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Flatbed trends buttress Landstar amid dry van slump

a rearview of a Landstar trailer on a highway

Truckload broker Landstar System said dry van freight demand remains soft but noted continued strength in flatbed volumes. It also reported a small increase among its exclusive carrier base, which is normally an indicator that the market could soon turn.

Frank Lonegro, Landstar president and CEO, told analysts on a Tuesday call that increased regulation (non-domiciled CDL restrictions and English language proficiency requirements) on the driver population could also move the needle.

The potential removal of roughly 200,000 owner operators over the next year or two, running parallel with steady additions to its group of business capacity owners (BCOs), “would be a pretty big deal.”

(Landstar’s BCOs are owner operators who haul almost exclusively for the company.)

“I can certainly paint you a nice picture there, but a lot of that’s just going to depend on the enforcement, and the enforcement doesn’t really happen at the federal level, it happens at the state level, and you can see the politics abound there,” Lonegro said.

Table: Landstar’s key performance indicators

Landstar (NASDAQ: LSTR) reported headline earnings per share of just $56 cents Tuesday after the market closed, however, the result included several previously disclosed non-recurring items. Excluding those charges, EPS was $1.22, 1 cent shy of consensus and 19 cents lower year over year.

Consolidated revenue of $1.2 billion was down less than 1% y/y and in line with analysts’ expectations. Dry van revenue fell 3% y/y as loads declined by a similar percentage and revenue per load was flat y/y. Flatbed revenue increased 4% y/y, largely due to a similar increase in volumes. A 17% y/y revenue increase in its heavy haul business drove the flatbed results.

Management said October is tracking below normal seasonality as loads per workday are off 4.5% from September (historically loads are down just 2%). It called out a drop in shipments for the government due to the shutdown, as well as lower automotive-related loads and linehaul moves for parcel carriers. (October truck loads are down 3% y/y.)

Dispatched loads of government-related freight are off more than 30% in October, but Landstar expects most of those loads to hit the platform when the government reopens. Overall, the company is calling for a muted peak season, in line and even possibly softer than last year’s peak.

Revenue per load normally increases 1% from the third to the fourth quarter but is flat so far in October. (October truck revenue per load is also flat y/y.)

SONAR: Outbound Tender Reject Index for 2025 (blue shaded area), 2024 (green line) and 2023 (pink line). A proxy for truck capacity, the Outbound Tender Reject Index shows the number of loads being rejected by carriers. Current tender rejections are higher than prior-year levels but still not signaling a recovery. To learn more about SONAR, click here.
SONAR: National Truckload Index (linehaul only – NTIL) for 2025 (blue shaded area), 2024 (green line) and 2023 (pink line). The NTIL is based on an average of booked spot dry van loads from 250,000 lanes. The NTIL is a seven-day moving average of linehaul spot rates excluding fuel. Spot rates are ahead of year-ago levels as new constraints on the driver pool (non-domiciled CDL restrictions and English language proficiency requirements) take hold.

Trucks provided by BCOs increased seven units sequentially to 8,618 in the third quarter, the first increase since the 2022 first quarter. (The BCO truck count previously peaked at 11,935 units.)

The turnover rate (trailing 12 months) among the group improved 300 basis points to 31.5% from the end of 2024 to the end of the third quarter. (BCO truck count has dipped slightly in October.)

Revenue generated by BCOs was flat y/y, with little change in load counts or revenue per load. BCO truck count declined 5% y/y but loads per truck were up 5%.

BCO revenue per mile – Landstar’s preferred metric for TL pricing as it excludes fluctuations in diesel fuel prices – increased 2% y/y on dry van loads and 6% y/y on flatbed loads.

Variable contribution margin, or net revenue margin, was flat y/y at 14.1%. (The metric measures revenue remaining after purchased transportation expenses and agent commissions are paid.) A 33.1% operating margin (as a percentage of variable contribution) was 370 bps lower y/y. Insurance and claims expenses (as a percentage of BCO revenue) increased 50 bps y/y to 7.2%.

The company didn’t provide quarterly EPS guidance again due to market volatility.

In addition to the aforementioned fourth-quarter revenue trends, it said variable margin is expected to decline by 20 to 30 bps sequentially in the period. It also flagged a deadly accident involving a BCO independent contractor that might impact results. It said the contractor was not part of the initial collision and that the incident is still being investigated.

Adjusted EPS for the third quarter excluded a $16.1 million charge (35 cents per share) related to the decision to divest its Mexican subsidiary, Landstar Metro; a $9 million hit (20 cents per share) from the decision to conduct TL brokerage services exclusively through its Landstar TMS and wind down its Blue TMS platform; and a $5 million charge (11 cents per share) from a writedown of its minority stake in Cavnue, a startup focused on improving road infrastructure for autonomous vehicles.

Shares of LSTR were off 3.3% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

Motive eyes Austin for next major office expansion

Motive reception desk with company logo in modern Austin office interior, highlighting AI technology platform's Texas expansion.

Motive, an AI-powered integration and technology platform, continues its global expansion, choosing Austin, Texas, as the next location for its newest office. This comes as the company is expanding its U.S. presence to better support customers across Texas and develop regional talent.

The new Austin facility encompasses 11,000 square feet in the Alto Building, located in East Austin. The company projects an initial workforce of approximately 200 employees at this location. While the office currently houses predominantly sales professionals, Motive anticipates growth across multiple departments.

One of the reasons Motive selected Austin stems from several strategic considerations. Primarily, the region hosts a substantial number of Motive’s existing customers and prospects in the physical operations space.

“We have an enormous amount of customers and prospects in the area,” said Tristan Poehler, SVP, GTM Strategy and Operations at Motive, in an interview with FreightWaves. “The Texas economy is really built on companies in the physical operations space.”

The location also carries personal significance for Motive’s CEO and co-founder Shoaib Makani, who has strong ties to the area.

“If you check out his interviews from this year, he’s talked a lot about his time at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science and growing up in Austin and the big impact that it had on him,” said Shu White, chief legal officer and head of people at Motive. “He knows it’s a huge tech hub and great place to hire for a lot of sales and engineering talent.”

Another goal for Motive’s new office is to build an active presence in the community.

Motive has initiated an internship program and established connections with local educational institutions, including the University of Texas. This is part of an effort to cultivate a pipeline of emerging talent. For students, this provides them with valuable experience in a tech company.

“We’ve instituted an internship program that I expect to continue to build on. As we invest more in our company in this community, I expect that to be both really good for folks as they get a sense of what working at a late-stage, fast-moving technology company can be like, but also in terms of our future hires that we’re able to make,” Tristan said.

The push for return to office and the ability to develop talent in person is another reason behind the expansion. “A lot of folks coming out of school who want to be in software or the technology space generally are not gonna have that opportunity because of so many companies going full remote,” Tristan noted. “We’ve really made a conscious decision to arrest that and say, we have a much better opportunity to develop people, yes, in sales, but also in product and R&D organizations and enablement and recruiting across the board just by having folks sit next to someone.”

“We have leaders in our product team in Austin and elsewhere in Texas, and so it’s great to have product and sales sitting in the same place with our customers because they can really have those conversations live, face to face,” Shu explained. “That’s how we improve our products, that combination of people live, sitting in a room together, and we really can feel that growing and thriving in Austin.”

Looking ahead, Motive projects significant growth at the Austin location over the next several years. This expansion follows recent office openings in the United Kingdom and San Francisco, demonstrating the company’s commitment to strategic geographical expansion.

What the Louvre heist teaches us about freight fraud and cargo theft

This is contributed content. Contributed content does not reflect the views or opinions of FreightWaves or any of its subsidiaries.

On October 19th, thieves dressed like renovation workers used a stolen truck with a basket lift, parked it next to a gallery and used the gallery balcony to access a museum hall full of art and prized jewelry. After making light work of a glass case, they waltzed off with over $100,000,000 in jewelry and got away on scooters. One item was an emerald necklace Napoleon gave to his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise. The thieves literally stole the Crown Jewels of France.

They weren’t dressed in designer clothes. They didn’t need to do gymnastics in a temperature-controlled room, evading a highly complex security system full of lasers. And they didn’t need to subdue guards with any form of martial arts. No, they used a ladder, off-the-shelf power tools, and robbed a museum with an estimated art collection worth $45 billion with a “B”.

The wildest part about all of this isn’t even the mind-blowing simplicity of the heist; it’s that the museum only had approximately 65% of its galleries covered by actual cameras. The Mona Lisa sat right down the hall, likely smirking at the simplicity of the brazen theft.

The doofus of a labradoodle in my living room has a better surveillance system watching him than the now-empty jewel cases in the Louvre.

The Louvre, and now the Government of France are scrambling to get their load jewels back, but the reputational damage is done. Someone at that museum will likely lose their job over this theft. And no doubt private individuals or other museums with pieces on loan to the Louvre are likely reconsidering their partnership with the prestigious museum as well. After all, if they can’t protect Napoleon’s jewels, how can they protect my artwork?

Rewind to Freightwaves F3 2024. GenLogs founder, Ryan Joyce took the stage with Craig Fuller and announced that we’d use our nationwide camera network to help find and recover any stolen load. We had no idea how many people would reach out. We, like most of the industry, assumed the rising theft was primarily a sign of increasingly sophisticated criminals and that only a few victims would ask for assistance.

“We were hacked.”

“The carrier passed on [insert digital vetting tool here].”

“They had an inspection three month ago and looked good.”

“It was the broker’s fault.”

We’ve literally heard it all within these short 12 months.

But we’ve accidentally stumbled on something….

We’re all being lied to. We’re being told the criminals are more sophisticated than ever, deploying tools the average broker or carrier just can’t defend against. Social engineering campaigns, offshore email server farms, digital spoofing. Does it happen? Absolutely.

Is that who’s robbing the entire freight world right now? No.  Don’t believe me, ask Shaq and my man at Flavortown, USA. 

Also, check out Michael Finkel’s book, “The Art Thief.” It details how Stephane Breitwiser –inarguably the most successful art thief ever — walked into museums around Europe armed with only a pocket knife, taking anything that wasn’t nailed down, stuffing it in his shirt or pants and simply walking away. Investigators believe he stole over $1.3 billion in art over a six-year timeframe.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 99.9% of the bad actors in freight look precisely like the guys at the Louvre and Breitwiser, exploiting a shockingly lax security system. We know this because GenLogs just completed its 400th investigation. I’ve personally been on over 100+ calls and in every single instance, the nefarious actor who somehow managed to “pass” on every other vetting platform out there was clearly identified as someone you wouldn’t want to do business with by the GenLogs platform. 

Even when I run the company MC/DOT, which was “hacked”, more often than not, they look just as suspicious on GenLogs as the very company believed to have stolen the load. And we don’t think that’s a coincidence.

But there’s a huge silver lining to this increase in theft and the fact that practically no GenLogs customers are being robbed. It means there’s a tool out there to identify (and avoid) most of the criminals in the freight world.

Telling yourself that your adversary is too sophisticated to be caught is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It allows you to continue checking the “pass” boxes without a candid look at your security and processes. After all, there’s nothing you can do, right?… Everybody is getting hit.

Most of the companies in our industry are being robbed by people using the equivalent of a ladder and basic tools. They’re exploiting the fundamental cracks in our system and using them against us. Even simple cameras could prevent a lot of this theft.

  • Does your current vetting platform provide any visuals allowing two-factor authentication (digital and images) to confirm equipment type?
  • Can you pull images confirming your carrier has actually operated in either part of your OD pairing?
  • Can you see their movement over time to ensure they haven’t recently purchased an MC?

If not, you’re likely relying on single source vetting, taking in FMCSA and ELD data — both of which GenLogs uses, but in conjunction with our 15,000,000 images we get per day of trucks and equipment on the road.

The world’s top museum will surely spend millions improving its security after losing hundreds of millions. And it’s very possible that even the most advanced camera system won’t stop the most determined criminals, but it does serve as a good deterrent. Your ability to fact-check a carrier’s movement could save you a load, customer, and your reputation. Let GenLogs show you how to protect your Crown Jewels.

Alternative Carriers Are Surging in Small-Parcel Delivery

Small-parcel shipping has entered an era defined less by brand loyalty and more by cost transparency, resilience, and speed. Shippers are diversifying away from single-carrier dependency toward a portfolio that blends incumbents with credible alternative carriers. From SmartKargo’s vantage point (where airline networks, data, and unified “dock-to-door” orchestration meet) this shift is structural. And one of the drivers is the math behind your invoice.

The cost split you actually pay: contract vs. accessorials

When finance teams ask, “How much of our parcel cost is contracted base rate versus add-on fees?”, the best industry evidence shows a clear pattern:

Your cost structure will always shift based on parcel size and weight, how many deliveries are residential, the markets you serve, peak-season surcharges, and even packaging choices. But the reality is clear: you can negotiate the best headline rates in the industry, and still see the “extras” quietly pile up. In many cases, those add-ons can represent a third of the total invoice—or even more.

GRIs broke the one-carrier model

Annual General Rate Increases (GRIs) used to be predictable. Recently, base GRIs have hovered around 5.9% (with prior years at 6.9%), but that’s only the headline—many accessorials climb well above the stated GRI, pushing all-in costs higher than the announced average. In other words, the base goes up and the surcharges often go up faster.

Accessorial fees: death by a thousand-line items

Residential, delivery area/extended area, fuel, peak/demand, address correction, additional handling, large package, Saturday—individually “defensible,” collectively margin-eroding. Multiple analyses show these fees routinely exceed one-fifth of total cost and can spike far higher in peak. That’s why CFOs see budget variance and COOs see operational workarounds that compound costs. 

Why adding one more competitor changes the game

Procurement discipline is simple: competition drives performance. Adding a credible alternative carrier alongside your incumbent(s) can:

  • Lower effective rates by creating real leverage at renewal—especially when the alternative can match or beat SLA.
  • Lift service quality via lane-level scorecards (on-time %, first-attempt success, exceptions) and automated routing to the best performer.
  • Reduce concentration risk (weather, labor, hub outages) that can paralyze a single-network strategy.

From SmartKargo’s perspective, we slot in as a measurable, SLA-governed alternative—not a rip-and-replace. Standing up small parcel delivery solutions like Delta Cargo DeliverDirect, Widerøe, Emirates Courier Express, and Azul, all powered by SmartKargo, gives you a diversified portfolio with airline-powered middle mile at its core.

Airline-powered middle mile = speed and fewer fee triggers

Moving the middle mile by air (using the belly space of scheduled passenger flights) fundamentally changes your risk profile:

  • Predictable speed: Published flight schedules reduce line-haul variability; fewer last-minute workarounds mean fewer fee triggers.
  • Peak resilience: Reserved allocations and dynamic load planning absorb surges upstream, curbing punitive peak extras at the parcel level.
  • Transparent pricing: Fewer zones and fewer “gotchas” make the landed cost easier to forecast (and defend).

For many brands, this is a CapEx-light path to consistent 1–3-day performance across broad geographies without building new regional DCs.

Data, visibility, and CFO-grade governance

Diversification only works if it’s measurable. SmartKargo’s platform surfaces true landed cost, including accessorials, at lane and SKU profiles. Finance sees the real split between contracted base and add-ons; operations sees SLA adherence; customer care sees doorstep outcomes. With shared telemetry, you can continuously steer volume to whichever option delivers superior on-time-at-target-cost result. You can compare SmartKargo who powers Delta Cargo DeliverDirect, WiderøeSmart, Emirates Courier Express, or Azul, versus your incumbent and see where they stack up.

A 90-day playbook to cut accessorial drag

  1. Baseline the split: Pull 6–12 months of invoices and quantify your contract vs. accessorial mix by lane, service, weight band, and ZIP profile; expect 20–30% in many cases, with hotspots higher. 
  2. Stand up one more competitor: Activate SmartKargo with a defined test cohort (e.g., residential 3–20 lb into select regions) using partners like Delta Cargo DeliverDirect, Widerøe, Emirates Courier Express, and Azul; publish SLAs and success metrics in advance.
  3. Instrument & automate: Route by rules, whether that’s on-time %, exception rate, or all-in cost (base + fees). Let performance decide allocation, not habit.
  4. Peak-proof it: Lock airline capacity ahead of high-risk weeks to avoid the surcharge traps that spike during demand surges. 

The bottom line

The growth of alternative carriers isn’t just about chasing a lower base rate. It’s about re-engineering the invoice: pushing a larger share of your spend into predictable, contracted cost while shrinking the volatile accessorial slice. GRIs raised the floor; accessorials raise the ceiling. Airline-powered middle mile with SmartKargo—through partners such as Delta Cargo DeliverDirect, WiderøeSmart, Emirates Courier Express, and Azul Cargo Express—keeps both in check. Add one more dock-to-door competitor, measure ruthlessly, and convert volatility into velocity—and margin.

Learn more about SmartKargo at www.smartkargo.com 

Port Houston completes ship channel dredging amid environmental scrutiny

Port Houston announced the completion of its share of the $1 billion Houston Ship Channel Expansion (Project 11) during Monday’s commission meeting, marking a major milestone toward widening one of the nation’s busiest waterways; even as residents and environmental groups pressed for stronger safeguards over dredging practices.

Port officials said the widened channel through Galveston Bay — expanded from 530 feet to 700 feet — will improve safety, reduce vessel emissions, and strengthen Houston’s competitiveness.

“This is really big for our port and our channel and our region,” Charlie Jenkins, CEO of Port Houston, said during the meeting. “It has already had measurable efficiency gains and safety gains for all users of the Houston Ship Channel.”

Jenkins said daylight-restricted vessels now have an additional two-and-a-half hours each day to sail.

“That’s a huge improvement in emissions because ships aren’t sitting out there waiting — and it helps balance the workload of the channel, making it safer for everyone,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins also reported that September tonnage rose 6% year-over-year, with total throughput up 5% year-to-date, even as some commodity imports softened. 

Port Houston handled 337,659 twenty-foot equivalent units in September, a 2% year-over-year increase compared to the same month in 2024.

“Compared to most ports, we’re faring very well given the economic uncertainties,” he said.

Public concerns over dredge spoil placement

The meeting’s public comment period was dominated by concerns about dredge spoil disposal sites linked to Project 11. 

Representatives from the Environmental Defense Fund, Public Citizen, and local neighborhood coalitions urged the port to support a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) proposal to barge dredged material to offshore bay sites instead of reusing legacy placement areas near Pleasantville and Clinton Park.

Paige Varner, a toxicologist scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the dredge spoils could pose contamination risks.

“Testing from USACE and communities show that the material from both Project 11 dredging and ongoing maintenance dredging contains potentially hazardous concentrations of chemicals, including dioxins, furans, PCBs, arsenic, and PAHs,” Varner said. “These chemicals are linked to multiple cancers, developmental and reproductive harm, liver damage, and immune system suppression.”

Varner said “samples exceeded EPA risk levels by up to 25 times” and nearby “neighborhoods already face some of the highest cancer and non-cancer health risks in the country from air pollution.” 

Varner urged the port to halt any new on-land placement of dredge spoils until comprehensive, transparent risk assessments are completed.

“It is imperative that the port take immediate steps to protect affected communities,” she said.

Retired Army Corps engineer Bill Empson echoed those concerns, saying the proposed onshore sites should undergo full dam-safety reviews, while Adrian Shelley, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, asked the commission to “make a decision in favor of public health and safety.”

Major capital approvals

Commissioners also advanced a slate of infrastructure and maintenance contracts, including:

  • $20 million for construction of Container Yard 7 North at Barbours Cut Terminal.
  • $4.65 million for design of Wharf 8 at Bayport Terminal.
  • $1.7 million for two truckable push boats and a maintenance barge.
  • Renewals and new pipeline and barge-fleeting leases with Kirby Inland Marine and others

The future of cold storage goes underground

When it comes to warehouses and cold storage facilities, the picture of them peppering the highway about 40 miles outside of a major metropolitan area comes to mind. That picture could change as cold storage providers get creative with solutions. Most recently, M&M Quality Solutions has opened a cold storage facility underground. 

This new facility is in SubTropolis, the world’s largest underground business complex in Kansas City, Missouri. The 18,757-sq.-ft. facility will serve as a regional cold-chain hub. The underground environment provides a naturally climate-controlled, energy-efficient level of thermal stability that conventional above-ground warehouses struggle to compete with.

Despite being underground, the facility has direct access to both truck and rail docking. The inbound-outbound connectivity leverages Kansas City’s status as a logistics crossroads, enabling seamless movement of refrigerated goods and supplements through a network that supports freight, rail and cold-chain flows. 

“This expansion reflects our commitment to the future of logistics and to the Kansas City region,” said Brian McMaster, CEO of M&M Quality Solutions, in a news release. “SubTropolis provides the perfect environment for our Adaptive Growth Logistics model—offering our partners reliability, efficiency, and intelligence in how products move, market, and grow.”

As retailers and manufacturers continue to require greater visibility and security over frozen and chilled inventory, providers are under growing pressure to offer specialized footprints that blend scale, access and resilience. M&M Quality Solutions’ subterranean facility can be viewed as a forward-thinking response: by placing cold storage underground, it hedges against surface-level risks such as extreme weather, infrastructure variability or energy grid constraints.

This type of solution is representative of how 3PLs are evolving. The standard formula of “warehouse + trucks” is no longer sufficient; instead, differentiation comes from location intelligence, environmental design and integration of supply-chain functions.

That said, the move also presents operational implications. Cold-chain storage underground will demand meticulous planning around air circulation, humidity control, insulation and the interface with upstream and downstream transport. 

For those operating in the beverage and nutrition sectors, this development offers a case study in how logistics infrastructure is adapting to meet the twin imperatives of scale and precision. M&M Quality Solutions’ new hub in SubTropolis may well serve as a model for how underground cold storage can deliver both operational and strategic advantage.

M&M Quality Solutions has taken a notable leap into a distinctive logistics environment that aligns with the rising bar for cold-chain performance. As the facility comes online this month, the industry will be watching how subterranean storage stacks up in practice and whether it becomes a blueprint for the future of refrigerated logistics.

Retail diesel price takes biggest one-week rise since June

Retail diesel prices as measured by the weekly Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration average national price has registered the third-biggest jump this year.

The price of $3.718/gallon was up 9.8 cts/g. It’s the largest increase since a 20.4 cts/g climb on June 23. It also wiped out the last two consecutive weeks of 4-plus cents gain, and put the price used as the benchmark for most fuel surcharges above where it stood three weeks ago at $3.711/g. 

The price effective Monday, released Tuesday, was the first number released since the shift in oil market sentiment last week on the back of sanctions announced by the Trump administration. The sanctions are aimed at Russia’s two biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. 

The reaction to that announcement was sharp and sudden. On Wednesday, ultra low sulfur diesel on the CME commodity exchange settled at $2.2496/gallon, up 4.38 cts/g from the prior day.

But it was the action the next day that really took prices higher. The gain of 15.34 cts/g to a settlement of $2.24964/g marked the biggest one-day increase since December 22, 2022. But while that gain from almost three years ago was more than 18 cts/g, the increase Thursday was a much larger jump when measured by percentage. 

Trading on Monday tacked on a few more cents to the price, settling at $2.4361. Early trading Tuesday showed a small decline of less than 1 cent per gallon at approximately 9:40 a.m. EDT.

In an article published by the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the impact of the sanctions were described as twofold. 

First, the two companies will see a freeze in their U.S. holdings, as well as any financial assets in which they own more than 50%.

But second, the most significant aspect of the latest announcement is seen as the emphasis on secondary sanctions. As per the Treasury guidance in the announcement, any entity “engaging in certain transactions involving the persons designated today may risk the imposition of secondary sanctions on participating foreign financial institutions.” 

That is widely interpreted as being a message to countries buying Russian oil, like India. And the market reaction to the sanctions was to move higher, given that current Russian customers trying to switch out their Russian supplies could boost the price of oil as they seek oil from other sellers.

Meanwhile, the sanctions have helped boost the market in Europe for diesel and gasoil, a diesel-like product which is heavily supplied to Europe by Russia. 

Energy consulting firm Energy Aspects, in its monthly report on the market for distillates such as diesel, reported Sunday that the spread between the first month and second month gasoil contract on the ICE commodity exchange had risen, a sign of concern about inventories.

But EA was less bullish going forward. “We expect balances to loosen from December, with global December 2025–January 2026 stockbuilds forecast as 22 million barrels above the five-year average, assuming workarounds can be found to clear Russian diesel, and Atlantic basin spreads have room to fall as inventories start to build,” the consultancy said in its report. “Strong margins should keep refinery runs high, and rising OPEC+ crude supply, especially medium sours, will improve crude slate optimisation and boost clean product yields.”

Whether current diesel inventories in the U.S. are tight is a matter of a half empty, half full analysis.

For the third week of October, last week’s report by the Energy Information Administration had non-jet distillate stocks, which are about 90% diesel, at about 115 million barrels. That is more than where inventories stood for the third week of October in the prior three years. 

But that total is significantly less than the amount held at this point on the calendar in the years leading up to the pandemic. Stocks during those years ranged from a high of about 152 million barrels in 2016 to 120 million barrels in 2019.

In other bearish news reported in recent days, almost 1.4 billion barrels of oil are now on board crude tankers, according to data from Vortexa Ltd. That’s the highest figure going back to 2016.

The size of the flotilla measured by Vortexa has been rising for 10 weeks, according to the media reports citing the firm’s analysis. The jump has been fueled by increasing production from the OPEC+ group of oil exporters, which is unwinding its production cuts at a rapid pace.

Those increases are creating the growing view that the supply/demand balance in oil could be headed for a glut by the end of the year or into 2026.

More articles by John Kingston

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State of Freight takeaways: some signs are pointing higher

Truckers Aren’t ‘Just Drivers’ — They’re America’s Most Underrated Professionals

Let’s get something straight.

When someone tweets that truck driving is “a relatively low-skilled occupation requiring minimal training,” it doesn’t just sting — it exposes a staggering level of ignorance about one of the most critical, complex, and heavily regulated professions in this country.

This isn’t about defending pride. It’s about defending truth.

Because every time someone spits out a take like that, it chips away at the respect, safety, and wages of the men and women who quite literally move America forward. And if we’re not careful — those misunderstandings could turn fatal.

What Does It Actually Take to Become a Truck Driver?

Let’s layout the basics.

To legally operate a Class 8 truck — that’s your 80,000 lb tractor-trailer combo — a driver must first go through a Department of Transportation (DOT) physical, drug and alcohol testing, and clear a Motor Vehicle Record check.

From there, they enter a CDL training program that spans weeks of classroom instruction and behind-the-wheel training — often totaling hours behind the wheel. But don’t let the recent headlines fool you. It’s what you don’t see, sometimes a small fraction of driving school students that actually make it all the way through as some don’t cut it.

These are just a few of the real world required skill sets:

  • Backing a 53-foot trailer into a tight dock with 6 inches of clearance on either side
  • Reading and interpreting DOT Hours of Service regulations
  • Performing pre-trip inspections that could detect potential brake failures before a mountain downgrade
  • Calculating axle weight distribution to comply with federal bridge laws
  • Handling icy mountain descents with an 13-speed transmission in foggy conditions
  • Coordinating with brokers, shippers, and receivers across multiple time zones

That doesn’t sound “minimal” to me.

You Know What Is Low Skill? Making Tweets Like That Without Ever Riding Shotgun in a Truck

The disconnect between the perception of trucking and the reality of it is vast.

People think truckers are just “driving around all day.” But they’re running rolling warehouses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — surrounded by distracted drivers, unpredictable weather, strict time windows, and a federal rulebook that could fill a law library.

You mess up in a cubicle job? You might miss a deadline.

You mess up in a big truck? People could die.

The Real Test Isn’t on Paper — It’s in the Field

Let’s play a game. Imagine someone drops you into the driver’s seat of a fully loaded 18-wheeler on 285 in Atlanta at 5:30 PM. It’s raining. Your fuel tanks are at 30%. Your load is at full max legal. And your ELD just beeped — 45 minutes left on your clock.

Still think it’s low skill?

Trucking demands:

  • Spatial awareness under stress
  • Mechanical intuition on the fly
  • Advanced trip planning
  • Customer service at shipper/receiver docks
  • Legal literacy of state and federal regulations
  • Split-second decision making at 70 mph

Many lawyers couldn’t do what a trucker does. Even doctors couldn’t. Most influencers certainly couldn’t.

But truckers do it every single day, in every state, for 500–3,000 miles a week.

The Math Behind the Pressure

Still unconvinced?

Here’s how dangerous this job becomes when you undervalue the skill.

And here’s the worst part: if the public believes trucking is “low skill,” it makes it easier for companies and lawmakers to:

  • Underpay drivers
  • Slash training programs
  • Overlook safety
  • Replace humans with automation prematurely

That’s the real danger of this narrative.

Real-Life Stories That Prove the Point

You want proof? Here are just a few recent headlines:

  • California Crash, October 2025: An improperly trained driver — under the influence — plows into traffic and kills 3 people on I-10. Video shows no attempt to brake or steer. CDL status under scrutiny.
  • New Entrant Audit Violations: Thousands of new carriers fail basic safety components of the audit due to poor training practices and falsified driver qualification files.
  • Non-Domiciled CDL Debate: FMCSA is now reevaluating 200,000+ licenses after discovering systemic abuse in testing protocols and English comprehension standards.

These aren’t just policy problems. They’re people problems. And they start with underestimating the job.

Why This Narrative Persists

So why do people keep pushing the “low skill” myth?

Because the less respect a job has, the easier it is to:

  • Outsource it
  • Automate it
  • Underpay it
  • Exploit it

If you tell the public “trucking is just steering a wheel,” you pave the way for:

  • Driver fast-track programs that skip safety fundamentals
  • Brokers prioritizing price over qualifications
  • Politicians using truckers as talking points but not policy priorities

You devalue the workforce — and the workforce becomes disposable.

The Real Skill Is What You Don’t See

Trucking is a 24/7 mental game.

A skilled trucker is:

  • Watching mirrors every few seconds
  • Adjusting gears to grade and weight
  • Listening to engine tones for early failure signs
  • Reading body language of drivers ahead
  • Predicting danger before it happens

And beyond the wheel?

They’re managing parking plans, HOS logs, trip planning, detention billing, reefer temp logs, and broker relations — all while being away from home, sleeping in rest areas, and missing birthdays.

Sound low-skill to you?

We’re Not Just Defending Trucking — We’re Demanding Recognition

What you saw in that tweet is bigger than just one comment.

It’s a window into the deep-rooted cultural disconnect that’s undermining one of America’s most important professions.

We need:

  • Stronger CDL training standards
  • Wider public education on what truckers do
  • Greater media coverage of driver achievements
  • Policy input from real drivers, not just executives

And we need to start calling out ignorance when we see it.

Because if you can disrespect a trucker’s skill, you can disrespect their life.

The Bottom Line

Let’s end with this:

If trucking is so easy, why do we have 90% turnover in the large fleets?

Truth is, trucking isn’t easy. It’s unforgiving. It’s exhausting. It’s precise. And it’s absolutely essential.

So the next time someone tweets nonsense like that?

Send them this article — and remind them that the “low skill” they’re talking about is the same profession that delivered their food, built their roads, hauled their fuel, and kept their shelves stocked through a global pandemic.

Truckers don’t need your approval.

But they damn sure deserve your respect.

It’s Time for the ATA to Relinquish Their Claim as the Voice of the American Trucker. FreightX Has It From Here

For decades, the ATA has postured itself as the voice of the American trucker. They’ve shaped policy, lobbied lawmakers, and inserted themselves into every major transportation debate. But somewhere along the way — in boardrooms, PR campaigns, and executive luncheons — they lost sight of the people they claimed to represent.

The men and women behind the wheel. The small fleet owner who dispatches his trucks at night. The owner-operator running on razor-thin margins. The actual American trucker.

The “Shortage” That Wasn’t

Let’s start with their favorite talking point: the “driver shortage.”

The ATA has spent years pushing the narrative that America is running out of truck drivers — citing projections that the industry is short 80,000 drivers and nearly 160,000 by the end of the decade. They’ve echoed this through press releases, policy statements, and Capitol Hill testimony.

And yet, drivers in the trenches have a different story.

We’re not short on truckers. We’re short on good-paying jobs, respectable working conditions, and retention-minded employers.

Driver churn at large fleets is sky high, with some companies cycling through 90% of their workforce annually. Why? Because wages haven’t kept up. Because quality of life has taken a back seat. And because drivers are treated as expendable.

But rather than focus on fixing why people are leaving, the ATA doubled down on importing more labor — and that’s where the damage began.

The Backdoor Opened — And the Floodgates Followed

Take a look at the policy playbook.

When the ATA pushed the “driver shortage” agenda, it created the perfect excuse for the federal government to open the door to non-domiciled CDL holders — individuals who may not live permanently in the U.S., but are authorized to operate 80,000-pound vehicles on our highways.

And now? We’re staring down nearly 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders in active circulation — many of whom received licenses from states later accused of cutting corners during the issuance process.

These aren’t hypotheticals. These are facts — confirmed by the Department of Transportation, scrutinized in court filings, and echoed by frontline dispatchers and fleet owners across the country.

Worse, some brokers and large shippers are knowingly opting for these drivers because they come cheaper — sometimes by $400 to $500 per load. That’s not just undercutting; it’s erosion from within.

It’s not a stretch to say the shortage narrative has become a Trojan horse — not for workforce expansion, but for wage suppression and market manipulation. And the ATA helped build it.

Shifting Messages, Shifting Loyalties

Let’s not ignore the receipts. In March 2025, the ATA published a blog post stating:

“No, millions of foreign truck drivers aren’t flooding into the U.S.”

Then — just six months later — their president, Chris Spear, released another post titled:

“Cheaters Are Undercutting America’s Trucking Industry. The Trump Administration Must Stop It.”

Which is it?

You can’t on one hand defend the presence of non-domiciled labor, and on the other hand blame “cheaters” for collapsing the market. Especially not when your own lobbying contributed to the conditions that allowed it.

And let’s be clear: the ATA isn’t confused. They’re just caught in a messaging trap of their own making — trying to defend mega fleets on one side while pretending to care about the American trucker on the other. The mic they’re holding only amplifies the concerns of the largest players in the room.

When the Truckers Spoke Up, It Wasn’t the ATA Who Listened

Meanwhile, the real voice of the American trucker has been rising — not in Washington, not in boardrooms, but on platforms like X (formerly Twitter). That’s where FreightX was born.

FreightX isn’t a formal organization. It’s a movement — a digital alliance of truckers, owner operators, small fleet owners, and advocates who share real-time market data, policy breakdowns, safety violations, and wage abuse stories.

They’ve raised awareness, exposed shady practices, and fought for common-sense reform in public, with receipts, and without funding.

While the ATA was cozying up to D.C., FreightX was pushing back against fraud on the load boards, calling out corruption in CDL programs, and shining a light on good carriers being locked out of broker systems.

FreightX did more for small carriers through tweets than the ATA has accomplished in decades of lobbying.

And that’s the shift. That’s the moment the public conversation passed the ATA by.

Follow the Money — And You’ll See Who They Represent

Let’s be real. The ATA doesn’t represent the independent contractor.

They don’t speak for the one-truck operator in Mississippi. They don’t show up for the dispatch service hustling in Georgia. They don’t advocate for the small fleet caught between compliance chaos and rate pressure.

They represent the top 100 for-hire carriers in the country, many of whom have spent millions lobbying for policies that pad profits while squeezing the people doing the work.

In its 2020 Annual Report, ATA showcased its core lobbying priorities — including tort reform, automation, and driver recruiting initiatives. But for anyone reading between the lines, the real takeaway isn’t what they said — it’s what they didn’t.

There’s zero mention of advocacy specifically for independent contractors, leased-on owner-operators, or small fleets — even though these groups make up over 90% of the industry by fleet size. That omission is telling.

ATA’s priorities are laser-focused on:

  • Lowering operating costs for mega-carriers
  • Expanding access to cheaper labor pools through driver pipeline programs
  • Defending large fleet protections in litigation (e.g., tort reform and preemption policies)
  • Advocating for broader automation tech to reduce labor dependency

And while they’ve thrown their support behind entry-level driver training standards and wage growth in general terms, they’ve also been at the center of narratives like the “driver shortage crisis” — a talking point that many now see as a wage suppression tactic used by the largest carriers to justify importing lower-cost labor.

They’ve fought to weaken safety regs under the banner of efficiency. They’ve defended double brokering and overcapacity — all while telling us the problem is too few drivers.

And now, they’re calling on the Trump Administration to “step in”? After years of playing both sides?

It’s time to say it clearly: the ATA no longer represents the American trucker.

So, What Now?

We’re at a crossroads — not just in trucking, but in representation.

If you’re a carrier with 5 trucks trying to compete with a 5,000-truck operation, the ATA isn’t fighting for your survival. They’re protecting the system that keeps your profit margins squeezed while their members reap the benefits of cheaper labor, broader exemptions, and volume discounts.

It’s time for new voices to rise. For independent coalitions to form. For those actually in the trenches — dispatchers, drivers, compliance experts, mentors, and small business owners — to take the mic.

And it’s time to retire the shortage myth once and for all. We don’t need to bring in foreign labor to fill seats. We need to pay drivers fairly, treat them with respect, and build systems that retain talent instead of replacing it every 90 days.

Final Thought

ATA — we see you.

We see the inconsistency. The changing stories. The influence-peddling. The silence during critical moments when the community needed a defender.

We’ve heard the word “shortage” for years. But the only shortage we see now is of trust — and of accountability.

So this is the ask: Step aside. Fall back from the policy front lines. Let the real voices of this industry rise.

We are the drivers. The owner operators. The carriers. The brokers who play fair. The compliance folks and the educators. We are FreightX. We are the industry now.

And we don’t need a lobbyist to tell our story.

Non-Domiciled CDL Emergency Rule could cause capacity crunch

Introduction to the Emergency Interim Final Rule

On September 29, 2025, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced an emergency interim final rule to restrict non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs). This significant regulatory action, issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), aims to address widespread abuse in issuing these licenses to immigrants, which has caused substantial disruptions in the trucking and supply chain industries.

Background on Non-Domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs)

Non-domiciled CDLs were originally introduced in 2017 to provide flexibility for drivers who resided in one state but needed to obtain a license in another. Over time, however, this licensing category expanded to include non-U.S. residents, sometimes without proper work permits. This evolution went beyond the original intent, creating a situation in which licenses were issued to individuals who may not have met all legal requirements for employment in the United States.

Key Findings from the DOT Audit

A comprehensive DOT audit revealed alarming statistics regarding non-domiciled CDLs. At least 200,000 such licenses have been issued nationwide, with particularly high concentrations in certain states. California emerged as a significant problem area, where the audit found that over 25% of non-domiciled CDLs were granted improperly.

Regulatory Guidance from FMCSA (March 2019)

In March 2019, the FMCSA issued regulatory guidance outlining conditions under which foreign drivers could obtain non-domiciled CDLs. According to this guidance, individuals with valid employment permits or unexpired passports and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Arrival/Departure Records could qualify. However, implementation issues soon arose, as many states failed to properly verify employment permits or align license expiration dates with work authorization periods. These oversight failures led to mounting concerns about potential fraud and safety implications in the trucking industry.

Impact on the Trucking Industry

The proliferation of non-domiciled CDLs has coincided with a dramatic increase in trucking capacity across the United States. Since the FMCSA permitted foreigners to obtain non-domiciled CDLs in March 2019, the industry has added more than 310,000 trucks to American roads.

It is not a stretch to believe that at least half of the new capacity has come from non-domiciled CDL holders. We know that 200,000 CDLs were issued, but it is unclear how many of these are still active and currently driving over the road.

Regardless, the industry has suffered greatly from the surge of new truck drivers and the sudden influx of capacity. These new participants have contributed significantly to market oversupply conditions, resulting in the longest freight recession in history. The correlation between the issuance of these licenses and industry-wide disruption points to significant regulatory challenges that must be addressed to restore balance to the freight transportation sector.

A Capacity Crunch Is Likely, but No One Knows How Fast One Will Come

The emergency interim final rule represents an important step toward addressing the unintended consequences of the non-domiciled CDL program. As the DOT and FMCSA work to implement stricter controls on these licenses, capacity will certainly tighten. The question on the mind of every freight market executive: When will we feel it?