The Playbook

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 […]

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 […]

Safe isn’t always exposure-free or risk-free. Compliant isn’t always safe. What “safety” means doesn’t matter. A carrier can be all three of those things on paper and still bury everyone who touched the load in exposure. This is a working primer on how risk professionals actually vet, qualify and screen a carrier.

The BUILD America 250 Act changes broker qualification rules, overhauls the DataQs violation dispute process, and puts a federal clock on hair drug testing. Here is what those three provisions mean for brokers, motor carriers, insurance renewals and driver capacity

The BUILD America 250 Act creates the first federal framework for autonomous commercial trucks. It is not a green light. DOT has 2 years to write the safety standard; the liability question stays in front of a jury; and the bill funds retraining for drivers in the cab today.

The Supreme Court just told 28,000 freight brokers that they owe a duty of ordinary care in carrier selection. The question every broker, shipper, and 3PL should be asking is not whether they need a carrier vetting process. That question was answered on May 14. The question is: what technology are they using to build one that a jury will believe?

The Supreme Court just opened the courthouse doors to negligent-hiring claims against brokers. The only federally required financial backstop is a surety bond designed to make sure carriers get paid. It was never meant to cover a wrongful death.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that state negligent-hiring claims against freight brokers are not preempted by the FAAAA. Twenty-eight thousand brokers just woke up in a different legal universe.

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 […]

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, […]

The Gap Between the Headline and the Freight The White House published a press release on April 22, 2026, titled “Trump Effect: American Manufacturing Is Roaring Back as Factory Activity Hits Four-Year High.” The ISM Manufacturing PMI did reach 52.7 in March 2026 — a multi-year high that signals genuine expansion in domestic manufacturing activity. […]

What Is Actually Driving the Freight Right Now The surge in freight movement that started in late April and is accelerating through May 2026 is not the organic demand recovery that small carriers have been waiting three years to see. It is, in large part, a tariff front-load. Shippers who import goods from China, Mexico, […]

What Day 1 Actually Produced FMCSA inspection records show Day 1 produced 1,580 inspections across 1,417 distinct carriers. Total violations logged: 2,637. Out-of-service orders issued: 496. That works out to an average of 1.67 violations per inspection — a 31.4% out-of-service rate against total inspection volume. Data via Search Carriers, which aggregates live FMCSA inspection […]

An investigative analysis of the security gaps in American commercial trucking, from terrorism to trafficking and how CVSA Roadcheck plays an important role.

The benchmark price used for most fuel surcharges edged up slightly. 

COVID nearly killed the motorcoach industry. Hantavirus is not COVID but the lessons still apply. Here is what passenger carriers should be doing right now without losing their minds.

FMCSA revoked two more electronic logging devices today, bringing the total to 67 noncompliant devices removed since January 2025. Carriers using Safe ELD or MYLOGS ELD have until July 7, 2026, to replace them or face out-of-service orders.

An investigation found 195 active motor carriers clustered along a few miles of East Dublin Granville Road in northeast Columbus; the same corridor was just exposed for a billion dollars in Medicaid fraud. Federal inspection data shows those carriers have been involved in 275 crashes, including 4 fatal and 74 injury crashes. The world’s largest retailer appears in 175 inspections across 44 of those carriers with a 20.6% out-of-service rate.

The benchmark diesel price used for most surcharges has regained three weeks of declines.

We have a carrier-quality problem with a specific geographic signature, an enforcement problem documented for decades, and a financial problem for American carriers competing against operators who pay their drivers 35 cents a mile to do work that American drivers expect 78 cents a mile to perform.