National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.480; Month Ago: $3.301; Year Ago: $2.491. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $3.876; Month Ago: $3.586; Year Ago: $2.727.

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.

Amazon announced it will support a seven-flight humanitarian air delivery operation into Caracas, Venezuela, in response to the devastating twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on June 24, leaving more than 650,000 people in need of aid. Seven weekly flights will deliver critical earthquake relief supplies to nonprofits The weekly flights are possible through a collaboration between Amazon, Airlink, the U.S. State Department, and United Nations World Food Programme. The State Department will coordinate access with local authorities, Amazon will donate the aircraft and fuel at no cost to humanitarian organizations, Airlink will determine what goes on each flight based on nonprofit needs, and the World Food Programme will manage logistics in Venezuela. The humanitarian air bridge is designed to prevent an aid bottleneck—as well as a so-called "second disaster" when unrequested in-kind donations overwhelm communities and divert resources from the most urgent needs.