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- TrashLab Raises $12 Million to Expand AI for Waste Haulers
What will TrashLab do with the funding? TrashLab announced a $12 million Series A on October 29, 2026, to expand artificial intelligence tools for waste haulers. Ventana led the round, with existing investors Bienville Capital, Harlem Capital, and CreativeCo participating. The funding will support additional automation and hiring across engineering, sales, and customer support. Ventana co-founder Vinay Kumar will join TrashLab’s board. Ershad Jamil, formerly chief growth officer at ServiceTitan and BuildOps, will serve as an independent director. Neil Chaudhary and John Tan founded TrashLab in 2022. Chaudhary previously worked at BCG and EY-Parthenon, while Tan held engineering roles at Stripe and Google. How does its software support waste haulers? TrashLab brings customer records, dispatch, routing, driver tools, truck cameras, billing, payments, and reporting into one platform. It aims to replace paper routes, spreadsheets, and disconnected legacy software. The system supports operators handling multiple services, including residential collections, commercial waste, roll-off containers, and septic work. The driver app also extracts weights from photographed disposal tickets. Billing tools can automatically add overage charges to customer invoices. Nearly 80% of TrashLab customers use Haul-E, the company’s AI agent, to answer incoming calls and record after-hours orders. TrashLab’s product documentation explains that staff confirm the resulting order requests. Automated call handling therefore does not mean every request becomes a confirmed job without employee review. What results have customers reported? First State Waste said it tripled its fleet while retaining the same small office team after adopting TrashLab. Its operations include roll-off containers, front-load collection, and portable toilets. President Mike Smith attributed the expansion without additional office staffing to the platform’s ability to handle different service types. Meanwhile, Uribe Refuse uses truck-camera information to connect service problems with customer notifications and billing. Owner Brad Uribe described containers not set out, blocked dumpsters, and overflowing bins triggering messages and invoice updates. These are customer-reported experiences, not independently verified guarantees of results for other fleets. What growth and rollout plans did TrashLab disclose? TrashLab says it serves hundreds of haulers across the United States and Canada, with more than 5 million tons of material managed through its platform. Annual contract value has grown more than sevenfold since 2024 as customers add modules. However, the company did not disclose revenue or the starting value behind that growth figure. Further AI tools for dispatch, billing, and collections remain under development, with rollout planned through 2027. These forthcoming… [TheTopNews] Read More.5 days ago - DTL Commits to 75 Kodiak Autonomous Trucks
What does the agreement cover? DTL Transport has signed a binding agreement to deploy 75 trucks equipped with Kodiak AI’s autonomous driving system. Announced October 28, 2026, the deal expands the Fresno, California-based carrier’s relationship with Kodiak beyond an earlier produce-hauling pilot. DTL will own and operate the vehicles rather than simply purchase freight transportation from Kodiak. However, this commitment does not mean all 75 trucks have already entered driverless commercial service. Under the Driver-as-a-Service model, DTL will pay a per-mile fee for the Kodiak Driver. This separates truck ownership from access to the autonomous driving technology. Kodiak describes the agreement as the first publicly announced definitive commitment by an interstate carrier to operate driverless trucks within its own fleet under this model. The family-owned carrier has more than 36 years of experience and operates a fleet exceeding 100 trucks. Where will DTL deploy these trucks? The initial routes will connect Dallas with El Paso, Texas, and Dallas with Atlanta, Georgia. Kodiak has already tested these corridors, and the companies plan to add more lanes over time. The Atlanta route uses Interstate 20, while both lanes support DTL’s produce business. DTL specializes in cross-country team operations serving major grocery customers. President and CEO Lucky Dosanjh said autonomous technology would complement the company’s workforce and expand capacity. However, the announcement did not quantify anticipated savings or specify how all 75 trucks would be phased into service. How did California testing shape the partnership? The partnership began with a pilot on September 22, hauling perishable products between Fresno and a Los Angeles distribution center. Those deliveries followed Kodiak’s receipt of a California heavy-duty autonomous vehicle testing permit in August. A human safety driver remained behind the wheel during this initial work. The companies used the pilot to examine potential effects on transit times, transportation costs, and produce shelf life. DTL also explored whether autonomous equipment could provide extra capacity when demand exceeded available trucks. Importantly, California testing with a safety driver was separate from the proposed fully driverless interstate deployment. What other deployments is Kodiak planning? Separately, Kodiak planned to launch driverless highway service for IKEA between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2026. That service would use Interstate 45. The DTL commitment therefore represents another customer deployment, not confirmation that all 75 vehicles would begin operating during 2026. Kodiak’s industrial Driver-as-a-Service operations began in December 2024 with Atlas Energy… [TheTopNews] Read More.6 days ago - Schneider Q3 2026 Earnings Rise as Trucking Capacity Tightens
What did Schneider report? Schneider National reported $49.5 million in third-quarter net income, up from $19.4 million a year earlier. Diluted earnings rose to 28 cents per share, compared with 11 cents. Revenue increased 9% to $1.59 billion, according to results released October 29, 2026. Meanwhile, operating income climbed 76% to $62.1 million. Management credited stronger pricing, improved productivity, and cost reductions. However, revenue excluding fuel surcharges increased only 3%, showing that fuel-related charges contributed substantially to the headline revenue gain. Why does management expect freight rates to improve? CEO Jim Filter expects tighter trucking capacity to support further price increases despite uneven demand. Driver availability, higher operating costs, and barriers to entry are limiting carriers’ ability to expand. He also pointed to enforcement involving driver training and electronic logging devices. Additionally, rising fuel expenses and driver wages are pressuring smaller carriers. Filter believes removing noncompliant operators will further restrict supply. These conditions could support stronger rates without requiring a sharp increase in shipment volumes. Freight activity softened from the second quarter, which Filter attributed largely to seasonal patterns and inventory adjustments. However, housing and automotive demand remained constrained by borrowing costs and affordability. Spot rates improved late in the quarter, while contract pricing continued advancing. How did Schneider’s business segments perform? Truckload and intermodal operations delivered higher profits, while logistics revenue growth did not translate into operating earnings. Higher prices and productivity supported results despite lower volumes. The following segment revenue figures exclude fuel surcharges. Truckload: Revenue remained nearly unchanged at $624.8 million, while operating income increased 121% to $43.7 million. Revenue per truck per week rose 8% to $4,252. Intermodal: Revenue increased 2% to $287.7 million, and operating income rose 35% to $22.6 million. Higher revenue per order helped offset declining volume. Logistics: Revenue grew 12% to $372.5 million, but operating income fell to zero from $6.4 million. Higher transportation expenses and insurance costs tied to a prior-year claim reduced earnings. Truckload’s improvement also reflected acquisition-related savings, gains from equipment sales, and better equipment utilization. Its average truck count declined to 11,347 from 12,291 a year earlier. Meanwhile, intermodal revenue per order rose 3%, but higher purchased transportation costs partly offset the benefits of pricing and a more favorable freight mix. What is Schneider’s updated outlook? Schneider raised its full-year 2026 adjusted diluted earnings forecast to $1.00–$1.10 per share. It also projected $325 million–$350 million… [TheTopNews] Read More.7 days ago - American Trucking Trends 2026 Shows Modest Freight and Revenue Growth
What does the new ATA report show? The American Trucking Associations released American Trucking Trends 2026 on October 26, 2026, reporting modest gains in freight tonnage and revenue. The publication examines trucking’s economic role, workforce, and business structure. Importantly, its headline operating figures describe 2025 activity, not full-year 2026 results. How much freight and revenue did trucking generate? Trucks hauled 11.46 billion tons in 2025, compared with 11.27 billion in 2024. Meanwhile, industry revenue reached $936.4 billion, up from $906 billion. Calculations using ATA’s totals put those increases at approximately 1.7% for tonnage and 3.4% for revenue. However, ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello cautioned that carriers continued facing rising operating costs and uneven freight volumes. He emphasized evaluating the gains alongside these financial pressures. Higher revenue does not automatically mean higher profits, because expenses also affect what carriers retain. What do the employment and fleet-size figures show? Trucking supported 8.5 million industry-related jobs, including 3.45 million professional drivers, in 2025. The employment total therefore covers more than people working behind the wheel. Additionally, the report shows that small businesses continued to make up most of the industry. 91.1% of carriers operated 10 or fewer trucks. 99.2% of carriers operated fewer than 100 power units. These percentages measure the number of carriers, rather than their share of freight or revenue. A small carrier and a large fleet each count as one company. Consequently, the figures describe the industry’s business structure, not how evenly transportation work is distributed. ATA’s previous edition listed 8.4 million industry-related jobs and 3.58 million professional drivers for 2024. The published total employment figure increased. However, the reported professional driver count declined between editions. How important was cross-border trucking? Trucks moved 68% of surface trade between the United States and Canada and 86% of goods across the Mexican border in 2025. These were higher than the 67% and 85% shares reported for 2024 in ATA’s previous edition. The percentages describe trucking’s share of trade, not the growth rate of total cross-border shipments. What other information does Trends provide? The publication covers household goods movements and the broader economy alongside its headline trucking figures. Its subject areas also include safety, diesel fuel prices, taxes, and environmental issues. ATA presents the report as a resource for business planning and transportation policy discussions. ATA Chief Advocacy and Public Affairs Officer Henry Hanscom emphasized the value of reliable data… [TheTopNews] Read More.1 week ago - Grote 4SEE Camera Uses Existing Seven-Way Connector for Trailer Video
What does the new camera offer? Grote Industries has introduced a next-generation 4SEE rear-view camera that sends video through the existing J560 seven-way electrical connection. The company demonstrated it at ATA’s 2026 Management Conference & Exhibition in Charlotte, North Carolina. The design aims to improve backing visibility without requiring another tractor–trailer cable or wireless pairing. Grote says video arrives with virtually no delay after the normal tractor–trailer hookup, without pairing wireless devices. Andrew Grose, vice president of Grote Networks, said this approach simplifies backing visibility and provides bandwidth for additional cameras. The company aims to reduce backing collisions, yard damage, insurance claims, and downtime. However, the announcement does not quantify expected reductions in crashes or operating costs. How can the connector carry more data? Grote’s Adam Slade told Heavy Duty Trucking that the new technology can reliably transmit tens of megabits per second through the existing harness. That capacity supports multiple camera feeds alongside tire and lighting information. He distinguished the physical connector from older power-line communication systems, which had more limited bandwidth. During the demonstration, Grote used standard seven-way cords from other suppliers. Therefore, the technology did not require a Grote-branded coil cord. The approach avoids adding another hookup for drivers or another connection for maintenance teams to service. How does the camera integrate with 4SEE? The camera expands Grote’s smart-trailer platform, which connects devices through a digital wiring harness. Grote says fleets can add the camera to trailers already equipped with 4SEE. The standard connector provides the tractor–trailer link, but the system still relies on compatible 4SEE equipment. Accordingly, the announcement concerns adding a camera to an equipped trailer, not simply plugging one into any existing trailer. The broader platform combines information from lighting, tire monitoring, and cargo sensors. Its web portal and app provide diagnostic information and alerts, including individual lamp failures. This centralized approach helps fleets review trailer conditions without treating each device as a separate system. However, Grote states that its monitoring tools supplement rather than replace routine pre-trip inspections. When will it launch, and what comes next? Grote said it was moving into production, with release planned for the fourth quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, two-way truck–trailer communication remained an upcoming capability rather than an already available feature. This would allow information to travel from the tractor to trailer equipment, not just carry camera images back to the cab. For example, Slade described transmitting… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago - Trailer Electrification Offers Fleets an Alternative to Replacing Diesel Trucks
Why consider electrifying trailers instead of tractors? Fleets have another option beyond continuing with diesel equipment or purchasing electric trucks: adding electric power to their trailers. A sponsored FreightWaves post published October 26, 2026, highlights this approach through a Range Energy whitepaper. The company argues that purchasing decisions should prioritize fuel savings per dollar invested and equipment that fits existing operations. Refrigerated carriers face a particular challenge because diesel can power both the tractor and the trailer refrigeration unit. Therefore, reducing fuel consumption requires considering both systems. The comparison also examines the time and infrastructure needed to introduce electric equipment, rather than focusing only on vehicle performance. How does the eTrailer system work? Range’s system adds a battery, electric axle, and sensors to an existing semi-trailer. The powered axle assists the tractor, while stored electricity can run refrigeration and other trailer equipment. According to Range, this arrangement allows fleets to electrify part of their operation without immediately replacing their tractors. The company says the system works with diesel and electric tractors without tractor modifications. Its batteries provide up to 300 kilowatt-hours of onboard energy. When the battery is depleted, normal towing can continue, although the trailer no longer provides electric propulsion assistance. Range says charging fits overnight parking or normal trailer dwell times. What does the financial comparison show? Range modeled seven years of operation using 1,000 simulated scenarios covering energy prices, charging costs, insurance, resale values, and fuel savings. The analysis focuses on refrigerated grocery and foodservice fleets. It compares conventional diesel equipment, a Tesla Semi, and a Range eTrailer. Baseline assumptions: Diesel costs $5.07 per gallon, with no purchase incentives. Estimated payback: Both the eTrailer and a Tesla Semi using its own depot charger recover their investment in under six years. Modeled outcomes: The eTrailer delivers stronger financial results in 61% of scenarios. These figures come from Range’s analysis, not an independent guarantee of fleet savings. Actual results depend on operating conditions and the assumptions used. The findings therefore describe a specific comparison rather than proving one technology is best for every carrier. What charging and delivery timelines apply? Range estimates installing its charging connection costs approximately $5,200, compared with $51,500 for a Tesla Semi depot charger. These are modeled infrastructure costs, not universal installation quotes. The FreightWaves post also notes that building charging infrastructure for electric tractors can take multiple years. The post identifies… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
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