News

Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., reintroduced the Safer Trucks and Buses Act, which would reform safety scores for trucks and buses by making the scores more reflective of the company’s safety record. The legislation, HR1371, would temporarily halt the publication of what Barletta called flawed safety scores until the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance Safety […]

The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department has withdrawn 56 construction projects scheduled for consideration in its April 21 bid opening because of continuing uncertainty of federal-aid reimbursements available from the Federal Highway Trust Fund. The estimated value of projects withdrawn is more than $112 million and includes $50 million authorized by the Arkansas Highway

Hefty increases in truck driver wages are expected to propel truckload rates higher in 2015, pushing pricing up by double digits, a transportation analyst warns. “While our current earnings models assume low-to-mid-single-digit (truckload) price increases over the next couple of years, we would like to point out these estimates will likely be proven wrong,” David

The Arkansas Trucking Association Self-Insurers’ Fund has declared a $1 million dividend to 48 trucking companies that are enrolled in its workers’ compensation insurance trust. The Arkansas Trucking Association created the insurance trust in 1993 to pay the workers’ compensation claims for employees injured on the job. Employees of trucking companies that enrolled in the

FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) system for evaluating carrier safety has long been criticized by the trucking industry. Trucking points out that CSA does not distinguish between accidents in which the truck or truck driver is to blame and accidents in which the truck clearly was not at fault. Accidents factor into CSA’s Crash Indicator

There are now 3.2 million more Americans earning paychecks than there were 12 months ago. That additional cash tends to boost consumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of economic growth. Americans are feeling better about the economy. Consumer confidence jumped in January to its highest level in a decade, according to a survey by

The for-hire trucking industry added 2,400 jobs in January on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Department of Labor’s monthly report, released Feb. 6. It also upwardly revised December’s job gains to 11,900 — up from the 7,300. For-hire trucking employment now totals 1.443 million on a seasonally adjusted basis — up 3.5 percent

Federal officials are making permanent a controversial three-year pilot program that allows Mexican truckers to haul goods inside the U.S. beyond the border zone. FMCSA will soon start accepting applications from Mexican truckers who didn’t participate in the pilot but want the authority to operate beyond the U.S.-Mexico border region. The move is likely to

ABF Logistics has purchased Smart Lines Transportation Group, a truckload brokerage firm based in Oklahoma City, for $5.17 million on Jan. 2. Smart Lines, founded in 2003, has 24 employees and approximately $18 million in annual revenue, primarily serving the food, energy and industrial segments. The acquisition will expand ABF Logistics into the Oklahoma City