Latest news with #FreightWaves'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
FreightWaves launches FreightTech 2026 awards
FreightWaves is announcing the opening of nominations for its annual FreightTech Awards, a prestigious recognition program honoring the most innovative technology companies and transportation providers in North American freight. Nominate your company here. As the industry recovers from a multiyear downturn that's affected both freight and technology sectors, the FreightTech 2026 awards take on added significance. This year's list should offer valuable early insights into which companies are best positioned to lead and thrive in the next freight bull market. This year's awards follow a particularly notable edition in the series' history. The 2025 FreightTech 25, announced at the F3: Future of Freight Festival last year, featured a number of unexpected selections. FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller called it 'the most disrupted list I've ever seen.' As we look ahead to FreightTech 2026, many are eager to see if this trend of surprises continues or if established industry leaders will reassert their dominance. Nominations for FreightTech 2026 are open from Monday, July 14, through Sept. 1. The FreightTech 100 will be unveiled Sept. 22, and the top 25 will be revealed about two months later — on Oct. 22 at F3 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. One important note: FreightWaves has introduced a new tiered pricing structure for nominations, and it pays to nominate early. Early Entry (July 14-27): $499 Standard Entry (July 28-Aug. 17): $549 Last Chance (Aug. 18-Sept. 1): $599 This approach is designed to streamline the nomination process and ensure that the most innovative and impactful companies receive the recognition they deserve. The selection process begins with FreightWaves' research team, market analysts and journalists carefully evaluating nominations to determine the FreightTech 100. Following this initial selection, an independent panel of industry specialists, including analysts, transportation executives and other thought leaders, have the challenging task of narrowing down the list to the elite FreightTech 25. Past honorees read like a who's who of the freight industry, featuring established giants such as Amazon, FedEx and J.B. Hunt, alongside innovative startups like Platform Science, Samsara, Motive, Cargado, and Highway. Whether you're part of a cutting-edge startup, an established industry leader or simply an admirer of freight innovation, we encourage you to participate in this celebration of progress. Nominate a deserving company or learn more about FreightTech 2026 by visiting July 14: Nominations for the FreightTech awards open at Early Entry price ($499). July 27: Early Entry ends. July 28: Standard Entry ($549) begins. Aug. 17: Standard Entry ends. Aug. 18: Last Chance ($599) begins. Sept. 1: Nominations for the FreightTech awards close (at 6 p.m. EDT Monday) Sept. 22: FreightTech 100 winners announced. Nov. 20: FreightTech 25 winners announced at F3: Future of Freight Festival. Click here to nominate a company for the 2026 FreightTech awards. The post FreightWaves launches FreightTech 2026 awards appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State of Freight Takeaways: English language rule for truckers takes effect, early impacts emerging
Just when some aspects of the freight market were starting to calm down, there's a new factor that has the potential to inject renewed volatility into supply chains. That was one of the points made in the June State of Freight webinar featuring Firecrown and SONAR CEO Craig Fuller along with Zach Strickland, SONAR's director of market intelligence. FreightWaves' State of Freight webinars the past few months took place against a backdrop of tremendous volatility and uncertainty in freight markets. Fuller and Strickland saw some aspects of the supply chain growing somewhat calmer, but also discussed a change in a key benchmark from the SONAR data dashboard that could be signaling any calming might not last. Here are five takeaways from the June State of Freight webinar. The Outbound Tender Rejection Index in SONAR has moved up sharply in the past few days. Fuller said it could be the first signs of tightening capacity because of the English Language Proficiency requirement that began a renewed round of enforcement this week. The impact of enforcing the ELP–which is not a new regulation, but is getting a new enforcement push from the Trump administration–goes well past having a driver taken off the road because he or she failed the ELP during a safety stop. Out of Service orders that would accompany a driver being taken off the road end up on the records of a carrier, Fuller said. 'If you're a fleet and you have an out of service violation, this time is recorded on your record,' Fuller said. 'And what's interesting about that is that it shows up in your insurance rates. It also means some shippers will not book you if you have a lot of out of service violations.' That recent spike in tender rejection rates could be a sign of carriers taking drivers off the road rather than have them become the focus of an Out of Service order that results in that mark on a company's record, according to both Fuller and Strickland. Fuller was 50-50 on whether to call the trade war that was raging in April and into May 'an afterthought.' 'It has become sort of that, but you're still dealing with it,' he said. Fuller said he saw evidence in the news cycle that 'the administration seems to have largely moved on.' But Fuller also noted that the 90-day deadline on other countries cutting trade deals with the U.S. is coming up fast. (The 90-day pause on many tariffs was announced April 9). 'My guess is they just end up extending them out because tariffs were far less popular among the independents and obviously the bond market,' he said, referring to the sharp spike in Treasury rates when 'Liberation Day' tariffs were announced. Speaking of the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, Fuller said 'I think it seems to be that's where the administration is focused on. It has moved on from trade, and I think it's a positive for everybody.' Fuller and Strickland discussed the Trade War Center on SONAR and what it is saying about ocean shipments. Strickland noted that the dashboard shows that ocean going volumes are now running above last year, 'and if you recall, last year was a strong year for import activity,' he said. And a lot of that ocean going traffic is coming out of Vietnam and Thailand, which Fuller said is an effort to take Chinese-made goods, transship them through those countries and avoid the steep tariffs on Chinese imports. 'A lot of transshipping is going on,' Fuller said. 'It's nearly impossible to know how much it is.' He added that there are estimates as much as 70% of U.S. Imports from Vietnam could be goods that were transshipped from China, but he also has seen estimates as low as 30%. Strickland, who came out of the LTL business, said he 'thought LTL was going to come out in much better shape through all this, just because the industrial sector is dying to wake up and is ready to go.' But Strickland said he now believes LTL won't perform any better than a recovery in truckload, which remains in the doldrums. But Strickland had optimism for the truckload sector, which could drag LTL along with it. 'I think the truckload market will flip, and I think we're close to it,' he said. 'What's going to happen is the truckload market is going to have an inflection point and then that's going to trigger a downstream reaction into LTL.' He added that he believed September or October might be a period when that 'flip' would occur. But LTL is ultimately tied to industrial activity. 'And on the industrial side of things, we need economic certainty or clarity,' Strickland said. 'The biggest thing you can take from the Big Beautiful Bill is that the administration is very anti-EV now,' Fuller said. He noted the various incentives for electrification that were in the Inflation Reduction Act are being terminated in the legislation passed by the House and now before the Senate that carries that BBB name. As a result of that, Fuller said, 'the pressure to electrify is off somewhat, because fleets no longer feel that this is a necessary thing they have to contend with,' Fuller said. He also noted a statement made by a leading U.S. Volkswagen official in the U.S. who said that customers were going to be offered EVs aggressively because of the huge pool of money the IRA provided to incentivize EV purchases. But that pool of money is now drying up. 'If you look at the bill, we're changing directionally,' Fuller said. More articles by John Kingston 5 takeaways from State of Freight: Getting ready for auto tariffs State of Freight takeaways: Freight crash may turn into sudden revival A market on the precipice: 5 takeaways from the April State of Freight The post State of Freight Takeaways: English language rule for truckers takes effect, early impacts emerging appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intermodal weaker amid flat rail carloads
Total U.S. weekly rail traffic was flat for the latest week amid summer doldrums and weaker intermodal likely hit by falling demand on the trans-Pacific trade. Volume was 487,328 carloads and intermodal units, up 0.4% compared with the same week a year ago, according to data from the Association of American Railroads. Total freight for the week ending June 21 was 229,655 carloads, up 4.5% compared with the same week in 2024, while intermodal volume was 257,673 containers and trailers, down 2.9%. Falling container rates on the eastbound trans-Pacific reflect softening China-U.S. demand, analysts said, which likely could be undercutting intermodal rail volumes. Seven of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase y/y. They included grain, up 22.9%; petroleum, 7.9%; and motor vehicles and parts, 7.4%. The non-metallic minerals category was weaker by 1.7%. For the first 25 weeks of this year, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 5,480,340 carloads, up 2.5% y/y, and 6,717,132 intermodal units, up 5.4%. Total combined U.S. traffic was 12,197,472 carloads and intermodal units, an increase of 4.1%. North American rail volume for the week on nine reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 336,048 carloads, up 3.5%, and 343,777 intermodal units, down 0.8%. Total combined weekly rail traffic was 679,825 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.3%. North American rail volume for the first 25 weeks of 2025 was 16,860,018 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.8% compared with 2024. Weaker import demand may have taken a toll as Mexican railroads reported intermodal units fell 10.7% for the week. Subscribe to FreightWaves' Rail e-newsletter and get the latest insights on rail freight right in your inbox. Find more articles by Stuart Chirls partners connect rail camera network with telematics visibility Indiana port taps Louis Dreyfus to restart grain terminal House panel wrangles on rail safety technology Rail unions warn DOT rollbacks could jeopardize train safety The post Intermodal weaker amid flat rail carloads appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Craig Fuller: ELP enforcement, trade wars, real wars, and freight feuds
This embedded content is not available in your region. On episode 854 of WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by FreightWaves' CEO and Founder, Craig Fuller. English language proficiency enforcement begins today. How will it impact carriers, shippers, brokers, and the truckload market? Fuller breaks it down. We'll also explore: -The freight market in the first half of 2025 -Global turmoil and its effects on supply chains -Key market trends and insights from SONAR's Trade War Command Center -Freight industry feuds -Updates on the Motion Museum, this year's F3, and more FreightWaves' John Paul Hampstead talks about his call that truckload markets could be in for a red hot 4th of July. Catch new shows live at noon EDT Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on FreightWaves LinkedIn, Facebook, X or YouTube, or on demand by looking up WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on your favorite podcast player and at 6 p.m. Eastern on SiriusXM's Road Dog Trucking Channel 146. Watch on YouTube Check out the WTT merch store Visit our sponsor Subscribe to the WTT newsletter Apple Podcasts Spotify More FreightWaves Podcasts The post Craig Fuller: ELP enforcement, trade wars, real wars, and freight feuds | WHAT THE TRUCK?!? appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cutting down fraud through smarter load tracking
Between unnecessary deadhead miles due to nonexistent loads and loads that are fraudulently reposted on various loadboards, freight fraud has had a major impact on supply chain operations in recent years. Jerry D'Addesi, CRO at Konexial, sat down with FreightWaves' Timothy Dooner on the May 30th episode of What the Truck?!? to discuss what Konexial is doing to cut down on issues like freight fraud and double brokering. Konexial is rolling out a solution that will cut down, if not eliminate, some of the common weak points in load transactions. 'We're taking shippers and brokers and matching them up with carriers in a sort of Uber or Priceline environment,' D'Addesi said. 'We allow people to bid per mile on the shipper side, and on the carrier side we match them up through proprietary algorithms that take the friction out of the process of negotiating loads.' One key part of Konexial's solution involves assigning a unique transportation identifier to each load, which will then be attached to every party associated with that load throughout its lifespan. 'We're really focused on proper identifiers and following ISO certification standards, which will minimize the double brokering and other freight fraud we're seeing out there,' D'Addesi said. 'We're hoping that this spreads through the education we're trying to provide to stakeholders, and that we can help heal the industry from some of the persistent problems we've been seeing.' Konexial provides asset protection through what the company calls VIN + TUID verification, as well as GPS tracking and geofence-based alerts. If a vehicle moves without authorization or skips a required checkpoint, Konexial flags the event and alerts the proper team for resolution. This minimizes the risk of loss, theft, or double brokering, while offering a full digital chain of custody for every vehicle. 'We place unique identifiers, basically a watermark, onto every load,' D'Addesi explained. 'We require everyone associated with that load, including shippers, carriers, brokers, and so on, to use that identifier, which prevents the load from being reposted.' D'Addesi hopes that this methodology is adopted by shippers, carriers, and loadboards around the country. If widely practiced, this level of security would change how freight is handled and greatly reduce fraud. 'When you care about it, you can start to eliminate some of the common weak points that bad actors target,' said D'Addesi. 'Through our TMS, we flag when information doesn't line up or when things don't seem right, because we work hard to do what's right for our clients and partners from an ethical standpoint.' Because Konexial is built on strong ethical values, D'Addesi says, the team takes its responsibility to operate with integrity very seriously and often has to make difficult decisions in order to protect its customers. 'Internally, it's the number one thing for us to do the right thing,' he said. With the widespread adoption of AI, Konexial has developed its own unique 'Ki,' Konexial Intelligence. 'We want to take our own proprietary capabilities and help the Konexial customer operate across our entire platform,' D'Addesi said. 'We use it to shortcut some processes and bring to light new insights, but the most important thing we're doing is taking data and information we record and creating actions to get to an optimal result.' According to D'Addesi, Ki is transforming the freight side, the telematics side, the loadboard side, and every other part of the Konexial platform. Ki is the engine that continuously interprets live data to help customers make smarter decisions, and it supports every layer of customer logistics operations. Unlike rule-based tools or disconnected software, Ki learns from routes, freight activity, behaviors, and outcomes. From predictive insights to automated workflows, it empowers teams to act quickly and with confidence. 'Ki is changing the way we go to market,' D'Addesi said. 'We have a competitive advantage through our proprietary systems, and we're really excited about everything we're going to do with it.' Click here to learn more about Konexial. The post Cutting down fraud through smarter load tracking appeared first on FreightWaves.
