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.

Futures in New York dropped 0.7 percent after earlier gaining as much as 1.3 percent. American Petroleum Institute data Tuesday showed an unexpected decrease in U.S. stockpiles, while on Wednesday…

Crude in New York fell 0.4 percent as traders cashed in after yesterday’s 3.1 percent surge. The oil market is nearing the end of the “lower for longer” era with a shortage likely in 2019, trading house Trafigura said Tuesday. Turkey can “close the valves” on oil shipments from Kurdistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after the Iraqi region held a vote on independence. Oil has gained more than 10 percent this month on forecasts for rising crude demand and as members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintain production cuts to drain a global glut. The market rebalancing has helped flip the futures curve into backwardation, a structure where immediate deliveries of oil are more expensive than longer-dated ones, signaling strong demand. Brent prices jumped to a two-year high on Monday before retreating Tuesday. “It’s pure profit taking,” Torbjorn Kjus, oil market analyst at DNB Bank ASA said by phone. “It’s very natural. The most natural thing would be if we lose some more during the day, but so far it’s holding up almost unexpectedly well after that very large rally yesterday.” Click Read More below for more of the story.