LONG BEACH, Calif. — Truckload executives predict business conditions in 2018 will be robust due to the electronic logging device mandate and that intermodal could benefit from a trickle-down effect, they said during the annual Intermodal Association of North America’s Intermodal Expo here.

Freight revenue and volume grew single digits year-over-year in the second quarter, but margins shrunk during the same period because spot market rates were higher than mid-2016, according to the Transportation Intermediaries Association’s quarterly 3PL Market Report.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The average truck turn time at the nation’s two largest ports slowed one minute in August compared with last year, even while more containers flowed into the terminals this year.

Truckload rates have skyrocketed after hurricanes Harvey and Irma battered Texas and Florida, but the higher prices will also trickle down into states nowhere near the devastation, industry executives say.

Freight factoring is on the upswing this year as traditional banks apply stringent lending standards and truckers who are most likely to sell invoices benefit from a robust spot market, industry executives say.

Indications are that the truckload market is bouncing back from some rough conditions earlier this year, according to industry analysts at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

Teamsters President James Hoffa has fired Sean O’Brien as the top negotiator on behalf of UPS Inc. and its UPS Freight employees after only six months, prompting the ousted director to write a blistering rebuke to the union leader.

XPO Logistics Inc. will double its last-mile warehouses to capitalize on the rapid growth of e-commerce in North America, the company announced Sept. 12.

A working group tasked with setting standards on port performance has not convened once in 2017 after business leaders and unions battled over whether to include metrics such as truck turn times and chassis availability in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s first annual report to Congress.