Supply Chain Intelligence Brief

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TRUCKING

LTL Market Disappoints in 2025

Transport Topics Keiron Greenhalgh December 18, 2025

“While 2025 was expected to be a rebound year, uncertainty around tariffs and persistently high interest rates has muted growth. That said, carriers have continued to operate well and largely maintained pricing discipline, avoiding the rate-driven behaviors seen in previous down cycles,” said Kent Williams, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Averitt Express.

State of Freight: a depressed trucking market suddenly comes to life

Freight Waves John Kingston December 18, 2025

Presenters Zach Strickland, the head of freight market intelligence at SONAR and J.P. Hampstead, strategic analyst at FreightWaves, went through a supply of charts from SONAR that showed a notable upturn in the freight market. One was for the SONAR National Truckload Index, which reflects spot freight rates exclusive of fuel. A month ago, that number stood at less than $1.75 per mile. It has now climbed to just under $2/mile.

FedEx is the heartbeat of the industrial economy, CEO says after earnings beat

CNBC Julie Coleman December 18, 2025

Subramaniam described how FedEx is benefiting from the data center boom, saying its customers who invest billions in artificial intelligence technology need to move parts within the countries and across national borders.

Links: FedEx Corporation Press Release FedEx Reports Strong Second Quarter Earnings Growth Year-Over-Year  and FedEx Q2 Fiscal 2026 Financial and Operating Statistics (FedEx Freight Pages 17-21)

FedEx’s Network 2.0 Overhaul Shows Resilience Now Beats Reach in Logistics

PYMNTS December 18, 2025

But the deeper story lies beneath those figures, in how FedEx is reshaping itself to compete in a logistics market that no longer rewards scale alone.

Related: The Wall Street Journal FedEx Reports Higher Second-Quarter Revenue as Package Volumes Rise

FedEx Freight outlook lowered for fiscal 2026

Freight Waves Todd Maiden December 18, 2025

FedEx Corp. lowered expectations for its less-than-truckload unit, FedEx Freight, Thursday after the market closed. A planned spin off of the LTL business, into a separate publicly traded company, is now scheduled for June 1.

Walmart’s women truckers surge thanks to $115,000 starting pay and other perks bringing in nontraditional candidates

Fortune Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez December 18, 2025

Apart from a pay increase, Walmart also uses technology that allows for more reliable schedules compared to other companies. While some in the trucking industry are away for weeks at a time, Walmart gives its drivers consecutive days off of work and assigns them regional delivery territories to allow them to be home every week, a Walmart spokesperson told Fortune.

California may be close to lifting ban on driverless trucks

Trucking Dive Larry Avila December 18, 2025

California’s efforts to develop rules to allow for testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles have escalated in recent years as other states including Texas have allowed commercial operation of driverless trucks. The DMV expects to complete the rulemaking process by the end of April 2026, a spokesperson said in an email to Trucking Dive.

SHIPPERS / 3PLs

Salesforce: Global online holiday sales top $1T by mid-December; U.S. sales up 4%

Chain Store Age Dan Berthiaume December 18, 2025

New analysis from Salesforce indicates that during the first 45 days of the 2025 holiday season (Nov. 1 and Dec. 15), global online sales have risen 7% year over year, reaching a total of $1.033 trillion from $849 billion. In the U.S., online sales are up 4% year over year to $238 billion.

How Home Depot sped up its supply chain — and what comes next

Supply Chain Dive Max Garland December 18, 2025

The home improvement retailer has built an expansive network of distribution centers for faster deliveries. It’s now looking to maximize the potential of those assets.

Link: Home Depot 2025 Investor Presentation

How Tariffs Are Changing Up Costco’s Shelves

The Wall Street Journal Jennifer Williams December 19, 2025 $Subscription Based

Costco shelves have a bit more health and beauty products and fewer Christmas trees and toys this holiday season.

The big retailer hasn’t made wholesale changes and plenty of festive fare is still on offer, but it has selectively adjusted its product lineup in an effort to keep prices low for consumers while it navigates tariffs that have hit some holiday goods.

INDUSTRY

USPS bets on last-mile expansion to drive revenue and enable faster delivery for retailers and logistics providers

Logistics Management Jeff Berman December 18, 2025

With a focus on expanding access to its last mile delivery network, the United States Postal Service (USPS) said this week that shippers of all sizes will now be able to access more than 18,000 USPS delivery destination units (DDU) across the country.

Revenue from low-value shipment duties crosses $1 billion mark: CBP

Journal of Commerce Eric Johnson December 18, 2025 $Subscription Based

The duties collected were generated from more than 246 million low-cost, US-bound shipments since the Trump administration began phasing out the de minimis provision, also known as Section 321 shipments, earlier this year, CBP said in a statement Wednesday.

Immigration-related policies could shrink trucking workforce, report says

Trucking Dive David Taube December 18, 2025

Federal estimates suggest that states including Arizona, California and Texas could lose 15-25% of CDL holders due to new immigration-related policies, according to a report by C.H. Robinson Worldwide.

Port of Los Angeles Expects Trade to Fall Off in 2026

Transport Topics/Los Angeles Times Laurence Darmiento December 17, 2025

The Port of Los Angeles expects it will move more than 10 million container units for the second year in a row despite President Donald Trump’s tariffs — but that number is likely to drop off in 2026 as the fallout of the administration’s trade war persists.

SUSTAINABILITY / SAFETY / SECURITY

Marijuana rescheduling won’t affect DOT drug testing rules, agency says

CCJ Jason Cannon December 18, 2025

"While we do not hold a formal position on marijuana legalization or deregulation, we are concerned about the safety risks of rescheduling marijuana without explicit safeguards to preserve the testing authority and technical requirements that apply to DOT-regulated, safety-sensitive workers," American Trucking Associations’ Vice President of Safety Policy Brenna Lyles said in a statement Thursday after Trump signed the orde

Trump orders change to marijuana regs: What truckers need to know

Overdrive Alex Lockie December 18, 2025

President Donald Trump on Thursday, December 18, signed an executive order to classify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, opening up pathways for the drug to be used in more medical research.

Related: Heavy Duty Trucking White House Pushes for Marijuana Reclassification

China figured out how to sell EVs. Now it has to bury their batteries.

MIT Technology Review Caiwei Chen December 18, 2025 $Subscription Based

As early electric cars age out, hundreds of thousands of used batteries are flooding the market, fueling a gray recycling economy even as Beijing and big manufacturers scramble to build a more orderly system.

US sustainable investing hangs on against strong headwinds: report

ESG Dive Lauren Schenkman December 18, 2025

Sustainable assets rose slightly in 2025 — though its market share shrank — and most asset managers expect to increase sustainable investments next year.

How One Manufacturer Achieved Net Zero at Zero Cost

HBR Donald R. Lessard and Chong Hau Pang December 18, 2025 $Subscription Based

Giti Tire, a middle-market manufacturer competing on thin margins, cut emissions across its operations and supply chain while improving profitability—achieving “net zero at net zero cost” by embedding sustainability into its core business model rather than treating it as a compliance exercise.

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