Latest News From Logistics

With tight trucks in May and the likelihood of further escalation before the Fourth of July, sources said the rising spot market for trucks is pushing costs higher for shippers and placing a premium on straight loads.

Produce truck rates are up 70% or more compared with a year ago, and industry sources don’t think relief is coming anytime soon.

President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency because the coronavirus COVID-19 and waived the hours of service rules for truck drivers transporting emergency supplies of produce and other foods.

The Modernizing Agricultural Transportation Act has been introduced in the House of Representatives and is yet another legislative proposal that offers fixes for livestock haulers regarding hours of service rules.

The Transporting Livestock Across America Safely Act has been reintroduced by a bipartisan group of Senators and could provide some fixes to hours of service requirements for livestock haulers.

All agriculture haulers could be exempted from using electronic logging devices (ELD) if the latest version of the Agricultural Business Electronic Logging Device Exemption Act of 2018 advances through Congress.

A petition filed to the Department of Transportation (DOT) by livestock groups is seeking more flexibility to hours of service regulations.

Transporting Livestock Across America Safely (TLAAS) reintroduced in Congress to help reform Electronic Logging Device (ELD) and hours of service rules for livestock haulers.

Concerns have been raised by those who travel the same roads that livestock haulers have safety exemptions to drive on.

Transporters of livestock can still use paper logs while the government is shut down and a spending bill is waiting to be approved in Washington DC.

A petition from groups representing livestock haulers has the support of 59 members of Congress and could be a potential fix to hours of service regulations.

A petition filed to the Department of Transportation (DOT) by livestock groups is seeking more flexibility to hours of service regulations.

Regulators with the Department of Transportation are willing to listen to possible rule changes regarding hours of service.

The Senate passed an extension to Electronic Logging Device (ELD) implementation for livestock haulers that would potentially give more time for regulators and Congress to fix hours of service rules.

Livestock haulers could get another year-long extension to implement Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) through an amendment to the Senate's spending bill.

The House of Representatives has debuted their own Transporting Livestock Across America Safely Act, which is similar to the Senate version and grants greater hours of service flexibility to livestock haulers.

The farm bill and livestock transportation were top of mind as the Young Cattlemen’s Conference went to Capitol Hill.

Two U.S. Senators proposed a bipartisan bill that would allow for reform of the hours of service and Electronic Logging Device regulations while also delaying enforcement.

A new bill proposed by a group of Senators is gaining praise from cattlemen and truckers as a fix for the hours of service and Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rules.

Livestock haulers may get some relief from transportation rules if a bill proposed by a bipartisan group of Senators moves forward in Congress.

Despite globalization of e-commerce, many shipping lines still rely on the "paper trail" to track cargoes.

A spending bill not only passed $1.3 trillion in government funding, but also extended the timeline for livestock haulers to utilize electronic logging device (ELD).

The drive for cost cuts and higher margins at U.S. trucking and railroad operators is pinching their biggest customers.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has placed a 90-day delay on the implementation of electronic logging devices (ELD) for agriculture commodities.

Idaho has bounced back to a more normal potato crop this season from its bumper crop last year.

Members of the Ontario Berry Growers Association are the newest users of Croptracker, a traceability software for the agricultural industry.

Tanimura & Antle debuted its PlantTape automated transplanting machine for lettuce this season and is already reaping a hearty return on its investment.

Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad signed a proclamation that allows farmers to transport overweight loads of corn, soybeans, hay, straw, silage and stover. The proclamation is in effect from Sept. 25 to November 25.

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon is set to sign a bill that would raise the weight limit for trucks carrying farm products and another dairy industry bill.

The river is freezing about a month early because of the cold snap, slowing transportation down.

BNSF, which has come under scrutiny this year from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board over late grain deliveries, has told some oil shippers its network can’t accommodate more tank cars.

Rehabbing a stretch of railroad will open up grain-shipping opportunities for farmers who currently must use trucks to transport their grain to more distant railways.

Record crops and transportation bottlenecks are straining the nation’s grain storage system that it hasn’t seen in nearly a decade.

The Missouri Department of Transportation says private and for-hire motor carriers will be able to haul corn, soybeans and other grains at heavier than normal weights.

As U.S. farmers begin the biggest corn and soybean harvests ever, the bins at Elburn Cooperative Co. in Illinois remain almost empty. It simply costs too much to send Midwest crops by barge to New Orleans export terminals.

Minnesota farmers will face several challenges in shipping and storing what's expected to be the state's second largest corn crop in history.

Nebraska drivers and farmers are being reminded to be careful during harvest because large equipment and trucks will be entering and leaving fields.

Falling crude oil prices carry both good and bad connotations for the dairy industry.

Canadian National Railway Co. said the federal government should lower a grain shipment minimum because farmers haven’t been sending enough of the crop to allow the railroad to comply with the order.

Shipping companies probably will miss out on exports from the record U.S. grain harvest because the shale-oil boom is clogging up rail lines to ports.

Farmers in Mississippi's Delta region fear harvest efforts will be hampered by road closures and bridges that can't hold heavy trucks.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says farmers have been "tremendously patient" about rail delays, "but that patience is wearing thin."

The state now has the final piece of funding needed to rehab a stretch of railway that will open up grain-shipping opportunities for farmers in south-central South Dakota, officials announced this week.

Minnesota officials and propane suppliers say they're better prepared to avoid repeating the shortages that hit much of the Midwest last winter.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple opened a federal hearing in Fargo about rail service delays in the upper Plains by reading a letter from a grain elevator that said Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. was 525 cars behind in its service.

Container ships sailing across the northern Pacific are carrying more cargo and are setting course for British Columbia to avoid delays from a possible strike by U.S. West Coast longshoremen.

Gov. Mark Dayton is urging the federal government to step in on railroad delays hitting Minnesota grain farmers.

The ripening corn and soybean fields stretch for miles in every direction from Dennis Wentworth’s farm in Downs, Illinois.

A scale-tipping harvest, a lack of bin space from last year and a shortage of rail cars have some farmers, and some elevators, pouring wheat on the ground because there's no place to put it.

BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. struggled with "greater-than-normal" demand from shippers of coal, oil and Midwest crops, USDA said last week.