t have to inhale to get a lift from the marijuana industry. With a market cap that is estimated to be as high as $77 billion by 2022, legalized cannabis has the potential to be so lucrative, it’s sometimes called the “green gold rush.” However, like the original gold rushes, investing in […]
Moving freight through the world’s biggest cities is about to become even more expensive. Beginning in 2021, New York will be the first American city to implement “congestion pricing,” and will charge a toll to vehicles entering Manhattan south of Central Park. New York City’s congestion pricing plan is a response to ever-worsening traffic issues […]
In the famous nursery rhyme, “for want of a nail, the kingdom was lost.” At the US-Mexico border, a similar story is playing out: for want of a mere 750 customs officers, supply chains are in crisis, in industries ranging from agriculture to automotives. When the Trump administration reassigned 750 border agents to process the […]
When longtime LTL titan New England Motor Freight (NEMF) announced it was filing for bankruptcy in February, the news was greeted with shock, sadness, and plenty of blame. For its part, NEMF largely blamed its employees’ union for refusing to make contract concessions. Many industry observers blamed NEMF’s biggest customers, especially Amazon, for forcing the […]
When Silicon Valley startups set their sights on trucking and freight brokerage, they promised to “disrupt” the industry, employing the familiar, utopian condescension with which tech companies have promised to solve all the world’s problems. (The heading of Convoy’s website reads: “Transporting the World with Endless Capacity and Zero Waste.”) Yet in the short time […]
In today’s polarized America, it’s difficult to have a productive conversation about environmentally sustainable trucking. When people hear the word “green,” they retreat to their corners, disregarding any information that conflicts with their established position. This state of affairs is unfortunate but understandable. Truckers often feel misunderstood and overregulated, and see environmental demands as yet […]
In June 2018, Volvo and FedEx executives held a joint press conference on the shoulder of North Carolina’s Triangle Expressway. They announced that the road had been federally designated as a “proving ground” for truck platooning. They offered a demonstration of a three-truck convoy and touted the technology’s safety and environmental advantages. The executives could […]
The long-awaited capacity crunch is here, with the national load-to-truck ratio hovering well above normal levels for this time of year, and shippers grudgingly accepting higher rates. Courtesy DAT Fortunately, the trucking industry is racing to add capacity, both by purchasing new equipment and hiring new drivers. Orders for new trailers skyrocketed by 36 […]
Since December 2017, nearly every big rig in the United States has been carrying around an extra passenger: the Electronic Logging Device (ELD). The ELD is designed to quietly, unobtrusively record data on drivers’ location and hours of service (HOS), but there are those who worry that they may be vulnerable to hacking, potentially putting […]
Few transportation topics have ever been as hotly debated as the federal ELD mandate, with shippers, truckers, and logistics professionals divided as to whether the law would represent a minor adjustment to the shipping landscape, or a full-blown catastrophe. After a four-month grace period, ELD enforcement began in earnest on April 1, and the industry […]