The ‘ingenious strategy’ behind most truckers’ least favorite week of the year: International Roadcheck

International Roadcheck Week is hardly the sexiest topic in trucking, but it is a darn-tootin’ important one. Inspectors in the U.S. and Canada halt tens of thousands of trucks for vehicle inspections for a few days every summer or early fall. They remove thousands of trucks and drivers from the road; in 2021, 16.5% of inspected vehicles were put out of service along with 5.3% of drivers.

It’s uncommon for truck drivers to actually get their vehicles inspected at random during most of the year. To avoid International Roadcheck Week, many truckers simply don’t drive during that period of time — which, presumably, means more unsafe vehicles and drivers on the road outside of the inspection blitz. It’s a question that ate at Andrew Balthrop, a research associate at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business.

Around 5% fewer one-person trucking companies are active during International Roadcheck Week. But Balthrop and his fellow researcher, Alex Scott of the University of Tennessee, found a major upside to the inspection blitz — even with all the folks who avoid it. According to their working paper published in March 2021, vehicles are safer a month before and after the inspection period. There’s a 1.8% reduction of vehicle violations, according to Balthrop and Scott’s analysis. Surprise inspection blitzes don’t result in the same uptick of compliance.

I caught up with Balthrop about his research last week at FreightWaves’ Future of Supply Chain conference, and we chatted again on the phone this week about his findings on International Roadcheck Week.

Enjoy a bonus MODES and a lightly edited transcription of our phone interview:

FREIGHTWAVES: For our readers who are not aware of what Roadcheck Week actually is, can you explain a little bit about what it and why it is important to drivers and companies?

BALTHROP: “The International Roadcheck is part of an alliance between the inspectors in Canada and the ones in Mexico and the U.S. to have a unified framework for making sure trucks are safe to operate. That should make it easier to go across borders when you have this kind of unified structure.

“In the U.S., one of these CVSA inspection blitzes is the International Roadcheck that happens for three days in the summer. Usually it’s a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And usually it’s the first week in June.

“And in it, they focus on Level One inspections, the North American Standard Inspection where they inspect the driver records, the hours of service, the licensure and I believe medical records as well. Then they inspect the truck. It’s an in-depth inspection where the inspector will actually crawl under the truck to look at various things. And these inspections, from the data that I’ve seen, take about a half an hour on average.

“During the Roadcheck Week, they’ll do about 60,000 inspections, so 20,000 a day. They’re going to pull over a lot of trucks, and this can cause a little bit of congestion at the weigh stations and the roadside inspections localities as the inspectors are doing these inspections.”

Roadcheck Week doesn’t catch all truck drivers, but it has a long-lasting benefit to safety

FREIGHTWAVES: So, can most drivers kind of expect to be pulled over? How likely is that?

BALTHROP: “There’s 1 million or 3 million trucks on the road, somewhere around there on any given day. With 20,000 inspections, most drivers still will not get inspected, but there’s going to be a higher proportion of drivers inspected.

“You’re more likely to get inspected on these days. If you don’t have a recent inspection on your record, or if you have a bad recent inspection on your record, you’re more likely to be pulled over on these days.”

FREIGHTWAVES: Your research focused on that it’s just unusual that this inspection is announced, that it’s planned. We were talking before about how normally, if you’re trying to assure quality or compliance, you would not announce an inspection in advance. It would be more of a surprise-type situation.

Can you walk us through why that’s so unusual, or what’s the rationale that you see behind announcing it in advance?

BALTHROP: “It is unusual, and on the surface, it doesn’t make much sense, but it turns out to be kind of an ingenious strategy. So I’ll walk through it here.

“Over the course of a year, there’ll be 2 million inspections of 3 or 4 million trucks out there. The average rate of inspections is pretty low. It’s not uncommon for truckers to go years without having an inspection. With this low inspection intensity, the FMCSA has sort of a problem of, how does it get anybody to abide by the regulations?

“I’m a jaded economist, and I don’t worry or consider too much ethics and morality and all that kind of stuff. It comes down to incentives for drivers to follow these inspections. The incentives do guide behavior. So, how could the FMCSA incentivize drivers to follow these regulations more closely and adhere to the standards?

“They do this by announcing the blitz. This does two things. On one side, it allows everybody to prepare in advance. There’s a bunch of anecdotal evidence out there that people do prepare for these blitzes in advance. They will have their trucks inspected beforehand for any problems. They’ll time maintenance and upkeep in advance to make sure that their vehicles are in order. “They’ll be a little bit more cognizant of the driver-side regulations. One thing we notice in our study is that hours-of-service violations really drop during these extensions, because people see them coming. They don’t fudge the books in any way.”

Owner-operators can evade Roadcheck Week. Big carriers, not so much.

BALTHROP: “The issue with the announcement, on the flip side, is that it allows people to just dodge the inspection entirely. For a long time, people have talked about how owner-operators and smaller carriers time their vacations for this particular time. They could do this for a couple reasons. To avoid the hassle is a nice way to put it, but it also allows you to be noncompliant to avoid the high-intensity inspections.

“You have this balance here that on one side you get the behavior you want with people complying with regulations. That’s the behavior the FMCSA wants. But on the flip side, you get a bunch of people that are kind of outright dodging inspections.

“When you compare these two things on balance, the policy is actually pretty effective because you get a lot of people focused on maintaining their trucks and obeying the rules during that particular week. Especially with the vehicle maintenance stuff, that lasts a long time.

“In our research, we saw that vehicle violations, a month before and up to a month afterwards, is when you still notice your vehicle violations. That trucks are kind of better maintained around these blitzes.

“The ingenious aspect of it is that the FMCSA, by concentrating their inspection resources all at one time and announcing it, they’re making it clear that they’re serious about enforcing these regulations and everybody prepares for it. For the number of inspections that are happening, you get fewer tickets than you would have otherwise expected.

“The FMCSA, they’re putting people through a little bit of a hassle, but they’re not having to write a bunch of tickets to get people to comply. They’re not really punishing a whole bunch of people because, by making this apparent that this is going to happen, people comply and the FMCSA gets what they want essentially without having to come down on carriers too hard.”

A convenient time for a vacation, indeed

FREIGHTWAVES: OK, interesting. And how does this pattern of shutting down, how does that compare for an owner-operator versus a driver for a big fleet?

BALTHROP: “If you’re a motor carrier with thousands of power units, you can’t just pack up and not do business on a particular day. They just don’t have that option. So they get inspected at a higher intensity, and you see the larger carriers kind of more focused on making sure that they’re prepared for these inspections. With so many inspections, the larger carriers are going to be inspected at higher rates. You can really damage your reputation if your equipment isn’t in order on this particular day.

“Versus the smaller carriers, especially if you’re talking about a single-vehicle fleet, an owner-operator type, it is not that difficult to just not work for those three days. And so you see a lot about that.

“In terms of what the roadway composition looks like, if we look at inspection data and relative to a typical day with the usual inspections, on these Roadcheck days, you have about 5% fewer owner-operators on the road than you otherwise would expect.”

FREIGHTWAVES: Wow. And when you say owner-operators, you also mean just like fleets with just —

BALTHROP: “One-vehicle fleets.”

FREIGHTWAVES: OK, that’s interesting.

BALTHROP: “You know, you see a little bit of effect with the smaller fleets, below six vehicles, but it basically disappears by the time you get to a hundred vehicles.

“This effect is being driven by smaller carriers staying off the road in terms of avoidance. You see this goes also how you would expect; it’s also older vehicles that stay off the road. This is correlated with carrier size. The larger carriers use newer vehicles and owner-operators tend to use some of the older vehicles. But it’s particularly the older vehicles that are off the road.

“This makes intuitive sense. Older vehicles are more costly to keep compliant. Maintenance is more costly, and they’ve been around longer so there’s time for more stuff to have broken essentially.

How a truck driver gets stopped for inspection

FREIGHTWAVES: Can you explain a little bit more, the idea of having this inspection history and why it would benefit a larger or small carrier?

BALTHROP: “Getting flagged for inspection is sort of random, but not totally. If somebody notices something obviously wrong with your truck, that’s ground for a more in-depth inspection. Or if you get pulled over for some other reason, this can be grounds for inspection of some type.

“But there’s also the inspection selection service. The computer program that is random, that it randomly flags people in for inspection, but it’s based on your inspection history.

“So if your firm hasn’t been inspected recently, or if your carrier doesn’t have a very dense inspection history, you’ll be more likely to trigger that system to pull you in and have you inspected. If you have a dense inspection history, you’re less likely to get inspected.”

FREIGHTWAVES: So how do you get pulled over for inspection? As a person who only drives a passenger car, my main interaction with being pulled over is, I’m driving down the freeway or wherever, and I get stopped by the police. How does it work for a truck driver? How does getting pulled over or inspected work in that way?

BALTHROP: “The law is that you cannot pass a weigh station without pulling in and getting weighed. At that point they may flag you to be inspected. Now, in the past decade or two, there’s been a bunch of electronic devices that are installed in cabs. You may have heard of PrePass or Drivewise. This allows you to pass weigh stations.

“I don’t have data on how many trucks have the in-cab devices. But from a trucking perspective, they’re so convenient that you don’t have to stop every time you cross a state line. I think the vast, overwhelming majority of trucks have some sort of one of these electronic devices. The DOT inspectors at these roadside inspection points have a dial they can twist essentially about how many people they want to inspect.

“So during the roadcheck inspection week, they’ll crank that dial all the way up and pull everybody over. And if they get too backed up, they might crank it back down a little bit and so on.”

FREIGHTWAVES: OK, interesting. It reminds me of a highly sophisticated E‑ZPass.

A $10 million-plus expense to trucking companies every year … but it’s worth it if just one fatal crash is avoided

FREIGHTWAVES: Zooming out, when we hear about large truck crashes, something like a vehicle maintenance issue is not really the most sexy explanation. But just looking at the FMCSA data, in 29% of all truck crashes, a major factor is brake problems. So it seems like a lot of the truck crashes on the road are caused by vehicle maintenance, versus something like the driver using illegal drugs or some other sort of more dramatic explanation. Can you speak a little bit to why this sort of vehicle maintenance is important for safety in preventing large crashes?

BALTHROP: “We did a little bit of a back-of-the-envelope cost benefit analysis of this. Let me try and make sure I remember it clearly, but we have it in the paper that the cost of this on one side is that you have the compliance costs the firms are undertaking, and then you have to add to that the delay costs from doing this, and then the cost of the inspection itself, having to pay federal inspectors to do this.

“On the benefit side, it reduces crashes. So when we add up, just looking at the cost of what an inspection is, we don’t have a good idea of how to measure the compliance cost. It’d be fun to measure the delay cost, but I don’t have good enough price data on that to get at that cost.

“But if you look at what the cost of an inspection is, it is something like $100 or $120 is what you would pay to have one of these inspections done privately. A lot of people do this in the run-up to inspections, and have it done privately so that you can fix whatever the problems are and be sure that you would pass the FMCSA inspection.

“With that $120 figure, if you aggregate that up to 60,000 inspections or whatever, and you take that in comparison, I’m going to give you a bad figure here, it’s on the order of $10 million. That is about the value of a statistical human life. Looking at this economically, it’s worthwhile if it saves one human life. If you identify just one faulty brake system that would’ve resulted in an accident, you’re getting some value out of the program.

“When you add those other costs in there, we’re going to need to save a couple of lives, but in terms of cost benefit analysis with this kind of stuff, we’re usually looking at orders of magnitude differences in cost and benefits to say something for sure.

“If you can save just a couple lives, this program will pay for itself.”

Time to start inspecting in the winter

FREIGHTWAVES: Then one last question: Is there any rationale for this program happening in the summer?

BALTHROP: “I think part of it is that for the inspectors this gets much harder and much more miserable to do in winter conditions.”

FREIGHTWAVES: That makes sense.

BALTHROP: “Inspectors are less productive. One of the things that we talk about in the paper, that they have in addition to the International Roadcheck, is that they have Brake Week where they focus a little bit more on brake inspections. You have Operation Safe Driver a little bit later on in the summer, usually in September, where it’s a little bit more focused on passenger vehicles and how they drive around these trucks.

“But there’s not one in the winter time. There’s an unannounced brake check that usually happens in May, a surprise inspection that’s just one day. But you’re right in pointing out that it might be worthwhile having one of these in the wintertime. You have this periodic high-intensity inspection that kind of incentivizes everybody to be compliant through the summer.

“But there’s nothing in the winter, so that’s an area. But if I was managing the FMCSA, that would be one of the first questions I ask, ‘Why don’t we have one of these in the wintertime?’”

FREIGHTWAVES: That makes sense. Maybe they can do it in the South or something. Maybe a Miami January inspection …

That’s it for this special bonus MODES. Subscribe here if you’re not already receiving MODES in your inbox every Thursday. Email the reporter at rpremack@www.freightwaves.com with your own tales on International Roadcheck Week or any other trucking topics.

Why the Northeast is quietly running out of diesel

The nozzle of a diesel fuel pump is inserted into the tank of a commercial truck as its driver looks on the bankground.

The East Coast of the U.S. is reporting its lowest seasonal diesel inventory on record. And some trucking companies appear spooked.

The East Coast typically stores around 62 million barrels of diesel during the month of May, according to Department of Energy data. But as of last Friday, that region of the U.S. is reporting under 52 million barrels.

The sharp increase of diesel prices has been a major stressor in America’s $800 billion trucking industry since the beginning of 2022. According to DOE figures, the price per gallon of diesel has reached record highs — a whopping $5.62 per gallon. It’s even higher on the East Coast at $5.90, up 63% from the beginning of this year.

When relief is coming isn’t yet clear, and experts say higher prices are the only way to attract more diesel into the Northeast.

“I wish I had some good news for the Northeast, but it’s bedlam,” Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at OPIS, told FreightWaves.

2022 has seen record-setting diesel prices. (SONAR)

Everyday Americans don’t fill up their cars with diesel, but the fuel powers our nation’s agriculture, industrial and transportation networks. More expensive diesel means the price of everything is liable to increase. Trucks, trains, barges and the like consumed about 122 million gallons of diesel per day in 2020.

Patrick DeHaan, a vice president of communications at fuel price site GasBuddy, reported that retail truck stops are hauling fuel from the Great Lakes to the Northeast, calling it “extraordinary.” We’ve also seen anecdotal reports from truck drivers posting company memos:

pic.twitter.com/yFYyjzYMWE
— Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🇺🇦 (@FreightAlley) May 11, 2022

#FuelShortage #DieselShortage #SupplyChainCrisis pic.twitter.com/zVmXlshXN0
— Don Ricardo 👑 🇺🇸 🇩🇴 (@NjPier) May 5, 2022

Pilot Flying J and Love’s, two of America’s largest truck stops, told the Wall Street Journal yesterday that they were not planning to restrict diesel purchases, but were monitoring low diesel inventory.

Not unlike every other supply chain crunch we’ve seen in the past few years, the cause of the Northeast’s diesel shortage is multifaceted. A yearslong degradation of refineries is rubbing against the Gulf Coast preferring to ship its oil to Europe and Latin America.

Here’s a breakdown:

1. The East Coast has lost half of its refineries.

As Bloomberg’s Javier Blas wrote on May 4 (emphasis ours):

In the past 15 years, the number of refineries on the U.S. East Coast has halved to just seven. The closures have reduced the region’s oil processing capacity to just 818,000 barrels per day, down from 1.64 million barrels per day in 2009. Regional oil demand, however, is stronger.

Rory Johnston, a managing director at Toronto-based research firm Price Street and writer of the newsletter Commodity Context, told FreightWaves that refining is a “thankless industry,” with intense regulations that have limited the opening of new refineries. The Great Recession of 2008 led to several East Coast refineries shuttering, but there have been more recent shutdowns too. One major Philadelphia refinery shuttered in 2019 after a giant fire (and it already had declared bankruptcy), and another refinery in Newfoundland shut down in 2020.

Billionaire John Catsimatidis owns a small oil refinery in the US East Coast and several hundred gas stations from Pennsylvania to New York:

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see diesel being rationed on the East Coast this summer.” #OOTT #DieselCrisis https://t.co/9g1e5UIf20
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) May 11, 2022

2. It’s a financial risk to bring diesel to the Northeast.

The Northeast has increasingly relied on diesel from the Gulf region. Much of that diesel travels to the Northeast through the famous and much-adored Colonial Pipeline. You may remember the 5,500-mile pipeline from last year, when a ransomware attack shuttered it for nearly a week!

It takes 18 days for oil to travel on the Colonial Pipeline from its source in Houston to New York City (or, more specifically, Linden, New Jersey), Kloza said.

That’s a long enough time to prioritize Colonial pipelines financially risky for traders — or, as Kloza said, “incredibly dangerous” — thanks to a concept called “backwardation.”

Backwardation refers to the market condition in which the spot price of a commodity like diesel is higher than its futures price. It’s only gotten stronger over time in the diesel market, Kloza said. So, a company could send off a shipment of diesel and find that it dropped by $1 per gallon in the time the diesel traveled from the Gulf Coast to New York — er, New Jersey. That could mean hundreds of thousands or more in lost profits, so traders often avoid such a fate.

“We’re not in an era where there are any U.S. refiners or big U.S. oil companies who would ‘take one for the team’ and bring cargo in where it’s needed,” Kloza said.

The desperation is showing in New England and the mid-Atlantic regions. New England diesel retail prices are up 75% from the beginning of 2022, per DOE data. In the mid-Atlantic, diesel is up 67%.

It’s not worth the risk, even amid ultra-high prices. As FreightWaves’ Kingston reported last week, the spread between a gallon of diesel in the Gulf Coast and its New York harbor price is usually a few cents. Last week, that swung up to 66 cents.

But that uptick still isn’t justifying moving oil to the Northeast — particularly when traders can make so much more money selling diesel abroad.

3. Of course, we can blame COVID and the crisis in Ukraine.

The catalyst for this diesel shortage, of course, is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine — particularly Europe’s desperation for diesel after weaning off Russian molecules.

As CNBC reported in March, Europe is a net importer of diesel. Europe consumed some 6.8 million barrels of diesel each day in 2019; Russia exported some 600,000 barrels per day of that. Today, Europe has only eliminated one-third of its Russian diesel, so prices are expected to continue to climb amid that transition. Latin America, too, has been clammoring for U.S. diesel.

The Gulf Coast has been happy to provide such diesel, amid “insane” prices for diesel abroad, said Johnston. Waterborne exports of diesel from the U.S. Gulf Coast hit record highs last month, according to oil analytics firm Vortexa. (The records only date back to 2016.)

Naturally, COVID is also to blame for the Northeast’s run on diesel. Those refineries still retained on the East Coast scaled back during the pandemic due to staffing issues. It takes six months to a year to reignite refineries that were previously shuttered, Kloza said.

The ‘everything shortage’ endures

It’s been a tale as old as, well, last year. An industry is quietly hampered by supply issues for years, or even decades, and COVID pulls back the curtains on its unsteady foundation. It’s particularly jarring for commodities we never thought about before, like shipping containers or pallets, but that quietly underpinned our livelihood all along.

Recall the Great Lumber Shortage of 2020? Big Lumber had unusually low stockpiles of wood by the summer of 2020, thanks to a vicious 2019 in the lumber industry shuttering sawmills and the spring of 2020 sparking staffing issues. (There was also a nasty beetle infestation.) Those in lumber expected the pandemic to slow the economy, not ignite online shopping, construction and housing mania. It meant lumber went from around $350 per thousand board feet pre-pandemic to a crushing $1,515 by the spring of 2021. The lumber price roller coaster persists today.

In diesel, there’s no beetle infestation, but there are plenty of other headaches. It all means higher fuel prices on the East Coast, particularly the Northeast, to lure molecules from the Gulf Coast. And, down the line, probably more expensive stuff for you.

Do you work in the trucking industry? Do you want to say that you hate or love MODES? Are you simply wanting to chitchat? Email the author at rpremack@www.freightwaves.com, and don’t forget to subscribe to MODES.

Updated on May 13 with the latest comments from truck stops.

Exclusive: Central Freight Lines to shut down after 96 years

Nearly, 2,100 employees will be laid off right before Christmas. Central Freight Lines is the largest trucking company to close since Celadon ceased operations in 2019.

Waco, Texas-based Central Freight Lines has notified drivers, employees and customers that the less-than-truckload carrier plans to wind down operations on Monday after 96 years, the company’s president told FreightWaves on Saturday.

“It’s just horrible,” said CFL President Bruce Kalem.

A source close to CFL told FreightWaves that CFL had “too much debt and too many unpaid bills” to continue operating, despite exploring all available options to keep its doors open.

Kalem agreed.

“Years of operating losses and struggles for many years sapped our liquidity, and we had no other place to go at this point,” Kalem told FreightWaves. “Nobody is going to make money on this closing, nobody.”

Central Freight will cease picking up new shipments effective Monday and expects to deliver substantially all freight in its system by Dec. 20, according to a company statement.

A source familiar with the company said he is unsure whether CFL will file Chapter 7 or “liquidate outside of bankruptcy,” but that the LTL carrier has no plans to reorganize.

The company reshuffled its executive team nearly a year ago in an effort to stay afloat, including adding the company’s owner, Jerry Moyes, as CFL’s interim president and chief executive officer. Moyes remained CEO after Kalem was elevated to president in July.

“I think it was surprising that there wasn’t a buyer for the entire company, but buyers were interested in certain pieces but not in the whole thing,” the source, who didn’t want to be identified, told FreightWaves. “Part of it could have been that just the network was so expansive that there was too much overlap with some of the buyers that they didn’t need locations or employees in the places where they already had strong operations.”

Third-party logistics provider GlobalTranz notified its customers that it had removed CFL as “a blanket and CSP carrier option immediately, to prevent any new bookings,” multiple sources told FreightWaves on Saturday.

CFL, which has over 2,100 employees, including 1,325 drivers, and 1,600 power units, is in discussions with “key customers and vendors and expects sufficient liquidity to complete deliveries over the next week in an orderly manner,” a CFL spokesperson said. Approximately 820 employees are based at the company headquarters in Waco.

Despite diligent efforts, CFL “was unable to gain commitments to fund ongoing operations, find a buyer of the entire business or fund a Chapter 11 reorganization,” another source familiar with the company told FreightWaves.

Kalem said the company had 65 terminals prior to its decision to shutter operations.

FreightWaves received a tip from a source nearly two weeks ago that CFL wasn’t renewing its East Coast terminal leases but was unable to confirm the information with CFL executives.

Another source told FreightWaves that some of the LTL carrier’s West Coast terminals had been sold recently, but that no reason was given for the transactions.

At that time, Kalem said the company was “working to find alternatives” and couldn’t speak because of nondisclosure agreements. He said executives at CFL, including Moyes, were trying to do everything to “save the company.”

“Jerry [Moyes] pumped a lot of money into the company, but it just wasn’t enough,” Kalem said.

Kalem said he’s aware that a large carrier is interested in hiring many of CFL’s drivers but isn’t able to name names at this point.

“Central Freight is in negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its equipment,” the company said in a statement. “Additionally, Central Freight is coordinating with other regional LTL carriers to afford its employees opportunities to apply for other LTL jobs in their area.”

As of late Saturday night, Kalem said fuel cards are working and drivers will be paid for freight they’ve hauled for the LTL carrier until all freight is delivered by the Dec. 20 target date.

“I’m going to work feverishly with the time I have left to get these good people jobs — I owe it to them,” Kalem told FreightWaves. “We are going to pay our drivers — that’s why we had to close it like we’re doing now. We are going to deliver all of the freight that’s in our system by next week, and we believe we can do that.”

During the outset of the pandemic, Central Freight Lines was one of four trucking-related companies that received the maximum award of $10 million through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). This occurred around the time that CFL drivers and employees were forced to take pay cuts, a move that didn’t go over well with drivers.

“It all went to payroll,” Kalem said about the PPP funds. “Yes, our employees and drivers did take a pay cut over the past few years, and we gave most of it back, even raised pay over the past several months, but it just wasn’t enough to attract drivers.”

FreightWaves staffers Todd Maiden, Timothy Dooner and JP Hampstead contributed to this report.

Watch: Central Freight Lines’ impact on the LTL market

FreightWaves CEO and founder Craig Fuller reacts to the Central Freight Lines news:

“With Central struggling for many years and unable to reach profitability, it makes sense that they would want to liquidate while equipment and real estate are fetching record prices.”

Central Freight Lines statement

Here is the statement given by Central Freight Lines to FreightWaves late Saturday after reports surfaced of its impending closure:

“We make this announcement with a heavy heart and extreme regret that the Company cannot continue after nearly 100 years in operation. We would like to thank our outstanding workforce for persevering and for professionally completing the wind-down while supporting each other. Additionally, we thank our customers, vendors, equipment providers, and other stakeholders for their loyalty and support.

“The Company explored all available options to keep operations going. However, operating losses sapped all remaining sources of liquidity, and the Company’s liabilities far exceed its assets, all of which are subject to liens in favor of multiple creditors. Despite diligent efforts, the Company was unable to gain commitments to fund ongoing operations, find a buyer of the entire business, or fund a Chapter 11 reorganization. Given its limited remaining resources, the Company concluded that the best alternative was a safe and orderly wind-down. As we complete the wind-down process, our primary goal will be to offer the smoothest possible transition for all stakeholders while maximizing the amount available to apply toward the Company’s obligations.

“Central Freight is in negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its equipment. Additionally, Central Freight is coordinating with other regional LTL carriers to afford its employees opportunities to apply for other LTL jobs in their area. Discussions are ongoing and no purchase of assets or offer of employment is guaranteed.”

Brief history of Central Freight Lines

1925	Founded in Waco, Texas, by Woody Callan Sr.
1927	Institutes regular routes in Texas between Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin.
1938	Dallas facility opens as world’s largest freight facility.
1991	Receives 48-state interstate operating authority, expands into Oklahoma.
1993	Joins Roadway Regional Group and begins service in Louisiana.
1994	Expands into Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Mississippi.
1995	Consolidation of Central, Coles, Spartan and Viking Freight Systems into Viking Freight Inc. is announced. Central’s Waco corporate HQ starts closure.
1996	Becomes the Southwestern Division of Viking Freight Inc.
1997	Investment group led by senior Central management purchases assets of former CFL from Viking Freight and reopens as a new Central Freight Lines.
1999	Expands into California and Nevada.
2009	CFL Network provides service to Idaho, Utah, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
2013	Acquires Circle Delivery of Tennessee.
2014	Acquires DTI, a Georgia LTL carrier.
2017	Acquires Wilson; new division created with an increase of 80 terminals.
2020	Wins Carrier of the Year from GlobalTranz. Acquires Volunteer Express Inc. of Dresden, Tennessee.

Source: Central Freight Lines

Warehouse cramming is about to begin — Freightonomics

nVision Global, is a leading Global Freight Audit, Supply Chain Management Services company offering enterprise-wide supply chain solutions. With over 4,000 global business “Partners”, nVision Global not only provides prompt, accurate Freight Audit Solutions, but also providing industry-leading Supply Chain Information Management solutions and services necessary to help its clients maximize efficiencies within their supply chain. To learn more, visit www.nvisionglobal.com

Warehouse space is at a premium right now and with peak season right around the corner, shippers are starting to scramble for space.

Zach Strickland and Anthony Smith look into what shippers are doing to prepare for the end-of-year crunch. They welcome Zac Rogers from Colorado State University to the show to talk through the industry tightness.

The three also talk about the latest Logistics Managers Index results and what they mean for the fourth quarter of 2021.

You can find more Freightonomics episodes and recaps for all our live podcasts here.

Seasonality pushing rejections and rates higher ahead of the Fourth

This week’s DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index: 75 (Carriers)

Last week’s DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index: 70 (Carriers)

Three-month DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index Outlook: 70 (Carriers)

The DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index uses the analytics and data in FreightWaves SONAR to analyze the market and estimate the negotiating power for rates between shippers and carriers.

The Pricing Power Index is based on the following indicators:

Load volumes: Absolute levels positive for carriers, momentum neutral

The Outbound Tender Volume Index at 15,980 is nominally higher now than basically at any point in the past 12 months with the exception of the week prior to Thanksgiving/Black Friday last year. OTVI captures all electronic tenders, including rejected ones, so when accounting for the rejection rate, we can get an even more accurate look at volumes.

OTVI rose through the back half of May into the national holiday and has risen even further since. Throughout the back half of May and into the middle of June, tender rejections declined substantially. Meaning, current volume throughput is actually understated when comparing OTVI now to OTVI in November 2020. After adjusting for rejected tenders, the accepted outbound tender volume index is just 2.2% below the 2020 peak in November. At that time, OTVI surged towards 17,000, but the rejection rate moved in-kind towards its natural ceiling of 28%. So, the total accepted freight tenders in mid-June is comparable to the peakiest of peak seasons in 2020. Incredible.

However, since the middle of June, tender rejections have begun increasing again heading into Independence Day, a time when many drivers spend time off the road with their families. The move higher in OTVI this week has been driven primarily by higher rejection rates, rather than higher freight demand.

Over the past month, the drivers of freight volumes have continued to be imports and from just about every port. The west coast continues to provide seemingly non-stop container ships, while Houston, New Orleans, Miami and Savannah are seeing very strong throughput as well.

It is van volumes that are driving freight markets higher right now. The Reefer Outbound Tender Volume index has tumbled 25% since its all-time high in the weeks after the polar vortex in February. Since Memorial Day, ROTVI has fallen another 10.5%. This is likely a factor of declining grocery demand, but I would expect the trend to reverse course in the near future as summer festivities accelerate.

Dry van volumes pushed higher in the back half of May and into June while reefer volumes have declined significantly.

SONAR: VOTVI.USA (Blue); ROTVI.USA (Green)

The congestion at our nation’s ports has spread from Los Angeles and Long Beach to Oakland, California. The California coastline is a parking lot of container ships, most of which are full to the brim with imports, awaiting berth. As detailed in the economic section, there are some signs that the reversion is underway with Americans paring back spending on pandemic superstar categories in favor of airlines, lodging and entertainment. But spending remains strong despite the moderation, and low inventory levels offset much of the decline that will occur from slowing demand. Real inventories are 3% higher now than pre-pandemic, but real sales growth is far outpacing inventory growth, leading to the lowest inventory-to-sales ratio in decades.

On the manufacturing side, the ISM Manufacturing PMI expanded in May after declining in April. We’ve been in expansionary territory for 12 consecutive months. New orders, production, imports/exports and employment are all growing. The major issues should come as no surprise: Deliveries are slowing, backlogs are growing and inventories are too low.

In all, there are many, many catalysts to keep freight demand strong for the foreseeable future. Americans are traveling and spending on services at a high clip, but the high savings rate is enabling it to occur without a massive detriment to goods spending.

SONAR: OTVI.USA (2021 – Blue; 2020 – Green; 2019 – Orange; 2018 – Purple)

Tender rejections: Absolute level and momentum positive for carriers

After declining steadily from mid-March to mid-May, the Outbound Tender Reject Index has reversed course heading into Independence Day. This is typical for a national holiday as carriers selectively choose loads to bring drivers closer to home. OTRI now sits above 25% for the first time in June.

One of our newest indices in SONAR gives us the ability to compare markets on as close to an apples-to-apples basis as possible. FreightWaves’ Carrier Trend Market Score indices are divided into two perspectives – shipper/broker and carrier. The scores are positioned on a scale from 1-100 and have values measuring van and refrigerated (reefer) capacity. The higher values represent more favorable trends for whichever perspective. For instance, a value near the high-end of the range would suggest very favorable conditions for carriers in our carrier capacity trend score index.

For the past several weeks, capacity disparities have been driven by import volumes. The markets with the tightest carrier capacity coincide with the nation’s busiest ports. Ontario, California, Savannah, Georgia, and Atlanta all have carrier capacity trend market scores of 100.

SONAR: Capacity Trend Market Score (Carriers – VAN)

By mode. Reefer rejection rates tumbled from it’s all-time high in March to under 35% in mid-June before popping higher over the past two weeks. Reefer rejections are still quite high from a historical standpoint at 38%, but are significantly lower than just three months ago when reefer carriers were rejecting half of all electronically tendered loads.

SONAR: VOTRI.USA (Blue); ROTRI.USA (Orange)

Dry van tenders make up the majority of all tenders, so the van rejection rate mirrors the aggregate index closely. Van rejections have surged from ~23% to ~26% over the past two weeks.

Yes, one-in-four loads being rejected is not ideal, but it’s better than 30%. I am unaware of any meaningful signals that capacity is being added at a rate that would change my outlook. With so many catalysts for demand, and many constraints on drivers including the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, driver training school closures and continued government unemployment benefits, the outlook is tight throughout this year and into 2022. That’s not to say we won’t see improvement as consumers revert to pre-pandemic spending habits and drivers enter or reenter the market. But I’m not expecting any quick reversal of this environment; there are simply too many catalysts driving volume and suppressing capacity.

SONAR: OTRI.USA (2020/21 – Blue; 2020 – Green; 2019 – Orange)

Freight rates: Absolute level and momentum positive for carriers

Throughout June, spot rates have moderated while contract rates have pushed higher. The Truckstop.com dry van rate per mile (incl. fuel) has fallen from $3.21 to $3.11 since the beginning of June, while FreightWaves van contract rates have risen from $2.50 to $2.59/mile, exclusive of fuel.

I still believe the Truckstop.com dry van national average will not retest the post-vortex surge pricing that brought spot rates up to an all-time high of $3.30. But, there aren’t many catalysts to bring spot rates down anytime soon either. Demand is unwavering with continued strong consumer goods demand, humming industrial recovery and a potentially cooling, yet still sizzling, hot housing market. And carriers can’t fill enough trucks to keep up with demand.

Prior to the seasonal movements we’re seeing in tender rejections, routing guides generally had been improving through Q2. We should continue to see a convergence between spot and contract rates, but spot rates will remain historically very elevated throughout the summer as demand simply outstrips capacity.

SONAR: TSTOPVRPM.USA (Blue); VCRPM1.USA (Green)

Economic stats: Momentum and absolute level neutral

Several economic releases this week are worth noting.

Weekly jobless claims were released Thursday and give us one of the best close-to-real-time indicators of the overall economy. This week, the data was again very promising as the labor market continues on a bumpy but trajectorially stable recovery path.

First-time filings totaled 411,000 for the week ended June 19, a slight decrease from the previous total of 418,000 but worse than the 380,000 Dow Jones estimate, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Initial claims have held above 400,000 for consecutive weeks after falling to a pandemic low of 374,000 three weeks ago. As things stand, the current level of initial claims is about double where it was prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The good news on the jobs front is that continuing claims are on the decline, falling to 3.39 million, a drop of 144,000. That number runs a week behind the headline claims total.

Initial jobless claims (weekly in May 2020-May 2021)

At the time of writing, the newest weekly data for the week ending May 29 had not been updated in SONAR. This week, claims fell from 405,000 to 385,000.

SONAR: IJC.USA

Consumer. Turning to consumer spending, as measured by Bank of America weekly card (both debit and credit) spending data, total card spending (TCS) in the latest week accelerated to 22% over 2019. This is the first time in June that TCS has topped 20% over 2019, but spending has been running up 16-19% consistently on a two-year comp for months. For contect, the average pre-pandemic two-year growth rate was about 8% (from 2012 to 2019).

The Bank of America team highlighted service spending in the nation’s two largest state economies, California and New York, which are now fully reopened. Spending at restaurants is now well above 2019 in both states, and the team believes there is more capacity for spending to accelerate in the states that were slower to reopen given pent-up demand.

There was also a notable acceleration in spending on clothing this week, according to Bank of America. It could be a reversal from some softening in the early weeks of June, or an indication of people refreshing wardrobes ahead of a return to work, more travel and vacations. One tepid statement for freight markets from this week;s report: Leisure spending is on the rise and durable goods spending is flatlining.

FreightWaves’ Flatbed Outbound Tender Reject Index, both a measure of relative demand and capacity, moves directionally with the ISM PMI.

SONAR: ISM.PMI (Blue); FOTRI.USA (Green)

Manufacturing. Over the past two weeks, regional manufacturing surveys have reported generally positive readings amid logistical challenges. The New York Fed’s Empire State business conditions index declined 6.9 points to 17.4 in June, retreating from strong readings the past two months. The Empire State Index is a diffusion index with a baseline of zero; any reading above zero indicates improving or expansionary conditions.

Delivery times lengthened to a new record during the month, new orders and shipments fell, and inventories entered negative territory. The supply chain and transportation challenges are as visible upstream as downstream, but overall the manufacturing sector is handling. Growth continued throughout the second quarter in both the Empire State and Philly Fed indices.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s business activity index edged lower to a still robust 30.7 in June from 31.5 in the prior month. Unlike NY, the pace of shipments growth accelerated in the Philly region during June. The employment subcomponent rose to a very healthy 30.7 from 19.3 last month, the regional bank said.

Record-long lead times, wide-scale shortages of critical basic materials, rising commodities prices and difficulties in transporting products are continuing to affect all segments of the manufacturing economy, but demand remains strong.

For more information on the FreightWaves Freight Intel Group, please contact Kevin Hill at khill@www.freightwaves.com or Andrew Cox at acox@www.freightwaves.com.

Check out the newest episodes of our podcast, Great Quarter, Guys, here.

Project44 acquires ClearMetal to strengthen predictive tools

Project44, a leader in real-time visibility of the global supply chain, announced on Thursday it has acquired ClearMetal, a San Francisco-based supply chain planning software company that focuses on international freight visibility, predictive planning and overall customer experience. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

ClearMetal, founded by top software engineers and data scientists from Stanford, Google and other Silicon Valley elites, has created a “continuous delivery experience” that leverages proprietary machine learning algorithms that can forecast supply chain disruptions.

In an interview, Jason Duboe, chief growth officer at project44, explained that bringing in ClearMetal’s elite team is essential for the company’s future predictive solutions.

“Their team construct is fundamentally different. When you look at their data science, machine learning and computer science background, they are best in class,” he said. “Applying the team to solve really interesting challenges, starting with highly predictive ETA and deeper exception management to create more predictive analytics is really a key component here.”

Project44 recently acquired Ocean Insights to gain global supply chain vessel visibility and has announced it has expanded its truckload tracking services within Asia. Bringing on this new team of engineers will allow the company to capitalize on strong predictive tools, strengthening the supply chain of its customers.

“We’re going to be expanding deeper into Asia, and from a port perspective, getting data much earlier than competitors,” explained Duboe. “Our freight forwarder integrations will give us much deeper visibility from an end-to-end perspective in these regions.”

Along with the acquired skills the ClearMetal team will bring to project44, it brings a large book of customers, including large CPGs, retailers, manufacturers, distributors and chemical companies. These advanced use cases will strengthen the predictive planning tools, and project44 continues to expand into different customer markets.

“What we gain from ClearMetal is a holistic platform for anybody that joins the platform in the future,” said Duboe. “They have large customers with incredibly demanding and advanced use cases. So when it comes to order and inventory, functionality, supplier onboarding, and moving upstream into those processes, we can capture exceptions earlier on.”

Click here for more articles by Grace Sharkey.

Project44 expands real-time visibility into China

Project44 reels in Ocean Insights in ‘largest acquisition in visibility space’

‘Project44’s vision has always been global’

Mudflap acquires AI capacity platform Parade

Parade podium and large screens displaying the company’s AI capacity management platform at “The Future of Supply Chain” conference stage

Mudflap has completed its acquisition of Parade. The deal pairs Mudflap’s location-verified carrier network with Parade’s capacity management platform for brokers, which has facilitated more than $40 billion in total cumulative freight transactions.

Mudflap boasts more than 515,000 drivers across over 100,000 verified carriers. The Palo Alto-based fintech company provides fuel discount solutions to carriers via a location-aware mobile app and fuel card. Mudflap was founded in 2019 by Sanjay Desai and Sharon Yapp. Desai was the former chief product officer at Trucker Path.

Parade was founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Anthony Sutardja, Tony Wu and Preet Sivia. Parade provides brokerages with a capacity management and carrier relationship platform that integrates with existing TMS platforms. Parade’s last major funding round was a $17 million Series B in 2023 led by I Squared Capital and Menlo Ventures.

At a time when finding reliable capacity is increasingly becoming a challenge, Mudflap will enable Parade brokers to access one of the largest networks of verified carriers in the industry.

3PL marketing spend efficiency diverged dramatically in Q4: LeadCoverage

As the freight cycle shows signs of heating up, third-party logistics (3PL) providers and freight brokers face a critical window to capture new customers. Yet a new benchmark from LeadCoverage warns that not all marketing dollars are created equal. The company’s Supply Chain Growth Index (SCGI) for Q4 2025 shows a sharply widening performance gap in how effectively logistics firms turn go-to-market (GTM) spending into qualified pipeline.

The SCGI, a quarterly benchmark of GTM efficiency and pipeline impact in supply chain and logistics, is built on anonymized data from roughly 30 LeadCoverage clients. Its core metric, the Logistics Growth Efficiency Ratio (LGER), measures pipeline created (sales-accepted leads and opportunities) divided by total GTM spend. Unlike traditional metrics that focus on closed deals, LGER isolates what the marketing and sales engine itself can control.

In Q4 2025, the median LGER fell to just $4.84 in pipeline per dollar of GTM spend, down sharply from prior quarters. The mean held at $25.74, but the range exploded to $0.36–$204.30. Six companies exceeded $20 LGER, with top performers reaching approximately $200 in pipeline per dollar spent. Those elite programs drove a disproportionate share of total pipeline impact across the dataset.

In other words, among 3PLs, marketing performance bifurcated dramatically. Low performers (bottom 25 percent with an LGER below $8) generated far less pipeline per dollar, often relying on legacy outbound dialing, minimal account-based marketing (ABM), and little paid media. Mid-range companies (middle 50 percent) hovered between $8 and $55 but risk sliding into the bottom quartile if they stand still. High performers (top 25 percent, above $55) dramatically widened the gap through data-forward strategies.

LeadCoverage CEO Kara Brown, whose firm provides end-to-end GTM services to freight and logistics companies, said the divergence reflects deliberate investment choices.

“We believe there are three strategies that work in freight, and if you’re following them, are you able to beat the market?” Brown told FreightWaves. “As we study our clients who are beating the market, we’re going to learn over time what makes a great GTM strategy that gives a logistics service provider an actual edge.”

LeadCoverage itself operates the full GTM engine for its clients. The 40-person team handles revenue operations, CRM and marketing automation, email campaigns, content, initial lead qualification and dialing, and heavy investment in paid media, programmatic advertising, and ABM. The company also helped shape Gartner’s Redwood 4PL Magic Quadrant and positions itself at the cutting edge of AI applications in freight marketing.

Brown modeled the SCGI after Greg Crabtree’s “Simple Numbers” small-business benchmarks. With only 30-ish clients in supply chain and logistics, LeadCoverage anonymized their data to answer freight-specific questions: Is a 20 percent open rate good? Is $7 per click acceptable? More importantly, how much pipeline should a dollar of combined marketing and sales spend (minus headcount costs) realistically generate?

The market backdrop makes these questions urgent. Freight activity in 2025 never followed a classic recovery. Imports surged to $419 billion in March as shippers front-loaded ahead of tariff changes, but manufacturing remained in contraction with an ISM PMI of 49.1. Export orders were weaker still. Operating costs hit record levels at $2.26 per mile, compressing margins. Activity levels, the report notes, became a “poor proxy for underlying market health.”

In this environment, Brown explained, efficient GTM spending separates winners from the rest. “The ones who are crushing it are pulling away from the pack,” she said. “I would like to believe this is a result of really good GTM strategy and investing in AI and what’s coming.”

High performers share common traits: strong adoption of intent data, sustained ABM execution, programmatic and paid media investment, and tight sales-marketing alignment. Intent data comes in multiple forms. Primary intent lives inside a company’s own CRM (typically HubSpot), flagging when a decision-maker visits the website; top clients act within minutes. Secondary and broader signals scan the internet for shipper “pain before the pain”, when they’re searching for services that match a 3PL’s offerings. Providers such as CarrierSource and Bombora supply these signals, though Brown noted AI tools like Claude, Clay, and ChatGPT are democratizing access. The real differentiator, she said, is execution: “How you use those intent signals to target the human that should be your customer is probably the biggest gap we see.”

As freight volumes potentially rebound and shippers seek new partners, 3PLs investing in modern GTM tools can generate scalable, measurable pipeline without simply “banging the phones.” Underperformers risk wasting spend on transient demand or outdated tactics.

LeadCoverage plans to release its third index in the coming months, with early indications that market tightening in Q1 and Q2 2026 may further reward precision GTM. Brown expects the spread between leaders and laggards to continue widening.

For freight executives, the SCGI offers a new operating baseline. The median $4.84 LGER is today’s midpoint, but top performers operate four to ten times above it. 2026 is shaping up to be a year when 3PLs have the best opportunity to add new customers they’ve had since COVID. LeadCoverage’s report suggests that smart marketing spend, powered by AI, intent data, and disciplined execution, will increasingly determine who wins market share and who simply watches from the sidelines.

Small trucking firms file wave of bankruptcies across U.S.

A string of small trucking and logistics companies across the U.S. have filed for bankruptcy protection in recent weeks, underscoring continued financial pressure on smaller carriers as freight demand remains uneven and costs stay elevated.

The filings include Liberty Carriers Inc., NAS Logistics LLC, Golden Spirit Freight LLC, NV Freight Inc., Star One Transport LLC, and PSS Trucking Inc., spanning jurisdictions from California and Texas to Illinois and Florida.

While larger carriers may have begun to stabilize, this wave of bankruptcies suggests the small-carrier segment remains under significant strain heading into 2026.

Small fleets, mixed scale operators caught in downturn

The bankruptcies span a wide range of fleet sizes — from single-truck operators to mid-sized regional carriers — highlighting how stress is hitting both micro fleets and scaling operators.

NV Freight Inc., based in the Chicago area, had a fleet of about 52 tractors and 52 drivers hauling general freight. Despite its size, the company filed for Chapter 11 in April and disclosed liabilities up to $10 million.

NAS Logistics LLC, headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas, is a medium-sized carrier with 27 trucks and 25 drivers, logging more than 2.6 million miles in 2024. It filed for Chapter 11 with $100K–$500K in assets and up to $10M in liabilities.

Liberty Carriers Inc., based in Livermore, California, operated 8 power units and 8 drivers hauling general freight and building materials. The company filed for Chapter 11 on Thursday, reporting $100K–$500K in assets and $1M–$10M in liabilities.

Micro-carriers among hardest hit

Several filings involved extremely small operators — a segment widely viewed as the most vulnerable in the current freight cycle.

Star One Transport LLC, based in Miami, operated just one truck and one driver, hauling general freight and specialized cargo such as lithium batteries. The company filed for Chapter 11 on April 3.

PSS Trucking Inc., headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, operated 3 trucks and 3 drivers in interstate freight service. A related entity, PSS Trucking LLC, shows similar small-scale operations with one truck and one driver. The company filed for Chapter 11 in late March.

These filings reinforce a broader industry trend: single-truck and small fleet operators are often the first to exit when spot rates soften and financing costs rise.

Liquidation signals deeper distress

Not all companies are attempting to reorganize.

Golden Spirit Freight LLC, based in Hemet, California, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation, reporting less than $50,000 in assets and under $100,000 in liabilities.

Chapter 7 filings typically indicate a shutdown rather than a restructuring effort.

Trucker Path integrates Truckstop.com load board

Blue semi-truck driving on a busy multi-lane highway with other trucks and vehicles at golden hour

Trucker Path carriers will soon have access to more than 10 times the loads they see today.

A new integration with Truckstop.com’s load board, announced Tuesday, brings the feed into Trucker Path’s TruckLoads digital freight exchange. Brokers now reach more than 1 million professional drivers while the platform maintains its existing controls on fraud prevention and carrier vetting.

Phoenix-based Trucker Path serves those same 1 million-plus drivers through its mobile app. The tool provides truck-specific navigation, real-time parking availability, fuel prices and weigh station updates.

Idaho-based Truckstop.com is one of the largest neutral freight marketplaces in the industry. Its solutions cover the full freight lifecycle, from load matching to payment processing.

How the Integration Works

TruckLoads users can now access Truckstop.com loads directly in the app through a subscription. The integration increases load visibility for carriers and gives brokers additional options for coverage.

“This new partnership that makes the Truckstop load feed available in our TruckLoads app will increase load availability to our users more than tenfold — helping our users find the right loads more easily and helping brokers get their loads covered more easily,” said Chris Oliver, chief marketing officer at Trucker Path. “It’s a prime example of leading technology providers coming together to benefit drivers, brokers and shippers.”

Carriers have long switched between multiple platforms in search of quality loads. Brokers have faced challenges reaching enough trusted drivers quickly in a fragmented network. The integration is intended to address those issues.

Both companies said security and carrier standards remain unchanged.

“Technology partnerships like this help keep freight moving across the country by giving carriers and brokers more ways to connect and work together,” said Scott Moscrip, founder and CEO of Truckstop.com. “By bringing Truckstop loads into the Trucker Path ecosystem, we are expanding access to higher quality freight, helping brokers reach a more trusted network of carriers, and supporting the drivers and businesses that keep the U.S. supply chain running every day.”

Moscrip said every carrier accessing Truckstop freight through the integration must meet the same standards that existing Truckstop.com customers follow.

“Security and fraud prevention remain a top priority,” he said.

The companies operate independently. The integration does not create a legal partnership, joint venture or agency relationship between the parties.

Benchmark diesel price ends its 12-week streak of increases

The Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration benchmark diesel price fell for the first time Monday after 12 weeks of increases.

An increase of 3.5 cents/gallon, published Tuesday but effective a day earlier, put the price at $5.608/g. During the run of a dozen increases in the price used for most fuel surcharges, the DOE/EIA price rose $2.184/g.

With retail prices lagging futures prices, it’s difficult to guess what comes next, though a decrease seems more likely.

Ultra low sulfur diesel on the CME settled Tuesday at $3.6243/g. That was down almost 21 cts/g on the day, a decline of 5.47%.

That Tuesday settlement is just over 85 cts/g less than where it settled a week ago, just before the first talk of a ceasefire and peace talks pushed down prices.

Even with the normal retail lag, that sort of decline, barring a big turn upward in price, should result in further declines at the pump.

But on the same day that lower DOE/EIA price appeared, so did the monthly report of the International Energy Agency. The numbers in there were stark as a reminder that short-term declines in price in reaction to headlines are not necessarily indicative of the scope of long-term supply disruptions.

Among the key points in the report:

Average March global crude output was down 10.1 million barrels/day from February. The IEA reiterated that the current slide in output is “the largest disruption in history.” With the fall in March output, first quarter supply, according to the IEA, was 103.6 million b/d. The full year average for 2025 was 106.2 million b/d.
The economic impact of the war will result in a global oil demand contraction this year of 80,000 b/d. This is notable for two reasons: first, outside of COVID or possibly the Asian economic crisis of the late 90’s, global oil demand rises every year. An outright decline is extremely rare. The original forecast was an increase of about 700,000 b/d this year. Second, a decline of 80,000 bd is nowhere near adequate to destroy enough demand to balance markets if the constraints to supply continue.
The IEA estimates that oil moving out of the Persian Gulf through other routes, such as the pipeline that crosses Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, are up to 7.2 million b/d from less than 4 million b/d before the war started. But the overall loss in output is 360 million barrels in March and a projected 440 million barrels this month.
Oil markets were supplied by about 85 million barrels coming out of inventory in March. That is a large amount. Projecting ahead, the IEA looked at the balance between supply and demand going forward, and said it will result in a global “call” on inventories of 6 million b/d, which it said was “untenable.” “This suggests further deliberate demand reduction efforts will rapidly be required to balance the market and avoid even deeper economic damage,” the IEA said.

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Yield discipline, fuel price surge driving LTL rates to new highs in Q2

a white tractor pulling two LTL pup trailers on a highway

Trucking rate indexes surged in the first quarter, propelled by a spike in diesel fuel prices amid dwindling truckload capacity. These trends are expected to weigh on shippers’ budgets as the freight cycle has now inflected, according to a quarterly report from 3PL AFS Logistics and financial services firm TD Cowen.

Less-than-truckload rates remained elevated as carriers’ focus on yield improvement was amplified by higher fuel prices. The LTL rate-per-pound component of the TD Cowen-AFS Freight Index stood 66.9% above its January 2018 baseline during the seasonally weak first quarter. That was 90 basis points lower than the fourth quarter but 300 bps higher year over year.

The dataset is expected to come in 68.4% above the baseline in the second quarter, 520 bps higher y/y. That would mark a new high and 10 straight y/y increases.

Weight per shipment increased 3.8% from the fourth quarter, the first sequential increase in two years. The improvement comes as the industrial complex, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of LTL revenue, appears to be shaking off a three-year downturn.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing was in expansion territory in every month of the first quarter. While sentiment from survey respondents was tepid, flagging ongoing tariff- and Iran-war-related demand concerns, the new orders index also remained positive all three months. (Changes in PMI data usually lead LTL volumes by a couple of months.)

Higher shipment weights and fuel prices pushed LTL cost per shipment 3% higher sequentially in the quarter, keeping the cost dataset more than 40% above the baseline.

“For quarter after quarter, LTL pricing stability seemed to hinge on carriers resisting the temptation to ‘buy’ volumes with pricing concessions as they weathered a stubbornly long demand trough,” said Mich Fabriga, vice president of LTL pricing at AFS Logistics. “Now fuel prices are primed to make a lasting impact and we’re finally seeing some signs of recovering demand.”

Higher shipment weights and fuel surcharges are both accretive to LTL carrier margins.

The first-quarter LTL earnings season begins Apr. 28 when ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB) reports before the market opens.

TL rate index hits 13-quarter high

The TL rate-per-mile component of the index increased 140 bps sequentially in the first quarter (up 280 bps y/y) to a level that was 9% above the 2018 baseline. The fuel price spike and heightened regulatory enforcement drove the increase.

“The cumulative effect of carriers leaving the market and strict regulatory enforcement continues to constrain capacity, driving a steady supply-side push to higher truckload pricing,” the report said.

The rate-per-mile dataset is expected to increase 110 bps sequentially to 10.1% in the second quarter. The result would mark a 420-bp y/y increase.

Truckload linehaul cost per shipment increased 10.2% sequentially in the first quarter with miles per shipment up 8.2%. A rebound in long-haul shipments, storm disruptions and tight capacity drove cost per shipment to a two-year high.

SONAR: National Truckload Index (linehaul only – NTIL.USA) *for 2026 (blue shaded area), 2025 (yellow line), 2024 (green line) and 2023 (pink line)*. The NTIL is based on an average of booked spot dry van loads from 250,000 lanes. The NTIL is a seven-day moving average of linehaul spot rates excluding fuel. Spot rates remain notably higher on a y/y comparison in April. *To learn more about SONAR, click here.*

“While the term ‘new normal’ may conjure unpleasant memories of the COVID era, businesses should brace themselves for a new normal of elevated fuel costs,” said AFS CEO Andy Dyer. “Not only do the structural causes that spurred this spike take time to unwind, the related pricing changes, particularly in parcel, tend to be ‘sticky’ with effects that linger even after the underlying price of fuel recedes.”

The first-quarter TL earnings season begins Wednesday when J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ: JBHT) reports after the market closes.

AFS Logistics is a non-asset-based 3PL providing audit and cost management services, managed transportation, and freight brokerage. It has visibility into more than $39 billion in annual freight spend.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

Average March volume was actually good news for the Port of Los Angeles

March imports were weaker year-on-year but the busiest U.S. container port still managed to play up to the back of its baseball card.

The Port of Los Angeles handled 752,520 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) in March, off 3% from the same month a year ago as geopolitics and economic uncertainty overshadowed the beginning of the months-long run-up to the peak shipping season.

Compared to 2025, when shippers rushed to bring in goods ahead of sharply increased tariffs to close out the first quarter, Los Angeles processed a respectable 2,388,843 TEUs.

“Even with the seasonal slowdown tied to Lunar New Year, cargo flow in March was solid and our first quarter performance was consistent with our five-year trend,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, in a media briefing. “In today’s uncertain environment, consistency matters – and we’re staying ahead of things so our waterfront workers and partners can continue to deliver reliable, efficient operations for our customers.”

Unsettled tariff policy and rising inflation combined with broader economic impacts of the conflict in the Middle East, Seroka said, particularly soaring fuel prices, are weighing on consumers and business.

Loaded imports totaled 380,733 TEUs in March, a narrow 1% lower y/y. Loaded exports were better by 7% at 132,129 TEUs — the most since May 2024. The San Pedro Bay hub processed 239,658 empty container units, weaker by 11% y/y.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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UPS expands deployment of automated package sensors to improve tracking

A person affixes an RFID tracking label to a parcel.

United Parcel Service said Tuesday it has completed the second-phase deployment of radio frequency identification package sensing technology across its small package network, boosting productivity by eliminating the need for handheld scans and giving shippers better ability to closely track the status of parcels from drop-off to delivery.

RFID sensors are now installed in all UPS (NYSE: UPS) package delivery vehicles in the United States, in delivery stations and on every package shipped through more than 5,500 UPS Store locations, including on customer returns, according to a news release. Technology to print RFID labels was deployed to all UPS Stores by the end of 2025, the company previously said.

UPS has been using RFID for certain high-value products and pharmaceutical shipments for several years, but has now become the first major logistics provider to roll out RFID technology at scale across an integrated network.

The Atlanta-based logistics provider has invested more than $100 million to develop and implement RFID and plans to continue expanding the system. Later this year, the company will begin equipping regional sortation hubs, bringing RFID tracking capability to the middle mile, officials say. Aircraft will also eventually be equipped with RFID sensors.

*An RFID reader in the roof of a package car tracks packages with sensors embedded in the label. (Photo: UPS)*

Executives have previously estimated the technology would eliminate 20 million manual scans per day for workers loading package cars.

“I think it is significant” in terms of reducing costs for UPS and enabling customers to better see where their packages are, said Chris Sheridan, director of supply chain services at LJM, a parcel spend management firm. In addition to eliminating handheld scans, RFID can provide redundant tracking of packages that are currently scanned on conveyor belt sorters where scans can be missed if a package lays on top of another package, blocking the label from being read, he added.

The RFID investment is part of UPS’s multiyear transformation initiative, called Network of the Future, which involves shrinking the ground delivery footprint and automating remaining facilities to maintain volume throughput and service levels.

UPS began its so-called “smart package” RFID initiative at about 100 facilities in 2022. UPS completed the RFID rollout across U.S. facilities in mid-2023 and subsequently began to equip package cars with RFID readers.

In addition to The UPS Store, RFID labels are currently being printed at final-mile package facilities for packages that haven’t been tagged further upstream. Misloads have dropped by nearly 70% since UPS started using the technology three years ago, according to the company. When packages go the wrong destination and have to be retrieved it costs parcel carriers extra money.

“We’re lighting up customers’ supply chains in real time with RFID, enabling precise tracking, faster insights, a smarter network and smarter packages,” said Matt Guffey, chief commercial and strategy officer, in the announcement. “This is the most significant visibility advancement in the past decade at UPS and in our industry.”

The shipping industry has relied on scanners for nearly three decades. By evolving from scanning to sensing technology, costumes will get precise visibility during the entire package journey. Automatic sensing reduces errors, giving UPS and customers actionable and predictable information much earlier in the process, UPS said.

RFID sensors in vehicles confirm packages have been loaded and are in UPS’s possession. They automatically sense packages as they move through the network, allowing the carrier to respond faster to weather changes or other unexpected events.

During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Jan. 27, CEO Carol Tomé said the next pillar of the RFID strategy is smart fulfillment, defined as “putting the RFID labeling at the point of origin, which gives better transparency order to cash.” UPS Stores are processing 1.3 million packages a day with RFID labeling,“allowing us to earn new commercial business,” she said.

Rival FedEx also has developed sophisticated tracking technologies for high-value shipments that require constant monitoring. FedEx’s use of RFID is currently limited to high-value and healthcare shipments, much the way UPS started with the technology. The FedEx Surround system also uses bluetooth technology and WiFi to read labels with sensors hundreds of times during the shipping process. The company has recently outlined ambitious IT initiatives to expand shipment tracking capabilities across all packages using a variety of sensors and analytics technology and has told large customers it wants to add RFID scanners in their processing network.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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U.S.-Mexico trade hits $73B in February as border capacity tightens

Mexico remained the United States’ largest trading partner in February, totaling $73.2 billion in two-way commerce, highlighting the durability of cross-border supply chains despite broader trade headwinds.

Bilateral trade between the U.S. and Mexico was up about 7% year over year, maintaining Mexico’s No. 1 ranking among U.S. trading partners, according to U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by WorldCity.

The total included $28.9 billion in U.S. exports to Mexico and $44.3 billion in imports, reflecting continued strength in northbound manufacturing and consumer goods flows.

Mexico’s continued hold on the No. 1 spot reflects sustained demand for cross-border capacity — even as cost pressures, regulatory changes and tariff uncertainty reshape how that freight moves.

Laredo remains a key gateway

Port Laredo, Texas, ranked as the No. 2 international trade gateway in February, trailing only John F. Kennedy International Airport, reinforcing its central role in U.S.-Mexico commerce.

Laredo alone handled more than $29 billion in trade with Mexico during the month, accounting for the overwhelming majority of cross-border flows by value.

The concentration of freight moving through Texas border crossings continues to shape capacity, pricing and infrastructure demand across trucking and intermodal networks.

Trade flows between the two countries remain heavily tied to manufacturing supply chains and energy markets.

Key U.S. exports to Mexico:

Computer parts ($2.84B)
Gasoline and other fuels ($2.03B)
Computers ($1.54B)
Motor vehicle parts ($1.46B)
Semiconductors and electronic components

Key U.S. imports from Mexico:

Computers ($8.86B)
Motor vehicle parts ($2.85B)
Passenger vehicles ($2.72B)
Commercial vehicles ($2.64B)
Electronics and consumer goods

At a broader level, U.S. trade data shows imports rising in categories such as computers, semiconductors and automotive products, while exports were driven by industrial supplies, energy and services, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

The U.S. recorded a $16.8 billion trade deficit with Mexico in February, driven by higher imports and slightly lower exports during the month, the BEA reported.

Still, total bilateral trade remains elevated, with $147 billion in two-way commerce through the first two months of 2026, reinforcing Mexico’s position as the top supplier of goods to the U.S.

Retailers push to preserve USMCA stability

Industry groups say the strength of U.S.-Mexico trade flows underscores the importance of maintaining policy stability under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

In a joint statement, the National Retail Federation and its North American counterparts emphasized that “the integrated nature of our retail supply chains” depends on preserving seamless cross-border movement of goods, NRF said in a news release.

The groups added that maintaining tariff-free trade and a trilateral framework is essential to keeping costs predictable for businesses and consumers.

C.H. Robinson: Strong volumes, rising pressure

Logistics provider C.H. Robinson (Nasdaq: CHRW) said cross-border freight demand remains solid, particularly for northbound shipments into the U.S., even as cost pressures build.

“The defining challenge for shippers in Q2 is not demand but securing reliable capacity,” the company said in its April freight market update, noting tightening conditions across key export and cross-docking lanes.

The report also highlighted:

Rising diesel prices and labor costs in Mexico
Increasing insurance premiums
Tightening driver availability and compliance requirements

Despite those pressures, strong intermediate goods imports and manufacturing activity continue to support freight volumes moving across the border.

Cass data shows freight market tightened further in March

March data from Cass Information Systems showed freight shipment declines narrowed while rates continued to move higher.

Cass’ (NASDAQ: CASS) multimodal shipments index increased 3% sequentially in March (up 1% seasonally adjusted), building on a 10.4% increase in February (plus-4.3% seasonally adjusted). The index was down just 4.5% year over year in the recent month, the smallest y/y decline since June. On a two-year comparison, freight volumes tracked by Cass were off less than 10%.

March 2026	y/y	2-year	m/m	m/m (SA)
Shipments	-4.5%	-9.5%	3.0%	1.0%
Expenditures	4.2%	2.1%	4.9%	2.4%
TL Linehaul Index	1.8%	3.4%	-0.5%	NM

Table: Cass Information Systems (SA – seasonally adjusted)

The dataset has lagged other indicators, which are showing a more upbeat demand environment.

Cass data includes a significant mix of less-than-truckload transactions. Less-than-truckload demand is weighted to the industrial economy, which has been under pressure for the majority of the past three years. However, an LTL inflection may be nearing as the Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing has signaled growth in the first three months of the year.

The Tuesday report said the shipments index is “starting to catch up with other indicators” as “tightness in dry van truckload (TL) conditions is starting to radiate to other markets.” The index is expected to be off 5% y/y in April, assuming normal seasonal patterns hold, moving into positive territory in the back half of the year (plus-1.5% is the current forecast).

Even with the volume headwind, Cass’ expenditures index, which measures total freight spend including fuel, increased 4.9% from February (up 2.4% seasonally adjusted). A 4.2% y/y increase during the month coupled with the 4.5% decline in volumes implies actual freight rates were roughly 9% higher in the month. However, changes in freight mix can alter the implied rate assumption.

SONAR: Outbound Tender Rejection Index (OTRI.USA) for 2026 (blue shaded area), 2025 (yellow line), 2024 (green line) and 2023 (pink line). A proxy for truck capacity, the tender rejection index shows the number of loads being rejected by carriers. Current tender rejections show a tightened truckload market. *To learn more about SONAR, click here.*

The report said a recent survey of midsize and large fleets showed some tightening in driver availability as new non-domicile CDL rules took effect in the month.

“Driver availability is a key component of capacity in the market, and additional scarcity seems likely, supporting higher freight rates,” the report said.

Cass’ TL linehaul index, which tracks rates excluding fuel and accessorial surcharges, increased 1.8% y/y in March, marking 15 consecutive y/y increases. A modest 0.5% step down from February was the first sequential decline in seven months. (The dataset includes for-hire spot and contract rates.)

Higher diesel fuel prices, which pushed some operators to the sidelines, offset incremental capacity availability as carrier networks recovered from severe winter storms, the report said.

“Considerable increases in contract rates are likely for the truckload market. After a four-year bottoming phase of the for-hire cycle, we believe we’ve moved to the early cycle phase where capacity becomes short and rates rise.”

Data used in the indexes comes from freight bills paid by Cass, a provider of payment management solutions. Cass processes $37 billion in freight payables annually on behalf of customers.