Spot Truckload Rates Hit 2-Year Highs, Hurricane Effects Continue

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have come and gone but their effects on supply chains continue, according to the freight matching service provider DAT Solutions, with spot freight rates remaining at two-year highs.

The number of available loads on the spot truckload freight market increased 27% for the week ending Sept. 16, just slightly above normal for the first full workweek of the month following the Labor Day Holiday. However, the number of available trucks rose just 19% at a time when capacity is already tight.

Despite all this activity, national average rates, which include fuel surcharges, barely moved from the week before:

Load-to-truck ratios on the spot market are elevated as well, however, the van ratio was nearly unchanged from last week at 6.6 to 1 while the flatbed ratio improved 19% to 41.1 to 1. The reefer ratio gained 5% coming in at 11.9 to 1.

Nationally, van load posts and truck posts both increased 20% while the number of reefer load posts gained 18% and capacity was up 12%. The most substantial increase was in the flatbed segment, where the number of load posts was up 41% and truck posts increased 19%. At 41.1 to 1, the flatbed load-to-truck ratio is the highest since peak season in April.

Regionally, supply chains adjusted to the aftermath of two major storms. In Florida, van freight volumes increased on lanes from Atlanta and Charlotte, as did average van rates:

Chicago and Columbus outbound van rates have risen 14% and 15% in the past month, since the Midwest hubs have been in position to facilitate rerouted freight from both Harvey and Irma.

Rates fell ...Read the rest of this story

Russia’s Comtrans Show Reflects Improving Truck Market

Russia's Comtrans exhibition is held every other year. Photo: Sven-Erik Lindstrand

Russia's Comtrans, the largest truck and transportation exhibition in Europe this year, showed nearly everything offered on the Russian market for five days earlier this month in Moscow.

The event took place at Moscow's most modern exhibition place, the Crocus Exhibition Center, which was completed just 10 years ago.

The Russian truck market fully follows the economy of the country. Much depends on world market prices for oil and gas, which is the country's most important source of export and revenue. After two weak years, the truck market has now stabilized, and the Russian market is making a comeback this year with increased volumes.

This was clearly evident at the Comtrans exhibition, which is held every other year. This was the 14th time the exhibition was organized. The exhibition space of 40,000 square meters was 5% more than the last show in 2015.

There are just over 8 million commercial vehicles registered in Russia. Since 2009, the number has increased by over 13%, or almost 1 million vehicles. Over half of these were manufactured before 2002. Thus, every other commercial vehicle in Russia is over 15 years old. Of these 8 million vehicles, about 50% are light trucks, about 45% are medium-heavy and heavy trucks and about 5% are tourist and city buses. After all-time high sales in 2012, the market fell dramatically and reached its bottom in 2015, which was as low as the crisis year 2009.

In January to July 2017, 31,100 trucks were manufactured in Russia, which is 47% more than in the same period last year.

The heavy truck market in Russia consists of 70% domestic brands such as Kamaz, Ural and GAZ. This also includes the Belarusian MAZ from Minsk. 10% consists of the Asian ...Read the rest of this story

Shell: New Engine Oil Categories Making the Grade

Since 2011 the company has amassed 60 million test miles on CK-4 formulations, and 50 million miles of tests involving the High Temperature High Shear (HTHS) formulas required by FA-4 specifications. Photo: Shell

SANTA BARBARA, CA – A new generation of engine oils is in the North American market, passing a battery of tests developed for specific engine brands. But the work of convincing buyers about related features and benefits continues.

The transition from CJ-4 to CK-4 and fuel-efficient FA-4 categories has essentially been seamless, said Dan Arcy, Shell Lubricants' global OEM technical manager, during a media briefing in California this week. The new formulas, which went by PC-11 during the development process, were officially released in December. The chemistry was driven by ongoing calls for longer drain intervals, better fuel economy, lower emissions, and increasing horsepower.

And these are hardly the engine oils that have flowed through pumps in years gone by.

Oxidation stability had to improve to handle higher under-hood temperatures. When oil oxidizes, it becomes acidic and thickens, Arcy explained. At the very least, that shortens potential oil drain intervals.

Tighter controls on aeration are especially welcome in off-highway applications, where trucks traveling up and down hills tend to suck air into the oil pump, breaking up the all-important layers of lubricant. Shear stability, meanwhile, had to improve to help keep oils from shearing out of grade into lower viscosities.

At this point, he said, manufacturers are all recommending CK-4 engine oils, and many have also increased maximum drain intervals in conjunctino with the new oil, Arcy said. “There's some caveats" when extending those drains, he noted. "There's fuel economy requirements. There's idle requirements.”

Cummins has increased standard drain intervals up to 50,000 miles with CK-4 or FA-4 formulas compared to the 40,000 miles with the CJ-4 that came before them, and will boost ...Read the rest of this story

AAA: Truck safety technology can prevent 63,000 crashes a year

Equipping large trucks with advanced safety technologies has the potential to prevent up to 63,000 truck related crashes each year, according to new research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

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KeepTruckin offers discount on ELDs to TQL carriers

Total Quality Logistics is partnering with KeepTruckin to provide a low-cost ELD solution for TQL-contracted carriers to help ensure compliance with the Electronic Logging Device mandate.

Through the TQL-KeepTruckin ELD promotion, drivers receive a 20% discount on the KeepTruckin ELD, which puts the starting price at $16 per month. The KeepTruckin ELD comes with no upfront hardware costs, making it affordable for carriers of all sizes, the company noted.

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Driving trucking improvements through data

Mills Carter, business analyst for YellaWood – a $1 billion lumber company – recently made an extremely straightforward case as to the value proper data analysis can offer trucking companies.

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Going Beyond Electric and Natural Gas

Director of Fleet Procurement Mike Casteel says UPS has “a lot of experience with propane autogas,” including running over 2,000 propane-powered package cars in the U.S. and Canada. iStockPhoto

Even as natural gas yet reigns as king of alternative fuels for trucks, and electric drive and fuel cells are gaining interest as up-and-coming technologies, there are still other fuels that fleets may consider as worthy alternatives to straight-up petroleum diesel.

For commercial vehicles, these other choices chiefly include propane (aka autogas), biodiesel, renewable diesel, and dimethyl ether (DME). Each has its advocates. Propane autogas has been in use for years, and the two diesel alternatives can be adopted simply by fueling with them. DME is more of an outlier in that it caught a lot of attention a few years ago but is not engendering much high-level interest of late.

“All alternative fuels are viable, but not in all applications,” says analyst Kenny Vieth, president of ACT Research. “Because each company's goal for its fleet is different, even two similar fleets may make different fuel choices. Each fleet will assess its own corporate goals, the local/regional availability and price of the respective alternative fuels, and any regulations and incentives for the areas in which the fleet operates before making the fuel decision. Cost, range, weight, performance, and time will all factor into each fleet's decision.”

Bob Carrick, Freightliner's vocational sales manager - natural gas, who is a former fleet manager, handicaps the other alternatives succinctly: “Propane autogas makes sense and is gaining traction in the lower GVW classes, up through Class 7. Renewable diesel is a very clean alternative to diesel, and so far has demonstrated fine performance with no significant downsides. Biodiesel works in low concentrations [blends]. DME, however, is still a long way from any adoption. There is no fuel supply, and ...Read the rest of this story