We gear up this week with a man charged on Thursday with shooting a truck driver on I-269 outside Memphis, Tennessee, after an in-cab video captured the suspected killer. Violence in Mexico from organized cartels has been surging in recent weeks, with the latest incident involving a 13-year-old American boy killed Jan. 3 near Nuevo Laredo. Law enforcement in Mexico has said cartel members might have mistaken the family’s vehicle for a rival gang. A former California insurance agent was sentenced to jail time on Jan. 10 after being convicted of 22 felony counts and one misdemeanor count of grand theft and forgery for stealing $174,000 in insurance premiums from port truck drivers and charter bus company owners. The news isn’t all about crime, though. Representative Mike Moon introduced HB2059 in the Missouri House on January 8th. The idea is to keep drivers in trucks and resist the implementation of autonomous vehicles in the state.
We spend Five Good Minutes with FreightWaves Air Cargo Market Editor, Erik Kulisch, gives us the down low on Flexport’s new strategic direction. The new model, which relies on reserving allotments for space on specified flights or booking ad hoc shipments at spot-market rates, gives customers many more shipping options than a point-to-point, single airplane offering.
For Now Trending in Supply Chain, Dooner and Chad discuss Walmart driver pay, and is there any validity to the claim that their prices are going up? The industry has been hit by tariffs affecting fabric, metal and plastic — and many pet items predominantly made in China.
Kevin Hill tells us what’s On the Radar with the latest Freight Intel Research on the impact of nuclear verdicts and how they’re becoming a systemic problem in an industry already based on low margins. Not to be outdone, Market Expert Mike Baudendistel is working all the live long day by keeping things “rail.” Who will be the winner this week on Professor Prevost’s Market Expert Trivia quiz? (Dooner is getting desperate for a victory.)
Last but certainly not the least of our deals, Emily Szinc joins the desk for another round of Big Deal, Little Deal? We assess the deal of tolls in Connecticut, robots in Walmart, the size of the freight industry, Amazon’s Alexa helping you pump your fuel at gas stations, and so much more.
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