Transport Topics

Six months after President Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure package, the government says there are 4,300 projects underway with more than $110 billion in funding announced. Of that $110 billion, $52.5 billion is for federal highway funding this fiscal year and $20.5 billion for public transit. White House senior adviser Mitch Landrieu said the roads, bridges and other projects are laying “a foundation for tremendous growth into the future.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ryder System Inc. has received an offer from HG Vora Capital Management to buy the trucking company for about $4.4 billion. HG Vora, a hedge fund that has a 9.9% stake in Ryder, offered $86 in cash for each Ryder share it doesn’t already own. Ryder said it would review the offer with its financial and legal advisers to determine the best course of action for its shareholders. Ryder Supply Chain Solutions ranks No. 11 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire companies in North America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Class 8 retail truck sales in April were flat compared with a year earlier, coming in at just over 19,000 but continuing to improve from the lows seen at the beginning of the year, Wards Intelligence reported. Sales dipped to 19,052, down 1.3% compared with the 2021 period, according to Wards. Three truck makers — Kenworth, International and Mack Trucks — posted double-digit declines compared with a year earlier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Autonomous driving technology company Aurora Innovation will collaborate with Covenant Logistics to refine a self-driving truck system that could robotically emulate the speed of human team driving. Covenant will be using the Pittsburgh-based self-driving technology company’s Aurora Horizon product. It is a robotic driver-as-a-service business model that will offer fleets the ability to purchase vehicles powered by the Aurora Driver system, subscribe to use Aurora Driver and use Aurora-certified fleet service partners to operate autonomous mobility and logistics services. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trucking fleets are increasingly receptive to alternative fuels and sustainable technology, according to consulting firm Gladstein, Neandross & Associates’ recent survey of 250 public, private and municipal fleets. Among the reasons fleets cited were their move toward environmental sustainability and carbon reduction, and the need to find more cost-effective transportation options given the current high cost of fuel. The findings were released yesterday at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo in Long Beach, Calif. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electric truck startup Lordstown Motors has pushed back a deadline to complete the sale of its Ohio assembly plant to Foxconn by four more days to May 18. This marks the second delay of a deal that had originally been set to close last month. If it isn’t finalized by May 18 and the deadline isn’t extended, Lordstown would have to pay back $200 million in down payments — and has said it does not have the cash to do so. The two companies are working to complete their agreement, which also includes a contract manufacturing arrangement with Foxconn and plans for joint development of future vehicles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America’s employers added 428,000 jobs in April, extending a streak of solid hiring that has defied punishing inflation, chronic supply shortages, the Russian war against Ukraine and much higher borrowing costs. The May 6 jobs report from the Labor Department showed that last month’s hiring kept the unemployment rate at 3.6%, just above the lowest level in a half-century. The economy’s hiring gains have been remarkably consistent in the face of the worst inflation in four decades. Employers have added at least 400,000 jobs for 12 straight months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

China’s lockdown of key port cities because of a new outbreak of the coronavirus is expected to have serious ramifications for trucking in the United States. The two-week average shipment volume for loads traveling from China to the United States was down as much as 20% at the end of April compared with the pre-lockdown period. Ryan Closser, director of network enablement at FourKites, said the slowdown could then be followed by a surge of ships when the lockdowns lift. This could cause bottlenecks when they finally reach the West Coast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trucking and safety groups have expressed mixed reactions to a proposal to consider requiring speed limiters on new commercial trucks. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently announced its intent to advance a rulemaking on the technology, which the agency says is a follow-up on a 2016 joint proposal it issued with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. So far, FMCSA has not specified the speed at which trucks might be governed. American Trucking Associations says it is pleased FMCSA is taking a “constructive, data-driven approach.” The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association says limiting highway speeds for large trucks could create unnecessary congestion and also dangerous speed differentials. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Norman Mineta, who broke racial barriers for Asian Americans serving in high-profile government posts and ordered commercial flights grounded after the 9/11 terror attacks as the nation’s federal transportation secretary, died Tuesday at the age of 90 of a heart ailment. Mineta was the first Asian American to become a federal Cabinet secretary, serving under both Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush. Bush awarded Mineta the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The national average price for diesel has set a new all-time record at $5.509 a gallon, after a surge of 34.9 cents this past week. The previous record was $5.25, set March 14. In New England the average price skyrocketed 86.1 cents a gallon to shatter the $6 ceiling at $6.101. It also topped $6 in the Central Atlantic and West Coast regions, and remained above $6 in California.The data comes from the weekly report by the Energy Information Administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The weather is getting warmer and the competition is beginning to heat up as state associations conduct their state truck driving championships. These events are the first steps for drivers hoping to make it to the National Truck Driving Championships in August, and we are tracking those developments in our “Road to NTDC” coverage, now online. Get a state-by-state schedule, winners in all classifications as they become known, and photos from the state events. It’s all at ttn.ws/ntdc2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calling it “a great day that we have been looking forward to for a long time,” Nikola CEO Mark Russell noted that having several Tre Class 8 battery-electric trucks ready for delivery will generate the 7-year-old company’s first-ever quarterly revenue. The vehicles were manufactured at the new assembly plant in Coolidge, Ariz. On Wednesday, industry and political dignitaries were given a tour of the facility, which currently covers 290,000 square feet. The plant will encompass 1 million square feet once all planned expansions are complete. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Secretary Pete Buttigieg became the first transportation secretary in more than two decades to testify in front of the Surface Transportation Board, as he made an appearance to discuss supply chain delays, particularly as they pertain to rail. Buttigieg testified April 26 during the first of two days of the inquiry. Issues on the table included a shortage of qualified workers, impacts of the rail delays on the agriculture industry and how rail issues are contributing to supply chain challenges at the nation’s ports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The average retail price of a used Class 8 vehicle has pushed past the $100,000 mark for the first time, ACT Research reported. In March, used Class 8 trucks sold for an average of $101,736, nearly double what they sold for a year ago, ACT said. Total sales climbed, too. ACT estimated used Class 8 sales in March reached 25,200 compared with 23,800 a year earlier. Fleets are not selling their used trucks at the normal pace because they can’t replace them with new trucks, as truck makers continue to face persistent supply chain woes that have crimped production for many months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reached an agreement to acquire Twitter for about $44 billion. The outspoken Musk, who also is the world’s wealthiest person, has said he wanted to buy and privatize Twitter because he thinks it is not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech. Stock in Tesla, the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles, closed down by 0.7% Monday after the news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Engine maker Cummins Inc. says its filtration unit has confidentially filed to go public. The IPO is expected to commence after the completion of the review process by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last August, Cummins reported it was exploring what it called “strategic alternatives” for its filtration business unit, which it launched in 1958. The division notched annual sales of $1.2 billion in 2020. At that time, Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger said Cummins was exploring everything from a sale to a spinoff or another kind of strategic option in an effort to realize value for Cummins’ shareholders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One of the major concerns that many people in the trucking industry have about autonomous trucks is the expectation that their use would lead to drivers losing their jobs. But Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum doesn’t believe that will be the case. Daum says autonomous trucks will improve highway safety, counter the trucking industry’s driver shortage, boost equipment utilization and help meet rising freight demand. Daum says Daimler is focusing its efforts on certain stretches of highway that are best suited to autonomous operation, and that only about 6% of freight might move by autonomous trucks. “That means 94% of the freight still needs drivers to be delivered,” he said, adding that freight volumes likely will have expanded faster than autonomous truck deployment, meaning the industry will continue to need more drivers, not fewer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Torc Robotics, a self-driving truck developer and subsidiary of Daimler Truck, recently highlighted its autonomous progress during a demonstration in New Mexico. The event included four Freightliner Cascadia tractors from its test fleet, each outfitted with autonomous driving sensors and software and with safety drivers behind the wheel. The trucks demonstrated autonomous driving on highways and surface streets, among other features. One executive said Torc plans to begin its first pilot program with a trucking customer later this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

March truck tonnage rose 3.8% compared with year-ago levels, and also posted a first-quarter gain over the same period in 2021, American Trucking Associations reported. The ATA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index for March reached 118.8, compared with 106.8 in March 2021. Year-to-date, tonnage is up 2.6% compared with the first quarter of 2021. On a month-to-month basis, the index was 2.4% higher than the 116.1 recorded in February of this year. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello noted that the March result marked the seventh straight month of annual gains and was the largest across that stretch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices