Spot truckload rates surge to start New Year

A U.S. Appellate Court ruling in Washington DC upheld the U.S. Postal Service’s pricing methodology, knocking down a challenge from UPS that categorized it as unfair and anticompetitive, according to a report in Bloomberg. The three-judge panel found that the USPS’s transfer of some profits from its monopoly on first-class mail delivery to offset parcel delivery costs did not amount to a subsidy of those operations, which is forbidden under the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. The USPS’s pricing is set by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). Click Read More below for additional information.

Sustainability is playing an increasingly larger role in the lives of young consumers, particularly among Millennials (born 1981-1996) and Generation Z (born 1997 and after). This trend is expected to continue as Gen Z consumers enter the workforce and start setting up their own households. As a result, the Paper and Packaging Board’s “How Life Unfolds” Campaign® is launching a new sustainability-focused effort to more appealing to young consumers. “As our consumer audience begins to age up, we need to keep reaching out to younger generations with important sustainability messaging,” explains Mary Anne Hansan, president of the Paper and Packaging Board. “They are worried about the environment, have heard stories about recycling not being worthwhile and have misperceptions about the health of U.S. forests. That’s why we’ve created a campaign set to reach a younger audience with content that is both entertaining and educational.” The new effort is based in part on findings from The Hartman Group’s “Sustainability 2019: Beyond Business as Usual” study of American consumers aged 18-73. Researchers found that sustainability is “a cultural value and defining concern for today’s consumer,” and that “consumers increasingly hold companies and governments responsible for sustainability than individuals,” even as they adjust their own behaviors to lessen their personal environmental footprint.

AT&T plans to ask the Supreme Court to reverse a high-profile decision that restored the Federal Trade Commission's authority to prosecute broadband providers, the telecom said this week in court papers. The company's statement came in a status report submitted to U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen in the Northern District of California. He is presiding over an FTC lawsuit alleging that AT&T duped millions of wireless customers by promising unlimited data, but throttling their speeds after they hit a monthly data cap. AT&T argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed on the ground that the FTC lacks authority over telecoms like itself. Click Read More below for additional information.