A Truck Driver Made One Phone Call and Saved a Life. There Is an Award for That, and Nominations Close August 15.
A driver rounds a curve on a dark rural road and sees a woman standing near the fog line, head shaved, wearing nothing but a beach towel, no other car or person anywhere in sight. Something is wrong. He acts. That woman turns out to be a human trafficking victim, and because a truck driver […]
Three Trucks Hit CSX Trains in Metro Atlanta in Under a Week. Every One of Them Is a Lesson in the Crossing Mistake That Kills Drivers.
In the span of five days, three tractor-trailers were struck by CSX freight trains in metro Atlanta. The trucks were destroyed. Fires broke out in each case. By something close to luck, no one was killed. That cluster is worth every owner-operator’s attention, not because Atlanta is uniquely dangerous, but because the same scenario repeated […]
Operation Safe Driver Week Hits July 12. The Ticket You Get That Week Follows You Long After the Week Is Over.
From July 12 to July 18, 2026, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance runs Operation Safe Driver Week across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and for those seven days the number of officers watching for unsafe driving goes up sharply. CVSA announced the dates and the focus on April 30. The official area of emphasis […]
A $290,000 Tesla Semi for $50,000?? California’s Incentive Stack Is Real, but the Number Hides as Much as It Reveals.
A claim is circulating that stops you mid-scroll: a California small fleet can now buy a Tesla Semi for as little as $50,000. The Tesla Semi carries a $290,000 sticker. The post lays out how two California incentive programs stack to knock $240,000 off that price, leaving a net cost of roughly $50,000, which it […]
Prime Is Suing the IRS for $11 Million Over Fuel Tax It Paid on Reefer Diesel. The Same Credit It Is Fighting For Is One Small Carriers Can Claim Too.
A reefer unit burns its own diesel. Anyone who runs refrigerated freight knows this, because they are paying for two fuel burns on every load: the diesel that moves the truck down the road, and the separate diesel that runs the refrigeration unit on the trailer keeping the freight cold. Both come out of the […]
One in Three Trucks Failed. What the 2026 CVSA Blitz Number Means for Your CSA Score and Your Insurance Renewal.
What Actually Happened During Blitz Week and What the Numbers Mean The 2026 CVSA International Roadcheck ran May 12 through May 14, a 72-hour enforcement initiative across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The surrounding DOT Blitz Week extended from May 10 through May 17, producing 15,952 total inspections and the 32.8 percent out-of-service rate […]
When Rates Are Up and Your Cash Is Still Tight. Here Is What Is Actually What Could Be Going On.
Now the market turns. Spot rates in mid-2026 are running roughly 15% above where they sat a year ago, the strongest year-over-year comparison since early 2022. That load that paid $2,200 last year is paying $2,500 or $2,600 now. Good. Real money. But there is a caveat, because this is where operators fool themselves. The […]
The Number the Dealer Shows You Is Not What the Truck Costs: How to Calculate the Real Price of Financing
Why the Monthly Payment Is the Wrong Number to Focus On The monthly payment is a cash flow number. It tells you whether you can keep the lights on week to week. It tells you almost nothing about what the truck actually costs. What the truck actually costs is the purchase price plus every dollar […]
Black Marker, Magnetic Signs, and Peeling Decals: Here Is What 49 CFR 390.21 Actually Requires.
Spend a day on any interstate in this country and you will lose count. Trucks rolling down the highway with the company name scrawled on the door in black marker. USDOT numbers handwritten so small you would have to be parked next to the truck to read them. Letters smeared, crooked, half peeled off, applied […]
The Alphabet Behind the Wheel: What ADAS Features Actually Do, and Which Ones Your Insurer Will Actually Credit
Why This Matters More Than It Did Two Years Ago Trucking insurance is expensive and getting more so. According to ATRI’s 2025 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, insurance premiums hit a record 10.2 cents per mile in 2024, following a 12.5 percent increase in 2023 and an additional 3 percent rise in 2024. […]
Same Lane, Same Miles, Different Fuel Bills: What’s Really Separating Your MPG From Your Neighbor’s
The Gap Is Bigger Than You Think Picture two owner-operators, both running a regular Midwest corridor. Same general freight, similar weights, comparable miles per week. One of them is averaging somewhere around 7.5 to 7.8 miles per gallon. The other is pulling 6.1 to 6.3. On a week where each truck burns 400 gallons of […]
The Tax Math That Changes Whether You Should Own or Lease Your Truck
A Note Before We Start Tax law is not a place for general advice to substitute for specific counsel. The concepts in this article are educational. The numbers used are illustrative. Your actual tax situation depends on your entity structure, your annual taxable income, your state’s conformity with federal law, and decisions that need to […]
“One of the Worst Software Releases I’ve Ever Witnessed.” Users Are Not Holding Back on FMCSA’s New MOTUS System
Two weeks ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration flipped the switch on the biggest overhaul of its registration infrastructure in decades. The legacy systems carriers had used for years, including the Unified Registration System, the Licensing and Insurance public filing system, and the FMCSA Portal’s registration functions, were permanently retired at 8:00 PM Eastern […]
C.H. Robinson Is Removing Carriers Based on Safety Scores. A Supreme Court Decision Two Weeks Ago May Explain Why.
A notice has been going out to carriers in the C.H. Robinson network, and it is worth reading carefully because of what may sit behind it. The message, branded under C.H. Robinson and titled “Changes to carrier eligibility,” tells the recipient that their company “exceeds intervention thresholds for C.H. Robinson’s scoring model based on data […]
The Charcoal on That Truck Costs More to Import, More to Buy, and Is Headed to a Cookout That Runs 13% Higher Than Last Year. Here Is What That Tells You About the Consumer Right Now.
Pull up the import data on U.S. charcoal briquette shipments and you are looking at something that some people in trucking would not think to check heading into a holiday weekend. But that data, read against the consumer spending picture for Memorial Day 2026, tells you something specific about the supply chain, the retail freight […]
$217 Million Just Hit the Table for Trucking Safety and CDL Development — Here’s Who Can Apply and What It Means for Your Operation
On Monday, May 18, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced that FMCSA is deploying $217 million across four grant programs targeting trucking safety enforcement, CDL program modernization, technology deployment at roadside inspections, and career training for military veterans entering the trucking industry. This is not a future commitment. Applications are open right now. The […]
Same Repair. Same Truck. Higher Invoice. Here Is the Number Behind What You Are Paying at the Parts Counter Right Now.
On October 17, 2025, President Trump signed a proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, imposing a 25% tariff on imported medium and heavy-duty trucks and truck parts — Class 3 through Class 8 vehicles, engines, transmissions, tires, chassis components. It took effect November 1. For USMCA-compliant parts out of Mexico […]
13,273 Trucks Got Parked During Blitz Week. If Your Violation Is Wrong, You Have a Real Way to Fight It.
The 2026 CVSA International Roadcheck ran May 12 through 14 — but enforcement didn’t stop there. Blitz week ran May 10 through 17, and by the time it closed out, the numbers were more significant than what the three-day event alone produced: 38,926 inspections. 69,446 violations. 13,273 out-of-service orders. 25,008 carriers inspected. What a lot […]
Roadcheck Day 2 Nearly Tripled Day 1 Volume. The Violation Data Shows Where Trucks Are Failing.
The Day 2 Numbers Through two days of the 2026 International Roadcheck, FMCSA inspection records show 6,406 total inspections conducted, 11,010 violations logged, 2,055 out-of-service orders issued, and 5,217 distinct carriers inspected. Data via searchcarriers.com/blitz, which aggregates live FMCSA inspection records and refreshes daily during the event at no cost. Isolating Day 2 from the […]
Nobody Is Asking the Hard Questions About What Happens When an Autonomous Truck Breaks Down on the Highway at 2 AM. Let Us Start.
This article is not an argument for or against autonomous trucks. It is not a prediction about what the freight market looks like in 2035, and it is not an endorsement of any technology company’s safety record or business model. It is a set of questions that the industry — carriers, drivers, regulators, first responders, […]