Freight

NMFTA has announced upcoming NMFC changes effective in early 2025, impacting carriers, shippers, and third-party logistics providers.

A tentative deal has been reached between the Canadian government and the union representing CBSA workers, preventing a strike.

April’s shipment reading, at 1.098, decreased 4.0% annually, and expenditures, at 3.227, were off 16.8% annually.

DP World is boosting its North American operations with the opening of new freight forwarding offices in Dallas and Houston.

Maryland's Department of Transportation has weighed in with an estimate of cost and time for a full repair.

Commercial truck delays at El Paso border crossings, initiated by reinstated Texas safety inspections, costing valuable time and money.

Roughly three months after it acquired the technology and intellectual property of Seattle-based digital freight network Convoy, following the closing of Convoy’s business, due to the effects of the freight recession and a slowdown in capital market activity, San Francisco-based freight forwarding and customs brokerage services provider Flexport said earlier this month that it has formally introduced the rollout of the Convoy platform to its service portfolio.

January’s shipment reading, at 1.039, fell 7.6% annually, and January expenditures, at 3.102, fell 24.3% annually.

The state of the freight economy was a key theme at the SMC3 JumpStart 2024 conference held in Atlanta late last month. Avery Vise, vice president of trucking, for freight transportation consultancy FTR, offered up his views on the freight economy, at the moment, and where things could be headed.

The report’s fourth quarter shipment index value, at 95.0, was down 10.9% compared to the third quarter and down 15.7% annually. On the spend side, the report observed that the fourth quarter reading, at 233.9, fell 13.5% annually and was down 1.4%, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter.

When posed the question of if there is really strong product consumption, coupled with consumers spending, why is that not being felt in the freight market, Prather explained that based on looking at data going back multiple decades, at time, freight transportation and the general economy get disconnected from one another.

December’s shipment reading, at 1.077, was down 7.2% annually, and December expenditures, at 3.230, were off 23.7% annually.

For October, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI reading, at -6.07 saw improvement compared to September’s -8.97. That was preceded by August’s -12.54 reading (its lowest reading going back to November 2022), which was preceded by July’s -5.34 reading and June’s -6.29 reading.

The ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, for September, at 113.9 (2015=100), was down 1.1%, following a 0.2% increase, to 115.3, in from July to August.

For July, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI reading was -5.34, faring better than June’s -6.29, the lowest TCI reading going back to November 2022.