All The Trucking News You Need To Know: 5/15/18
Slow shippers are getting pushed out by capacity crunched carriers.
With 280,000 less drivers than it needs and ELD enforcement cutting into operating time, the pressure is on for trucking firms to drop loads as quickly as possible. "If a shipper in our network is a serial abuser of detention, we will not take their freight," said Drew McElroy, chief executive officer of Transfix to Bloomberg. Where shippers once used carrier scorecards to eliminate poor partners, it is now the carriers who are picking and choosing which docks they hit. Ben Cubitt, chief of engineering and procurement for Transplace, tells Bloomberg
"Carriers to some extent have a naughty and nice list. If you've been a good partner through thick and thin, you're definitely suffering less in this tough market than other shippers."
While getting a carrier remains a challenge, the cost of moving freight has remained steady for the second consecutive month.
According to Freightwaves
, "Year-over-year growth in long distance truckload prices remain near multi-year highs, registering 6.7% in April. Yearly inflation in the LTL space also climbed during the month, remaining near 8% in March." While year-over-year inflation is escalated, all producer data points to trucking and rails rates normalizing.
As the trucking industry begins to normalize after weather, ELDs, and capacity issues caused rates to balloon, fuel charges may send rates surging again.
With gas prices set to rise over the coming weeks the cost of filling up will likely be passed on to shippers. Ronald Glober with Prichard Brothers Land Clearing says tells WTXL
, "About every 5 cents is about $20 per fill up or every time I put some fuel in. So by the end of the week I probably put another extra hundred dollars of fuel in." With gas prices already at the highest level they've been in three years
the cost of freight is sure to follow.
All of the recent industry talk regarding electric semis and autonomously driven big rigs has truckers concerned about an impending "Robot Apocalypse."
"Everywhere I go I hear people talking about a robot apocalypse, about 4 million transportation workers losing their jobs in the next five to 20 years," said Doug Bloch, political director for Teamsters Joint Council 7, to Trucks.com. While massive layoffs aren't in the immediate future, and although there aren't enough truck drivers, many long haulers can't help but feel that their days are numbered. Many analysts agree that autonomous vehicles could ultimately solve the driver shortfall however other insiders argue that they may act as a deterrent to those entering the business. With fully robotic trucks still 15-30 years away, the trucking industry has another challenge: keeping operators excited about the future of trucking while limiting driver anxiety.








