logistics

The Freight Fraud Crisis The trucking industry is grappling with a surge in freight fraud, leaving carriers, brokers, and shippers vulnerable to sophisticated scams like identity theft and unauthorized double brokering. These schemes disrupt supply chains, undermine trust, and cause significant financial and logistical challenges. The root cause is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s […]

Safety remains the biggest obstacle for carriers today, with a recent J. J. Keller Center for Market Insights survey revealing that 51% of carriers identify it as their primary challenge. Even minor accidents and incidents can significantly impact productivity, driver wellness and ultimately affect the bottom line of any transportation company. While proper training can […]

Cold chain providers are accustomed to walking the line between maintaining product integrity while managing operational costs. Ongoing market tension, however, has made it more difficult to strike that balance.  For companies in food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and other temperature-sensitive industries, maintaining profitability in a difficult economic environment requires an enthusiastic commitment to innovation. While […]

BCC Research recently released the “Cold Chain Regional Analysis Market: Middle East and North Africa(MENA)” market analysis.

Let’s get one thing straight—your business credit is not separate from your personal credit, especially when you’re just starting out. If you’re running a small fleet or even one truck, every lender, leasing company, and equipment finance company is going to look at your personal FICO score first. They’re not just betting on your business. […]

Freight fraud continues to plague the transportation industry, and threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated as technology evolves. Shippers and brokers often find themselves overwhelmed by manual verification processes that are both resource-intensive and prone to error. In today’s fast-paced logistics environment, teams are subject to the challenging balancing act of covering shipments quickly while simultaneously […]

Highway has changed the game of carrier identity.

The English Language Proficiency (ELP) rule, now in effect, could significantly reduce trucking capacity. For a decade, large truckload carriers have embraced regulations like the ELD mandate and Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse to limit market capacity, but effects were typically short-lived. The ELP mandate, enforced by a DOT Executive Order, requires commercial drivers to demonstrate […]

In this edition: The Go-Giver book review and cyberattacks hit again.

As your trucking business starts to scale beyond that first truck, this question shows up fast—should you stay running under your own authority, or lease onto someone else’s? It’s tempting to chase what looks easier. It’s tempting to let someone else handle the backend while you just drive or manage. But the truth is, how […]

Eliminating fuel fraud with unique QR codes and flexible business rules.

As nearshoring efforts accelerate, shippers are increasingly rethinking their cross-border strategies. Unlike transporting goods across state lines, cross-border shipping demands specialized expertise, robust infrastructure and comprehensive security measures. To fully capitalize on the advantages of nearshoring, companies need partners who understand that success hinges on more than just moving trucks –– it requires mastery of […]

Truckstop operationalizes its vast data warehouse with AI.

Agri-business giant Louis Dreyfus has been selected to operate the multimodal grain terminal at Indiana’s Lake Michigan port.

The trucking world keeps pushing a narrative of a driver shortage. Reality says the problem is more nuanced than that.

Tender rejections are at 6% and rising, two weeks before the holiday.

San Francisco-based AI operations platform BackOps has raised $6 million to solve what its CEO has called a “$100 billion inefficiency” in manual logistics labor.

The National Institutes of Health plans the first comprehensive research project to study the long-term health effects of the 2023 rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio.

The deadline is July 18, 2025.

If you’re still saying yes to every load just to “keep the wheels turning,” you’re not running a business—you’re gambling with your profit and praying it works out. The hustle mindset might have gotten you your first truck, but it won’t keep you in the game. The carriers who last know that saying no is […]

In this edition: Breaking down the OC&C strategy report, Roadtex gets an expansion, and P.F. Changs expand their presence in the freezer aisle

GXO Logistics has announced Patrick Kelleher as the new CEO and received approval for its Wincanton acquisition.

When it comes to freight theft, criminal tactics have shifted from straight theft to strategic theft as criminals are using new technology to bolster fraud and deception.

Intelligence, security, and control for the inbound call process.

If you’re a small fleet owner wearing ten hats, let me hit you with something hard: just because you can do everything, doesn’t mean you should. That mentality will trap you in one truck. It’ll keep your business crawling when it should be scaling. And the longer you delay outsourcing the low-dollar, high-time tasks, the […]

Let’s get one thing straight up front—this isn’t about politics, and it’s not about opinion. This is about operational reality. The FMCSA’s renewed enforcement of English proficiency rules isn’t new, but it is hitting harder now, and if you’re not paying attention, it can cost you. Small fleets and owner-operators need to stop treating this […]

Freight fraud has emerged as one of the most rapidly growing and financially devastating risks in today’s global supply chain landscape. With global cargo theft losses exceeding $80 billion in 2023 and the average cost of a successful fictitious pickup surging to $365,000 per incident in Q1 2024, the industry has been desperately seeking more […]

There’s a new threat moving faster than enforcement can keep up with—and it’s not just hitting the mega carriers. It’s hitting the small fleets. It’s hitting the owner-operators. And it’s hitting the guys who thought, “That would never happen to me.” Freight theft isn’t just a big city problem or a warehouse security issue anymore. […]

Let’s get one thing straight—branding is not a logo. It’s not your color scheme, it’s not your slogan, and it sure as hell isn’t your Instagram page with four truck selfies and a motivational quote. Branding is how the market remembers you when you’re not in the room. It’s what brokers, shippers, and even other […]

The conflict between Israel and Iran has yet to hit tanker or container rates, while prices on the eastbound trans-Pacific may have peaked.

Echo Global Logistics has emerged as a standout performer in the freight industry’s battle against fraud, earning recognition as a winner of the 2025 FreightWaves Fraud Fighter Awards. With an impressive record of delivering over one million truckload shipments in 2024 while maintaining a loss rate of less than 0.01% due to theft, Echo has […]

Everyone wants to scale. Until they do. That’s when the problems start. Invoices get missed. Drivers start calling dispatch for payroll issues. You’re chasing paperwork, and no one can find the load confirmation for that Tuesday drop in Birmingham. Adding trucks too fast without fixing your back office is like building a house on wet […]

Most carriers don’t realize how much empty miles are quietly killing their bottom line. You can have the best rates in the world, but if your truck runs 150 miles empty between loads, you’re bleeding profit—and most of the time, you don’t even notice it until it’s too late. Deadhead doesn’t show up on a […]

In this edition: Breaking down the annual NTT Data study and Mexico becomes top trading partner again.

Jabil plans to invest $500 million to expand its manufacturing and services infrastructure across the Southeastern U.S.

Scaling a freight brokerage has never been an easy task, and current economic challenges have prompted many companies to take their focus away from growth and innovation. When margins are slim and freight is hard to come by, it’s natural for decision makers to be wary of making new investments. Loadsmart is doing it anyway. […]

Crowley was one of 10 winners of the 2025 Fraud Fighters Award.

Thanks to Ship OGRE’s proprietary technology, each expansion is seamless and effective due to the adaptability, flexibility and scalability of the solution.

It’s one thing to want funding—it’s another to actually qualify for it. Plenty of carriers talk about adding trucks or expanding into new markets, but when it comes time to sit down with a lender, the story on paper doesn’t match the ambition. Lenders aren’t interested in how many loads you ran last week or […]

In this edition: Tjoapack Announces Packaging, Cold Chain Expansions in US and Netherlands, Great Point Partners Acquires Majority Stake in Eutecma, and Conagra Brands Introduces More Than 50 New Frozen Foods

Prices reached just over $72 a barrel on Thursday evening.

Konexial’s VIN + TUID load board verification cuts down on freight fraud and double brokering by assigning identification to each posted load and every organization that handles it.

The Reading & Northern Railroad has promoted executive Jim Raffa to vice president, marketing and sales.

In this edition: Key findings from the CSCMP State of Logistics report, and a new cross-border load board hits the scene.

If you think you know where new trucking companies are planting roots, think again. Yes, Texas and California still lead the nation in raw numbers of new MCs granted. But something very different is happening when you zoom in. Quiet ZIP codes like 93722 (Fresno, CA) and 78045 (Laredo, TX) are quietly leading the nation […]

Everybody talks about scaling. More trucks, more drivers, more freight. But here’s the uncomfortable truth nobody wants to say out loud: Not every carrier is built to scale — and not every carrier should. Because growth isn’t always about adding trucks. Sometimes growth looks like refining your lanes, raising your rates, tightening your operations, and […]

Government freight isn’t the secret shortcut social media makes it out to be—but for small fleets that are tired of chasing the spot market and ready to build something more stable, it’s a lane worth learning. Over the past year, more owner-operators and small-carriers have started asking how to bid on government loads, especially as […]

May Ling compares logistics to other components of the Producer Price Index.

In this edition: Breaking down the new Polar King report, the pharmaceutical alliance that’s shaking up the industry and Kodiak brings sandwiches to the freezer aisle.

The FMCSA is quietly revamping its National Consumer Complaint Database (NCCDB), aiming to transform it from a bureaucratic black hole into a real-time system for identifying unsafe carriers, shady brokers, coercive shippers and repeat fraud offenders.

Truckstop announced Thursday evening that CEO Kendra Tucker is leaving the company.

FreightWaves partnered with Echo Global Logistics to collect and analyze comprehensive survey data from carriers and shippers for 2025 pricing trends, volume expectations, major challenges, and shifting demand patterns.

SONAR has released a suite of summer product upgrades designed to let users get even more specific with their data comparison needs.

The American Association of Port Authorities said cuts to EPA anti-pollution programs will hurt jobs and weaken the U.S. maritime sector.

BNSF Railway introduced the First Mile/Last Mile team dedicated to development of single-carload traffic.

The Surface Transportation Board has opened a formal review of Watco’s acquisition of Michigan rail short line Great Lakes Central. 

Union Pacific and partner ZTR said they have completed testing of a hybrid battery-electric locomotive.

Liner operator CMA CGM and launch customer Nike are partnering on an electric barge project in Vietnam. 

FreightWaves recently partnered with G3 Logistics and EY to host a webinar on supply chain disruptions and strategies to stay flexible during transitionary markets. With a good plan and robust technology, shippers can be poised to not only mitigate losses, but also to capture new market shares during unexpected shifts.

In today’s rapidly evolving logistics landscape, companies face mounting pressure to maintain driver headcount amid persistent industry-wide challenges and the ongoing shortage of qualified CDL holders.  This environment has transformed how companies approach recruitment, as well as what candidates expect from the hiring process. Job applicants now engage with potential employers through increasingly diverse digital […]

Retaliatory tariffs from trading partners, like China’s response to the retaliatory tariffs, could linger, complicating cross-border freight.

Freight fraud and cargo theft have reached crisis levels, but recent FMCSA identity verification measures are chipping away at fraudulent registrations. Proactive enforcement and innovative tech solutions are starting to protect our supply chains.

What happens now that a federal court striking down tariffs as “unconstitutional”?

FreightWaves CEO and founder Craig Fuller analyzed the latest SONAR data on the State Street Markets podcast and says he’s upbeat about the freight market for the latter half of 2025.

A federal court blocked President Trump’s sweeping tariff plans. The ruling will likely be elevated to the Supreme Court.

Every week, thousands of loads move across the country before a single rate hits the load board. That’s because most freight—especially high-volume freight—starts with a contract. Shippers send out tenders to their core carriers, usually the same ones every week. But when those carriers say no? That’s when things start to shift—and it’s also when […]

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a group of Russian hackers has gone into overdrive. As Western countries began ramping up military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the GRU focused on the logistics and tech companies that support those flows.

French container line CMA CGM is partnering with Saigon Newport Corp. on a $600 million container terminal project in northern Vietnam.

The entire market shifts when carriers start saying “no” to contracted freight. Rising tender rejection rates signal tightening capacity and often precede spot rate hikes, while falling rates point to softening demand.

Let’s set the record straight: There is no widespread truck driver shortage in 2025. There. I said it. If you’ve been anywhere near the supply chain over the past four years, you know exactly why that sentence deserves to be said. Again. Louder. Yet here we are. This week, a headline on The Street screamed […]

Chassis provider DCLI is upgrading its domestic intermodal chassis fleet with BlackBerry Radar GPS technology.

The trucking industry has faced its longest and deepest downturn in history, beginning in March 2022. This prolonged slump, known as the Great Freight Recession, has driven many trucking companies out of business. A sluggish goods economy contributed, but the primary cause is excess capacity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, high freight rates and government stimulus, […]

Small carriers should check out this SONAR data to learn what the market did this week.

Companies without visibility and control across their supply chain find themselves perpetually fighting fires rather than fueling growth.

President Donald Trump on Friday made new trade threats against the European Union and iPhone maker Apple.

What is detention pay and how do you know when its time to collect?

Key Performance Indicators are must-tracks for small carriers.

According to reports, nearly 4% of drivers on U.S. highways don’t have valid CDLs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With licensing standards fractured across states and risky drivers slipping through the cracks, here is how fleets can get ahead of driver risk before it costs them a verdict, a fatality or the whole business.

With CVSA reinstating English proficiency violations as out-of-service offenses, FMCSA’s new guidance puts front-line carriers and drivers on high alert and raises deeper questions: What about drivers who are deaf, mute or communicate differently? Who gets left behind, and what can fleets do now to stay compliant?

In this edition: The Trellix cyberreport, and DAT gets a makeover

This article breaks down how to spot a fraudulent rate confirmation, how to verify a broker before you roll, and the systems every small fleet needs in place to avoid being scammed.  The mentions of Landstar, CH Robinson, and other large brokerages in this article are solely for illustrative purposes.  The rate confirmation shown below is an […]

From oversharing on socials to leaving systems unsecured, your data can smooth the path for freight fraudsters.

Highway’s Michael Caney explores the importance of an identity layer in vetting practices, know-your-customer principles and technological solutions to verify carrier capabilities

Overhaul’s CEO breaks down why today’s cargo theft crisis is less about missing locks and more about missing identities – and what the supply chain must do to fight back.

Los Angeles’ port chief doesn’t foresee a “huge surge” of import traffic at the busiest U.S. container hub during the tariff pause.

Integrating multimodal transportation data with inventory data is key.

David Bell, founder and CEO of CloneOps.ai, discusses what FreightTech providers need to do in order to add value to the industry and reach the smaller logistics companies that are less likely to innovate.

Today’s supply chain is evolving by the hour. For shippers seeking a clear path forward, stability matters more than ever. Sizeable carrier partners working at scale can help shippers get their products into the hands of consumers and create a positive customer experience, regardless of market conditions. On a recent episode of The Stockout, Meg […]

The US and China have reached a landmark trade agreement, pausing reciprocal tariffs for 90 days and lowering duty rates to normal levels.

DHL views the role of AI in innovation as crucial to long-term success and development in life science and health care logistics.

It takes work to land shippers as a small carrier, but a few small changes can mean the difference between winning and losing freight.

Commercial insurance rates have ballooned over the last few years. Small carriers can use some techniques to reduce their costs.

When a company undergoes rapid expansion through acquisitions, the resulting operational complexity can be daunting. Meridian Adhesives, a chemical manufacturer, faced this challenge head-on after bringing together 12 diverse manufacturers of glues, adhesives and sealants. The company’s journey from fragmented freight operations to a unified, efficient system offers valuable insights for businesses grappling with similar […]

SmartKargo has partnered with airlines around the world to create a door-to-door delivery service for small parcel shippers, utilizing domestic airline networks. This collaboration aims to provide e-commerce companies and 3PLs with a fast, reliable and cost-effective solution for shipping.

In this edition: A look at an update to the original management and leadership book, and CVSA’s Roadcheck comes next week.

Samsara’s discussion panel on autonomous trucking and the future of physical operations covers topics such as augmenting vs. replacing labor, autonomous vehicle safety testing, automated warehousing, and the accelerated adopting of autonomous technologies in a variety of industries.

Non-domiciled CDL holders are just a small sliver of a bigger issue with how CDLs are issued and regulated.

For small carriers, you have to have a solid strategy to win freight directly from shippers. Here are the steps to make it happen.

Managers walk a fine line between tracking performance and stepping on toes.

Fraudulent CDL holders, improper training programs and language barriers are only a scratch on the surface of the systemic problems with the way commercial vehicles are licensed in the U.S.