J.B. Hunt (NASDAQ: JBHT) reported first-quarter earnings per share of $1.49, 4 cents ahead of the consensus estimate and 32 cents higher year over year.

Consolidated revenue of $3.06 billion was 5% higher y/y, outpacing analysts’ expectations for revenue of $2.95 billion. Operating income increased 16% given cost takeouts and improved productivity.

Intermodal revenue increased 2% y/y to $1.51 billion as load count was up 3% and revenue per load was down 1% (down 2% excluding fuel surcharges). J.B. Hunt reported its highest-ever first-quarter volumes and said it achieved a record volume week in March.

Even with only a modest revenue increase the unit’s operating income jumped 21% y/y in the period. The operating ratio improved 120 basis points y/y to 92.4%. Prior cost cutting and better asset utilization drove the improvement.

Dedicated revenue increased 2% y/y to $841 million. The increase was entirely driven a similar increase in revenue per truck per week as average trucks in service were flat with the prior-year quarter. An 89.6% OR was 60 bps better y/y.

Operating losses widened in the brokerage unit as 3PLs across the industry were squeezed by higher purchased transportation costs (spot rates). A $4.7 million operating loss was $2 million worse y/y and marked a 13th-straight quarterly loss.

J.B. Hunt will host a call at 5 p.m. EDT on Wednesday to discuss first-quarter results.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• Yield discipline, fuel price surge driving LTL rates to new highs in Q2
• Cass data shows further freight market tightening in March
• FedEx Freight sets goalposts for standalone business

The post First look: J.B. Hunt Q1 earnings appeared first on FreightWaves.

With April 15 having arrived, it’s time for Todd Amen to answer the annual question posed to him by FreightWaves: what sort of numbers are truck drivers filing to the Internal Revenue Service this year?

Amen is the president of ATBS, which primarily services independent owner operators. Amen put the size of the business management company’s client base at about 20,000, and part of the services it provides is the filing of income tax returns.

ATBS’ data provides a rare insight into the finances of over the road economics year in and year out. (Previous stories about Amen’s calculation of average driver pay and shared with FreightWaves can be found here.)

The key number: $71,800 was the average income for owner operators in 2025, according to Amen. But there’s a hitch.

Amen said ATBS has changed its methodology in determining that number. A prior practice that took out some of the extremes–the lowest-paid and the highest-paid as outliers–has been changed along with a few other steps.  

So the end result is that while the average income for 2024 reported by ATBS under the old system was $64,000, the $71,800 for 2025 was basically flat to the 2024 figure if that latter number had been calculated on the same basis as the 2025 number.

But within that largely unchanged average number, there’s plenty of variability.

Amen said the 2025 figure was able to come out mostly flat to 2024 because of the surge in rates at the end of the year that has continued into 2026. Revenue per mile increased about five cents per mile year over year, he said, “and that all came in the fourth quarter.” 

Amen noted that any impact from diesel prices was flat, since the comparison of full year average fuel prices between 2024 and 2025 was largely unchanged.

Amen, in his interview with FreightWaves, said he had no firm numbers on how much better drivers did in the first quarter of 2026 relative to 2025, but his summation of what he does know was succinct: “it’s good.”

The data compiled by ATBS also revealed that total miles driven by the company’s clients was down. The average number of miles driven by Amen’s customer base was about 95,000 miles for the year, which he said declined about 4%.

Miles driven are down

That development is unusual, Amen said. In tough times, he said, drivers tend to pile up more miles to make up for weak per mile freight rates. “I just think the miles weren’t available until the very end of last year,” he said. “They weren’t there no matter how many miles I wanted to run.”’

But things were different in the first quarter, Amen noted. And he cited a reason that has been heard widely: “How much of it is the illegal driver enforcement,?” he said. “I think that’s a big part of it.”

Except for the final weeks of the year, the general consensus in the trucking market was that 2025 was disastrous. And yet the average income stayed mostly steady, according to Amen’s calculations. 

The ones who made it through, Amen said, “are crafty and smart when you know the ones who survived.”

Driving without a truck payment

A new statistic for 2025 calculated by ATBS is that 34% of the company’s clients do not have a truck payment. While a firm number had not been calculated previously by ATBS, Amen said he knows that 34% is far more than in recent years. He estimated pre-COVID, only between 15% and 20% or drivers would have had no truck payment.

“I think a lot of drivers paid off their trucks during COVID with government stimulus and when they were making great money,” Amen said. “So they’re just running when they need to and where they need to, but they can survival”

The drivers who are in that position, with no truck payment to make, are avoiding a monthly bill that Amen said averages $2,900 per month. “So if you take out that from the equation, a driver can survive and run where he needs to and put food on the table,” he said.

A big issue drivers faced last year was the rise in maintenance costs. 

Crazy maintenance

“Maintenance is crazy,” Amen said, saying those costs had risen 6.5% last year from 2024. Drivers are now spending about 14 cents per mile on maintenance when a few years ago it would have been closer to 6-7 cents, Amen said. 

“Maintenance costs have gone up a ton,” Amen said. “That’s not going to change.”

The ATBS figures also highlight the top earners. That top 10% saw their earnings peak during COVID at about $276,000 per year. That number is now down about 5%, Amen said.

Of the top earners, Amen said, “they are all super specialized, whether it’s hazmat, whether it’s government freight, all those kinds of things.”

The top third of all drivers is pulling in about $166,000, down from a COVID peak of about $188,000, Amen added.

“They’re down, but it’s not enormous,” Amen said, particularly in light of just how insanely high earnings were during COVID.

The impact from higher fuel costs

The strong outlook for 2026 built into freight rates has a new threat for independent owner operators: fuel costs.

Amen said he did not have hard data yet, but that many of his drivers are spending about an additional $350 per week on diesel.

Many of the independent carriers working for brokers are beneficiaries of a fuel surcharge levied by the broker against the shipper. But Amen said the drivers don’t necessarily see all of that. 

“The brokers can pull the wool over the owner operators’ eyes sometimes and say, hey, I know fuel costs you more,” Amen said. The brokers are getting a little bit more (through the fuel surcharge) but maybe not pass through the full rate they’re getting.” 

The result, Amen said, is that “the individual owner operator is taking longer to make up increased rates to compensate for the price of fuel.”

What is offsetting that to some degree, Amen said, is a heightened knowledge base in the driver community about how fuel markets work and how the drivers can be protected from getting hit by rising diesel costs. 

“They’re getting smarter,” Amen said. “Everybody writes about it and there’s just so much data that lets them know what to ask for.

More articles by John Kingston

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California regulators have started a regulatory push on diesel TRU emissions

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Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. TA Dedicated is owned by TFI International, Inc. (NYSE: TFII).

Triangle Warehouse is located near TA Dedicated’s headquarters. It operates over 100 dock doors, including seven rail doors, providing food-grade temperature-controlled storage and distribution services. Its fleet includes over 1,000 pieces of equipment, including day cabs, dock trucks and trailers (dry vans, reefers and flatbeds), serving regional manufacturers and food producers.

“For decades, Triangle Warehouse has built a singular reputation in one of the Midwest’s largest metropolitan markets through reliability, service, and long-term customer relationships,” said TA Dedicated President Eric Anson. “By bringing their capabilities and expertise into the TA Dedicated family, our customers gain access to top tier supply chain solutions beyond transportation.”

In 2022, TFI merged Transport America (TA) and UPS Dedicated, which it acquired in 2021 as part of its acquisition of UPS Freight.

Triangle Warehouse’s service and support teams will continue providing uninterrupted service to customers.

“Joining TA Dedicated greatly expands our customers’ distribution opportunities nationally without giving up the local touch they’re used to,” said Scott Carlson, vice president at Triangle Warehouse.

TA Dedicated has 70 fleets totaling more than 1,025 tractors and 1,900 trailers. It specializes in dedicated, flatbed and heavy haul transportation. It also offers other supply chain and logistics services.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• Yield discipline, fuel price surge driving LTL rates to new highs in Q2
• Cass data shows further freight market tightening in March
• FedEx Freight sets goalposts for standalone business

The post TFI subsidiary TA Dedicated acquires Triangle Warehouse appeared first on FreightWaves.

The new campus, located near Griffin about 37 miles south of Atlanta, will serve as a Southeastern hub and include driver training, maintenance operations and support facilities, along with amenities designed to improve driver experience.

The company operates a fleet of more than 7,000 trucks and employs over 8,500 drivers across refrigerated, flatbed, tanker, hopper and intermodal segments.

CEO Robert Low said the location’s proximity to key customers and transportation corridors was a major factor, positioning the carrier to handle growing freight demand across the Southeast.

The facility will also incorporate sustainability initiatives, including large-scale tire recycling that currently diverts more than 1 million tires annually from landfills.

State officials framed the project as another signal of Georgia’s logistics strength, where the transportation sector supports roughly one in nine jobs statewide, according to a news release.

“Prime, Inc.’s new campus will further add to Georgia’s $107 billion transportation and logistics industry that creates and supports jobs in every corner of our state,” Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement. 

Old Dominion adds capacity in Pacific Northwest

Meanwhile, Old Dominion Freight Line recently opened a new 65-door terminal in Pasco, Washington, replacing a smaller facility the company had operated in the region since 2011.

The 32,000-square-foot terminal, located in the Port of Pasco’s industrial park, is valued at more than $7 million and is designed to increase capacity and improve service times across southeastern Washington.

Old Dominion (Nasdaq: ODL), one of the largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers in the U.S., said the upgraded facility will support future customer growth and strengthen its regional network.

The Pasco expansion aligns with the company’s broader strategy of adding doors and density across its LTL footprint—critical factors in improving service levels and operating efficiency.

SONAR: Regional freight demand trends — Southeast vs. Pacific Northwest

SONAR, a freight market analytics and data platform, suggests outbound tender volumes in Atlanta show steadier, population-driven growth, while Washington state volumes remain more volatile with sharper seasonal swings tied to agriculture and port activity —highlighting why carriers are targeting both density (Southeast) and surge capacity (Pacific Northwest) in recent terminal expansions.

Data box: Terminal expansion & capacity trends

Terminal investments signal shift toward density, not just fleet growth

Prime Inc. (Spalding County, GA)

• Investment: $160M+
• Jobs: 120+ full-time + 50+ drivers
• Fleet: 7,000+ trucks; 8,500+ drivers
• Facility type: Full-service campus (training, maintenance, driver amenities)
• Strategic focus: Southeast regional density + driver recruitment/retention

Old Dominion Freight Line (Pasco, WA)

• Terminal size: 32,000 sq. ft.
• Capacity: 65 dock doors
• Investment: $7M+ (property value)
• Replaces: Legacy terminal (operated since 2011)
• Strategic focus: LTL network efficiency + service time improvements

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That is why what FMCSA just finalized matters so much, and why it should matter to every carrier, owner-operator, and driver out there running under their own authority.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published a major overhaul of its DataQs system in the Federal Register on April 16, 2026. DataQs, for those who are not familiar, is the online system that allows motor carriers, CMV drivers, and other interested parties to submit a Request for Data Review (RDR) when they believe the crash or inspection data that the FMCSA holds on them is incorrect or incomplete. The agency processed more than 71,000 of these requests in 2024 alone, including more than 8,300 on crash data and more than 63,500 on inspections and violations. That volume tells you two things. Many carriers are using it. Many carriers have data worth challenging.

What the new rules do, in plain terms, is build a real appeals process around something that for a long time felt more like a suggestion box. States receiving Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funding, which is essentially all of them, will now be required to implement a mandatory three-stage review structure for every RDR they handle. Stage one is the Initial Review. The officer or inspector who wrote the violation in the first place cannot be the only person deciding whether your challenge has merit. That alone is a meaningful change from what some carriers have historically experienced: an appeal that went right back to the same person who cited you.

Stage two is a Reconsideration Review, which must be handled by a separate, independent reviewer with appropriate subject matter expertise who had no involvement in the initial decision. Stage three is a Final Review, which escalates to a senior leader or an independent panel. Nobody who touched your case before can touch it at this stage. Once that Final Review is complete, FMCSA considers the state’s decision final, and any future requests on that matter are left to the state’s discretion.

The timelines matter too. States must open your request within 7 calendar days of submission. They have 21 days to reach a decision at the Initial Review level, 21 days at the Reconsideration level, and 45 days at the Final Review level. The 45-day window at the final stage was actually extended from the originally proposed 30 days based on feedback from enforcement agencies who noted the scheduling challenges of convening independent panels. Those are real timelines with accountability, because states that do not comply risk their MCSAP funding. FMCSA will publish state-level performance data publicly on the DataQs website once it has sufficient data to make those measures meaningful.

Now here is the part you really need to hear. Enforcement makes mistakes. That is not an indictment of officers in the field. It is just a reality of a system processing millions of inspections and hundreds of thousands of crashes every year. A violation gets entered with the wrong DOT number. A crash gets attributed to a carrier that was not at fault, or a vehicle that was not even DOT-reportable. An out-of-service order is issued to a carrier that had already completed all corrective actions before the data was finalized. These things happen. When they happen to you and you do nothing, that bad data sits in the federal system and gets pulled every time someone looks you up.

If you have violations on your record that were entered in error, do not belong to you, or for which you have documentation showing they were not valid, DataQs is how you challenge them. It does not cost you a dollar. It costs you time and effort to pull together your documentation, but that is it. No filing fees. No attorney required, though you can absolutely have help. And the potential return on that time investment is significant.

Think about what your BASIC percentiles are doing to you in the SMS system. Think about what your ISS score looks like to a port or a shipper who runs carriers through screening before allowing them on their facility. Think about what happens when an underwriter pulls your loss runs and your safety data and decides that your violation frequency in the vehicle maintenance or hours-of-service BASIC puts you in a risk tier that doubles your premium. Or worse, decides not to renew you at all. These are real consequences and they are driven directly by the data FMCSA holds on you.

The crash side of this equation deserves equal attention. If you were involved in a crash that was not DOT reportable and it is showing up in your record anyway, that needs to be challenged. If the crash was determined to be non-preventable, you should be using the Crash Preventability Determination Program in conjunction with DataQs. FMCSA has expanded the evidentiary categories available to carriers making preventability arguments, and dash camera footage is now a meaningful tool in demonstrating that you were not the responsible party. If you have video showing what actually happened, use it. Submit it. Make them look at it.

There is also an angle here that is not discussed enough: identity theft. Carrier identity fraud is not a hypothetical. It happens. Someone runs under your name, your DOT number, your operating authority, and when they get inspected or they get in a crash, that data can end up attached to your record. If you are not regularly monitoring your SaferSys profile and your DataQs history, you may not even know it is happening until an insurance agent calls to tell you they cannot renew your policy.

The new implementation timeline requires states to submit their DataQs implementation plans to the FMCSA within 60 days of publication of the notice. Plans are finalized within 120 days. The new requirements take effect at 150 days, which puts full implementation around mid-September 2026. FMCSA is launching training and outreach with states starting in April and May of this year.

The burden of proof under these new rules still rests entirely with you as the requestor. FMCSA was clear about that, and the enforcement community echoed it in the comment process. You have to come with documentation. You have to explain specifically why the data is wrong or why the crash was not preventable. A general disagreement is not a valid appeal. But if you have the facts and the documentation on your side, this new system gives you a more meaningful path to getting heard than the one that existed before.

If you are not regularly monitoring your FMCSA safety data, start now. Go to safer.fmcsa.dot.gov and pull your profile. Look at your violations. Look at your crashes. Look at what is actually on your record versus what you believe should be there. And if you find something that should not be there, go to dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov and start the process. While there are consultants who can help you, you do not need a consultant to do it. You need your documentation, some patience, and the understanding that your record is your reputation in this industry and it is worth defending.

The post FMCSA balancing the scales for fleets challenging bad Safer data appeared first on FreightWaves.

The Big Three legacy parcel carriers — FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service — are under pressure like never before as their largest retail customers build out residential delivery networks of their own in response to the massive shift in shopping from stores to digital channels. FedEx and UPS will be left behind unless they transform their core competency from being parcel carriers to e-commerce enablers.

The parcel shipping industry has dramatically changed since 1985, when 90% of parcel shipments were between businesses. Today, B2C shipments account for 70% of the parcel market. 

FedEx (NYSE: FDX) and UPS (NYSE: UPS) are profitable, so why change the business model? Positioning themselves as parcel delivery companies in this new era of e-commerce is leading them to invest in options aimed at lowering the cost of last-mile delivery. That results in them operating at the bottom of the food chain.

To be sure, the two integrators have made shipment quality a priority, rejecting light, low-priced last-mile delivery business from Chinese e-commerce sellers and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) in favor of multizone, heavyweight and high-value packages that can support higher rates. 

To achieve lower cost of last mile delivery, UPS acquired same-day delivery platform Roadie for $586 million in 2021. And last February, FedEx announced it is investing $3.4 billion in InPost, a European courier with a large parcel locker network in Europe.

Instead, FedEx and UPS should invest in e-commerce platforms like Etsy (NYSE: ETSY) and others, where they would sit at the top of the food chain and be able to influence all aspects of fulfillment and delivery for online orders while helping millions of e-tailers better compete with sellers using Amazon’s marketplace.

An optimized shipping experience will create a virtuous flywheel that will generate additional orders from satisfied consumers, driving more parcel business with higher delivery density to FedEx and UPS.

Amazon has long taken a broad view of its core competency. First, it invested in Fulfillment by Amazon to help e-tailers on its online platform with fulfillment and delivery. FBA has generated great returns as about 60% of Amazon online sales and parcel deliveries come from merchants supported by FBA, enabling Amazon to build its own delivery network.

It extended that thinking even to its suppliers when it contracted with Air Transport Services Group in 2016 to operate Boeing 767 freighter aircraft for its logistics network. It secured warrants to purchase a minority stake in ATSG, which generated a great return when ATSG was acquired last year for $3.1 billion by private equity fund Stonepeak. 

If FedEx had such a broad view before, and had invested just $1 billion in Shopify a decade ago, instead of $4.8 billion in Europe’s TNT Express, that investment would be worth $50 billion today. Besides the great return on investment, FedEx would have become the primary delivery partner, instead of the U.S. Postal Service, for millions of small e-tailers selling products using Shopify.

While too late to invest in Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) given its market cap is about two times its own, it is not too late for FedEx or UPS to make a friendly investment in Etsy, or another e-commerce marketplace, or engage one of them in a strategic partnership. 

 FedEx, for example, could leverage its Dataworks capabilities to help millions of small merchants manage fulfillment and delivery. Instead of someone receiving five packages on five different days, only to accumulate on the porch and be susceptible to rain and thieves, FedEx could offer affiliated merchants a better value proposition than available for those on Amazon’s marketplace.

An e-commerce partnership would also reduce diversion of more parcels to Amazon Logistics, which last year delivered more parcels than any of the Big Three carriers. And it would help FedEx and UPS attract small-and-medium shippers faster than with their current approach.

FedEx and UPS have made many acquisitions over several decades, but only the FedEx purchase of ground-delivery specialist RPS as part of Caliber System and Viking Freight in the less-than-truckload sector, were game changers. 

RPS became FedEx Ground and by 2012 it had $1.8 billion of operating income compared to $1.2 billion for FedEx Express despite one-third the revenue — demonstrating the superior operating model of RPS for B2B parcel delivery. FedEx Ground is the primary foundation for the consolidation of Express and Ground networks now underway. 

Meanwhile, FedEx shareholders stand to make lots of money with the spin-off of LTL division FedEx Freight into a separate company on June 1, 2026.

At a reunion of RPSers on March 11, 2023, former FedEx CFO Alan Graf commented on the significance of the RPS deal: “I can’t imagine what FedEx would be today without RPS’s unique low-cost operating model. . . In 1997, I was very certain that RPS would be a game changing acquisition. It has proven to be the best acquisition in the history of FedEx.”

So, instead of limiting e-commerce delivery only to B2C shipments priced to offset their higher operating cost, FedEx and UPS need to find ways to align with companies that influence consumers buying behavior and then support them with better delivery and customer experience to ensure that the B2C market is not controlled by just Amazon and Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT).

(The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.)

(Satish Jindel is founder and president of ShipMatrix, Inc. He was a key founding member of RPS and led its growth from 1985 to 1992, then advised FedEx on its acquisition of RPS and Viking Freight in 1997. Alan Graf’s full remarks can be viewed at https://jindel.com/rps-reunion/)

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Mudflap boasts more than 515,000 drivers across over 100,000 verified carriers. The Palo Alto-based fintech company provides fuel discount solutions to carriers via a location-aware mobile app and fuel card. Mudflap was founded in 2019 by Sanjay Desai and Sharon Yapp. Desai was the former chief product officer at Trucker Path.

Parade was founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Anthony Sutardja, Tony Wu and Preet Sivia. Parade provides brokerages with a capacity management and carrier relationship platform that integrates with existing TMS platforms. Parade’s last major funding round was a $17 million Series B in 2023 led by I Squared Capital and Menlo Ventures.

At a time when finding reliable capacity is increasingly becoming a challenge, Mudflap will enable Parade brokers to access one of the largest networks of verified carriers in the industry. 

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The SCGI, a quarterly benchmark of GTM efficiency and pipeline impact in supply chain and logistics, is built on anonymized data from roughly 30 LeadCoverage clients. Its core metric, the Logistics Growth Efficiency Ratio (LGER), measures pipeline created (sales-accepted leads and opportunities) divided by total GTM spend. Unlike traditional metrics that focus on closed deals, LGER isolates what the marketing and sales engine itself can control.

In Q4 2025, the median LGER fell to just $4.84 in pipeline per dollar of GTM spend, down sharply from prior quarters. The mean held at $25.74, but the range exploded to $0.36–$204.30. Six companies exceeded $20 LGER, with top performers reaching approximately $200 in pipeline per dollar spent. Those elite programs drove a disproportionate share of total pipeline impact across the dataset.

In other words, among 3PLs, marketing performance bifurcated dramatically. Low performers (bottom 25 percent with an LGER below $8) generated far less pipeline per dollar, often relying on legacy outbound dialing, minimal account-based marketing (ABM), and little paid media. Mid-range companies (middle 50 percent) hovered between $8 and $55 but risk sliding into the bottom quartile if they stand still. High performers (top 25 percent, above $55) dramatically widened the gap through data-forward strategies.

LeadCoverage CEO Kara Brown, whose firm provides end-to-end GTM services to freight and logistics companies, said the divergence reflects deliberate investment choices. 

“We believe there are three strategies that work in freight, and if you’re following them, are you able to beat the market?” Brown told FreightWaves. “As we study our clients who are beating the market, we’re going to learn over time what makes a great GTM strategy that gives a logistics service provider an actual edge.”

LeadCoverage itself operates the full GTM engine for its clients. The 40-person team handles revenue operations, CRM and marketing automation, email campaigns, content, initial lead qualification and dialing, and heavy investment in paid media, programmatic advertising, and ABM. The company also helped shape Gartner’s Redwood 4PL Magic Quadrant and positions itself at the cutting edge of AI applications in freight marketing.

Brown modeled the SCGI after Greg Crabtree’s “Simple Numbers” small-business benchmarks. With only 30-ish clients in supply chain and logistics, LeadCoverage anonymized their data to answer freight-specific questions: Is a 20 percent open rate good? Is $7 per click acceptable? More importantly, how much pipeline should a dollar of combined marketing and sales spend (minus headcount costs) realistically generate?

The market backdrop makes these questions urgent. Freight activity in 2025 never followed a classic recovery. Imports surged to $419 billion in March as shippers front-loaded ahead of tariff changes, but manufacturing remained in contraction with an ISM PMI of 49.1. Export orders were weaker still. Operating costs hit record levels at $2.26 per mile, compressing margins. Activity levels, the report notes, became a “poor proxy for underlying market health.”

In this environment, Brown explained, efficient GTM spending separates winners from the rest. “The ones who are crushing it are pulling away from the pack,” she said. “I would like to believe this is a result of really good GTM strategy and investing in AI and what’s coming.”

High performers share common traits: strong adoption of intent data, sustained ABM execution, programmatic and paid media investment, and tight sales-marketing alignment. Intent data comes in multiple forms. Primary intent lives inside a company’s own CRM (typically HubSpot), flagging when a decision-maker visits the website; top clients act within minutes. Secondary and broader signals scan the internet for shipper “pain before the pain”, when they’re searching for services that match a 3PL’s offerings. Providers such as CarrierSource and Bombora supply these signals, though Brown noted AI tools like Claude, Clay, and ChatGPT are democratizing access. The real differentiator, she said, is execution: “How you use those intent signals to target the human that should be your customer is probably the biggest gap we see.”

As freight volumes potentially rebound and shippers seek new partners, 3PLs investing in modern GTM tools can generate scalable, measurable pipeline without simply “banging the phones.” Underperformers risk wasting spend on transient demand or outdated tactics.

LeadCoverage plans to release its third index in the coming months, with early indications that market tightening in Q1 and Q2 2026 may further reward precision GTM. Brown expects the spread between leaders and laggards to continue widening.

For freight executives, the SCGI offers a new operating baseline. The median $4.84 LGER is today’s midpoint, but top performers operate four to ten times above it. 2026 is shaping up to be a year when 3PLs have the best opportunity to add new customers they’ve had since COVID. LeadCoverage’s report suggests that smart marketing spend, powered by AI, intent data, and disciplined execution, will increasingly determine who wins market share and who simply watches from the sidelines.

The post 3PL marketing spend efficiency diverged dramatically in Q4: LeadCoverage appeared first on FreightWaves.

The filings include Liberty Carriers Inc., NAS Logistics LLC, Golden Spirit Freight LLC, NV Freight Inc., Star One Transport LLC, and PSS Trucking Inc., spanning jurisdictions from California and Texas to Illinois and Florida.

While larger carriers may have begun to stabilize, this wave of bankruptcies suggests the small-carrier segment remains under significant strain heading into 2026.

Small fleets, mixed scale operators caught in downturn

The bankruptcies span a wide range of fleet sizes — from single-truck operators to mid-sized regional carriers — highlighting how stress is hitting both micro fleets and scaling operators.

• NV Freight Inc., based in the Chicago area, had a fleet of about 52 tractors and 52 drivers hauling general freight. Despite its size, the company filed for Chapter 11 in April and disclosed liabilities up to $10 million.

• NAS Logistics LLC, headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas, is a medium-sized carrier with 27 trucks and 25 drivers, logging more than 2.6 million miles in 2024. It filed for Chapter 11 with $100K–$500K in assets and up to $10M in liabilities.

• Liberty Carriers Inc., based in Livermore, California, operated 8 power units and 8 drivers hauling general freight and building materials. The company filed for Chapter 11 on Thursday, reporting $100K–$500K in assets and $1M–$10M in liabilities.

Micro-carriers among hardest hit

Several filings involved extremely small operators — a segment widely viewed as the most vulnerable in the current freight cycle.

• Star One Transport LLC, based in Miami, operated just one truck and one driver, hauling general freight and specialized cargo such as lithium batteries. The company filed for Chapter 11 on April 3.

• PSS Trucking Inc., headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, operated 3 trucks and 3 drivers in interstate freight service. A related entity, PSS Trucking LLC, shows similar small-scale operations with one truck and one driver. The company filed for Chapter 11 in late March.

These filings reinforce a broader industry trend: single-truck and small fleet operators are often the first to exit when spot rates soften and financing costs rise.

Liquidation signals deeper distress

Not all companies are attempting to reorganize.

• Golden Spirit Freight LLC, based in Hemet, California, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation, reporting less than $50,000 in assets and under $100,000 in liabilities.

Chapter 7 filings typically indicate a shutdown rather than a restructuring effort.

The post Small trucking firms file wave of bankruptcies across U.S. appeared first on FreightWaves.

A new integration with Truckstop.com’s load board, announced Tuesday, brings the feed into Trucker Path’s TruckLoads digital freight exchange. Brokers now reach more than 1 million professional drivers while the platform maintains its existing controls on fraud prevention and carrier vetting.

Phoenix-based Trucker Path serves those same 1 million-plus drivers through its mobile app. The tool provides truck-specific navigation, real-time parking availability, fuel prices and weigh station updates.

Idaho-based Truckstop.com is one of the largest neutral freight marketplaces in the industry. Its solutions cover the full freight lifecycle, from load matching to payment processing.

How the Integration Works

TruckLoads users can now access Truckstop.com loads directly in the app through a subscription. The integration increases load visibility for carriers and gives brokers additional options for coverage.

“This new partnership that makes the Truckstop load feed available in our TruckLoads app will increase load availability to our users more than tenfold — helping our users find the right loads more easily and helping brokers get their loads covered more easily,” said Chris Oliver, chief marketing officer at Trucker Path. “It’s a prime example of leading technology providers coming together to benefit drivers, brokers and shippers.”

Carriers have long switched between multiple platforms in search of quality loads. Brokers have faced challenges reaching enough trusted drivers quickly in a fragmented network. The integration is intended to address those issues.

Both companies said security and carrier standards remain unchanged.

“Technology partnerships like this help keep freight moving across the country by giving carriers and brokers more ways to connect and work together,” said Scott Moscrip, founder and CEO of Truckstop.com. “By bringing Truckstop loads into the Trucker Path ecosystem, we are expanding access to higher quality freight, helping brokers reach a more trusted network of carriers, and supporting the drivers and businesses that keep the U.S. supply chain running every day.”

Moscrip said every carrier accessing Truckstop freight through the integration must meet the same standards that existing Truckstop.com customers follow.

“Security and fraud prevention remain a top priority,” he said.

The companies operate independently. The integration does not create a legal partnership, joint venture or agency relationship between the parties.

The post Trucker Path integrates Truckstop.com load board appeared first on FreightWaves.

The Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration benchmark diesel price fell for the first time Monday after 12 weeks of increases.

An increase of 3.5 cents/gallon, published Tuesday but effective a day earlier, put the price at $5.608/g. During the run of a dozen increases in the price used for most fuel surcharges, the DOE/EIA price rose $2.184/g.

With retail prices lagging futures prices, it’s difficult to guess what comes next, though a decrease seems more likely.

Ultra low sulfur diesel on the CME settled Tuesday at $3.6243/g. That was down almost 21 cts/g on the day, a decline of 5.47%.

That Tuesday settlement is just over 85 cts/g less than where it settled a week ago, just before the first talk of a ceasefire and peace talks pushed down prices.

Even with the normal retail lag, that sort of decline, barring a big turn upward in price, should result in further declines at the pump.

But on the same day that lower DOE/EIA price appeared, so did the monthly report of the International Energy Agency. The numbers in there were stark as a reminder that short-term declines in price in reaction to headlines are not necessarily indicative of the scope of long-term supply disruptions.

Among the key points in the report:

• Average March global crude output was down 10.1 million barrels/day from February. The IEA reiterated that the current slide in output is “the largest disruption in history.” With the fall in March output, first quarter supply, according to the IEA, was 103.6 million b/d. The full year average for 2025 was 106.2 million b/d.
• The economic impact of the war will result in a global oil demand contraction this year of 80,000 b/d. This is notable for two reasons: first, outside of COVID or possibly the Asian economic crisis of the late 90’s, global oil demand rises every year. An outright decline is extremely rare. The original forecast was an increase of about 700,000 b/d this year. Second, a decline of 80,000 bd is nowhere near adequate to destroy enough demand to balance markets if the constraints to supply continue.
• The IEA estimates that oil moving out of the Persian Gulf through other routes, such as the pipeline that crosses Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, are up to 7.2 million b/d from less than 4 million b/d before the war started. But the overall loss in output is 360 million barrels in March and a projected 440 million barrels this month.
• Oil markets were supplied by about 85 million barrels coming out of inventory in March. That is a large amount. Projecting ahead, the IEA looked at the balance between supply and demand going forward, and said it will result in a global “call” on inventories of 6 million b/d, which it said was “untenable.” “This suggests further deliberate demand reduction efforts will rapidly be required to balance the market and avoid even deeper economic damage,” the IEA said.

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The post Benchmark diesel price ends its 12-week streak of increases appeared first on FreightWaves.

Less-than-truckload rates remained elevated as carriers’ focus on yield improvement was amplified by higher fuel prices. The LTL rate-per-pound component of the TD Cowen-AFS Freight Index stood 66.9% above its January 2018 baseline during the seasonally weak first quarter. That was 90 basis points lower than the fourth quarter but 300 bps higher year over year.

The dataset is expected to come in 68.4% above the baseline in the second quarter, 520 bps higher y/y. That would mark a new high and 10 straight y/y increases.

Weight per shipment increased 3.8% from the fourth quarter, the first sequential increase in two years. The improvement comes as the industrial complex, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of LTL revenue, appears to be shaking off a three-year downturn.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing was in expansion territory in every month of the first quarter. While sentiment from survey respondents was tepid, flagging ongoing tariff- and Iran-war-related demand concerns, the new orders index also remained positive all three months. (Changes in PMI data usually lead LTL volumes by a couple of months.)

Higher shipment weights and fuel prices pushed LTL cost per shipment 3% higher sequentially in the quarter, keeping the cost dataset more than 40% above the baseline.

“For quarter after quarter, LTL pricing stability seemed to hinge on carriers resisting the temptation to ‘buy’ volumes with pricing concessions as they weathered a stubbornly long demand trough,” said Mich Fabriga, vice president of LTL pricing at AFS Logistics. “Now fuel prices are primed to make a lasting impact and we’re finally seeing some signs of recovering demand.”

Higher shipment weights and fuel surcharges are both accretive to LTL carrier margins.

The first-quarter LTL earnings season begins Apr. 28 when ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB) reports before the market opens.

TL rate index hits 13-quarter high

The TL rate-per-mile component of the index increased 140 bps sequentially in the first quarter (up 280 bps y/y) to a level that was 9% above the 2018 baseline. The fuel price spike and heightened regulatory enforcement drove the increase.

“The cumulative effect of carriers leaving the market and strict regulatory enforcement continues to constrain capacity, driving a steady supply-side push to higher truckload pricing,” the report said.

The rate-per-mile dataset is expected to increase 110 bps sequentially to 10.1% in the second quarter. The result would mark a 420-bp y/y increase.

Truckload linehaul cost per shipment increased 10.2% sequentially in the first quarter with miles per shipment up 8.2%. A rebound in long-haul shipments, storm disruptions and tight capacity drove cost per shipment to a two-year high.

“While the term ‘new normal’ may conjure unpleasant memories of the COVID era, businesses should brace themselves for a new normal of elevated fuel costs,” said AFS CEO Andy Dyer. “Not only do the structural causes that spurred this spike take time to unwind, the related pricing changes, particularly in parcel, tend to be ‘sticky’ with effects that linger even after the underlying price of fuel recedes.”

The first-quarter TL earnings season begins Wednesday when J.B. Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ: JBHT) reports after the market closes.

AFS Logistics is a non-asset-based 3PL providing audit and cost management services, managed transportation, and freight brokerage. It has visibility into more than $39 billion in annual freight spend.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• Cass data shows further freight market tightening in March
• FedEx Freight sets goalposts for standalone business
• Freight market sees Covid-era extremes return

The post Yield discipline, fuel price surge driving LTL rates to new highs in Q2 appeared first on FreightWaves.

The Port of Los Angeles handled 752,520 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) in March, off 3% from the same month a year ago as geopolitics and economic uncertainty overshadowed the beginning of the months-long run-up to the peak shipping season.

Compared to 2025, when shippers rushed to bring in goods ahead of sharply increased tariffs to close out the first quarter, Los Angeles processed a respectable 2,388,843 TEUs.

“Even with the seasonal slowdown tied to Lunar New Year, cargo flow in March was solid and our first quarter performance was consistent with our five-year trend,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, in a media briefing. “In today’s uncertain environment, consistency matters – and we’re staying ahead of things so our waterfront workers and partners can continue to deliver reliable, efficient operations for our customers.”

Unsettled tariff policy and rising inflation combined with broader economic impacts of the conflict in the Middle East, Seroka said, particularly soaring fuel prices, are weighing on consumers and business. 

Loaded imports totaled 380,733 TEUs in March, a narrow 1% lower y/y. Loaded exports were better by 7% at 132,129 TEUs — the most since May 2024. The San Pedro Bay hub processed 239,658 empty container units, weaker by 11% y/y.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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The post Average March volume was actually good news for the Port of Los Angeles  appeared first on FreightWaves.

RFID sensors are now installed in all UPS (NYSE: UPS) package delivery vehicles in the United States, in delivery stations and on every package shipped through more than 5,500 UPS Store locations, including on customer returns, according to a news release. Technology to print RFID labels was deployed to all UPS Stores by the end of 2025, the company previously said. 

UPS has been using RFID for certain high-value products and pharmaceutical shipments for several years, but has now become the first major logistics provider to roll out RFID technology at scale across an integrated network. 

The Atlanta-based logistics provider has invested more than $100 million to develop and implement RFID and plans to continue expanding the system. Later this year, the company will begin equipping regional sortation hubs, bringing RFID tracking capability to the middle mile, officials say. Aircraft will also eventually be equipped with RFID sensors. 

Executives have previously estimated the technology would eliminate 20 million manual scans per day for workers loading package cars. 

“I think it is significant” in terms of reducing costs for UPS and enabling customers to better see where their packages are, said Chris Sheridan, director of supply chain services at LJM, a parcel spend management firm. In addition to eliminating handheld scans, RFID can provide redundant tracking of packages that are currently scanned on conveyor belt sorters where scans can be missed if a package lays on top of another package, blocking the label from being read, he added.

The RFID investment is part of UPS’s multiyear transformation initiative, called Network of the Future, which involves shrinking the ground delivery footprint and automating remaining facilities to maintain volume throughput and service levels. 

UPS began its so-called “smart package” RFID initiative at about 100 facilities in 2022. UPS completed the RFID rollout across U.S. facilities in mid-2023 and subsequently began to equip package cars with RFID readers.

In addition to The UPS Store, RFID labels are currently being printed at final-mile package facilities for packages that haven’t been tagged further upstream. Misloads have dropped by nearly 70% since UPS started using the technology three years ago, according to the company. When packages go the wrong destination and have to be retrieved it costs parcel carriers extra money.

“We’re lighting up customers’ supply chains in real time with RFID, enabling precise tracking, faster insights, a smarter network and smarter packages,” said Matt Guffey, chief commercial and strategy officer, in the announcement. “This is the most significant visibility advancement in the past decade at UPS and in our industry.”

The shipping industry has relied on scanners for nearly three decades. By evolving from scanning to sensing technology, costumes will get precise visibility during the entire package journey. Automatic sensing reduces errors, giving UPS and customers actionable and predictable information much earlier in the process, UPS said.

RFID sensors in vehicles confirm packages have been loaded and are in UPS’s possession. They automatically sense packages as they move through the network, allowing the carrier to respond faster to weather changes or other unexpected events. 

During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Jan. 27, CEO Carol Tomé said the next pillar of the RFID strategy is smart fulfillment, defined as “putting the RFID labeling at the point of origin, which gives better transparency order to cash.” UPS Stores are processing 1.3 million packages a day with RFID labeling,“allowing us to earn new commercial business,” she said.

Rival FedEx also has developed sophisticated tracking technologies for high-value shipments that require constant monitoring. FedEx’s use of RFID is currently limited to high-value and healthcare shipments, much the way UPS started with the technology. The FedEx Surround system also uses bluetooth technology and WiFi to read labels with sensors hundreds of times during the shipping process. The company has recently outlined ambitious IT initiatives to expand shipment tracking capabilities across all packages using a variety of sensors and analytics technology and has told large customers it wants to add RFID scanners in their processing network.

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

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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Bilateral trade between the U.S. and Mexico was up about 7% year over year, maintaining Mexico’s No. 1 ranking among U.S. trading partners, according to U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by WorldCity.

The total included $28.9 billion in U.S. exports to Mexico and $44.3 billion in imports, reflecting continued strength in northbound manufacturing and consumer goods flows.

Mexico’s continued hold on the No. 1 spot reflects sustained demand for cross-border capacity — even as cost pressures, regulatory changes and tariff uncertainty reshape how that freight moves.

Laredo remains a key gateway

Port Laredo, Texas, ranked as the No. 2 international trade gateway in February, trailing only John F. Kennedy International Airport, reinforcing its central role in U.S.-Mexico commerce.

Laredo alone handled more than $29 billion in trade with Mexico during the month, accounting for the overwhelming majority of cross-border flows by value.

The concentration of freight moving through Texas border crossings continues to shape capacity, pricing and infrastructure demand across trucking and intermodal networks.

Trade flows between the two countries remain heavily tied to manufacturing supply chains and energy markets.

Related: US-Mexico trade hits new high of $872B in 2025

Key U.S. exports to Mexico:

• Computer parts ($2.84B)
• Gasoline and other fuels ($2.03B)
• Computers ($1.54B)
• Motor vehicle parts ($1.46B)
• Semiconductors and electronic components

Key U.S. imports from Mexico:

• Computers ($8.86B)
• Motor vehicle parts ($2.85B)
• Passenger vehicles ($2.72B)
• Commercial vehicles ($2.64B)
• Electronics and consumer goods

At a broader level, U.S. trade data shows imports rising in categories such as computers, semiconductors and automotive products, while exports were driven by industrial supplies, energy and services, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

The U.S. recorded a $16.8 billion trade deficit with Mexico in February, driven by higher imports and slightly lower exports during the month, the BEA reported.

Still, total bilateral trade remains elevated, with $147 billion in two-way commerce through the first two months of 2026, reinforcing Mexico’s position as the top supplier of goods to the U.S.

Retailers push to preserve USMCA stability

Industry groups say the strength of U.S.-Mexico trade flows underscores the importance of maintaining policy stability under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

In a joint statement, the National Retail Federation and its North American counterparts emphasized that “the integrated nature of our retail supply chains” depends on preserving seamless cross-border movement of goods, NRF said in a news release.

The groups added that maintaining tariff-free trade and a trilateral framework is essential to keeping costs predictable for businesses and consumers.

C.H. Robinson: Strong volumes, rising pressure

Logistics provider C.H. Robinson (Nasdaq: CHRW) said cross-border freight demand remains solid, particularly for northbound shipments into the U.S., even as cost pressures build.

“The defining challenge for shippers in Q2 is not demand but securing reliable capacity,” the company said in its April freight market update, noting tightening conditions across key export and cross-docking lanes.

The report also highlighted:

• Rising diesel prices and labor costs in Mexico
• Increasing insurance premiums
• Tightening driver availability and compliance requirements

Despite those pressures, strong intermediate goods imports and manufacturing activity continue to support freight volumes moving across the border. 

The post U.S.-Mexico trade hits $73B in February as border capacity tightens appeared first on FreightWaves.

Cass’ (NASDAQ: CASS) multimodal shipments index increased 3% sequentially in March (up 1% seasonally adjusted), building on a 10.4% increase in February (plus-4.3% seasonally adjusted). The index was down just 4.5% year over year in the recent month, the smallest y/y decline since June. On a two-year comparison, freight volumes tracked by Cass were off less than 10%.

The dataset has lagged other indicators, which are showing a more upbeat demand environment.

Cass data includes a significant mix of less-than-truckload transactions. Less-than-truckload demand is weighted to the industrial economy, which has been under pressure for the majority of the past three years. However, an LTL inflection may be nearing as the Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing has signaled growth in the first three months of the year.

The Tuesday report said the shipments index is “starting to catch up with other indicators” as “tightness in dry van truckload (TL) conditions is starting to radiate to other markets.” The index is expected to be off 5% y/y in April, assuming normal seasonal patterns hold, moving into positive territory in the back half of the year (plus-1.5% is the current forecast).

Even with the volume headwind, Cass’ expenditures index, which measures total freight spend including fuel, increased 4.9% from February (up 2.4% seasonally adjusted). A 4.2% y/y increase during the month coupled with the 4.5% decline in volumes implies actual freight rates were roughly 9% higher in the month. However, changes in freight mix can alter the implied rate assumption.

The report said a recent survey of midsize and large fleets showed some tightening in driver availability as new non-domicile CDL rules took effect in the month.

“Driver availability is a key component of capacity in the market, and additional scarcity seems likely, supporting higher freight rates,” the report said.

Cass’ TL linehaul index, which tracks rates excluding fuel and accessorial surcharges, increased 1.8% y/y in March, marking 15 consecutive y/y increases. A modest 0.5% step down from February was the first sequential decline in seven months. (The dataset includes for-hire spot and contract rates.)

Higher diesel fuel prices, which pushed some operators to the sidelines, offset incremental capacity availability as carrier networks recovered from severe winter storms, the report said.

“Considerable increases in contract rates are likely for the truckload market. After a four-year bottoming phase of the for-hire cycle, we believe we’ve moved to the early cycle phase where capacity becomes short and rates rise.”

Data used in the indexes comes from freight bills paid by Cass, a provider of payment management solutions. Cass processes $37 billion in freight payables annually on behalf of customers.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• PE firm acquires Carrier Logistics, pledges AI overhaul
• FedEx Freight sets goalposts for standalone business
• Freight market sees Covid-era extremes return

The post Cass data shows freight market tightened further in March appeared first on FreightWaves.

Trimble’s latest ebook explores how high-fidelity data integration helps carriers eliminate communication gaps, reduce dwell times, and build stronger shipper relationships.

Learn how to turn visibility from a “nice-to-have” into a core driver of operational efficiency.

Fill out the form below to gain access to the full ebook.

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The trucking safety consultant, FreightWaves contributor and 25-year industry veteran had never worked with a major television news crew before agreeing to help “60 Minutes.” They were investigating chameleon carriers — the commercial trucking fleets that shed one identity for another after racking up flagrant safety violations. The Serbian-connected scheme he’d been tracking for years was finally getting national attention, but Carpenter had concerns about how the final product would portray him.

“I don’t think I’ve watched 60 Minutes since I was a kid with my grandparents,” Carpenter said in an interview with FreightWaves. “It was one of those situations where I wondered if they were going to cut it up and make me say something that I didn’t say.”

They didn’t.

Instead, what emerged Sunday night was a 15-minute segment exposing Super Ego Holding, a network of commercial trucking and leasing companies based in Serbia and the U.S. that federal regulators call one of the most notorious chameleon schemes operating on American highways. The investigation painted a damning picture of an industry loophole that puts 260 million Americans at risk every time they share the road with these carriers.

The Anatomy of an Eight-Month Investigation

What surprised Carpenter most was the CBS team’s slow and methodical approach. Led by correspondent Bill Whitaker and producers Ashley Velie and Eliza Costas, the journalists traveled to Europe, interviewed drivers across the country, surveilled Super Ego facilities and reviewed legal depositions — all before airing a single frame.

“One of the things that I started looking at when people started asking that question — and throughout this process of working with Ashley, Eliza, and the rest of their team — was how meticulous that whole CBS team actually is,” Carpenter told FreightWaves. “They are really trying to get the story right before it goes out.”

The pace stood in stark contrast to the news cycle Carpenter had grown accustomed to.

“I think even as a writer sometimes I’ll rush things because it’s the narrative driver for the moment, and I’ll rush to get it out because that’s what everybody’s talking about right now,” he said. “With this CBS group, they had no sense of urgency. They simply wanted to make sure — even if it meant they had to go to Europe, fly around the country interviewing drivers, surveilling these Super Ego facilities, pulling legal depositions, and really reviewing everything — that they presented a true and accurate representation of the Super Ego model and how it’s indicative of being a chameleon carrier.”

The production scale was massive for those 15 minutes of airtime. Carpenter alone contributed six hours of footage — a four-hour sit-down interview with Whitaker plus two hours of driving with camera crews. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Derek Barrs sat for a three-hour interview. Behind the scenes, the team reviewed what Carpenter estimates were tens of thousands of documents, possibly reaching into the hundreds of thousands when counting depositions from Super Ego-related civil cases.

“There’s probably tens of thousands of documents that were reviewed, if not more — into the hundreds of thousands, especially when you start considering depositions from different cases of Super Ego and their respective companies,” Carpenter said. “Just the expert witness cases that I work on for Super Ego-related wrongful death or civil cases, I think we’re up to six that we’re involved with now.”

The broadcast’s impact was felt immediately. Since the episode aired, four additional attorneys working on Super Ego cases have contacted Carpenter about additional suits.

The Mechanics of Chameleon Carriers

The segment laid out how easily foreign operators can establish trucking companies in the United States. For $1,000 paid online, with no requirement for American ownership, anyone can secure operating authority from the FMCSA within 21 days.

“There’s no requirement to own a trucking company that you be an American,” Carpenter told Whitaker during the CBS “60 Minutes” broadcast. “You can start it from anywhere in the world. $1,000, pay online, say you are who you say you are, and you’ve got a trucking company.”

The chameleon carrier model operates on a deceptively simple premise: revenue above all else. When a carrier racks up too many violations or crashes, it simply dissolves and reincarnates under a new name with a fresh Department of Transportation number — and a clean slate.

“Chameleon carriers are basically a network of companies and they constantly reincarnate and the idea is we are revenue-focused, we are going to start this trucking company, we are going to run it into the ground to make as much money as we possibly can,” Carpenter said. “And when you move on to the next, you’re really doing that to try to abandon the history that you’ve created with that other trucking company because you’ve run so poorly in the past year. So then you just adopt a new identity and you move on to a new carrier.”

The result is a carrier that appears pristine to shippers and brokers evaluating who should haul their freight.

“You’ve got no violations. You’ve got no crashes. Things that people are gonna look at and scrutinize on whether they’re gonna let you haul their freight or not don’t exist,” Carpenter said. “You’re just a clean carrier to them.”

Carpenter estimates 10% to 20% of the nation’s 700,000 trucking companies operate somewhere on the chameleon carrier spectrum. According to data gathered by risk assessment firm Fusable, these operators are four times more likely to be involved in crashes.

Case Study: Super Ego Holding

Super Ego-connected carriers have logged nearly 15,000 safety violations and 500 accidents over the past two years, according to Department of Transportation data cited in the investigation. The network spans from Serbia to the U.S., with hubs in Elmhurst, Illinois, and Jacksonville, Florida, and customers as large as Amazon, Walmart, Costco and the United States Postal Service.

Driver Daniel Sanchez had been driving commercial rigs for eight years when he was recruited by Super Ego in 2025. The company’s flashy recruitment campaigns promised earnings of $8,000 to $12,000 per week.

“They promise you the world,” Sanchez said during the broadcast. “They say you can make 8 to 10, $12,000 a week.”

The reality was far different.

“Not at all,” Sanchez said when asked if Super Ego lived up to those promises. “I was coming home with negative — negative amounts in my check. I was doin’ around 6 to 800 miles a day with that company with zero.”

The “60 Minutes” investigation documented how drivers were instructed to physically alter their trucks to hide the chameleon scheme.

“They’d email you or they’d send you some kind of documentation with a picture of the new name and DOT number,” Sanchez said. “They’d have me print it out, buy some duct tape. Come out, put it on the truck.”

The hours-of-service violations were equally brazen. After drivers logged 11 hours behind the wheel — the legal limit — managers back in Serbia would illegally reset federally mandated time clocks remotely to give drivers fresh hours.

“By the push of a button, I guess, somehow somewhere they have control of the app where they can just reset your time. Just make it go away,” Sanchez said. “There’s been a time where I drove — I was driving for 18 hours. And I told ‘em. I said, ‘I’m done. I’m going to sleep and parking.’ The text message said we don’t care about that, ‘they’re not payin’ for you to do anything but use the restroom and drive.’”

A whistleblower — a former employee of a Super Ego-affiliated company based in Serbia — confirmed that taking money from drivers became a competitive sport within the company. During one pay period, the top dispatcher cut nearly $24,000, or 32% of drivers’ pay.

What Didn’t Make the Cut

The broadcast couldn’t include everything. One significant segment left on the cutting room floor involved GenLog analysis of Sanchez’s employment history — visual proof of the chameleon scheme in action.

“You can actually see that in the GenLog snapshots,” Carpenter said. “We see him one day when he starts with one carrier and their marking, and then you can see it float throughout his employment history with them. Even though he never changed dispatchers or VIN or license plate or anything, he just changed markings six different times while he still works for the same company.”

The footage remains available on Carpenter’s website, showing the same driver, same truck, same electronic logging device system — with six different door markings over the course of a year.

Technology Fighting Back

Carpenter has channeled his investigative work into THE TEA Highway Intelligence & Risk Platform, a technology platform at theteaintel.com that merges approximately 100 datasets and 35 integrations — including FBI data, census data, corporate filings and UCC records — to cross-reference companies seeking new operating authority.

“When you have someone applying for an OP-1 application who doesn’t have any history in trucking, there are systems out there now that can cross-reference business profiles to see if there are any red flags that they need to look at before they actually give them a license,” Carpenter said.

The FMCSA is evaluating adoption of these new types of systems.

Looking Ahead

The regulatory landscape is shifting faster than at any point in recent memory. Barrs, who took over as FMCSA administrator in October, has prioritized what he calls the “front door problem” — stopping bad actors before they enter the system. A new registration system will replace 40-year-old technology this year, and the agency is actively hiring 40 additional investigators to supplement its current force of 350 overseeing all 700,000 carriers.

The challenge extends beyond FMCSA’s walls. Cross-departmental cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and FBI is essential but slow.

“FMCSA is an enforcement agency, not an investigative agency,” Carpenter said. “While they do some investigations, they rely heavily on DOJ and FBI.”Between new technology partnerships with Modus and Idemia, private sector data tools and renewed enforcement focus, Carpenter believes the current administration is doing more than any predecessor. But he urged patience from an industry demanding immediate action.

“The wheels of government don’t always turn as fast as you want them to. There are guardrails there. There are rulemaking procedures that people have to consider,” he said. “It didn’t get broken immediately. It’s not going to get fixed immediately. But you’re on the right track more now than you’ve ever been. Just know that the wheels are turning.”

The post 60 Minutes blows open notorious chameleon carrier network appeared first on FreightWaves.

A crackdown on diesel-powered transport refrigerated units (TRUs) in California has apparently begun without a formal announcement, as this small part of mostly sidelined California truck emission restrictions now has a mostly open field for enforcement.

There are no new laws regarding emission restrictions on the TRUs that are powered by diesel engines. The last big overhaul was in 2022. 

Pages devoted to the TRU rules on the webpage of California Air Resources Board (CARB) give no suggestion anything has changed. Emails sent to CARB had not been responded to by publication time.

Law firm tips off the world on the regulatory push

The new enforcement effort was disclosed in recent weeks by an email sent to its clients by the transportation practice of the Benesch law firm. The push by CARB, according to the law firm, is mostly aimed at pressuring warehouses to comply with rules regarding disclosure of the TRUs that use their facility.

“CARB is ramping up enforcement of its diesel TRU regulations that apply to refrigerated trailers, containers, and trucks, requiring both TRU owners (including those outside California) and large facilities receiving refrigerated shipments to register, report and comply with strict new rules,” Benesch said in its communication.

Brian Cullen, who is Of Counsel with Benesch, said the diesel TRU regulations “have been on the books but not really been enforced, and now suddenly, they’ve decided to start enforcing it.”

A void in the regulatory landscape

Cullen, who focuses on California regulatory issues for Benesch, noted that the ambitious clean truck goals behind the Advanced Clean Fleets and Advanced Clean Truck regulations, which were designed in tandem by the state to move it toward a zero-emission trucking future, are on the sideline after the state’s recent battles with the federal government. 

But the TRU rules are still intact. “The state is trying to figure out a way to still regulate the industry a bit,” Cullen said. “So that’s one part. And then two, it seems like they have all these CARB employees who were in charge of other items, needing something to do or needing to work.”

The 2022 amended rule affirmed earlier sweeping changes in the original rule that dates back to 2004. Among the most stark changes is a requirement that beginning with the close of 2023, TRU owners needed to turn over “at least 15 percent of their truck TRU fleet (defined as truck TRUs operating in California) to zero-emission technology each year,” and do so for seven years. The goal was to be 100% ZEV TRUs by the close of 2029.

But Cullen said despite that rule, “from what we’ve seen, there’s been a complete halt on companies trying to purchase ZEVs from a vehicle standpoint.”

Responsibility falling on warehouses

The push that Benesch clients have been telling the law firm about, Cullen said, is that the state is sending out notices “with regards to, hey, you know, you need to submit this information on a quarterly basis. They’re starting to make the warehouse companies basically snitch on carriers that don’t have the proper stickers on their trailers.”

Or as Cullen’s law firm said in its report, “Under existing California law, all TRU owners, including those based outside California, must register every diesel-powered TRU (i.e., refrigerated trailers, refrigerated intermodal containers) that operate in the state via the Air Resources Board Equipment Registration System (ARBER) system and obtain a CARB Identification Number (IDN). Owners must also affix CARB compliance labels to each registered unit every three years and pay operating fees which CARB uses to support its expanded enforcement activities.”

And where the warehouse mandate comes in, Benesch said, is that at the start of 2024, “owners of refrigerated warehouses or distribution centers with a building size of 20,000 square feet or greater, grocery stores with a building size of 15,000 square feet or greater, seaport facilities, and intermodal railyards with TRU activity (applicable facilities) shall register the facility with CARB, pay fees every three years, and report all TRUs that operate at their facility to CARB quarterly, or alternatively ensure that only compliant TRUs operate at their facility (i.e., those with a valid CARB compliance label or showing as compliant on CARB’s website).”

Refrigerants and PMs

Beyond having the right sticker, compliance also means that existing diesel TRUs must use refrigerants that meet certain global warming benchmarks, and to use engines with tighter particular matter standards. The warehouses would need to determine whether a TRU using its facilities is in compliance with the state’s rules.

“Businesses can increase their readiness by verifying that all diesel TRUs are registered and labeled as compliant, and that their facilities meet quarterly reporting or compliance declaration requirements,” the law firm said in its note to clients. “Proactive compliance is essential to avoid costly fines and disruptions in refrigerated supply chains.”

It added that the potential fines for non compliance are nothing to sneeze at: up to $10,000 per day.

Glen Kedzie, principal at the consulting firm of E&E Strategies, said the TRU rule, if challenged in court, might run into the same question that has been raised in some of California’s trucking regulations: are they violations of the Commerce Clause of the constitution? 

“I don’t know what any litigation might be, because this goes beyond the borders of California,” Kedzie said in an interview with FreightWaves. “Trucking-based operations that take their equipment across the border into California have to have those vehicles reported to CARB. Can you do that? Can you reach beyond the border to tell a trucking company from Ohio that you have to keep records and submit them to get your stickers affixed to your TRU before you can enter?”

Interest was still there

Jason Massey, whose company Ndustrial created a zero emissions product directed at TRUs, said the compliance standards that warehouses would be expected to pursue, since the conversion to ZEVs does not seem to be a priority, would be the rules on particulate matter and refrigerant in the TRUs.

Massey also said even though the push for ZEVs appears to have waned, his electricity-powered substitute for a diesel engine continues to be adopted.

It is particularly successful, Massay said, in single-company locations where a company like a food distributor has dozens or hundreds of trailers at one site, and the desire to cut their emissions and hold down the noise level can lead to a switch to electricity-powered solutions.

Even though there is a regulatory push on warehouses now, Massey said fears of eventual compliance “never really went away.” Potential fines are hefty, he added.

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“We’ve had lots of opportunities to be very clear that we’re opposed to this merger, and we don’t think it’s good for the industry,” said Katie Farmer, chief executive of BNSF Railway. “Make no mistake, this is a consolidation of almost 50% of all the rail volume…to one road. When you consolidate 50% of all rail volume that moves under one carrier, you eliminate, or significantly reduce, flexibility for customers, optionality, and ultimately there’s going to be fewer interchange points. You have one railroad that is looking to optimize their network, and based on what’s happened in the past, that is not always good for customers.”

Farmer was the keynote interview Monday at the Association of American Short Line & Regional Railroad Association’s annual conference.

Warren Buffett, former chairman and CEO of BNSF parent Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BERK-B), and successor Greg Abel publicly dismissed speculation they would pursue their own merger with CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) or one of the Canadian carriers. BNSF’s vast network is a near-transcon itself, stretching from the West Coast to Alabama.

Farmer was also skeptical of the growth projections UP (NYSE: UNP) and NS (NYSE: NSC) included in their merger application, which it plans to resubmit by April 30 after the initial filing was rejected as incomplete by the Surface Transportation Board. 

“They’re claiming that they’re going to grow volume with this new combined railroad by 12% in three years,” said Farmer, who has worked more than three decades in the business. “If you go back and look at the last large merger, the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, UP’s volumes have actually declined by 13% in the last 10 years. At the same time, their average revenue per unit has increased 37% above all the other Class I networks. I’d be concerned about reduction of interchange options, reduction of flexibility, and optimization by that very large railroad of their own network And then think about the customers, which is where we all have to start, who have fewer options and higher rates.

“That’s what’s happened over time. For every merger that’s happened, it plays out the same way.”

When that growth fails to materialize, Farmer warned, UP would likely sell off underperforming portions of the network. She called for regulatory oversight to safeguard local service and the customer experience, and other factors that are important for growth.

Farmer claimed that the tougher rules formulated by the STB in 2001 after post-consolidation service meltdowns were meant to dissuade future mergers.

Under the new rules, Farmer said, a merger has to enhance competition for the customer, and it has to be in the public interest. She said UP-NS mistakenly conflates the two.

“Is it in the public interest to take trucks off the highway — of course it is,” Farmer said, referring to 2 million truckloads UP says the merger will shift from road to rail. “Is it enhancing competition? That’s not what the 2001 new merger rules were about, they were about existing rail customers. And so we have to only look at existing rail customers, and look very carefully at the conditions that are being proposed for enhancing competition.” 

Farmer said that the industry should demand the STB impose concessions that would enhance competition, improve service and grow volumes.

“I’ve got a lot of folks working together, figuring out exactly what those suggestions are.” 

Farmer also took issue with UP’s proposal for committed gateways, interchange points it says it will keep open on commercially reasonable terms so shippers can still hand off traffic to another railroad instead of being forced onto a single-line route. 

She noted UP in filings opposing the Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP)-Kansas City Southern merger in 2022 in fact did not believe open gateways would preserve competition.

“I’ll tell you, though, I agree with them. Case in point, our railroad. We used to do 10,000 units a month at the [U.S.-Mexico] Laredo [Texas] gateway. With the open gateway concept as part of the CP-KCS merger, today we move zero. Is the gateway open? Sure, operationally. Is it economically open? No. But it’s not about that we lost volume. It’s that our customers lost a competitive option.”

Farmer said that UP’s open gateway only applies to about four-tenths of a percent of all rail freight, and excludes shippers of hazardous materials, unit trains, and intermodal. 

“And, if you’re lucky enough to be in that four-tenths of a percent, you get a reward of the top 30% of all the rates that UP publishes today. And you only get to use them during the STB oversight period.” 

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

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FedEx Corp. announced Monday that John Dietrich will step down as chief financial officer on June 1 upon successful completion of the spin-off of FedEx Freight into a new publicly traded company. 

No reason was given for Dietrich’s departure. He will remain with the company until July 31. 

Claude Russ, enterprise vice president of finance, will serve as interim CFO while the company conducts a comprehensive internal and external search for a successor. FedEx (NYSE: FDX) affirmed its fiscal year 2026 outlook, which was shared on its last earnings call, along with the 2029 targets shared at its Investor Day in February.

Dietrich joined FedEx as CFO in August 2023 after serving as CEO of all-cargo airline Atlas Air. He played a key role in implementing FedEx’s initiative for eliminating billions of dollars in structural costs, the Network 2.0 consolidation strategy, the Tricolor restructuring of the airline to better align capacity with service levels and the planned spin off of FedEx Freight, which have helped the company produce several quarters of solid profit growth. FedEx stock price is up 38% during Dietrich’s tenure as CFO. 

“I want to thank John for his many contributions to the FedEx leadership team over the last several years as we successfully navigated a significant company transformation and delivered on the upcoming spin of our Freight business,” said Raj Subramaniam, president and chief executive officer of FedEx Corporation. “As we begin the search for John’s successor, I am confident that Claude’s wealth of experience will ensure seamless continuity and commitment to advancing our strategy.”

Russ currently leads the global financial planning and analysis team as well as the finance initiatives within the company’s Drive campaign to root out structural waste. He has served in a variety of leadership roles during his 24 years at FedEx, including as chief operating officer of FedEx Dataworks, senior vice president of revenue management at FedEx Services, and CFO of FedEx Freight. 

Bank of America analyst Ken Hoextra said in a client note that the timing of Dietrich’s departure is unnerving for investors after FedEx hosted an Investor Day in February in which it laid out 2029 financial targets. FedEx last month said it expects fiscal year 2026 revenue to grow 6.25% at the mid range vs. 5.5%, with adjusted EPS of $19.30 to $20.10, up from the prior range of $17.80 to $19. 

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The company stated in a news release that its new WMS is designed to keep distribution centers running during costly internet and cloud outages. The technology aims to remedy downtime caused by these outages, which Synergy says costs operators as much as $100,000 per hour.

“The risk associated with cloud downtime is no longer hypothetical; it’s an existential threat,” said Brian Kirst, chief operating officer of Synergy Logistics, in the release. “With ORCA, we’re offering warehouses and fulfillment centers a robust and resilient solution that ensures continuous operation, even amid full connectivity losses. This is a fundamental shift in the industry and couldn’t come at a better time.”

The hybrid advantage

While many modern business systems rely entirely on cloud-only deployments, warehouse execution requires real-time, facility-level decisions. Brief disruptions in cloud connectivity can severely hamper operations that rely on robotics, conveyors, picking and shipping workflows.

ORCA addresses this vulnerability through a hybrid architecture. The system runs critical warehouse execution locally on edge infrastructure within the facility to ensure uninterrupted workflows. That also means faster coordination with automated systems like autonomous mobile robots and automated storage and retrieval systems.

Simultaneously, ORCA leverages the cloud for centralized intelligence. When connectivity is active, the system uses the cloud for secure data backups, performance analytics and multi-site network visibility.

According to Synergy, this hybrid deployment model eliminates the complexity traditionally associated with on-premise systems while actually lowering the total cost of ownership compared to conventional hosting.

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The company announced last week that customers can use the Uber Easts app to shop from their neighborhood store and arrange delivery. The majority of Ace stores are independently owned and operated.

The partnership is the latest example of Uber Eats (NYSE: UBER) expanding its business model beyond food delivery into everyday retail categories, including home improvement, beauty and electronics. Competitor DoorDash has also moved into the retail delivery space using its own neighborhood warehouses to forward stock goods from retailers, who use the DoorDash app to sell goods to consumers. . 

The Uber partnership also  shows how retailers are increasingly relying on stores as fulfillment centers and their own dedicated delivery services to increase convenience and sales.

Target, for example, uses self-owned delivery service Shipt to provide same-day and next-day delivery from stories. Walmart uses its own delivery app to match gig drivers with store orders ready for shipping to a buyer’s doorstep. 

“Whether they’re tackling a last-minute project or planning ahead, our customers now have greater access to fast, flexible solutions for getting the products they need delivered right to their doorstep,” said Bill Kiss, head of digital at Ace Hardware, in a news release.

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The jump reflects rising confidence in Mexico’s role as a key manufacturing and supply chain partner to the U.S., even as global capital flows become more selective amid tariffs, industrial policy shifts and geopolitical risk.

The full report released on Thursday shows investors are “recalibrating” toward markets that combine growth potential, geopolitical relevance and supply chain resilience.

Nearshoring tailwinds boost Mexico’s appeal

Mexico’s rise in the rankings comes as companies continue to shift production closer to North America, driven by tariff uncertainty, supply chain disruptions and “China+1” diversification strategies.

Kearney noted that both Mexico and Brazil posted notable gains, driven in part by reforms aimed at improving ease of doing business. In Mexico’s case, a new law aimed at reducing bureaucratic hurdles and streamlining government services has helped improve investor sentiment.

More broadly, investors are prioritizing technological and innovation capabilities, industrial policy alignment — cited as critical by 84% of executives, and supply chain resilience and diversification.

At the same time, 88% of surveyed executives said they plan to increase foreign direct investment over the next three years, underscoring continued appetite for global expansion despite risks.

Mexico solidifies role as North American production hub

For freight markets, Mexico’s climb reinforces its position as a central node in North American manufacturing and cross-border logistics.

Rising investor confidence typically translates into:

• Increased industrial construction and plant expansions
• Higher cross-border truck and rail volumes
• Growing demand for customs brokerage, warehousing and drayage capacity

Mexico’s No. 19 ranking places it firmly among emerging markets benefiting from supply chain realignment, alongside countries like Thailand and Malaysia that are also gaining from diversification trends.

Morgan Stanley: Domestic investment is the next catalyst

While nearshoring remains a key driver, a separate report from Morgan Stanley argues that Mexico’s long-term investment outlook hinges increasingly on domestic economic reforms and private investment growth.

In a report released on Tuesday, “Mexico’s Domestic Opportunity”  — the firm noted that Mexico’s export engine remains strong, with manufacturing exports to the U.S. rising by $150 billion since 2021 to reach $535 billion in 2025.

However, the report highlights a critical shift:

“The investment case hinges much more on the new administration’s ability to reinvigorate domestic growth and particularly private investment.”

Morgan Stanley pointed to several key dynamics:

• Exports remain robust, especially in electronics and machinery
• Domestic investment has lagged, declining about 8% in 2025
• Policy uncertainty and institutional reforms have weighed on business confidence

To address this, Mexico’s government has launched “Plan Mexico,” which aims to:

• Raise investment to 28% of GDP (from ~22%)
• Expand public-private partnerships and infrastructure spending
• Create 1.5 million jobs in manufacturing and strategic sectors

USMCA review looms as key catalyst

Both Kearney and Morgan Stanley highlight the upcoming 2026 USMCA review as a pivotal moment for investment flows.

Clarity around rules of origin, tariffs and critical minerals could unlock delayed investments and further accelerate nearshoring into Mexico, according to Morgan Stanley.

For logistics providers, that could mean a new wave of factory announcements and supplier relocations, increased border congestion and capacity constraints expanded need for cross-border compliance and customs expertise.

Risks remain despite momentum

Despite the gains, investors continue to flag risks that could affect Mexico’s trajectory, including:

• Rising geopolitical tensions (top global concern)
• Trade policy uncertainty and tariffs
• Domestic regulatory and institutional changes

Kearney’s survey found nearly 90% of investors see at least moderate risk from competing industrial policies across countries.

Mexico’s rise in the FDI rankings underscores a structural shift in global supply chains toward regionalization and nearshoring.

For carriers, brokers and shippers, it could mean sustained growth in U.S.–Mexico cross-border freight volumes, increased importance of Laredo, Texas, and other border gateways, and greater exposure to policy-driven volatility, including tariffs and regulatory changes.

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Blue Cargo provides air, ocean, and road freight management services, as well as handling customs clearance for businesses in Southern Europe. The main warehouse in Madrid features bonded storage, freight consolidation, and inventory staging to support full-end logistics services in Spain and Portugal.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2008, Crane Worldwide Logistics has more than 150 offices in 33 countries and more than 4,500 employees. In Europe, Crane has offices in Belgium, the U.K., Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland. Chairman and founder Jim Crane said in a recent FreightWaves interview that Crane Worldwide will exceed the high-water revenue mark of Eagle Global Logistics, which generated more than $3.2 billion before being sold in 2007 to Apollo Management.

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Elmsford, New York-based CLI has helped asset-based carriers track shipments and organize daily workflows for over 50 years. Terminal networks are moving faster and generating massive amounts of data that traditional software simply stores rather than acts upon. STG’s investment aims to change that dynamic by funding an “AI-first” research and development roadmap.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We believe the LTL industry is at an inflection point where data is plentiful, but actionable intelligence is scarce,” said Rushi Kulkarni, managing director at STG. “Our goal is to provide carriers with an agentic platform that automates the mundane and optimizes the complex, keeping the human operator at the center of the most critical decisions.”

STG plans to rebuild CLI’s core architecture so the software can execute decisions on its own. The firm’s investment will integrate agentic AI tools onto the platform, helping carriers in terminal network configurations to automate operations. Enhanced capabilities will include real-time autonomous dispatch and routing, and predictive modeling for dock workflows. AI agents will also manage exceptions and flag items requiring human decision making.

STG said it will also fund other research and development initiatives at CLI.

For CLI, the private equity backing provides the capital necessary to keep pace with rapid technological shifts. “STG’s investment in our transportation and freight management technology will allow us to maintain our position as the market-leading transportation management system for LTL and deliver the next generation of AI-driven tools that our clients need to remain competitive in a high-velocity environment,” said CLI President Ben Wiesen.

Arcadia Capital served as exclusive financial adviser to CLI.

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Cargo theft is no longer starting with clear warning signs. It is happening inside normal operations where everything appears to check out. The carrier looks legitimate, the rate confirmation is signed, and the pickup is scheduled without issue. Nothing raises concern early because the process allows it to move forward. Control shifts in the gap between what looks right and what has actually been confirmed, and that gap is where most of the risk now sits.

This same pattern is showing up across multiple incidents right now. In Texas, nearly $470,000 in stolen vehicles were moving through standard freight channels before being stopped. In another case last week, more than 400,000 units of consumer goods were taken during transit with no signs of forced entry. These events are connected by how they start and how they move. The issue is not at pickup locations. It begins when responsibility changes hands and no one confirms who is actually in control.

Once the wrong party takes over, the shipment continues like any other load. Pickup happens on time, transit updates come through, and nothing appears out of place. By the time a problem is noticed, the freight has already moved too far to easily recover. At that point, it becomes a timing issue. The first day or two matters most, and after that the chances of recovery drop as the load moves farther away.

Recovered freight can give the wrong impression. It suggests the process is working, when in reality it shows how dependent outcomes still are on chance. If that call in California does not happen, that shipment is gone. The larger issue is that these moves are still passing through standard workflows without being challenged.

The industry has built around trust in what looks correct instead of confirming what is true. That is where organized groups operate. The answer is not adding more steps for the sake of it. It is putting control at the right points. Verification during pickup, checks during transit, and confirmation at delivery. Each step needs to confirm who is involved, not just accept the information provided.

Once control is lost, the rest is just movement, and by then the outcome is already set.

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Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson in March signed state Senate bill 5995 into law, which aims to protect maritime jobs by ensuring that public investments in port decarbonization do not lead to the replacement of human workers with robots. 

The measure ensures a permanent ban on automation funding by repealing a “sunset clause” that would have allowed the prohibition to expire on Dec. 31, 2031.

The law covers fully automated equipment if it is remotely operated or monitored, regardless of whether a human can intervene or control it.

A the same time, port districts are still explicitly authorized to use public funds for zero and near-zero emission equipment, provided it remains human-operated.

The restriction applies to both individual port districts and port development authorities in Washington, including Seattle and Tacoma. The hubs rank ninth and tenth among U.S. gateways, handling about 3.3 million TEUs annually.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has approximately 42,000 members at ports along the West Coast, including Washington.

Automation in 2024 became a flashpoint during longshore contract negotiations when a three-day strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association shut down container handling at dozens of East and Gulf Coast ports. Port employers and dockworkers eventually agreed to a new six-year pact that provides for job protections but also permits the introduction of semi-automated cranes and other equipment.

Studies have shown U.S. ports, particularly those on the West Coast, rank poorly on efficiency because congestion, labor constraints, and landside bottlenecks slow vessel turnaround. A recent World Bank Container Port Performance Index showed Asian ports taking 13 of the top 20 places in 2023 and East Asia leading again in 2024.

This article was updated April 14 to correct that Gov. Bob Ferguson signed SB 5995 into law.

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Parent OOIL said unaudited results for the quarter ended March 31 showed volume growth but further pressure on prices.

Liner revenue at OOCL was $2.14 billion, down 7.6% year‑on‑year, while liftings totaled 1.997 million twenty foot equivalent units, up 1.7% year-on-year. This compared to global volume growth of 7.5% in January-February, according to data from Container Trade Statistics.

Loadable capacity increased by 4.3% from a year ago, ahead of the volume increase and pushing average revenue per TEU down by 9.1% y/y , reflecting softer market pricing.

Among major trade lanes, the trans‑Pacific took the biggest hit as liftings fell 5.9% to 523,385 TEU and revenue declined 16.8% to $744.8 million. Asia‑Europe liftings were higher by 11.8% to 384,893 TEUs, though revenue was down 4.5% to $481.9 million.

For full-year 2025, revenue was $8.78 billion, down 10.6% y/y; liftings were 7.874 million TEUs, up 3.7%.

OOIL also noted delivery of nine new 16,828 TEU vessels in 2025, completing that series.

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China automakers gain ground in Mexico as U.S. exports soften

U.S. finished-vehicle exports to North America are showing early signs of softening, just as Chinese automakers rapidly gain market share and expand their footprint in Mexico — a shift that could reshape cross-border automotive freight flows.

Passenger vehicle exports from U.S. plants showed signs of cooling early in 2026, according to preliminary trade data, though detailed country-level figures for February have not yet been released.

At the same time, new data from Mexico underscores the strength of the market that Chinese automakers are targeting.

Mexico produced 343,520 light vehicles and exported 310,205 units in March, with exports rising 4.2% year over year, according to the latest data from Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

 For the first quarter, Mexico exported 795,631 vehicles, up 2.5% from a year earlier.

The figures highlight Mexico’s continued role as a critical production and export hub — even as competitive dynamics begin to shift.

Mexico becomes focal point for Chinese automakers

Mexico is emerging as a key battleground in the global auto market.

Chinese automakers including BYD and Geely have rapidly expanded their presence in Mexico in recent years, benefiting from competitive pricing and fewer trade barriers compared to the United States.

Their ambitions are now moving beyond imports.

Both companies are among finalists seeking to acquire a Nissan–Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Aguascalientes, a move that would give Chinese automakers a direct manufacturing foothold in Mexico, according to Reuters.

The facility has capacity to produce about 230,000 vehicles annually and offers an established workforce and logistics infrastructure — making it a faster path to scale than building a new plant from scratch.

Industry estimates show Chinese brands have already grown from negligible market share earlier in the decade to roughly 10% of Mexico’s vehicle market, with further gains expected as more models enter the country.

Beyond Mexico, Chinese automakers are also expanding their regional supply chains. BYD recently secured 100,000 vehicle export orders from Argentina and Mexico from its Brazil plant, underscoring its growing footprint across Latin America, CarNewsChina.com reported.

Canada emerges as next front

While Mexico is the immediate growth market, Canada is increasingly viewed as the next opportunity.

BYD has said it is studying the Canadian market for a wholly owned manufacturing plant and is open to acquiring an existing automaker to accelerate expansion, according to Electrek.

The move comes as Canada has begun lowering barriers to Chinese EV imports, creating a potential entry point into North America that remains largely closed in the United States.

Pressure builds on U.S. exports

The expansion of Chinese automakers comes at a time when U.S. finished-vehicle exports are beginning to show signs of softening.

Canada and Mexico account for a large share of U.S. vehicle exports, supported by decades of integration under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

But shifting market dynamics — including rising Chinese market share in Mexico and potential new production capacity — could gradually erode that position.

Mexico’s export data also highlights the scale of the competitive challenge. The country shipped more than 310,000 vehicles in March alone, with the U.S. still accounting for roughly 76% of exports, underscoring how tightly linked the two markets remain.

Freight impact: shifting lanes and volumes

For freight markets, the implications are significant.

Finished vehicles move via truck, rail and port networks tied closely to cross-border trade. A sustained shift toward Chinese automakers — particularly if production moves into Mexico — could:

• Reduce U.S.-to-Mexico finished vehicle export volumes
• Increase Asia and Latin America-to-Mexico import flows
• Boost Mexico domestic distribution and export diversification
• Reshape demand for railcars, car-haul capacity and cross-border trucking

Detailed U.S. trade data breaking out February vehicle exports to Canada and Mexico has not yet been released, but early indicators suggest a market in transition.

If Chinese automakers succeed in establishing manufacturing capacity in Mexico — and expand further into Canada — North America’s automotive trade could begin to rebalance.

For U.S. exporters and freight providers, that shift may mark the start of a new competitive era — one where vehicle flows are no longer defined solely by North American production, but increasingly by global players reshaping the region from within.

OmniTRAX restarts Central Texas rail line with quarry deal

OmniTRAX is reviving a dormant Central Texas freight corridor after completing infrastructure upgrades and securing a new aggregates haul agreement, according to a news release.

The company said its affiliate, Central Texas and Colorado River Railway, will resume operations in April, moving unit trains of crushed stone from a San Saba quarry to a BNSF Railway interchange in Lometa, Texas.

The 49-mile line, idle since 2019, required extensive rehabilitation, including work on bridges and crossings over the Colorado and San Saba rivers to restore safe operations.

Local officials and shippers say the restart could boost regional economic activity by improving bulk transportation capacity while reducing truck congestion on area highways.

China’s Windrose delivers first Class 8 EV in US, targets long-haul market

A Chinese electric truck startup is entering the U.S. heavy-duty market, with Windrose completing its first delivery of a Class 8 battery-electric tractor to a Texas logistics firm, according to Chinatrucks.org.

The truck, built on Windrose’s R700 platform, offers an estimated 400–450 miles of range and carries a price tag of about $285,000, roughly in line with the Tesla Semi.

Windrose is importing the vehicles from China despite steep U.S. tariffs — including duties as high as 100% on Chinese heavy trucks — which the company says are already factored into pricing.

The company, which has more than 100 trucks on order globally, is relying on Xos Trucks for distribution and service in the U.S., though it lacks the extensive dealer networks of incumbents like Volvo Trucks and Daimler Truck. 

The post Borderlands Mexico: China automakers gain ground as U.S. exports soften appeared first on FreightWaves.

Chart of the Week:  Reefer rejection rate – Fresno, USDA Produce spot rate, TRAC reefer spot rate – Fresno to Chicago,  SONAR: STRIR.FAT, AGRATE.FATCHI

Tender rejection rates in Fresno, California have climbed from below 4% in early March to above 14% in less than a month — the highest level since June of last year. Produce spot rates reported by the USDA have increased nearly 25% over the past few weeks on lanes from central California to Chicago. General reefer spot rates on the Fresno-to-Chicago lane, as measured by SONAR TRAC data, have jumped 43% over the past month, reaching their highest level since 2022. These data points come from separate sources and are collectively sending a strong signal that produce season has begun in the West.

For those unfamiliar, there are multiple regions of the country where seasonal harvests can have a significant impact on truckload capacity. Growers need to move their product quickly to preserve freshness and avoid spoilage, which creates a natural sense of urgency — one that is most acute in the early stages of the harvest, when demand for the first batch is at its peak.

California accounts for the lion’s share of North American lettuce and cruciferous vegetable production. During the winter months, production shifts to Arizona and Mexico as crop rotation schedules and weather conditions require.

The first major harvest of the year out of California typically begins around mid-April, though it can be delayed by weather-related impacts on planting schedules and harvest capability.

Produce harvests have had little impact on the truckload sector over the past few years, as the market was fairly oversupplied and able to absorb seasonal demand pressure. That environment has given way to a considerably tighter market to start this year.

Produce season can affect nationwide trucking capacity as carriers gravitate toward the West to move high-paying produce loads. Shippers in that space will pay transportation premiums, knowing that the cost of losing yield to spoilage is significant. This draws capacity away from less financially attractive freight.

According to the USDA, shipments of lettuce, strawberries, and broccoli have just begun moving out of the Central Valley over the past few weeks — meaning the bulk of the season is still ahead.

The refrigerated truckload market has shown tentative signs of stabilization since early February, though it remains tight. National reefer rejection rates (STRIR) peaked just below 20% in early February and have been trending lower since, sitting around 17% late last week. Spot rates (RTI) have been more uneven — possibly due to fuel — but peaked around the same time and were running about 11% below their peak last week.

A heat map of reefer spot rate movement late last week showed significant declines across the Midwest, while the southern tier and the lower-volume Northwest were mostly seeing increases.

Weather is an added complication, as the near-term forecast for the region is wet, which could impede harvests and heighten urgency once they resume. The market has already demonstrated its fragility, and this produce season has the potential to send it reeling once again after years of being a non-factor. 

About the Chart of the Week

The FreightWaves Chart of the Week is a chart selection from SONAR that provides an interesting data point to describe the state of the freight markets. A chart is chosen from thousands of potential charts on SONAR to help participants visualize the freight market in real time. Each week a Market Expert will post a chart, along with commentary, live on the front page. After that, the Chart of the Week will be archived on FreightWaves.com for future reference.

SONAR aggregates data from hundreds of sources, presenting the data in charts and maps and providing commentary on what freight market experts want to know about the industry in real time.

The post Produce season’s prodigal return appeared first on FreightWaves.

An investment company is seeking to dislodge three directors at WEX, a major payments provider for fleets.

The company, Impactive Capital Master Fund LP and its affiliates, urged “no” votes last year on three candidates. But those directors ultimately won.

This year, Impactive is putting up its own slate of candidates and is targeting three incumbents including current CEO and chairwoman Melissa Smith.

In a proxy filing Friday with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Impactive Capital Master Fund LP and affiliates said it had been “significant stockholders” in WEX (NYSE: WEX) for five years.

WEX, in its 10-K report filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission this year, described its Mobility segment as a “global leader in fleet payment solutions, transaction processing, and information management.”

“We support fleets of all sizes globally through our proprietary closed-loop networks and a suite of software solutions that help manage fuel, EV charging, and operational workflows,” the annual 10-K for 2026 said.

Impactive, in its proxy, said of its relationship with WEX: “For the length of our investment, we have attempted to maintain an open and collaborative relationship with the company and its board of directors, but in recent years that relationship has been severely strained by the mounting challenges facing the Company and the Board’s apparent unwillingness to take action to hold management accountable for performance.”

Five-year shareholders

Impactive first invested in WEX in 2021, according to its proxy. 

The Impactive proxy said it has sought to have WEX place more “stockholder perspectives” on the board of directors at WEX. But it has been “repeatedly rebuffed and refused,” the proxy said.

Impactive said its plan of action is to have three directors voted into office at the WEX annual meeting to be held May 5. There are six directors Impactive is not opposing but has urged shareholders not to vote for Nancy Altobello, Stephen Smith and Melissa Smith.

The Impactive proxy recaps a long history of interactions between the company and WEX management. Among the issues Impactive raised in those meetings or phone calls include criticism of WEX’ acquisition of Payzer, which it described as “an unprofitable company with a limited strategic fit that added to WEX’ complexity.”

The history of the interactions include Impactive’s request that a representative of that company be placed on the board of directors, which has not occurred. 

Challenge last year failed, but still lots of ‘no’ votes

The three incumbents that Impactive targeted last year for a no vote were re-elected to the board. But the Impactive proxy said their “no” votes were anywhere from 30.6% to 37% of the vote.

The three director nominees Impactive is putting forth this year for the three open slots are Kurt P. Adams, Ellen R. Alemany, and Lauren Taylor Wolfe, who is a co-founder of Impactive.  

Taylor Wolfe’s title at Impactive besides co-founder is managing partner. Adams is CEO of IPC Systems and former CEO of Optum Financial. Alemany is the vice chair at First Citizens BancShares and formerly the chair of CIT.

Taylor Wolfe comes in for hefty criticism in the WEX proxy. Among the criticisms: her husband is with a venture capital firm with a large investment in Ramp Business Corp., which also is in the payments business and is viewed by WEX as a competitor, raising conflict of interests questions. She also was described by WEX as “disruptive” as a director at another company. 

Performance issues cited

In the proxy, Impactive reviewed WEX’ performance compared to the S&P 400 and what it said was WEX’ closest competitor, Corpay (NYSE: CPAY). 

Among the numbers cited are a five-year total return of 20.1% for WEX, 37.6% for Corpay and 56% for the S&P 400.

WEX’ stock price per Barchart is up 27.2% in the last year. But over the last three years, the stock price has largely been lower. It closed Friday at $159.29. In early April 2023, it traded at about $180 per share.

Impactive at one point had more than a 7% share in WEX. However, in its letter to shareholders it said that number is down to 4.9%.

WEX got out in front of the Impactive proxy in its own proxy filed with the SEC earlier this week. In it, the company said “replacing these incumbent directors would jeopardize the Company’s progress.”

It described Impactive’s desires as “financial engineering” – splitting up the Company on the belief that we might achieve a higher blended multiple, buying back stock or increasing our pricing. This stands in sharp contrast to the questions and suggestions we hear from our

other investors, which tend to focus instead on the fundamentals of our business: how can WEX drive further market share, use AI to grow and to expand margins and extend into adjacent end markets?”

Among Impactive’s criticisms of WEX management is the amount of money it paid CEO Smith.

“Since combining the CEO and Chair role under Ms. Smith, WEX directors have rewarded her with $85 million,” the letter said. “WEX’s CEO compensation has consistently increased despite missing targets provided to investors, because the Board has set her compensation targets below the numbers publicly guided to investors and significantly increased the median market capitalization of the comparable proxy peers relative to WEX’s own market capitalization. How can shareholders believe the Board, particularly the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee, will advocate for shareholder interests when they pay management more and more for continuously delivering less and less?”

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The post Management at fleet payments WEX faces proxy battle appeared first on FreightWaves.

The order first announced in 2025 was confirmed in a regulatory filing by Hanwha Ocean of South Korea, according to reports, which will construct six megamax vessels, the largest in operation. It marks the shipyard’s first collaboration with Evergreen, the world’s seventh-largest liner with a 5.7% market share, which currently rosters 12 ultra large container vessels (ULCVs) in its fleet.  

Guangzhou Shipyard International of China will construct the remaining five vessels, all of which will be equipped for methanol and diesel (dual fuel) power. 

Evergreen (2603.TW) has 59 ships totaling 820,000 TEUs on order, most among major liners. 

Despite an oversupply of tonnage amid economic uncertainty that has weakened rates, containership orders among global carriers is approaching 9 million TEUs, or 30% of the existing fleet, according to Lloyd’s List.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Related coverage:

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The post For $3 billion, ocean line expands fleet by 250,000 TEUs appeared first on FreightWaves.

New York–The proposed legislation before the New York City Council that would, among other things, likely force the closure of Amazon’s direct service providers (DSPs) in the city with their activities absorbed into Amazon itself was on center stage Thursday at Gotham’s City Hall, the day kicking off with loud demonstrations outside by supporters and opponents. 

But inside the city council chambers, a hearing before the Committee on Worker and Consumer Protection, while exhibiting its own fair amount of bombast, could be seen in one 45-minute presentation as moving toward a possible compromise on a bill that can realistically be described as “draconian.”

Testimony kicked off at 10 a.m. It closed around 5 p.m. 

But it was the panel discussion midmorning with three borough chamber of commerce presidents–Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan–that turned the conversation from a litany of complaints and accusations about Amazon to a more practical topic: what happens to the workers if the DSPs disappear and their activities are directly performed by the e-commerce giant? (Zach Miller, the vice president of government affairs at the Trucking Association of New York, also was on the panel).

The stakes in New York City can’t be overstated for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). The fundamental business model for Amazon and other companies that make local deliveries, like FedEX (NYSE: FDX), is that much of that task (or in the case of Amazon, all of it), are made by separate, independently-owned companies operating under a contract with the larger entity. The workers are employees of the smaller delivery company, like an Amazon DSP.

The Delivery Protection Act, as it is called, currently has just over 30 co-sponsors in a chamber of 51. The original bill introduced near the end of the session that ended December 31, 2025, had more than 40 co-sponsors. That bill died when the calendar on the year ran out and a new Council was seated, when it was reintroduced. 

There are several key provisions in the act that could be the most disruptive to current economic models. 

Big changes projected by the law

One is a requirement that delivery companies be licensed by the city, with the license regulated by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). That department would have the ability to deny or revoke a license to a company based on various standards of conduct, and the law’s backers and their recitation of various Amazon practices make clear that many Amazon policies might put the company in DCWP’s crosshairs. 

Another is that the delivery companies, which are defined as those that also operate warehouse facilities, can not contract out their work to a third party. The warehouse is key; a retail store that makes a delivery out of its bricks and mortar operations would not fall under the law. 

The entire Amazon DSP model rests on that subcontracting. 

Teamsters and sponsor have been out demonstrating already

Most of the discussion on the bill so far has been driven by its supporters. Its sponsor is Council member Tiffany Caban, and the Teamsters is a major backer. 

A rally in February on City Hall’s steps was attended by well over 100 Teamsters and DSP workers, as well as Caban. A protest against the closure of some DSPs in Queens in September featured an address by Caban, who discussed her legislation that was introduced soon after.

A similar Teamsters-driven rally was held at a small park in front of City Hall Thursday prior to the hearing. Separately, DSP workers opposing the bill lined up on either side of the park to get into their own rally on the steps of the building, but faced a limitation on attendance at the event that a long-term observer of New York City governance told FreightWaves was rare.

In the chamber itself, the anti-legislation attendance in the audience looked like it had surpassed the number of pro-legislation workers in the room. At the Teamsters rally, their speakers had an explanation for that: the DSP workers were bribed or scared, but no evidence of that was presented.

When the chamber of commerce presidents began their presentation, the subject matter shifted away from anti-Amazon criticism and to a larger question: what happens to the DSPs and their workers if Amazon needs to bring them under its roof in New York City? 

(From left to right at the table: Randy Peers, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; Jessica Walker, Manhattan Chamber

of Commerce; Lisa Soren, Bronx Chamber of Commerce; Zach Miller, Trucking Association of New York).

Randy Peers, the president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, didn’t speak first, but his words were the most stark. 

“The licensing requirement is a red herring,” Peers said. “This is not about the proliferation of these facilities in our communities, because you can address that through capping them or through proximity laws, like we do with liquor licenses.”

The proposed law, he said, is “all about the direct hire mandate. At the end of the day, this direct hire mandate puts a whole sub sector of our economy out of business. This is a fact.”

Would the rehiring provision stand up in court?

According to the Delivery Protection Act, if a facility operator needs to terminate a subcontractor because of the death of the third-party model, “the facility operator shall offer to rehire those terminated workers as employees, to perform the same work they had previously performed, before offering to hire any other workers as employees. Offers to rehire such terminated workers shall include a preservation of rights, privileges, and benefits under existing collective bargaining or other agreements and terms no lesser than those in effect at the time of the termination.”

Peere said “no court in the United States is going to force a company to hire a particular classification of workers, so I don’t think that holds water.”

“The reality is we’re cutting a full subsector of our economy, of small businesses,” Peers said. “We’re shutting them down.”

It was that point that seemed to get the attention of the Council committee members, most of whom had spoken positively of the legislation earlier. 

Council member Chris Bass, who in earlier comments had roundly criticized Amazon, softened his tone during question and answers with the chamber of commerce representatives.

Banks said he wanted to “get to the middle.” “I don’t want to completely annihilate small business owners who I know very well, who have stabilized some of our local communities or local hiring,” Banks said. “At the same time there is a need for worker protection, and I think that’s the middle where we come to. So can you give or suggest some improvements to the bill where we can get to a middle point?”

Peers said the elimination of the direct hire requirement was “first and foremost.” (However, the bill’s backers might argue that move would thoroughly undermine their goal.)

Babies and bathwater

Council member Shirley Aldebol said she didn’t want to “throw away the baby with the bath water,” and asked whether there were less drastic steps that could be taken to promote various other goals like worker safety.

Aldebol conceded that a closing of a DSP in the South Bronx, with 100 to 125 employees, means “you’re losing a huge amount of people.”

Committee chair Harvey Epstein noted, however, that closing the DSPs does not eliminate the need to deliver the packages. 

There was discussion of other steps that the city could take to benefit delivery drivers. For example, a city-wide training regime was mentioned.  

Jessica Walker, president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, fired off several suggestions including regulating worker quotas, as protesters at pro-legislation rallies have often cited the number of deliveries a DSP worker must make in a given shift as being unrealistic. (The specter of a driver being required to urinate into a plastic jug was brought up, an activity that long-distance truck drivers know all too well.)

“None of these would require decimating the business,” Walker said.

The human aspect of the bill extends beyond the drivers, as some testimony made clear. 

Owner’s view is heard

Mark Facchin is a DSP owner who testified before the Council. “Owning and running a logistics company requires a lot of up front capital and access to lines of credit to make sure we keep our fleet of trucks current, safe and mechanically sound,” he said in his testimony.

Facchin said he and other DSP owners are largely in the same financial situation. “A lot of us have personal guarantees to the Small Business Administration for loans we took to start our businesses and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loans we took during COVID to keep our businesses afloat, bank loans and lines of credit and credit card balances to make sure our operating bills are paid,” he said. “What the City Council is proposing is to make a draconian law that will force my legal entity to be shut down.”

And where was Amazon in the hearing?

The day before the event, it released testimony it submitted to the committee. 

It touched on several issues, but one key area was its response to suggestions–amplified by testimony at the hearing by representatives from the city’s comptroller office–that Amazon’s operations were a safety risk. 

The Amazon statement said that was a “misconception.”

“The safety of our employees, partners, and the communities we operate in is our top priority,” the Amazon testimony said. “Since 2019, we’ve demonstrated consistent and significant safety improvement at our facilities, with our Recordable Incident Rate improving by 43% and our Lost Time Incident Rate improving by 70% across our global operations.”

The testimony also put an estimate that Amazon “supports more than 25,000 full- and part-time employees in New York City, more than 2,000 of whom work at our local delivery facilities that operate in all five boroughs.”

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The post Amazon DSPs in NYC fight for survival against ‘no subcontractor’ proposal appeared first on FreightWaves.

Speed is the driving force for Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) logistics operation because management says customers are more likely to complete online orders when faster delivery is promised. At the same time, there is a counter movement in retail away from ultra-fast delivery based on concerns about the unsustainable cost of service and whether consumers really expect quick fulfillment turnaround.

Jassy said Prime Air service will be able to serve communities with 30 million customers by the end of the year, with a much wider catalog of goods to choose from, and is expected to annually deliver 500 million packages by the end of the decade in under 30 minutes. The ability to scale up drone deliveries is possible now because of more than 85 same-day fulfillment centers that carry Amazon’s top 90,000 products and serve as launch pads for the autonomous delivery vehicles.

The more streamlined fulfillment centers have already enabled Amazon to deliver more than 500 million same-day packages in 2026 so far, according to the CEO.

Amazon is scheduled to begin serving customers in the south Chicago suburbs out of two fulfillment centers by late spring or early summer. Each site will have 12 to 20 drones. Prime Air’s flagship MK30 drone weighs 83 pounds and can carry items weighing up to 5 pounds. The drones cruise at about 73 mph and 200 to 300 feet high. Six vertical propellers provide lift, with staggered tandem wings supporting cruise flight. They can fly in light precipitation and winds faster than 20 mph. Parcels are stored in a shoebox-sized fuselage and dropped to the ground from about 13 feet up.

Prime Air in recent months has launched in parts of Kansas City, Kansas; San Antonio and Waco, Texas; the suburbs of Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth; Tampa, Florida; and Tolleson, Arizona, west of Phoenix. 

Ultra-fast delivery

Amazon will continue to focus on ultra-fast ground delivery within 20 minutes, which it is testing in India and the United Arab Emirates. The service, called Amazon Now, is also available in parts of Seattle and Philadelphia, and is expanding to Europe. It leverages strategically located, urban micro-fulfillment centers where on-demand workers pick up packaged groceries and household items and deliver them.  In India, where Amazon has more than 360 micro-fulfillment centers  (and more on the way), Amazon Now orders are increasing 25% month-over-month, with Prime members tripling their shopping frequency once they start using it, Jassy said. 

Prime Air will deliver a much larger selection of items than Amazon Now, which is limited to several thousand products.

Jassy said fulfillment centers are able to rapidly churn out orders because of extensive deployment of more than 1 million robots that help stow, pick, sort and transport merchandise within facilities.

Meanwhile, Amazon is aggressively expanding  its delivery network into rural areas under a $4 billion investment campaign initiated last year. The average number of monthly same-day customers in rural areas has nearly doubled in 2025 compared to the prior year. Once the expansion is complete, Amazon will be able to deliver more than 1 billion more packages each year to customers in more than 13,000 zip codes across the nation, the CEO said. 

Amazon opened two small fulfillment centers in West Virginia to improve delivery times across the state, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced on April 1. It is also opening a new facility in Reno, Nevada.

The push into rural areas is one of the key reasons behind Amazon’s decision to reduce by 20% the amount of parcels tendered to the U.S. Postal Service under a new contract agreement reached this week, according to industry analysts. Once Amazon has built out its rural delivery infrastructure there will be little need to use the Postal Service for last-mile delivery. 

“Ultra-fast delivery is the new table stakes. Amazon running three parallel speed programs simultaneously means the delivery expectation floor is dropping. If you operate in grocery, pharmacy, convenience, or everyday essentials, the competitive benchmark will move from same-day to sub-hour within three years in major metros,” said Nikhil Varshney, a Wayfair supply chain manager who writes a Substack newsletter called the “Silk Road Nexus.”

Is fast shipping critical?

And yet, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, a growing number of online retailers are increasingly reluctant to absorb the cost of fast shipping as delivery prices have risen. Many offer “no rush” shipping options that can take several days after realizing that not all customers are looking for fast delivery. And, it turns out, customers who wait are less likely to return purchases.

Same-day delivery economics typically operate at 15% to 30% lower margins than standard two-day shipping due to route density inefficiencies, higher labor costs per package, and reduced vehicle utilization rates, said Aalok Rathod, a former Amazon Web Services financial analyst, on LinkedIn. 

“Amazon trained an entire generation to believe that instant gratification should cost $0. Now every retailer is trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma where not offering same-day delivery means losing customers, but offering it means destroying your contribution margin,” he wrote.

Satish Jindel, a veteran parcel shipping consultant and president of ShipMatrix Inc., said more than 90% of customers don’t need their package on the day it is scheduled for delivery.

“People have this addiction to their cell phone, they flipping around, being bombarded with advertising, can’t resist a buy, and then it sits around at the front door. They didn’t need it , they didn’t need it on that day. That’s why returns are so high,” he said in an interview. “If something is urgent, people will go to the store or pay for same-day delivery.”

“This is what I call Amazon’s Trojan Horse. They’ve got Americans believing they need it and on the same day. The only thing you need the same day is food” or something like an emergency gift, he said. “If fast delivery is offered for free without a premium price, it will be viewed as table stakes for e-commerce retailers and everyone will be offering it without having the favorable economics of Amazon.”

(Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that local fulfillment centers enabled 500 million same-day deliveries by Amazon Prime Air this year. They have made it possible for Amazon Logistics to make that many same-day deliveries, by van and drone.)

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

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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CMA CGM and its partners in the Ocean Alliance have added a direct container service from China and Asia markets to the Port of Jacksonville, Fla.

Operated on a weekly basis, the Chesapeake Bay Express (CBX) is jointly provided by CMA CGM of France, China’s Cosco (1919.HK) and subsidiary OOCL, and Evergreen Marine (2603.TW) of Taiwan.

The inaugural sailing will arrive at Jaxport in June, the port said in an announcement.

The CBX port rotation includes Vung Tau, Vietnam; Yantian and Shanghai in China; Busan, South Korea; Kobe, Japan; transit of the Panama Canal; Norfolk; Charleston; Savannah; and Jacksonville on the U.S. East Coast; and a return to Vung Tau.

Located near Ho Chi Minh City in the busiest Cai Mep–Thi Vai Port Cluster, Vung Tau handled about 152 million metric tonnes of cargo in 2024, or roughly 34% of Vietnam’s total container volume. It is one of the few Vietnamese ports that can handle very large vessels, including ships up 14,000 TEUs or larger, which makes it strategically important for direct long-haul trade.

At Jaxport, SSA Marine will provide stevedoring services at the newly modernized SSA Jacksonville Container Terminal at Blount Island Marine Terminal. 

“The addition of the Ocean Alliance further strengthens Jacksonville’s position as a strategic gateway for global trade,” said Jaxport Chief Executive Eric Green, in a statement. “This service expands routing flexibility between the southeast United States and key Asian markets and underscores how our continued infrastructure investments are delivering efficient, reliable service for global carriers.”

As the final U.S. port of call on CBX, and the busiest Florida port by volume, Jaxport will be a key center for equipment repositioning and expedited transit for U.S. export cargoes.

A project to increase the air draft at the Blount Island terminal to 205 feet remains on schedule for completion by the end of 2026.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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The post Jaxport adds new direct China connection appeared first on FreightWaves.

While the whole team includes Lauren Fitzpatrick, Ellie Crist, Aaron Kestenbaum and others, I spoke to three key product managers deep in the trenches of project44’s AI blitz.

(Nimrit Vest. Photo: JP Hampstead / FreightWaves)

Nimrit Vest: Building the AI supply chain analyst ‘Mo’

Nimrit Vest, Staff Product Manager at project44 in her fourth year with the company, previously spent four years at Flexport in operations and customer solutions. Vest is responsible for project44’s supply chain analyst chatbot Mo. When you ask Mo questions, he isn’t just scraping the web; he’s sifting through your company’s own supply chain data for the answer.

The chatbot is still in preproduction. A key ‘gold standard’ use case for Vest’s team was the ability to answer complex chargeback questions for shippers delivering to big box retailers— figuring out exactly where delays happened (origin, transit, or dwell at destination) and who was responsible (shipper, carrier, receiver), something that previously took analysts a long time. Vest’s team has also been researching off-platform data analysis to better understand customer needs.

Vest said that she manages three senior engineers who are focused on the architecture, who are themselves supervising numerous 24/7 coding agents.

The only reason project44 was able to start on a project like ‘Mo’ was because of the data normalization happening behind the scenes, Vest said, explaining how project44’s early agents worked on data quality, making inquiries to fill gaps in information about carriers and shipments.

Vest described layers of skills built into Mo: how it understands p44 data and what fields mean, giving it the ability to reason more than an out-of-the-box LLM. Then there are customizations that customers add to the platform, or what project44 calls ‘the context module,’ which includes SOPs and other business rules.

One approach is turning large text files or SOPs from Confluence into “skill files.” The context modules have to be thoughtfully chosen and attached to specific workflows and processes due to the limits of LLM context windows.

Vest said that project44 strongly encourages teams to try new tools and bring insights back. That’s led to rapid adoption of AI coding tools. “The line between what an engineer and a PM can do has blurred extremely fast,” Vest noted. PMs can now write a skill file in Claude, pull from GitHub and ask AI what the engineers did that day.

(Ilias Pagonis. Photo: JP Hampstead / FreightWaves)

Ilias Pagonis: Leading the intelligent TMS product suite

Ilias Pagonis, Senior Staff Product Manager with four years at project44 and previously in supply chain at Nike for four years, is based in Amsterdam. He leads the Intelligent TMS product suite and manages the interoperability domain, building integrations with any system of record. His dev team is mostly in Bangalore, with a product designer in Amsterdam working alongside him.

“AI has completely transformed the speed at which we get to a prototype,” Pagonis said. Gone are the days of only heavy research and lengthy product requirement documents (PRDs). Now, after customer interviews, teams can ingest transcripts and automatically create a PRD that references the conversations. 

“Something that took weeks takes days if not hours,” Pagonis said. They quickly get prototypes in front of customers for feedback and iterate rapidly. About 65% of code is initially drafted by AI, with up to 90% on the front end.

Pagonis reminded me that project44 started in 2014 as a one-to-many API integrations partner focused on visibility, then expanded into different modes and packaged functionality into a full TMS with order consolidation, shipment building, freight audit and full lifecycle coverage. To some extent, Pagonis said, Intelligent TMS just bundles many of the capabilities project44 already had, filled in some gaps in the shipment cycle like payment and invoice, and called it what it is: a TMS.

Building an agent requires breaking down the total work into small ‘jobs to be done’ modules. “Procurement has 6 or 7 micro agents,” Pagonis explained. “You have to break everything down to its atomic parts.” Reducing the tasks to their component parts and simplifying the prompts was necessary for driving hallucination out of the system.

For freight procurement, users set their own criteria — for example, automatically extending an expiring contract with a high-performing carrier, but throttling the introduction of brand-new carriers. “We try to set that throttle on a use case by use case basis to make sure the customers trust the agentic solutions we’re building.”

Pagonis stressed that modularity was key for the Intelligent TMS; it’s not all-or-nothing and it doesn’t require replacing an existing TMS. It’s more an intelligence layer that sits on top. 

“We meet the customers where they are,” Pagonis said. “The world today needs a different TMS that is dynamically adaptive and not locked into deterministic workflows.”

(Nick Ruggiero. Photo: JP Hampstead / FreightWaves)

Nick Ruggiero: Driving Autopilot for workflow automation

Nick Ruggiero, Director of Product Management who joined project44 back in 2018, is building Autopilot, which automates workflows for customers with an AI agent.

The goal was to deploy agents in a way that helps customers gain trust. “There’s a lot of fear in the industry, a lot of hesitation to get started with AI. This helps them gain trust, because we’re automating processes they’re running on our data already,” Ruggiero noted. They started with AI agents for data quality — a low-risk early adoption point that also addresses gaps in missing visibility data.

They developed a workflow canvas where everything is auditable. “Agents collaborate with humans in the same way that humans collaborate with humans.” Customers can configure steps for what happens after an agent completes its jobs, building comfort with the technology through existing TMS integrations, with nothing new required to get started.

Some customers have engaged carriers for operational workflows, starting with data quality and moving to in-transit exceptions. For example, rebooking a container headed to a transshipment port if the ETA risks missing the next vessel departure is more proactive than reactive. 

“We’ve had customers deploy those scenarios with certain carriers, regions, lanes, and they can bring their carrier along,” Ruggiero said.

Ruggiero mentioned that in the morning, project44 CEO Jett McCandless had discussed a framework of signal, trigger, action.

“We’ve always been getting signals and developing triggers,” Ruggiero said, “but the difference is in the action—we’re now bringing those actions back into the platform.” Ruggiero observed that customers are often overwhelmed by exceptions and end up being reactive. By automating processes that had once required tedious off-platform analysis, Autopilot could drastically speed up exception management and allow supply chain operators the space to start thinking strategically again.

While building agents involves traditional software development lifecycle steps like starting small, getting feedback and iterating, the process now includes prompt engineers. But “very little vibe-coded software is production-ready” Ruggiero reminded me. “Writing the code is much faster, but the question of WHAT to build is still the most important part.”

The Decision44 agenda went deep on product development, with mid-level product managers demonstrating their live and upcoming releases. project44 is clearly positioning itself at the forefront of agentic supply chain technology. From intelligent chatbots and modular TMS agents to auditable workflow automation, the company is moving the supply chain from reactive visibility to proactive, trust-building decision-making and execution, all built on the foundation of normalized data and customer-configurable intelligence.

The post Meet the product managers leading project44’s AI push appeared first on FreightWaves.

Executives said both ocean and air freight are entering Q2 with a widening disconnect between demand and pricing — with rates climbing largely due to cost pressures rather than cargo volumes.

Fuel — not demand — is once again the primary driver of freight pricing. For carriers, that means margin protection through surcharges. For shippers, it means higher costs and volatility even in a soft market environment.

Flexport, founded in 2013 by Ryan Petersen and based in San Francisco, provides global logistics solutions.

Ocean: Calm volumes, rising costs

Flexport officials said trans-Pacific eastbound (TPEB) ocean conditions are “relatively calm,” with stable capacity and muted seasonal demand typical for April.

“On the TPEB side, things are actually relatively calm,” said Kyle Beaulieu, senior director and head of ocean Americas at Flexport. “Supply is relatively stable.”

However, that stability masks a key shift: rates are rising despite weak demand.

• Capacity remains “healthy” and largely in line with Q4 levels
• Blank sailings have increased, driven by higher fuel costs and low demand
• Carriers are rolling out emergency bunker surcharges (EBS) globally
• U.S. trades are seeing surcharge implementation in April

“Demand is relatively muted in April … but the fuel costs are impacting decisions on supply and impacting freight rates,” Beaulieu said.

Fuel-related cost increases — tied to disruption in the Persian Gulf — are pushing carriers to raise all-in rates, even without strong volume growth.

Operations: Local congestion, global ripple effects

Port operations remain mostly stable in North America, with a few exceptions.

“Overall, actually, in North America, it’s pretty quiet,” said Nathan Strang, director of ocean freight at Flexport.

Savannah remains a pressure point, with vessel queues causing delays.

“They’re seeing about six vessel waits on average, or about two-day delay,” Strang said, noting weather and navigation constraints as key factors.

Globally, congestion persists in parts of Europe and Asia, while disruptions tied to the Middle East continue to ripple through supply chains.

• ~130 container ships remain stuck or delayed in the Persian Gulf region
• Carriers are avoiding the region despite a ceasefire announcement
• Cargo is increasingly being rerouted via land bridges out of UAE hubs

“We’ve also seen about five container ships leave the Gulf in recent days. So that’s a good sign,” Strang said, adding that most carriers are still waiting for safe transit conditions.

Air freight: Severe disruption, surging rates

Air cargo markets remain under significant stress, with Flexport calling disruption widespread.

“In air freight, we’re still seeing major disruption in the market due to the situation in the Middle East,” said David Grinevald, regional director for air freight at Flexport.

Key pressure points include:

• Multiple airspace closures across the Middle East
• Reduced capacity at major hubs like Dubai and Doha
• Global widebody capacity down 11% vs. pre-Lunar New Year levels

“The fact that airlines have to reroute around those airspaces is, of course, creating major capacity issues,” Grinevald said.

Fuel driving the market

Jet fuel prices have become the dominant force across air cargo.

“Jet fuel has effectively doubled year over year, about plus 78% since the beginning of the crisis,” Grinevald said.

Carriers are responding with aggressive surcharges and operational adjustments.

“What they’re doing is that they’re immediately applying those fuel surcharges to the shippers,” he said.

Longer routing is also reducing payload capacity, further tightening supply and increasing the risk of shipment rollovers.

Rates vs. demand: A growing disconnect

Flexport highlighted a structural shift in global freight markets, where cost pressures — not demand — are driving pricing.

Ocean markets are seeing rate increases tied to fuel and carrier cost management, while air cargo is experiencing both capacity constraints and cost inflation.

“The big thing is not so much capacity right now as it is the price of fuel,” Grinevald said.

Looking ahead, Flexport executives expect:

• Elevated fuel surcharges to persist through Q2
• Continued volatility tied to Middle East developments
• Limited relief from seasonal capacity increases in air freight
• Stable but cost-inflated ocean markets

The post Fuel shock, Middle East turmoil push global freight rates higher appeared first on FreightWaves.

Carriers in the Inland Empire have struggled for years to find infrastructure capable of supporting commercial electrification at scale. This facility is built to change that. It can serve more than 200 medium- and heavy-duty trucks daily under EV Realty’s Powered Properties model, which aggregates multiple fleets onto shared charging infrastructure rather than forcing each carrier to build and maintain its own dedicated depot.

J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., Gate City Beverage (part of Harbor Distributing, a Reyes Holdings company) and fully electric carrier Nevoya have signed on as initial customers.

The site sits near the San Bernardino Intermodal Facility, amid more than 60 million square feet of industrial warehouse space and close to Interstate 10 and Interstate 215 — a critical artery for freight moving out of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The region is home to nearly 17,000 medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

“The Inland Empire is where freight from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach gets sorted and sent across the country by truck and rail,” said EV Realty CEO Patrick Sullivan. “Fleets operating here are doing some of the most demanding work in the supply chain. They need reliable, affordable access to high-power charging so they can move beyond pilots and make electrification a real business decision. That’s exactly what we built here.”

The hub deploys Kempower charging hardware, offering up to 1.2 MW for Megawatt Charging System ports designed for next-generation Class 8 tractors and up to 500 kW for Combined Charging System ports standard on current electric trucks. Spring-assisted cables address driver ergonomics. Fleet management software from Synop delivers power management, reservations, reporting and insights on cost, range and efficiency. The site operates 24/7 with on-site staff, security, parking and driver amenities.

By pooling fleets onto shared infrastructure, the Powered Properties approach tackles one of the biggest barriers to commercial EV adoption: the capital cost and operational complexity of building dedicated charging depots.

“EV Realty has been a great partner for us,” said Nevoya Chief Commercial Officer John Verdon. “Their unique design and business model allow carriers like us to optimize operations with cost-effective charging and logistics solutions. The opening of this site provides valuable operational flexibility with both megawatt charging and vehicle domicile options that work well for our needs.”

The San Bernardino hub opened just months after groundbreaking in mid-2025. EV Realty compressed construction timelines thanks to available grid power from Southern California Edison and project partners including ParWest. Grants from the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Carl Moyer Program and the California Energy Commission’s EnergIIZE Commercial Vehicles Project helped support the build.

The opening marks the latest milestone in EV Realty’s growth, which includes $75 million in growth equity from NGP and additional investment from truck terminal operator Outpost.

The post EV Realty opens major truck charging hub in San Bernardino appeared first on FreightWaves.

The national post on Thursday also announced its intent to temporarily suspend employer retirement contributions to the Federal Employees Retirement System to conserve cash and maintain liquidity. The USPS previously suspended pension payments in 2011 during another period of financial stress. That suspension lasted several months, and the USPS later resumed the regular biweekly payments and remitted the withheld amounts.  

The national carrier filed notice on Thursday with the Postal Regulatory Commission for the price increases, which are scheduled to take effect on July 12 pending the PRC’s review. The oversight body last week granted approval for the U.S. Postal Serviceto proceed with a temporary 8% surcharge to cover the escalating cost of transportation, especially fuel. 

Under the recommended price changes, the additional-ounce price for single-piece letters will remain at 29 cents. The Postal Service is also seeking price adjustments for other First-Class Mail products, periodicals, marketing mail, package services and selected special services products.

At a congressional hearing last month, Postmaster General David Steiner warned the Postal Service could run out of cash in a year unless lawmakers addressed structural policies that impose heavy costs on the agency. He also reiterated the need for continued improvements in operational efficiency and revenue generation, saying he wanted to raise the stamp price to 95 cents.

The USPS had a net loss of $9.5 billion in fiscal year 2025.

“In the midst of the severe financial crisis facing the Postal Service and continued rising operational costs, the Postal Service is using all available tools, including available regulatory pricing authority, to ensure we can continue to fulfill our universal service obligation and serve the American public,” the agency said in a statement. The agency is self funded and doesn’t receive tax dollars for support.

Keep US Posted, an advocacy group of consumers, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines and catalogs, complained in a letter to a House subcommittee earlier this week that postal rates are already too high.

“The Postal Service does not have a revenue problem; it has a cost control problem,” wrote Executive Director Kevin Yoder. “Stamp prices have climbed 44% over the past 15 years, and rates for other mail products have risen even more. Yet despite these repeated increases, USPS has still lost more than $25 billion since [former] Postmaster General DeJoy launched the 2021 Delivering for America plan — even after Congress provided $10 billion under the 2021 CARES Act and eliminated $120 billion in liabilities under the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022.” The organization is calling on Congress to limit USPS rate hikes to once per year and cap them to the rise of the Consumer Price Index.

Chief Financial Officer Luke Grossman said current and future retirees will not be impacted if normal retirement cost payments are temporarily withheld. 

“The risk to the Postal Service and the American public from insufficient liquidity for postal operations dramatically outweighs any longer-term risk to the pension funds from not making the currently due payments. We will continue to transmit to employees’ contributions to FERS and will also continue to transmit employer automatic and matching contributions and employee contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan. It must be noted that our pension systems remain much better funded than other agencies,” he said in a statement posted on the agency’s in-house news site.

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

Contact:  ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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The post Troubled Postal Service moves to raise stamp prices, conserve cash appeared first on FreightWaves.

Fleet operators tend to think of risk in terms of isolated events, such as a crash, a failed inspection, or a compliance lapse. But according to Bob O’Connell, Account Executive of Strategic Accounts at J.J. Keller & Associates, that way of thinking is itself the biggest blind spot in the industry.

“A lot of carriers, big and small, believe that their risk is based on isolated incidents,” O’Connell said in a recent appearance on FreightWaves’ What the Truck?!? with host Malcolm Harris. “That’s really not the case. You’re being judged on all of it, the consistency of your entire operation.”

The distinction matters because regulators and plaintiff attorneys alike are looking at patterns, not snapshots. A fleet that performs well on one audit but lacks the operational discipline to sustain that performance over time is exposed in ways its leadership may not fully appreciate until it’s too late.

O’Connell laid out a three-part framework for how fleets of any size can close their risk gaps and move from reactive to proactive postures: operate as though a merger or acquisition is imminent, build genuine regulatory expertise internally, and maintain litigation-ready records at all times.

Run your fleet like someone’s about to buy it

The first strategy O’Connell outlined may sound like it belongs in a boardroom rather than a dispatch office, but the logic is straightforward. A fleet that’s always ready for due diligence is a fleet that’s always ready for scrutiny from any direction, whether that’s an insurance carrier, a federal auditor, or a plaintiff’s legal team.

“A merger and acquisition forces discipline, not only on the financial side, but through the entire operational side,” O’Connell said. “If you’re taking a look at it from that viewpoint, what you’re going to see is that if you’re always ready for a merger and acquisition, you’re always going to be ready for somebody to come in and pull the covers back on your entire operation.”

That readiness, O’Connell argues, has compounding benefits. Fleets that maintain tight operational visibility are better positioned to push back on insurance rate increases, respond to audits with confidence, and demonstrate to outside parties that they’re running a disciplined shop.

“If you’re ready for somebody to be viewing your organization in a very detailed format, you’re ready for a lot of things,” he said. That includes showing your insurance provider how well you perform to get lower rates. 

The same principle applies when litigation enters the picture. A fleet with a merger-ready posture already has its documentation organized, its compliance records accessible, and its operational narrative coherent.

Regulatory expertise can’t live in one person’s head

The second pillar of O’Connell’s framework centers on regulatory knowledge, and specifically on why fleets can’t afford to treat compliance as a static competency that lives with a single internal hire.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) are constantly evolving. The pipeline of changes (from the congressional record to the federal register to state and municipal rulemaking) is broader than most fleet operators realize. 

O’Connell says that outside compliance partners exist precisely because no single internal team can track the full scope of regulatory change in real time. “You would have to have a fleet of people to manage that,” he said. “Why not turn that over to a specialist that does nothing else  every single day?”

But outside expertise alone isn’t sufficient. The real value comes from pairing external regulatory intelligence with internal operational knowledge.

“It’s not just the regulations,” O’Connell said. “It’s how those regulations affect your organization, because regulations aren’t really one size fits all. You have to be able to look at the regulatory expertise, make sure you understand those regulations, and make sure you’re being notified of when they’re changing and how they’re changing.”

Cookie-cutter compliance strategies fail because operations can be very diverse from one fleet to the next. The regulatory burden looks different depending on whether a carrier is running small-cap package delivery, waste haul operations, or long-haul linehaul, and each type requires its own operational interpretation of the same regulatory landscape.

“You have to have bench strength so that your inside person understands the operation,” O’Connell said. “All of your competitors have to comply with the same regulatory landscape.”

J.J. Keller’s Certified Transportation Regulatory Expert (CTRE) Program bridges the gap between regulatory knowledge and operational application so a fleet’s internal staff can fully understand the FMCSRs and comply with them more effectively.

If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist

Litigation-ready record keeping may be the most immediately actionable of O’Connell’s strategies, and it’s where the consequences of failure are most visible.

Both regulators and plaintiff attorneys evaluate fleets holistically, not on the merits of a single event. When records are organized, accessible, and comprehensive, it fundamentally shifts the dynamic of any legal or regulatory engagement.

“What better way to demonstrate, not only to a regulatory official, but also a plaintiff attorney, that you have everything wrapped up pretty tight?” O’Connell asked. “It’s great to be able to demonstrate that your records are easily accessible and easily produced for any regulatory agency or a plaintiff attorney. That immediately changes the tone of the whole conversation.”

The inverse is equally true. When records are disorganized, incomplete, or difficult to produce under pressure, it invites deeper scrutiny and raises the risk of any enforcement action or lawsuit.

“If it’s not written down or you can’t produce it, it doesn’t exist,” O’Connell tells clients.

Spoliation, the obligation to preserve records once litigation is reasonably anticipated, is a practical example of why record-keeping discipline can’t be built after the fact.

“If you are going to get into litigation or you believe that you could be getting into litigation based upon an incident, you have a legal responsibility to start gathering all of those records and to not destroy any of those records,” O’Connell said. 

Build the system before you need it

If there is any single change in thinking that would make the biggest difference for fleet leaders, O’Connell says, it’s a change in posture.

“The safest, most resilient fleets that I’ve come across in my thirty-seven year career don’t react to enforcement,” O’Connell said. “They build defensible systems right into their operations all the time so that when somebody comes knocking, whether that be an enforcement official, whether that be a plaintiff attorney, they’re ready to go.”

That readiness, he argues, is also a competitive advantage.

“You can’t control a lot of the things that are going on in your fleet on the road every single day, but you can control the systems that you have there.”

The time to build those systems is before they’re tested, not during a crisis.

“You don’t want on-the-job training when it comes to this kind of stuff,” he said. “Make sure that your systems are already up to speed and you’re ready to go before something happens.”

To learn more about J.J. Keller & Associates, click here.

The post Three Strategies for Closing Fleet Risk Blind Spots appeared first on FreightWaves.

From the agricultural surplus of 10,000 BC that enabled civilization, to Rome’s maritime empire, the Silk Road’s intermediaries, the compass that unlocked ocean navigation, the 13th-century bill of lading, the printing press and the standardization of information, railroads (and the invention of time zones), electricity, the telegraph, the 1956 shipping container that slashed loading costs from 58.6 cents to 16 cents per ton, and the birth of EDI during the Berlin Airlift, every major transformation, McCandless argued, produced a new supply chain model as its primary consequence, not a side effect.

“What if their systems moved at the speed of thought?” McCandless asked, framing the current moment as the culmination of 12,000 years of human logistics breakthroughs.

In the 1990s, the internet brought retail and finance into real-time data, “but logistics kept picking up the phone,” he said. When McCandless entered the industry in 1999, it still ran on phones, faxes, emails and AS/400 systems. “The hardest working people in the world” were making million-dollar decisions with partial information because their systems failed them. The real constraint, McCandless insisted, was never human effort—it was the systems around the humans.

Project44’s 2014 founding was an attempt to fix that. The company spent a decade and $1.5 billion in R&D to build what McCandless called the connective tissue the global supply chain lacked: “We turned the lights on.” The result was visibility at unprecedented scale and a logistics data graph that captured more than 1 billion customer-created events per day and 4 petabytes of data monthly, the equivalent of watching YouTube 24/7 for 9,000 years.

But visibility brought chaos and analysis paralysis. The signal-to-action ratio was just 2 percent. The industry became informed, yet frozen. “What if this is as far as we go?” McCandless recalled asking himself. “What if we gave the world a clear view of its problems, but we can’t solve them fast enough?”

The answer, unveiled during Decision44, is a new class of AI agents that collapse the three-step lead time—truth, decision, action—into a single motion. A process that once took days now takes seconds. “Agency is a dial you control,” McCandless said. The technology is no longer the bottleneck. The last remaining constraint is the processes built around it: every approval chain, sign-off and “let me see.” The hardest part of what comes next “isn’t technology… it’s new processes.”

Building trusted AI for the supply chain

Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Scherr picked up the thread, declaring the company’s mission unchanged—“to eliminate friction from global trade”—but now executed through AI that enterprises can actually trust. McKinsey estimates AI’s enterprise impact at $8 trillion annually, yet only 1 percent of global enterprises consider their AI mature. In supply chains, where the cost of failure is measured in lost cargo, stockouts or detained trucks, trust is the gap.

Scherr broke trust into three pillars: Data, Intelligence (logic and reasoning), and Action. Large language models like Claude, GPT or Gemini are powerful at collating public data, but insufficient alone for business use cases. “The data that sits on top of the LLM… is what makes it valuable,” he said. Project44 calls this “context”: the situational knowledge of relationships between pieces of information that lives mostly outside any single organization.

More than 80 percent of AI implementations fail because of insufficient context, Scherr noted. Project44’s decade-long investment in its data graph, interoperability with WMS, TMS, YMS, ERP and OMS systems, and AI agents that proactively reach out to carriers (via the recent LunaPath acquisition) have already delivered measurable gains: more than 25 percent improvement in ETA accuracy.

The company is now embedding “context-fueled intelligence” directly into the platform. Supply chain has its own semantics—“on-time” means something different to every organization—and the system must understand pattern recognition and reasoning. Scherr introduced “Mo,” a context-aware chatbot coming in early July that lets customers upload their own shipment history, business rules and semantic layer for true analysis grounded in their data.

From Autopilot to specific agents: p44’s product roadmap

Nick Ruggiero, director of product management for Autopilot, detailed how Project44 is turning that intelligence into automated, trusted workflows. The agents are configurable, explainable and human-controlled, with granular controls, transparent logic, audit history and intervention points at every critical step. Stored workflows function like a prompt library.

Early results: 17 percent reduction in manual exception handling. Configurable workflows are available today; agent transcripts arrive in May and multi-agent workflows are set to be released in July. Project44 itself is accelerating its pace of production, from shipping one workflow per week to one per day over the summer.

Ruggiero distinguished deterministic workflows (“if X then Y”) from agentic ones that decide and adapt. The architecture decomposes work into tasks, combines semantics and triggers, builds focused micro-agents, tests them in human-controlled Autopilot flows, and introduces supervisory agents capable of orchestrating complex sequences.

At this point in the presentation, numerous product leaders demoed specific agents in rapid succession:

• Ilias Pagonis, senior staff product manager for Transportation Planning, attacked the legacy of periodic bid cycles, manual spreadsheet negotiations and slow sequential workflows. Project44’s Freight Procurement Agent replaces them with continuous AI-powered sourcing and simultaneous carrier negotiations in seconds under governed autonomy. Significant results have already demonstrated: 4.1 percent freight cost mitigation, 75 percent reduction in sourcing cycle time, and 70 percent reduction in manual coordination. The Freight Procurement Agent is available now.

• Ellie Crist, VP of product management, and Lauren Fitzpatrick, director of data science, tackled logistics operations. Cargo theft losses are up 60 percent year-over-year. New agents automatically detect risk by collating signals like door-open events and GPS spoofing patterns, and cut intervention times from 40 minutes to 12 minutes. Ceva Logistics, a project44 customer, specifically cited p44’s AI capabilities as enabling them to intervene in a shipment “before an incident becomes a loss.”

Inventory management faces late stockout detection and transit variability that inflates safety stock. The Stockout Risk Monitoring and Inventory Risk Agent, also July, closes the gap so the world’s largest automakers can see risk while there is still time to act, which is critical when downtime costs $27,000 per minute in automotive plants.

Last-mile operations can see disruptions, like large weather events, that cascade across thousands of shipments. Project44 already offers predictive ETAs and consumer visibility. New capabilities move from reactive exception management to agentic disruption response: Last Mile Disruptions in June and Agentic Case Resolution in July.

• Aron Kestenbaum, VP of product for Yard Management, highlighted the hidden costs after a truck arrives on time. Yards remain manual, siloed and disconnected, with congestion, detention and labor waste in the gap between arrival, unloading and “in stock.” Integrated scheduling, gate optimization, visibility and task orchestration are the solution. The Dynamic Slot Booking Agent arrives in June and is expected to reduce detention time by 17 percent, improve yard optimization by 8 percent and save 10 hours per week on manual coordination.

Abercrombie & Fitch’s Kristen Kravitz on process and people

The most grounded moment came during a conversation between Kristen Kravitz, Group Vice President of Supply Chain at Abercrombie & Fitch, and Project44 Chief Revenue Officer Rick Turco. Abercrombie has transformed from a standard mall retailer into a lifestyle brand, forcing its supply chain to evolve from cost center to value creator and brand enabler.

Kravitz, now in her tenth year, described rebuilding the team to include operations, transportation technology and supply chain digital solutions. “We’ve tried to embrace a digital-first mindset,” she said. The biggest obstacles were manual workflows, siloed data, third-party systems and predictions built for a stable world that no longer exists. “We’re in the never-normal supply chain now.”

At Abercrombie, inventory discipline is considered paramount; Kravitz says that she considers the trendy, seasonal apparel the company makes to be ‘perishable’ for all intents and purposes. Technology is no longer the bottleneck, Kravitz emphasized: “It’s often now the process and people.” The company shifted teams from transportation mode-focused work to origin-and-destination decisioning and built hybrid data structures with central and embedded supply chain analytics. Cross-functional translation, including translating the language of supply chain operations into financial and planning language, has been key.

Project44 data, combined with Power BI rollout, has been instrumental. “Visibility is really an enabler of more efficient execution,” Turco noted. Kravitz stressed balancing movement data with other systems and the need for end-to-end predictions that incorporate factory production milestones. “By the time a vendor hands over the product… a lot of what is going to happen has already been predetermined,” she said. 

Ilias Pagonis on the Intelligent TMS

Pagonis returned to close the tech demo segment by explaining why Project44 is entering the TMS space. Traditional TMS platforms were designed for stable carrier relationships, predictable freight cycles and annual procurement—conditions he believes no longer exist. Many solutions remain on-premise and unchanged for 20 years.

Project44’s Intelligent TMS is “intelligent and unbiased,” acting on vetted carrier performance and market data rather than self-reported snapshots. It is AI-native rather than AI-bolted-on, modular rather than monolithic, and powers the entire shipment journey: procurement, planning, execution, visibility, settlement and payment.

Pagonis highlighted the AI value gap: 96 percent of transportation leaders say continued AI investment is a top priority, yet only 13 percent of logistics professionals report measurable value today. “Vanity AI projects won’t deliver value nor survive the next budget cycle.”

He demoed the Execution Recovery Agent, which instantly identifies the next carrier and contacts them. Additional agents launching later this year include Freight Procurement, Load Consolidation, Appointment Scheduling and Freight Audit.

“The only modular TMS on the market,” Pagonis declared. One control layer provides infinite flexibility. Customers can start where value is highest and scale on their terms—no multi-year migration required.

The bottom line

Decision44 made clear that Project44 is no longer content with visibility. It is handing execution to AI agents while keeping humans in the governance loop: “Let the agents handle the grind; your job is to govern the dials.” From freight procurement to cargo theft prevention, yard slotting to last-mile disruption response, the company is releasing purpose-built agents on an aggressive timeline: some live now, most by July.

For an industry still recovering from pandemic shocks, facing 60 percent higher theft losses, volatile freight markets and never-normal conditions, the promise is systems that finally move at the speed of thought. Whether the processes and people can keep up (as Kristen Kravitz candidly noted) will determine how much of that $8 trillion AI opportunity actually lands in supply chain P&Ls.

Jett McCandless is betting the next 12,000 years of logistics history begins today, with agents that don’t just see problems but act on them quickly, transparently, and under human governance. The lights are on. Now the machines are moving.

The post Project44 unveils fleet of AI agents at customer event Decision44 appeared first on FreightWaves.

The funds, from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF), totaled a record $131.8 million for the San Pedro Bay complex, the busiest container gateway that includes the Port of Long Beach.

While Los Angeles and other “donor ports” contribute over half of the total funding to the HMTF through a tax on import cargo, they have traditionally received less than 3% of that funding back for harbor improvements. Reforms enacted in 2020 established a framework to address this imbalance and an initial round of funding was allocated to donor ports in Fiscal Year 2024. However, no funding was allocated in fiscal 2025, leading to additional reforms enacted this year that ensure consistent implementation of this equitable funding formula.

Congress appropriated $3.245 billion in HMTF funding for fiscal 2026; $416.8 million specifically for maintenance of donor and energy ports through the Water Resources Development Act.

LA in 2025 generated $301 billion in trade and handled the equivalent of 10.2 million containers.

“After years of donor and energy transfer ports being shortchanged, I’m pleased to see the Army Corps finally implementing the reforms Congress enacted in 2020 to ensure these ports receive their fair share,” said Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, in a statement. “When I raised this directly with Assistant Secretary [of the Army Adam] Telle earlier this year, he committed to following the law – and this funding reflects that commitment. These investments will allow the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to move forward on critical infrastructure and maintenance projects, including seismic upgrades, wharf repairs, and other essential improvements that keep our supply chains strong and resilient.”

Calling the port a leading economic driver for California and the U.S., Sen. Adam Schiff, also in a statement, said, “These critical funds will address long overdue maintenance projects and safety upgrades – ensuring the port remains one of the finest global trade hubs in the world.”

LA has a punchlist of more than $6 billion in navigational maintenance and repair projects, said Port Executive Director Gene Seroka. “With this support, repairs can move forward more quickly, ensuring that our Port’s infrastructure continues to meet world-class expectations.”

The port plans to use its HMTF allocation for priority projects that include dredging, seismic safety upgrades, wharf and fender repairs, pile replacements, sediment removal and remediation, and improvements to slips and channels.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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The post Biggest US port getting a big check for fix-ups appeared first on FreightWaves.

With two new customers building facilities along the line, the state-owned railway has invested more than $3 million in route rehabilitation including bridge improvements, tie replacement, track servicing, and upgrades to safety equipment. An additional $6.5 million in infrastructure work is planned over the next two years.

The Salkehatchie Sub, which interchanges with CSX at Hampton, S.C., is currently seeing training of train crews, along with continuing maintenance-of-way activities. Railcar movements are expected to begin later this month. With train movements beginning late in March, Palmetto has begun a campaign to raise local rail safety awareness, working with county leadership, local law enforcement, and fire and emergency services.

Jennifer Brown, Palmetto’s director of industrial development, said in an email that Heidelberg Materials has begun development of its facility along the railway. Heidelberg, a supplier of cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, and asphalt with more than 450 U.S. locations and about 9,000 employees, announced plans in 2025 to locate on the line. Also, wood products company Boise Cascade will begin construction of a new facility this fall.

The railroad continues work with the state Department of Commerce, Colleton County Economic Alliance, and Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance to recruit additional clients to rail-served locations including the Colleton Mega Site, a 1,481-acre industrial park, and the Stokes Tract, a 457-acre parcel adjacent to I-95 as well as the railroad. Both are in Walterboro, S.C.

The Salkehatchie Subdivision is the former Hampton & Branchville Railroad, which ceased operations in 2012 following the closure of the South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. (now Dominion Energy) Canadys Station coal-fired power plant. Palmetto Railways and Colleton County purchased the line in 2017 through a partnership with the state of South Carolina. Since then, Palmetto has used the line for railcar storage.

Palmetto Railways operates four non-contiguous sections of right-of-way in the state, with a fifth – a new route to connect to the Camp Hall Industrial Park and its Volvo assembly plant – expected to be completed this summer.

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

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APM Terminals wraps up $73M rail expansion at Port of Los Angeles

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Pilots will receive a 40% increase in their hourly pay and other benefits, along with back pay (up to $150,000 for captains and $102,500 for first officers) to account for delayed raises during negotiations, according to a copy of the agreement posted on a union website. Starting in 2028, they will receive 3% annual raises.

ALPA said the tentative agreement must still be reviewed by the FedEx pilots’ union board, known as the Master Executive Council. The board is scheduled to meet next week, according to a union source. If the MEC approves the deal, it will be presented to rank-and-file members for a ratification vote. No dates for either event were disclosed.

FedEx (NYSE: FDX) has slightly less than 5,000 pilots, down from 5,800 two years ago. About 20 pilots per month retire from the airline and the union says others have quit.

In a statement, the company described the contract as better than ones for peer pilot groups at other cargo airlines. “This tentative agreement reflects our commitment to our valued crew members and to our growth strategy for the airline and the business as a whole,” said Richard W. Smith, chief operating officer, International and chief executive officer, Airline. “It’s a win-win for our pilots, for FedEx, and for our customers around the world.”

FedEx pilots in July 2023 voted down a tentative agreement to amend their contract, which would have increased pay by up to 30% over a five-year period. The rejection of the deal exposed a major rift among union members, leading to the ouster of the MEC board by hardliners who felt union leaders were too willing to accept management proposals. Union leadership endorsed the tentative agreement as leadership endorsed as delivering industry-leading improvements on pay, retirement and work-life balance.

In early 2024, the union asked the National Mediation Board to declare an impasse and release the parties from mediation, the first step necessary to launch a strike action.

The pilots union has long argued that FedEx’s improved financial performance demonstrates it can afford a better compensation package.

FedEx last month reported strong fiscal third-quarter earnings, exceeding optimistic analyst expectations, and raised full-year guidance again. Corporate revenue increased 8% year over year to $24 billion, beating consensus estimates by $520 million, and adjusted earnings per share hit $5.25 (consensus was $4.09), up 16%, behind yield and volume strength across nearly all package services, plus cost savings from restructuring initiatives. The price of FedEx stock is up 73% over the past year.

In a news release following the earnings announcement, ALPA said pilots helped deliver that performance despite significant adjustments across the network that placed greater demands on frontline crews. FreightWaves reported in December that FedEx travel managers were overwhelmed with flight changes following the post-accident grounding of all MD-11 freighter aircraft during peak shipping season, which resulted in many pilots scrambling to make hotel and ground transportation arrangements on arrival at destination airports. FedEx also recently restructured its air network after losing a large domestic air cargo contract with the U.S. Postal Service and to improve efficiency for parcel and freight shipments. 

The union has said cost-cutting under and recent stock buybacks demonstrated management’s indifference to cockpit workers. A key grievance was that FedEx created schedules that were too lean without sufficient use of reserve pilots, forcing many pilots to work overtime and experience fatigue. 

“Management willingly disregarded two decades of data that balanced productivity with safety. Our pilots are now asked to do more with less rest and in less time while still operating in unnatural conditions on the backside of the clock,” said Capt. Jose Nieves, chair of the FedEx ALPA Master Executive Council in a news release last year.  

Pilots last month said the pressure was showing up in measurable ways, with pilot resignations reaching historic levels. 

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

Contact:  ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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The new platform, dubbed Prologis Logistics Investment Venture Europe (PLIVE), will initially include 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) of logistics properties contributed by both firms. La Caisse will hold a 70% stake in the venture, leaving Prologis with 30% and the role of operating partner. Prologis (NYSE: PLD) will also provide asset management and real estate development services as part of the agreement.

The initial portfolio includes approximately 844,000 square meters of Class A logistics space, giving the venture immediate scale across Europe’s critical logistics corridors in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The PLIVE agreement builds on an existing relationship between the two firms, which previously partnered on a Brazilian logistics venture in 2019.

“Our partnership with La Caisse is built on years of working together and delivering results,” said Ted Eliopoulos, managing director of strategic capital at Prologis, in a news release. “Together, we’re expanding that success in Europe—combining long-term capital with our operating platform to scale high-quality logistics assets across key markets.”

For both companies, the transaction represents a strategic push to capitalize on long-term market fundamentals. Companies are actively reshaping their supply chains and moving production closer to home—trends that require strategically located warehouse space.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is acting as exclusive financial adviser to La Caisse.

“We have seen Prologis’ best-in-class capabilities to drive returns firsthand through our partnership in Brazil, and we are building on our combined strengths to create a truly consolidated pan-European platform,” said Rana Ghorayeb, head of real estate at La Caisse. “This joint venture brings together Prologis’ deep hands-on operational expertise and our vision to actively transform assets to enhance long-term value.”

Last month, Prologis announced the formation of a $1.6 billion joint venture with institutional investor GIC. The GIC capital is earmarked for the U.S. market, specifically funding 4.1 million square feet of build-to-suit logistics space.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• FedEx Freight sets goalposts for standalone business
• Freight market sees Covid-era extremes return
• Truckload carrier earnings: Will Q1 mark the end of struggles?

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The Denmark-based logistics provider said in a WARN notice filed Thursday that it will terminate all operations at a third-party logistics facility located at 101 Mars Road in Wilmer, Texas, with layoffs expected to begin April 30 or within two weeks of that date.

DSV did not disclose the name of the customer.

Contract loss drives shutdown

DSV indicated that operations at the site are expected to continue under a different logistics provider.

“DSV is terminating all of its operations throughout the entire facility,” the company said in its notice.

While the job cuts are classified as permanent, DSV added that most, if not all, affected workers could be offered positions by the incoming operator, suggesting a transition rather than a full closure of the site.

The workforce reduction spans a wide range of roles, with the majority tied to warehouse operations.

According to the WARN filing, the largest impacted group includes:

• 278 forklift drivers
• 26 warehouse operator specialists
• 19 drivers and 19 supervisors
• Smaller numbers of inventory staff, analysts, and management roles

While DSV said many workers could be rehired by the incoming operator, research on outsourcing and contract logistics suggests transitions sometimes leads to lower wages. 

Pay for DSV truck drivers varies widely depending on route type, but local and dedicated contract drivers—such as those tied to large distribution centers—typically earn between $55,000 and $70,000 annually, below long-haul driver earnings and slightly under national averages.

Warehouse wages in Texas generally trail national averages, with forklift operators earning roughly $16 to $18 per hour compared to closer to $20 nationally. The pay gap sometimes explains why large-scale distribution hubs cluster in markets like Dallas-Fort Worth—and why labor costs are often a key lever when 3PL contracts change hands.

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On April 8, 2026, deputies responded to a call about suspicious vehicles near the 400 block of Silver Queen Road. When they arrived, two box trucks were seen leaving the area and were stopped shortly after. Deputies identified Jose Lopez, 37, of San Bernardino, Ruben Lopez Flores, 25, of Los Angeles, and Freddy Hernandez Polinar, 35, of Chino. During the stops, deputies searched the trucks and found a large amount of Lego products. The volume raised concern, which led to a search of the surrounding area where two freight trailers were located nearby.

Stolen freight found before it could move further

Investigators confirmed the trailers had been reported stolen while in transit from Fort Worth, Texas, to Moreno Valley, California, with an estimated value of about $1 million. Deputies were able to recover both the freight and the trailers before the load was broken down or moved further into distribution. All three individuals were taken into custody and charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, cargo theft, and conspiracy, pointing to coordination behind the movement of the freight.

What stands out is how the load was already being handled. The shipment was still moving through the supply chain, but it was no longer under the control of the intended parties. The freight had been transferred out of the original trailers and into separate vehicles, which shows clear intent to move it again. Once that step happens, tracking becomes harder and the risk increases.

Control shifted before anyone realized it

This is the pattern the industry continues to deal with. Freight does not need to be taken by force to be lost. It can move through normal operations while control shifts in the background, and everything can still look right on the surface. The timing in this case made the difference because deputies stepped in before the freight was split or pushed further. Once a load is broken down or spread across locations, recovery becomes much harder.

The first 24 to 48 hours matter. After that, the chances of recovery drop quickly as freight moves and the trail gets harder to follow. This recovery is a win, but it also shows how quickly things can change once control is lost. The load was already moving in the wrong direction before anyone stepped in, which is exactly where most of the risk sits today. Confidence comes from verification, not assumptions.

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The vision is clear: artificial intelligence that does not just analyze data or send alerts, but manages exceptions, optimizes routing, handles negotiations, and resolves problems without waiting for a human to step in. The acquisition of LunaPath.ai, announced April 9th, 2026, is a concrete move in that direction.

The Chicago-based leader in supply chain decision intelligence bought LunaPath in an all-cash deal. LunaPath builds AI-native agents made specifically for logistics execution and orchestration. These agents do not just handle tasks in isolation. They coordinate across workflows, connecting systems, carriers, and operational context to drive resolution at scale. The high-volume, repetitive work that still burns hours across phone, email, and daily operations is exactly where they operate.

This is not another supply chain tool. It is about moving from scattered insights to real-time autonomous action grounded in actual operational context.

From Data Graph to Agentic Execution

project44 has spent more than a decade building what they call the world’s largest and most accurate real-time logistics data graph. It pulls together disconnected systems like ERP, TMS, visibility platforms, yard management, and others into one unified model of how freight actually moves.

LunaPath’s agents now connect directly into that graph. They are not guessing. These agents understand what is happening with a shipment, why it matters, and what action makes the most sense. They manage carrier check calls, pull proof of delivery, start claims, confirm appointments, and fix exceptions the way a seasoned logistics pro would. They prioritize based on real downstream impact.

Jett McCandless and his team have been piloting different AI platforms for the past few years. They found LunaPath did the job better than the rest. The team says LunaPath has a much more efficient model, largely because of how it was trained for logistics workflows.

“We are building native AI solutions rather than trying to bolt AI onto legacy technology,” McCandless said. “It rarely works as advertised.”

He hears the same thing from clients repeatedly. There are plenty of AI tools on the market, but most fail to deliver because the AI was never built into the application from the start. project44, he noted, is the database of record for transactions, which makes the whole system smarter with every shipment that moves through it. The company now handles 4.6 million shipments a day. That volume makes the model far more robust and turns automation into something that actually works at scale.

For global clients in particular, he noted that email is far more reliable than voice. AI still struggles with local languages, dialects, and especially industry jargon. Email avoids those problems and performs much better for consistent execution.

This is project44’s second major AI-focused acquisition after ClearMetal in 2021. Since then, their AI has already improved predictive ETAs, given deeper order-level visibility, and helped spot disruptions before they hit. LunaPath takes it further by turning intelligence into actual real-time execution.

A Multi-Vendor Orchestration Strategy That Makes Sense

project44 is not putting all its chips on one big AI model. They are building an orchestration layer that runs on their supply chain data graph. Specialized agents like LunaPath for execution, plus partners such as Vooma and HappyRobot, each do what they do best. Everything stays under one Decision Intelligence Platform with unified control.

Over 16 months, project44 tested eight different AI agent providers in live operations. LunaPath stood out for high-volume voice and messaging work and fit smoothly into the platform.

McCandless believes the future of AI in logistics needs technology that is built for the AI age from the ground up, not just an agent slapped on top. Because project44 had to develop its core technology as AI-native early on due to the massive scale of its implementations, it now has a real competitive edge.

“Ultimately, the AI that sits on top of the client’s data will automate exception management, routing, negotiation, and find solutions without needing human interference,” he said. The goal is to help companies put in place a truly AI-native supply chain.

Jonathan Scherr, Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at project44, put it this way: “AI without context creates noise, not outcomes. What makes project44 different is the supply chain graph we have built over more than a decade. It gives AI agents the context they need to act with precision. LunaPath brings execution into that graph and turns intelligence into real-time action.”

Abhishek Porwal, founder of LunaPath, said: “We built LunaPath to automate the operational work that slows logistics teams down. project44’s supply chain data graph gives our agents the context they were missing. Together, we are enabling AI that does not just recommend what to do but understands when and how to do it.”

Real-World Impact for Shippers and Operators

Joshua Moss, Global Supply Chain Center of Excellence Manager, said project44’s AI has helped keep strong visibility across their carrier network even as things constantly change. It has even let them expand confidently into APAC with less technical carriers without adding extra operational headaches.

In freight, missed pickups, document gaps, and appointment changes quietly eat into margins. Agents that actually fix these problems instead of just flagging them can bring fast returns. LunaPath claims measurable gains in cost per load and faster resolution times.

The Bigger Picture for Freight

Supply chain tools are finally moving past dashboards and alerts toward systems that actually get the work done. They are built for AI from the start instead of just patched on later.

AI is coming to freight and logistics as providers recognize the power of the technology and significant improvements offered to clients. Plus, without it, clients have little incentive to shift to a new offering. P44’s native approach toward AI-native technology gives it a massive advantage over legacy rivals, especially as companies prioritize AI for its speed, cost efficiencies, and the ability to eliminate redundant tasks.

project44 helps clients move over 1.5 billion shipments a year for more than 1,000 big brands in manufacturing, retail, automotive, life sciences, and other sectors. Adding execution-focused agents on top of native AI and that daily volume of 4.6 million shipments could cut a lot of the manual work that still drags on operations.

LunaPath brings more than 50 purpose-built agents and ready-made playbooks. Paired with project44’s contextual graph, the result is a system where AI does not just point out problems. It helps solve them in real time with the right priorities.

These agents will not replace human judgment on tough exceptions or relationship-sensitive decisions. But they will absorb the high-volume repetitive tasks that tie up teams today and free people up for more important work.

The acquisition strengthens project44’s position as a Decision Intelligence Platform spanning Transportation Management, Visibility, YMS, and Ecommerce Logistics, and now adds the AI execution layer that turns all of it into autonomous action.

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“We are approaching six weeks since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, and only a few vessels per day are being allowed through,” said Freightos analyst Judah Levine, in a weekly note to clients. “Ships that are transiting are doing so via coordination with Iran and possibly payments ahead of time.”

Traffic included a CMA CGM container vessel, the first from one of the major European carriers.

Rising fuel costs and supplies at major bunker centers such as Singapore are top concerns for carriers. Maersk (OTC: AMKBY) this week for the third time in a month asked the Federal Maritime Commission to waive the 30-day waiting period to implement emergency fuel surcharges. The regulator twice denied the liner’s earlier requests.

Iran on Wednesday turned away a tanker attempting to enter the strait, threatening attacks on shipping after accusing the United States of violating the ceasefire agreed to just hours before. Other reports say Iran is charging as much as $2 million per vessel for safe passage.

“The situation in and around the Strait of Hormuz remains uncertain, and it is not yet clear whether the announced opening will be sustained,” said Hapag-Lloyd, in a statement. “The safety of our crews and personnel ashore remains our top priority. Based on our current assessment, we will continue to avoid transiting the Strait of Hormuz for the time being.”

A BBC report said Iran was providing some vessels with a guide to avoiding mines in the waterway.

Despite weak demand in the period between Lunar New Year and peak season, Levine said trans-Pacific spot container rates to the West Coast have climbed $700 per forty foot equivalent unit (FEU) and nearly 40% since just before the start of the war in late February to more than $2,400 per FEU. Asia-North Europe rates are up 20% and $500 to $2,900 per FEU. 

Rising rates have dashed earlier expectations that a growing fleet and overcapacity would hinder carriers’ attempts to keep rates above 2025 levels, when tariff fears spurred frontloading and record volumes.

“Up until the start of the war in Iran average trans-Pacific spot prices were more than 50% lower than in January and February 2025,  and Asia-Europe rates were 30% down year on year,” Levine said.

Since the end of February those rates have surpassed last year’s prices, and are now 8% higher for Asia-U.S. West Coast and 22% higher for Asia-Europe.

“At the same time, the downward pressure on rates from current supply-demand dynamics may be limiting the degree to which fuel surcharges and various other fees and GRIs (General Rate Increases) are succeeding to push rates up, with reports of carrier discounts as well as benchmark levels well below announced FAKs (Freight All Kinds) rates.  

Levine quoted reports citing a month’s supply of fuel remaining in Singapore, the world’s busiest bunker hub, though Rotterdam, the world’s second biggest, remains supplied. 

“If the war stretches on, carriers could start to slow steam or blank sailings to reduce fuel consumption, which could put additional upward pressure on rates,” he said. 

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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