News roundup, Jan. 6: CDL Clearinghouse site on the mend on Day 1; Knight-Swift, DAT partner on rates predictor; Ryder rolling out electric truck charging network

Trucking news and briefs for January 6, 2020:

On its first day, website outage trips CDL Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse
Website connectivity issues snared the U.S. DOT’s CDL Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse on the first day of the rule’s effective date — Monday, Jan. 6. An FMCSA official said the agency was aware of the issue and is working to restore full service. Have you attempted to register for the Clearinghouse yet? Sound off in the poll at this link.

Knight-Swift and DAT announce pilot program for truckload rate forecasting
DAT Solutions announced it is supplying Knight-Swift Transportation with a new rate forecasting tool to provide actionable short-term and long-term insights into transportation markets.

The tool’s forecasts are based on the DAT RateView database of more than $68 billion in annual freight transactions, DAT says.

“Knight-Swift is eager to … [apply] these rate predictions to significantly improve the speed we can serve customers, while mitigating price risk,” said Don Everhart, VP Technology & Analytics for Knight-Swift Logistics.

The pilot program will run through the first quarter, with commercial availability of the tool to follow in Q2, DAT says.

“DAT’s data science team tested the rate prediction algorithms for months,” noted DAT Chief of Analytics Ken Adamo. That included “back-checking its forecasts against actual results and refining the models to improve accuracy.” The partnership with Knight-Swift Logistics makes for something of a proving ground, he added.

Ryder plans to build electric truck charging network
In a first-of-its-kind network, Ryder has announced plans to develop an electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure for Ryder customers that deploy battery-electric trucks.

In partnership with privately-held energy solutions company In-Charge Energy, Inc., and electrification technology developer ABB, Ryder Chief Technology Officer for Fleet Management Solutions Rich Mohr said said the company’s goal is to provide turnkey charging capabilities nationwide.

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“Through this partnership, our customers will have greater access to electric vehicle strategic planning and energy cost savings related to engineering and implementing charging strategies,” he said, adding the service will allow Ryder customers to more predictably expand their EV fleet.