There are many reasons why the demand for Flatbed Shipping has surged in 2018.
Fracking companies in the Permian Basin, construction companies in the heartland, and oversize shipping requirements for heavy equipment and products are all experiencing shipping delays and can only exercise patience as demand increases. There are many reasons why the level of freight requests and available trucks is so far out of sync.
Uber’s foray into developing self-driving trucks appears to have come to an end for the time being. The head of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, Eric Meyhofer, stated that Uber has decided to stop its operations in developing self-driving trucks to focus exclusively on developing self-driving car technology. Meyhofer went on to say that because the company’s self-driving cars have recently returned to the roads for testing purposes on public roads in Pittsburg that the company will shift to focusing exclusively on devoting their energy to their autonomous cars operation. The return to public roads for Uber’s self-driving trucks comes after a few months off the road following an incident where a woman was hit and killed in Tempe, Arizona by one of the company’s test vehicles. Uber has made it a point since then to test their automobiles by having humans behind the wheel rather than being completely autonomous. Continue reading “Uber Abandons its Self-Driving Truck Efforts to Focus Exclusively on Self-Driving Car Division”
Technological improvement is necessary to continue to develop, this is true whether we are discussing the survival of our species or the survival of businesses. Businesses are demanded to change with the times and adopt new technologies within their respected industry to stay competitive within the market. Consider it a Darwinian survival of the fittest type of dynamic. In the current day and age, we live in, businesses have become increasingly more reliant on technology to operate, whether that be through email communication, software, or their website. Continue reading “Transportation Companies Face New Threats to their Business Operations due to Ransomware Technology”
June was a challenging month for flatbed truck companies as we reported last month. Flatbed trucking companies had to sift through a market where spot truckload rates hit all-time highs and capacity struggled to meet flatbed shipping company demands. Continue reading “Spot Market Rates and Shipping Demand Decreases in July as the Market Corrects Itself”
American automobile manufacturer Ford Motors is the latest company to throw its hat into the fold in the race to build autonomous vehicles. This announcement comes as a surprise as it shows the company’s undoubted commitment to developing autonomous vehicle technology and a business around it. The subsidiary of Ford Motors will be known as Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC. Ford has been interested in developing autonomous vehicle technology, so this consolidation of its departments into a new company was a logical decision. Continue reading “American Car Manufacturer Ford Motors Throws its Hat into the Autonomous Vehicle Ring”
At the recent 2018 Code Conference in California, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced that Uber is in discussions with Waymo, an autonomous car company and subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. This news comes roughly four months after the two companies settled a major lawsuit between each other. Continue reading “Uber Announces Potential Partnership with Google’s Self-Driving Car Company Waymo to Disrupt the Ride Hailing Industry”
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Operation Safe Driver Week has commenced as of July 16th, 2018 and will persist throughout the week. During this week law enforcement will be monitoring for commercial motor vehicles practicing unsafe driving behaviors. The types of practices that qualify as unsafe driving behavior that law enforcement will be looking out for throughout Safe Driver Week are acts such as; speeding, failure to use a seat belt, distracted driving, failure to obey traffic control devices, improper lane changes, and more. The purpose of this operation is to try to promote attention to the primary causes of crashes. The operation’s goal is to combat these unsafe practices through stricter enforcement of these rules on the road. Continue reading “Rates Rise and Capacity Struggles During Operation Safe Driver Week 2018”
The flatbed trucking industry has experienced rising rates throughout the month of June with a major contributor to rising rates being fuel prices, but also in part due to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Roadcheck that occurred in North America from June 5th to June 7th. This is the first roadcheck to occur during the era of ELD. The roadcheck comes just two months after April 1st where Electronic Logging Devices would begin to be strictly enforced. Flatbed shipping companies have struggled this month to secure trucks for reasonable rates, if they could book a truck at all. Continue reading “June Flatbed Rates Hit Record Highs as 2018 Roadcheck Enforces New ELD Mandates”
This Girl Drives A Trailer Truck
This 12-year-old is the queen of truckers!
Posted by Cultura Colectiva + on Thursday, December 21, 2017
America has a massive shortage of truck drivers. Joyce Brenny, head of Brenny Transportation in Minnesota, increased driver pay 15 percent this year to try to attract more drivers. Many of her drivers now earn $80,000, she says, yet she still can’t find enough people for the job.
About 51,000 more drivers are needed to meet the demand from companies such as Amazon and Walmart that are shipping more goods across the country, according to the American Trucking Associations. The driver shortage is already leading to delayed deliveries and higher prices for goods that Americans buy. The ATA predicts that it’s likely to get worse in the coming years.
Heather Long, Washington Post
Published: May 29, 2018Updated: May 30, 2018 at 08:53 AM
Continue reading “America has a massive truck driver shortage. Here’s why few want an $80,000 job.”
