Month: January 2026

Chart of the Week:  Spot (linehaul) to contract rate spread (fuel base at $1.20/gal) SONAR: NTIL12.USA The spread between dry van truckload spot rates and contract rates shrank at its fastest pace since the onset of COVID this past December, offering a clear signal of the trucking market’s growing fragility. The spot-to-contract spread is defined as contract… Continue reading Spot-contract gap collapses to near four-year low

Borderlands Mexico is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week, Volatile trade, rising carrier costs reshape retail shipping strategies; Cainiao launches U.S.–Mexico cross-border logistics service; and Speedora launches white-glove logistics service in Arizona. Volatile trade, rising carrier costs reshape retail shipping strategies As tariffs fluctuate… Continue reading Borderlands Mexico: Volatile trade, rising carrier costs reshaping shipping strategies

December shipments fell to a cycle low while truckload rates again stepped higher, according to monthly data from Cass Information Systems. Cass’ multimodal shipments index dropped 7.5% year over year in December. The decline was on top of a similar move in December 2024, producing a two-year-stacked decline of 13.5%. The shipments dataset was down… Continue reading Cass TL Linehaul Index climbs amid shipment decline

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have more homework to do after federal regulators late Friday gave their 7,000-page merger application an incomplete instead of a passing grade. The Surface Transportation Board in a 15-page decision (PDF) rejected the merger application, and two related applications, as incomplete. UP (NYSE: UNP) and NS (NYSE: NSC) can file… Continue reading STB rejects “incomplete” UP-NS merger application

Aurora Innovation and McLeod Software announced Thursday that their planned Transportation Management System (TMS) integration is ahead of schedule and now available. Through an API connection, the integration unlocks autonomous trucking capacity for carriers nationwide. It enables seamless tendering, dispatching and tracking of autonomous trucks. Aurora notes that this is the industry’s first connection between… Continue reading Aurora, McLeod deliver industry’s first driverless trucking link to TMS platform