Georgia Is Building 41 Miles of Toll-Free, Truck-Only Lanes on I-75. GDOT Thinks Nearly Every Truck Will Use Them.
Georgia is moving ahead with an idea that most of the country has only talked about: a stretch of interstate where the trucks get their own road. The Georgia Department of Transportation has released a construction timeline for its I-75 Commercial Vehicle Lanes project, and the plan is concrete. Design work will be finalized and […]
The Safety Audit Comes After the Trucks Are Already Rolling. A Long-Dormant Rule Asks Whether That’s Backwards.
Here is how a person becomes a federally authorized motor carrier today. You apply for a USDOT number. As part of that application, you certify on a form, the MCS-150, that you are knowledgeable about the applicable federal motor carrier safety regulations and, where relevant, the hazardous materials regulations. You check the box. You get […]
“It Ain’t That Bad That I Got to Pay Somebody to Come Here.” Why a Man Who Runs 65 Owner-Operators Says Sign-On Bonuses Repel the Drivers You Actually Want.
Sixty-five owner-operators is not the same thing as sixty-five trucks. That distinction sits underneath everything Christian Martinez does. As director of operations at Voyager Nation in Mulberry, Florida, he manages a fleet that is 100% owner-operator, which means he manages 65 independent business owners who have no obligation to stay and every other option available […]
FMCSA Says the Broker Transparency Proposal Is Coming This Month. It Could Be the Most Important Rule for Owner-Operators in Years, or It Could Change Almost Nothing.
The regulation at the center of this fight is not new. It has been sitting in the Code of Federal Regulations since 1980. 49 CFR 371.3 requires property brokers to keep a record of each transaction, and it gives each party to that transaction the right to review the record. On paper, an owner-operator who […]
August 2019: Two Trucks and a Fresh Start. Today: Nearly 40 Trucks, 140 Trailers, and a 40-Year-Old Carrier.
I have known Jerry Murphy for almost two years. We talk every couple of weeks. And I can tell you there is no version of him for the cameras. The man you hear on this episode is the same man I get on those calls. He did not have a driver’s license when he started […]
He Found His Way Out of the Streets in a Prison Cell With a Pamphlet. This Is How Debon “DJ” Sims Built a Trucking Business Nobody Could Take From Him.
The decision that changed Debon Sims’s life got made in a prison cell, over a pamphlet. That is where this story starts, and it is worth sitting with, because it frames everything that comes after. In 2015, Sims got into what he calls the only kind of trouble he had ever been in, his first […]
PACCAR Is Raising the DEF Limp-Mode Speed From 5 MPH to 25 MPH. It Is Part of the Biggest Rollback of Diesel Emissions Enforcement in Years.
For any owner-operator who has ever been stranded on the shoulder of an interstate at 5 miles per hour because a sensor decided the diesel exhaust fluid system had a problem, the announcement PACCAR made on July 6, 2026 will read like overdue relief. The company is rolling out updated software for trucks equipped with […]
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 […]