About 80 owner-operators in Houston have been on strike since Monday, demanding higher freight rates and better communication from their employer, Hudd Transportation. One of the protesters told FreightWaves they are mainly asking for a 20% freight rate increase, but management offered them only 8%. The striking owner-operators work as drayage drivers for Hudd Transportation’s terminal near Port Houston. “We’re not getting paid fairly so on Monday about 75 to 80 of us got together and went up to the terminal manager just to talk about competitive rates,” Chris Arriaga told FreightWaves.  ..read more

Some California truckers who move containers in and out of the marine terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach say they plan to participate in a work stoppage Wednesday to protest a controversial state law, AB5, that seeks to limit the use of independent contractors and largely classify them as employee drivers. On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the California Trucking Association’s challenge to AB5, returning the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  One owner-operator who plans to participate in the port protest says he doesn’t want to become an e ..read more

History Acme Truck Line, Inc. is an industry leader with a fleet of more than 1,500 trucks, more than 40 service points, and nationwide and Canadian operating authorities.  The Acme of 2022 is a nationwide operation headquartered in Gretna, Louisiana. According to the company’s website, its success is due to its pledge – “Serve our customers by keeping their freight moving safely and on time with the best and most highly trained employees in our industry.” (Image: Acme Facebook page) But Acme’s beginnings were a bit more humble… Founded in 1960 as an intrastate oilfield hauler, Acme has ..read more

Trucking business management solutions provider CloudTrucks has launched its new fintech solution, CT Credit, a Visa business card that avoids high interest rates and fees and connects users to CloudTrucks’ business management solution to help oversee carrier expenses. After the company was founded 2019, CloudTrucks made its management solutions available to owner-operators through three programs: Virtual Carrier, the company’s leasing program, Flex, which gives owner-operators access to available loads and management systems while keeping their authority, and CT Cash, a non recourse factorin ..read more

Today’s market poses many challenges to truck drivers and trucking companies alike. Along with the infamous driver and labor shortage, drivers and carriers have to deal with inflation in the form of skyrocketing fuel, insurance and overall equipment costs — not to mention labor costs and availability. Moreover, many drivers whose trucks need repairs face long wait times just to have their vehicles looked at, resulting in significant downtime and loss of revenue.  PGT Trucking, Inc. has a proven solution to assist prospective owner-operators through these challenges — lease purchasing. PG ..read more

Auction prices of used trucks are falling almost as quickly as they rose over the last year. That is leaving owner-operators stuck with overpriced equipment they thought they could pay for in a hot spot freight market that is cooling off.  “The market is primarily absorbing trucks from fleets no longer retaining all of their older iron as new trucks trickle in and, to an extent, from owner-operators leaving the industry or going to work for a fleet,” said Chris Visser, senior analyst and commercial vehicles product manager for J.D. Power Valuation Services. In its latest Guidelines repor ..read more

This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Summit on Wednesday. FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Starting a trucking company. DETAILS: Jamie Hagen of Hell Bent Xpress sits down with James “The Rooster” Bowen from Back the Truck Up to talk about starting a trucking business. From knowing how to begin the process to calculating cost of operations to becoming “fully legal,” they cover the bases for someone wanting to become an owner-operator. SPEAKER: Hagen is the owner of Aberdeen, South Dakota-based Hell Bent Xpress. BIO: Hagen’s extensive transportation industry exper ..read more

This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Summit on Wednesday. FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Should owner-operators downsize in this market? DETAILS: With the spot rates falling as fuel costs soar in recent months, many independent owner-operators are under pressure. One industry executive thinks they should consider swapping their Class 8 trucks for something smaller.  SPEAKERS: Kris Lamb, uShip’s CEO, and Daniel Pickett, FreightWaves’ chief technology officer.  BIO: Lamb has been uShip’s CEO since 2019. He joined the online freight marketplace as chief ..read more

Owner-operators and small carriers are known as the lifeblood of the trucking industry, and for good reason. They make up a large portion of the freight market, and without them, the industry would be severely stunted. As of December 2020, there were 502,626 “very small” registered fleets – operations involving one to six trucks – across the country, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). At the time, this group accounted for 86% of total carriers and almost 20% of total power units in the U.S. Of carriers that fall in the “very small” category, the Owner-Operat ..read more

This fireside chat recap is from Day 1 of FreightWaves’ The Future of Supply Chain live event being held in Rogers, Arkansas. For more information and content from the event, click here. FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Data, brokers and freight transparency. DETAILS: FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller welcomed Brent Hutto of Truckstop.com on the stage to discuss how the freight brokerage model has changed over the years, why participants are clamoring for data, and how companies like FreightWaves and Truckstop.com are helping collect, analyze and disseminate that data. SPEAKER: Hutto is the chief ..read more