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Lowe’s has agreed to buy an interior services provider for around $1.3 billion, the retailer’s latest effort to expand its footprint with professional contractors amid a soft housing market.

While continuing to endure a stubbornly slow freight market recovery, the largest third-party logistics providers in North America also face a murky outlook for international trade.

While some segments of the logistics market saw expansion, such as dedicated carriage and freight forwarding, others faced slower growth, including freight brokerage and warehousing.

Increasingly in fleet maintenance, artificial intelligence has been used to guide technicians on repairs and diagnose problems proactively.

Transport Topics presented Sustainability Pathfinder awards to IMC Logistics and Werner Enterprises for their exemplary efforts to improve freight efficiency and curb emissions.

Proficient — the No. 4-ranked auto transporter — expects industry dynamics to improve in 2025, including through a reduction in carrier capacity due to the travails of Jack Cooper Holdings.

The dominoes started to topple when automaker Ford decided in January to end its relationship with Jack Cooper, bringing the curtain down on an approximately 40-year relationship.

The three carriers bought a total of seven former Yellow terminals in private deals from the bankrupt LTL carrier’s administrators as each sought to bolster its LTL operations.

González will be replaced April 1 by Jaime Muguiro, who is the current head of Cemex’s U.S. operations, the company said in a statement.

M&A specialists are eyeing a robust list of U.S. takeover candidates, with a buoyant economy, strong buyer appetite and a potentially looser regulatory regime seen driving more deals.