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Steve Barrett

A copy editor for FreightWaves since 2019, Steve Barrett has worked as an editor and/or reporter for The Associated Press as well as newspapers in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Nebraska. He also served as a senior managing editor for a medical marketing company, collaborating with some of the nation's most respected health care organizations and specialists in major markets in New York and Pennsylvania. He earned a Master of Mass Communications degree from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish from the University of South Dakota.
Mar - 2024 -
19 March
Steve Barrett

Georgia bill would restrict truck-crash lawsuits against insurers

Legislation heading to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to bar most truck-crash lawsuits against insurance companies would reduce premiums and lead more insurers to write policies, supporters say.

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12 March
Steve Barrett

Seatbelt use can now be used as evidence
in accident lawsuits in Indiana

Gov. Eric Holcomb of Indiana has signed a bill that allows juries to know whether a plaintiff in a vehicle accident was using a seatbelt. The ATA has praised the legislation.

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07 March
Steve Barrett

Burning of chemicals after Ohio derailment was unnecessary, NTSB head says

NTSB head Jennifer Homendy told a Senate committee that the burning of chemicals on derailed Norfolk Southern rail cars in East Palestine, Ohio, was not necessary.

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Feb - 2024 -
23 February
Steve Barrett

Bills in Wisconsin, Indiana could reduce nuclear verdicts against carriers

A Wisconsin bill may limit non-economic damages for accidents involving commercial vehicles. An Indiana bill would let seatbelt use be used as evidence in accident lawsuits.

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14 February
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad supply chain world

Houthiville and Mother-in-law Nature are making international logistics a visit to the eyeball surgeon before modern painkiller.

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Dec - 2023 -
14 December
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: Fresh clucking about pilfered poultry roils trucking

Alleged thefts of chicken and chicken-adjacent foods on both sides of the Atlantic have me feeling fricasseed.

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Mar - 2023 -
06 March
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: English trucker’s Cadbury Egg caper goes awry

What if the English trucker who made off with 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs was trying to spare innocent taste buds?

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Jan - 2023 -
30 January
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: 1 pork platter, hold the Louisiana Light Sweet

“Brent Blend” sounds like something Loretta Lynn’s forebears might have distilled in West Virginia.

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Dec - 2022 -
15 December
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: ‘If it gigs, tax it,’ Washington decrees

A tax code throat punch promises to make gig work and online selling as fun as a trip to the morgue and as profitable as the average Mega Millions ticket.

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Jun - 2022 -
07 June
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: Everybody wants Freightliner CPCs

The case of Daimler Truck’s missing powertrain controller modules may be tough to solve. The microchips in them are as popular as a Taco Bell drive-thru after the Great Mexican Pizza Famine and lots more valuable, so we all have a motive.

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Apr - 2022 -
26 April
Steve Barrett

Modern Shipper named Best New Product in prestigious Neal Awards

FreightWaves’ final mile-focused Modern Shipper brand was named Best New Product on Tuesday in the 68th Annual Jesse H. Neal Awards.

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Mar - 2022 -
10 March
Steve Barrett

FreightWaves a finalist in 2 categories of prestigious Neal Awards

FreightWaves’ Modern Shipper brand and WHAT THE TRUCK?!? podcast are finalists in the 68th Annual Jesse H. Neal Awards’ Best New Product and Best Podcast categories.

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Feb - 2022 -
11 February
Jan - 2022 -
14 January
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: Raven-on-drone violence nothing to crow about

Australian officials’ resolution of recent raven-on-drone attacks isn’t much to crow about.

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Nov - 2021 -
19 November
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: Mr. Durr goes to Trenton

He had a dream, 153 bucks and a decent supply of doughnuts. Mild-mannered furniture truck driver Edward Durr may not leap the New Jersey State House in a single bound, but his stunning Senate win ensures he’ll bring a new perspective to Trenton.

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Oct - 2021 -
01 October
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: With ‘wake-up calls’ like this, who needs Ambien?

Shot in the dark, but a $5,000 timeout for $230,000 in pay withheld from workers making as little as $3.38 an hour could prove a suboptimal deterrent.

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Aug - 2021 -
07 August
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: Whistling past the autonomous truck yard

Not to be a Luddite, but a world of trucker-free trucks is going to mean some minor trade-offs, including fleeting bouts of creepiness.

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Jun - 2021 -
25 June
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: Marla meets the watermelon truck

I was there when Marla Maples became homecoming queen. Regrettably, I was also there when a truckload of watermelons attacked her in a four-Rolaids film by “the master of horror.”

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11 June
Steve Barrett

The Light Load: Confessions of a transportation tenderfoot

Tankers painted with coffee mugs do not haul coffee, and other alarming discoveries.

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09 June
Steve Barrett

FreightWaves takes top honor in prestigious Neal Awards

FreightWaves and its American Shipper brand won Best Media Brand (Overall Editorial Excellence) in the 67th annual Jesse H. Neal Awards, considered the Pulitzer Prize of business-to-business journalism.

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May - 2021 -
10 May
Steve Barrett

FreightWaves named 5-category finalist in prestigious Neal Awards

FreightWaves is a finalist in five categories in the Jesse H. Neal Awards, which honor editorial excellence in specialized journalism.

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Feb - 2020 -
26 February
Steve Barrett

High winds prompt empty-trailer ban on part of NYS Thruway

Expected high winds have led to a ban on hauling empty trailers on part of the New York State Thruway in western New York starting at 3 a.m. Thursday.

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Jan - 2020 -
05 January
Steve Barrett

Michigan truck driver faces charges in deadly Indiana pileup

Authorities cite distracted driving in nine-vehicle Sunday crash that claimed three lives in Boone County.

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Nov - 2019 -
10 November
Steve Barrett

American, Southwest postpone return of Boeing 737 MAX service

Boeing 737 MAX will return to commercial service at Southwest and American in March.

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03 November
Steve Barrett

US may put off auto tariffs again, Commerce secretary says

Commerce secretary says talks on foreign automaker investment in the U.S. may again delay imposition of tariffs on imported vehicles.

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