Tesla Semi Europe Timeline, NS-UP Merger Removes Rail Friction, & CMT Broker Safety Platform | The Morning Minute

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We kick things off with Tesla setting its sights firmly on the European freight market. The electric vehicle giant will begin European demonstrations of the Semi in the first half of 2027, and is targeting customer deliveries by the end of that year, according to Dan Priestley, head of Semi at Tesla. The first European trucks will be built at the company's plant outside Reno, Nevada, which is designed for 1,000 trucks a week or 50,000 a year.

The European Semi is rated at 550 km of usable range, about 342 miles, and can accept 800 kW of charge, recovering more than 60% of range in 30 minutes. To support the rollout, Tesla will open its European Mega Charger Network next year, with more than 100 stalls equipped with the megawatt charging system, each capable of 1.2 megawatts. Over on the rails, Norfolk Southern is arguing that the future of intermodal dominance isn't just about beating trucks on price. According to Shawn Terraman, Vice President of Automotive and Intermodal Marketing at Norfolk Southern, the railroad's proposed combination with Union Pacific is central to removing structural friction from the freight network. The proposed transaction would create a single-line railroad connecting major west coast markets with the southeast, northeast and other eastern markets. Under the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern combination, the railroad said about 10,000 existing lanes could shift from interline service to single-line service. The application filings also project the elimination of approximately 2,400 rail car and container handlings and 60,000 car miles per day. Norfolk Southern's intermodal volume rose 13.7% year-over-year this past week, pointing to evidence that rail can capture business from the highway when its service offering is competitive. Finally, freight brokers are getting a powerful new tool to evaluate carrier safety in real time. Cambridge Mobile Telematics has officially launched Freight Safety Intelligence, which analyzes driving behavior from the previous 90 days and generates a carrier level safety score. The platform uses data from carriers existing telematic systems rather than requiring them to install new hardware, and carriers have the choice to opt into the program and control what specific information they share.

The launch comes after a recent Supreme Court ruling in May, when the court ruled in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, that a lawsuit alleging a broker negligently selected a motor carrier could move forward under state law.

The case involved CH. Robinson and a crash in Illinois, and the ruling leaves brokers open to negligent selection claims tied to carrier safety.