US Bank Freight Payment Index: Shippers Pay More as Trucking Capacity Tightens

Truck capacity tightens as shippers pay more for lessShippers paid significantly more to move freight in the second quarter of 2026, even as shipment volumes declined, according to the latest U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index.

National shipment volumes fell 1.1% from the first quarter, marking the second consecutive sequential decline. Compared with a year earlier, shipments were down 2.8%. At the same time, spending increased 6.4% from the prior quarter and 28.1% year over year, reflecting a market in which freight demand remains soft but available capacity has...

Amazon Supply Chain Services Launches Less-Than-Truckload Freight Offering for All Businesses

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced the U.S. expansion of its less-than-truckload (LTL) freight beyond its current inbound-to-Amazon offering, to any type of destination, including third-party warehouses, distribution centers, and retail partners, as part of the suite of offerings from Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS). Businesses now have the flexibility to ship by pallet, choosing LTL to share trailer space for partial loads instead of reserving and paying for a full truckload. Since 2019, Amazon LTL has served tens of thousands of Amazon...

Aurora and McLane to Launch Driverless Trucking Operations in Texas

Aurora Innovation and McLane Company are expanding their autonomous trucking partnership with plans to begin driverless freight operations in Texas.

The companies announced an agreement to launch driverless hauls using the Aurora Driver, an SAE Level 4 self-driving system built for long-haul trucking. McLane, one of the largest distributors in the US serving chain restaurants, convenience stores, and mass merchants, will use the technology to move supplies and perishable food more efficiently across the state.

The move builds on a supervised autonomy...

Autonomous Trucking to Put $9 Billion Back in US Consumers’ Pockets Annually by 2035

Aurora Innovation, Inc. today highlighted findings from a new report revealing that autonomous freight is already a multi-billion dollar bolster for the $1 trillion dollar U.S. trucking industry, with even more economic opportunity over the next ten years.

The analysis, commissioned by Aurora and conducted by the Steer Group, highlights that autonomous trucking, despite being in early stages of deployment, currently supports 17,000 jobs and $3.3 billion in total economic output.

The report projects that by 2035, the...