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When the next freight transportation capacity shortage makes itself known, whether it’s in the second half of next year or at the start of 2012, no one should say they weren’t warned well in advance.

Managers of large fleets want to buy improved equipment and advanced technologies despite the recent recession but are insisting upon payback periods of four years or less, according to a recent survey.

Trucking officials said efforts to enact federal legislation protecting carriers from overreaching indemnification provisions in shipper contracts were likely to be the industry’s primary tort reform push in the coming year.

Shippers are making heavy use of the truckload spot market to find freight haulers, leading to more loads and better rates — particularly for flatbed and refrigerated carriers — and worries for brokers who find themselves “under water” on some contracts with shippers.

Trucking industry officials said they question whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be able to complete its work on a new hours-of-service rule in time to comply with a court order.

Freight volume hauled by U.S. trucking companies hit a three-month high in October as it rose 6% from a year earlier, American Trucking Associations said Nov. 22.

The world of drayage carriers has certainly changed since motor carriers finally convinced the federal government to establish that it was the owners of freight container chassis who are legally responsible for their maintenance. But the change has not at all come in the ways most fleets expected.

The costs of a proposed federal rule expected to prohibit the transportation of flammable liquids in unprotected product piping on tank trucks would far outweigh the benefits, a trucking industry delegation told White House officials last week.

The average price of diesel fuel dipped 1.3 cents last week to $3.171 a gallon, below the two-year high of the previous week, despite stronger U.S. and global demand, the Department of Energy said Nov. 22.