Newsletters Contact Us

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

truck fallen over

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:

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.

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

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

Related Articles:

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’

Walmart launches LTL truck consolidation program for suppliers

Walmart truck trailers seen at a loading dock.

Walmart is simplifying inbound logistics and reducing costs for suppliers that prepay for freight service by enabling them to more easily combine less-than-truckload shipments into full truckloads at automated consolidation points that feed the company’s regional distribution centers.

The new prepaid consolidation program allows suppliers that leverage Walmart’s supply chain network to merge shipments under a single national purchase order to one location, which combines the inventory and ships it to the company’s 42 regional distribution centers, creating more transportation efficiency, Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) said in a news release on Tuesday. 

Vendors will benefit from the streamlined consolidation program through cost savings on pallets and labor, plus improved order cycles and sales quantities as Walmart takes advantage of the added flexibility to place a supplier’s product in the correct location based on customer demand, Walmart stated. 

Suppliers experience longer lead times and higher costs when they ship merchandise to Walmart facilities, but can’t fill an entire trailer. Under the previous process, suppliers might create up to 42 purchase orders, pick 42 cases and load 42 separate pallets onto trucks for distribution to each regional distribution center. Now, those cases can go on a single pallet with one purchase order. Walmart said it is using new automation technology to optimize inventory allocation across its DC network.

The program will expand in phases and participation will be prioritized based on volume alignment and capacity expansion. 

“We’re focused on making our supply chain simpler, faster and more efficient for suppliers, while also keeping products in stock for our customers,” said Mike Gray, senior vice president of supply chain at Walmart U.S. “By strengthening our first-mile capabilities, we’re reducing complexity and keeping goods moving, so we can deliver even more value every day.”

The prepaid consolidation program is designed to make shipping more convenient for suppliers because Walmart manages the process, which means suppliers don’t need to change their prepaid freight terms. Walmart said vendors can move shipments directly through Walmart or work through company-approved third-party logistics providers such as C.H. Robinson, Hub Group and RJW Logistics.

Suppliers pay a transparent, price-per-case rate that covers handling at the automated consolidation center and outbound transportation to Walmart’s regional DCs. Pricing varies by region, but there are no additional markups applied by participating providers to services performed by Walmart.

By consolidating inbound shipments and allocating inventory across its regional DCs, Walmart said it improves the consistency of product flow and reduces variability. That makes replenishment more precise and better ensures products are always in stock.

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

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

Walmart credits fast delivery, third-party marketplace for revenue gains

FedEx Freight donation revives UA Northark CDL training program

Two white semi-trucks with trailers donated by FedEx Freight to UA Northark, parked outside the Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Innovation building as a group gathers for the CDL training program relaunch.

North Arkansas College of the University of Arkansas (UA Northark) is relaunching its commercial driver’s license training program in Harrison, Arkansas, after an 18-month pause. The relaunch is supported by a donation of two tractors and two 48-foot trailers from FedEx Freight.

The contribution gives students access to industry-standard equipment amid a persistent shortage of qualified professional drivers in the trucking sector. The four-week intensive training course is expected to be available this fall, with multiple sessions offered throughout the year to move students quickly into employment.

Tackling Trucking’s Qualified Driver Shortage

“America is facing a serious shortage of professional drivers,” said Rodney Myers, vice president of human resources for FedEx Freight. “Developing professional drivers is critical to FedEx Freight, the industry and consumers. We are proud to partner with UA Northark to relaunch the CDL program and provide equipment to train safe and professional drivers.”

Chancellor Rick Massengale called the donation a significant investment in student success and regional workforce development.

“On behalf of the college, we are deeply grateful for this generous donation of two trucks and trailers in support of our CDL training program,” Massengale said. “This equipment will directly strengthen hands-on learning, allowing our students to train on industry-standard vehicles so they graduate with the skills employers are looking for. Partnerships like this make a real difference in expanding workforce opportunities across our region.”

The program aims to align its curriculum with specific carrier requirements. Dr. Lewis Villines, vice chancellor for workforce and technical education at UA Northark, said he has already been in contact with trucking companies about their training standards.

“I’ve been on the phone this morning with different trucking companies,” Villines said. “Each company has its own training standards and requirements. We intend to align our program with those industry expectations and rigor. This is a great day to be a Pioneer.”

Strengthening Harrison’s Workforce and Economy

The relaunch has broader economic implications for the Harrison area. Jeff Neilson, president and CEO of the Harrison Chamber of Commerce, highlighted trucking’s role as a foundation for regional commerce.

“Trucking is essential to moving goods, supporting manufacturing and creating new markets,” Neilson said. “This donation will strengthen the college’s CDL program, expand training capacity and help grow the skilled workforce in Harrison. It will also support local economic growth and help keep talent in our community.”

The partnership reflects a growing trend of carriers investing directly in training pipelines as the industry grapples with qualified driver recruitment challenges. For UA Northark, the equipment donation removes a major barrier to resuming hands-on instruction and positions the program to supply qualified drivers to a market with ongoing demand.

Attorney Generals urge STB to reject new rail merger application

The top law enforcement officers from six states today urged the Surface Transportation Board to reject Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern’s revised merger application.

In a letter to the regulator, including new member Richard Kloster who was approved by the Senate last week, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen wrote that his group is “concerned that the application for the proposed merger between Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) remains incomplete,” and cited “underdeveloped proposals that run contrary” to the STB’s rules for major mergers.

The letter, which was also signed by attorneys general from Florida, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota, added that the railroads’ filing of seven amendments to the revised application are complicating their efforts to review the transaction.

The letter noted a previous warning from red state AGs that the merger could reduce competitive options for shippers, increase costs for businesses, and raise prices for consumers.

The application does not include critical information with respect to market shares, the officials said, with data buried in appendices and back-up spreadsheets that are difficult to interpret. 

The letter also points out that the updated application omits analysis of future industry consolidation and its potential effects. The officials went on to say that the partners failed to detail plans for jointly owned lines including the Kansas City Terminal Railway, the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, and railcar pool TTX. 

“We cannot evaluate these proposed divestitures without key terms like the buyers, price, and closing conditions,” the letter stated. “Many shippers in our states send or receive goods that travel by rail through these gateways and/or using rail equipment that is part of shared pools. Any harm to the neutrality and competitive fairness of these joint assets could have a material negative impact on our states, and clarity regarding how these resources are protected is paramount for a full review of the proposed blockbuster deal.”

The letter comes after the May 8 deadline for comments set by the STB, which is expected to rule on the application this week. The   officials blamed the volume of submissions by UP-NS for their own tardiness, and asked the regulator to waive the deadline.

Subscribe to FreightWaves’ Rail e-newsletter and get the latest insights on rail freight right in your inbox.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Related coverage:

Short line rail hits T&I truck benefits, costly safety mandates

AAR slams “hypocrisy” as Trump-backed rail safety measure is included in transportation funding bill

UP CEO confident rail merger application checks all the STB’s boxes

OmniTrax tabs Hoskins to lead transload

Supreme Court rejects Florida lawsuit over immigrant truck driver CDLs 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Florida’s attempt to sue California and Washington over the issuance of commercial driver licenses (CDLs) to immigrants who are not legally authorized to be in the U.S., according to the Associated Press and media reports.

The ruling ends — at least for now — a closely watched legal battle tied to trucking safety and immigration enforcement.

The case stemmed from a deadly crash on Florida’s Turnpike in August 2025 involving Harjinder Singh, a truck driver from India accused of making an illegal U-turn that caused a wreck killing three people, according to court filings and news reports. 

Singh reportedly held a valid CDL issued by California and had previously been licensed in Washington state.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed the lawsuit in October, arguing California and Washington violated federal safety and immigration laws by issuing CDLs to undocumented immigrants. 

The lawsuit alleged the states “chose to ignore these standards and authorize illegal immigrants without proper training or the ability to read road signs to drive commercial motor vehicles.”

Florida sought an injunction barring the two states from issuing commercial learner permits and CDLs to applicants who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

In its decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to take up the lawsuit as an original action between states, a rare legal procedure that bypasses lower federal courts. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, arguing the court is obligated to hear disputes between states.

The dispute became part of a broader political fight between Republican-led states and Democratic-led states over immigration enforcement and commercial vehicle safety standards.

Florida’s lawsuit also arrived amid growing scrutiny of English-language proficiency requirements for truck drivers. In August 2025, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned California, Washington and New Mexico they could lose federal funding if they failed to enforce English-language requirements for commercial drivers. 

California later faced roughly $40 million in withheld federal funds tied to the issue, according to CBS News.

Separately, a federal appeals court recently blocked a Trump administration proposal that would have imposed stricter immigration-related limits on who can obtain CDLs for operating semitrailers and buses.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case leaves existing CDL licensing rules in California and Washington intact, while the broader debate over immigration status, English proficiency and interstate trucking safety continues across the freight industry.

Why the Moment for RNG in Heavy-Duty Trucking Has Finally Arrived

For more than three decades, renewable natural gas (RNG) has occupied a particular lane in the alternative fuel conversation. It’s been respected but never quite mainstream in Class 8 trucking. The engine technology wasn’t there, the fueling network had gaps, and diesel, for all its volatility, was the devil fleet operators knew.

Chad Lindholm, Clean Energy’s Senior Vice President, thinks that calculus has fundamentally changed. In a recent interview with FreightWaves, Lindholm laid out a case built not on projections or pilot programs, but on real-world fleet data, a maturing infrastructure footprint, and an engine platform he says has closed the gap that kept RNG on the sidelines of long-haul trucking.

The conversation started where most fleet procurement discussions do: cost per mile.

There’s a sharp contrast between diesel’s exposure to global disruption and the domestic production profile of RNG. 

“With diesel, there is always volatility,” Lindholm said. “It seems like at least every three to five years, there is some event that affects the market, and truck operators pay the price. Conversely, when it comes to natural gas, we use a domestically produced product. There is zero fluctuation due to conflict abroad.”

That stability shows up in the numbers. While diesel pricing swings often move roughly two dollars per gallon in either direction, RNG prices tend to fluctuate by about a dime. The savings are substantial across every region of the country.

“RNG can be found at an average savings of two dollars per gallon, and a bigger delta in some parts of the country,” Lindholm said.

Clean Energy’s own regional pricing data backs that up. And with the current conflict overseas leading to continued diesel fuel pricing volatility at home, fleet customers operating X15N trucks today are seeing savings as high as $5.00 per gallon in certain parts of the country.  

There are still areas where RNG asks fleets to make tradeoffs. The upfront premium for a Cummins X15N-equipped tractor runs $80,000 to $100,000 over a comparable diesel unit, though that figure has come down since the engine entered production a year ago. A fleet with high purchasing power can push it lower. Fuel economy, meanwhile, runs about 15% behind diesel in like-for-like lane comparisons.

“Cummins has done a tremendous job closing the gap, but we do want to be up front about that 15%,” Lindholm said. 

The previous 12-liter RNG engine carried a significantly higher fuel economy penalty, making the X15N’s improvement a meaningful step forward. Those fleet managers who haven’t examined the data in the past year or so may be unaware just how much of an improvement there has been with the current generation of RNG technology and infrastructure.

Amazon and CEMEX RNG-powered trucks fueling at Clean Energy station in San Bernadino, CA. [Credit: Scott Sporleder, courtesy Clean Energy]

Where the math turns in RNG’s favor, Lindholm said, is in the TCO conversation over time. “Fleets will see return from the Cummins X15N engine in about two years. That resonates for fleets who hold assets for a minimum of five years.”

Clean Energy’s fleet overview materials identify the highest-value deployment scenarios as fleets with high annual mileage, long-term asset holds of five years or more, regional or fixed-route operations with predictable fueling patterns, and proximity to the RNG station network.

Clean Energy deliberately builds its business case without factoring in government incentives. 

“All discussions of cost are without the assumption of subsidies,” Lindholm said. “To scale throughout the industry and keep from being a niche market product, we’re serious about providing viable trucks, engines, and fuel without government subsidy programs.” 

Grants and incentive programs exist and Clean Energy helps fleets navigate them, but they don’t form the foundation of a pitch for using natural gas.

While fuel pricing has been a rational argument for RNG for some time, the Cummins X15N has also made the transition to a different fuel source positive for drivers behind the wheel.

The most common feedback Clean Energy gets from drivers is that the truck operates like the diesel rig they’re used to. 

“We want drivers to know they can expect diesel-like performance,” Lindholm said. “Fleets tell us that the X15N comes with the familiarity that a truck driver is looking for so that they can safely get from point A to point B, meet their routes on time, and return home each night.”

Beyond performance parity, there are ancillary benefits that matter to driver quality of life, including a quieter engine and the absence of diesel fumes.

[Credit: Scott Sporleder, courtesy Clean Energy]

The X15N is the culmination of years of iteration. The industry previously tried to make a 9-liter engine work in Class 8 applications, then spent years learning from the limitations of the 12-liter platform. The current 15-liter engine offers specs up to 500 horsepower and 1,850 foot-pounds of torque, which puts it in competitive range with diesel across for-hire, contracted, LTL, and private fleet applications.

“We’ve cut our teeth over the last ten to fifteen years to ultimately get to the point where this engine is as capable as the standard diesel options,” Lindholm said. The engine is available across three OEM platforms, and built on the same assembly lines as diesel powertrains.

Clean Energy’s station portfolio dispels concerns about availability and infrastructure, according to Lindholm. The company operates more than 600 fueling sites across all segments it serves, including transit, refuse, airports, and over-the-road trucking. More than half of those are private backlot facilities. Roughly 200 of those are open-access, 24/7 card-lock and truck-stop-style stations.

At the moment, there’s a network of more than 100 stations purpose-built for Class 8 trucks with 53-foot trailers. The distinction matters, Lindholm said, because truck-accessible means more than just getting in and out of the lot.

“If you don’t have the capacity to fuel at a reasonable enough fill speed, let’s just say two gallons a minute, you’re going to be there for an hour,” Lindholm said. At Clean Energy’s truck-rated stations, fleets fuel at 8 to 10 gallons per minute, with a total connect-to-disconnect fueling experience of less than 10 minutes.

[Courtesy Clean Energy]

Clean Energy has built more than 20 large-scale, first-class truck fueling facilities in recent years to support the X15N rollout, with more stations being co-located at existing truck stops to give drivers access to the amenities they expect (C-stores, showers, maintenance bays).

As for the fueling experience itself, the learning curve is essentially nonexistent. The dispenser interface looks identical to a diesel pump. The connection point differs, but a driver can learn the process by watching a 30-second video or the person next to them. 

“You’re going to latch on, push start, stand and watch that vehicle fuel at 8 to 10 gallons a minute,” Lindholm said. 

J.B. Hunt driver refueling with RNG [Credit: Scott Sporleder, courtesy Clean Energy]

The sustainability case for RNG extends well beyond simply being a cleaner-burning fuel, and it’s a story Lindholm said the industry hasn’t told well enough.

RNG is produced by capturing fugitive methane emissions (primarily from landfills and dairy farms) that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. That methane is scrubbed, upgraded to pipeline quality, and injected into the existing natural gas pipeline network. Clean Energy then nominates those molecules to stations across the country, allowing fleets in states like Texas, Florida, Ohio, or California to receive RNG sourced from a production facility that might be located in Idaho.

The lifecycle carbon intensity numbers are striking. Clean Energy’s average portfolio CI score across dairy farm and landfill sources currently sits at negative 120, well below the zero line that sustainability professionals target. Certain dairy RNG pathways can achieve CI scores as low as negative 300.

[Courtesy Clean Energy]

Lindholm said fleets are increasingly receptive to this framing. “We’re telling fleets that we’re not necessarily looking to replace their entire fuel strategy or turn it upside down. We’re trying to enhance it,” he said. “Run diesel where it makes sense. Run renewable diesel where it makes sense. Then look at RNG where it makes sense.”

If your fleet is considering the transition, Lindholm said the typical conversation-to-deployment timeline runs three to six months. Awareness of the product has improved. Most fleet operators today know that natural gas engines exist and that Cummins offers a 15-liter option on three OEM platforms, but the due diligence process still requires working through economics, environmental data, and real-world route testing.

“Fleets ultimately are going to do their own due diligence and reach out to peers in the space,” Lindholm said. “They may get their hands on a demo truck and put a driver behind the wheel to run it on real routes, real lanes, for an extended period of time.”

Looking ahead, Lindholm framed Clean Energy’s growth trajectory in terms first articulated by Cummins: the X15N platform should be capable of capturing 8 to 10% of annual Class 8 truck purchases, potentially reaching 20,000 to 25,000 trucks per year by around 2030. That volume translates to roughly 350 million gallons of RNG annually. Clean Energy is confident that the supply chain and infrastructure can support that demand.

In the nearer term, the goal is more specific. “I think in just a few short years, we should and could be in a space where just Clean Energy alone is fueling 5,000 of these X15N engines across the current network that has more than enough capacity to add demand to, and is complemented by additional station builds,” Lindholm said.

Cummins X15N 15L Natural Gas Engine – ACT Expo 2026 [Courtesy Clean Energy]

With 2027 emission regulations approaching, the window for fleets to evaluate their fuel strategies is tightening. Lindholm wants to spread awareness that the engine works in real-world applications, the fuel is cheaper and domestically sourced, the stations are in place, and the carbon math is better than most fleet operators realize. The pieces that were missing for RNG in heavy-duty trucking, he argued, have arrived.

“We have this renewable, domestically produced fuel in RNG,” Lindholm said. “You’ve got the right engine and the right fuel that can be tied into any one of these segments in the overall trucking space. And that’s where a lot of the excitement is coming from.”

Click here to learn more about Clean Energy.

One of the world’s largest freight forwarders just signed a new ‘milestone’ agreement with a major East Coast port

LX Pantos Americas has signed separate development Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Port of Virginia.

The unit of the South Korean forwarder said that agreements will deepen LX Pantos Americas’ investment in the mid-Atlantic state, aiming to establish a strategic framework for collaboration that will strengthen operations, enhance visibility and enable long-term growth.

Pantos ranked in the top 10 of global forwarders with volume of 1.54-1.57 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs)in 2025. It  had revenue of $5.8 billion in 2024, 

The MOU covers operational coordination, infrastructure investment, data integration and talent development.

“These agreements mark an important milestone for our companies and reflect the shared trust, vision and long-standing commitment among our teams,” said David Bang, chief executive of LX Pantos Americas, in a statement. “We are proud to partner with organizations that share our focus on progress and innovation. By joining forces, we are uniquely positioned to enhance logistics operations, strengthen infrastructure readiness and support long-term ecosystem development in the Commonwealth of Virginia, driving

meaningful and lasting impact.”

The company this month opened new U.S. headquarters in Teaneck, N.J.

“We are grateful for the confidence LX Pantos Americas is putting in The Port of Virginia and we are excited about the opportunity to grow our partnership with this expanding worldwide logistics company,” said Sarah J. McCoy, new CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, also in a statement. “The port team is ready to collaborate with the LX Pantos Americas team and help the company capitalize on the investments we are making at this port.”

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Related coverage:

World’s third largest shipping line sees Q1 earnings crash

Port Houston sees April cargo dip, expects rebound in May

ILA’s McNamara enters International Maritime Hall of Fame

Georgia ports volumes hit by higher costs, softer market

 From Boxcars to a Billion-Dollar Network

In 1966, Canadian Pacific Railway had a problem. Empty boxcars were piling up in Eastern Canada with no payload for the return trip west. The solution was a small freight company called Fastfrate, created specifically to fill those cars with less-than-truckload shipments bound for Western Canada.

Six decades later, that single-service operation has become one of North America’s largest privately held supply chain providers as a group of seven companies spanning intermodal, truckload, drayage, warehousing, e-commerce fulfillment, final-mile delivery, international freight forwarding, and customs brokerage, operating across more than 46 locations in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

The transformation was orchestrated over a period of decades by Ron Tepper, the executive chairman who first acquired Fastfrate in 1994 and has guided every major inflection point since, including selling to private equity, buying the company back, and assembling an acquisition portfolio that has reshaped what the company can offer shippers across the continent.

“We’ve been a favored son of CP Rail since the beginning,” Tepper said in an interview with FreightWaves. “Our facilities began as a boxcar operation which provided one-way moves and no balance requirements.”

[Credit: Fastfrate]

The intermodal pivot

The first major turning point came in the late 1990s. As railways anticipated surging demand from China’s manufacturing boom, CP Rail’s leadership told Fastfrate it was time to move away from boxcars entirely.

“In 1998, railways foresaw huge demand from China,” Tepper said. “Senior execs who worked closely with China foresaw the effects the Chinese market would have on shipping, both east to west and west to east. It wasn’t a question. We were told to move away from the boxcars, to make ourselves an intermodal operation.”

The mandate carried risk. Fastfrate needed to build crossdock facilities across the country (Halifax, Winnipeg, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Vancouver) and buy a facility in Montreal. At the time, the company wasn’t sure it could absorb the investment. But Tepper made the bet, and it paid off in two ways: Fastfrate became the first major Canadian LTL carrier to convert fully to intermodal, capturing significant market share before competitors followed suit, and the real estate portfolio it built adjacent to CP Rail yards has appreciated dramatically as Canadian urban land values have climbed.

“We were the first major player in the LTL space to convert to intermodal from boxcar,” Tepper said. “Within two years, every other major Canadian carrier converted, but we gained a good market share and grew organically.”

That intermodal conversion also created a new business line. As Fastfrate moved from boxcars to containers, it needed trucks to haul those containers between rail yards and customers, so it built Canada Drayage Inc. (CDI) in 1999. 

“Today, we’re the only drayage provider that covers from Halifax to Vancouver,” Tepper said. “We have over 600 trucks doing OTR shipping to meet the needs of our shippers from end to end. We didn’t buy that business, we built it, and we’re proud of that.”

[Credit: Fastfrate]

The buyback and the build-out

Tepper sold 75% of Fastfrate to Fenway Equities in 2007. He retained a quarter of the company through a difficult stretch from 2009 to 2017, then bought back full ownership. Since regaining control, he has executed a series of acquisitions that systematically filled gaps in Fastfrate’s service portfolio, each one adding a new layer to what has become a fully integrated supply chain network.

In 2021, Fastfrate acquired ASL Distribution Services and Precision Parcel & Package Deliveries. ASL, a 66-year-old company with more than 500,000 square feet of warehouse space, brought integrated warehousing, e-commerce fulfillment, and distribution capability. Precision added final-mile courier services for both B2B and B2C deliveries, handling everything from small parcels to oversized freight.

In 2022, Fastfrate acquired a majority stake in Challenger Motor Freight, one of Canada’s largest cross-border trucking companies, operating more than 1,200 trucks and 3,500 trailers with 500 to 700 border crossings daily. The deal gave Fastfrate full truckload capacity and a major U.S. footprint for the first time.

And in early 2026, Fastfrate closed on Omnitrans Inc., a Montreal-based international freight forwarder and licensed customs broker with more than 230 established trade lanes and a direct operating presence in China. That acquisition extended Fastfrate’s reach all the way back to the point of origin, completing the end-to-end vision.

“We added companies and left them intact so that we could continue adding new services to our company,” Tepper said. “Every purchase has been to add to our services and synergize to become a full end-to-end provider.”

[Credit: Fastfrate]

The CPKC backbone

Threading through the entire 60-year story is Fastfrate’s partnership with what is now Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the only single-line rail network connecting Canada, the United States, and Mexico. CPKC’s merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern created a transcontinental rail corridor, and Fastfrate, as the railway’s largest and longest-standing carrier-customer, is uniquely positioned to leverage it.

Fastfrate co-locates with CPKC at intermodal terminals across the continent. In Toronto and Montreal, the two companies have jointly invested in private gate technology (what CPKC calls the “FastPass”) that gives Fastfrate’s drayage trucks dedicated access to rail facilities, bypassing the congestion that can cost other carriers hours per turn. Fastfrate has also dedicated 15 acres of property adjacent to CPKC’s Toronto intermodal facility for a container yard and pre-pull operation.

[Credit: Fastfrate]

“Our relationship with CP Rail has been longstanding, and we’ve been close partners since day one,” Tepper said. “I’ve been around for the tenure of four different CP Rail CEOs, and we’ve always maintained a true strategic partnership. We’ve grown our businesses together.”

That partnership now extends into Mexico, where Fastfrate has deployed containers on CPKC’s Mexico Midwest Express service and established operations in Monterrey and Mexico City. Challenger’s automotive freight expertise in serving major customers in the automotive industry aligns directly with the northbound and southbound parts flows that dominate the Mexico corridor.

Revenue diversification and the road ahead

The cumulative effect of Fastfrate’s acquisition strategy is visible in its revenue composition. In fiscal 2020, LTL accounted for nearly 67% of the company’s revenue, with logistics at 11%, drayage at 21%, and warehousing at less than 1%. By its pro-forma 2026 projections, that mix has shifted dramatically: LTL and truckload each represent roughly 22%, logistics accounts for 23%, final mile for nearly 11%, drayage for about 11%, and the newly added freight forwarding and customs brokerage segments contribute a combined 8%.

“We were originally dependent on LTL, but we’ve continually expanded by adding logistics organizations, warehousing, drayage, and final mile,” Tepper said. “We’re no longer dependent on one service. That balance gives us more stability throughout the year and when various external factors affect the market, like international tariffs, weather events, seasonal fluctuations, and so on.”

[Credit: Fastfrate]

Looking ahead, Tepper signaled that the company isn’t finished building. Growth into the U.S. and Mexico will continue, particularly as nearshoring trends accelerate cross-border trade flows. And the company is investing in technology such as automated robotic sorting centers, AI-driven empty-mile optimization, and workflow automation to scale operations faster.

Automation and AI investment

At Precision Parcel & Package Deliveries, Fastfrate’s final-mile division, the company is deploying a T-Sort robotic sortation system powered by a fleet of 160 autonomous guided robots. The installation spans a 220-by-85-foot footprint with 312 sorting destinations across nine sortation fingers, capable of processing up to 7,500 parcels per hour. The AGVs navigate via floor-mounted markers, automatically transport parcels from induction stations to destination chutes, and return themselves to self-charging docks, all without manual intervention. Automated print-and-apply labeling and a centralized HMI control station round out the system.

This infrastructure investment reflects where Fastfrate sees the final-mile business heading; as in, higher volumes, faster throughput, and allowing the company to increase capacity for the marketplace as e-commerce fulfillment demand continues to intensify across North America.

[Credit: Fastfrate]

The automation push extends well beyond the warehouse floor. Across the broader Fastfrate Group, the company is rolling out a suite of AI-powered tools designed to streamline operations at every customer touchpoint. An AI system now organizes inbound IT helpdesk tickets, routing and prioritizing service requests without manual triage. Another handles live phone inquiries, providing automated shipment tracking to callers. A third tool contacts drivers directly to collect real-time status updates (including position, proximity to destination, and border crossing confirmations) and feeds that information back into Fastfrate’s operational systems automatically.

On the customer-facing side, AI is being deployed to handle email responses for spot quote requests and tracking inquiries.

“We’re also investing in upgraded facilities and all the latest tech,” Tepper said. “With tools like that, we will continue to scale operations faster and faster.”

While Fastfrate started 60 years ago by filling empty boxcars, the next chapter of growth will be powered as much by software as by steel.

But through all the expansion, Tepper returned to the people who made it possible.

“We want our legacy to be one of growth, risk-taking, and taking care of our employees first at all times,” Tepper said. “We have incredibly low turnover, and a lot of 30- and 40-year employees. They’re treated well, and we know that the business has grown on the strength of our employees. You need the right people at the right place to make it all work, and that’s one thing we’ll always be proud of.”

If you’re a U.S. shipper and you’re unfamiliar with the name Fastfrate, Tepper’s message was straightforward.

“We’re coming,” he said. “We’re going to continue growing in Mexico and the U.S. like we have in Canada.”

Click here to learn more about Fastfrate.

Prologis anchors $200M maritime innovation fund

containers being loaded on yard trucks at port

Prologis Ventures has committed to co-anchor the launch of TMV Logistics, a new $200 million venture fund dedicated to maritime and logistics innovation and safety.

With over $235 billion in assets under management, Prologis (NYSE: PLD) holds a critical position in global trade. Anchoring the TMV Logistics fund will allow the company to address maritime-oriented supply chain needs.

“With a global footprint across logistics real estate, we see firsthand how constraints at ports and along maritime corridors ripple through the entire supply chain,” said Will O’Donnell, head of global corporate development and growth at Prologis Ventures. “Investing in maritime innovation is a natural extension of our work to improve flow, visibility and efficiency from port to warehouse at global scale.”

The fund will support pre-seed through Series A companies focusing on infrastructure investments in maritime, shipbuilding, ports and intermodal logistics. Startups addressing areas like autonomy, robotics, operational AI and next-generation fuels are the primary targets.

Early-stage venture capital firm TMV will manage the fund.

“Maritime AI is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and the companies being built right now will set the standards for the next fifty years,” said Soraya Darabi, co-founder and a managing partner at TMV.

The fund is also backed by American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), a provider of classification and certification services for marine and offshore infrastructure.

Anchor partners will also support due diligence and product development, and may become customers of the portfolio companies.

“By combining ABS’s technical leadership with TMV’s early-stage access and ecosystem reach, we are positioning ourselves at the source of innovation that will define safer, more resilient, and higher-performing global fleets, shipyards, and maritime infrastructure,” said John McDonald, ABS chairman and CEO.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

AGX sues R&R, Huntington over frozen credit line, unpaid carrier invoices

Jacksonville-based AGX Freight has accused R&R Family of Cos., CEO Richard “Rich” Francis and Huntington National Bank of stripping the company of working capital and pushing it into insolvency, according to newly filed lawsuits tied to the growing collapse of the Pittsburgh logistics group.

The litigation marks the latest escalation in the widening fallout surrounding R&R Family of Cos. and its affiliated entities, including R&R Express, RFX and GT Logistics, which collectively employed hundreds of workers and worked with thousands of carriers before operations unraveled earlier this year.

In one lawsuit filed April 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Huntington National Bank sued AGX-related entities, alleging they remained jointly liable under an $85 million revolving credit facility shared with other R&R-affiliated borrowers.

The bank alleged AGX entities defaulted after lenders stopped funding advances in late 2025 amid worsening financial conditions across the R&R group.

Huntington alleged the defaults included missed debt payments, failure to timely pay carriers, the transfer of real estate tied to another R&R borrower and written admissions from co-borrowers that they were unable to pay debts as they came due.

The complaint states more than $12 million remained outstanding on the operating loans as of April 9.

However, AGX entities responded with a separate lawsuit filed in Florida state court accusing R&R Express Holdco, Francis and Huntington Bank of improperly exhausting AGX’s borrowing capacity under the shared revolving credit structure.

According to the complaint, AGX alleges that despite maintaining separate accounting and operational controls, it lost access to working capital after Huntington froze advances tied to defaults elsewhere inside the broader R&R lending group.

The Florida complaint alleges AGX and R&R were co-borrowers under the same revolving credit agreement, but claims failures tied to R&R and Francis depleted AGX’s net borrowing capacity and ultimately forced the Jacksonville brokerage to cease operations.

AGX further alleges the shutdown left approximately $3 million owed to independent motor carriers hauling freight on the company’s behalf.

The lawsuits offer one of the clearest public glimpses yet into how the financial distress inside R&R Family of Cos. spread across affiliated entities tied together through a shared asset-backed lending facility.

Under Huntington’s complaint, AGX entities were part of a larger network of co-borrowers operating under the R&R Express umbrella and were jointly and severally liable for obligations tied to the lending agreement.

AGX, however, alleges the company operated separately and responsibly managed its own borrowing base before losing liquidity because of problems elsewhere within the R&R structure.

The dispute also sheds new light on the increasingly complex web of ownership and financing relationships tied to the R&R collapse.

According to Huntington’s federal complaint, R&R Express Holdco owned 60% of AAGEX Freight Group, AGX’s parent company, while former AGX executive Mike Williams owned the remaining 40%.

The AGX litigation follows several other lawsuits tied to the collapse of R&R Family of Cos., including claims filed by Huntington National Bank, Jimenez Logistics and Vantage Carrier over unpaid freight invoices and outstanding debt obligations.

USPS, letter carriers head to mediation for new contract

A letter carrier loads up travel bag from back of a van parked on a neighborhood street.

Negotiations between the U.S. Postal Service and the union representing its largest group of letter carriers on a new collective bargaining agreement have entered a 60-day mandatory mediation period after the current contract expired on Friday.

Representatives for the National Association of Letter Carriers and the Postal Service were unable to finalize a deal during talks in Washington last, the union said in a press release. The existing contract will remain in effect until a new negotiated or arbitrated agreement takes effect. NALC represents 295,000 current and retired delivery workers.

If no agreement is reached during legally-mandated mediation, unresolved issues will be addressed through an arbitration process, which could result in a final and binding decision. The parties will select a neutral arbitrator to chair an arbitration board that would also include one management and one union arbitrator.

“While good-faith bargaining with our counterparts from the Postal Service has brought progress in some areas, we have not yet reached agreement on terms that we believe properly reward NALC members for their hard work and value to the Postal Service. We are confident that both sides of the table will continue to productively engage throughout the 60-day mediation period. We will do everything we can to reach agreement but are fully prepared to use the interest arbitration process if necessary to resolve any remaining differences,” said NALC President Brian Renfroe.

The labor talks are taking place as the Postal Service continues to pile up huge amounts of debt. The national post recorded a $2 billion loss during the second quarter on the heels of a $9 billion loss during fiscal year 2025. Postal workers are not allowed by law to strike, but a frustrated workforce could result in service deterioration as the organization strives to increase revenues.

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

US Postal Service reduces operating loss to $642M