Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
Coming soon to a legislative theater near you: Bob Voltmann vs. the Plaintiffs' Bar.
Voltmann, who runs the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), wants to get trial lawyers off the
backs of shippers, property brokers and motor carriers. In his group's view, the best and perhaps only way to
accomplish this is to convince Congress to enact national standards for hiring truckers to move contractual and
spot market freight.
Voltmann reasons that federal legislation would provide everyone with clear guidelines for what constitutes a safe
motor carrier. The presence of an overarching federal standard would also dilute the plaintiffs' bar's strategy of
suing brokers in state court over their roles in selecting carriers involved in accidents while hauling their freight,
Voltmann said. Trial lawyers have succeeded in recent years in winning state court judgments against brokers by persuading
juries that the carrier or driver was either in the broker's employ at the time of the accident or that the broker was
negligent in vetting the carrier's safety record.
The legislation, which is set to be introduced by month's end by Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.), would deem a
motor carrier to be safe to operate if it is properly licensed, has adequate insurance, and has a better than "unsatisfactory"
rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a subagency of the Department of Transportation that
oversees the safety of the nation's trucks and buses. Shippers and brokers would have 35 days to determine a carrier's fitness
prior to selection; that time frame was chosen in part because FMCSA updates its ratings and information every 30 days and
truck users should have the most current information available, Voltmann said.
TIA ultimately wants to embed the language in the next version of surface transport re-authorization legislation that
Congress has now begun to address. The current law expires Sept. 30, and lawmakers will be racing through the spring and
summer to meet an Aug. 29 deadline, when it is expected the Highway Trust Fund, the mechanism to fund infrastructure projects,
will run out of money.
The current carrier selection process is governed by state or local standards, which Voltmann said is a patchwork quilt that
forces brokers and shippers to play "liability roulette" with their businesses. "If you are sitting in California or Minnesota,
and you are hiring a motor carrier in Ohio to move a load from Texas to New Jersey, what liability regime applies?" Voltmann
told the NASSTRAC annual meeting Wednesday in Orlando. "Well, if you tell me where the accident is going to occur, I'll tell
you how to qualify your carrier."
Voltmann told the group that such a scenario "is just plain stupid. It's not interstate commerce."
FMCSA bases its carrier safety ratings on a highly controversial program known as Compliance, Safety, and
Accountability (CSA). Critics have said that a carrier's safety scorecard is based on inaccurate and incomplete
data, and that trial lawyers have misused CSA's intent in state court by arguing shippers and brokers failed to
adhere to CSA scores before selecting a carrier involved an accident.
Voltmann and others contend that CSA is a tool only for FMCSA to gauge a carrier's safety fitness, and that shippers
and brokers are not in the business of determining which carriers are safe to operate and which are not.
FMCSA is expected to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in late May or early June to modify CSA by expanding the
data sets used to produce an overall safety rating for a carrier. Currently, the agency uses on-site compliance reviews to
develop an overall safety rating. It is proposing to use data from roadside inspections, crashes, investigations, and
violation history to produce what it calls a "safety fitness determination" for a carrier.
Voltmann said that the bill should have a Democratic co-sponsor upon its introduction, and that companion legislation
will be introduced in the Senate soon after.
TIA has scheduled a Washington "fly-in" June 17 and 18 when members will descend on Capitol Hill to discuss this and other
issues with their elected representatives and their staffs. Voltmann told the group at NASSTRAC that shippers and brokers
should gird for a tough battle as they confront well-connected and well-financed plaintiffs' lawyers who have exploited a
new channel of revenue and show no signs of backing off.
"Anytime you go up against the trial bar, it's a heavy lift," he said.
The “series B” funding round was financed by an unnamed “strategic customer” as well as Teradyne Robotics Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Ranpak, Third Kind Venture Capital, One Madison Group, Hyperplane, Catapult Ventures, and others.
The fresh backing comes as Massachusetts-based Pickle reported a spate of third quarter orders, saying that six customers placed orders for over 30 production robots to deploy in the first half of 2025. The new orders include pilot conversions, existing customer expansions, and new customer adoption.
“Pickle is hitting its strides delivering innovation, development, commercial traction, and customer satisfaction. The company is building groundbreaking technology while executing on essential recurring parts of a successful business like field service and manufacturing management,” Omar Asali, Pickle board member and CEO of investor Ranpak, said in a release.
According to Pickle, its truck-unloading robot applies “Physical AI” technology to one of the most labor-intensive, physically demanding, and highest turnover work areas in logistics operations. The platform combines a powerful vision system with generative AI foundation models trained on millions of data points from real logistics and warehouse operations that enable Pickle’s robotic hardware platform to perform physical work at human-scale or better, the company says.
Bloomington, Indiana-based FTR said its Trucking Conditions Index declined in September to -2.47 from -1.39 in August as weakness in the principal freight dynamics – freight rates, utilization, and volume – offset lower fuel costs and slightly less unfavorable financing costs.
Those negative numbers are nothing new—the TCI has been positive only twice – in May and June of this year – since April 2022, but the group’s current forecast still envisions consistently positive readings through at least a two-year forecast horizon.
“Aside from a near-term boost mostly related to falling diesel prices, we have not changed our Trucking Conditions Index forecast significantly in the wake of the election,” Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, said in a release. “The outlook continues to be more favorable for carriers than what they have experienced for well over two years. Our analysis indicates gradual but steadily rising capacity utilization leading to stronger freight rates in 2025.”
But FTR said its forecast remains unchanged. “Just like everyone else, we’ll be watching closely to see exactly what trade and other economic policies are implemented and over what time frame. Some freight disruptions are likely due to tariffs and other factors, but it is not yet clear that those actions will do more than shift the timing of activity,” Vise said.
The TCI tracks the changes representing five major conditions in the U.S. truck market: freight volumes, freight rates, fleet capacity, fuel prices, and financing costs. Combined into a single index indicating the industry’s overall health, a positive score represents good, optimistic conditions while a negative score shows the inverse.
Specifically, the new global average robot density has reached a record 162 units per 10,000 employees in 2023, which is more than double the mark of 74 units measured seven years ago.
Broken into geographical regions, the European Union has a robot density of 219 units per 10,000 employees, an increase of 5.2%, with Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Slovenia in the global top ten. Next, North America’s robot density is 197 units per 10,000 employees – up 4.2%. And Asia has a robot density of 182 units per 10,000 persons employed in manufacturing - an increase of 7.6%. The economies of Korea, Singapore, mainland China and Japan are among the top ten most automated countries.
Broken into individual countries, the U.S. ranked in 10th place in 2023, with a robot density of 295 units. Higher up on the list, the top five are:
The Republic of Korea, with 1,012 robot units, showing a 5% increase on average each year since 2018 thanks to its strong electronics and automotive industries.
Singapore had 770 robot units, in part because it is a small country with a very low number of employees in the manufacturing industry, so it can reach a high robot density with a relatively small operational stock.
China took third place in 2023, surpassing Germany and Japan with a mark of 470 robot units as the nation has managed to double its robot density within four years.
Germany ranks fourth with 429 robot units for a 5% CAGR since 2018.
Japan is in fifth place with 419 robot units, showing growth of 7% on average each year from 2018 to 2023.
Progress in generative AI (GenAI) is poised to impact business procurement processes through advancements in three areas—agentic reasoning, multimodality, and AI agents—according to Gartner Inc.
Those functions will redefine how procurement operates and significantly impact the agendas of chief procurement officers (CPOs). And 72% of procurement leaders are already prioritizing the integration of GenAI into their strategies, thus highlighting the recognition of its potential to drive significant improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, Gartner found in a survey conducted in July, 2024, with 258 global respondents.
Gartner defined the new functions as follows:
Agentic reasoning in GenAI allows for advanced decision-making processes that mimic human-like cognition. This capability will enable procurement functions to leverage GenAI to analyze complex scenarios and make informed decisions with greater accuracy and speed.
Multimodality refers to the ability of GenAI to process and integrate multiple forms of data, such as text, images, and audio. This will make GenAI more intuitively consumable to users and enhance procurement's ability to gather and analyze diverse information sources, leading to more comprehensive insights and better-informed strategies.
AI agents are autonomous systems that can perform tasks and make decisions on behalf of human operators. In procurement, these agents will automate procurement tasks and activities, freeing up human resources to focus on strategic initiatives, complex problem-solving and edge cases.
As CPOs look to maximize the value of GenAI in procurement, the study recommended three starting points: double down on data governance, develop and incorporate privacy standards into contracts, and increase procurement thresholds.
“These advancements will usher procurement into an era where the distance between ideas, insights, and actions will shorten rapidly,” Ryan Polk, senior director analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Procurement leaders who build their foundation now through a focus on data quality, privacy and risk management have the potential to reap new levels of productivity and strategic value from the technology."
Businesses are cautiously optimistic as peak holiday shipping season draws near, with many anticipating year-over-year sales increases as they continue to battle challenging supply chain conditions.
That’s according to the DHL 2024 Peak Season Shipping Survey, released today by express shipping service provider DHL Express U.S. The company surveyed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to gauge their holiday business outlook compared to last year and found that a mix of optimism and “strategic caution” prevail ahead of this year’s peak.
Nearly half (48%) of the SMEs surveyed said they expect higher holiday sales compared to 2023, while 44% said they expect sales to remain on par with last year, and just 8% said they foresee a decline. Respondents said the main challenges to hitting those goals are supply chain problems (35%), inflation and fluctuating consumer demand (34%), staffing (16%), and inventory challenges (14%).
But respondents said they have strategies in place to tackle those issues. Many said they began preparing for holiday season earlier this year—with 45% saying they started planning in Q2 or earlier, up from 39% last year. Other strategies include expanding into international markets (35%) and leveraging holiday discounts (32%).
Sixty percent of respondents said they will prioritize personalized customer service as a way to enhance customer interactions and loyalty this year. Still others said they will invest in enhanced web and mobile experiences (23%) and eco-friendly practices (13%) to draw customers this holiday season.