James Miller

How AI and Telematics Are Reshaping Fleet Safety, Efficiency and Operating Costs

Nearly half of surveyed fleets (46%) now deploy AI-enabled video telematics while GPS fleet tracking penetration climbed to 80%, delivering measurable reductions in fuel, labor and accident costs.

Buyers Line Up for First Brands’ Part-Making Units That Supply Ford, Raising Supply-Chain Questions

Three of the four First Brands facilities proposed for sale under the restructuring plan directly supply parts to Ford’s North American assembly footprint, creating an immediate need to secure freight routes, distribution slots, and just-in-time (JIT) inventory buffers to avoid downstream production interruptions.

Trailer Order Trends in January 2026: ACT and FTR Diverge on Volume and Outlook

U.S. trailer orders for January 2026 registered a year‑over‑year increase per ACT Research—9% to 23,000 units—while FTR Transportation Intelligence reported a 4% decline to 24,206 units, illustrating the patchwork recovery and measurement differences that fleet planners must navigate. Data Snapshot: ACT vs. FTR Two independent trackers, ACT Research and FTR, produced slightly different pictures for the opening month of 2026. Both agree the seasonality and backlog management matter, but their year‑over‑year and sequential movements diverge enough to influence purchasing strategies. Source January Units Year‑over‑Year Change Sequential (vs. Dec) ACT Research (preliminary) 23,000 +9% -8% FTR

How Increasing Climate Volatility Is Forcing Ports and Supply Chains to Rethink Routing and Resilience

When a port experiences a multi-day crane shutdown or a berth closure due to storm surge, the immediate result is not just a delayed arrival but a reworking of container rotations, inland trucking schedules, and warehouse receipts.

Supreme Court Ruling Spurs Thousands of Tariff Refund Lawsuits, Disrupting Import Cash Flows

Since the Supreme Court invalidated most of the global tariffs, more than 2,000 tariff refund suits have been lodged at the U.S.

ATRI 2026 Operational Costs Survey Opens; New Multiyear Comparisons and Key Metrics Highlighted

ATRI launched the 2026 Operational Costs of Trucking survey on Feb. 23 with a submission deadline of April 24, accepting confidential 2025 cost and operational data online or via PDF. The survey captures granular metrics—driver pay, equipment expenditures, insurance premiums and KPIs such as non-revenue mileage, driver utilization, mileage between breakdowns and revenue per truck per week—to produce anonymized industry averages and customized fleet benchmarking. Survey scope, submission and confidentiality The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) collects fleet-level cost inputs and operational data to build sector- and size-specific benchmarks. All data are published only as

January freight tonnage edges up as carriers manage capacity, storms and shifting spot rates

The ATA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose to 113 in January from 112.5 in December, a 0.4% monthly increase and about a 0.5% gain year-over-year, signaling a modest rebound from late‑2025 lows while capacity constraints and weather disruptions continued to influence pricing and flow.

How Ocado’s Digital Twin Practice Turns Simulation into Operational Advantage

Ocado’s grid-based fulfilment centres routinely test discrete-event models that show where robot density hits diminishing returns and how throughput responds to changes in bot count, station layout and inbound timing.

GOP Pushes to Shorten Army Corps Permits to Improve Ports, Locks and Flood Mitigation

Republican leaders in Congress are proposing changes to the Water Resources Development Act framework that would reduce permitting drag for the Army Corps of Engineers, aiming to accelerate authorizations for ports, locks, dams and flood-mitigation projects whose delays currently ripple through supply chains.

Hwy. 17 Twinning: 22.5 km Upgrade Between Renfrew and Arnprior

The Ontario government issued a request for proposals on February 27, 2026 to design the conversion of Highway 17 from two lanes to four lanes for a 22.5-kilometre stretch between Scheel Drive near Arnprior and a point three kilometres west of Bruce Street near the Town of Renfrew.

Ryan Transportation and Bot Auto Launch Autonomous Night Lane in Texas

Ryan Transportation will begin scheduled driverless service on the roughly 200-mile Houston–Dallas–Fort Worth overnight corridor in spring, deploying Bot Auto’s Level 4 self-driving Freightliner tractors to increase frequency and reliability on a historically hard-to-cover lane.

Labor Department seeks to restore economic reality test, affecting trucking owner-operators

The Department of Labor formally proposed rescinding the Biden-era 2024 independent contractor rule and reverting to an economic reality test, a move that directly affects owner-operator agreements, freight contracting and on-demand haulage arrangements across the trucking sector.