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…

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…

Total Quality Logistics, the second-largest freight brokerage firm in North America, just announced that it’s “expanding its presence in St. Louis, investing $370,000 and creating 85 new jobs.” With this expansion, Total Quality Logistics will get aid from the Missouri Works program, “a tool that helps companies expand and retain workers by providing access to capital through withholdings or tax credits for job creation.”  Read more…

Neal Brothers Charleston, Inc., a North-Carolina-based logistics company, has announced a $9.48 million dollar expansion that “would create 10 new jobs in the first year.” The cargo handling and export company’s main North American office has been calling North Charleston home for more than 30 years. Read more…

According to the industry’s annual report card on industry attitudes, “recruiting and keeping qualified workers remains the top challenge for supply chain executives.” According to the survey which was taken at the end of 2022, there will be investment “geared towards creating high-productivity roles that will appeal to people entering the field or transferring from another field.”  Read more…

Despite fears of a recession, there are 170 million square feet of warehouses planned or under construction in the Inland Empire. Though demand for these logistic warehouses haven’t decreased,  environmental groups and residents are “questioning whether they want the region’s economy, health, traffic and general ambiance tied to a heavily polluting, low-wage industry that might one day pick up and leave as global trade routes shift.”  Read more…

Post COVID-19 outbreak, the United States has stopped all of its logistical operations, which has in turn significantly impacted the global sector as a whole.  Many experts now claim that the “American government has become more accommodating to telework and online help as a result of this outbreak. During the forecast period, these factors are anticipated to fuel the market even more.”  Read more…

Jones Logistics, a national specialized transportation and logistics company, has acquired the company Nationwide Express. Based in Tennessee, “Nationwide provides dedicated trucking services, warehouse, 3PL logistic services, recycling transportation, and waste management solutions. Its geographic footprint includes operations in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.” Read more…

David Clark, Amazon’s former warehouse czar, is set to lay off 20% of the workforce of his logistics startup Flexport. The company’s co-CEO’s said in a note to employees that while “Flexport is in a good financial position… reductions in shipping volume from its customers and a more efficient operating structure leaves it ‘overstaffed in a variety of roles across the company.’”  Read more…