NG powered Class 8 truck and bus sales continue, but at a slower pace compared to 2014, as well as when calculated as a percentage of the total market, according to a report from ACT Research. The "Natural Gas Quarterly" attributes the rapidly declining cost of diesel with making the return on investment for adoption of natural gas less lucrative.

After years of spending long hours behind the wheel without seeing their paychecks grow, U.S. truck drivers now have employers fighting for their services.

As trucks have become more advanced, transportations companies are increasingly in need of technicians with computer skills. But truck operators say negative perceptions of the industry are making it difficult to compete for tech-savvy talent.

DAT Solutions has launched an online analytics service for transportation and logistics professionals to access truck and load data on the 149 key market areas in North America with the highest concentrations of inbound and outbound freight. Through a Tableau web portal, customers access a set of trucking freight data visualizations. Users also have the option of importing data into their own systems.

Transportation capacity problems have been a volatile issue over the past 20 years or so. A thorough analysis provided by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, in its "State of Logistics" report, indicates that by 2017, shippers in the U.S. will face shortages in trucking resources again, predominantly a trucker shortage, in the near future due to an array of developments that may cause shippers to find loads left on the ground, shipping costs rapidly escalating, and shrinking profit margins that stun stakeholders.

Used Class 8 truck metrics were generally in line from June to July, with average age and miles up an incremental 1 percent each. Compared to last year, average prices were up 2 percent in July and 6 percent year to date, according to the latest release of the State of the Industry: U.S. Classes 3-8 Used Trucks, published by ACT Research.