Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 08/04/17 at 13:38 UTC

American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear urged Congress to take steps to exercise oversight over the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, ensuring that taxpayers and the supply chain get the maximum return on the $1.2 trillion of investment the legislation provides. “For 90 years, the ATA has helped Congress shape its understanding of our nation’s infrastructure needs and supply chain challenges and today’s oversight of both is welcome and timely,” Spear said. “Prior to IIJA’s passage, ATA testified 25 times before the House and Senate, sharing how the decaying state of our nation’s infrastructure is hamstringing America’s ability to compete with rising global powers, like China. In short, a first-world economy cannot survive a developing-world infrastructure.”

Crude rebounded over 5 percent last month, recouping February’s losses, after U.S. President Donald Trump named hawkish officials to his government, signaling the nation may pursue a more hard-line stance toward Iran. Even so, concerns persist that a rapid increase in American production, which has topped 10 million barrels a day each week since early February, could undermine efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which are trying to balance the market by cutting output. U.S. explorers cut the number of rigs by the most since November 2017 last week, bringing the total to 797, Baker Hughes data showed. Still, the count remains near the highest in three years, and with separate data showing nationwide crude inventories climbed 1.64 million barrels in the week ended March 23, jitters over increasing U.S. supplies remain. Click Read More below for additional information.

FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller calls the truck driver shortage a “myth” in a recent piece of self-promotion, but his assertion collapses under the weight of facts and data. Fuller claims the mythical shortage is an ATA fabrication—a narrative perpetuated for our convenience. Of course, we’re not alone in reporting this issue. Driver shortages are global in scope, with growing vacancies felt across the Americas, Asia, and Europe, and documented in IRU’s 2022 Global Driver Shortage Report: In Europe, driver shortages jumped by 42% from 2020 to 2021, with vacant driver positions reaching 71,000 in Romania, 80,000 in both Poland and Germany, and 100,000 in the UK. In Mexico, shortages rose by 30% to reach 54,000, while in China, they increased by 140%, reaching 1.8 million.