Industry News

Mexico’s trucking industry is facing a growing driver shortage, with 14% of commercial driver positions sitting vacant as fleet operators struggle to recruit new workers, according to a new survey by the International Road Transport Union(IRU). Trucking moves about 81% of Mexico’s land cargo and 57% of its domestic freight, making driver availability critical to manufacturers, retailers and exporters that depend on road transportation. IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto said the shortage has evolved into a structural problem affecting freight capacity and supply chain reliability.

The new ground transportation offering expands the company’s hazardous materials network as battery production and demand continue to grow. Moller - Maersk has launched a dedicated lithium-ion battery ground freight service in North America, expanding its dangerous goods logistics network, according to a June 19 press release. The company is responding to three converging forces in the region: a multibillion-dollar market opportunity, rising demand from energy transition industries and the need for specialized transportation infrastructure, Bhavani Rawla, head of Maersk Ground Freight Product, North America said in an email to Trucking Dive.

While Nike is planning for additional tariff refunds during the fiscal year, it still expects duties to remain a headwind, according to EVP and CFO Matthew Friend. Nike expects to recover $986 million in tariff refunds for levies invalidated by the Supreme Court earlier this year, EVP and CFO Matthew Friend said during a June 30 earnings call. As of the end of fiscal Q4 on May 31, Nike collected more than $300 million in returns for duties that were implemented last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Cargo theft is no longer just a problem of broken seals, stolen trailers and opportunistic theft on the roadside. That is where fraud is now hiding. A supply chain can have capacity, visibility, and speed, yet remain fragile if counterparty data is weak or if onboarding systems cannot reliably distinguish a legitimate vendor from a fabricated one.

Aiming to give freight brokers and shippers access to real-time carrier and broker data without additional cost, AscendTMS has integrated carrier intelligence provider SearchCarriers into its Carrier Verification and Qualification (CVQ) system. “SearchCarriers has become one of the best and cleanest sources of carrier and broker intelligence in the market,” Tim Higham, CEO of AscendTMS, said in a news release.

Washington and the states have been in the biggest fight over truck enforcement that most of us have ever seen. When Washington threatens a state’s MCSAP funding, it’s threatening to unplug that state’s inspection program. This piece is about to be hard on the federal data, so let the record show: where the government was right, the numbers say so.

Transportation capacity (30.8) declined 90 basis points during the month, while transportation utilization (74.7) increased 5.2 points. The overall LMI registered a 71.1 reading in June, up 1.6 points from May, and the first time the dataset has crossed 70 (significant expansion) since March 2022. Warehouse prices (73.8) were up 3 points, with large companies seeing significant growth (81.9) as they took delivery of inventory.

Walmart has agreed to pay more than $13 million and overhaul how it communicates pay to delivery drivers in Texas, resolving a state investigation that alleged the retailer misled workers about tips, base pay and incentive earnings through its Spark Driver platform. The settlement, announced Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, provides approximately $6.69 million in restitution to affected Texas Spark drivers while requiring Walmart to pay an equal amount in civil penalties, attorneys’ fees and costs to the state. The company also agreed not to misrepresent estimated earnings, customer tips, incentive opportunities or other material aspects of delivery offers.