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TRUCKING

October LMI shows price increases outpacing capacity growth

Freight Waves Todd Maiden November 4, 2025

“This is similar to the dynamics observed in the Fall of 2018, when Upstream B2B freight slowed down due to U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports but B2C movements remained steady due to strong U.S. consumer activity,” the Tuesday report said. The freight market deteriorated into 2019, “after holiday spending had concluded.”

Link: CSCMP/Colorado State University ​October 2025 Logistics Managers' Index

ArcBest Announces Third Quarter 2025 Results

ArcBest Press Release November 5, 2025

“ArcBest continues to deliver, even in this challenging freight environment,” said Judy R. McReynolds, ArcBest Chairman and CEO. “We achieved growth in LTL shipments and tonnage, and our Asset-Light segment delivered record shipment volumes and productivity. These results underscore the strength of our customer relationships and the value of our integrated solutions.”

• Revenue of $726.5 million compared to $709.7 million, a per-day increase of 1.6 percent
• Tonnage per day increase of 2.3 percent
• Shipments per day increase of 4.3 percent

Link: ArcBest Earnings Presentation 3Q '25

TFI’s Bedard sees a stronger 2026 after a weak 4Q

Freight Waves John Kingston November 4, 2025

Bedard also touted the management of the LTL group. “The new team is really all hands on deck,” he said. “We’ve been working on our costs. We’ve also been working and improving our service.” Bedard also touted how TFI did in the recently-released Mastio report, which he said confirmed greater customer satisfaction.

Trucking earnings Q3: Pricing up, spending down, and cautious optimism ahead

Fleet Owner Geert De Lombaerde November 3, 2025

Last month wasn’t great, but optimism is growing among some executive teams. “We’re kind of ticking off the uncertainties,” Saia’s Fritz Holzgrefe said.

Roadrunners jump to a tech-forward LTL carrier

Freight Waves Mary O'Connell November 4, 2025

Roadrunner has launched a new suite of pricing products designed to simplify LTL shipping and improve transparency for shippers and freight forwarders. The release includes the carrier’s first proprietary tariff, RFDS1000, along with Weight-Based DIM Pricing, the A2A Freight Forwarder Service, and a Dynamic Volume Quote Model.

Link: Roadrunner Press Release Roadrunner Releases its latest product suite — RFDS1000™ Tariff, Weight-Based DIM Pricing, A2A Freight Forwarder Service, and Dynamic Volume Quote Model

Roadrunner deploys AI to eliminate excuses, slash missed picks

CCJ Jason Cannon November 4, 2025

Roadrunner, seeing missed pickup figures in the 30% range in the early 2020s, leaned into the implementation of AI and data-driven processes to slash that figure to near-zero.

Preliminary Classes 5-8 Net Orders for October

ACT Research November 4, 2025

“Preliminary Class 8 orders totaled 24,500 units in October, down 21% y/y, a notably weak number when you take into consideration October is seasonally the strongest month for orders with a 25% seasonal factor. This is the time of year when next year’s backlogs get built,” shared Carter Vieth, Research Analyst at ACT Research.

Top-10 trucking issues report surfaces several new topics

Trucking Dive David Taube November 4, 2025

The American Transportation Research Institute’s annual Top Industry Issues report included several new topics for the first time.

Those issues included English language proficiency for drivers, 2027 diesel emissions regulations, driver training standards and artificial intelligence in trucking.

Link: American Transportation Research Institute For the Third Year in a Row, the Economy is the Trucking Industry’s Top Concern

Lawmakers Urge DOT Crackdown on Fraudulent CDL Mills

Transport Topics Eugene Mulero November 4, 2025

Two lawmakers who sponsored legislation to require that commercial driver license testing be conducted in English are now urging Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to investigate the growing trucking industry concern of so-called CDL mills.

Report: China leads charge in assisted-driving tech for commercial trucking

DC Velocity Ben Ames November 4, 2025

But the industry is growing faster in China, according to a report from IDTechEx analyst Shihao Fu, following a visit to Inceptio Technology, a Chinese autonomous trucking company. Here’s why: Around the world, autonomous trucking faces two persistent hurdles: the long commercialization timeline of Level 4 fully driverless systems and the slow adaptation of regulatory frameworks to real-world operations.

Link: IDTechEx Assisted Driving Systems Are Powering a Million km a Day in China

SHIPPERS / 3PLs

Amazon: Better inventory placement fuels record delivery speeds

Supply Chain Dive Max Garland November 4, 2025

If Amazon maintains its pace, 2025 would be the third consecutive year the company has set a record for Prime delivery speeds. Amazon aims to further improve its inventory placement to reduce the distance items travel and the amount of touches per package during fulfillment and transportation, Olsavsky said.

Walmart deploys sensors to boost inventory tracking, AI efforts

Supply Chain Dive Max Garland November 4, 2025

Walmart has deployed inventory-tracking sensors across its supply chain through a collaboration with Wiliot, providing more data for the retailer’s artificial intelligence push.

Link: Wiliot Press Release Wiliot Collaborates with Walmart to Transform Retail Supply Chain with Ambient IoT and AI

Uber Freight revenue flat in Q3 as company posts strong delivery gains

Freight Waves Noi Mahoney November 4, 2025

According to Uber’s quarterly financial report released Tuesday, Uber Freight’s gross bookings and revenue both held steady at $1.31 billion, while segment adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) posted a loss of $20 million, a slight decline from the $19 million loss in the third-quarter of 2024.

INDUSTRY

Benchmark diesel price rises again, market showing signs of tightening

Freight Waves John Kingston November 4, 2025

Retail diesel prices measured by the Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration weekly price moved higher for the second consecutive week, with signals beyond the outright price reflecting a tightening diesel market.

Links: U.S. Energy Information Administration  Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update  and Weekly U.S. No 2 Diesel Ultra Low Sulfur (0-15 ppm) Retail Prices (Chart)

Soft demand in eastbound trans-Pacific overwhelms carriers’ GRI attempt

Journal of Commerce Bill Mongelluzzo and Laura Robb November 4, 2025 $Subscription Based

A general rate increase (GRI) of approximately $800 per FEU implemented by ocean carriers this weekend on the Asia to US West Coast trade is already beginning to erode amid a fundamental lack of demand, forwarders and carriers say.

Expeditors’ Q3 earnings beat forecast on air freight, customs gains

Journal of Commerce Michael Angell  November 5, 2025 $Subscription Based

Expeditors International on Tuesday reported third-quarter results that blew past analysts’ estimates as its air freight segment benefited from the buildout of artificial intelligence data centers.

TECHNOLOGY

Data, AI, and Automation: The new engines of motor freight

Logistics Management Bridget McRea November 1, 2025

Nathan Lease, research senior director in the logistics and customer fulfillment team at Gartner, says that companies are making steady progress with digital platforms that cut manual work and improve visibility. “One thing I’ve seen is a movement towards systematizing and automating manual tasks,” says Lease. “Driver dispatching, manual data entry and moving information from one field to another are now handled inside core software.”

How AI helped a retailer prevent stockouts

Supply Chain Management Review Saravanan Venkatachalam and Arunachalam Narayanan November 4, 2025

A U.S. retailer paired a rigorous network optimization engine with a large language model (LLM) translator that reframed solver outputs into managerial narratives. The system flagged a looming stockout in the distribution center (DC), recommended inter-DC transfers, stabilized weeks of supply, and avoided approximately $394,000 in penalties and lost margin. 

Key takeaways from the NMFTA Cybersecurity Conference

CCJ Joe Ohr November 4, 2025

October was National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, according to the National Cybersecurity Alliance and other organizations like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of Homeland Security. The National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc. (NMFTA)™ celebrated the occasion in style by once again hosting the trucking industry’s only cybersecurity conference October 26-28.

"Have You Tried AI?" The Answer Every Leader Should Give

Methods of Masters Jeremy Utley November 3, 2025

When you ask "Have you tried AI?" you're giving your team three gifts:

1. It Opens Their Mind: Most people honestly don't think to use AI for most tasks. (I mean, I literally have a post-it note on my screen that's been there for two years that says "Have you tried ChatGPT?" Because even I forget.)

They're stuck. They reach out to you. And you're reminding them: Oh right, I have this incredibly capable teammate available 24/7 that I completely forgot about.

SUSTAINABILITY / SAFETY / SECURITY

Truck OEMs Score Win Over CARB in Clean Trucks Lawsuit

Transport Topics Keiron Greenhalgh November 4, 2025

U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins on Oct. 31 ruled that truck manufacturers responsible for 99.9% of U.S. Class 8 retail sales in 2024 would be harmed if denied an injunction temporarily blocking compliance with the 2023 CTP deal.

Biofuels – A Continuing Debate

Transportation Energy Institute John Eichberger October 2025

Recently, I have seen several reports claiming that biofuels are not good for the environment, that they emit more carbon than the petroleum they displace and that their production has diverted resources and negatively affected food supplies and prices. Such reports concern me because they directly contradict several peer-reviewed reports published by the Transportation Energy Institute in recent years, such as “Decarbonizing Combustion Vehicles” and “Balancing the Benefits of Biofuels.”

Amazon rolls out Rivian Electric Delivery Vans in Canada for the first time

Clean Trucking Jay Traugott November 4, 2025

Since our first production vans hit the road in 2022, Rivian and Amazon have learned quite a lot together, which has allowed us to continuously improve the vehicle’s performance, safety and durability as Amazon has scaled these vans across many climates and geographies."

‘Eyes-off driving’ is coming, and we’re so not ready

The Verge Andrew J. Hawkins November 3, 2025

The very definition of Level 3 presents a contradiction: Drivers are told they can disengage, yet must also remain available for rapid reengagement. When the transitions are planned, such as when a driver is entering or exiting a mapped zone, the handoff should be seamless.

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