Freight Brokers: Your Trailer Insurance Has HUGE Gaps!

Freight brokers often face hidden risks with their trailer insurance. Andy Kuchar, President of Centerline Insurance Company, reveals why many trailers are “criminally underinsured” and how common policies exclude crucial over-the-road coverage. Learn the red flags in your current insurance and how dedicated policies protect against massive liabilities, even for small incidents.

Freight brokers operating trailer pools may be carrying insurance that provides virtually no protection when those trailers are in use on the road. Andy Kuchar, of Centerline — an insurance company owned by Watkins Associated Industries, the family behind Watkins Motor Lines that became FedEx Freight — said the problem surfaced clearly when his firm launched a dedicated trailer insurance product roughly five and a half years ago.

Kuchar said the first policy he reviewed after entering the market, written by a major carrier he declined to name, contained a specific exclusion for trailers over the road. The broker holding that policy believed it was fully covered and had thousands of trailers in its fleet. “The coverage was with a great company. It was inexpensive, but it didn’t really cover anything,” Kuchar said.

“I think you need to start asking some very pointed questions of your insurance agent to say, do I really have this covered? And show me.” — Andy Kuchar, Centerline

The stakes are rising for brokers following the post-Montgomery legal environment, where plaintiffs’ attorneys are increasingly bypassing small single-truck carriers — who typically carry only $1 million in coverage against a federal minimum of $750,000 — and targeting brokers directly because of their deeper pockets. Providing a trailer to a motor carrier adds a distinct layer of liability beyond brokering a load, Kuchar said, because the equipment itself can be named in litigation. He cited one claim where a worker unloading building materials from a parked trailer was killed in an accident; the trailer lessor was pulled into the lawsuit. “Today to get somebody out of a claim is usually at least $100,000,” he said.

Small claims compound the exposure. Kuchar noted that in legacy trucking insurance programs his firm previously wrote, a third of property-damage claims involved losses under $2,000 — yet bodily injury payouts on those same claims ran $50,000 to $75,000 or more as claimants continued treatment to inflate values.

Centerline’s trailer liability product is aimed at three customer segments: freight brokers that lease trailers and need coverage acceptable to lessors; transportation firms that operate combined motor carrier, brokerage, and equipment-leasing arms; and, most recently, leasing companies themselves. Kuchar said Centerline has signed master programs with half a dozen leasing companies in the last 30 to 60 days. The firm also writes per-shipment cargo coverage on high-value loads, with a growing volume of business covering inbound freight from Mexico — often auto parts moving through Laredo — on loads that can reach $1 million in value. That cargo product is nearly 10 years old; the trailer product is five and a half years old.

Kuchar, who holds a doctorate in insurance from the University of Georgia and said he personally wrote every word of every policy Centerline has issued, flagged two red flags brokers should watch for in their current coverage: any policy language using the word “contingent,” and reliance on a motor carrier’s certificate of insurance, which explicitly confers no rights on the certificate holder. He said Reliance Partners, a Chattanooga-based retail insurance agency, is among Centerline’s largest distribution partners, and that the firm works with any retail broker whose clients need the specialty coverage.

Many trailer insurance policies carry explicit over-the-road exclusions, leaving freight brokers with pools of leased trailers effectively uninsured for their primary exposure.
Centraline has signed master trailer-liability programs with half a dozen leasing companies in the past 30 to 60 days, reflecting rising legal pressure on equipment owners after the post-Montgomery shift in plaintiff litigation strategy.
Even small property-damage claims under $2,000 can balloon into $50,000–$100,000+ bodily injury payouts, making trailer liability coverage a cost brokers should build into their business model.

This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.

DHL Express triples Shenzhen air cargo capacity with terminal expansion

Yellow DHL trucks are seen lined up at a large air terminal as seen from the ground level.

DHL Express has completed the $204 million expansion of its “super gateway” at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport in South China’s Guangdong province, tripling shipping capacity to 992 tons per day and enabling more direct cargo flights.

The project represents the company’s largest investment in mainland China to date, supporting cross-border trade and time-definite international express services in one of China’s most important manufacturing and export regions.

A gateway in the DHL network is a regional connection point that links local service centers to the global network. Some shipments from producers in Shenzhen and trucked to DHL’s main terminal at Hong Kong International Airport if they need to reach other intercontinental hubs.

Once at full capacity, annual throughput is expected to exceed 286,000 tons, about 10 times the volume handled by the previous Shenzhen gateway, according to the China Daily News. Construction of the facility began in 2022. The heavily automated facility features high-speed sorting systems, automated storage, robotic arms and automated guided vehicles designed to efficiently and safely unload, store, handle, inspect and monitor parcels and larger shipments.

Complementing the expansion of shipment processing capacity, DHL has introduced a new dedicated air route with a widebody Boeing 767 cargo jet linking Shanghai; Bangkok, Thailand; Bahrain and Brussels, Belgium, to meet demand for air cargo transport between China and key markets across Asia, the Middle East and Europe, DHL announced this week.

The new capabilities give DHL Express more flexibility to support customers’ logistics needs, especially in target sectors such as AI data centers, semiconductors, technology, life sciences and healthcare and next-generation energy, including electric batteries. The express air network is also heavily used by e-commerce shippers.

The addition of a 767 freighter route fits with the company’s new Heavyweight Express offering, connecting suppliers interested in moving larger shipments through DHL Express’s time-definite network with predictable transit times.

DHL Group’s second-quarter profit grew 22% on $25.8 in revenue. Express heavyweight is a premium product in the DHL network and one the company is promoting to shippers with urgent consignments that can use the extra capacity in its package freighters.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

DHL 30% profit growth led by heavy air freight

ICE expands state law enforcement partnerships with Indiana, Oklahoma, Wyoming

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has expanded partnerships with state law enforcement agencies that allow trained local officers to perform immigration enforcement functions under federal supervision.

The Memoranda of Agreements are between ICE and the Indiana State Police, Oklahoma Department of Public Safety and Wyoming Highway Patrol under its 287(g) Task Force Model. It allows state and local police to enforce immigration issues when they arise during traffic stops, commercial vehicle inspections or other safety-related enforcement activities.

Wyoming Highway Patrol spokesman Aaron Brown told FreightWaves the program is already being used by 17 troopers and can apply during routine commercial vehicle inspections and traffic stops.

Brown said the agency’s current agreement was signed in July 2025 and follows previous agreements with ICE dating back to 2024.

“For our troopers this program will work as a part of daily duties already being performed,” Brown told FreightWaves. During a typical Department of Transportation inspection, questions regarding citizenship may arise organically, and if a driver is found to be in the country illegally, “then the driver will be detained and transferred to ICE custody.”

FreightWaves also sought comments from ICE, the Indiana State Police and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety regarding the agreements, including implementation timelines, the number of officers participating and whether commercial vehicle enforcement personnel would be involved. None responded to requests for comment by publication time.

Brown emphasized that Wyoming troopers do not act as federal immigration agents.

“Our troopers do not act as ICE agents, but will enforce immigration issues in coordination with ICE only through the course of daily duties,” Brown said.

The agreements come amid increased federal and state enforcement efforts involving commercial trucking.

Over the past year, federal authorities have expanded initiatives targeting unqualified commercial drivers, fraudulent commercial driver’s license programs and immigration-related violations discovered during roadside inspections.

For Wyoming, Brown said the program is ultimately tied to highway safety.

“The purpose of the agreement with ICE is to bolster the efforts in that priority by allowing enforcement through our trooper’s daily duties,” Brown said, referring to the agency’s mission of protecting motorists and commercial carriers on the state’s highways.

Whether Indiana and Oklahoma intend to deploy similar enforcement models, how many officers will participate, and whether commercial vehicle enforcement divisions will be involved remains unclear pending responses from those agencies and ICE.

Why it matters: The partnership between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state law agencies could have direct implications for trucking fleets, drivers and enforcement operations on major freight corridors.

Before the lawsuit: Trucking deposition preparation

Fleet safety director answering questions during a mock deposition at a trucking compliance bootcamp

Fleet safety directors spend years building compliance programs that nobody ever asks them to defend out loud, and when someone finally does, it is a plaintiff’s attorney with a court reporter in the room. Trucksafe Consulting is selling the rehearsal.

The DOT compliance consultancy will hold its fifth annual Fleet Compliance Bootcamp Sept. 16-17, 2026, at the Crowne Plaza Indianapolis-Downtown-Union Station, and this year’s program adds a half-day Live Deposition Simulation and Rule 30(b)(6) Preparation Seminar on Sept. 18.

Trucking deposition preparation usually begins after a lawsuit is filed, which is also the point at which the record stops being fixable. Attendees will watch a realistic deposition of a fleet safety director in a serious highway-accident case. Plaintiff and defense attorneys will demonstrate the questioning strategies, document issues and credibility challenges they use in live cases. A panel discussion afterward will examine how testimony and company records affect liability exposure and settlement value.

“Today, a compliance failure rarely stays confined to an enforcement proceeding,” said Brandon Wiseman, president and founder of Trucksafe Consulting. “After a serious accident, attorneys will scrutinize years of driver files, maintenance records, safety data, policies, emails and management decisions.”

The exposure is retroactive, and it reaches documents nobody wrote expecting an audience.

The Traps That Aren’t Intuitive

Corporate representatives walk into those depositions ready to talk about the compliance program, and then the damage comes from the shape of the questioning.

“The manner in which the plaintiff’s attorneys are asking the questions, the things that they’re really digging into, a lot of that isn’t all that intuitive,” Wiseman said in an interview with FreightWaves. “And so if you’re not prepared for that, if you don’t take the time to understand their games that they play and the things that they try and hang you on, then you can really find yourself in a bad place in those types of depositions.”

Trucking Deposition Preparation Before the Real Thing

The half-day exercise seats a plaintiff’s attorney, a defense attorney and a safety director around an invented fact pattern and lets the questioning run.

“We thought it would be interesting to spend a half day of just kind of simulating those with a plaintiff’s attorney, a defense attorney, sitting there, a safety director, kind of going through a fact pattern for a made-up case and seeing where those traps are and how best to navigate them,” Wiseman said.

Settlement value is where documentation quality stops being an abstraction and becomes a number. Research the American Transportation Research Institute released in December 2025 found that settlements came in below verdicts once awards reached $5 million or more. Below $1 million, verdicts came in under settlements. The largest half of awards, the ones that do the real damage, grew at an average of 5.7% a year across the six years of cases studied.

Same Pitfalls, New Packaging

Wiseman founded Trucksafe five years ago alongside Childress Law, the transportation firm where he practices, and the gap he saw was informational. Fleet safety professionals, risk advisors and insurance people had almost nothing to work from on DOT regulations, or on the risk that thin compliance creates.

The bootcamp came out of that, a 2½-day format built to run against the grain of the conference circuit. Two full days cover driver qualification, hours-of-service management, drug and alcohol testing, fleet maintenance, driver-facing policies, CSA scores, DOT enforcement and audit preparedness, and insurance and litigation exposure.

That list has barely moved in five years. What changed is not the list but what the plaintiff’s bar can do with it.

“Safety ratings, CSA scores, all of that type of stuff, but it’s just, you know, as more and more of these high-profile accidents happen and the plaintiff’s bar gets more well attuned to leveraging these data points to end up with these multimillion-dollar verdicts. That’s what’s changed,” Wiseman said. “Same stuff, just kind of a different packaging of it.”

The volume behind that shift is not small: ATRI counted an estimated 12,817 state truck-tractor tort cases in 2022 alone. Its earlier nuclear verdict work logged 26 awards above $1 million in the first five years of data covering 2006 through 2019, and nearly 300 in the last five.

Brokers Are Next in Line

Motor carriers absorbed the pressure first, and brokers and shippers now sit inside the same exposure. The Supreme Court made that explicit on May 14. It ruled unanimously in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC that state negligent-hiring claims against brokers survive federal preemption under the safety exception to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act.

Some brokers already attend the bootcamp, and Trucksafe recently released an online course built for them on reading the safety data available on the carriers they hire. The broker’s version of the problem is the carrier’s in reverse: learning which records a carrier would prefer nobody read back to it. The practical consequence is that a broker’s carrier-vetting file now sits in the same discovery pile as the carrier’s driver qualification records.

“It seems like a natural extension to build some of that into our boot camp for future years, if folks would be interested in it,” Wiseman said.

Turning the Ship Around

Trucking deposition preparation takes up a half day of the 2½-day program. The rest of it aims at keeping a safety director out of that chair to begin with. Registration and program details are at trucksafebootcamp.com.

“Our whole goal is just to give them practical tips in all of those areas I mentioned, driver qualification, hours of service. The areas that, you know, perennially get fleets in trouble,” Wiseman said. “We just want to give them a ton of practical tips of, hey, here’s what the best in the business are doing to mitigate their risk in these areas, things that they can take back with them, implement back at their fleets, and then hopefully turn the ship around if they’ve been struggling in those areas.”

United Airlines cargo chief Jan Krems to retire after storied career

Overhead view of a United Airlines jet on the ramp at Dulles Airport on a sunny day as a tug moves cargo containers on the ground.

Air cargo Hall-of-Fame member Jan Krems has tendered his resignation after more than 12 years as president of cargo at United Airlines and will be replaced by Chris Busch, currently vice president, Cargo Americas.

Krems will depart at the end of September, said United Cargo spokeswoman Elise Goldstein, in conjunction with the company’s announcement on Wednesday.

A byproduct of the KLM Cargo system, Krems is credited with building United Cargo into a major cargo player that routinely outperformed U.S. competitors American Airlines and Delta Air Lines and for mentoring many other people who went onto leadership positions within the airline industry.

Krems, who lives in Spain, was inducted into The International Air Cargo Association’s Hall of Fame in 2025 for his global impact on the industry, innovation and leadership example.

One of his major successes was managing United (NASDAQ: UAL) through the Covid pandemic. United was the first airline to use passenger aircraft as mini-freighters when air travel shut down and quickly built a global cargo-only flight network that helped generate record revenues. United operated about 17,000 flights as freighters, utilizing the full belly space of the aircraft.

Unlike cargo executives at most passenger airlines who treat the cargo division as a steppingstone to the corporate suite, Krems was always a cargo man. His secret sauce was cultivating relations with freight forwarders who book most of the cargo with airlines and convincing them to fly with United. He generated loyalty from forwarders by building deep relationships rather than exploiting seller’s markets to charge the highest possible rate, say people who know him. In turn, they would stick with United Cargo when there was surplus capacity and rivals would offer lower rates.

United Airlines’ cargo revenue increased 22.6% to $527 million in the second quarter, compared to $294 million for Delta, as the carrier benefited from a sharp rise in air cargo rates related to disruptions from the Iran war and the strongest volumes since the Covid-fueled boom in 2020. Last year, United Cargo had sales of $1.78 billion, up 2.1% year over year.

*United Cargo President Jan Krems (Photo: United)*

Those figures are noteworthy considering United doesn’t operate a freighter fleet, like Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific. It mostly relies on moving cargo in the belly of its large fleet of widebody passenger aircraft, while chartering freighters on an ad hoc basis to meet demand or link the passenger network to places it doesn’t go. United also has many interline agreements with other airlines supplying dedicated space to feed regional shipments through its international hubs, such as Tokyo. Krems has made pharmaceuticals and perishable foods priority areas for growth. While many airlines jumped to carry low-value e-commerce parcels from retail platforms, Krem’s kept the company’s base capacity for freight forwarders.

The U.S. Postal Service has been one of United’s largest customers. The USPS relies heavily on United for international transport, including a freighter service to Micronesia, although domestic volumes may have declined in the past two years as the USPS shifts more mail to lower-cost ground transport. Other customers include Amazon, FedEx and UPS.

“Jan has been a transformational leader for our cargo business and a highly respected voice across the global air cargo industry. Throughout his tenure, he strengthened United Cargo’s commercial performance, expanded our global reach, advanced innovation, and deepened our commitment to customers around the world,” said Andrew Nocella, United’s chief commercial officer, in an email blast from United Cargo. “I would like to underscore the incredible impact Jan and his team made during the Covid pandemic . . . that helped United endure during an unprecedented time in history.

“His vision, expertise, and dedication have helped position United Cargo as a leader in the industry, with revenue performance two times our nearest U.S. competitor,” he said.

Krems was responsible for all aspects of United Cargo operations, customer service, sales, revenue management, product quality and technology.

United has a built-in advantage with its hub at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, which is centrally located and ringed by warehouses of major forwarders that have extensive road feeder networks across the country. United also has one of the heaviest international flight schedules originating from hubs in Newark, N.J., Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Washington Dulles connecting to many European destinations. Houston is a key gateway to Latin America.

In 2024, United Cargo opened a 165,000 square foot facility, with a large refrigerated section, about four minutes from Newark Liberty International Airport.

KLM roots

Krems joined KLM Cargo as a trainee in 1987 after graduating from college, working in a factory and the army, where he served in Lebanon for seven months, and answering an advertisement.

KLM has been a breeding ground for air cargo executives with a reputation as the top hybrid carrier because of its attention to cargo and cargo customers.

He worked for 27 years at KLM Cargo, including 10 years after the merger with Air France, where he managed operations for each major worldwide region, including as head of North America in Chicago. As the vice president of customer service, during and after the merger with Air France, he was responsible for the integration of all Air France and KLM cargo offices, aligning processes, cultures, IT systems and people. He joined United Cargo in July 2014.

“I worked for Jan during the turbulent merger of Air France and KLM Cargo in the U.S. On top of that challenge, we at Martinair were being enveloped into the AFKL Group. At the same time, the KLM-Northwest Airlines joint venture ended and the new JV with AFKL and Delta was launched. It was a wild ride and Jan steered us all though the headwinds and tailwinds. You couldn’t have a better person to lead the process,” said Arthur Brown, president of air cargo at International Bridge, an e-commerce freight provider.

Busch has spent 19 years at United, helping lead commercial growth across the Americas region and strengthening the organization, Nocella said.

(Why It Matters: Krems kept his focus on the freight forwarders, which generated return business and allowed United to make more money off cargo than post passenger carriers. The revenue he generated helped make break-even flights profitable.)

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

Is Lufthansa Cargo giving up on its Airbus A321 cargo fleet?

United Airlines to impose ‘market disruption’ surcharge on cargo

Maersk bets vertical integration will win the Last Mile

Last-mile delivery is where every upstream mistake finally comes due. It is the last stop before the customer, the last chance to get an order right. It is also the first place where blame lands when something goes wrong. Maersk is betting that connecting every link in that chain, from the port to the doorstep, is key to reducing friction and improving visibility across the customer journey.

“When we talk about optimization on last mile, I think last mile gives and creates the data points that amplify the upstream issues,” said Prashant Shah, Head of E-commerce for North America at Maersk. “To me, last mile isn’t just a cost center anymore. The last mile, when we are looking at it, is data intelligence we can use to help the upstreams out.”

That reframing sits at the center of how Maersk is building out its North American ground and e-commerce operations, according to Shah and Joe Johnson, Head of Pricing for Maersk Ground Freight (MGF) in North America.

The Last Mile as a Data Intelligence Engine

Shah said most companies treat last-mile delivery as an isolated function, missing the upstream problems it actually reveals: inventory allocation, product development, or how quickly a customer got a response after placing an order.

Without connectivity across the supply chain, visibility can break down at every handoff, making it harder to identify where problems originate and how to address them before they reach the customer. Last-mile delivery sits at the end of the supply chain and functions as a domino effect. That is, any upstream failure surfaces there first, with nothing left to catch it once the package reaches the customer’s door.

Johnson framed the stakes in terms of what the customer actually sees. “The final mile is the part that’s visible to the end customer,” Johnson said. “They don’t see the Maersk vessel coming across with their freight. They don’t see the pickup in China. They see that last-mile delivery. So we need to better understand: Is it actually a last mile problem, or what can we do to improve that overall customer experience?”

Vertical Integration in the Supply Chain Pays Off

Maersk’s pitch to shippers goes beyond ground freight. Shah described a customer relationship that starts in Vietnam and handles its shipment with Maersk.

By bringing those functions together Maersk aims to reduce the information gaps that often emerge between transportation providers, warehouses and delivery networks. Rather than managing multiple vendors independently, customers gain a more connected view of inventory, shipments and final delivery performance, enabling faster issue resolution and more proactive communication when disruptions occur.

Johnson said that end-to-end connection is becoming a market differentiator as consumers increasingly buy from overseas sellers and expect to track the full journey. “As we connect our systems from end to end in the supply chain, now there becomes that global visibility,” he said. “The customer’s anxiety is reduced the more visibility we give them.”

For many retailers and brands, the challenge is no longer simply moving products quickly. It is providing a consistent and predictable experience for end customers while managing growing complexity across sourcing, transportation, fulfillment and delivery. As expectations for visibility continue to rise, supply chain leaders are increasingly evaluating how connected their logistics networks are from origin to final delivery.

Shah tied that visibility directly to supply chain management. “The more elements of a customer’s supply chain that we can manage, the more proactive we can be in communicating to both our customer and the end consumer.” Johnson added that consistency is the goal regardless of geography: “We want to provide the same delivery experience in Seattle, Washington, that we do in Richmond, Virginia, and we can only do that by connecting every portion of that chain.”

MEC and MGF: Combined Arms Under One Brand

Maersk splits its North American operation into two units that Shah said function as one. Maersk E-Commerce (MEC), which Shah leads, handles last-mile delivery. MGF, under Johnson, covers LTL (less than truckload) and FTL (full truckload) ground freight.

“We just have different acronyms, but from the customer point of view, it doesn’t matter,” Shah said. “A lot happens behind the scenes, but the customer experiences one integrated solution.”

Johnson said the branding is deliberate. “It is definitely a competitive advantage, and that’s why when you see our branded vehicles or branded ships, they’re all different modes of transit, but it’s all Maersk,” he said. “I handle the heavier, bulky shipments, and Prashant’s group has the smaller parcel, and those groups work behind the scenes to say, ‘These are the best avenues of transit.’”

From 3PL to 4PL: Managing the Last Mile at Scale

Rather than build its own last-mile delivery fleet, Maersk manages a pool of carriers on customers’ behalf.

“We have multiple carriers that work with us,” Shah said. “So our customer can have a single point of contact with us, but we are using a multi-carrier model for them, managing it with single API integration, one communication and one customer experience for all of their end customers. If service issues arise in a region, we can adjust carriers behind the scenes so the customer experience remains consistent.”

“At the end of the day, customers don’t care how many handoffs happen behind the scenes,” Shah said. “They care that their product arrives when promised and that they know what’s happening every step of the way. Our job is to make that experience as simple and predictable as possible.”

5 suspects arrested in SoCal rail-cargo theft probe after shots fired from moving BNSF train

Five men traveled through Southern California as law enforcement closed in. Among them was Angel Castro, whom investigators linked to Monday’s shooting at a BNSF officer. Detectives searched the vehicle and found equipment used to burglarize rail cars. The stop followed a two-day inquiry that began with gunfire from a moving freight train.

The Sheriff’s Department announced the arrests Thursday morning. Authorities identified the 21-year-old as the suspected gunman. He faces attempted murder, cargo theft and conspiracy allegations. Four accused coconspirators also remain in custody.

Task force members conducted an operation along the rail corridor at approximately 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. San Bernardino police helped locate the group traveling through the city. The team stopped their car and detained every occupant. A subsequent examination uncovered rail-burglary tools, according to the agency.

Attempted-murder warrant leads to Castro

Detectives obtained an attempted-murder warrant after linking him to the shooting. That determination followed Monday’s confrontation near Cajon Boulevard and Keenbrook Road in Devore. The gunfire erupted around 6:04 p.m. after BNSF personnel encountered possible rail-car burglars. One person discharged a handgun toward a railway officer as employees tried to deter the activity.

The northbound freight train continued to Summit Valley before stopping farther along the route. Deputies established a perimeter while aviation crews searched from above. The Specialized Enforcement Division examined cars that participants may have entered. The first response produced no arrests.

FreightWaves reported Wednesday that someone took merchandise, but officials had not calculated its value. Investigators still lacked a participant count. The arrest update names five men without identifying recovered goods. The agency continues examining the case.

Four other men face cargo-theft charges

Authorities identified Jorge Sarmiento Ochoa, 31, as Castro’s accused coconspirator. They also named Miguel Humberto Grajeda Carrizos, 24, and Jesus Jose Grajeda, 25. Another suspect is Cesar Geovanny Grajeda Medina, 22. Officers arrested each on suspicion of conspiracy, cargo theft and possessing burglary tools.

The sheriff’s release described every defendant as a Mexican national. Deputies booked the group into San Bernardino’s Central Detention Center. Each remained jailed Thursday morning. Detectives continue gathering evidence.

The Rural Crimes Task Force asks witnesses to contact 909-387-8400. Tipsters may remain anonymous through We-Tip. They can call or text REPORT to 844-909-3006. The online portal also accepts submissions.

Why It Matters

An armed cargo-theft crew can endanger railroad employees while disrupting freight moving through major corridors. Transportation companies need fast escalation procedures because these investigations can quickly become violent criminal cases.

Click here for more articles on cargo theft and freight fraud by Phil Brink.

Indiana State Police recover 12 stolen truckloads worth more than $11 million – FreightWaves

Staged truck crashes could bring 20 years in federal prison under new bill – FreightWaves

Truck tractors hauled 132 pounds of cocaine to Florida, sheriff says – FreightWaves

States sue Trump administration over bid to access 17 million CDL records

A coalition of 22 state attorneys general and the state of Pennsylvania filed two lawsuits Thursday seeking to block the Trump administration from obtaining a database containing the personal information of roughly 17 million commercial driver’s license holders nationwide.

The lawsuits allege that the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are unlawfully attempting to gain access to the Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS), a state-owned database that contains sensitive information including drivers’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and license records.

According to the coalition, FMCSA demanded that the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), which operates CDLIS on behalf of the states, turn over records for every commercial driver in the system going back five years.

The states claim the agency threatened to terminate more than $10 million in federal funding and contracts if AAMVA refused to comply. DHS later issued a subpoena seeking the same information.

The legal challenge comes as AAMVA reportedly indicated it would comply with the federal government’s demand absent court intervention, prompting the states to seek an emergency order blocking the transfer of the records.

“The Commercial Driver’s License database helps states ensure they’re licensing drivers that meet essential safety criteria, including being medically fit, possessing a safe driving record, and other standards used to maintain safe roads,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a news release.

“The Trump Administration does not have the authority to use this state-owned database for unnecessary purposes and put the sensitive data of Massachusetts drivers at risk.”

Coalition alleges privacy violations

The lawsuits contend that DOT, FMCSA and DHS are violating multiple federal privacy laws by creating a separate federal database using information obtained from CDLIS without public notice or safeguards governing how the information would be used, shared or protected.

The coalition also argues the administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to consult with states before seeking the records and by lacking a legitimate need for the data.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said the administration is attempting to seize confidential state records without legal authority.

“The Trump administration is attempting to seize confidential state records without any lawful justification,” James said in a statement. “New Yorkers provide their personal information to the state with the expectation that it will be protected, not handed over to anyone who demands it.”

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said the dispute extends beyond commercial driver licensing and into broader questions of privacy and federal authority.

“The president is jeopardizing millions of working class Americans’ privacy in service of an unrelated immigration agenda,” Jennings said.

What is CDLIS?

Congress established CDLIS in 1986 as a state-to-state information-sharing system designed to help licensing agencies determine whether CDL applicants are already licensed elsewhere and whether they meet federal qualification standards. Since 1988, AAMVA has operated the system under contract with the Department of Transportation.

State licensing agencies use CDLIS to verify a driver’s identity, medical fitness, immigration status and driving history before issuing or renewing a CDL. Records in the system contain personally identifiable information, including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and state licensing information.

The states said that CDLIS was created as a tool for state licensing agencies, not as a federal repository of commercial driver information. According to the complaints, federal officials have never before sought access to the entire database.

New York officials said disruption of the CDLIS system could affect nearly 500,000 CDL holders in the state and approximately 20,000 commercial learner’s permit holders, while also complicating efforts to verify driver qualifications and maintain highway safety.

States seek emergency relief

The coalition is asking the court to declare the federal demands unlawful, block the administration from obtaining the records and prevent AAMVA from turning over the information while the litigation proceeds.

The lawsuits allege violations of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, the Privacy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutional limits on federal spending authority.

The coalition includes attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, along with the state of Pennsylvania. Minnesota joined one of the related legal actions involving DHS.

Why it matters: The outcome of the lawsuits could determine whether the federal government gains access to a database containing the personal information of 17 million commercial drivers and could reshape the balance of authority between states and federal agencies over CDL records and driver privacy.

Yang Ming’s first-half rebound sets up a volatile second half

Yang Ming Marine Transport’s first-half 2026 results show a substantial recovery in earnings as tariff-driven front-loading, a stronger early peak season and higher freight rates lifted second-quarter performance.

The Taiwan company (2609.TW) nevertheless expects the balance of the year to be shaped by trade-policy uncertainty, geopolitical disruption and the continuing risk of excess vessel supply.

First-half performance

For the first half of 2026, the ninth-largest liner reported consolidated revenue of US$2.62 billion, while the second quarter outperformed both the first quarter and the year-earlier period. The carrier attributed the improvement principally to an early peak season, stronger cargo demand and firmer freight rates, with tariff uncertainty prompting cargo owners to advance shipments.

The result represents a marked improvement from the company’s first-quarter baseline. In Q1, Yang Ming recorded revenue of $1.2 billion, after-tax profit of $44.7 million and earnings per share of $0.013. At that point, the company cited softer freight rates than a year earlier and vessel-deployment effects linked to Middle East geopolitics.

The first-half rebound also follows a more difficult 2025, when Yang Ming’s full-year revenue fell to $5.07 billion, and after-tax profit declined to $530.3 million, or $0.15 per share. Still, 2025 marked its sixth consecutive profitable year, underlining the carrier’s ability to remain profitable despite a less favorable rate environment and substantial network disruption.

Yang Ming has a substantial North American presence, concentrated in the trans-Pacific trade. It 10 weekly Asia-U.S. West Coast sailings and four weekly Asia-U.S. East Coast sailings among 21 named Asia–North America loops.

What improved

Yang Ming said the momentum was driven by three mutually reinforcing factors:

Front-loading demand: Uncertainty surrounding tariff policy encouraged shippers to move cargo earlier, creating an unusually strong early peak-season pattern;
Higher freight rates: Yang Ming said rate gains accompanied the cargo-demand increase and helped lift Q2 above both Q1 and the prior-year quarter.
Effective-capacity constraints: Diversions away from the Red Sea around the Cape of Good Hope, port congestion and slower sailing speeds have absorbed vessel time and reduced effective capacity, partially offsetting the delivery of new tonnage. Yang Ming identified these factors in its 2025 results discussion.

Outlook: Volatile trade, fragile balance

Yang Ming’s outlook remains cautious. It identified trade protectionism, changing trade policies and geopolitical conflict – particularly in the Middle East and Red Sea – as enduring risks to trade flows and supply-chain reliability. Rerouting has reduced capacity on affected services and made transshipment arrangements more complicated, while also raising terminal-congestion risk, insurance costs and bunker expenses.

Supply-demand balance remains a structural challenge. Yang Ming cited approximately 1.59 million container units of scheduled new ship deliveries in 2026. Based on the Alphaliner data cited by the company, global fleet supply was expected to grow 3.8% in 2026, ahead of projected demand growth of 2.5%.

That imbalance does not necessarily translate directly into weaker spot markets. Yang Ming notes that tighter decarbonization standards may encourage slow steaming and retirement of older vessels, reducing usable capacity and absorbing some of the delivery wave.

The company says it will monitor trade flows and demand, adjust service networks and capacity deployment, improve service stability, and maximize slot utilization. It also plans to replace older vessels gradually with more energy-efficient and smart ships while diversifying energy risk and maintaining environmental compliance.

Yang Ming named the 15,500-TEU LNG dual-fuel vessel YM Wayfinder in June for deployment on the Asia-North Europe FE3 service, signaling continued investment in larger, lower-emission ships despite the uncertain market.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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The Port of Long Beach ran to its second-busiest July on record and the fourth-strongest month in its 115-year history.

Long Beach, which with adjoining Port of Los Angeles comprises the top San Pedro Bay import gateway, moved 928,508 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) in July, down from 1.7% from July 2025.

Imports were essentially flat, off 0.1% to 467,461 TEUs, while exports increased 14.8% to 104,843 TEUs. Empty containers, frequently an indicator of future imports, fell 7.4% to 356,205 TEUs.

SONAR Ocean Booking Index for China-Long Beach containers is elevated from a year ago.

Analysts say the surge is backed by surprising consumer resilience amid inflation and higher peices, and marks the beginning of an extended peak season that is now expected to stretch into September. The National Retail Federation revised its summer import forecast to steady, elevated gains while Maersk (OTC: AMKBY) on Thursday raised its full-year guidance for the second time.

Year-to-date, Long Beach has processed 5,758,086 TEUs through the first seven months of 2026, a gain of 1.2% y/y.

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