Logistics Focus
Search and filter sharp, essential coverage across every logistics topic that matters.
Knight-Swift's brokerage works with about 70% fewer carriers than two years ago, and its CEO expects stricter vetting to remove the cheapest, least compliant capacity. With FMCSA purging training providers and carriers eyeing double-digit renewals, 2027 bids face a smaller pool.
U.S. supplier delivery times lengthened in October by the most since July 2022, and manufacturers built input stocks at the fastest rate in four months. With diesel at $6.35 a gallon, every early order now costs more to move.
Mexican truckers protested at 38 locations in 19 states on October 26, by the government's count, before talks were agreed. It was the third major trucking protest in about a year, on the lanes that carry the largest share of U.S. trade.
A New Mexico jury awarded $47 million over a tanker crash after a first pretrial offer of $100,000. The allegation was speed too fast for the weather, a behavior ATRI links to 56% higher awards.
Plywood and some packaging materials leave the 50% tariff on Canadian goods on October 30, while cocoa powder, carpets and air conditioners join it. USMCA-qualifying goods were never exempt, and a court challenge leaves refunds an open question.
A CalMatters review of more than 130 commercial licensees charged with vehicular manslaughter found nearly half still held a valid Class A or B license. For fleets, a valid CDL is no longer proof of a safe driver.
Truck parking dropped out of ATRI's Top 10 industry issues for the first time since 2012, even as drivers ranked it second. USDOT's new $200 million adds about 2,400 spaces against a shortfall of one space for every 11 trucks.
Nearly half of retail decision-makers are holding excess inventory longer than planned after buying early to beat tariffs. Holiday sales will top $1 trillion, but inflation is doing most of the work while unit demand falls.
Fuel prices topped ATRI's survey of nearly 3,100 trucking stakeholders, ending the economy's three-year run at No. 1. Yet only 73% of carriers in ATRI's telematics research use cost per mile, the metric they rated most important.
Cass freight expenditures rose 20.4% in September while shipments grew just 1.9%. Contract rates are still climbing as spot softens, and carriers running margins below 1% have little room to give back.
J.B. Hunt moved 18% more Eastern intermodal loads in the third quarter as truckload rates climbed and rail pricing barely moved. Chassis shortages are already stretching transit times in East Coast markets.
ATRI began surveying carriers and drivers on October 14 to put a cost on driver health. Fleets score every hard brake, yet the medical card that can sideline a driver rarely reaches the safety dashboard.
The 2027 NOx pre-buy is over, and September truck orders split on the year as fleets wait on a final EPA rule. Carriers that did not buy are running aging equipment whose repair bills are climbing faster than almost any other cost.
Contract manufacturers quoting reshoring projects doubled to 32% in a year, and 60% of reshoring OEMs cite logistics savings. Those savings now run through a truck market with tender rejections near 14% and diesel above $6.
Five months after the Supreme Court's Montgomery ruling, brokers are vetting carriers' safety processes, not just their cameras. With about 90% of carriers unrated by FMCSA, the proof now has to come from the fleet itself.
A record 76% of private fleets use their trucks as leverage against for-hire pricing as tender rejections run near 14%. The hedge works, but it moves safety, maintenance and insurance risk onto the shipper's own books.
Warehousing capacity fell 14.2 points to 39.3 in September, its fastest contraction since March 2022. Upstream firms holding holiday stock are absorbing most of the squeeze, and smaller firms are losing room fastest.
86% of carriers recognize a driver is at risk less than 30 days before departure or only at resignation, and none spot it more than 60 days out. With 58.1% of drivers job hunting, retention has become an early-warning problem.
Two in three enterprise shippers say carrier rates and surcharges change frequently, yet only 13% benchmark rates outside the annual bid. With spot rates forecast up 30% and LTL increases arriving months early, the gap is review cadence, not technology.
91% of surveyed distribution and logistics leaders approved automation their teams were not ready to maintain. EY finds 94% of supply chains are transforming, but only 9% have embedded the change in daily operations.
A telematics report covering 245 fleets finds construction fleets monitor 92% of their vehicles yet log more than five times the severe speeding of transportation and warehousing fleets. Only 26% of fleets use the data to assign driver training.
Aggregate logistics costs averaged 241.9 from March through August, above the 240 level that has historically preceded supply-driven inflation. Inventory growth is slowing, but holding it costs more than ever.
Customs duties paid by midsize U.S. importers are still more than double their October 2024 level, and Canada has just retaliated. Many firms are responding by waiting, and the data shows waiting has a price.
Verisk CargoNet logged 26% fewer supply chain theft incidents in the second quarter, yet losses more than doubled to $304.6 million. Thieves are trading crowbars for fake credentials, and the defenses have to follow.
Scarce drivers, nuclear verdicts and a unanimous Supreme Court ruling on broker liability have changed the safety math. Fleets like Dot Foods are scoring, coaching and paying for safe driving instead of hiring their way out of risk.
U.S. diesel hit a record $6.53 a gallon, up 77% in a year. Linehaul rates are flat to falling, yet freight bills keep rising because fuel surcharges are doing all the work.
FMCSA has pulled dozens of self-certified logging devices off its registered list. Enforcement on one batch began September 8, the next lands October 6, and the liability sits with the carrier, not the vendor.
Shipments are down, yet shippers are paying far more and tender rejections sit near multi-year highs. Insurance, enforcement and tougher carrier vetting are pulling trucks off the road faster than demand is easing.
Rules-of-origin requirements under USMCA are driving a quiet but consequential reshuffling of supplier relationships and freight lanes. Here is how the best procurement teams are navigating it.
Consumer demand for same-day and next-hour delivery has grown faster than carrier infrastructure can support. New research reveals the gap, who bears the cost, and which networks are closest to closing it.
Decarbonizing freight does not require sacrificing cost competitiveness. We analyzed the sustainability programs of 30 leading shippers and found that the most effective strategies combine modal shift, carrier partnerships, and data-driven procurement.
When the supply chain champion leaves, momentum too often stalls. The organizations with the most resilient operations have embedded strategy into governance structures that outlast any individual leader.
A new generation of AI tools promises to cut transportation costs by 15 to 30 percent through dynamic routing. We talked to the logistics teams who have been testing them for 18 months, and the results are more nuanced than the vendors admit.
As companies move production closer to home markets, freight patterns across North America are shifting faster than most carriers anticipated. We spoke with the shippers and 3PLs driving the change.
Regulators on both coasts are moving to impose new performance standards on major container ports. Shippers and carriers have a narrow window to prepare before penalties begin.
From low-emission zones to loading dock restrictions, municipalities are reshaping the conditions under which freight moves through urban cores. Carriers that adapt now will hold a structural advantage.
Scope 3 emissions from transportation remain the largest unresolved gap in most corporate climate disclosures. Companies building robust measurement systems now will be ahead when the rules tighten.
After years of being treated as an operational function, logistics leadership is earning genuine executive authority. We spoke with 14 CLOs about what changed, what they had to prove, and what still needs to shift.
From autonomous mobile robots to goods-to-person systems, warehouse automation has moved from pilot to full production at hundreds of facilities. We put five leading platforms through a rigorous head-to-head evaluation.
A wave of updated import and export compliance requirements is hitting North American and European freight corridors. We break down what changed, which shipments are most exposed, and what the best compliance teams are doing now.
With fuel surcharges, labor costs, and customer expectations all moving in the wrong direction, last-mile economics are under severe pressure. A handful of carriers have found a better model.
A sweeping realignment of freight flows is underway as trade policy shifts, carrier consolidation, and nearshoring momentum combine to redraw where goods move and how they get there.
Shipper sustainability commitments are setting new expectations for carrier emissions reporting and green fleet adoption. New data shows the majority of carriers lack the systems to verify compliance, let alone meet the targets.
After years of lean inventory discipline, supply chain disruptions have forced a fundamental rethink. The companies that survived the last three years of volatility share a common trait: they stockpile strategically.
Real-time digital replicas of physical supply chain networks are giving operations teams the kind of end-to-end visibility that was impossible five years ago. Here is how they work in practice and what implementation actually costs.
The gap between collecting supply chain data and actually influencing executive strategy remains wide at most organizations. A small cohort of logistics teams has cracked the code. Here is their approach.
