Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
It's doubtful that Justices Janice Rogers Brown, Thomas B. Griffith, and A. Raymond Randolph have anything
in common with rock musician Tom Petty. But in ruling Friday to uphold virtually all of the federal government's
rules governing truck drivers' operations, the judges sent a message that could have been pulled from the title
of a popular Petty song: "Don't Come Around Here No More!"
For the third time in a decade, the federal appeals court in Washington,
D.C., ruled on the legality of the government's attempt to exert greater control over truckers.
This time, the court, in the form of the three judges, spoke emphatically. They affirmed all of the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) 2011 driver hours-of-service (HOS) rules except for a provision
requiring a 30-minute break for local drivers such as those that work for express carriers.
The opinion technically does not end the matter. Aggrieved parties can petition the court to rethink its decision
within 45 days of the Aug. 2 ruling date. But Sean McNally, a spokesman for the American Trucking Associations (ATA),
which led the fight to overturn the rules, said it's unlikely the group will appeal the decision.
Congress could intervene and incorporate driver rules into federal statute, which would supercede the agency's rules.
However, that scenario is unlikely since lawmakers have not acted before in spite of numerous opportunities to do so. In last
year's law that re-authorized the nation's transport funding programs, for example, Congress only ordered the FMCSA to conduct
a cost-benefit analysis of the rules. The analysis has not been completed, but no one expects its findings to profoundly change
the game.
An amendment to the HOS rules was also attached to a recently introduced $44 billion bill to fund the nation's transportation
and housing agencies. But that bill has gone nowhere. The House tabled consideration of the bill, titled the "Transportation,
Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act of 2014," or T-HUD, at least until lawmakers return next month from a
five-week summer recess. The amendment in the House bill would cut off FMCSA funding to enforce provisions requiring drivers to
restart their 34-hour rest clocks once a week and include in that cycle two consecutive rest days between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. It
would also effectively eliminate language requiring long-haul drivers to stop driving after eight hours if they haven't taken a
30-minute rest break.
What does seem to have come to an end is the court's patience with the 10-year saga. In issuing the opinion, Justice Brown
wrote, "It is often said the third time's a charm. That may well be true in this case, the third of its kind to be considered
[by the appeals court]."
The justices strongly implied that their ruling marks the end of the road. "With one small exception
(overturning the 30-minute break for short-haul drivers), our decision today brings to an end much of the
permanent warfare surrounding the HOS rules," Justice Brown wrote.
TIME TO TAKE STOCK
Those who've been fighting the HOS battle spent much of the day taking stock. Dave Osiecki, ATA's senior
vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, said the agency should now spend less time rulemaking and
more time fostering a safer driving environment by utilizing proven methods that focus on unsafe road behaviors.
Osiecki cited the court's own language that FMCSA prevailed "not on the strengths of its rulemaking prowess,
but through an artless war of attrition." The court's opinion should "serve as a warning to FMCSA not to rely on
similarly unsubstantiated rulemakings in the future," Osiecki said.
Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), said the industry
must put the HOS squabbles behind it and now focus on strengthening training standards for new drivers. Although all new
drivers must pass a test to obtain a Commercial Driver's License, the test only covers basic operations and doesn't prepare
drivers either for the real world behind the wheel or for the growing number of regulations they must comply with, Spencer said.
OOIDA said it has launched a program called "Truckers for Safety" designed to train the next generation of drivers. The program
is aimed in part at offsetting the disruptions caused by rapid turnover and by older experienced drivers leaving the field and
being replaced by younger, less-seasoned recruits, Spencer said.
FMCSA issued a brief statement
praising the decision. "The ruling recognizes the sensible data-driven approach that was taken in crafting this important
regulation to increase safety and reduce driver fatigue—a leading factor in truck crashes," it said. FMCSA continued to say
that the ruling "provides added certainty for all affected, moving forward."
FMCSA's statement, however, is drastically at odds with the sentiments of much of the industry. In a letter to lawmakers last
week, Bruce Carlton, president of the shipper group National Industrial Transportation League, recommended that the HOS study
mandated under last year's transport funding bill be completed before the provisions "adversely affect our economy."
The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), ATA's research arm, said in June that the rules would cost the industry
$374 million annually by reducing driver flexibility and productivity. Trucking firms have estimated a 2- to 10-percent
productivity hit due to reduced truck miles driven. Fleets may have to raise the pay of their existing drivers to compensate
them for the lost hours or hire more drivers to fill the void. Either scenario would result in rising costs that would be
passed on down the line.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING?
Because enforcement of the rules only began July 1, it is too early to determine its impact on supply chains. Most
over-the-road trucking occurs east of the Mississippi, in densely populated regions where the typical truck length of
haul is less than 400 miles—run lengths that are easier to schedule around the new rules. Longer lengths of haul, which
might run afoul of the rules, are becoming less prevalent as a growing number of those movements are shifting to lower-cost
rail intermodal service.
Some experts believe shippers will need to improve their scheduling if drivers are to make their normal runs without violating
the law or harming supply chain productivity. According to Michael P. Regan, president and CEO of TranzAct Technologies Inc., an
Elmhurst Village, Ill.-based consulting company, the key is for shippers to eliminate any slack in their schedules. Because of
the mandatory clock-stopping period, shippers can no longer afford to delay drivers at the loading dock and expect them to
deliver a long-haul shipment without bumping up against the new guidelines.
"The issue with shipper scheduling is going to be a huge factor," Regan said. He suggests shippers and their carriers allow drivers to take their mandatory 30-minute break at the dock instead of on the road
while en route with a load.
If nothing else, the court's ruling affirms that FMCSA's clout has grown beyond highway safety and into the trucking industry's
business operations. Most expect an emboldened FMCSA to push for even tougher safety rules in the future. Highway safety advocates
are not expected to rest either. The FMCSA maintained the 11-hour maximum driving time per day, even though safety advocates had
aggressively lobbied to reduce drive times to 10. Safety groups are likely to continue pushing the agency to shorten the driving
hours to 10, something the FMCSA seriously considered before sticking with the status quo.
John G. Larkin, lead transportation analyst for investment firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., said safety advocates will not be
satisfied until fatalities associated with big truck operations are significantly reduced, despite industry data showing most
accidents involving big rigs are actually caused by motorists or light truck operators.
"There is no stopping the highway safety ideologues," Larkin wrote in an e-mail. "Logic and economics don't legitimately
enter the discussion, or so it seems."
Warehouse automation orders declined by 3% in 2024, according to a February report from market research firm Interact Analysis. The company said the decline was due to economic, political, and market-specific challenges, including persistently high interest rates in many regions and the residual effects of an oversupply of warehouses built during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research also found that increasing competition from Chinese vendors is expected to drive down prices and slow revenue growth over the report’s forecast period to 2030.
Global macro-economic factors such as high interest rates, political uncertainty around elections, and the Chinese real estate crisis have “significantly impacted sales cycles, slowing the pace of orders,” according to the report.
Despite the decline, analysts said growth is expected to pick up from 2025, which they said they anticipate will mark a year of slow recovery for the sector. Pre-pandemic growth levels are expected to return in 2026, with long-term expansion projected at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2024 and 2030.
The analysis also found two market segments that are bucking the trend: durable manufacturing and food & beverage industries continued to spend on automation during the downturn. Warehouse automation revenues in food & beverage, in particular, were bolstered by cold-chain automation, as well as by large-scale projects from consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers. The sectors registered the highest growth in warehouse automation revenues between 2022 and 2024, with increases of 11% (durable manufacturing) and 10% (food & beverage), according to the research.
The Swedish supply chain software company Kodiak Hub is expanding into the U.S. market, backed by a $6 million venture capital boost for its supplier relationship management (SRM) platform.
The Stockholm-based company says its move could help U.S. companies build resilient, sustainable supply chains amid growing pressure from regulatory changes, emerging tariffs, and increasing demands for supply chain transparency.
According to the company, its platform gives procurement teams a 360-degree view of supplier risk, resiliency, and performance, helping them to make smarter decisions faster. Kodiak Hub says its artificial intelligence (AI) based tech has helped users to reduce supplier onboarding times by 80%, improve supplier engagement by 90%, achieve 7-10% cost savings on total spend, and save approximately 10 hours per week by automating certain SRM tasks.
The Swedish venture capital firm Oxx had a similar message when it announced in November that it would back Kodiak Hub with new funding. Oxx says that Kodiak Hub is a better tool for chief procurement officers (CPOs) and strategic sourcing managers than existing software platforms like Excel sheets, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or Procure-to-Pay suites.
“As demand for transparency and fair-trade practices grows, organizations must strengthen their supply chains to protect their reputation, profitability, and long-term trust,” Malin Schmidt, founder & CEO of Kodiak Hub, said in a release. “By embedding AI-driven insights directly into procurement workflows, our platform helps procurement teams anticipate these risks and unlock major opportunities for growth.”
Here's our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.
For the sixth consecutive year, dedicated contract carriage and freight management services provider Transervice Logistics Inc. collected books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines for Book Fairies, a nonprofit book donation organization in the New York Tri-State area. Transervice employees broke their own in-house record last year by donating 13 boxes of print and video assets to children in under-resourced communities on Long Island and the five boroughs of New York City.
Logistics real estate investment and development firm Dermody Properties has recognized eight community organizations in markets where it operates with its 2024 Annual Thanksgiving Capstone awards. The organizations, which included food banks and disaster relief agencies, received a combined $85,000 in awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
Prime Inc. truck driver Dee Sova has donated $5,000 to Harmony House, an organization that provides shelter and support services to domestic violence survivors in Springfield, Missouri. The donation follows Sova's selection as the 2024 recipient of the Trucking Cares Foundation's John Lex Premier Achievement Award, which was accompanied by a $5,000 check to be given in her name to a charity of her choice.
Employees of dedicated contract carrier Lily Transportation donated dog food and supplies to a local animal shelter at a holiday event held at the company's Fort Worth, Texas, location. The event, which benefited City of Saginaw (Texas) Animal Services, was coordinated by "Lily Paws," a dedicated committee within Lily Transportation that focuses on improving the lives of shelter dogs nationwide.
Freight transportation conglomerate Averitt has continued its support of military service members by participating in the "10,000 for the Troops" card collection program organized by radio station New Country 96.3 KSCS in Dallas/Fort Worth. In 2024, Averitt associates collected and shipped more than 18,000 holiday cards to troops overseas. Contributions included cards from 17 different Averitt facilities, primarily in Texas, along with 4,000 cards from the company's corporate office in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have seen slow and steady growth, as the vehicles continue to gain converts among consumers and delivery fleet operators alike. But a consistent frustration for drivers has been pulling up to a charging station only to find that the charger has been intentionally broken or disabled.
To address that threat, the EV charging solution provider ChargePoint has launched two products to combat charger vandalism.
The first is a cut-resistant charging cable that's designed to deter theft. The cable, which incorporates what the manufacturer calls "novel cut-resistant materials," is substantially more difficult for would-be vandals to cut but is still flexible enough for drivers to maneuver comfortably, the California firm said. ChargePoint intends to make its cut-resistant cables available for all of its commercial and fleet charging stations, and, starting in the middle of the year, will license the cable design to other charging station manufacturers as part of an industrywide effort to combat cable theft and vandalism.
The second product, ChargePoint Protect, is an alarm system that detects charging cable tampering in real time and literally sounds the alarm using the charger's existing speakers, screens, and lighting system. It also sends SMS or email messages to ChargePoint customers notifying them that the system's alarm has been triggered.
ChargePoint says it expects these two new solutions, when combined, will benefit charging station owners by reducing station repair costs associated with vandalism and EV drivers by ensuring they can trust charging stations to work when and where they need them.
New Jersey is home to the most congested freight bottleneck in the country for the seventh straight year, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.
ATRI’s annual list of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks aims to highlight the nation’s most congested highways and help local, state, and federal governments target funding to areas most in need of relief. The data show ways to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth, according to the researchers.
The 2025 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at more than 325 locations on the national highway system. The analysis is based on an extensive database of freight truck GPS data and uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations, to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. The bottleneck locations detailed in the latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 325 freight-critical locations, the group said.
For the seventh straight year, the intersection of I-95 and State Route 4 near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is the top freight bottleneck in the country. The remaining top 10 bottlenecks include: Chicago, I-294 at I-290/I-88; Houston, I-45 at I-69/US 59; Atlanta, I-285 at I-85 (North); Nashville: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East); Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North); Los Angeles, SR 60 at SR 57; Cincinnati, I-71 at I-75; Houston, I-10 at I-45; and Atlanta, I-20 at I-285 (West).
ATRI’s analysis, which utilized data from 2024, found that traffic conditions continue to deteriorate from recent years, partly due to work zones resulting from increased infrastructure investment. Average rush hour truck speeds were 34.2 miles per hour (MPH), down 3% from the previous year. Among the top 10 locations, average rush hour truck speeds were 29.7 MPH.
In addition to squandering time and money, these delays also waste fuel—with trucks burning an estimated 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel and producing more than 65 million metric tons of additional carbon emissions while stuck in traffic jams, according to ATRI.
On a positive note, ATRI said its analysis helps quantify the value of infrastructure investment, pointing to improvements at Chicago’s Jane Byrne Interchange as an example. Once the number one truck bottleneck in the country for three years in a row, the recently constructed interchange saw rush hour truck speeds improve by nearly 25% after construction was completed, according to the report.
“Delays inflicted on truckers by congestion are the equivalent of 436,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year,” ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster said in a statement announcing the findings. “These metrics are getting worse, but the good news is that states do not need to accept the status quo. Illinois was once home to the top bottleneck in the country, but following a sustained effort to expand capacity, the Jane Byrne Interchange in Chicago no longer ranks in the top 10. This data gives policymakers a road map to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth.”