Business, Commodities & Shipping News 2026

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100 Years in Bulk Trucking, 10+ Different Businesses, and Almost ZERO Driver Turnover

Oct 23, 2026 TULARE
Cain Trucking has been hauling in California’s Central Valley since 1925, and a century later it runs more than ten different businesses out of one yard. We spent a day in Tulare County with Marcellus, who came to work here in November 2002 when the company had 13 to 15 trucks. Today it runs about 96 trucks and over 600 trailers, including 204 hopper sets for the nut harvest. Liquid asphalt and emulsions for road building. Organic dairy compost they manufacture themselves, about 300,000 tons a year. Pistachios, almonds and walnuts out of the fields. Bottom dumps and super tens for construction aggregates. Ready mix. A proprietary dust control product they spread 12 to 15 loads a day in the summer. Flatbeds, K rail transport, and as of this year, coast to coast OTR hoppers running pet food. Our host tried to count the divisions on camera and lost track around nine.
Bill Cain started the company in 1925. He came home from the war, where he served as a fireman aboard ship, and built it from there. Marcellus grew up dairy farming, married into the family and became part of what may be the fourth generation to run it. He is blunt about what that took: everybody who ever got the chance to be a partner here put their feet on the desk, and that is not how this program works. The compost side started by accident, when Cain was hauling manure for a dairy customer who did not pay the bill and ended up acquiring the operation instead. They got into organic back when people laughed at the word. The ready mix division came the same way, when a customer did not want to deal with trucks anymore, so Cain leased the mixers and put its own drivers and logos on them.
He also explains why turnover here runs around 1 percent. The company pays 100 percent of employee medical, and until two years ago covered entire families before insurance costs forced a change. People tell him he pays his drivers too much. His answer is that high turnover means you are training constantly, and that steady people are what let him walk into a customer and commit to the whole job. Almost everything is built or rebuilt in house, including the side dump doubles in the yard, modified lighter so they carry 25 tons instead of the usual 23 or 24. If you want to understand how a trucking company survives a hundred years, this is it: connect the dots, never run back empty, and never tell a customer no.


25:37
 
The Dark Business of the Snap-on Truck

Oct 17, 2026
Why do mechanics pay 3–10x more for Snap-on tools when Harbor Freight Icon sells similar ones for a fraction of the price? The answer isn't just the tools. It's the truck that shows up every week, a lending business hiding inside a tool company, and a franchise model with a complicated past.


32:11
 
gcaptain.com

Anti-War Protests Spread Across Global Ports as Dockworkers Target Arms Trade

Dockworkers across 113 ports in 22 countries staged coordinated strikes and protests Friday, disrupting cargo operations and ferry services as part of a global campaign opposing arms shipments to Israel...
gcaptain.com gcaptain.com

maritime-executive.com

Dockworkers Worldwide Strike Against Militarization, Wages and More

In what is being called the largest action of its kind, dockworkers around the world joined a strike call on Friday that was reportedly impacting as m...
maritime-executive.com maritime-executive.com
 
Nothing to see, can listen in one tab, play around the forum in a different tab.

Shipping Stocks After Record Rally | Eirik Haavaldsen (Pareto)

Nov 1, 2026 Vonheim Podcast
Shipping stocks have had one of their strongest runs in modern history. Is there still value in the sector, or is the cycle about to turn? Eirik Haavaldsen, shipping analyst at Pareto Securities and regarded as one of Norway’s leading voices on the sector, joins Vonheim to break down where shipping stands today, and where he sees opportunities and risks ahead.
In this episode:
  • Why shipping equities have rallied so much, and what’s driving earnings
  • Record tanker rates: how long can they last?
  • Main lessons from the Hormuz crises
  • Which segments look attractive, and which look stretched?
  • Why Eirik believes strongly in car-carriers ahead
Shipping Stocks After Record Rally | Eirik Haavaldsen (Pareto)
 
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