Industry News

The carrier reported better-than-expected results on Wednesday, highlighted by contract rates that climbed throughout the period and a tender rejection rate that was twice the industry average. Table: Knight-Swift’s key performance indicators – ConsolidatedTruckload revenue increased 3% y/y to $1.1 billion as a 6% increase in revenue per tractor was only partially offset by a 3% decline in average trucks in service. Knight-Swift’s TL guidance calls for a mid-single-digit y/y revenue increase in the third quarter, with the adjusted OR improving 650 to 750 bps y/y (implying an 89.2% adjusted OR).

Unlike its first-generation trucks, the new fleet is built to run with no passive observer at all, the safeguard that has ridden along on the rest of Aurora’s driverless fleet since its public-road debut last year. “We believe AUR’s launch of fully driverless operations using its Gen2 hardware is a significant milestone toward commercial deployment of the technology at scale starting in 2027,” Ravi Shanker, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a research note. Deploying at scale means building trucks faster, and Aurora is leaning on a manufacturing partner to do it.

Growth in last-mile delivery for big and bulky e-commerce items has slowed by half because stagnant home sales mean people are ordering fewer large-ticket discretionary items like furniture and appliances, cutting into profit margins, according to a report from Armstrong & Associates and the National Home Delivery Association. Carriers surveyed by Armstrong & Associates also cited cost concerns from the rising cost of cargo insurance and less-than-truckload capacity scarcity in the middle-mile to warehouses. Gross margins in big and bulky delivery have dipped from 28.9% in 2022 to 27.5% last year, the report said.

The Staged Accident Fraud Prevention Act would make intentionally causing such a collision a federal crime. Attorneys, physicians and other knowing co-conspirators could also face prosecution. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association endorsed Moody’s legislation.

Canadian authorities seized nearly 1.7 metric tons of illegal drugs during a cross-border investigation named Project Bay. The haul included suspected cocaine, methamphetamine and opium. Investigators worked to identify a trafficking network with connections to the international border.

But those sales are still a major variable for profitability at Ryder and were cited as a key boost to its strong first quarter performance. For the second quarter, that used vehicles sales net number was negative $7 million, which is a positive to the company’s costs; it was plus $2 million a year ago. In the first quarter, when the used vehicle sales were highlighted by the company as a driver of performance, it was negative $12 million.

At the heart of this shift is AI, which helps companies identify risks earlier, coach drivers more effectively, and identify unsafe behaviors before accidents occur. Predictive capabilities allow fleet managers to prioritize their resources more effectively, and to focus coaching and intervention efforts with drivers most likely to experience a crash. Driver coaching is one of the most important parts of fleet safety, but traditional coaching methods often focus too heavily on individual events.

“Hundreds of absentee ballots received by the Postal Service before Wisconsin’s Spring Election were delivered after Election Day, preventing them from being counted,” wrote Senator Baldwin and Governor Evers in a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner and members of the USPS Board of Governors. In the letter, Senator Baldwin and Governor Evers underscore the importance of protecting mail-in voting for Wisconsinites and how President Trump’s proposed rule could further jeopardize Wisconsinites’ access to the ballot box. We write to you about the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) role in ensuring that Wisconsin’s elections are fair and reliable and to express our serious concerns that USPS is threatening Wisconsinites’ ability to exercise their right to vote.