The ‘ingenious strategy’ behind most truckers’ least favorite week of the year: International Roadcheck

International Roadcheck Week is hardly the sexiest topic in trucking, but it is a darn-tootin’ important one. Inspectors in the U.S. and Canada halt tens of thousands of trucks for vehicle inspections for a few days every summer or early fall. They remove thousands of trucks and drivers from the road; in 2021, 16.5% of inspected vehicles were put out of service along with 5.3% of drivers.

It’s uncommon for truck drivers to actually get their vehicles inspected at random during most of the year. To avoid International Roadcheck Week, many truckers simply don’t drive during that period of time — which, presumably, means more unsafe vehicles and drivers on the road outside of the inspection blitz. It’s a question that ate at Andrew Balthrop, a research associate at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business.

Around 5% fewer one-person trucking companies are active during International Roadcheck Week. But Balthrop and his fellow researcher, Alex Scott of the University of Tennessee, found a major upside to the inspection blitz — even with all the folks who avoid it. According to their working paper published in March 2021, vehicles are safer a month before and after the inspection period. There’s a 1.8% reduction of vehicle violations, according to Balthrop and Scott’s analysis. Surprise inspection blitzes don’t result in the same uptick of compliance.

I caught up with Balthrop about his research last week at FreightWaves’ Future of Supply Chain conference, and we chatted again on the phone this week about his findings on International Roadcheck Week.

Enjoy a bonus MODES and a lightly edited transcription of our phone interview:

FREIGHTWAVES: For our readers who are not aware of what Roadcheck Week actually is, can you explain a little bit about what it and why it is important to drivers and companies?

BALTHROP: “The International Roadcheck is part of an alliance between the inspectors in Canada and the ones in Mexico and the U.S. to have a unified framework for making sure trucks are safe to operate. That should make it easier to go across borders when you have this kind of unified structure.

“In the U.S., one of these CVSA inspection blitzes is the International Roadcheck that happens for three days in the summer. Usually it’s a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And usually it’s the first week in June.

“And in it, they focus on Level One inspections, the North American Standard Inspection where they inspect the driver records, the hours of service, the licensure and I believe medical records as well. Then they inspect the truck. It’s an in-depth inspection where the inspector will actually crawl under the truck to look at various things. And these inspections, from the data that I’ve seen, take about a half an hour on average.

“During the Roadcheck Week, they’ll do about 60,000 inspections, so 20,000 a day. They’re going to pull over a lot of trucks, and this can cause a little bit of congestion at the weigh stations and the roadside inspections localities as the inspectors are doing these inspections.”

Roadcheck Week doesn’t catch all truck drivers, but it has a long-lasting benefit to safety

FREIGHTWAVES: So, can most drivers kind of expect to be pulled over? How likely is that?

BALTHROP: “There’s 1 million or 3 million trucks on the road, somewhere around there on any given day. With 20,000 inspections, most drivers still will not get inspected, but there’s going to be a higher proportion of drivers inspected.

“You’re more likely to get inspected on these days. If you don’t have a recent inspection on your record, or if you have a bad recent inspection on your record, you’re more likely to be pulled over on these days.”

FREIGHTWAVES: Your research focused on that it’s just unusual that this inspection is announced, that it’s planned. We were talking before about how normally, if you’re trying to assure quality or compliance, you would not announce an inspection in advance. It would be more of a surprise-type situation.

Can you walk us through why that’s so unusual, or what’s the rationale that you see behind announcing it in advance?

BALTHROP: “It is unusual, and on the surface, it doesn’t make much sense, but it turns out to be kind of an ingenious strategy. So I’ll walk through it here.

“Over the course of a year, there’ll be 2 million inspections of 3 or 4 million trucks out there. The average rate of inspections is pretty low. It’s not uncommon for truckers to go years without having an inspection. With this low inspection intensity, the FMCSA has sort of a problem of, how does it get anybody to abide by the regulations?

“I’m a jaded economist, and I don’t worry or consider too much ethics and morality and all that kind of stuff. It comes down to incentives for drivers to follow these inspections. The incentives do guide behavior. So, how could the FMCSA incentivize drivers to follow these regulations more closely and adhere to the standards?

“They do this by announcing the blitz. This does two things. On one side, it allows everybody to prepare in advance. There’s a bunch of anecdotal evidence out there that people do prepare for these blitzes in advance. They will have their trucks inspected beforehand for any problems. They’ll time maintenance and upkeep in advance to make sure that their vehicles are in order. “They’ll be a little bit more cognizant of the driver-side regulations. One thing we notice in our study is that hours-of-service violations really drop during these extensions, because people see them coming. They don’t fudge the books in any way.”

Owner-operators can evade Roadcheck Week. Big carriers, not so much.

BALTHROP: “The issue with the announcement, on the flip side, is that it allows people to just dodge the inspection entirely. For a long time, people have talked about how owner-operators and smaller carriers time their vacations for this particular time. They could do this for a couple reasons. To avoid the hassle is a nice way to put it, but it also allows you to be noncompliant to avoid the high-intensity inspections.

“You have this balance here that on one side you get the behavior you want with people complying with regulations. That’s the behavior the FMCSA wants. But on the flip side, you get a bunch of people that are kind of outright dodging inspections.

“When you compare these two things on balance, the policy is actually pretty effective because you get a lot of people focused on maintaining their trucks and obeying the rules during that particular week. Especially with the vehicle maintenance stuff, that lasts a long time.

“In our research, we saw that vehicle violations, a month before and up to a month afterwards, is when you still notice your vehicle violations. That trucks are kind of better maintained around these blitzes.

“The ingenious aspect of it is that the FMCSA, by concentrating their inspection resources all at one time and announcing it, they’re making it clear that they’re serious about enforcing these regulations and everybody prepares for it. For the number of inspections that are happening, you get fewer tickets than you would have otherwise expected.

“The FMCSA, they’re putting people through a little bit of a hassle, but they’re not having to write a bunch of tickets to get people to comply. They’re not really punishing a whole bunch of people because, by making this apparent that this is going to happen, people comply and the FMCSA gets what they want essentially without having to come down on carriers too hard.”

A convenient time for a vacation, indeed

FREIGHTWAVES: OK, interesting. And how does this pattern of shutting down, how does that compare for an owner-operator versus a driver for a big fleet?

BALTHROP: “If you’re a motor carrier with thousands of power units, you can’t just pack up and not do business on a particular day. They just don’t have that option. So they get inspected at a higher intensity, and you see the larger carriers kind of more focused on making sure that they’re prepared for these inspections. With so many inspections, the larger carriers are going to be inspected at higher rates. You can really damage your reputation if your equipment isn’t in order on this particular day.

“Versus the smaller carriers, especially if you’re talking about a single-vehicle fleet, an owner-operator type, it is not that difficult to just not work for those three days. And so you see a lot about that.

“In terms of what the roadway composition looks like, if we look at inspection data and relative to a typical day with the usual inspections, on these Roadcheck days, you have about 5% fewer owner-operators on the road than you otherwise would expect.”

FREIGHTWAVES: Wow. And when you say owner-operators, you also mean just like fleets with just —

BALTHROP: “One-vehicle fleets.”

FREIGHTWAVES: OK, that’s interesting.

BALTHROP: “You know, you see a little bit of effect with the smaller fleets, below six vehicles, but it basically disappears by the time you get to a hundred vehicles.

“This effect is being driven by smaller carriers staying off the road in terms of avoidance. You see this goes also how you would expect; it’s also older vehicles that stay off the road. This is correlated with carrier size. The larger carriers use newer vehicles and owner-operators tend to use some of the older vehicles. But it’s particularly the older vehicles that are off the road.

“This makes intuitive sense. Older vehicles are more costly to keep compliant. Maintenance is more costly, and they’ve been around longer so there’s time for more stuff to have broken essentially.

How a truck driver gets stopped for inspection

FREIGHTWAVES: Can you explain a little bit more, the idea of having this inspection history and why it would benefit a larger or small carrier?

BALTHROP: “Getting flagged for inspection is sort of random, but not totally. If somebody notices something obviously wrong with your truck, that’s ground for a more in-depth inspection. Or if you get pulled over for some other reason, this can be grounds for inspection of some type.

“But there’s also the inspection selection service. The computer program that is random, that it randomly flags people in for inspection, but it’s based on your inspection history.

“So if your firm hasn’t been inspected recently, or if your carrier doesn’t have a very dense inspection history, you’ll be more likely to trigger that system to pull you in and have you inspected. If you have a dense inspection history, you’re less likely to get inspected.”

FREIGHTWAVES: So how do you get pulled over for inspection? As a person who only drives a passenger car, my main interaction with being pulled over is, I’m driving down the freeway or wherever, and I get stopped by the police. How does it work for a truck driver? How does getting pulled over or inspected work in that way?

BALTHROP: “The law is that you cannot pass a weigh station without pulling in and getting weighed. At that point they may flag you to be inspected. Now, in the past decade or two, there’s been a bunch of electronic devices that are installed in cabs. You may have heard of PrePass or Drivewise. This allows you to pass weigh stations.

“I don’t have data on how many trucks have the in-cab devices. But from a trucking perspective, they’re so convenient that you don’t have to stop every time you cross a state line. I think the vast, overwhelming majority of trucks have some sort of one of these electronic devices. The DOT inspectors at these roadside inspection points have a dial they can twist essentially about how many people they want to inspect.

“So during the roadcheck inspection week, they’ll crank that dial all the way up and pull everybody over. And if they get too backed up, they might crank it back down a little bit and so on.”

FREIGHTWAVES: OK, interesting. It reminds me of a highly sophisticated E‑ZPass.

A $10 million-plus expense to trucking companies every year … but it’s worth it if just one fatal crash is avoided

FREIGHTWAVES: Zooming out, when we hear about large truck crashes, something like a vehicle maintenance issue is not really the most sexy explanation. But just looking at the FMCSA data, in 29% of all truck crashes, a major factor is brake problems. So it seems like a lot of the truck crashes on the road are caused by vehicle maintenance, versus something like the driver using illegal drugs or some other sort of more dramatic explanation. Can you speak a little bit to why this sort of vehicle maintenance is important for safety in preventing large crashes?

BALTHROP: “We did a little bit of a back-of-the-envelope cost benefit analysis of this. Let me try and make sure I remember it clearly, but we have it in the paper that the cost of this on one side is that you have the compliance costs the firms are undertaking, and then you have to add to that the delay costs from doing this, and then the cost of the inspection itself, having to pay federal inspectors to do this.

“On the benefit side, it reduces crashes. So when we add up, just looking at the cost of what an inspection is, we don’t have a good idea of how to measure the compliance cost. It’d be fun to measure the delay cost, but I don’t have good enough price data on that to get at that cost.

“But if you look at what the cost of an inspection is, it is something like $100 or $120 is what you would pay to have one of these inspections done privately. A lot of people do this in the run-up to inspections, and have it done privately so that you can fix whatever the problems are and be sure that you would pass the FMCSA inspection.

“With that $120 figure, if you aggregate that up to 60,000 inspections or whatever, and you take that in comparison, I’m going to give you a bad figure here, it’s on the order of $10 million. That is about the value of a statistical human life. Looking at this economically, it’s worthwhile if it saves one human life. If you identify just one faulty brake system that would’ve resulted in an accident, you’re getting some value out of the program.

“When you add those other costs in there, we’re going to need to save a couple of lives, but in terms of cost benefit analysis with this kind of stuff, we’re usually looking at orders of magnitude differences in cost and benefits to say something for sure.

“If you can save just a couple lives, this program will pay for itself.”

Time to start inspecting in the winter

FREIGHTWAVES: Then one last question: Is there any rationale for this program happening in the summer?

BALTHROP: “I think part of it is that for the inspectors this gets much harder and much more miserable to do in winter conditions.”

FREIGHTWAVES: That makes sense.

BALTHROP: “Inspectors are less productive. One of the things that we talk about in the paper, that they have in addition to the International Roadcheck, is that they have Brake Week where they focus a little bit more on brake inspections. You have Operation Safe Driver a little bit later on in the summer, usually in September, where it’s a little bit more focused on passenger vehicles and how they drive around these trucks.

“But there’s not one in the winter time. There’s an unannounced brake check that usually happens in May, a surprise inspection that’s just one day. But you’re right in pointing out that it might be worthwhile having one of these in the wintertime. You have this periodic high-intensity inspection that kind of incentivizes everybody to be compliant through the summer.

“But there’s nothing in the winter, so that’s an area. But if I was managing the FMCSA, that would be one of the first questions I ask, ‘Why don’t we have one of these in the wintertime?’”

FREIGHTWAVES: That makes sense. Maybe they can do it in the South or something. Maybe a Miami January inspection …

That’s it for this special bonus MODES. Subscribe here if you’re not already receiving MODES in your inbox every Thursday. Email the reporter at rpremack@www.freightwaves.com with your own tales on International Roadcheck Week or any other trucking topics.

Why the Northeast is quietly running out of diesel

The nozzle of a diesel fuel pump is inserted into the tank of a commercial truck as its driver looks on the bankground.

The East Coast of the U.S. is reporting its lowest seasonal diesel inventory on record. And some trucking companies appear spooked.

The East Coast typically stores around 62 million barrels of diesel during the month of May, according to Department of Energy data. But as of last Friday, that region of the U.S. is reporting under 52 million barrels.

The sharp increase of diesel prices has been a major stressor in America’s $800 billion trucking industry since the beginning of 2022. According to DOE figures, the price per gallon of diesel has reached record highs — a whopping $5.62 per gallon. It’s even higher on the East Coast at $5.90, up 63% from the beginning of this year.

When relief is coming isn’t yet clear, and experts say higher prices are the only way to attract more diesel into the Northeast.

“I wish I had some good news for the Northeast, but it’s bedlam,” Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at OPIS, told FreightWaves.

2022 has seen record-setting diesel prices. (SONAR)

Everyday Americans don’t fill up their cars with diesel, but the fuel powers our nation’s agriculture, industrial and transportation networks. More expensive diesel means the price of everything is liable to increase. Trucks, trains, barges and the like consumed about 122 million gallons of diesel per day in 2020.

Patrick DeHaan, a vice president of communications at fuel price site GasBuddy, reported that retail truck stops are hauling fuel from the Great Lakes to the Northeast, calling it “extraordinary.” We’ve also seen anecdotal reports from truck drivers posting company memos:

pic.twitter.com/yFYyjzYMWE
— Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🇺🇦 (@FreightAlley) May 11, 2022

#FuelShortage #DieselShortage #SupplyChainCrisis pic.twitter.com/zVmXlshXN0
— Don Ricardo 👑 🇺🇸 🇩🇴 (@NjPier) May 5, 2022

Pilot Flying J and Love’s, two of America’s largest truck stops, told the Wall Street Journal yesterday that they were not planning to restrict diesel purchases, but were monitoring low diesel inventory.

Not unlike every other supply chain crunch we’ve seen in the past few years, the cause of the Northeast’s diesel shortage is multifaceted. A yearslong degradation of refineries is rubbing against the Gulf Coast preferring to ship its oil to Europe and Latin America.

Here’s a breakdown:

1. The East Coast has lost half of its refineries.

As Bloomberg’s Javier Blas wrote on May 4 (emphasis ours):

In the past 15 years, the number of refineries on the U.S. East Coast has halved to just seven. The closures have reduced the region’s oil processing capacity to just 818,000 barrels per day, down from 1.64 million barrels per day in 2009. Regional oil demand, however, is stronger.

Rory Johnston, a managing director at Toronto-based research firm Price Street and writer of the newsletter Commodity Context, told FreightWaves that refining is a “thankless industry,” with intense regulations that have limited the opening of new refineries. The Great Recession of 2008 led to several East Coast refineries shuttering, but there have been more recent shutdowns too. One major Philadelphia refinery shuttered in 2019 after a giant fire (and it already had declared bankruptcy), and another refinery in Newfoundland shut down in 2020.

Billionaire John Catsimatidis owns a small oil refinery in the US East Coast and several hundred gas stations from Pennsylvania to New York:

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see diesel being rationed on the East Coast this summer.” #OOTT #DieselCrisis https://t.co/9g1e5UIf20
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) May 11, 2022

2. It’s a financial risk to bring diesel to the Northeast.

The Northeast has increasingly relied on diesel from the Gulf region. Much of that diesel travels to the Northeast through the famous and much-adored Colonial Pipeline. You may remember the 5,500-mile pipeline from last year, when a ransomware attack shuttered it for nearly a week!

It takes 18 days for oil to travel on the Colonial Pipeline from its source in Houston to New York City (or, more specifically, Linden, New Jersey), Kloza said.

That’s a long enough time to prioritize Colonial pipelines financially risky for traders — or, as Kloza said, “incredibly dangerous” — thanks to a concept called “backwardation.”

Backwardation refers to the market condition in which the spot price of a commodity like diesel is higher than its futures price. It’s only gotten stronger over time in the diesel market, Kloza said. So, a company could send off a shipment of diesel and find that it dropped by $1 per gallon in the time the diesel traveled from the Gulf Coast to New York — er, New Jersey. That could mean hundreds of thousands or more in lost profits, so traders often avoid such a fate.

“We’re not in an era where there are any U.S. refiners or big U.S. oil companies who would ‘take one for the team’ and bring cargo in where it’s needed,” Kloza said.

The desperation is showing in New England and the mid-Atlantic regions. New England diesel retail prices are up 75% from the beginning of 2022, per DOE data. In the mid-Atlantic, diesel is up 67%.

It’s not worth the risk, even amid ultra-high prices. As FreightWaves’ Kingston reported last week, the spread between a gallon of diesel in the Gulf Coast and its New York harbor price is usually a few cents. Last week, that swung up to 66 cents.

But that uptick still isn’t justifying moving oil to the Northeast — particularly when traders can make so much more money selling diesel abroad.

3. Of course, we can blame COVID and the crisis in Ukraine.

The catalyst for this diesel shortage, of course, is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine — particularly Europe’s desperation for diesel after weaning off Russian molecules.

As CNBC reported in March, Europe is a net importer of diesel. Europe consumed some 6.8 million barrels of diesel each day in 2019; Russia exported some 600,000 barrels per day of that. Today, Europe has only eliminated one-third of its Russian diesel, so prices are expected to continue to climb amid that transition. Latin America, too, has been clammoring for U.S. diesel.

The Gulf Coast has been happy to provide such diesel, amid “insane” prices for diesel abroad, said Johnston. Waterborne exports of diesel from the U.S. Gulf Coast hit record highs last month, according to oil analytics firm Vortexa. (The records only date back to 2016.)

Naturally, COVID is also to blame for the Northeast’s run on diesel. Those refineries still retained on the East Coast scaled back during the pandemic due to staffing issues. It takes six months to a year to reignite refineries that were previously shuttered, Kloza said.

The ‘everything shortage’ endures

It’s been a tale as old as, well, last year. An industry is quietly hampered by supply issues for years, or even decades, and COVID pulls back the curtains on its unsteady foundation. It’s particularly jarring for commodities we never thought about before, like shipping containers or pallets, but that quietly underpinned our livelihood all along.

Recall the Great Lumber Shortage of 2020? Big Lumber had unusually low stockpiles of wood by the summer of 2020, thanks to a vicious 2019 in the lumber industry shuttering sawmills and the spring of 2020 sparking staffing issues. (There was also a nasty beetle infestation.) Those in lumber expected the pandemic to slow the economy, not ignite online shopping, construction and housing mania. It meant lumber went from around $350 per thousand board feet pre-pandemic to a crushing $1,515 by the spring of 2021. The lumber price roller coaster persists today.

In diesel, there’s no beetle infestation, but there are plenty of other headaches. It all means higher fuel prices on the East Coast, particularly the Northeast, to lure molecules from the Gulf Coast. And, down the line, probably more expensive stuff for you.

Do you work in the trucking industry? Do you want to say that you hate or love MODES? Are you simply wanting to chitchat? Email the author at rpremack@www.freightwaves.com, and don’t forget to subscribe to MODES.

Updated on May 13 with the latest comments from truck stops.

Exclusive: Central Freight Lines to shut down after 96 years

Nearly, 2,100 employees will be laid off right before Christmas. Central Freight Lines is the largest trucking company to close since Celadon ceased operations in 2019.

Waco, Texas-based Central Freight Lines has notified drivers, employees and customers that the less-than-truckload carrier plans to wind down operations on Monday after 96 years, the company’s president told FreightWaves on Saturday.

“It’s just horrible,” said CFL President Bruce Kalem.

A source close to CFL told FreightWaves that CFL had “too much debt and too many unpaid bills” to continue operating, despite exploring all available options to keep its doors open.

Kalem agreed.

“Years of operating losses and struggles for many years sapped our liquidity, and we had no other place to go at this point,” Kalem told FreightWaves. “Nobody is going to make money on this closing, nobody.”

Central Freight will cease picking up new shipments effective Monday and expects to deliver substantially all freight in its system by Dec. 20, according to a company statement.

A source familiar with the company said he is unsure whether CFL will file Chapter 7 or “liquidate outside of bankruptcy,” but that the LTL carrier has no plans to reorganize.

The company reshuffled its executive team nearly a year ago in an effort to stay afloat, including adding the company’s owner, Jerry Moyes, as CFL’s interim president and chief executive officer. Moyes remained CEO after Kalem was elevated to president in July.

“I think it was surprising that there wasn’t a buyer for the entire company, but buyers were interested in certain pieces but not in the whole thing,” the source, who didn’t want to be identified, told FreightWaves. “Part of it could have been that just the network was so expansive that there was too much overlap with some of the buyers that they didn’t need locations or employees in the places where they already had strong operations.”

Third-party logistics provider GlobalTranz notified its customers that it had removed CFL as “a blanket and CSP carrier option immediately, to prevent any new bookings,” multiple sources told FreightWaves on Saturday.

CFL, which has over 2,100 employees, including 1,325 drivers, and 1,600 power units, is in discussions with “key customers and vendors and expects sufficient liquidity to complete deliveries over the next week in an orderly manner,” a CFL spokesperson said. Approximately 820 employees are based at the company headquarters in Waco.

Despite diligent efforts, CFL “was unable to gain commitments to fund ongoing operations, find a buyer of the entire business or fund a Chapter 11 reorganization,” another source familiar with the company told FreightWaves.

Kalem said the company had 65 terminals prior to its decision to shutter operations.

FreightWaves received a tip from a source nearly two weeks ago that CFL wasn’t renewing its East Coast terminal leases but was unable to confirm the information with CFL executives.

Another source told FreightWaves that some of the LTL carrier’s West Coast terminals had been sold recently, but that no reason was given for the transactions.

At that time, Kalem said the company was “working to find alternatives” and couldn’t speak because of nondisclosure agreements. He said executives at CFL, including Moyes, were trying to do everything to “save the company.”

“Jerry [Moyes] pumped a lot of money into the company, but it just wasn’t enough,” Kalem said.

Kalem said he’s aware that a large carrier is interested in hiring many of CFL’s drivers but isn’t able to name names at this point.

“Central Freight is in negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its equipment,” the company said in a statement. “Additionally, Central Freight is coordinating with other regional LTL carriers to afford its employees opportunities to apply for other LTL jobs in their area.”

As of late Saturday night, Kalem said fuel cards are working and drivers will be paid for freight they’ve hauled for the LTL carrier until all freight is delivered by the Dec. 20 target date.

“I’m going to work feverishly with the time I have left to get these good people jobs — I owe it to them,” Kalem told FreightWaves. “We are going to pay our drivers — that’s why we had to close it like we’re doing now. We are going to deliver all of the freight that’s in our system by next week, and we believe we can do that.”

During the outset of the pandemic, Central Freight Lines was one of four trucking-related companies that received the maximum award of $10 million through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). This occurred around the time that CFL drivers and employees were forced to take pay cuts, a move that didn’t go over well with drivers.

“It all went to payroll,” Kalem said about the PPP funds. “Yes, our employees and drivers did take a pay cut over the past few years, and we gave most of it back, even raised pay over the past several months, but it just wasn’t enough to attract drivers.”

FreightWaves staffers Todd Maiden, Timothy Dooner and JP Hampstead contributed to this report.

Watch: Central Freight Lines’ impact on the LTL market

FreightWaves CEO and founder Craig Fuller reacts to the Central Freight Lines news:

“With Central struggling for many years and unable to reach profitability, it makes sense that they would want to liquidate while equipment and real estate are fetching record prices.”

Central Freight Lines statement

Here is the statement given by Central Freight Lines to FreightWaves late Saturday after reports surfaced of its impending closure:

“We make this announcement with a heavy heart and extreme regret that the Company cannot continue after nearly 100 years in operation. We would like to thank our outstanding workforce for persevering and for professionally completing the wind-down while supporting each other. Additionally, we thank our customers, vendors, equipment providers, and other stakeholders for their loyalty and support.

“The Company explored all available options to keep operations going. However, operating losses sapped all remaining sources of liquidity, and the Company’s liabilities far exceed its assets, all of which are subject to liens in favor of multiple creditors. Despite diligent efforts, the Company was unable to gain commitments to fund ongoing operations, find a buyer of the entire business, or fund a Chapter 11 reorganization. Given its limited remaining resources, the Company concluded that the best alternative was a safe and orderly wind-down. As we complete the wind-down process, our primary goal will be to offer the smoothest possible transition for all stakeholders while maximizing the amount available to apply toward the Company’s obligations.

“Central Freight is in negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its equipment. Additionally, Central Freight is coordinating with other regional LTL carriers to afford its employees opportunities to apply for other LTL jobs in their area. Discussions are ongoing and no purchase of assets or offer of employment is guaranteed.”

Brief history of Central Freight Lines

1925	Founded in Waco, Texas, by Woody Callan Sr.
1927	Institutes regular routes in Texas between Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin.
1938	Dallas facility opens as world’s largest freight facility.
1991	Receives 48-state interstate operating authority, expands into Oklahoma.
1993	Joins Roadway Regional Group and begins service in Louisiana.
1994	Expands into Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Mississippi.
1995	Consolidation of Central, Coles, Spartan and Viking Freight Systems into Viking Freight Inc. is announced. Central’s Waco corporate HQ starts closure.
1996	Becomes the Southwestern Division of Viking Freight Inc.
1997	Investment group led by senior Central management purchases assets of former CFL from Viking Freight and reopens as a new Central Freight Lines.
1999	Expands into California and Nevada.
2009	CFL Network provides service to Idaho, Utah, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
2013	Acquires Circle Delivery of Tennessee.
2014	Acquires DTI, a Georgia LTL carrier.
2017	Acquires Wilson; new division created with an increase of 80 terminals.
2020	Wins Carrier of the Year from GlobalTranz. Acquires Volunteer Express Inc. of Dresden, Tennessee.

Source: Central Freight Lines

Warehouse cramming is about to begin — Freightonomics

nVision Global, is a leading Global Freight Audit, Supply Chain Management Services company offering enterprise-wide supply chain solutions. With over 4,000 global business “Partners”, nVision Global not only provides prompt, accurate Freight Audit Solutions, but also providing industry-leading Supply Chain Information Management solutions and services necessary to help its clients maximize efficiencies within their supply chain. To learn more, visit www.nvisionglobal.com

Warehouse space is at a premium right now and with peak season right around the corner, shippers are starting to scramble for space.

Zach Strickland and Anthony Smith look into what shippers are doing to prepare for the end-of-year crunch. They welcome Zac Rogers from Colorado State University to the show to talk through the industry tightness.

The three also talk about the latest Logistics Managers Index results and what they mean for the fourth quarter of 2021.

You can find more Freightonomics episodes and recaps for all our live podcasts here.

Seasonality pushing rejections and rates higher ahead of the Fourth

This week’s DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index: 75 (Carriers)

Last week’s DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index: 70 (Carriers)

Three-month DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index Outlook: 70 (Carriers)

The DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index uses the analytics and data in FreightWaves SONAR to analyze the market and estimate the negotiating power for rates between shippers and carriers.

The Pricing Power Index is based on the following indicators:

Load volumes: Absolute levels positive for carriers, momentum neutral

The Outbound Tender Volume Index at 15,980 is nominally higher now than basically at any point in the past 12 months with the exception of the week prior to Thanksgiving/Black Friday last year. OTVI captures all electronic tenders, including rejected ones, so when accounting for the rejection rate, we can get an even more accurate look at volumes.

OTVI rose through the back half of May into the national holiday and has risen even further since. Throughout the back half of May and into the middle of June, tender rejections declined substantially. Meaning, current volume throughput is actually understated when comparing OTVI now to OTVI in November 2020. After adjusting for rejected tenders, the accepted outbound tender volume index is just 2.2% below the 2020 peak in November. At that time, OTVI surged towards 17,000, but the rejection rate moved in-kind towards its natural ceiling of 28%. So, the total accepted freight tenders in mid-June is comparable to the peakiest of peak seasons in 2020. Incredible.

However, since the middle of June, tender rejections have begun increasing again heading into Independence Day, a time when many drivers spend time off the road with their families. The move higher in OTVI this week has been driven primarily by higher rejection rates, rather than higher freight demand.

Over the past month, the drivers of freight volumes have continued to be imports and from just about every port. The west coast continues to provide seemingly non-stop container ships, while Houston, New Orleans, Miami and Savannah are seeing very strong throughput as well.

It is van volumes that are driving freight markets higher right now. The Reefer Outbound Tender Volume index has tumbled 25% since its all-time high in the weeks after the polar vortex in February. Since Memorial Day, ROTVI has fallen another 10.5%. This is likely a factor of declining grocery demand, but I would expect the trend to reverse course in the near future as summer festivities accelerate.

Dry van volumes pushed higher in the back half of May and into June while reefer volumes have declined significantly.

SONAR: VOTVI.USA (Blue); ROTVI.USA (Green)

The congestion at our nation’s ports has spread from Los Angeles and Long Beach to Oakland, California. The California coastline is a parking lot of container ships, most of which are full to the brim with imports, awaiting berth. As detailed in the economic section, there are some signs that the reversion is underway with Americans paring back spending on pandemic superstar categories in favor of airlines, lodging and entertainment. But spending remains strong despite the moderation, and low inventory levels offset much of the decline that will occur from slowing demand. Real inventories are 3% higher now than pre-pandemic, but real sales growth is far outpacing inventory growth, leading to the lowest inventory-to-sales ratio in decades.

On the manufacturing side, the ISM Manufacturing PMI expanded in May after declining in April. We’ve been in expansionary territory for 12 consecutive months. New orders, production, imports/exports and employment are all growing. The major issues should come as no surprise: Deliveries are slowing, backlogs are growing and inventories are too low.

In all, there are many, many catalysts to keep freight demand strong for the foreseeable future. Americans are traveling and spending on services at a high clip, but the high savings rate is enabling it to occur without a massive detriment to goods spending.

SONAR: OTVI.USA (2021 – Blue; 2020 – Green; 2019 – Orange; 2018 – Purple)

Tender rejections: Absolute level and momentum positive for carriers

After declining steadily from mid-March to mid-May, the Outbound Tender Reject Index has reversed course heading into Independence Day. This is typical for a national holiday as carriers selectively choose loads to bring drivers closer to home. OTRI now sits above 25% for the first time in June.

One of our newest indices in SONAR gives us the ability to compare markets on as close to an apples-to-apples basis as possible. FreightWaves’ Carrier Trend Market Score indices are divided into two perspectives – shipper/broker and carrier. The scores are positioned on a scale from 1-100 and have values measuring van and refrigerated (reefer) capacity. The higher values represent more favorable trends for whichever perspective. For instance, a value near the high-end of the range would suggest very favorable conditions for carriers in our carrier capacity trend score index.

For the past several weeks, capacity disparities have been driven by import volumes. The markets with the tightest carrier capacity coincide with the nation’s busiest ports. Ontario, California, Savannah, Georgia, and Atlanta all have carrier capacity trend market scores of 100.

SONAR: Capacity Trend Market Score (Carriers – VAN)

By mode. Reefer rejection rates tumbled from it’s all-time high in March to under 35% in mid-June before popping higher over the past two weeks. Reefer rejections are still quite high from a historical standpoint at 38%, but are significantly lower than just three months ago when reefer carriers were rejecting half of all electronically tendered loads.

SONAR: VOTRI.USA (Blue); ROTRI.USA (Orange)

Dry van tenders make up the majority of all tenders, so the van rejection rate mirrors the aggregate index closely. Van rejections have surged from ~23% to ~26% over the past two weeks.

Yes, one-in-four loads being rejected is not ideal, but it’s better than 30%. I am unaware of any meaningful signals that capacity is being added at a rate that would change my outlook. With so many catalysts for demand, and many constraints on drivers including the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, driver training school closures and continued government unemployment benefits, the outlook is tight throughout this year and into 2022. That’s not to say we won’t see improvement as consumers revert to pre-pandemic spending habits and drivers enter or reenter the market. But I’m not expecting any quick reversal of this environment; there are simply too many catalysts driving volume and suppressing capacity.

SONAR: OTRI.USA (2020/21 – Blue; 2020 – Green; 2019 – Orange)

Freight rates: Absolute level and momentum positive for carriers

Throughout June, spot rates have moderated while contract rates have pushed higher. The Truckstop.com dry van rate per mile (incl. fuel) has fallen from $3.21 to $3.11 since the beginning of June, while FreightWaves van contract rates have risen from $2.50 to $2.59/mile, exclusive of fuel.

I still believe the Truckstop.com dry van national average will not retest the post-vortex surge pricing that brought spot rates up to an all-time high of $3.30. But, there aren’t many catalysts to bring spot rates down anytime soon either. Demand is unwavering with continued strong consumer goods demand, humming industrial recovery and a potentially cooling, yet still sizzling, hot housing market. And carriers can’t fill enough trucks to keep up with demand.

Prior to the seasonal movements we’re seeing in tender rejections, routing guides generally had been improving through Q2. We should continue to see a convergence between spot and contract rates, but spot rates will remain historically very elevated throughout the summer as demand simply outstrips capacity.

SONAR: TSTOPVRPM.USA (Blue); VCRPM1.USA (Green)

Economic stats: Momentum and absolute level neutral

Several economic releases this week are worth noting.

Weekly jobless claims were released Thursday and give us one of the best close-to-real-time indicators of the overall economy. This week, the data was again very promising as the labor market continues on a bumpy but trajectorially stable recovery path.

First-time filings totaled 411,000 for the week ended June 19, a slight decrease from the previous total of 418,000 but worse than the 380,000 Dow Jones estimate, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Initial claims have held above 400,000 for consecutive weeks after falling to a pandemic low of 374,000 three weeks ago. As things stand, the current level of initial claims is about double where it was prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The good news on the jobs front is that continuing claims are on the decline, falling to 3.39 million, a drop of 144,000. That number runs a week behind the headline claims total.

Initial jobless claims (weekly in May 2020-May 2021)

At the time of writing, the newest weekly data for the week ending May 29 had not been updated in SONAR. This week, claims fell from 405,000 to 385,000.

SONAR: IJC.USA

Consumer. Turning to consumer spending, as measured by Bank of America weekly card (both debit and credit) spending data, total card spending (TCS) in the latest week accelerated to 22% over 2019. This is the first time in June that TCS has topped 20% over 2019, but spending has been running up 16-19% consistently on a two-year comp for months. For contect, the average pre-pandemic two-year growth rate was about 8% (from 2012 to 2019).

The Bank of America team highlighted service spending in the nation’s two largest state economies, California and New York, which are now fully reopened. Spending at restaurants is now well above 2019 in both states, and the team believes there is more capacity for spending to accelerate in the states that were slower to reopen given pent-up demand.

There was also a notable acceleration in spending on clothing this week, according to Bank of America. It could be a reversal from some softening in the early weeks of June, or an indication of people refreshing wardrobes ahead of a return to work, more travel and vacations. One tepid statement for freight markets from this week;s report: Leisure spending is on the rise and durable goods spending is flatlining.

FreightWaves’ Flatbed Outbound Tender Reject Index, both a measure of relative demand and capacity, moves directionally with the ISM PMI.

SONAR: ISM.PMI (Blue); FOTRI.USA (Green)

Manufacturing. Over the past two weeks, regional manufacturing surveys have reported generally positive readings amid logistical challenges. The New York Fed’s Empire State business conditions index declined 6.9 points to 17.4 in June, retreating from strong readings the past two months. The Empire State Index is a diffusion index with a baseline of zero; any reading above zero indicates improving or expansionary conditions.

Delivery times lengthened to a new record during the month, new orders and shipments fell, and inventories entered negative territory. The supply chain and transportation challenges are as visible upstream as downstream, but overall the manufacturing sector is handling. Growth continued throughout the second quarter in both the Empire State and Philly Fed indices.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s business activity index edged lower to a still robust 30.7 in June from 31.5 in the prior month. Unlike NY, the pace of shipments growth accelerated in the Philly region during June. The employment subcomponent rose to a very healthy 30.7 from 19.3 last month, the regional bank said.

Record-long lead times, wide-scale shortages of critical basic materials, rising commodities prices and difficulties in transporting products are continuing to affect all segments of the manufacturing economy, but demand remains strong.

For more information on the FreightWaves Freight Intel Group, please contact Kevin Hill at khill@www.freightwaves.com or Andrew Cox at acox@www.freightwaves.com.

Check out the newest episodes of our podcast, Great Quarter, Guys, here.

Project44 acquires ClearMetal to strengthen predictive tools

Project44, a leader in real-time visibility of the global supply chain, announced on Thursday it has acquired ClearMetal, a San Francisco-based supply chain planning software company that focuses on international freight visibility, predictive planning and overall customer experience. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

ClearMetal, founded by top software engineers and data scientists from Stanford, Google and other Silicon Valley elites, has created a “continuous delivery experience” that leverages proprietary machine learning algorithms that can forecast supply chain disruptions.

In an interview, Jason Duboe, chief growth officer at project44, explained that bringing in ClearMetal’s elite team is essential for the company’s future predictive solutions.

“Their team construct is fundamentally different. When you look at their data science, machine learning and computer science background, they are best in class,” he said. “Applying the team to solve really interesting challenges, starting with highly predictive ETA and deeper exception management to create more predictive analytics is really a key component here.”

Project44 recently acquired Ocean Insights to gain global supply chain vessel visibility and has announced it has expanded its truckload tracking services within Asia. Bringing on this new team of engineers will allow the company to capitalize on strong predictive tools, strengthening the supply chain of its customers.

“We’re going to be expanding deeper into Asia, and from a port perspective, getting data much earlier than competitors,” explained Duboe. “Our freight forwarder integrations will give us much deeper visibility from an end-to-end perspective in these regions.”

Along with the acquired skills the ClearMetal team will bring to project44, it brings a large book of customers, including large CPGs, retailers, manufacturers, distributors and chemical companies. These advanced use cases will strengthen the predictive planning tools, and project44 continues to expand into different customer markets.

“What we gain from ClearMetal is a holistic platform for anybody that joins the platform in the future,” said Duboe. “They have large customers with incredibly demanding and advanced use cases. So when it comes to order and inventory, functionality, supplier onboarding, and moving upstream into those processes, we can capture exceptions earlier on.”

Click here for more articles by Grace Sharkey.

Project44 expands real-time visibility into China

Project44 reels in Ocean Insights in ‘largest acquisition in visibility space’

‘Project44’s vision has always been global’

What’s Broken in Freight Tech Right Now?

Transflo strategy and freight tech execution are the focus here: what brokers, carriers and tech partners are still getting wrong in today’s market. Ryan Schreiber of Metafora and Don Everhart of Transflo break down where adoption stalls, what actually matters to operators, and how to think about freight tech when margins are tight. If you work in trucking, brokerage or supply chain tech, this conversation gets to the operational takeaway fast.

GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro are beginning to show up in freight volumes, with FreightWaves estimating a 2% reduction in food and beverage shipments attributable to the drugs — translating to roughly 2 million truckloads out of an estimated 100 million annual food and beverage moves. That signal emerged during a discussion on what is structurally changing demand patterns for carriers and shippers hauling consumer goods.

Walmart data, which blends pharmacy prescription records with grocery purchase history, offers some of the clearest evidence of behavioral change. According to the discussion, households with a male GLP-1 user show 10% fewer calorie purchases, while households with a female user show 6% to 8% fewer — a gap attributed partly to women continuing to shop for children and other household members.

The category most visibly affected is snack food and beverages. Participants pointed to a softer-than-expected summer for beer and soda volumes — typically strong seasons for those lanes — as a potential early indicator. Ryan Schreiber, who has lost 125 pounds over roughly two and a half to three years on GLP-1 medications, said the drugs suppress more than just appetite.

“It’s not just food noise,” Schreiber said. “Any addictive type of consumption you tend to lean away from because cravings kind of go away. So you don’t even really think about it anymore.”

Don Everhart, now at Transflo, described losing 109 pounds since roughly the time of FreightWaves’ F3 conference last year, dropping from 384 pounds to 275 pounds as of the morning of the interview. He said zero alcohol consumption since starting GLP-1 therapy reflects a broader pattern the freight industry should watch. “There’s less alcohol consumption,” he said. “Consumers are consuming less alcohol today.” The shift, combined with generational changes in drinking habits among younger consumers, is compounding pressure on beverage-heavy freight lanes.

Panelists debated whether demand destruction would continue accelerating or plateau. Only about 10% of the U.S. population is currently on GLP-1 drugs, and one participant argued that skepticism around injections could limit broader adoption. Others pushed back, citing vanity and expanding medical use cases — including early research linking the drugs to reduced symptoms of Alzheimer’s, kidney disease, and ADHD — as factors that could push adoption well beyond current levels.

The conversation also turned to truck drivers specifically, noting that the average driver age is 61 and that the profession’s sedentary nature compounds obesity-related health risks. FreightWaves announced a partnership to provide GLP-1 drug access to the trucking community through a new initiative called FreightWaves Health, with more details to be shared at its F3 conference. Information is available at health.freightwaves.com.

FreightWaves estimates GLP-1 drugs have already caused a 2% decline in food and beverage truckloads, or roughly 2 million loads annually.
Walmart pharmacy and grocery data shows 10% fewer calorie purchases in households where a male uses GLP-1 medications, and 6–8% fewer where a female user is present.
Only about 10% of the U.S. population is currently on GLP-1 drugs, leaving significant uncertainty about how much further demand erosion in food, beverage, and snack freight lanes could go.

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

FreightWaves Announces the 2027 FreightTech100

FreightWaves has announced its 2027 FreightTech100, recognizing 100 companies selected for their innovation across the freight and supply chain technology industry.

The 2027 class marks the eighth year of the FreightTech Awards. This year drew a record number of nominations, reflecting the growing competition among companies developing technology for the freight and supply chain industries.

For 2027, the FreightTech100 will be celebrated in person at the inaugural F3 Awards Dinner on Monday, Oct. 26 in Chattanooga, alongside the Shipper of Choice Awards and FreightTech25. Full details are below.

For the FreightTech100, FreightWaves’ Research team reviews all submitted nominations and evaluates them based on documented innovation, market impact and how a company’s ideas have evolved from the previous year.

The list is the first stage of the annual FreightTech Awards process. After the 100 companies are selected, an independent panel of more than 80 industry executives evaluates them to determine the FreightTech25, which recognizes the top 25 companies in freight technology for their impact on the industry.

2027 FreightTech100

With over half of the companies on the 2027 list not included in the 2026 FreightTech100, the changes highlight how quickly the freight technology landscape is evolving. Newer companies are entering areas such as artificial intelligence and automation, while established transportation companies continue to expand their technology offerings.

The 2027 FreightTech100 spans a broad range of freight and supply chain technology, including transportation management and visibility, fleet and telematics, artificial intelligence, automation and autonomous trucking.

The list includes a mix of large transportation and logistics companies, technology providers and startups.

Artificial intelligence and automation are prominent themes throughout the list, with companies developing tools to automate transportation and logistics workflows. Autonomous trucking is another area of focus, with companies such as Aurora and Waabi developing technology aimed at automating long-haul freight transportation.

Fleet technology and safety are also represented, with companies such as Samsara, Motive and Geotab focused on vehicle monitoring, fleet operations and driver safety.

The full list is included below:

A look forward

The FreightTech100 is now the pool from which the FreightTech25 will be selected. An independent panel of more than 80 industry executives will rank the 100 companies, and those rankings determine the 25 that make up the FreightTech25. The voting is independently overseen by accounting firm Henderson, Hutcherson & McCullough.

New this year

For the first time, FreightWaves is recognizing the FreightTech100 in person. The inaugural F3 Awards Dinner takes place Monday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. ET at The Signal in Chattanooga. The dinner will honor the entire FreightTech100 and reveal both the FreightTech25 and the 2027 Shipper of Choice Awards, bringing the leading technology companies on this list together with the shippers from that day’s invite-only Supply Chain Day. The FreightTech25 rankings will be announced live in the room.

Companies named to the 100 will receive their official FreightTech100 winner badge through their nominator, to display on their website, email signature, and social channels.

Seating is limited and reservations are required by Oct. 10. Table and attendance details are available at https://live.freightwaves.com/f3-awards-dinner, and for support questions please contact: events@freightwaves.com.

The F3 Awards Dinner is the night before FreightWaves’ broader F3: Future of Freight Festival, which takes place Oct. 27-28 at The Signal in Chattanooga.

A Quiet Hurricane Season Won’t Mean a Quiet Year for Road Risk

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest Atlantic hurricane outlook is calling for a below-normal 2026 season. It’s welcome news, on its face, for any fleet that has spent years threading dispatch schedules around tropical storm warnings and coastal evacuations.

According to Lytx^®’s 2026 Road Safety Report, drawn from more than 341 billion miles of driving data across 6.3 million commercial drivers, a quieter storm season doesn’t mean a quieter year on the road. In fact, collisions in the construction industry rose 28% in 2025, the steepest increase of any sector Lytx tracks.

“A mild hurricane forecast is genuinely good news, but it’s the kind of headline that can create a false sense of security,” said Brendon Hill, Lytx’s Senior Vice President of Product. “Fleets shouldn’t read a quiet storm season as a quiet year. There are other risks in this data that are just as critical.”

Why weather is not the full story

If weather isn’t driving 2026’s risk picture on its own, Hill said the bigger issue is how most fleet safety programs are built in the first place.

“A lot of safety programs are still built on fixed thresholds like a speed limit or a following-distance rule that don’t account for the fact that the same behavior carries different risk depending on conditions,” Hill said. “Risk is always evolving. If it’s not weather, it’s distracted behavior, or a work zone that changes block by block. You need tools that adapt to the situation, not a rulebook that stays fixed no matter what’s happening on the road.”

That’s the thinking behind Lytx’s dynamic risk platform, which layers real-time weather data, roadwork-zone detection and speed-for-conditions alerts on top of driver-behavior scoring, rather than treating every mile the same regardless of what’s happening around the vehicle. Lytx’s data shows fog alone makes a severe crash nearly three times more likely than normal conditions, and federal crash data attributes roughly 23% of large-truck crashes to traveling too fast for conditions, not necessarily over a posted limit.

A steep, sector-specific spike

Construction posted the smallest improvement in near-collisions of any industry Lytx tracks, meaning fleets in that space aren’t catching the same defensive-driving gains showing up elsewhere. Hill pointed first to what’s happening inside the cab.

“We’re seeing in-cab inattentiveness up sharply year over year, driven by phone use, general distraction, and drivers simply not keeping their eyes on the road,” Hill said. “That’s a real opportunity to talk to drivers about coaching. To be clear, this isn’t about blaming individual drivers. It’s about giving fleets the visibility to proactively coach before an incident occurs.”

The report shows that inattentiveness climbed 168% as a contributing factor in collisions and near-misses year over year, spanning handheld device use, distraction, and eyes off the road. Fleets appear to be responding, though. Device-use coaching sessions were up 40% in 2025 alone, and following distance, already the single most-coached behavior industrywide, held its position at the top.

Why the construction sector specifically? The culprit is not immediately clear from the data, but operational strain is a likely factor.

That pressure comes at least in part from the data center buildout. The timing and the mechanism line up. The construction industry was short 439,000 workers as of last November, due in part to the growth of data centers, which now number more than 400 under active development nationwide. These roles tend to pay roughly 30% above typical construction wages, pulling skilled tradespeople like electricians and pipe layers away from other job sites and stretching the crews left behind.

Getting better at the worst outcomes, worse at the small ones

One of the more counterintuitive findings in this year’s report is that near-collisions fell 23% across every sector Lytx tracks, even as collisions ticked up. Hill said that split is due to two different trends moving at once.

“Fleets are actively training on defensive driving, and it’s working,” Hill said. “Near-collisions are leveling out, and the most severe crashes have actually declined because drivers are taking real precautions, easing off the pedal, covering the brake.”

Lytx has leaned into that momentum on the recognition side, too. Its Safety Recognition tools let fleet managers track the share of drivers with zero coachable events each quarter and issue customizable certificates to reward them, reinforcing the same defensive habits behind the drop in near-collisions.

Surprisingly, lower-severity collisions rose 16% while the higher-severity ones dropped. “That’s not the ‘crashes are getting worse’ story people expect. It means safety programs are getting better at preventing the worst outcomes, even as smaller incidents still slip through.”

What fleets should actually do this quarter

Asked what a construction fleet manager should change in the next quarter, Hill didn’t point to a new policy or a stricter rule.

“Build in a real conditions check, not just a static rule that gets applied the same way every time,” Hill said. “Construction zones are exactly the kind of environment where risk changes block by block, and a program that responds to that in real time will catch things a fixed-rule program simply can’t.”

And if a fleet only has the bandwidth to fix one behavior this year, Hill is consistent on distracted driving.

“Distraction is the single largest shift in this year’s data, so it’s the highest-leverage place to start,” Hill said. “But it’s worth pairing that fix with a conditions-aware lens. The same distracted-driving event is far more dangerous in fog or a work zone than in clear weather on an open highway. Fixing the behavior and accounting for where and when it’s riskiest have to go hand in hand.”

The bigger misconception, according to Hill, is treating safety as something that gets set once and left alone.

“Once a program is ‘set,’ it’s easy to stop asking whether the underlying rule still makes sense for the conditions it’s actually being applied to,” Hill said. “That’s what gives fleets false confidence, and it’s exactly the kind of thinking a quiet hurricane forecast can reinforce if you let it.”

NOAA may be predicting a calmer storm season, but Lytx’s data suggests that fleets still need to be prepared for other challenges through data-driven decision making.

Click here to learn more about Lytx.

Asia-US container rates soar past $11,000, near pandemic records

Ocean carriers are capitalizing on an extraordinary spike in container freight rates from Asia to the United States, with spot prices now within roughly 18% of their pandemic-era highs on the West Coast and 11% on the East Coast, according to Xeneta data.

Rates from the Far East to the U.S. West Coast reached $7,960 per forty foot equivalent unit as of Sept. 17, while Far East-U.S. East Coast prices climbed to $11,259 per FEU. Both trades have more than quadrupled since late February, before the Hormuz crisis disrupted global shipping markets.

East Coast trade closest to record

The Far East-U.S. East Coast trade appears the likelier candidate to set a new all-time rate record, Xeneta Chief Analyst Peter Sand said.

The current East Coast spot rate is just 11.2% below its record of $12,683 per FEU, established Jan. 1, 2022, amid the supply-chain disruption of the Covid-19 era. The Far East-U.S. West Coast rate remains 17.9% below its $9,699-per-FEU peak, set Feb. 1, 2022.

“Spot rates from Far East to U.S. West Coast and U.S. East Coast are up 324% and 325% respectively since pre-Hormuz crisis at the end of February,” Sand said. “That leaves freight rates on these critical trades just 18% and 11% short of the all-time high set during the Covid-19 disruption.”

Rising bunker costs could further increase carrier fuel surcharges and push rates higher, he said, making a breach of pandemic records possible.

“If a freight rate record is broken, it is most likely to occur on the trade into U.S. East Coast,” Sand said. “But even if we do not see a new all-time high, the fact we are even discussing the possibility demonstrates how sensitive critical ocean container shipping trades are to geopolitical forces and how a regional conflict in the Middle East can have major implications at a global level.”

Capacity increases ahead of potential turn

Carriers are adding space from the Far East to the U.S. East Coast as demand and pricing remain strong, according to Xeneta. Offered capacity on that route in September is 6% to 7% above August levels.

Sand said carriers are moving to take advantage of the current pricing environment before market conditions potentially begin to change within the next two to three weeks.

“Carriers are seizing the opportunity while the market is hot,” he said. “Adding capacity into U.S. East Coast ahead of what could be a turn in the market” may help carriers capture elevated revenue while rates remain near historical highs.

That capacity response could eventually restrain the rapid escalation in spot pricing, particularly after the seasonal rush connected with China’s Golden Week holiday period.

Another rate push expected before Golden Week

Xeneta expects a further attempt by carriers to lift spot rates in early October as shippers accelerate exports from Asia before factory shutdowns and reduced production during Golden Week.

“We should expect one more freight rate push at the start of October as shippers rush cargo out of Asia ahead of the Golden Week shutdown,” Sand said. “Before rates start to soften, or at least the pace of growth will slow.”

The expected post-Golden Week slowdown would not necessarily mean rates fall immediately. Rather, it could mark an end to the sharp upward trajectory that has characterized the market since late February.

Europe trades also rise sharply

The disruption has extended beyond US import trades, although the magnitude of increases has varied considerably by route.

Trade lane	Sept. 17 spot rate	Change since Feb. 28
Far East-US West Coast	$7,960 per FEU	323.6%
Far East-US East Coast	$11,259 per FEU	324.7%
Far East-North Europe	$4,103 per FEU	84.9%
Far East-Mediterranean	$4,434 per FEU	33.2%
North Europe-US East Coast	$2,956 per FEU	100.1%

(Chart: Xeneta)

The Far East-North Europe trade rose nearly 85% from pre-crisis levels to $4,103 per FEU, while the Far East-Mediterranean route increased 33.2% to $4,434 per FEU. North Europe-U.S. East Coast spot rates more than doubled, reaching $2,956 per FEU.

The gap between U.S. and European price escalation shows that price pressure is concentrated on Asia-U.S. container trades, particularly services moving through or affected by the Middle East disruption and the changing economics of vessel deployment, fuel costs and available capacity.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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Trucks hauling fuel get HOS waiver for 3 months

A nationwide waiver of Hours of Service (HOS) rules for the transportation of motor fuels will be in place until December 16 following the action taken by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

FMCSA announced Wednesday an immediate waiver that will allow drivers to be behind the wheel for up to 16 hours per day. The current regulations are a limitation of 11 hours driving in a 14-hour period with a 30-minute break after eight hours of driving.

“The Agency grants this waiver in anticipation of the need for greater hours-of-service flexibility for motor carriers transporting fuel during the last weeks of the summer and most of the fall if the demand for fuel increases above the levels experienced earlier in the year,” FMCSA said in its announcement.

Under the waiver, a driver is limited to driving no more than 16 hours in a 24-hour period. If the truck has a sleeper berth, the driver must take a consecutive break of six hours. If there is no sleeper berth, the required break is eight hours.

The waiver comes with a long list of other requirements that are fairly standard when FMCSA grants such a waiver. They include a carrier with an out of service order not being eligible to use the waiver; a physical copy of the waiver must be held by the truck driver; a valid CDL is necessary; and drivers with a conditional safety rating are not eligible.

There are other provisions that require an employer to grant immediate rest to a driver if it is requested.

Duffy weighs in

The waiver was considered significant enough that it brought a prepared statement from Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

“Short-term supply chain disruptions can delay gasoline and diesel shipments, which in turn can impact freight delivery shipments,” Duffy said in the statement. “By giving truckers transporting these critical supplies the ability to drive additional hours if they are not fatigued, the agency is helping protect against shortages, lower costs for families at the pump, and reduce strain on America’s agricultural producers.”

FMCSA lists only two other ongoing waivers: one each in Nebrasks and Oregon related to recovery from wildfires.

Most waivers are regional in scope. The last nationwide waiver granted by FMCSA lasted for more than two years in reaction to COVID.

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Link Logistics buys 4 last-mile facilities in Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta

delivery vans in front of dock doors at a warehouse

Final-mile warehouse operator Link Logistics announced the acquisition of four terminals in the metropolitan areas of Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas, and Atlanta. The purchase of the Gateway Infill Growth Portfolio from Oxford Properties Group adds 697,276 square feet in two markets where it already has a large presence.

“Our acquisition strategy is focused on expanding Link Logistics’ portfolio in infill-focused locations that are supported by strong long-term demand drivers,” said Andrew Goodman, senior managing director of investments at Link Logistics. “This portfolio reflects our continued conviction in Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta and adds well-located distribution assets in markets where we have achieved meaningful scale.”

Locations in Irving and Grand Prairie, Texas, represent nearly 400,000 square feet of the acquired portfolio. A location in Suwanee, Georgia, has 249,000 square feet of space. The deal also included a smaller site in Farmers Branch, Texas.

Link Logistics now operates over 34 million square feet of space in the Dallas-Fort Worth market and more than 38 million square feet in the Atlanta area. In total, the company operates roughly 3,000 properties with 500 million square feet across North America.

“Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta continue to see strong logistics demand as population growth and business investment support durable industrial fundamentals,” said Laura Hyde, managing director of Investments at Link Logistics.

JLL (NYSE: JLL) represented Oxford in the transaction.

Why it matters? Link Logistics’ acquisition of properties in Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta enhances final-mile efficiency and expands access to scaled distribution assets for supply chain operators. This investment reflects durable industrial real estate fundamentals driven by continuous population and business growth in key regional logistics corridors.

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Truck driver intentionally crashes tractor-trailer into Nashville Aldi, police say

A truck driver has been arrested after police said he intentionally drove a tractor-trailer through the front of an Aldi grocery store in East Nashville, causing more than $250,000 in damage.

The crash occurred shortly after midnight Thursday at the Aldi, where 34-year-old Kristofer Scruggs was scheduled to make a delivery, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department told WSMV and other media outlets.

The grocery store was closed and no employees or customers were inside at the time. Scruggs was not injured.

Scruggs was arrested and charged with felony vandalism involving more than $250,000 in damage. His bond was set at $35,000, according to local reports citing his arrest affidavit.

Police said Scruggs acknowledged deliberately driving the tractor-trailer into the store. According to MNPD, Scruggs told investigators that the thought had come to him to crash into the Aldi where he was supposed to make the delivery.

Surveillance video reportedly shows the tractor-trailer entering the parking lot and remaining there for several minutes before returning to Gallatin Avenue. The truck then accelerated back into the parking lot and struck the front of the grocery store.

The impact sent the tractor through the storefront and into the store, while the trailer became lodged in the entrance. The truck was carrying groceries intended for delivery to Aldi.

Police said Scruggs showed no signs of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Officers also reported that Scruggs denied having suicidal or homicidal thoughts.

Authorities estimated damage involving the store and truck at more than $250,000. No injuries were reported.

Aldi said it was assessing the damage and cooperating with investigators. The investigation remains ongoing.

Why it matters: The unusual incident turned a routine grocery delivery into a major property-loss event, severely damaging a retail location while highlighting the potential consequences when an 80,000-pound-class commercial vehicle is deliberately misused.

Food distributors warn cyberattacks can quickly become supply chain disruptions

Cybersecurity executives are urging foodservice distributors to prepare for cyberattacks as operational disruptions that can affect warehouses, trucks, customer orders and even the physical movement of freight.

The message emerged during “The CISO Perspective: Navigating Cyber Risk in Foodservice Distribution,” a panel at the International Foodservice Distributors Association’s 2026 Solutions Conference in San Antonio.

The session on Monday focused on the growing connections between cybersecurity, transportation, warehouse operations, third-party vendors and business continuity.

IFDA described the session as examining how cyberattacks can stop orders, shut down warehouses and jeopardize customer relationships, along with risks involving vendors and ransomware.

Brett Perry, head of cybersecurity and network at Dot Foods Inc., moderated the discussion. Panelists included Frank Smith, director of information security at The Palmer Family of Cos., James Cusack, chief information officer at Van Eerden Foodservice, and Jeff Shaffer chief information security officer at Ben E. Keith Co.

One of the central themes was that companies should no longer build cybersecurity programs around the assumption that every attack can be prevented.

Instead, Perry and the panelists said companies should focus increasingly on resilience — containing an intrusion before attackers can spread throughout an organization and disrupt critical operations.

“We know identities are going to get stolen. We know bad things are going to happen,” Smith said. “But if we can alert and contain those types of incidents, we’re going to be a much more resilient business without any operational impact.”

That distinction can be particularly important for food distributors, whose operations depend on interconnected warehouse management, transportation, ordering and communications systems.

Unlike businesses whose operations are primarily digital, foodservice distributors also operate warehouses, trucks and other physical infrastructure while coordinating with customers, suppliers and transportation providers.

A cyberattack against any part of that network can create downstream consequences.

Cybersecurity executives at the IFDA Solutions Conference urged foodservice distributors to focus on resilience, third-party vulnerabilities and plans for keeping the food supply chain moving when critical technology fails. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

A hacked carrier can become a cargo theft problem

The executives said companies also need to look beyond their own networks because vulnerabilities at suppliers, technology vendors and transportation partners can expose the distributor.

One example discussed during the panel involved a third-party carrier whose email system was compromised.

The attackers used information obtained through the carrier to arrange a fraudulent pickup. A truck arrived at a cold-storage facility with the correct paperwork and picked up a load of blueberries.

The problem: The truck wasn’t actually working for the carrier.

“There goes a load of blueberries. Gone,” Shaffer said.

The incident illustrated how a cybersecurity breach involving a transportation provider can become a physical cargo theft — even if the food distributor’s own systems were never initially compromised.

An International Foodservice Distributors Association’s cybersecurity panel highlighted how a hacked carrier’s email helped thieves fraudulently pick up a load of fresh produce, illustrating the growing connection between cybercrime and physical freight theft. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Warehouse technology creates other vulnerabilities.

Security cameras, handheld devices, access-control systems and other connected equipment can provide additional points of entry into networks. The panelists recommended practices including network segmentation, least-privilege access and zero-trust security, under which users and devices continue to be verified after gaining access to a network.

Those protections can create friction for warehouse and transportation employees, however.

“When security goes up, I can almost guarantee you from an operational standpoint, convenience is going down,” a panelist said.

That means cybersecurity changes also require communication and change management so employees understand why additional authentication or other security measures are necessary.

The executives said security controls shouldn’t simply be viewed as obstacles to productivity. Properly designed controls can instead provide guardrails allowing employees to use technology more confidently.

Artificial intelligence creates another dimension to that challenge.

Companies need to consider three questions surrounding AI, the panelists said: how to secure employees’ use of AI, how to use AI to improve cybersecurity and how to protect their businesses against attackers using AI.

Data itself is increasingly the target

Another major concern is the sheer volume of information companies retain.

Businesses should determine what data they actually need, how long it should be retained, who should have access and when it should be permanently deleted, according to the panel.

That includes employee records, personally identifiable information, pricing information, litigation documents and other potentially sensitive material.

“Everybody has something that bad guys want,” one panelist said.

The discussion comes as cybercriminals increasingly use stolen information itself as leverage.

Rather than encrypting a company’s network and demanding payment to restore access, attackers can exfiltrate information and threaten to publish it unless the victim pays.

“We’re seeing a real shift towards data as the new currency,” a panelist said.

Sensitive employee and company information therefore shouldn’t be scattered through email accounts, individual computers and cloud-storage folders, the panelists said. Companies should consider whether some sensitive information can instead be held by specialized third-party providers, reducing the amount stored internally.

Reducing unnecessary data also reduces the potential material available for cybercriminals to steal — as well as the information companies may have to search and produce during litigation.

When systems fail, can trucks still move?

Perhaps the most important operational question raised during the session was deceptively simple: How would the company continue operating if a critical system disappeared?

The executives urged distributors to identify their most important applications and determine how long the business can function without them.

That could mean planning how employees would receive orders, contact customers, route deliveries and communicate with suppliers if normal networks or applications were unavailable.

“If it’s that critical of a system, we should have fallback to go back to a manual process,” one panelist said.

Those procedures need to be developed and tested before an incident occurs.

One panelist described an incident in which his company’s recovery time and recovery point objectives were successfully met — only for executives to discover that the established recovery targets were still not fast enough for the business.

Another example involved a company that detected an attacker inside its network but failed to respond effectively. The intruder remained inside the network for 16 months and 12 terabytes of information eventually left the organization, according to the panel.

The lesson, panelists said, is that detection alone isn’t enough. Companies must be able to identify, contain, respond to and recover from incidents.

Testing business-continuity plans can also expose weaknesses that aren’t necessarily cyber-related.

One panelist recalled an outage involving the power grid and backup generators that revealed employees didn’t fully understand which generators supported different systems or what procedures to follow if equipment failed.

“Disaster recovery is an action and resilience is an outcome,” a panelist said.

Cyber risk extends across the supply chain

Third-party risk was another major focus.

Foodservice distributors increasingly depend on an ecosystem of technology providers, suppliers, transportation companies and other vendors whose systems they don’t control.

The executives recommended scrutinizing vendors’ cybersecurity practices before entrusting them with business-critical operations. Contracts should also be reviewed closely for provisions that limit a provider’s liability if a cyber incident causes an outage.

“If they’re not willing to [change it], you have to take a good hard look at whether or not it’s a partner that you should have,” a panel member said.

The panel ended with practical advice for business executives.

Identify the system, application or third-party integration most critical to the company and ask how the business would operate without it for more than 48 hours.

Then document the response and determine who has authority to make decisions during an emergency.

Business leaders should also sit down with their IT and cybersecurity teams and ask a straightforward question: What are you worried about?

That conversation, the panelists said, can identify risks executives may not realize exist — before those vulnerabilities become operational crises.

Why it matters: Cyber criminals don’t necessarily have to penetrate a shipper’s network to disrupt its supply chain — compromised carriers, vendors and other business partners can provide the information needed to steal freight or interrupt operations.

Hub Group receives Nasdaq delisting notice, plans to appeal

Hub Group announced it received a formal delisting determination from Nasdaq due to delayed financial reports. The announcement follows a Monday update in which the company said it missed a filing deadline despite an initial 180-day extension.

The intermodal marketing company said it will appeal the decision and ask for a hearing. The hearing will automatically stay any delisting action for 15 calendar days from the date of the request, which has to be filed by Wednesday. Hub Group (NASDAQ: HUBG) will also request that its shares not be delisted during the hearing process, which can take 30 to 45 days to commence after the request is submitted.

“The Company intends to present to the Nasdaq Hearings Panel a compelling plan to regain full compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements,” a news release said. “While there can be no assurance, the Company expects its Class A common stock to continue trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market during the hearing process.”

After discovering an accounting error in February, Hub Group initiated a review of its financial results for 2023, 2024 and the first three quarters of 2025. As a result of this ongoing review, the company has delayed filing its financial reports for the fourth quarter and full-year 2025, as well as the first two quarters of 2026.

The company said Monday that it plans to complete the restatement process during the fourth quarter. It also said it booked an operating loss in the 2026 first half (before one-time charges) and that Dave Yeager has returned as CEO.

Why it matters? A potential delisting highlights the severe operational and financial scrutiny Hub Group faces as it works to rectify an accounting error. Successfully appealing the decision and completing the restatements is critical for maintaining investor confidence and preserving its public listing status.

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Union Pacific blasts rival railroads’ trackage rights requests

Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena is critical of rival railroads’ plans to request trackage rights over a combined UP-Norfolk Southern system.

“The idea to give up tracks of your railroad for no reason at all just goes against the fundamental principle of how … business should work,” Vena told an investor conference.

Last week BNSF Railway (NYSE: BRK-B), CPKC (NYSE: CP), and CSX (NASDAQ: CSX)—along with 11 short lines— in filings with the Surface Transportation Board said that they planned to seek widespread trackage rights and access to customers on UP-NS (NYSE: NSC), should the proposed merger gain regulatory approval.

BNSF put forward two major proposals. First, the railway said it would seek 824 miles of trackage rights over Norfolk Southern between Chicago and intermodal terminals in Harrisburg and Bethlehem, Pa. Second, it called for the creation of a neutral switching carrier that would serve BNSF- and UP-served customer facilities on the Gulf Coast, the largest chemical-producing region in the U.S.

Without mentioning BNSF by name, Vena said the long-distance trackage rights request doesn’t make sense. “If we allowed X railroad to run on our railroad for 800 miles, we would charge them a per car-mile charge that actually would make it more expensive for them to get to that destination,” he said.

“I thought about just agreeing because guess what: We would just reset the price higher for us,” Vena said, adding: “That doesn’t make a particle of sense in business.”

BNSF told regulators the trackage rights would be necessary to preserve service and competition to eastern Pennsylvania, which is a major distribution hub for consumer goods.

The UP-NS merger agreement allows UP (NYSE: UNP) to walk away from the $85 billion deal if the STB approves the combination but adds onerous concessions as a condition. UP would be on the hook for a $2.5 billion breakup fee to NS.

The UP CEO says he’s not opposed to reaching deals like the haulage and trackage rights agreements reached with Canadian National (NYSE: CNI) in July.

In separate deals, UP granted CN haulage rights between Memphis and the Eagle Pass, Texas, gateway to reach Ferromex. In exchange, CN granted UP the right to use its former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern bypass around Chicago. And in a deal contingent on approval of the UP-NS merger, CN would operate over and serve customers on UP’s line between the St. Louis area and Kansas City, including use of UP’s Neff Yard in Kansas City.

“Would I make a deal with another railroad? Absolutely. But it would have to be a win-win for Union Pacific and for them,” Vena said.

“We gave Canadian National access from Canada to Mexico through Memphis. Man, I can hardly wait,” Vena said. “We win by them growing Canadian business to Mexico. Gotta love the competition we just added to Canada against the Canadian Pacific. Love it.”

Vena says he’s pleased that the STB accepted the merger application and last month started the procedural clock ticking. The board had initially postponed the proceeding while reviewing the revised application that the railroads submitted in May.

But he disputed BNSF’s contention that a combined UP-NS would handle half of the rail traffic in the U.S. if the merger is approved.

“Some railroads are out there saying that we end up with 50% of the business. That’s just a lie. It just is a lie. Burlington Northern Santa Fe, owned by Berkshire, big company, they have more gross ton-miles than us. So we’re No. 2 on gross ton-miles,” Vena said.

BNSF, CPKC, and CSX — who have urged the STB to reject the merger application — say a transcontinental UP would be a railroad of unprecedented size and market power, which is reason alone for regulators to reject the merger.

Vena says the ability to offer coast-to-coast single-line service is a plus, and is necessary with autonomous trucks on the horizon.

“We want to move ahead because our competitors are moving ahead,” he says, noting that he has ridden in an autonomous rig and the technology is ready.

“The competition’s going to get better,” Vena said. “And we need to be able to get better and have a chance to win.”

Eliminating interchange and providing faster, seamless service will help railroads compete against autonomous trucks, Vena contends. He also said that single-line service tends to be cheaper than interline moves.

“It truly is a great deal for America,” Vena said.

Record high diesel fuel prices, along with tighter trucking capacity, has prompted shippers to send more freight to the railroad. UP’s traffic is up 5% for the quarter to date, domestic intermodal is on pace for a fifth straight quarter of record volume, and for the first time since 2018, UP has deployed all of its domestic intermodal containers, Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Hamann said.

The worry now, however, is that sustained high fuel prices will hurt consumer spending and freight demand. “Fundamentally a higher fuel price is never good for the economy in the long run,” Vena said.

But the railroad has yet to see a broad freight downturn.

Vena and Hamann spoke at the Morgan Stanley 14th Annual Laguna Conference.

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