iTrucker archive

News

Browse stories from the iTrucker archive.

News · Feb 2, 2020

Jury convicts cocaine trafficker who used trucks to smuggle drugs worth $26 million into U.S.

Story by: Noi Mahoney at FreightWaves A Texas man who headed a cross-border drug smuggling operation was recently found guilty by a federal jury in Brownsville, Texas. Rafael Villanueva, 40, was convicted on Wednesday for his role in trafficking more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine involving $26 million in drug proceeds, according to a statement released by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas in Brownsville. During the trial, the jury heard from 21 witnesses de

News · Jan 31, 2020

Prospective Amazon delivery robot would navigate air, land and sea

Story by: Linda Baker, Staff Writer/FreightWaves The e-commerce giant Amazon won a patent for a theoretical multimodal vehicle designed to deliver and pick up items from online shoppers. Amazon (AMZN) has won a patent for a multifaceted last-mile autonomous delivery robot the company is calling, prosaically, a “storage compartment vehicle” (SCV), designed to deliver and retrieve items potentially from multiple customers on a single trip. The patent application, published Tuesday, describes a mod

News · Jan 29, 2020

A view of the Nikola Two hydrogen-powered truck interior

Story by: Alan Adler at FreightWaves The interior of the Nikola Motors Two Class 8 semi-tractor takes cues from modern airplane cockpits with only a handful of buttons and switches. Drivers perform most functions via waterproof touch screens that can withstand a high-pressure hosing. Nikola so far is noted for its futuristic exterior design and hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric powertrain. The vision is for the trucks to be autonomously driven on highways within a few years of their 2022 launc

News · Jan 27, 2020

Texas flatbed carrier is shutting down, blames government regulations, insurance costs

Story by: Clarissa Hawes at FreightWaves Flatbed carrier TK Transport of Clute, Texas, has decided to shutter operations, citing soaring insurance costs, government regulations and a weak spot market. Tony Krause, chief executive of the 6-year-old carrier, said all but one of its drivers have returned to the yard. The remaining driver, an owner-operator, just delivered a load and is deadheading back from Nevada, he said. “There is a right and wrong way to close a business, and we are trying to d

News · Jan 25, 2020

New California environmental law puts thousands of truck registrations on hold

Story by: Linda Baker, Staff Writer at FreightWaves New California environmental law puts thousands of truck registrations on hold. Starting this month, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will only register vehicles that comply with emissions regulations. Of the tens of thousands of notices issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for trucks with expiring registrations this month, around 4,000 informed owners their vehicles were noncompliant with state air quali

News · Jan 16, 2020

DAT load board glitch could cost small-business truckers thousands

Story by: Clarissa Hawes @ FreightWaves.com Starting early Thursday, small-business truckers who rely on the spot market began reporting problems logging in to the DAT load board to find freight. While the DAT online load board and mobile app are back up and working now, DAT told FreightWaves that a “rare, unforeseen problem” resulting from a scheduled maintenance upgrade caused its load board to slow to a crawl as users tried to access its system early Thursday. “It has to do with basically the

News · Jan 16, 2020

Handing down preliminary injunction, judge says AB5 ‘runs off the road’

Story by: John Kingston @ FreightWaves.com The temporary injunction stopping AB5 from being enforced against the trucking sector in California has been “promoted” to a preliminary injunction. The move was largely expected after the outcome of a hearing Monday before Federal District Court Judge Roger Benitez in the case brought by the California Trucking Association (CTA) against California over the implementation of AB5. The law severely constricts the ability of companies to hire independent c

News · Jan 16, 2020

DAT load board hit by technical problems; no time was given on full service return

Story by: John Kingston @ FreightWaves.com The DAT load board has been suffering technical problems since sometime Thursday morning, according to multiple sources and various statements coming from DAT. “Our engineers are working to correct the issue ASAP,” DAT’s Joel Weiler wrote in a Facebook post in the Trucking: Rates & Lanes Facebook group. “Some users are able to login at this time, but still may be experiencing slowness. We will keep you posted.” On Twitter, this is how DAT kept its follo

News · Jan 16, 2020

Colorado trucking company set to shut down after 39 years, employees say

Story by: Clarissa Hawes @FreightWaves Family-owned H.H. Williams Trucking of Greeley, Colorado, told employees on Thursday it will close its doors by the end of January.Employees were notified on Jan. 16 that the owners were retiring and the small fleet was ceasing operations by the end of the monthAn employee of H.H. Williams told FreightWaves that one of the company’s owners, Howard Williams, told office personnel on Thursday that he and his wife, Cheryl, both in their 70s, have decided to re

News · Jan 15, 2020

XPO Logistics begins the process of (maybe) breaking itself up

Story by: Mark Solomon @ FreightWaves The end of XPO Logistics, Inc. as the transport and logistics industries have come to know it may be at hand. According to Mark Solomon and his article.Company looks to sell or spin off one or all units, with LTL off the block; CEO Jacobs sees chance of firm becoming pure-play LTL operator The $17 billion giant (NYSE:XPO) has begun entertaining possible acquisition offers for four of its units: its two North American and two European transport and logistics

News · Jan 10, 2020

Slain trucker’s in-cab camera leads to suspect’s arrest

Story by: Nate Tabak, Canada Correspondent A man was charged Thursday with shooting a truck driver on I-269 outside Memphis, Tennessee, after an in-cab video captured the suspected killer, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said. James Huddleston, 27, was arrested after his father identified him as the person in images captured by an in-cab camera in Dajuante Stuart’s tractor-trailer, WKRN news reported, citing court documents. Stuart, 30, was found shot to death in his tractor-trailer on Wednes

News · Jan 9, 2020

Stormy weekend ahead for dozens of US states

Story by: Nick Austin, Director of Weather Analytics and Senior Meteorologist @ FreightWaves.com Disruptive winter weather will hit dozens of states today through this weekend and possibly beyond. Snow, ice and wind will blast through the Midwest this weekend, with more periods of heavy snowfall in the mountains of the Northwest. In the South, the threat is for strong thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. Midwest A major winter storm will impact parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes region this w