Category: Blog

In an effort to extend the life of companies in Southern California, Vic LaRosa, president of trucking company TTSI, said at a meeting of the Toy Industry Association that more industry consolidation is necessary to create trucking companies that thrive. The industry, he said, needs fewer, larger, better-capitalized companies: “We need more consolidation in the industry,” he was quoted as saying in an article at joc.com. The article speculates that while he was speaking specifically about Southern California, his comments probably apply to other major U.S. ports as well. The article does not further quote LaRosa, but summarizes his comments…

U.S. consumer prices were up slightly in April, according to a story on the trucking industry news site The Trucker. This increase means a third straight month of rising prices, further suggesting the economy is improving and that the Federal Reserve may consider raising interest rates later on in 2015. The article states that consumer prices “edged up” 0.1 percent from the previous month, when prices had already raised a modest 0.2 percent, citing Labor Department data. Overall gains were held back by a 1.3 percent drop in energy costs, which offset the largest single-month leap in medical care in…

Compared to one year ago, trailer orders have declined 31 percent in April, according to ACT Research. However, the firm projected a touch of optimism by stating the drop-off was due not to decreased demand, but in a shortage of manufacturing capacity. In other words, it’s not that people don’t want to place new trailer orders, it is that the supply cannot keep up with the demand. That is, while a problem, a good problem for the industry to have (or at least it is better than the alternative, which is that manufacturers have a large number of extra, unsold…

As discussed in the trucking industry news site truckinginfo.com, heavy-duty trucks fueled by natural gas will only have their “widely promised climate benefits only if widespread emissions of heat-trapping methane across the natural gas value chain are reduced,” according to a policy-analysis paper published in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science and Technology. Researchers from the Environmental Defense Fund and Columbia University’s Lenfest Center for Renewable Energy co-authored the paper. Researchers from the two groups who wrote the paper say the study’s findings present “implications for truck and engine manufacturers, shippers, fleet operators and policymakers, many of whom look…

These stories represent new trucking industry news, reflecting the latest developments in the industry from both news sources inside the trucking industry and more “mainstream” coverage from larger news outlets. New mobile app offers first trucking industry speak-and-search capability A new mobile app called Carrier Dashboard 4.1 is believed to be the first mobile application for the trucking industry that features speak-and-search technology. The app was released May 19 from Total Quality Logistics and features an industry-specific vocabulary that is designed to move freight. The app has been in development for more than a year. The app allows truck drivers…