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’

What Roadcheck week means for the freight market

Chart of the Week: National Truckload Index– USA SONAR: NTI.USA

International Roadcheck is a 72-hour period when members of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) conduct a heightened period of inspections on commercial vehicles. Since 2022, they have designated two primary areas of focus — one for the driver and one for the vehicle. Its impact on the domestic trucking market varies from a non-event (2020 did not produce a strong noticeable move in spot rates) to sharp 6-8% spikes in spot rates. This year’s period starts May 12 and focuses on ELDs and cargo securement.

The CVSA states that International Roadcheck inspects nearly 15 trucks and motorcoaches every minute during the 72-hour period throughout North America, making it the largest targeted enforcement program on commercial motor vehicles in the world.

Last year, there were 56,178 inspections with a vehicle out-of-service (OOS) rate of 18.1% and a driver OOS rate of 5.9%. The vehicle inspection focus was tires, which accounted for 21.4% of vehicle OOS violations, while hours of service (HOS) — though not a focus area — led driver OOS violations at 32.4%. The falsified logs focus accounted for 10% of total driver OOS violations.

For context, Roadcheck week tire violations accounted for roughly 4.5% of the entire year’s tire violations in just three days. False RODS violations accounted for roughly 5% of the year’s total false log violations in less than 1% of the calendar year. The 56,000 inspections represent approximately 1.4% of total annual inspections across North America.

So while this period does not represent a large share of annual OOS violations, the elevated OOS rate, heightened visibility, and concentrated enforcement do influence the market — as many drivers choose to avoid certain areas or take the week off, temporarily reducing capacity.

Roadcheck week does not affect all carriers equally. Larger fleets are generally more motivated to maintain compliance given the increased liability exposure they carry. Their scale makes them more susceptible to litigation when drivers or vehicles are found non-compliant. Smaller carriers and owner-operators carry less payout potential and are less likely to be involved in nuclear verdicts.

Tender data skews toward larger fleets given its reliance on electronic transmission infrastructure, which smaller carriers are less likely to have. So while tender rejection rates have increased just over a percentage point on average in recent years, this is driven more by the pull of elevated spot rates and increased load availability than by an actual reduction in capacity.

Last year’s inspection period started May 13 and produced one of the stronger increases in tender rejection rates for the period, with an approximately 117 basis point increase during the week. Rejection rates continued to climb heading into Memorial Day weekend, which complicates a clean analysis of Roadcheck’s standalone impact. Rejection rates increased from 4.48% on May 11 and peaked at 6.25% on May 25, with Memorial Day falling on May 26.

Dry van spot rates were the least responsive last year, increasing roughly 7%, including the Memorial Day effect. Reefer had the strongest response at just under 9%, and flatbed came in around 7.5% higher. Separating Roadcheck’s influence from Memorial Day’s is difficult given the proximity of the two events.

It should be noted that not all inspection focus areas generate OOS violations — ABS systems in 2023 being one example. One of this year’s focus areas, cargo securement, has a relatively limited scope in terms of what can result in an OOS order.

In the bigger picture, the inspection period is short-lived, but its timing can make the impact feel larger than it is. It traditionally coincides with a period of rising freight demand and holiday-driven capacity disruption, which may amplify its perceived significance. Compared to broader market forces, the impact of this week is relatively modest — though it can make an already challenging environment more difficult and contribute to a more volatile start to the summer shipping season.

About the Chart of the Week

The FreightWaves Chart of the Week is a chart selection from SONAR that provides an interesting data point to describe the state of the freight markets. A chart is chosen from thousands of potential charts on SONAR to help participants visualize the freight market in real time. Each week a Market Expert will post a chart, along with commentary, live on the front page. After that, the Chart of the Week will be archived on FreightWaves.com for future reference.

SONAR aggregates data from hundreds of sources, presenting the data in charts and maps and providing commentary on what freight market experts want to know about the industry in real time.

US Postal Service reduces operating loss to $642M

Side view from above of a USPS van delivering mail in a leafy suburb.

Improved revenues from price increases and lower costs helped the U.S. Postal Service in reducing its fiscal second-quarter deficit from the prior year by 24% despite a slowdown in mail and parcel volumes.

The postal organization on Friday reported an operating loss of $642 million, a significant year over year improvement. The net loss, which includes certain mandated obligations outside management’s control also fell — to $2 billion from $3.3 billion. The Postal Service attributed the decreased loss to a $463 million revenue gain and a $1.3 billion cut in workers compensation expense, partly offset by an increase in retiree health benefits and other operating expenses.

Total operating revenue was $20.2 billion for the quarter, an increase of 2.3%, compared to the same quarter last year. The increase was largely due to price increases in parcel shipping, marketing mail and First-Class mail.

Shipping and Packages revenue increased $348 million, or 4.5%, on a volume decline of 22 million pieces, or 1.4%. First-Class mail volume fell 6.3%. And parcel volumes likely will continue to decline after Amazon recently re-enlisted for last-mile postal delivery, but said it would hand over about 20% less volume than in recent years.

“During the quarter we were able to get revenue, cost and service results moving in the right direction,” said Postmaster General David Steiner in a statement. “However, the scale of our financial improvements compared to the prior year was modest and we have a long road [ahead] to achieve anything close to long-term financial sustainability. It is a simple fact that we are in a cash crisis, and we are now taking serious and appropriate steps to conserve funds to operate. To avoid disruption and to sustain our role supporting American commerce and the public, we require urgent Congressional action to expand our borrowing authority and to address outdated constraints on the organization.”

The USPS has a statutory debt limit of $15 billion, pays a disproportionate share of pension coverage compared to private companies, is subject to antiquated workers’ compensation requirements and can only invest retirement funds in Treasury notes. Management again pressed the Postal Regulatory Commission to eliminate the price cap on mail or allow other rate adjustments so the agency can capture more revenue.

Steiner warned Congress in March that the Postal Service could run out of money by next spring, citing the increase in digital communication that has caused a 50% drop in mail volume, costly policy mandates and the universal service obligation. Officials say a decision is pending on whether to exercise a Postal Regulatory Commission waiver on certain pension payment obligations so the money can be used for operations and capital expenses. The Postal Service also temporarily suspended retirement contributions to the federal retirement fund, which is expected to conserve $2.5 billion in cash for the remainder of the fiscal year and help maintain liquidity.

The postmaster general reiterated that Congress has two options: allow the Postal Service to reduce service levels and charge higher rates so it can become profitable or provide subsidies, what he called a “public service reimbursement.”

But Steiner isn’t laying all the blame on Congress, saying there is much the Postal Service needs to do on its own to become a financially sustainable organization. The USPS, for example, plans to raise mail and package prices by 4.8% in July and recently implemented an 8% transportation surcharge on all parcels, largely in response to higher fuel prices triggered by the Iran war. It has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation, operations and labor costs. And it recently launched an auction for e-commerce shippers to bid on last-mile delivery, part of an effort to grow volume and revenue.

“I continue to believe the market wants to do business with a postal service that is competitive, responsive and easier to work with. And we’re seeing movement in that direction through major commercial relationships and partnership opportunities. We’ve seen encouraging developments in certain key customer relationships, including Amazon and DHL,” Steiner said during a presentation to the postal board of governors.

“How do we become easier to do business with? How do we fit our network to customer needs? How do we create more value from the assets that we’ve built? If we’re going to grow, we have to be more responsive, more transparent, more market aware, and less burdened by unnecessary friction. That is why we’re working to ensure that our network responds to the needs of our customers rather than forcing customers to fit the wants of our bureaucracy,” he added.

Keep US Posted, an advocacy group of nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, catalogs and other small businesses, said in a news release that the Postal Service’s main problem is spending and productivity, not revenue. It urged Congress not to provide financial relief that doesn’t include spending reforms.

“Raising the Postal Service’s borrowing authority or providing funds without guardrails would be a blank check that only delays the inevitable collapse of the agency’s finances and leads to a massive taxpayer bailout. USPS has already maxed out its borrowing, which is currently capped at $15 billion. Given that it faces $8 billion in projected losses this year, even doubling its borrowing authority would buy months, not years, without key reforms,” said Executive Director Kevin Yoder. “USPS needs help from Congress, but any financial assistance should be tied to a CPI-based price cap, stronger Postal Regulatory Commission oversight, and measurable cost controls that protect universal service and affordability.”

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

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

Maine lawmakers press USPS over $350K default to rural air carrier

Postal service can proceed with 8% parcel surcharge, regulator says

Troubled Postal Service moves to raise stamp prices, conserve cash

SONAR Sitrep: Fleet safety behind the curb post-freight recession

Nearly one in five commercial trucks currently on U.S. roads fails to meet basic roadworthiness standards – a metric that stands as the #1 predictor of fatal accidents.

As the freight cycle recovers and utilization rises, the industry is confronting a massive accumulation of deferred maintenance from the prolonged freight recession of 2022–2026.

During that time, a squeeze on carrier margins forced widespread deferral of equipment upkeep. As high-frequency data confirms, that risk is now coming back online.

This maintenance crisis is showing up clearly in enforcement data. High-frequency SONAR indices, including the ELP Enforcement Index, track a tightening regulatory environment. The current Vehicle Out-of-Service (OOS) rate has hit 21.6% across 3.3 million inspections, resulting in over 700,000 vehicles being removed from the road annually.

The risk is compounded by an enforcement lag. The system currently audits just 1.5% of carriers per year, meaning the average carrier will not face a comprehensive audit for 65 years at current staffing levels.

This technical crisis is unfolding alongside the most consequential stretch of safety policy in a generation. In April 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order which fundamentally shifted the focus to English proficiency and non-domiciled CDL irregularities to prevent catastrophic failures caused by “chameleon carriers.”

A recent fleet management study by J.J. Keller also shows that visible executive commitment to fleet safety culture has declined over the past two years.

Want to understand how these maintenance economics and regulatory shifts will reshape capacity and your safety-market cycle? Read the full sitrep by signing up for SONAR or request a demo here.

The full report includes deeper dives into:

The Maintenance Feedback Loop: The economics of deferred maintenance during freight recessions and how that risk manifests as utilization rises.
Regulatory Compliance Shocks: Deeper analysis of the 2025 Executive Order’s impact on carrier operating authority and driver credentials.
C-Suite Safety Visibility Gap: Why executive engagement is the thread separating fleets that adapt from those that fall behind.
Actionable Safety Forecasting: Using SONAR’s OTRI, OTVI, and ELP Enforcement Index to anticipate market-wide safety risks.

Tariff uncertainty deepens for shippers after new court ruling against Trump

A second federal court ruling against President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy is creating fresh uncertainty for importers, manufacturers and freight markets, while the administration simultaneously escalates trade pressure on Europe and faces growing calls from automakers to preserve the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

On Thursday, the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down a second round of 10% global tariffs imposed by the Trump administration after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that the president lacked authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to enact sweeping worldwide duties.

The split 2-1 ruling found Trump exceeded the tariff authority delegated by Congress under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which the administration used to replace the broader tariffs invalidated earlier this year. The court described the tariffs as “invalid” and “unauthorized by law,” according to

The latest tariffs were temporary 10% duties applied globally and scheduled to expire July 24. The administration imposed them after the Supreme Court struck down broader double-digit tariffs Trump had placed on nearly every country in 2025.

The ruling directly blocks tariff collection from the plaintiffs in the case — the state of Washington, toy company Basic Fun! and spice importer Burlap & Barrel — although legal experts said additional importers are likely to seek refunds and broader relief.

“This ruling will open the door for more companies to request that the tariffs be thrown out and that any payments they’ve made be refunded,” trade attorney Dave Townsend told the Associated Press.

The legal setback adds another layer of uncertainty for transportation providers and importers already navigating volatile freight demand, shifting sourcing patterns and rising customs compliance costs tied to Trump’s evolving tariff policies.

According to NPR, the administration argued the replacement tariffs were justified under a law permitting tariffs in response to balance-of-payments deficits, but the trade court ruled those conditions did not exist.

The government is already preparing to refund more than $166 billion tied to earlier tariff collections invalidated by the Supreme Court, with initial payments expected to begin next week, NPR reported.

Trump pressures EU for trade deal

At the same time, Trump is intensifying trade pressure on the European Union.

In a Truth Social post late Thursday, Trump said he would give the EU until July 4 to ratify its trade agreement with the United States, warning tariffs would “immediately jump to much higher levels” if the bloc failed to comply.

The comments came shortly after Trump threatened to raise tariffs on cars and trucks imported from Europe to 25%, accusing the EU of failing to uphold terms of a trade agreement negotiated in Scotland last year.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU remained “fully committed” to implementing the deal and that “good progress” was being made toward tariff reductions ahead of the July deadline.

Automakers urge Trump to extend trade deal with Mexico, Canada

Also on Thursday, seven major automotive trade groups, first reported by Reuters, urged the Trump administration to extend the USMCA trade pact with Mexico and Canada, arguing the agreement remains critical to North American manufacturing competitiveness.

The groups, representing automakers, dealers and suppliers including General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Tesla and Hyundai, warned against fragmenting the regional trade framework into separate bilateral agreements.

“Dividing USMCA into distinct trade deals would introduce unnecessary complexity, increase administrative burden, create divergent regulatory regimes, and undermine the very supply chains the agreement was designed to strengthen,” the organizations wrote in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The push comes ahead of a July 1 review deadline for the six-year-old trade pact. Mexico and the U.S. are expected to begin formal bilateral negotiations later this month in Mexico City.

Automakers have increasingly warned that Trump’s 25% Section 232 tariffs on imported vehicles and parts are disrupting the highly integrated North American automotive supply chain built over decades under NAFTA and later USMCA.

Trucking market is tightening ahead of peak season

For freight markets, the latest legal and geopolitical trade developments are likely to sustain volatility in cross-border trucking volumes, customs brokerage activity and sourcing decisions across manufacturing sectors ranging from automotive to consumer goods.

As of Thursday, SONAR’s Truckload Tender Volume Index (STVI.USA), a real-time indicator measuring the percentage of loads carriers turn down from shippers, was at 13.24% and about 13% higher year over year. The data shows significant capacity tightening ahead of the peak season for imports, which typically runs from July through August.

SONAR’s Truckload Tender Rejection Index, (STRI.USA) which measures the percentage of freight loads carriers reject from shippers, is currently at 13.24% signaling a tight market (high rejections) ahead of peak import season. To learn more about SONAR, click here.

April trucking jobs report shows a big increase in hiring

Truck transportation jobs in April rose by an amount that has not been seen for a long time.

The jobs total of 1,496,600 jobs was 4,300 more than in March. To find a one-month gain of more than 4,300 jobs in truck transportation, you need to go back to September 2023, when the BLS reported a jobs gain in that sector of 6,000 jobs.

But that number carried something of an asterisk: it came after a job reduction of 32,700 jobs a month earlier on the back of Yellow Corp. closing. So the big increase the next month could have been driven in part by some of those laid off Yellow truck transportation workers finding other employment.

To find a one-month increase as large as the 4,300 increase from April without an extraneous one-time factor, you’d need to go back to October 2022, when the great post-pandemic freight market was slowing. The truck transportation sector added 6,400 jobs that month, one month after losing 6,100 jobs.

It’s been mostly down arrows recently

April’s increase was even more notable because it is a much higher number in what has been a stretch of mostly lower figures.

In the 12 months, starting with the May 2025 report, the number of truck transportation jobs declined from the prior month nine times. And the two increases during that period were small, 300 and 200 jobs in October and March, respectively.

The increase in April jobs came after an upward revision of February and March jobs as well. But that wasn’t enough to make up for the fact that despite the big April increase and those revisions, April jobs this year were still 2,100 jobs less than last year.

Stronger freight market driving numbers

David Spencer, the vice president of market intelligence at Arrive Logistics, pointed to the signs of trucking market strength as driving the higher number.

“This increase in hiring reflects growing confidence across the industry, supported by nearly six months of steady rate improvement and gradually tightening capacity conditions,” Spencer said in an email to FreightWaves.

Carriers that strategically add capacity now will be well-positioned to capitalize on what could become the strongest rate environment the industry has seen since the pandemic-era surge.”

He also said shippers that are going to “reevaluate contract allocations” and who will also “scale efficiently, will have a meaningful opportunity to strengthen customer relationships and capture additional market share.

Steady figures in warehouses

Warehouse jobs, which for several years have been subject to large up and down movements, have stabilized over the last three months.

April warehouse jobs were up 500 jobs from March at 1,830,700 jobs. But the latest March figure comes after a downward revision, as well as a February reduction. The end result is that April jobs were 800 jobs less than February, and remain well below last April’s figure of 1,881,200 jobs.

The truck transportation jobs increase came against a background of a strong jobs report in general.

Aaron Terrazas, an independent economist, noted that the jobs report suggested so far there is no impact from higher oil prices.

“There was effectively no signal in April of any spillover from surging energy prices into the job market — the only transportation sectors that lost jobs were the least oil sensitive industries: Rail, water and pipeline transportation, public transit, and sightseeing transportation,” Terrazas said in an email to FreightWaves. “Trucking and parcel delivery firms added payroll jobs at a healthy clip; warehousing was stable.”

But he cautioned that risk hasn’t disappeared. “It may just be a matter of time before we start to see the passthrough of late February’s oil shock into the labor market, but it’s not happening yet,” Terrazas said. “Hiring plans take a minimum of 2-3 months — and often longer — to germinate from idea into action. Much of the hiring that we saw this spring was the result of business plans laid in late 2025 as Liberation Day fears of an economic collapse faded.”

In other highlights from the report:

The rail jobs shift mentioned by Terrazas was a decline of 600 jobs from a revised March figure of 149,900 jobs. What’s most notable about the rail jobs is how much they’ve fallen in the last year: down 6,400 jobs. That’s 4.1%.

Terrazas also mentioned parcel deliveries, which are under the BLS report as couriers. They rose to 1,096,000 jobs, up 37,900 jobs. That helped increase the year-on-year comparison to a positive 23,300 jobs.

Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees in truck transportation inched up to $32.18 in March from a revised number in February. That hourly wage is now $1.51 more than it was a year ago.

More articles by John Kingston

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Trump wants shipping to go nuclear

Aircraft carriers and submarines have been using it for years, so why not fuel merchant ships with nuclear power?

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Maritime Administration has launched an initiative to develop Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) for commercial shipping.

The Maritime Administration (Marad)’s Request for Information (RFI) seeks to develop a practicable SMR as part of the Trump administration’s plans to revitalize U.S. shipbuilding.

DOT Secretary Sean Duffy in a release said that innovative thinking is needed to secure the future of the American shipbuilding industry.

“To successfully introduce SMRs, we must view this through a system-transition lens rather than just as a technology demonstration,” said Marad Administrator Stephen Carmel, in the release. “We are seeking critical insights on how the government can help reduce systemic uncertainty, align regulatory structures, and enable the market conditions necessary for private capital and operators to scale these groundbreaking technologies.”

In the U.S., Kairos Energy is the only firm actively building an advanced small modular reactor, and it is constructing demonstration reactors in Tennessee. X-energy is planning reactors with partners such as Amazon and Energy Northwest in Washington state, with operations expected in the early 2030s.

The NS Savannah remains the only U.S. nuclear-powered civilian vessel. It was launched in 1959 under the Eisenhower administration’s postwar “Atoms for Peace” program, and is one of only four such ships ever built.

MARAD Administrator Stephen Carmel in the release re-emphasized a core tenet of the the administration’s Maritime Action Plan, that the U.S. sector must establish a new “system of systems”, with nuclear power serving as a transition agent in the process.

“To successfully introduce SMRs, we must view this through a system-transition lens rather than just as a technology demonstration,” Carmel said. “We are seeking critical insights on how the government can help reduce systemic uncertainty, align regulatory structures, and enable the market conditions necessary for private capital and operators to scale these groundbreaking technologies.”

The RFI highlights a number of ways nuclear power would advance the maritime agenda:

Efficiency: Deploying reliable, high-power energy to allow commercial ships to travel farther and faster
Affordability: Small modular reactors that will largely eliminate fuel costs and reduce maintenance requirements
National Security: Reinforcing American supply chains and securing energy independence to bolster national defense
Scalability: Identifying streamlined deployment methods to integrate nuclear power across entire fleets and logistical networks
Shipbuilding & Workforce: Integrating SMNR production into U.S. shipyards to build strong robust workforce pipelines and new credentialing standards
Regulatory Readiness: Establishing liability, insurance, and inspection frameworks to ensure seamless port access before construction begins.

“To secure this future for America’s shipbuilding industry, we need to innovate,” said Duffy. “By partnering with industry experts and outside-the-box thinkers to develop a strong SMR model, we will deliver a state-of-the-art energy source that cuts costs and bolsters national security.”

Marad is collaborating with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Energy, and plans to collect additional input through public workshops, listening sessions, and technical exchanges.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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Forward Air flags customer loss, stock plummets

A Forward Air trailer at a United Airlines terminal

Shares of Forward Air were off over 40% in early trading on Friday after the company said it was potentially losing a large customer. It also said a strategic review concluded with “no actionable proposals” being received and that it will now look to only sell parts of the enterprise.

Forward (NASDAQ: FWRD) reported a $34 million net loss (“attributable to Forward Air”), or $1.09 per share, for the first quarter. Consolidated revenue of $582 million was down 5% year over year.

Consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $70 million was 4% lower y/y. Trailing 12 months’ EBITDA totaled $304 million.

During an analyst call on Thursday evening, management revealed that a contract logistics customer representing approximately 10% of Forward’s $2.5 billion annual revenue intends to diversify its logistics partners. The customer indicated the move is part of a broader internal strategy focused on risk management. While Forward has not received formal notice that a wind down will occur, it said any transition wouldn’t happen until next year.

“We believe the customer’s decision is entirely related to their own operation and supplier diversification initiatives and has nothing to do with the exceptional service we provide them during our long-term partnership,” said Shawn Stewart, Forward president and CEO.

The potential customer loss and other factors kept Forward from receiving a reasonable take-private offer. The company announced a strategic review at the beginning of 2025 as pressure from investors mounted following its contested merger with Omni Logistics. Potential outcomes under the initial plan called for the sale of part or all of the enterprise.

It will now look to sell its intermodal unit and two smaller legacy Omni businesses. The segments combined for $394 million in revenue last year. Management said the Omni units could be sold within the next 60 to 90 days, with the intermodal business hopefully being sold by the end of the year. Proceeds from the sales will be used to delever balance sheet.

Table: Forward Air’s key performance indicators

Q1 by the numbers

The company’s expedited segment, which includes less-than-truckload operations, reported $273 million in revenue, a 9% y/y increase. Tonnage was down 2% as shipments fell 4% and weight per shipment increased 3%. Yield (revenue per hundredweight) dipped 1% y/y, excluding fuel surcharges. The increase in weight was a drag on the yield metric. Revenue per shipment (excluding fuel) was up 2% y/y.

The unit posted a 7.4% operating margin, which was 110 basis points better y/y. A 10.4% EBITDA margin was flat y/y. Purchased transportation expenses (as a percentage of revenue) increased 360 bps y/y.

Omni reported revenue of $302 million, a 7% y/y decline. Adjusted EBITDA of $25 million was 2% lower y/y. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved 40 bps to 8.3%.

Intermodal revenue fell 15% y/y due to a decline in port activity (drayage shipments down 20%). The unit reported a 10.1% EBITDA margin, which was 630 bps lower y/y.

Operating cash flow of $58 million in the first quarter improved by $12 million y/y. Liquidity increased to $402 million, up from $367 million at the end of 2025.

Net debt of $1.65 billion stood at 5.4 times last 12 months’ adjusted EBITDA. The company’s debt leverage covenant steps down 25 bps each quarter to 5.5 times by the fourth quarter.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

Greenlane brings high-power charging to Texas I-45 corridor

Greenlane charging network map showing open, coming soon, and future sites in California, Arizona, Nevada, and the new Texas Dallas-Houston I-45 corridor.

Fleets electrifying along North America’s busiest freight routes will soon have high-power charging options deep in the heart of Texas. Greenlane Infrastructure is entering the Texas market with new megawatt-charging sites planned in Dallas and Houston along the Interstate 45 corridor.

The move targets one of the most important freight regions in the country. The Dallas-Houston corridor sits at the intersection of freight moving from the West Coast, the Midwest, and across the U.S.-Mexico border. As a result, it ranks among the highest-volume commercial trucking routes in the nation.

“Our customers are making commitments to electrify their fleets. They need a charging network that can grow alongside them,” said Patrick Macdonald-King, CEO of Greenlane. “This is the first leg of the Texas Triangle. It is one of the more important freight arteries in the country. Bringing high-power charging here is the next logical step in building a network that serves how freight moves across America. Every site we develop follows a demand-based approach. This is a big next step to building out the broader network.”

Six to eight lanes and dual CCS/MCS charging in Texas

The new Texas locations will feature six to eight pull-through lanes with tractor parking and charging. Chargers will support both combined charging system (CCS) connectors for current-generation trucks and megawatt charging system (MCS) connectors for next-generation vehicles.

This dual capability serves two purposes. First, it lets fleets transition smoothly. Second, it helps maintain operational continuity as vehicle technology evolves. In addition, the high-power output allows electric trucks to recharge during driver rest periods. This reduces dwell time and aligns more closely with diesel fueling expectations.

Nevoya commits to multi-year I-45 corridor operations

Electric trucking carrier Nevoya has committed to multi-year operations on the Texas corridor. It is leveraging Greenlane’s expanding network. Each site will offer parking to support drop-and-hook relay operations and overnight stops. This gives fleets flexibility to run continuous freight operations along the corridor.

“Texas is where the future of zero-emission freight accelerates. It’s a critical trucking market and a proving ground for any operator serious about scale,” said John Verdon, chief commercial officer at Nevoya. “Our launch on the I-45 was sparked by GMA Trucking’s book-and-claim program. It shows what’s possible when the industry collaborates effectively. Greenlane’s Texas expansion gives us the key infrastructure to scale that model. This extends Nevoya’s electric trucking leadership from California into Texas.”

Greenlane Edge platform hits 99% uptime with SOC 2 audit

Every site in Greenlane’s growing network operates on the Greenlane Edge platform. It powers the Greenlane Fleet Portal and Greenlane Driver App. Fleet managers and drivers can reserve chargers in advance. They can also monitor charging activity in real time and manage billing from a single platform.

That operational infrastructure has helped Greenlane achieve 99 percent uptime across its network. It has also completed an independent System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type 2 audit. This verifies security and reliability standards behind every customer interaction.

Texas expansion builds on West Coast network

The Texas push builds on Greenlane’s growing West Coast network. It is anchored by its flagship Greenlane Center in Colton, California, which opened in April 2025. Additional sites expected later this year include Blythe, California. This location is strategically positioned midway between Los Angeles and Phoenix along the I-10 corridor. Another site is planned for the Port of Long Beach. It will support high-volume drayage operations from one of the nation’s busiest ports along with regional and long-haul fleets.

More federal funding for Oregon container port — and it’s not in Portland

While Oregon’s lone container terminal has struggled to keep the doors open, the Maritime Administration has awarded a grant for a proposed box hub at a competing port.

The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay announced that the Pacific Coast Intermodal Port (PCIP) project has been awarded an $11.25 million grant through the Marad’s Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP).

Calling it a “significant milestone for a major Oregon freight initiative with national impact,” the port in a release said that the funding supports rail infrastructure improvements on the North Spit of Coos Bay, site of the future terminal 200 miles south of Portland, and strengthens connections to the Coos Bay Rail Line, “for one of Oregon’s most significant trade and economic development opportunities.”

Coos Bay (circled) is about 200 miles south of Portland. (Google Maps)

The state recently committed $100 million to the $2.3 billion project, following previous federal investments through INFRA and Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant programs. Permitting and environmental studies are underway on the project, which would take five years to complete.

“This award sends a clear message that serious infrastructure in rural Oregon matters and that the South Coast has a real role to play in the state’s economic future,” said Kyle Stevens, president of the Port Commission, in a statement. “It reflects ongoing public support for practical investments that create jobs, expand opportunities for producers, and strengthen infrastructure with growing national significance.”

The PCIP is a proposed ship-to-rail container terminal designed to create a new freight gateway on the U.S. West Coast, with connections directly to Midwest and other inland markets by rail.

The import flow is also designed to increase access to empty containers for agriculture exporters and other shippers targeting global markets.

The port is in Oregon’s District 4, represented by Democrat Val Hoyle, who sits on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Hoyle has said that the PCIP could create as many as 8,000 jobs throughout the supply chain. The project is also supported by Gov. Tina Kotek, and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, also Democrats.

Opponents have questioned the projects’s cost and long-term viability, as well as its environmental impact. The Port of Portland’s Terminal 6 has struggled to sustain business as container traffic flows to major hubs in southern California as well as Vancouver and Prince Rupert in Canada.

“We continue to see strong long-term market potential in Coos Bay and confidence in the logistics advantages this location offers,” said Chad Meyer, president of NorthPoint Development, the project’s private-sector partner, in a statement. “As global trade patterns continue to evolve, resilient transportation infrastructure becomes increasingly important. PCIP helps create the additional capacity, flexibility, and routing options needed for an ever-changing world.”

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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Truck Parking Club appoints Victor Westerlund as CFO

Truck Parking Club headquarters building with large yellow and red "Clubhouse" sign featuring semi-truck graphic and "Welcome Drivers" text above an empty parking lot on a sunny day.

Truck Parking Club announced Thursday the appointment of Victor Westerlund as its chief financial officer. The move comes as the company continues to scale its national network of reservable truck parking locations.

Westerlund brings more than a decade of experience scaling high-growth companies, most recently serving as vice president of finance at Stax Payments. During his tenure, he helped build the company’s financial operations from the ground up, supporting its growth from an early-stage startup to a company that reached a reported valuation of up to $1 billion. That included multiple capital raises, acquisitions and a majority exit.

At Truck Parking Club, Westerlund will lead financial strategy and infrastructure development as the company enters its next phase of rapid expansion.

“Victor brings exactly the kind of experience we need at this stage of growth,” said Evan Shelley, founder and chief executive officer of Truck Parking Club. “His experience building financial systems, raising capital and navigating scale will be critical as we continue to expand our network and strengthen our position in the market.”

This news comes as the company recently announced it has surpassed 5,000 locations nationwide. The growth is part of its larger ambitions to double its network to more than 10,000 locations by the end of 2026.

“Truck parking is one of the biggest pain points in the logistics ecosystem, and the opportunity to solve it at scale is incredibly compelling,” said Westerlund. “There’s a large, underserved market here, and Truck Parking Club has built a strong foundation and a clear path forward. I’m excited to join the team at this stage and help drive the next phase of growth.”

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

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

A convenient time for a vacation, indeed

How a truck driver gets stopped for inspection

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

Time to start inspecting in the winter

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

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

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Brief history of Central Freight Lines

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