Beginning January 2026, I’m launching a new show on the FreightWaves platform called Brake Check.
This is why it exists.
This is who it’s for.
And this is why the timing matters.
For a long time, the trucking industry table has been missing something critical: reality.
Instead, that table has been crowded by self-serving interest groups, recycled narratives, and decades-old fear-based talking points that no longer reflect the world drivers and carriers actually live in. The same myths keep getting repeated. The same voices keep benefiting. And the people doing the work continue to carry the weight.
That disconnect is exactly why this industry needs a reality check.
Brake Check is that wake-up call.
This show isn’t here to make anyone comfortable. It’s here to make the industry honest.
For too long, drivers and carriers have been talked about instead of talked with. Panels, policies, glossy reports, and polished narratives dominate the conversation while the people hauling the freight are left asking a simple question:
Who is this industry really being built for?
Brake Check is my answer.
This is a zero-fluff, zero-filter zone.
No corporate-safe scripts.
No self-congratulatory nonsense.
No pretending trucking is healthier than it is to protect power, position, or profit.
We are bringing the carrier and driver voice directly to FreightWaves, not watered down, not permission-seeking, and not sanitized. The guests, stories, and conversations on this show are built around the people doing the job daily, not just talking about it from a distance or even worse never done it at all….
We’re taking on broken policies, false shortages, exploitative practices, and the narratives that have been used for decades to keep the workforce divided, distracted, and quiet.
Let me be crystal clear:
For those pretending everything is fine – your time is up.
For bad actors who thrive in the shadows – run.
For anyone exploiting an already exploited workforce – your number is up.
This is real.
This is raw.
And this isn’t going away.
Brake Check lives at the intersection of life on the road and truth behind the curtain.
It’s where lived experience meets unfiltered conversations about how decisions are made, who benefits from them, and who pays the price when they fail.
This isn’t a place to just complain.
It’s a place to confront, expose, and fix what’s broken and to finally say the quiet parts out loud.
That means talking about thin margins, unpaid detention, parking shortages, regulatory whiplash, and the exhaustion that comes from being told one story while living another. It means challenging fear-based narratives that have outlived their usefulness. It means asking why the same solutions keep getting recycled by the same people when the results clearly aren’t working.
This show will be heavy at times, because real conversations usually are. But it will always be grounded in respect for the people who keep this country moving when no one’s watching: drivers, small carriers, fleet owners, dispatchers, safety teams. The people too busy fixing equipment, chasing payment, or trying to get home to waste time on buzzwords.
If you’ve listened to me on SiriusXM, you know I bring an all gas, no brakes energy.
If you’ve watched Sense Per Mile, you know I believe honesty and humor can coexist, and that progress requires perspective from all sides.
Brake Check takes that same energy, strips away the filters, and turns the volume up.
This is unapologetically real trucking talk.
Some conversations will be uncomfortable. Some truths won’t sit well with those who’ve grown comfortable controlling the narrative. That’s fine. Progress doesn’t come from echo chamber…. it comes from friction, accountability, and the courage to say, This isn’t working. Now what?
Brake Check isn’t about tearing trucking down.
It’s about giving the industry what it has deserved for a long time: truth, representation, and accountability, about lifting up those doing it right and tossing shots at the bows at those hurting it.
It represents the trucking we have today, not the version that looks good in presentations, but instead ….
The real one.
The gritty one.
The one built on resilience, sacrifice, and people who keep showing up despite being overlooked.
January 2026 marks the start of that mission.
Brake Check isn’t a brand play. It’s a line in the sand.
This is an industry wake-up call.
And we’re here to give you the trucking you deserve, not the one you we were left with.
Cheers,
Charles Gracey
