For the six-month period, revenue increased 3.5 percent to $283.0 million in 2011 from $273.4 million for the same period last year. Freight revenue, which excludes fuel surcharges, decreased 2.7 percent to $224.7 million from $231.0 million. Net income increased 47.9 percent to $10.8 million from $7.3 million. “Cost controls and operating efficiencies continued to positively impact results,” said Steve Russell, chairman and chief executive officer of the Indianapolis-based company.

Russell said Celadon completed two asset acquisitions in the December 2011 quarter to address the driver shortage – American Eagle, the nonrefrigerated division of Frozen Food Express; and USF Glen Moore – increasing the company’s average seated count to 2,633 in the December 2011 quarter, up from 2,529 in the September 2011 quarter. “We expect our seated count to increase in the March 2012 quarter, as the USF Glen Moore acquisition was completed at the end of December,” Russell said.

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Cargo thieves are increasingly using high-tech tactics to steal freight and the incidents of such thievery have more than doubled in the past year, according to a report by Business Insurance.

Thieves use the Internet and set up a shell company website impersonating a legitimate trucking firm and then place bids on freight broker load boards to book freight.

“If they win work off the board, they walk in and take the cargo,” according to Richard Kirk, vice president of CargoNet, a Jersey City, NJ, division of the Insurance Services Offices Inc.’s crime analytics unit.

“This is a new way that these thieves are operating,” Kirk said.

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The American Trucking Associations’ advance seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 1.3 percent in July after rising a revised 2.6 percent in June. June’s increase was slightly less than the 2.8 percent ATA previously reported. The latest pullback put the adjusted index at 114 in July, down from the June level of 115.5. Tonnage has fallen in three of the last four months on a sequential basis.

The nonseasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 111 in July, which was 9 percent below the previous month. Compared with July 2010, adjusted tonnage was up 3.9 percent. In June, the tonnage index was 6.5 percent above a year earlier.

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Facing a major restructuring and the closings of thousands of post offices, the U.S. Postal Service is ending its foray into less-than-truckload hauling on Sept. 19.

The USPS said in a filing to the Postal Regulatory Commission on Friday that it intends to terminate its Collaborative Logistics market test.

The program began in May 2009 and was set to expire May 6, but was extended another month. The USPS had even moved for an additional extension until it filed notice that Collaborative Logistics would be established as a permanent product.

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Healthy Manufacturing Activity Will Boost Freight

Though overall economic growth in the U.S. continues to slow, output from the manufacturing sector is projected to keep steadily growing for the next 12 months, producing steady freight volumes for truckers. Economists are predicting U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth to only reach 1.8% in the second quarter, down from the first quarter’s anemic 1.9% GDP figure, but as long as manufacturing continues to hum along, carriers could see growth.

“The manufacturing sector has steadily increased its activity over the past year and retains a steady outlook for growth. For truckers, that means they will still see a reasonable level of shipment demand from manufacturing, with that level increasing,” Barry Misthal, U.S. industrial manufacturing leader for global consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), told Fleet Owner.

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PORTLAND, Ore. — TransCore’s North American Freight Index recorded the second-highest load volume this year and in its 15-year history for the month of June. Freight availability was higher only in March. Compared to the previous month, June freight increased 15%, and 37% compared to June of last year. June also marked the sixth consecutive month to exceed its five-year historical comparison.

Truckload freight rates rose seasonally on the spot market in June for all equipment types, according to TransCore’s Truckload Rate Index. The national average rate rose 4.5% in June for dry vans compared to May and 3.8% compared to June 2010. Refrigerated vans were up 5.6% month-over-month and 4.9% year-over-year, while flatbed rates increased 0.6% for the month and 7.4% compared to June 2010.

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While orders for heavy trucks remain strong, despite uneven freight volumes and slowdown in the U.S. economy, the manufacturing capacity to build them may have reached a ceiling of sorts – particularly due to the limitations of second and third tier suppliers.

“There’s been a shortage of axles and tires for quite some time, but there’s also a growing dearth of other sub assemblies as well,” Steve Tam, vp-commercial vehicle sector for ACT Research Co., told Fleet Owner.

“There’s a modicum of conservativeness as well among the major OEMs in the truck manufacturing space, but the production limitations really revolve around the limitations of those suppliers,” he added.

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Cross-Border Agreement Holds Positive Potential, Expert Says

While trucking lobbies opposed to the new U.S.-Mexico cross-border truck pilot program, have been more than vocal—even to the point of one having filed a federal suit against the bilateral agreement—there’s at least one expert on this segment of international trade who sees the deal struck by Mexico President Felipe Calderón and President Barack Obama in a clearly positive light.

For starters, Troy Ryley, managing director of Transplace Mexico, told FleetOwner that once Mexican carriers are enrolled in the pilot program, Texas “could become a center for distribution as Mexican trucks won’t be going far north unless they have backhauls secured, which will be difficult as Mexican carriers will not be allowed to carry U.S. domestic freight.” In addition, he said the presence of new terminal operations set up by Mexican carriers on the U.S. side of the border could help relieve some of the [freight] capacity issues in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Tucson and Albuquerque.”

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In testimony before the House Small Business Committee Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations, James Burg, president of James Burg Trucking Co., said proposed changes to the federal hours-of-service were unwarranted and would harm small businesses nationwide.

“These changes, if finalized, would have a profoundly negative impact on small businesses, would restrict productivity and would result in greater congestion and increased emissions,” said Burg, a member of American Trucking Associations’ board of directors, said during a June 14 hearing.

The current hours-of-service rules, which have been in effect since January 2004, made four primary changes to the regulations then in place: increasing the daily driving limit from 10 hours to 11 hours; increasing the required minimum daily rest from 8 hours to 10 hours; decreasing the number of hours on duty after which a driver may not operate a commercial motor vehicle from 15 hours to 14 hours; and allowing a driver to “reset” the weekly 60 or 70-hour on duty limits with 34 consecutive hours off duty.

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Freight Boosted By Record-Setting Export Activity

Exports of U.S. goods and services for April totaled $175.6 billion – the largest monthly total ever recorded and surpassing the previous month’s record of $172.7 billion, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Commerce Dept. BEA reported that in April. exports of goods increased $2.0 billion to $126.4 billion. And exports of services increased $0.2 billion to $49.1 billion.

“April’s record-setting U.S. export total underscores the expanding role that exports play in the U.S. economy,” said Fred Hochberg, chairman and president of U.S. Export-Import Bank, in a statement.

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