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

truck fallen over

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:

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.

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

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

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Borderlands Mexico: Trucker protest raises stakes in Mexico-US B-1 visa dispute 

Borderlands Mexico is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week in Borderlands Mexico: Trucker protest raises stakes in Mexico-US B-1 visa dispute; CBP announces extended-hours program for empty trailers at Laredo bridge; and Imperative Logistics expands El Paso footprint with RM Customhouse Brokers deal.

Trucker protest raises stakes in Mexico-US B-1 visa dispute

Trucking industry leaders in Mexico are intensifying calls for U.S. officials to clarify how B-1 visa rules are being enforced against cross-border truck drivers, warning that continued uncertainty could disrupt freight flows between Mexico and the United States.

Officials with Mexico’s National Chamber of Freight Transportation (CANACAR) say Mexican drivers are losing their visas after encounters with U.S. officials involving alleged cabotage violations, but carriers lack clear information about how eligibility and violations are being determined at different border crossings.

The dispute spilled into public view Thursday when truck drivers blocked commercial traffic at the Mexicali, Mexico-Calexico East (California) border crossing in protest of visa revocations. 

CANACAR officials in neighboring Tijuana have urged drivers there not to stage similar blockades, warning that shutting down additional border crossings would increase the economic impact.

Alfonso Millán Chávez, CANACAR delegate for Tijuana, Tecate and Playas de Rosarito, said the organization and other business groups are seeking meetings with U.S. and Mexican officials to establish clearer protocols governing visa revocations tied to alleged cabotage, reported Uniradio Informa México. 

Millán said disagreements can arise over what constitutes a prohibited domestic movement in the U.S., including how officials treat the movement of empty trailers.

“Sometimes we have had problems with the interpretation, for example with an empty trailer,” Millán said according to El Sol de Tijuana. “The empty trailer is there to be loaded with merchandise, and some officers interpret the empty trailer as merchandise.”

Cabotage generally refers to transportation between two points within the same country by a foreign carrier. Mexican truck drivers using B-1 visas are permitted to haul international freight into and out of the U.S., but generally cannot perform point-to-point domestic U.S. freight movements.

Millán said CANACAR wants U.S. authorities to establish protocols for visa actions involving suspected cabotage and provide reliable statistics showing how many drivers have lost their visas.

CANACAR estimates more than 25,000 visas have been revoked from commercial drivers along Mexico’s northern border, including potentially 4,000 in the Tijuana area. The figures are CANACAR estimates based on reports from its members and social media, however, rather than official U.S. government statistics. The organization has sought information from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico and U.S. State Department.

Visa dispute reaches boiling point in Mexicali

The pressure intensified Thursday when truckers protested at the Mexicali commercial port of entry over what drivers described as an increase in B-1 visa revocations.

Millán said CANACAR had anticipated growing frustration among drivers.

“We understand the desperation of the drivers, and as a chamber and as an industry, I think we have been anticipating this over the last few months,” Millán said. “There hasn’t been a week when we haven’t raised the issue with various authorities in both Mexico and the United States.”

CANACAR is nevertheless urging drivers to pursue negotiations rather than expand the demonstrations to Tijuana.

Millán called for Mexico’s Interior Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene with U.S. authorities, saying the dispute ultimately requires a binational solution. He said CANACAR has already raised the issue with the U.S. Embassy and State Department.

“My hope is that it does not extend to Tijuana,” Millán said of the protests. “The idea is that we be cautious with this issue.”

He added that CANACAR has consistently favored dialogue over actions that interrupt cross-border commerce.

Ismael Reyes de la Rosa, a CANACAR official in Mexicali, has also raised concerns about how U.S. officers are handling B-1 visas at the border, as drivers seek greater clarity over what activities could trigger cancellation or revocation.

The growing concern is not limited to Baja California. Israel Delgado, CANACAR’s vice president for Mexico’s northwest region, has warned that visa losses could affect time-sensitive shipments including medical products, technology, food and perishables moving from Mexico into the U.S.

CANACAR urges dialogue as Mexican drivers demand answers over visa revocations tied to alleged cabotage violations. Pictured is the Otay Mesa commercial port of entry, which connects Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California. (Photo: US Customs and Border Protection)

Industry warns of supply chain effects

The visa dispute is beginning to ripple beyond trucking companies.

José Luis Contreras Valenzuela, president of the Association of Industrialists of Mesa de Otay, said the situation has contributed to delays in incoming supplies and deliveries of finished products.

 Federico Serrano Bañuelos, president of Index Zona Costa, said companies that outsource transportation services are particularly exposed. Business groups are seeking to elevate the issue to Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for diplomatic discussions with U.S. officials, according to El Sol de Tijuana.

The dispute comes as cross-border freight activity in the Tijuana region is already below previous peaks. Millán recently said roughly 3,000 export trucks are crossing daily, compared with as many as 4,500 during stronger periods. He said freight volumes fell nearly 30% in 2025 before improving somewhat this year.

Millán said English-language proficiency enforcement, another recent concern for Mexican drivers operating in the U.S., has become less of an immediate problem locally. He said CANACAR had not recently received reports of drivers being placed out of service for English proficiency violations.

“The current challenge is the revocation of visas for cabotage issues,” Millán said, adding that such violations are sometimes interpreted “in a very drastic way.”

CBP announces extended-hours program for empty trailers at Laredo bridge

Port of Laredo, in coordination with Nuevo León’s Border Zone Development Corporation, will begin a 90-day program extending weekday operating hours for empty tractors and trailers at the Colombia-Solidarity Bridge beginning Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Under the program, weekday operations for empty trucks and trailers will begin one hour earlier, at 7 a.m., and continue until midnight, Monday through Friday. Current weekday operating hours are 8 a.m. to midnight.

The program is intended to alleviate morning northbound traffic congestion from Colombia, Nuevo León, to Laredo, Texas.

Program details:

  • Effective date: Monday, Sept. 14
  • Duration: 90 days
  • Current weekday hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-midnight
  • Revised weekday hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-midnight
  • Applicable traffic: Empty tractors and trailers only

Imperative Logistics expands El Paso footprint with RM Customhouse Brokers deal  

Imperative Logistics has joined forces with El Paso, Texas-based RM Customhouse Brokers, expanding the logistics provider’s customs brokerage and cross-border capabilities along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a news release.

RM Customhouse Brokers, whose history dates to 1948, provides customs brokerage, trade compliance, bonded warehousing and cross-border logistics services. Its El Paso operations combine customs clearance, storage and distribution services in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez trade corridor.

“El Paso is an important addition to our network and gives our customers another critical gateway for U.S.-Mexico trade,” Imperative Logistics CEO Dante Fornari said in a statement.

Fornari said the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez region includes more than 330 maquiladora plants and handles nearly $150 billion in annual trade, making the market a major North American manufacturing and cross-border freight hub.

RM President and co-owner Elvia Miles Doyle said joining Imperative will allow the company to maintain its existing customer relationships while providing access to a broader range of logistics services. RM customers will continue working with the same team while gaining access to Imperative’s customs brokerage, cross-border transportation, global forwarding and integrated logistics capabilities.

Imperative Logistics specializes in expedited transportation, cross-border services, global forwarding and mission-critical logistics.

Why it matters: Mexican trucking companies depend on B-1 drivers to move international freight across the border, and industry leaders warn that unclear or inconsistent enforcement of cabotage rules could reduce available cross-border capacity and trigger additional protests at major commercial gateways.

$277K Guinness heist: Thieves hit same UK depot twice in 2 hours

Two trucks entered an industrial estate in Runcorn, England, and hauled away trailers carrying more than 800 Guinness barrels. The drivers arrived separately during a two-hour period Monday night. Each connected a tractor to a loaded trailer displaying GXO branding before leaving the depot. Police estimated the total value of the stolen beer and trailers at £205,000, or approximately $277,000.

The first vehicle reached Aston Lane around 7:45 p.m. Its driver attached a loaded trailer and departed 10 minutes later. That driver traveled toward the Mersey Gateway. A second truck arrived at 9:12 p.m. before leaving around 9:30 toward Rainhill and Watkinson Way.

Police release driver descriptions

Investigators described the initial driver as a white man with a short, dark beard and beanie. Authorities believe another male wearing a cap handled the later pickup. The Cheshire Constabulary announcement provides no additional physical details. Officers have not released photographs showing either individual.

The stolen beer carried an estimated value of £115,000, or approximately $155,000. Both white tri-axle curtain-side trailers displayed GXO branding. Neither trailer fell under GXO’s control, management or supervision when the theft occurred. Police identified the equipment numbers as DL736 and DL542.

Those unique identifiers appear near the upper-left corner of each back entrance. Authorities included photographs within their announcement. The images show branding and other distinguishing features. Investigators hope motorists or witnesses recognize the missing equipment.

Investigation remains active

Detective Sergeant McClatchey confirmed that officers quickly opened an inquiry. “We will settle for nothing less than the full recovery of all the items stolen,” McClatchey said. His statement urged nearby motorists to review dashcam recordings. Relevant footage could reveal either vehicle’s movements before or after both incidents.

Anyone with information can contact Cheshire Constabulary online or call 101. Tipsters should reference incident number IML-2408641. Officials also want surveillance video captured near Aston Lane during the evening. The department has not announced any arrests or recoveries.

The public notice does not explain how both drivers accessed the property. Authorities have withheld the tractor registration numbers and ownership information. Investigators provided no details about credentials, paperwork or security procedures. Police also have not identified possible connections between the operators. FreightWaves contacted Cheshire Constabulary for additional information but did not receive a response before publication. This story will be updated if the department responds.

Why it matters

Two drivers removed valuable commercial loads during separate visits to one depot. Freight professionals can use this case to examine gate controls, pickup authorization and trailer-release procedures.

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

FBI investigating dark-web service claiming 153M license records, raising CDL security concerns – FreightWaves

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Florida AG calls semi-truck a ‘rolling dungeon’ after 4 children confined for 6 years – FreightWaves

Big jump in truck transportation jobs in latest BLS report

With the overall jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing a surprisingly big jump in employment, truck transportation participated in that rebound.

The monthly report showed truck transportation employment rising 4,800 jobs to 1,470,300. It’s the highest level of jobs in the sector since October. 

But with employment since then mostly trending down each month, the number of jobs in the sector is still about 10,000 jobs less than it was a year ago.

“A single month trend does not in itself indicate that conditions are beginning to shift,” David Spencer, vice president of market intelligence at Arrive Logistics, said in a comment supplied to FreightWaves.

He cited data for April, when a big jump of more than 5,000 truck transportation jobs was followed by two months of declines that mostly offset the April surge.

“However, recent stability in truckload spot rate volatility, including a muted response to the Labor Day holiday, is context that shouldn’t be ignored,” Spencer said.

If the growth in employment has legs, Spencer said, that would “signal a shift in carrier priorities from replacing aging equipment and driver benefits and wages.”

Truckload and LTL numbers

One piece of data that is showing strength in the sector is the market for long-distance truckload drivers. That data lags the overall truck transportation numbers by a month. 

The latest report, for July, shows employment in that subsector at 501,400 jobs. That is an increase of almost 5,000 jobs since January. 

But like truck transportation jobs overall, it’s down from a year earlier, when it stood at 505,300 jobs. And it’s way down from a recent peak of 553,600 jobs in October 2022.

Growth in LTL drivers has been slower. It was up just 100 jobs between June and July, to 247,100 jobs, and was still 2,000 jobs less than a year earlier. LTL jobs’ recent peak was 282,200 jobs in June 2022.

Warehouse jobs took their second consecutive decline and are now 32,000 jobs less than they were a year ago.

With a decline of 2,600 jobs between July and August, warehouse jobs stood at 1,837,400 jobs. A year ago, it was at 1,869,400 jobs. 

The contrast with the all-time peak is startling: 1,939,300 jobs in March 2022.

The broader numbers

Aaron Terrazas, an independent economist with a long history in transportation, did not find any undetected softness in the overall labor report, especially following a report a month ago that saw a decline of 23,000 jobs. 

But that was followed by an upward revision in the latest release for July and June.

“July’s initially-reported surprise decline in payrolls now looks like a respectable gain well within the range of breakeven estimates,” Terrazas said in an email to FreightWaves. “The July dip was driven by local government/education — that was reversed. Late summer is a noisy time for public education payrolls. The unemployment rate was stable and participation increased.”

Numbers from Superior Payroll

The beginning of the month is also the time that Superior Trucking Payroll Service releases its data on certain economic conditions in trucking, drawn from the data it processes in paying thousands of drivers.

Its drive pay index slipped back in August to 158.08, down from 161.31 a month earlier. But it is still well above a year ago, when it was at 148.88.

Superior’s measurement of turnover was 9.37% for August. It is down from double digits that Superior measured between September and March.

Rail jobs rose 900 from an upward adjusted number in July. Employment was 150,400 jobs, up from 149,500 jobs, a fairly big gain for the sector where change is measured slowly. But it is still down from 154,100 jobs a month ago, even as rail traffic has increased.

More articles by John Kingston

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Retail diesel has never been this expensive

Retail diesel prices are at an all-time high according to one key measurement.

The daily average national retail price for diesel, published by AAA, was set Friday at $5.85/gallon. A day earlier, the price at $5.7832/g set the highest price since military action began against Iran at the start of March. 

The $5.85 price broke through the previous all-time high price of $5.82/g set in June 2022, a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Price data shows that the AAA price on the Friday before attacks against Iran began, followed by Iranian counterattacks, stood at $3.758/g, with the latest price now up about $2.10 since that day.

The last four days have seen a remarkable surge in retail diesel prices as measured by AAA, adding just under 25 cts/g during that time.

The DTS.USA data stream in SONAR for Friday showed a slightly lower average at $5.81/g. 

That followed a sharp rise in prices on the ultra low sulfur diesel contract on CME, which is the starting point for the multi-step process that ultimately leads to a price at the pump.

ULSD settled at just under $4.50/g on August 21. It then plunged to about $4.25/g the next four days on hopes for more relief from restricted flow in the Strait of Hormuz, though that would not have had any impact from the curtailment of diesel supplies out of Russia. 

That latter development has been as a result of successful drone strikes by Ukraine on the Russian refining sector, which is heavily oriented toward the production of middle distillates such as diesel.

But hope is not fundamentals, and ULSD took off from there, climbing to a settlement Wednesday of $4.6822/g. That recent upward move also comes after the entire month was essentially a bull run; a month ago, on August 4, ULSD settled at $3.7705/g.

Tossing out what appears to be a one-day outlier settlement from 2022, the all-time high ULSD settlement was Tuesday of this week at $4.6773/g.

Ironically, as the media reports are filled with the news of the all-time diesel high, its price on CME has softened. It declined 8.86 cts/g Thursday. Friday at approximately 10:30 a.m., ULSD was down just under 12 cts/g to $4.4739/g.   

Kevin Book, the managing director of ClearView Energy Partners, summed up the market situation for diesel in an interview Friday on CNBC. 

He described middle distillates such as diesel as “at the top of the list as far as the energy policy discussion right now.”

He noted that U.S. refineries are running “flat out”–not surprising, given that crack spreads for all products but diesel in particular are at historic highs–but that some Middle East supplies have been blocked by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz “and are compounded by outages in Russia.”

Book expressed skepticism about a quick slide in prices should the Strait open fully. “I think that there are real questions about the infrastructure on the other side,” he said.

While there have been refinery restarts, and if the Strait gets back to normal, “it looks a little bit better.”

“But will it go back to flowing as it did?” Book said. “It doesn’t seem obviously that way right now.”

More articles by John Kingston

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Jones Act service gets new 10-year port deal

Jacksonville-based carrier Trailer Bridge and terminal operator Ports America have signed a 10-year agreement to handle stevedoring and deploy terminal technology for Trailer Bridge’s Jones Act barge service between Jacksonville and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The deal gives Ports America responsibility for cargo handling at Trailer Bridge’s Blount Island terminal at Jaxport and calls for implementation of Ports America’s Dockworks terminal operating system to improve cargo tracking and supply-chain visibility for customers.

The agreement includes two optional five-year extensions, creating a potential 20-year operating horizon.

Under the partnership, Ports America will provide stevedoring labor and terminal expertise for Trailer Bridge’s Jacksonville operation, consolidating cargo-handling functions under a single North American terminal operator with experience in ro-ro, breakbulk, and Jones Act trades.

Ports America will also roll out its Dockworks TOS at the Jacksonville terminal, with customer-facing visibility tools expected to come online in 2027. The technology investment aims to give shippers better real-time information on trailer and container movements along the Jacksonville-San Juan lane.

The arrangement reinforces Jacksonville’s role as a primary mainland gateway for Puerto Rico-bound freight, giving the port a long-term, technology-enabled operating framework for a major Jones Act customer. The partners expect a shared terminal platform to reduce handoffs, improve equipment utilization, and create a more predictable service profile for shippers dependent on the Jacksonville-San Juan corridor.

In July, Zim and Mediterranean Shipping Co. made the first call at  Jacksonville as part of the new ZCP-Amberjack container service linking major container gateways in Asia with expanded access via connections to Latin America, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

Trailer Bridge operates an asset-light transportation model focused on domestic ocean service to Puerto Rico, alongside international freight forwarding and U.S. government logistics. 

The long-term stevedoring and technology agreement is designed to stabilize operations on one of the most active Jones Act routes by tying physical terminal handling to a modern terminal system.

Ports America, which runs container, ro-ro, vehicle, military, and cruise terminals across North America, said the partnership extends its footprint in Jones Act cargo handling and supports efforts to improve reliability and transparency on the Puerto Rico trade.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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Trans-Pacific spot rates reach new highs on resilient demand, port congestion

Trailer Flexibility Is Disappearing Faster Than Fleets Realize

For the past several years, many fleets have viewed trailer capacity as a lever they could pull as conditions changed—adding units when freight improved and returning them when demand softened. According to Ed Behnen, Senior Vice President of Sales at Premier Trailer Leasing, that flexibility is becoming far less available.

Behnen joined Malcolm Harris on What the Truck?!?. Since his last appearance, the market has moved. Asked about the state of the trailer leasing market, Behnen didn’t hedge.

“I think we’ve already lost equipment flexibility,” Behnen said.

The reasons, in his telling, stack on top of each other rather than acting in isolation. A run of overlapping events since the spring has compressed trailer utilization in ways he argues the market hasn’t fully priced in.

“If you take a look back over the last several months, we’ve had different dynamics that have put a lot of pressure on our market,” Behnen said. “On the supply side, we’ve seen the flex from CDLs on the heels of the Montgomery Supreme Court ruling. Going back to April, May, we have inspection week, Prime Day, and the World Cup having 11 host cities overlapping with July 4th.”

According to Behnen, circumstances like these have had a huge impact on what the overall utilization looks like within the equipment leasing space, and Prime Day pull forward compounded with where spot rates have been. 

“It’s given a lot of fleets the opportunity to test out what this new market looks like, with worries about what the opportunity cost looks like to bring equipment back,” Behnen said.

The cumulative effect, Behnen says, is a market that’s tighter than the headline numbers suggest. 

That tightening backdrop raises a second, more operational problem. While equipment is turning over quickly between fleets, keeping track of who actually has custody of a given trailer has become its own risk category. How are carriers and lessors solving for that kind of asset-visibility gap, particularly when equipment can quietly move from one lease to another?

“On the carrier side, doing diligence and getting your paperwork in order is vital,” Behnen said. “In a tighter market, credit crunch becomes a real component, in addition to trailer availability. But from the technology side of things, you also have to be strategic about what your tech package looks like, and you need to know that you have a partner who is willing to work with you to help set up geofencing.”

Premier, Behnen says, treats that visibility as an ongoing operational function rather than a one-time setup. 

“We’re monitoring this in-house from day to day,” Behnen said. “We have hundreds, if not thousands, of tow yards that are already geofenced. We reach out to our customer base if any one of the assets becomes available or unavailable as part of that.”

The point, ultimately, is speed of information and the ability to understand where your equipment is at any time. 

When it comes to planning for the near future, many fleets are calculating whether it’s better to lean more on leasing or purchasing their equipment, especially trailers. In Behnen’s view, this question is inseparable from what’s happening on the power unit side of the fleet.

“Engine regulation and what that means for capex spend going on to the power side of the equation could consume a large portion of what the balance sheet cash looks like going into 2027,” Behnen said. “Now is a good opportunity to test the market and not put your eggs into the most expensive peak that we’ve seen in quite some time on the trailer pricing side of things,” he said.

His recommendation is to use leased capacity as a bridge rather than a permanent posture, at least until the picture on trailer pricing and truck capex settles. “Get your utilization in place, and make sure that your contracts are in place,” Behnen said. “Premier and others can be used as a great gap to be able to leverage the assets and secure what those contracts and loads look like before you make a longer-term commitment to buy on that front,” he said.

What distinguishes a good leasing partner, versus one that’s simply inexpensive? Behnen argues that the two aren’t the same thing, and that fleets who chase the lowest sticker price often end up paying for it elsewhere.

“The quality of equipment goes a long way, and stability does as well,” Behnen said. “Having a partner that continues to reinvest into keeping your equipment fresh is key. In times like this, there have been a lot of cheaper options that have been available, and they usually come with drawbacks.”

He tied equipment age directly to downstream maintenance cost. Transparency is part of the value proposition and not simply a courtesy. 

“Knowing that you could have late-model equipment helps on the maintenance side of the equation,” Behnen said. “Taking it a step further, just knowing that you have a partner that’s responsive, that’s accountable with billing transparency, really helps put together a bigger equation for what the right partner looks like.”

Fleet owners who already know they’ll need additional trailers in the next six to twelve months should be getting in front of lead time and paperwork right now, according to Behnen. Peak season and bid season are both bearing down.

“With back to school, college football and fantasy football drafts already in the rearview, peak season’s here,” Behnen said. “Take the time to meet with various different partners, understand what their value proposition looks like, understand what trailer availability looks like into next year, and get a lot of the nuisance administration out of the way.”

The equipment itself is only half the equation for fleets that are expecting to bid or take on new contracts in the first quarter, according to Behnen. 

“Make sure that you have not only the access to that equipment, but also that the credit side of the house is buttoned up,” Behnen said. “That way, you can be sure that from an execution risk standpoint, there’s nothing to worry about when the time comes to take on a new project.” 

In an earlier episode of  “What The Truck?!?”, Behnen joined Harris to break down the hidden variables in trailer leasing agreements, the growing sophistication of equipment-related fraud, and the technology infrastructure carriers need to keep tabs on assets scattered across the country.

Trailer leasing decisions often come down to the monthly rate. But according to Behnen, that number tells only a fraction of the story, and carriers who focus on it exclusively may be setting themselves up for costly surprises down the road.

“When you take a look at what the monthly rate is, that’s only one component of what the total expense line looks like for a piece of equipment,” Behnen said. “When you take ownership of an asset, the spec, model year, and the condition — all of those factors play such a pivotal role in what your application and the performance of that trailer looks like.”

From there, Behnen laid out a list of factors that rarely make it into a headline rate but can dramatically shift the real cost of a lease, starting with logistics.

“There’s delivery and pickup location,” he said. “What does that look like for your drivers or overall expense if they’re getting drop shipped in? Maintenance. Is that included?”

Maintenance terms, Behnen noted, deserve particular scrutiny, since coverage varies widely between providers and agreement types.

“Is there a net agreement in place where there have to be conversations about what’s covered? How is roadside support or any breakdown support handled from that standpoint?” he asked.

Even the end of a lease term carries cost implications that carriers sometimes overlook, according to Behnen.

“When it’s time to turn the equipment in, where does it go? Do you have to bring it back to the location that it was picked up in? What happens if your application, your business changes and those assets are now being used in different locations?” he said. “All those plays such a pivotal role in what that total cost looks like, and it’s so hard to just capture that on one line.”

Cost structure is one part of the equation, but network flexibility can also be a defining advantage for carriers with a national trailer leasing provider. Many of those carriers experience freight demand shifts regionally or seasonally, and trailer network flexibility can be a relevant concern more often than some companies may have accounted for.

“Having a nationwide presence that can help support the broad network gives carriers real options,” Behnen said. “The ability to pool assets from multiple branch locations to drop ship directly from an OEM can really help scale up when you need, but also in times to scale down, being able to pivot and find those areas of demand where things are hotter for a carrier or when they’re not, so you can flex down a little bit easier.”

Many carriers, according to Behnen, fall into the “low rate trap,” but aren’t always aware of hidden inclusions or exclusions.

“Carriers need to understand not just what’s included within a rental or a lease agreement, but also what’s not included,” Behnen said, circling back to maintenance as the most common blind spot.

Behnen explained that maintenance responsibility historically falls into one of two buckets, but that the real value comes from customization. Premier Trailer leasing, he said, offers an a la carte custom solution for their end user.

Carriers with their own in-house maintenance operations aren’t excluded from that value, either. They simply need a different kind of support.

“Knowing that you have the support where you can leverage what mechanics or vendors that we have in multiple locations can really enhance a program that’s already in place, especially for carriers that have fixed mechanics or their own shops already in place, but might not be nationwide in coverage,” Behnen said.

One of the more persistent headaches in trailer management is simply knowing where equipment is at any given moment. 

“Trailers have really evolved from more of just the box on wheels to a total tech package,” Behnen said. “You really need to understand what goes into that equipment. When you talk GPS, how is a carrier using that asset? Is it just the dot on a map?”

For Behnen, the answer lies in building out a genuine telematics strategy rather than treating GPS as an afterthought.

“Do you have the infrastructure in place to really have a strategy around what telematics in general looks like?” he asked. “Because as we talk about dropping hooks and four-to-one trailer to truck ratios, it’s really easy for equipment to be at a location comingled with other assets and lose sight of it.”

That’s where a leasing partner can step in as more than a vendor.

“Having a partner that walks through that strategy is part of the onboarding process,” Behnen said. “Not only just going through invoicing, but understanding what infrastructure is in place and who manages equipment location. Is it somebody within dispatch, or is there another team? A trusted partner can help walk you through that, set up geofences, and help set up alerts that notify you when equipment goes in and out of different locations.”

Behnen also highlighted idle and latency reporting as an early warning system for fleets.

“Idle or latency reports, where if a trailer hasn’t moved in quite some time, help to tell a story about how your fleet’s operating,” he said. “That can be a really good bread crumb trail for you to understand that there’s a piece of equipment that’s gotten outside of its normal application.”

Freight fraud and theft are becoming more sophisticated and more prevalent by the day. Behnen said that the pressure is very real on the equipment side, too, and that trusted partnerships are becoming more and more vital.

“So much comes down to what your trailer provider is willing to invest in discovery to understand your operation and understand where your equipment is actually going,” Behnen said. 

Premier has built internal systems to respond quickly when something looks off.

“We call it concierge service,” Behnen said. “When you roll out that onboarding package, you know exactly who to talk to when things go awry, and you know you can get a human twenty-four-seven on the phone to help quantify the issues you’re having and locate where the trailers are,” he said. “We lean into our GPS sites within our client dashboards and help you understand where the asset is. It paints a nice picture of what’s going on.”

The stakes can go beyond the cost of a missing trailer.

“On top of the freight, unfortunately if the equipment gets into the hands of the wrong end user with everything we’ve seen from nuclear verdicts, the last thing you want is some sort of accident or litigation to be compounded to the problem,” Behnen said.

Perhaps most alarming is a new breed of scam targeting smaller carriers directly. Fraudulent actors are posing as legitimate leasing companies altogether, what Behnen calls “ghost websites.” 

The victims, Behnen explained, are often smaller operators without the experience to spot the warning signs.

“You have smaller carriers or owner operators that legitimately think that they’re dealing with a seasoned leasing provider,” he said. “The reality is that there are a lot of spotters out there, and these small carriers or owner operators are told to go to a facility and just pick out any trailer out of a bunch. There’s no human interaction.”

Payment red flags often follow the same pattern, according to Behnen.

“There’s a lack of commercial credit and commercial payment now,” he said. “There’s a lot of red flags that are out there, but again, equipment is getting a lot tighter to get your hands on today.”

That tightening supply, Behnen said, is pushing some carriers toward risky alternatives, which has many owner operators exposed fraud.

Asked to leave listeners with practical takeaways, Behnen circled back to fundamentals: a strong maintenance program paired with compliance support.

“Having a solid maintenance program that also tackles compliance is key, and knowing you have partners who can help on that front makes a real difference,” he said, pointing to a prior collaboration covering trailer-related scams as an example of the kind of education carriers need to protect themselves.

Click here to learn more about Premier Trailer Leasing.

Maersk unfurls new sail power for container ship

Maersk has signed an agreement to install a high-tech “rotor sail” on one of its container vessels, marking the company’s first foray into wind-assisted propulsion for its ocean fleet. 

The 115-foot-tall sail, designed by London-based Anemoi Marine Technologies, will be retrofitted to a 984-foot, 8,700-TEU Lima-class ship and piloted during regular commercial service, with installation due in mid-2027.

The vessel is expected to operate on Maersk (OTC: AMKBY) north and south Atlantic voyages while the sail is piloted. The system will be tested in commercial service after that.

Anemoi typically installs three to five rotor sails per vessel, with each unit saving roughly one ton of fuel per day and around three tons of CO₂ emissions, according to the company’s specifications.

Maersk says the rotor sail is part of a broader, fuel-agnostic approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions across its ocean business. The company’s current priorities center on scaling lower-GHG-emission fuels such as bio- and e-methanol, expanding its dual-fuel fleet, and improving network and vessel efficiency.

Earlier this year, CMA CGM began rotations of the sail-assisted Neoliner Origin, a ro-ro vessel calling the Port of Baltimore.

In 2025, Maersk added 10 dual-fuel methanol vessels and completed fuel-saving retrofits on 230 owned ships and 150 time-chartered vessels, helping push its ocean Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator (EEOI) to a record low of 10.8 gCO₂e per ton-nautical mile. By 2027, the company expects 25 dual-fuel ships in service, eventually reaching 25% of its fleet capable of running on lower-emission fuels.

The company has targeted net-zero emissions by 2040.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Read more:

New data shows on-time container shipping suffers biggest drop in 5 years

Port inspection leads to $10M counterfeit Nike, Adidas seizure in California

Northeast port breaks ground on $3.2 million in new upgrades

Trans-Pacific spot rates reach new highs on resilient demand, port congestion

Out of its depth: Why 52 feet could equal millions of dollars for this U.S. port

102 Dems to STB: Put labor first in UP-NS rail merger review

More than 100 House Democrats, led by Rep. Valerie Hoyle (D-Ore.), sent a letter Thursday to the Surface Transportation Board demanding that the proposed Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger be evaluated first and foremost for its impact on railroad jobs, safety and accountability. 

In a rare showing of party unity that comes just weeks before the crucial midterm elections, the Sept. 3 letter, signed by 102 members and coordinated with the Teamsters Rail Conference union, arrives as the STB moves into the next phase of its review of the $85-billion transaction that would create the first transcontinental freight railroad.

“The proposed Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP)–Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) merger would create the largest rail network in this country’s history,” Hoyle said in a statement accompanying the 10-page letter. “Railroad workers are the backbone of our supply chain, and their rights and security must come first. When workers do well, our economy thrives.”

The letter extends its pre-election messaging, raising concerns over how a merged railroad with monopolistic powers could dictate terms and ultimately, raise prices for consumers.

The Democrats’ statement comes more than a year after the deal was first announced in July 2025.

The lawmakers are pressing the STB to “fully evaluate what this merger could mean for jobs, safety and accountability” before granting approval.

Mark Wallace, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and head of the Teamsters Rail Conference, said the coalition has already met with Union Pacific Chief Executive Jim Vena. But Wallace said that UP’s offer of “lifetime employment” for union members does not fully protect some positions.

The congressional letter adds to mounting political pressure on the STB as it assesses the Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern application.

On Sept. 1, attorneys general from Montana, Iowa, Kansas, Florida, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee filed a separate letter asking the STB to deny the revised merger application, arguing the railroads have not shown the deal is in the public interest and warning of higher costs for farmers, shippers and consumers.

A Stop the Rail Merger coalition has also sent a letter to President Donald Trump opposing the transaction on similar grounds.

The board lifted an abeyance on the proceeding in mid‑August, set a Nov. 18 deadline for comments, protests and requests for conditions, and extended the notice‑of‑intent deadline to Sept. 30. It has also requested additional information from the applicants and is preparing an environmental impact statement as part of its evaluation.

Subscribe to FreightWaves’ Rail e-newsletter and get the latest insights on rail freight right in your inbox.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Read more:

Rail freight gains ride steelmaking, energy sectors

DOT unveils plan to turn highways, rail lines into multi‑use utility arteries

Greenbrier tabs new CEO in leadership succession

STB extends deadline for participation in UP-NS merger review

Chemical shipments percolate in latest rail data

FBI investigating dark-web service claiming 153M license records, raising CDL security concerns

The FBI is examining a dark-web service that claimed access to 153 million driver’s license records. The Nexus collection covered people across the United States and Canada. Some entries carried labels reading “CDL” or “ECDL.” Researchers warn that stolen credentials could complicate driver verification throughout the supply chain.

“The FBI can confirm that it is looking into the incident,” FBI New Orleans told FreightWaves. “Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, we decline to comment further.” Authorities have not identified an affected transportation business or commercial driver. No evidence currently connects these records with cargo theft.

KrebsOnSecurity first reported the apparent connection involving Louisiana identity provider IDScan.net. The company has not confirmed unauthorized access involving its systems. Reuters also could not independently establish where the collection originated. Federal investigators have released no further details.

IDScan.net markets CDL authentication to transportation businesses. Its logistics page displays FedEx and Tractor Supply Co., without explaining their current platform use. An IDScan case study describes an unnamed Northeast produce distributor using the company’s VeriScan identity-verification platform at a warehouse. The company targets distribution centers, ports, freight brokers, 3PLs and motor carriers.

FreightWaves previously examined IDScan’s warnings about fake CDLs and fictitious pickups. Chief Operating Officer Jillian Kossman described criminals using false credentials to impersonate legitimate drivers. She explained that many fraudulent licenses appear convincing during visual inspection. That earlier discussion established IDScan’s role within pickup security.

Nexus claimed continuous access

Nexus appeared August 31 through an advertisement on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit. The operator promoted more than 160 million North American license and identification-card records. Another 10 million documents included travel credentials, residency cards and medical files. The advertisement claimed approximately 500,000 fresh additions arrived daily.

The threat actor also claimed persistent access to a major identity-verification company and its customers. According to the advertisement, the operation had continuously collected material for over one year. Those statements remain claims from the seller rather than confirmed investigative findings. IDScan.net has not identified any compromised customer or platform.

Zach Edwards, staff threat researcher at Infoblox, examined Nexus before the service disappeared. He found his own license from a recent cybersecurity conference trip in Las Vegas. Other entries contained submission dates across multiple days. Those timestamps indicated that the collection included recently obtained documents.

Brian Krebs separately watched the displayed license count increase by nearly 400,000 during one day. He found CDL and ECDL labels while searching unrelated names. “There were quite a few in results when searching for random things,” Krebs told FreightWaves. Those files showed no differences from other license entries.

Some states use ECDL for an enhanced commercial driver’s license. However, nobody has confirmed what either designation meant inside Nexus. Krebs found no scans tied directly to freight facilities or commercial pickups. The database contained no warehouse names, shipment histories or transaction details.

Nexus went offline shortly after Krebs published his findings. Its login page displayed a message announcing that the service was no longer available. No public evidence shows law enforcement caused that disappearance. Investigators have not confirmed whether copies remain elsewhere.

Stolen IDs could weaken pickup checks

“The fact that this threat actor has potentially acquired commercial drivers licenses raises the stakes for freight companies,” Edwards wrote. Criminal groups already invest significant effort into appearing legitimate during cargo hijacking schemes. Authentic identity documents could make those impersonation attempts harder to detect. Investigators have not connected any Nexus record with such activity.

Many available files reportedly included photographs showing both sides of each card. Some entries also contained barcode data, ultraviolet images and infrared captures. Criminals could use complete documents to impersonate victims during identity checks. Edwards warned that someone could print fraudulent licenses using genuine information.

“Stolen documents can absolutely defeat KYC systems,” Edwards wrote. Digital scans alone may no longer provide enough certainty during hiring or pickup verification. He recommended confirming that each person matches the presented identity. Freight facilities may also require physical credentials before releasing cargo.

Merul Dhiman develops identity-verification technology for FreightCheck, which serves transportation companies. He identified a greater concern for freight operations. “A CDL is an authorization token, not just an ID,” Dhiman wrote. A genuine credential can pass validation without confirming that the person belongs with the shipment.

“The system confirmed the document,” Dhiman wrote. “It never confirmed who was holding it.” He recommended matching a live person with the approved identity at pickup. That step connects the credential, driver and assigned load before release.

IDScan.net’s public relations firm acknowledged the FreightWaves inquiry and forwarded questions to company representatives. No substantive response arrived before publication. Reuters also could not independently establish the reported source. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.

Important questions still surround the incident. Investigators have not verified the advertised totals or identified a compromised system. Nobody has confirmed how many commercial licenses appeared within Nexus. Authorities also have not found any resulting freight fraud.

Why It Matters

Freight operations often treat a valid CDL as both identification and authorization to release valuable cargo. If criminals obtain genuine license files, one successful scan could release that shipment to an impostor.

CFCO

In my opinion, CFCO training reinforces why human-level verification must happen before freight leaves. An authentic CDL only validates the document, not the person standing at the dock. Teams must connect that individual with the approved carrier and assigned shipment before release.

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

Port inspection leads to $10M counterfeit Nike, Adidas seizure in California – FreightWaves

One complaint exposed $800K Texas grain theft spanning 176 loads – FreightWaves

Florida AG calls semi-truck a ‘rolling dungeon’ after 4 children confined for 6 years – FreightWaves

Logistics provider accuses Alabama carrier of raiding its workforce, stealing trade secrets

Imperative Logistics is accusing two former employees and Alabama Motor Express of orchestrating a scheme to steal confidential customer, pricing and operational information and use it to divert business.

Imperative Logistics LLC and subsidiary DTH Expeditors LLC filed a lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against Alabama Motor Express, doing business as AMX Expedited, and former Imperative employees Joseph Cochran and Mary Evette Jones.

The complaint seeks injunctive relief, compensatory and exemplary damages, attorneys’ fees and other costs over what Imperative describes as a coordinated effort to misappropriate trade secrets, violate employee restrictive covenants and interfere with the logistics provider’s customer relationships.

Imperative, based in Portland, Oregon, provides freight logistics, freight forwarding and expedited freight services. The company acquired DTH Expeditors in February 2025.

Alabama Motor Express, based in Ashford, Alabama, operates trucking, logistics, drayage and driver training businesses. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data lists AMX with 234 power units and 234 drivers.

At the center of the lawsuit are Cochran and Jones, two longtime DTH employees who remained with the operation after Imperative’s acquisition, according to court filings.

Jones had worked for DTH and Imperative since 2000 and was director of operations when she left the company Feb. 10. Cochran had worked there since 2005 as an area sales representative before resigning March 30.

Both subsequently joined AMX.

Imperative alleges their departures were part of a much broader exodus. According to the complaint, five employees from the same Imperative office left in rapid succession to work for AMX.

Imperative alleges the departures were a “coordinated effort” encouraged by AMX to acquire key employees as well as access to Imperative’s trade secrets, customer relationships and other confidential information.

The lawsuit says Cochran and Jones had signed restrictive covenant agreements prohibiting them from improperly using or disclosing trade secrets and confidential information and from soliciting certain customers and employees following their departure.

Lawsuit alleges customer, pricing data was taken

Imperative alleges Cochran sent or blind-copied confidential documents to his personal email account shortly before leaving the company.

The information allegedly included customer financial data, margin and pricing information, active shipment lists, sales codes, details about customer-specific logistics operations and a competitive bid.

Imperative claims Cochran retained the information so he could access it after joining AMX.

The lawsuit focuses heavily on an unidentified longtime customer referred to as “Client A.”

After joining AMX, Cochran allegedly began pursuing and bidding against Imperative for the customer’s freight. The complaint says Cochran arranged a lunch with Client A even after Imperative sent cease-and-desist letters — an event Imperative says it discovered when the customer mistakenly sent the invitation to Cochran’s former company email address.

Imperative claims its revenue from Client A subsequently declined and that the customer began doing business with AMX. The company alleges AMX’s competing bids were informed by customer lists, shipment data, pricing and competitive bid information Cochran had taken.

The allegations against Jones involve post-employment access to Imperative’s computer systems.

Imperative alleges Jones accessed its Google Drive systems on April 9 and April 14 — nearly two months after leaving the company — and viewed at least 36 confidential files.

Those documents allegedly included standard operating procedures, rate sheets, quality policies and weekly operational notes concerning Client A. Imperative contends the access was intentional and required someone to log in and navigate through the system.

The company alleges Jones obtained information involving pricing, customer lists, shipments, financial data, operating procedures and bids and later solicited Imperative customers on behalf of AMX.

Imperative says AMX was warned

Imperative sent AMX cease-and-desist letters on June 5 concerning five former employees who had joined the carrier, according to the lawsuit.

The letters demanded that AMX prevent the former employees from soliciting Imperative customers or employees or using the company’s confidential information and trade secrets.

AMX’s attorney responded July 14, acknowledging receipt of the allegations concerning the restrictive covenant agreements and Imperative’s claim that AMX had tortiously interfered with them.

Imperative alleges, however, that AMX continued employing Cochran and Jones in roles involving customer solicitation after receiving the letters and failed to ensure they complied with their agreements.

The lawsuit claims AMX’s hiring of five employees from the same Imperative office amounted to a “targeted and coordinated effort to raid Imperative’s workforce” and alleges the carrier sought to divert established customer relationships rather than merely compete for business.

The lawsuit asserts seven counts, including violations of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act and Georgia Trade Secrets Act, breach of contract against Cochran and Jones, tortious interference against AMX, and a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claim against Jones.

Imperative says the alleged unauthorized computer access by Jones alone resulted in at least $5,000 in investigation, forensic analysis, security and remediation costs.

Imperative is asking the court to prohibit the defendants from using its trade secrets or confidential information and from improperly soliciting its customers or employees. It also wants the defendants ordered to return or destroy company information in their possession.

The company is seeking unspecified compensatory damages, including lost profits and alleged unjust enrichment, as well as disgorgement of benefits allegedly obtained from the conduct. Imperative also seeks exemplary damages of up to twice the compensatory damages awarded under federal and Georgia trade secrets laws.

Neither Imperative Logistics or AMX responded to a request for comment from FreightWaves.

Why it matters: The lawsuit highlights the value of customer relationships, pricing data and operational know-how in the highly competitive freight market, where the departure of a handful of experienced employees can potentially shift freight and revenue from one logistics provider to another.