Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Power-only trucking service avoids empty trailer moves, Convoy says

Approach helps shippers add backhauls and loadouts to trailer pool network, firm says.

convoy-Power-Only-Blog-Graph-08-2021-1024x640.png

Digital freight network provider Convoy today unveiled a power-only trucking network that it says can help shippers save money by avoiding empty trailer moves.

The service provides private fleets with nationwide capacity to haul their preloaded and empty dry van trailers, operating as part of the Seattle-based firm’s “Convoy Go” drop-and-hook program. The Convoy Go platform allows trailers to be preloaded in advance of a truck’s arrival, helping shippers avoid “live loading” delays and costs.


The use of similar strategies has grown in popularity in recent years, as one solution to exploding e-commerce volumes and maritime port congestion that have strained supply chains. Other trailer pools on the market include products from J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., vHub, and Uber Freight.

By adding power units to that equation, Convoy says it can apply machine learning tools to identify backhauls and loadouts—a “sharing economy” approach that improves the utilization of empty trailers by sharing that empty space with other shippers—thus reducing shipping costs, empty miles, and carbon emissions.

Convoy has designed the new feature for private fleets, which currently operate some 500,000 trailers across the U.S., shuttling them between sites with a 4:1 trailer-to-tractor ratio. Those statistics mean that many shippers operate with a shortfall of power units and drivers, forcing them to rely on the expensive spot market to access extra capacity when demand surges, Convoy said.

In addition, 40% of all private fleet miles are driven empty, wasting fuel and money while needlessly increasing CO2 emissions, according to Convoy. Nevertheless, large retailers and manufacturers have increased their investments in private fleets in recent years, saying those costs are outweighed by gains such as having direct control of their capacity, costs, and service quality.

“Today, trailers within private fleets number more than half a million, and there’s a constant need to haul them from one location to another,” Ryan Gavin, Convoy’s Chief Marketing Officer & Marketplace Growth, wrote in a blog post. “This includes moving product from distribution centers to stores, rebalancing trailer pools, and bringing trailers in for repair. The resulting demand for power-only capacity has accelerated in the last decade, as online commerce continues to grow and supply chains require more short-haul, rapid-response fulfillment.”

Recent

More Stories

cover of report on electrical efficiency

ABI: Push to drop fossil fuels also needs better electric efficiency

Companies in every sector are converting assets from fossil fuel to electric power in their push to reach net-zero energy targets and to reduce costs along the way, but to truly accelerate those efforts, they also need to improve electric energy efficiency, according to a study from technology consulting firm ABI Research.

In fact, boosting that efficiency could contribute fully 25% of the emissions reductions needed to reach net zero. And the pursuit of that goal will drive aggregated global investments in energy efficiency technologies to grow from $106 Billion in 2024 to $153 Billion in 2030, ABI said today in a report titled “The Role of Energy Efficiency in Reaching Net Zero Targets for Enterprises and Industries.”

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

Logistics economy continues on solid footing
Logistics Managers' Index

Logistics economy continues on solid footing

Economic activity in the logistics industry expanded in November, continuing a steady growth pattern that began earlier this year and signaling a return to seasonality after several years of fluctuating conditions, according to the latest Logistics Managers’ Index report (LMI), released today.

The November LMI registered 58.4, down slightly from October’s reading of 58.9, which was the highest level in two years. The LMI is a monthly gauge of business conditions across warehousing and logistics markets; a reading above 50 indicates growth and a reading below 50 indicates contraction.

Keep ReadingShow less
iceberg drawing to represent threats

GEP: six factors could change calm to storm in 2025

The current year is ending on a calm note for the logistics sector, but 2025 is on pace to be an era of rapid transformation, due to six driving forces that will shape procurement and supply chains in coming months, according to a forecast from New Jersey-based supply chain software provider GEP.

"After several years of mitigating inflation, disruption, supply shocks, conflicts, and uncertainty, we are currently in a relative period of calm," John Paitek, vice president, GEP, said in a release. "But it is very much the calm before the coming storm. This report provides procurement and supply chain leaders with a prescriptive guide to weathering the gale force headwinds of protectionism, tariffs, trade wars, regulatory pressures, uncertainty, and the AI revolution that we will face in 2025."

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of top business concerns from descartes

Descartes: businesses say top concern is tariff hikes

Business leaders at companies of every size say that rising tariffs and trade barriers are the most significant global trade challenge facing logistics and supply chain leaders today, according to a survey from supply chain software provider Descartes.

Specifically, 48% of respondents identified rising tariffs and trade barriers as their top concern, followed by supply chain disruptions at 45% and geopolitical instability at 41%. Moreover, tariffs and trade barriers ranked as the priority issue regardless of company size, as respondents at companies with less than 250 employees, 251-500, 501-1,000, 1,001-50,000 and 50,000+ employees all cited it as the most significant issue they are currently facing.

Keep ReadingShow less
photo of worker at port tracking containers

Trump tariff threat strains logistics businesses

Freight transportation providers and maritime port operators are bracing for rough business impacts if the incoming Trump Administration follows through on its pledge to impose a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% tariff on China, analysts say.

Industry contacts say they fear that such heavy fees could prompt importers to “pull forward” a massive surge of goods before the new administration is seated on January 20, and then quickly cut back again once the hefty new fees are instituted, according to a report from TD Cowen.

Keep ReadingShow less