Industry News

If you're looking for a way to make money driving, Amazon Flex is one option, but maybe not the best one. When you work for Amazon Flex, you set your own hours and deliver packages and groceries locally. Actual earnings depend on factors like tips, demand where you live and how much time you have for side work.

This proposed change is currently pending approval by federal regulators and is set to take effect this Sunday if authorized. Beyond first-class letters, the agency also proposes higher rates for postcards—including domestic postcards increasing to 65 cents and international postcards rising to $1.75. The USPS’s proposed rate adjustments will affect a range of mail products.

FedEx Freight’s strategy to streamline its processes and build a business structure specific to LTL shipping has led to improvements in the company’s customer experience metrics, President and CEO John Smith said on a call with analysts June 25. Noting improvements in its competitive edge, Smith credited a sales team deepening relationships with longstanding customers, a sales workforce back in service centers and new customer-facing technology the company developed the past year. “We're already seeing some early proof points of improvements across key customer experience metrics, including quarterly Mastio results,” he said of the LTL benchmarking resource.

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.

FMCSA’s page of HOS exemptions lists 10 entities, both private companies and associations of drivers, that are operating under exemptions that are generally four to five years in duration. For example, a company called WestRock is in the midst of a five-year exemption expiring in 2029 that allows drivers to exceed HOS rules if they are driving on one specific street. “Mainline Services, LLC is a company that works to keep our transit system running when disaster strikes,” according to the comment submitted by an anonymous person.