The Daily Dash is a quick look at what’s happening in the freight ecosystem. In today’s edition, we highlight second-quarter updates from ArcBest and Saia, a $50 million round of funding for Locus and more.
The High Five
1. A couple of less-than-truckload carriers provided updates through the first two months of the second quarter. The year-over-year advances were very large and reflected easy comparisons to 2020, which experienced a sharp falloff as parts of the economy were knocked offline amid expanding COVID-related shutdowns. Todd Maiden’s report
2. Livestock shippers are asking the Biden administration to issue an emergency waiver of work-rule restrictions for truckers hauling both livestock and meat products to avoid transportation delays in the wake of the cyberattack on global meat supplier JBS. John Gallagher from Washington
3. India-based Locus, a supply chain technology platform powered by artificial intelligence, has raised $50 million in a Series C round led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and existing investors Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge. Grace Sharkey’s story
4. While fleet telematics utilization has been on the rise in the U.S. and European trucking industry for years — helping carriers boost their bottom lines, improve driver satisfaction and increase security — Mexican firms are just beginning to jump into smart technology. Noi Mahoney’s story
5. Amazon.com Inc. made it official Wednesday: Its Prime Day shopping extravaganza — actually a two-day shopping spree — will return to the summertime. The Seattle-based e-tailing giant said it will hold Prime Day on June 21 and 22, with members in 20 countries eligible to participate. Mark Solomon with more
Five more to check out
Container ship scores ‘off the charts,’ ‘fantasy’ charter rate: $135,000/day
AskWaves: How do companies attain B Corp certification?
DHL extends warehouse automation partnership with Locus Robotics
Missouri trucking company worker gets 6 years for money laundering, fraud
Alibaba to support small Korean exporters with logistics services