SAN DIEGO — For the third year in a row, the driver shortage is the top-ranked issue for trucking fleets, as they struggle to recruit and retain qualified drivers, according to the American Transportation Research Institute.

SAN DIEGO — E-Smart, an Indiana-based technology company, said it has contracted with truckload carrier Western Express to equip the entire Tennessee-based fleet of more than 3,000 power units with E-Smart’s Advanced Driver Assistance System and geofencing software, which uses fuel management to control vehicle speed.

Overall new business activity for 25 key American equipment financiers was up 3% to $9.2 billion in August, year over year, according to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association.

Supply chain managers should give AI and other technologies 60% of tasks, according to a recent report by Coyote Logistics, a UPS Inc. subsidiary based in Chicago.

Hyundai Motor Co. and Cummins Inc. said in a joint statement that they have agreed to evaluate opportunities to develop and commercialize electric and fuel cell powertrains.

Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. on Sept. 30 announced that it would lay off 450 employees and downsize its dry van business, a truckload segment the company said had become unprofitable.

Total Transportation Services Inc., a Southern California drayage company, will replace its entire diesel trucking fleet with near-zero emission natural-gas trucks.

Wing Aviation, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., said it is collaborating with FedEx Corp.’s Express division and pharmacy retailer Walgreens to launch a drone-delivery service in Christiansburg, Va.

The U.S. average retail price of diesel soared 9.4 cents to $3.081 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Sept. 23, bolstered by a crisis in Saudi Arabia after a drone attack on a major oil plant Sept. 14.

RALEIGH, N.C. — The generation gap between trucking industry leaders is getting wider, as younger millennials enter the freight workforce with different understandings of the world around them.