The Middle East crisis is already hitting carriers. Plus: Florida lost $3B in crops, flatbed rates posted a fifth straight weekly increase, a $5B brokerage was just acquired, and more.
Plus: autonomous trucking just raised $113M, California is fighting to keep 20,000 drivers, Arrive's 2026 truckload freight forecast, and more.
Two bills just dropped in the Senate that could reshape trucking faster than anything since deregulation. Plus: Russian hackers targeted your load board, flatbed rejection rates just hit 40%, and a robot is taking the Houston-Dallas overnight run.
“The FTC’s final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business or bring a new idea to market.”
Good Wednesday morning. Huge news hit the freight brokerage industry yesterday after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned non-competes. Read our deep dive to learn about its potential impacts on our industry in today's main story.
🤔 Question of the Day: What percentage of lanes are unprofitable according to recent data from SmartHop? Scroll to our What's Cookin' in Freight section to find out.
TOP LANE MOVERS POWERED BY GREENSCREENS.AI
*Greenscreens.ai, forecasts real-time truckload buy prices that are suited to each freight brokerage's purchasing power using AI and machine learning. Its engine takes into account over 130 attributes and data points in each rate forecast.
🐔 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT
📊 Are We In a Deep Freight Recession? Jason Miller's analysis puts the current trucking slump in stark perspective—it's not the deepest ever, but it is the most severe when the broader economy isn't also in a downturn. With freight volumes down ~4% from March 2022, trucking payrolls have seen a relatively modest dip, mostly driven by Yellow's collapse. The fact that companies haven't drastically reduced their workforces indicates a stronger resilience. Miller concludes that the overall economy keeps afloat despite the dire trucking stats, proving that GDP isn't the go-to gauge for trucking forecasts.
🌧️ April Freight Market Showers. April's freight scene isn't much to write home about. Analysis from Arrive Logistics April 2024 Freight Market Update shows van and reefer rates dipped to new lows, while flatbed demand was on a slight high thanks to produce season. Van rejections are still flat, reefer rejections are at a steady 5%, and we saw more new entrants as revocations declined. Arrive predicts continued regional volatility, with the summer season possibly driving rates up by 10% in some places.
📉 Losing on Lanes. Looking at millions of loads from 70 U.S. markets, data from Smart Hop shows 61.79% of dry van lanes are unprofitable. That means that the load was not profitable, and the destination market did not provide a profitable load back. The results for reefer and flatbed were similar. Why is this happening? Experts speculate it may be due to resigning yourself to a smaller loss over much bigger ones, lack of financial education, or part of a longer-term strategy.
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👉 We visited Dynamic Logistix HQ in Overland Park, KS on Monday. Here's a photo recap.
Big news hit the freight and logistics sector: Non-compete clauses are now a thing of the past. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) declared these agreements unfair competition, liberating countless professionals from the shackles of restrictive contracts.
The FTC's landmark decision came after considering over 26,000 public comments, many voicing that such clauses suppress wages and stifle innovation. This ruling could reshape career mobility for freight brokerage and 3PLs, where restrictive contracts are common.
Who's Affected:
The ban hits broadly, outlawing new non-competes for all workers, with specific details.
Non-compete agreements were historically used by companies to safeguard trade secrets and prevent competition. They mandated that employees, upon leaving, couldn't work with competitors for a specified period. Critics, however, argue they've been overused and limit worker freedom.
The ruling breaks chains in an industry notorious for tight non-competes, like the infamous TQL contracts. Oftentimes, this puts a career on hold from six months up to two years. A violation leaves you open to being sued.
The President of Steam Logistics, Steve Cox, has long been in the fight against restrictive agreements. He celebrated the announcement, sharing his firsthand advocacy in Washington.
"There is a real issue as to whether the FTC has authority to make the rule. The US Chamber of Commerce will sue to enjoin the rule & take it to SCOTUS to decide that question...This fight will be massive."
TOGETHER WITH LEVITY
Levity helps fast-moving 3PLs and freight brokers to do more with less by automating the most time-consuming and repetitive email tasks.
Whether it is spot quoting, load building or answering track and trace requests. Levity connects to your inbox, TMS and other tools like rating engines, extracting the right information no matter the language or format. It performs tasks on your behalf automatically in the background so you can save time and focus on building shipper relationships instead of data entry. Learn more on Levity.ai today.
AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB
🔮 Bad Fortunes. Only 26% of FreightCaviar's followers have some optimism about the market rebound this year, but 73% predict recovery in 2025 or later.
💸 Heartland Express Reports Third Consecutive Quarterly Loss. Heartland Express reported a $15.1 million loss in Q1 2024 due to soft freight demand, excess truck capacity, and rising costs, despite efforts to manage unprofitable freight and maintain rates.
🌐 Shein Partners with Flexport to Enhance US Logistics. Global fashion retailer Shein has chosen Flexport as its preferred U.S. logistics partner to streamline inventory management and order fulfillment.
🔧 EXO Freight Closes Chattanooga Office, Lays Off 19. EXO Freight shut down its Chattanooga office to focus on technology for managed transportation, resulting in 19 layoffs.
💰 Mexico's Agricultural Exports Hit $9B in Early 2024. In the first two months of 2024, Mexico's agricultural exports reached $9.06 billion, with the U.S. importing approximately $8.1 billion of these goods.
🎣 FREIGHT CAVIAR TECHNOLOGIES
In this week's episode of The FreightCaviar Podcast, Paul and Krystian sit down to talk about how FreightCaviar came into existence and how they then partnered to launch ShipperCRM.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Watch on YouTube.
FREIGHT MEME OF THE DAY
Also, check out:
The Middle East crisis is already hitting carriers. Plus: Florida lost $3B in crops, flatbed rates posted a fifth straight weekly increase, a $5B brokerage was just acquired, and more.
Plus: autonomous trucking just raised $113M, California is fighting to keep 20,000 drivers, Arrive's 2026 truckload freight forecast, and more.
Two bills just dropped in the Senate that could reshape trucking faster than anything since deregulation. Plus: Russian hackers targeted your load board, flatbed rejection rates just hit 40%, and a robot is taking the Houston-Dallas overnight run.
This week: The Dalilah Law, a trucking bankruptcy that wiped out thousands overnight, a FreightGuard civil war on Reddit, and the payroll data that's predicting Q4 capacity.
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