Logistics company XPO Inc is cutting jobs, even as “it surpassed Wall Street targets for first quarter adjusted profits” due to cost controls for waning freight demand. Many of XPO customers, such as Ford Motor Co, General Electric Co and Caterpillar Inc, have met with “a decline in shipments as high inflation and fears of an impending recession make consumers wary about spending.” – Read More
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit heard testimony recently from several leaders in the trucking industry, including Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Anne Reinke, president and chief executive officer of the Transportation Intermediaries Association, David Fialkov, executive vice president for Government Affairs of NATSO, and Cole Scandaglia, senior legislative representative and policy advisor of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Some of the issues included “the need to attract younger drivers to the profession” and the importance of providing adequate truck parking. Read more…
According to experts, the trucking industry has “stumbled through the first first quarter amid a slowing economy and high inventories.” Allison Poliniak-Cusic, a Wells Fargo analyst, claims: “‘things are a bit muted than maybe we anticipated as we entered last year. A lot of macro uncertainty is still very much front-and-center. So, I would say from a volumes standpoint, earnings will be lower, volumes will be lower, pricing seems to be coming in at the lower end of where we thought originally.” Read More…
Shopify is offloading its logistics business to the supply chain technology company Flexport, the two companies recently announced. The move “marks a reversal for Shopify, which had spent years building out its own logistics and order-fulfillment operations. The unit includes last-mile delivery startup Deliverr, which Shopify purchased last May for $2.1 billion, its largest acquisition ever.” Read more…
California lawmakers put forth a high-profile bill that would ban the operation of heavy self-driving vehicles without a human on board. Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry(D-Winters) exclaimed: “‘The callous disregard for these stewards of our highways and freeways, motivated by profit, is simply appalling. My motivation, on the other hand, is my commitment to Californians’ safety on the roads, and that safety is best protected by keeping well-trained human beings in the cab of 80,000 pound vehicles traveling at high speeds. When this industry proves to me, my colleagues, and our constituents that human-less trucking, and driverless school buses, are safer than our model in California, they will have the support to proceed’”. Read more…
Trucker Down, an organization that assists truck drivers and their families who are going through financial hardships, is set to hold a silent auction on Tuesday, May 23, in partnership with Dormie Network. There will be a plethora of exclusive memorabilia for auction, “ from an actual piece of coal that was recovered from the Titanic to exclusive vacation packages, autographed NFL gear and much more.” Read more…
