Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

The East Coast of the U.S. is reporting its lowest seasonal diesel inventory on record. And some trucking companies appear spooked. The East Coast typically stores around 62 million barrels of diesel during the month of May, according to Department of Energy data. But as of last Friday, that region of the U.S. is reporting under 52 million barrels. The sharp increase of diesel prices has been a major stressor in Americas $800 billion trucking industry since the beginning of 2022. Accor

WASHINGTON The Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) has so far received more than 8,100 comments on the Federal Register for its proposal to install speed limiters on commercial vehicles (CMVs) operating across the country.

Interim Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger says two silos are leaning, appearing close to collapse. Theres also a small fire in a third silo, causing concern about another explosion. Two employees suffered smoke inhalation and perhaps other injuries. Their conditions are not known. PEORIA (WEEK) - Peoria firefighters were called Wednesday evening to what the fire chief said was a major grain explosion at the corn processing plant once owned by ADM.

It is not possible to live in this world and ignore the fact that the trucking industry is rapidly growing. It is one of the most profitable industries in the world because of the high demand for goods and services. Trucking companies work hard to deliver the goods and services to the customers as soon as possible. Getting your company started with all the legal requirements and learning how to get an MC Number may be essential for starting the business. But after that, one of the most import

A major change is coming to the centerpiece of a massive industrial rail park development northwest of Yankton. As of next week, Cargill will be taking over operations of the Dakota Plains Ag, LLC, facility at Napa Junction, seemingly along with the operations of Dakota Plains other properties. On the Dakota Plains website, a notice has been posted that due to the transition to Cargill effective May 16, the following actions will take place: * Producer grain unloads

Thousands of truckers and trucking industry stakeholders have commented on a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) plan to push forward with rulemaking to require speed limiting devices on trucks.

Jared brings on popular guest, Tim Brady to discuss rates in relation to fuel prices! Tim shares some helpful tips on how to adjust your rate to include fuel. He also talks about how to be more transparent in the industry. Click Here to List

Do truckers think about the future when planning their businesses, or do they just expand whenever theyve got cash to burn? The answer to this question has sweeping implications for the freight market. Our answers until now have been anchored exclusively in anecdotes instead of in data.

The trucks don't idle. If you don't think of it much but it all adds up. They burn almost a gallon an hour when they idle. So $5 to keep a truck idling when you got a fleet of 100 trucks. It adds up fast, governing road speed and working with our drivers on fuel economy. Just like you do with your car and to get the best fuel mileage you can keep the cost down," says Hare.

In the Midwestlocus of the key grain-producing Statesthe diesel price rose to $5.329 per gallon, 34.2 cents per gallon and 224.4 cents above the same time last year. Diesel provides the main fuel for trucks, railroad engines, barges, and oceangoing vessels. A surge in diesel prices directly impacts transportation costs.

Americas biggest trucking companies have lots of used tractors and trailers. Some of those companies quietly made tens of millions of dollars in 2021 and the first three months of this year by selling old trucks in their fleets. Gain on sale/disposal from property or equipment is a sleepy, oft-ignored line of any companys quarterly or annual financial statement. As my colleague Todd Maiden wrote last year, even trucking insiders dont pay much attention to it

While a host of unfavorable freight data points appeared by the end of the first quarter, with trend lines declining further to start the second quarter, many executives at the nations largest trucking companies are presenting a much rosier outlook than the data suggests. During the first-quarter earnings season, management teams from publicly traded carriers acknowledged softness in the spot truckload market but said the loosening in capacity wont likely hurt them.

Brazilian agtech company Grunner turns regular Mercedes-Benz trucks into autonomous farm vehicles for sugar cane harvesting. With the autonomous trucks, farmers can reduce both costs and soil compaction.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued a notice of intent to solicit comments that the agency will use to inform a supplementary notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM), which will include a proposal to amend the regulations and set a speed limit. It would affect trucks weighing more than 26,001 pounds.

In 2014, Paxton Calvanese launched a unique aviation weather app called Wx24 Pilot. In the ensuing years, he developed a similar road weather app called Drive Weather. With constant refinements and updates, its now a popular tool for truckers. Calvanese loves hearing the positive feedback, Some truckers have told him its a life-changer. It probably saved a life or two somewhere along the way, he said. Perhaps thats a fitting reward, given that Calvanese&rsqu

Eight years ago, we cofounded Smart Freight Funding. Since then thousands of bulk haulers have used our service to simplify the freight payment process. We didn't like how other factoring companies locked carriers in to ridiculous contracts, charged hidden fees along with an outrageous rate, and still only paid a percentage of the load within 24-48 hours, and not the full amount. We wanted to do something about that, for the better, and especially for bulk trucking companies. We basicall

After its extended protest failed to accomplish anything earlier this spring, the Peoples Convoy appears set to return to the Washington area, according to videos posted on Facebook over the weekend.

Gasoline prices are increasing almost daily, pinching the wallets and pocketbooks of nearly all Americans with cars. However, as bad as that news is, diesel prices are surging even more across the country. Todays truckstop retail diesel prices hit a new record of $5.32/gallon. Since February 1st, national truckstop diesel prices have increased by $1.57/gallon. For an owner-operator whose truck gets 6.5 miles per gallon, this equates to a cost increase of $0.24 per mile.

Concerns over the worlds supplies of grains and oilseeds are prompting the Biden administration to step in and encourage more production. Grain analysts say while theres no doubt supplies of grains are tight due to the situation in Ukraine, the world isnt running out of grain. Just this week, the Biden administration announced they are calling on Congress to approve additional aid to Ukraine, which includes providing an additional $500 million in aid to U.S. farmers to bo

A previously convicted fraudster ran a Ponzi scheme and bilked investors out of $40 million in a truck investment venture, then used the money to pay personal expenses, according to federal prosecutors. Prosecutors claim that over a 10-month period June 2021 until April Franklin Ray, 50, of Canton, Michigan, defrauded 275 investors in CSA Business Solutions LLC, headquartered in Imlay City, Michigan, and that he set up a separate bank account and collected another $1.9 million

Federal regulators plan to propose setting a truck speed limit using electronic engine devices in a proposed rule anticipated in 2023. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Wednesday issued a notice of intent to solicit comments that the agency will use to inform a supplementary notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM), which will include a proposal to amend the regulations and set a speed limit.

Responding to questions about the supply chain, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pointed to problems with driver retention in the trucking industry. Part of this is a labor issue the availability of truck drivers, Buttigieg said. My department estimates that 300,000 people leave that career every year, and we just cant afford that. Buttigiegs response was part of a Thursday, April 28 Senate subcommittee hearing focused on the U.S. Depar

Costs are up and profits are down, its a fact for Wharton County agricultural producers and theyre having to adapt to a changing financial landscape to stay afloat.

BulkLoads.com provides solutions to the bulk trucking commodity industry that make business faster, more efficient, and more profitable. They are a network for bulk commodities and transportation, connecting and interacting, through their community-driven load boards, forum discussions, instant messaging, and member directories.

Its no secret that the supply chain has been backed up, bottlenecked, scrambled, and (insert your own word here.) Freight carriers of all kinds have had their work cut out for them since COVID-19 upended supply and demand. Yet rail and trucking companies are coming together to find efficiencies, increase capacity and get freight moving. One railroad even rolled out a pilot program in Chicago to incentivize truck drivers to chuck away at the congestion faster.

A few anecdotal examples from the Bank of America survey illustrate that data. One food shipper said it was receiving more cold calls from freight brokers rather than those brokers having to seek capacity for shipments on their own. A shipper moving home-building products said flatbed capacity is loosening slightly, though is still tight. And a representative of a forest products company said rates were beginning to soften as truck capacity opened up.

Truck driver Tilden Curl says theres an old adage in the trucking industry: If the wheels arent turning, you arent earning. There is truth to that statement. Much of a truckers day is spent waiting to drop off and deliver goods, and many are paid by miles driven rather than hours worked. As a result, drivers who spend four or five hours waiting to deliver or pick up cargo are often not paid for those hours.

Jared brings on Scott and Dan with Meerdink Inc. to discuss bulk rates. Scott and Dan created a rate calculator for their company which has increased their profits dramatically. They now want to share it with other owner-operators for their business. To use this calculator, email us at suppo

Alberta farmer Craig Mills started delivering grain to G3s Morinville elevator as soon as it opened in 2020. He liked what he saw right away. A bright, clean modern facility, nice and clean and fresh, he says. Since then, he says hes appreciated that the facility has maintained its speed and efficiency even as more and more producers choose to haul their grain there, getting trucks in and out quickly. General manager Ryan Dechief is accustomed to the positive revie

The pandemic exposed weak spots of an already distressed trucking industry afflicted by labor shortages, low salaries, and poor worker retention. After two years of pandemic-related setbacks, the industry is still managing waves of volatility, but data indicate conditions are improving. Weve been looking at all the stats in the data and are starting to see real evidence that demand is subsiding, and all things point to a little bit of a relief, said Jim Ritchie, president

Farmers need to be on the lookout for potential hackers, according to the FBI. Officials say cyber-criminals might go after agriculture cooperatives during planting and harvesting seasons, believing they could be more vulnerable and willing to pay-off the extortion.

Truck driver Dominic Oliveiras last paycheck from Prime Inc., the 15th-largest trucking company in the U.S., was $712. Oliveira needed that money during his job change to a new trucking company. But he said Prime refused to pay up, so he got lawyers involved to see if he could secure the cash. The Massachusetts native soon encountered a batch of decades-old labor laws that treat truck drivers differently than other workers. Unlike most workers, truck drivers are excluded from laws that

Instead of reinventing the wheel, we decided to partner with the most trusted onboarding and monitoring solution in the industry. They offer an affordable, yet complete solution. Its going to save our carrier, shipper, and broker members so much time and money. says BulkLoads.com co-founder, Jared Flinn.

Agriculture company Greenfield Holdings announced Thursday it would locate its new headquarters in Denver, creating up to 20 jobs, according to a news release. The company is on a growth trajectory and is developing a world-class asset base that will help facilitate the growing international demand for grain and other U.S. agricultural products, the release states.

Mikes first flatbed delivery was about 20 years ago when he transported a load of granite tombstones during a cold, snowy day and night in Minnesota. Having just finished driver orientation and training for a flatbed carrier, he was looking to make money right away. Hauling that load of tombstones paid well but Nobody told me what it was going to be like, said Mike, who spoke to FreightWaves on the condition of not using his last name. I went there totally

The recent pullback in spot freight rates isnt affecting the sky-high prices of used Class 8 trucks. Some higher-mileage used models sold for less in March, but the undersupply of equipment shows no signs of easing. Any downward movement in the tender rejection rate since February hasnt correlated to a change in used truck pricing, Chris Visser, commercial vehicles senior analyst and product manager at J.D. Power Valuation Services, told FreightWaves. Changes to ma

After trucks were facing delays exceeding 5 hours at some Texas-Mexico border crossings and commercial traffic dropped by as much as 60%, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week decided to walk back an order he made earlier this month to increase inspections at the Mexican border. On April 15, after a week of backlash from local businesses and the trucking industry, Abbott signed an memorandum of understanding with the Tamaulipas governor to enhance border security measures in the Mexican state and

NEW YORK A former New York trucking company owner has been indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with various alleged fraud schemes relating to his trucking business. According to an April 19 news release from United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams and Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the FBI Michael J. Driscoll, Franklin Ray, who operated CSA Business So

Jared brings on fertilizer expert, Steve Morgan, to discuss the current market. Steve talks about what's caused fertilizer prices to double, what this means, and what we can expect in the future. Click Here to Listen on BulkLoads <

Imagine never handling a paper ticket again Easily manage and dispatch trucks - No emailing/texting/calling! See shipments in real time, anytime Easy access to all onboarding information in one location through MyCarrierPackets

A Michigan congressman has introduced legislation aimed at allowing truck drivers to receive overtime pay something that is currently prohibited by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., announced the bill, dubbed the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act, on April 14. The bill would repeal the motor carrier overtime exemption in the FLSA. Levin said that the bill is designed so that truck drivers are fairly compensated for all of the hours they work. While fi

Interestingly Sikhs from India have made inroads into the trucking industry in America like in perhaps no other business. According to some estimates over 200,000 Sikhs in trucking industry account for more than 18% of all truck drivers in the US.

Its going to speed up the time, said Senator Gary Smith to the Louisiana Illuminator. One truck can pull up, load two containers, and hes gone.

Merely unseasonable dips in freight demand have cemented into a downward trend, reflecting shippers overfull inventories and consumer concerns about rising inflation. Even after adjusting for tricky comps, the Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI) continues to underperform against year-ago levels.

Kemps executive order, which goes into effect Saturday and runs until May 16, bans price gouging on goods and services such as diesel fuel and gasoline. It allows trucks with a gross vehicle weight tractor, trailer and freight of up to 95,000 pounds and with a maximum width of 10 feet to operate on Georgias state and local roads. The states current gross vehicle weight limit is 80,000 pounds and the maximum width of a five-axle truck is 8 feet, 5 inches.

James Cox counts himself lucky. The owner of a 687-acre farm in Gloucestershire, a bucolic county in the southwest of England known for its quaint villages and rolling landscape, bought all his fertilizer for the 2022 planting year well before the recent surge in pricesmeaning he had enough to feed his wheat and oats, as well as the barley thats just sprouting. And he doesnt intend to use it all.

Some grain elevators are so full that farmers trying to sell their crops are being turned away. But at the same time, flour and animal-feed mills are halting production because they cant get the grain they need. The issue? The lack of trains to move the grain.

Marty Ellis is hearing a complaint weve all heard many times over the years dispatchers telling truckers to get back on the road because they have time left on their clock, even though the trucker thinks its not safe. And efforts to reform police dispatched towing nationwide have focused on Maryland recently, where action has been underway in the legislature for some time.

Trucking is a massively cyclical industry. How is it possible to have a driver shortage and a capacity glut at the same time? This is a common refrain that I hear when talking about a slowing freight market. The reality is that the driver shortage doesnt mean what most people think it means. First, we need to differentiate between the freight market and trucking companies. Trucking companies participate in the freight market, but are not the market.&r

One of the busiest trade ports on the U.S.-Mexico border remained closed Tuesday as frustration and protests mounted over new orders by Gov. Greg Abbott requiring extra inspections of commercial trucks as part of the Republicans sprawling border security operation. Since Monday, Mexican truckers have blocked the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in protest of Abbott directing Texas Department of Public Safety troopers last week to pull over and inspect trucks coming into Texas from Me

Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, Chicagos largest specialty contract carrier, doesnt look too far down the road when evaluating his business these days. Its more about the immediate need to keep trucks on the road and continuing to serve customers in an industry dealing with rising costs, tighter margins and a dwindling supply of drivers and even truck parts. Its one day at a time, Kucharski told FarmWeek. Wer

The latest data compiled by the federal government reveals that complaints of coercion filed by truck drivers could easily break a record in 2022. As of Friday, there have been close to 500 such complaints against employers, shippers and others that truck drivers have filed with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations National Consumer Complaint Database, according to data provided by the agency.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John Thune, S.D., are moving a bill in the Senate, designed to pressure international ocean freight companies to fill freight containers with agricultural products instead of sending them back to Asia empty. Rick Brandenburger, president of Richland Innovative Food Crops Inc., Inc., of Breckenridge, Minnesota, says the company is getting only one-third of their needed containers. They want teeth in any efforts to fix the proble

Bipartisan bill would establish tax credit for truck drivers A new bill introduced recently in the U.S. House of Representatives would, if passed and signed into law, establish a $7,500 tax credit over the next two years for certain Class A commercial drivers license holders.

NBCs Saturday Night Live aired a skit over the weekend aimed at poking fun at truckers and truck stops. The skit covers everything from peeing in a bottle while on the road to a ghost trucker. GoTruckers Guest host Jake Gyllenhaal portrays the truck driver.

In this episode, Jared spotlights Perdue Logistics. He brings on Justin Abbott to discuss what Perdue does and how they manage to move 600 bulk loads a day! Check them out here: https://www.perduelogistics.com/

A Logan, Utah-based trucking company, L.W. Miller Cos., notified customers and drivers earlier this week that it will shut down its livestock hauling division on Monday. Its other four divisions will continue to operate. According to a letter sent to customers and obtained by FreightWaves, Rex Miller, CEO of L.W. Miller Cos., called the driver shortage, rising costs, extremely tight margins and freight rates the perfect storm that forced the company to shutter one of the largest

I have been around trucking for 42 years literally my whole life. My grandfather and father began trucking companies. I began to learn about trucking when I was very young, because I grew up in a trucking family. Family dinners and vacations revolved around trucking. It would be unusual for my family to go through a single dinner without something about trucking coming up. I learned about economics from my father, but rather than talking about the broader economy, his lessons about th

Surging oil prices usually produce both winners and losers for transportation companies, but not this time

When purchasing physical damage coverage, remember that the price paid for the vehicle probably isnt its current value

President Biden wants to make Robin Hutcheson the leader of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the White House announced on April 6. Hutcheson, the current deputy administrator, has served as the acting chief of the trucking industry regulator since January.