Cabotage enforcements threatening cross-border trucking

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Knight-Swift Transportation CEO Adam Miller said stepped-up enforcement of U.S. cabotage restrictions is creating new challenges for Mexican truck drivers and could further tighten cross-border trucking capacity.

Speaking in an interview with FreightWaves on Tuesday at the second annual WEX OTR Summit in Jacksonville, Miller said U.S. authorities have intensified scrutiny of Mexican drivers operating across the border, including reviewing potential cabotage violations involving their previous employers.

“We’re seeing the enforcement really ramp up on cabotage,” Miller said.

Cabotage generally refers to domestic transportation between two points within a country by a foreign carrier, an activity subject to restrictions under U.S. law.

Miller said Knight-Swift (NYSE: KNX), which operates in Mexico through its TransMex subsidiary, has observed cases in which drivers faced visa revocations over alleged violations committed while working for other carriers.

“I’ve seen them take visas away from drivers from really a previous carrier, not even cabotage with our trucks, with our company,” Miller said.

Knight-Swift Transportation is one of the largest full truckload carriers in the U.S., operating a massive fleet of more than 26,000 tractors, 96,000 trailers and 28,000 employees. Nogales, Mexico-based TransMex operates over 1,100 tractor-trailers and more than 3,000 trailers.

Miller said Knight-Swift maintains strict compliance policies governing its cross-border operations, but the increased scrutiny could discourage some Mexican drivers from entering the United States.

“I do feel like that type of capacity is going to get a little bit tighter as enforcement ramps up,” Miller said.

The CEO’s comments come amid growing concerns among Mexican trucking companies over U.S. enforcement of cabotage restrictions and the potential loss of drivers authorized to transport international freight.

Despite the enforcement challenges, Miller said he remains optimistic about the long-term growth of U.S.-Mexico freight transportation.

“I think long term I think Mexico is going to play a bigger role,” Miller said. “I think you’ll see more opportunities because of the nearshoring.”

However, he cautioned that uncertainty surrounding tariffs and trade policy could affect freight volumes and investment decisions.

“Tariffs are a big unknown,” Miller said.

Knight-Swift transports significant automotive freight across the border, and Miller said some customers have adjusted their transportation strategies in response to tariff developments.

“Our customer strategies are changing as the tariff situation develops,” he said.

Nuevo León slashes Colombia Bridge toll fees 50% to boost cross-border trucking

The Mexican state of Nuevo León announced a 50% reduction in state-imposed toll charges for commercial trucks traveling to the Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge, a move aimed at lowering transportation costs and boosting exports to the U.S.

The reduction applies to an additional state toll collected about 500 meters before the existing bridge tollbooth on the Mexican side of the border. The fee was introduced April 14, 2025, under Nuevo León Gov. Samuel García’s administration.

The discount does not affect tolls collected by the city of Laredo, Texas.

The initiative is designed to make the Colombia crossing more competitive for freight shipments and encourage logistics companies to route additional commercial traffic through the port of entry.

“By working together to reduce tolls and fees, we can help lower transportation costs, support businesses, and strengthen the movement of goods through our region,” Treviño said, according to the Laredo Morning Times.

The Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge connects Nuevo León with the Laredo area and serves as an alternative route for cross-border truck shipments moving between Mexico and the U.S.

Walmart plans $400M distribution center near San Antonio, creating 425 jobs

Walmart (Nasdaq: WMT) is planning a $400 million distribution center in Cibolo, Texas, northeast of San Antonio, according to the San Antonio Express-News. 

The proposed facility, identified as “Project Theo,” will include a 712,500-square-foot warehouse and a connected 31,933-square-foot office building on approximately 126 acres at 3641 S. Santa Clara Road, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

Construction is scheduled to begin in February 2027, with completion expected in August 2029.

The project is expected to create at least 425 full-time jobs paying above the San Antonio metropolitan area’s median salary.

Cibolo officials previously approved an incentive package valued at approximately $32.5 million to attract the development, including a 75% property tax abatement for 10 years.

City officials have described the proposed facility as a next-generation distribution center that will use robotics, advanced warehouse equipment and employees to manage automated operations.

The development would expand Walmart’s distribution footprint along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 10 corridors, major freight arteries connecting San Antonio, Austin and other Texas markets.

Why it matters: Tougher cabotage enforcement could disrupt cross-border driver availability and add capacity pressures to supply chains already facing tariff uncertainty.

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Chart of the Week: Cass Freight Shipments Index, Cass Truckload Linehaul Index – USA  SONAR: CFIS.USA, CTLI.USA

The domestic freight market has been on a long-running rollercoaster since the start of the century. The Cass Freight Shipments Index (CFIS) and the Cass Truckload Linehaul Index (CTLI) show how each cycle has differed from the last, and why predicting when each one begins and ends is extremely difficult.

The CFIS includes shipments across truckload, intermodal, LTL and several smaller modes, making it a good representation of total transportation demand over time. Because it is based on invoice data, it runs with a slight lag.

The CTLI measures the base cost of a truckload move, excluding fuel and accessorial charges. That makes it a good gauge of truckload rates without the influence of fuel, and base rates are a better indicator of supply and demand in the truckload market.

Looking at demand (CFIS) and truckload rates (CTLI) over the past 25 years, we can identify several distinct cycles, with one large anomaly in the middle.

Intra-recession era

Starting in 2000, the CFIS captured the early effects of the dot-com collapse and the economic fallout from 9/11 as the economy slipped into recession. Goods demand stayed muted longer than the broader economy did.

2004 was one of the strongest economic years in modern times. Low interest rates following the weak start to the decade fueled a housing boom, helped along by the subprime mortgage market that would cause problems later. Fuel prices became volatile, and real GDP grew about 3.8%. Strong goods demand and limited capacity fueled the rise of freight brokerages as more than a backhaul play for carriers. Brokers adopted new technology that had become far more accessible as the internet matured. This growing connectivity let smaller carriers haul for larger shippers and fueled the growth of owner-operators over the next decade.

In 2008, the housing market collapsed, triggering what became known as the Great Recession, with weakness lingering into 2010. By early 2011, the economy was recovering, and it grew at a slow but steady pace for the next five years.

The great stabilization defines normal

This post-recession period was the most stable of the past 26 years, and it set many people’s expectations of what “normal” looks like in the freight market. The CFIS followed a clear 12-month seasonal pattern, and base rates grew at about 3% a year until 2016.

Energy markets collapsed in late 2015, leading to a mini freight recession through most of 2016 that many participants did not fully recognize until after the fact. Economic growth slowed from roughly 4% in early 2015 to 1.5% a year later, and the industrial economy struggled. Truckload base rates fell about 2% as demand faltered.

By early 2017, capacity had tightened and demand was returning, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed that December, added further fuel heading into 2018. Rising demand against shrinking capacity produced one of the strongest and longest spot-rate upswings in modern history. Hurricane Harvey and the ELD mandate made conditions even tighter that fall and winter. Many dismissed the period as a “black swan” that would not be repeated.

As with every rapid expansion covered here, contraction followed. The tax cuts gave the economy a temporary “sugar high.” Meanwhile, capacity grew quickly as strong rates attracted new entrants: active trucking authorities rose about 15% from early 2017 to early 2019.

The 2019 freight recession produced what were, at the time, the largest trucking failures of the century, as truckload carrier Celadon and LTL carrier New England Motor Freight shut down. That made the COVID era even more extreme, because capacity had been leaving the market just before demand boomed.

COVID breaks everything

COVID was the freight market’s second black-swan-type event in three years, which undercuts the idea that such events are rare. Government stimulus, enhanced unemployment benefits and the shift to working from home drove an unprecedented goods-demand boom and supply chain shocks. Once again, the overstimulated environment gave way to a downturn: the longest freight recession of the 2000s, lasting from early 2022 through the 2025 holiday season.

We are now approaching a year into a new cycle. The data suggests that putting a timeline on any cycle is a fool’s errand, and this one, like most, is full of nuance. Higher barriers to entry from regulatory pressure, diesel prices and interest rates are just a few of the factors at play. Demand remains relatively weak, which is hard to reconcile with an inflationary market. According to the CTLI, rates were up 10% in September, while volumes rose only 2%.

There are many lessons. The freight market does not operate on an island; it is shaped by outside forces and by every part of the economy. Expecting the 2010–2015 environment to return may be the worst assumption a business can make when planning ahead. 

Timing is not the takeaway

History suggests that 12 months is the low end for how long this cycle will last. With demand still near the bottom of its range, any upside economic surprise could extend it by several months. Anyone betting on rates easing quickly in the coming months is also betting on a broader economic slowdown, and the hit to business revenue that comes with it. CFOs, take note. 

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 FreightWaves data science and product teams are releasing new datasets each week and enhancing the client experience.

To request a SONAR demo, click here.

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Alain Bedard, the CEO of TFI International, had been highly critical of his company’s U.S. LTL operations back in 2024, at one point referring to some of its practices as “stupid.”

As recently as April, he was far more optimistic about the segment that was built largely through the TFI acquisition of UPS Freight in 2021. 

But on Friday, after a third quarter earnings report that had the performance of TFI’s LTL operations lagging well behind its Truckload segment, and with Wall Street punishing the stock almost as soon as the earnings were released late Thursday, Bedard on the company’s earnings call didn’t hold back in a candor that would be shocking in similar forums in almost any industry. 

“Truckload is great,” Bedard said, discussing the quarter. “Logistics is great. U.S. LTL is not and I feel like I’m a broken record on that. We’ve got to correct the situation.”

New leader coming in

Bedard said a new manager of the U.S. LTL operations is being brought in by TFI (NYSE: TFII) though he would not disclose the person’s identity. “We need management to jump in and do the right thing,” he said.

Bedard referred to the U.S. LTL operations at TFI as “a rock in my shoe.”

At approximately 2:15 EDT, TFI stock was down 14.71%, or $16.55, to $95.99. Even with that decline, it is still up 11.24% for the last 52 weeks. It is also solidly above the 52-week low of $80.63, recorded almost a year ago on November 20. 

While TFI does not break out an OR for U.S. and Canada separately, the company-wide OR for LTL in the third quarter was 91.3% compared to 88.8% a year earlier. 

U.S. LTL OR pushing 100

But Bedard offered specifics during the call. “When we report a 91 OR, you can think that our U.S. operation is closer to a 97 and our Canadian operation is more like a sub 75,” he said. But he said Canadian shipments are about 10,000 per day, compared to about 20,000 in the U.S. 

Bedard cited as a negative comparison the operating ratio at other LTL carriers without identifying them by name. But Old Dominion Freight Lines (NASDAQ: ODFL) reported a 71.5% OR for the quarter, while XPO (NYSE: XPO) was just over 80%.

Bedard took pains in the call to not attack the unions that represent the workers in its LTL operations, repeatedly saying that many of the group’s issues were with management.

But he also said in the U.S., “there’s nothing we can do except build some kind of non-union network in parallel to the network that we have.”

Hercules a key going forward

The key to that effort will be Hercules Forwarding, which TFI bought in 2024. Bedard said Hercules is a non-union operation that TFI now uses for about 1,000 LTL shipments per day.  

“This is small,” he said.”But unless there is something of size that comes to us, the plan is going to be to slowly build that non-union company, like we do in Canada.”

Bedard said TFI’s Canadian LTL operations are both union and non-union, “so it’s OK. We’ll run a second network if we can.”

The goal, he said, “would be to bring more stability to TForce,” the name of the U.S. LTL operations.

In earlier criticisms of TForce operations, Bedard has focused on two key operational areas: density and weight. In both cases, Bedard’s complaint has been that there is too little of either. 

Density was raised as an issue again by Bedard in the Friday call. One measure that illustrates the problem, according to Bedard: “the average mile that we drive today between each and every stop in our (U.S.) package and delivery operation is about twice as much as our Canadian operation.”

“In Canada, we focus on trying to do business with customers that are close by and not run 100 miles to do a delivery,” he said. TFI has been trying to change that sort of “culture” at US LTL, Bedard said, “but it seems difficult to do.”

The unidentified new hire “is hopefully going to be able to help us drive change.” But Bedard added that “there are more team members that we need to drive more change and to bring that density down.”

Density issues magnified by diesel

The issue of density in U.S. LTL has become an even larger issue at TFI because of fuel costs, Bedard said. 

In response to an analyst question, Bedard said the new hire has been on the job since October 1. The executive’s identity will be revealed soon, with Bedard only saying the person had been retired from an industry peer.

“A new broom sweeps clean” he said. “We have got to change the recipe and that’s what we’re doing now.”

He said the U.S. LTL operations are beset by a “mentality of, we really don’t care.” Bedard said that was a legacy of the UPS (NYSE: UPS) ownership, which directed its interest and investment dollars to its more traditional business.

Not for sale

Bedard’s comments were stark enough that it led one analyst to ask a question that would have been unthinkable not all that long ago: might TFI divest its U.S. LTL operations?

Bedard gave a lengthy answer that eventually circled back to a “no.” 

“If you look at TForce, we want to be in LTL,” he said. “So to me, it’s been a disappointment. I’m not happy with what’s going on, but it’s a fight. We’ve been fighting but losing.”

He wrapped up his response with a “no.”

“We have no intention of selling our US LTL operations at all,” Bedard said. “We want those guys to be efficient, to be productive and after improving everything except the human side of the business, it’s not working.”

The entire problem is “human,” he added. “There’s no more excuse on the fleet,” he said. “There’s no more excuse on the financial tools. It’s just that we have the wrong guys.”

Bedard did speak positively about the company’s Truckload operations, which recorded an OR of 86.7% for the quarter. 

Positive words for Daseke

Part of the strength in Truckload is being driven by the operations that came with the purchase of flatbed operator Daseke in 2023, which had been a publicly traded company. 

As recently as the first quarter of last year, Bedard said on the company’s earnings call that the integration of Daseke had been a struggle. 

But that was not the message he delivered this year. “Daseke has been turned around very, very fast,” he said. He cited OR performance before the purchase of 97-98%

A review of FreightWaves articles on Daseke earnings from the quarters immediately before the TFI acquisition mostly shows OR performance at either side of 90.

While Daseke is not the only asset in TFI’s Truckload segment, it helped the operations come in with an OR of 86.7% for the quarter. 

“The Canadian operation is doing even better, but our U.S. operation is slowly catching up,” Bedard said. 

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The crackdown, dubbed Operation Highway Shield, took place from 6 a.m. Tuesday through 6 a.m. Thursday (Oct. 27-29), targeting unsafe commercial vehicles, unqualified truck drivers and criminal activity along Arkansas highways.

According to the Arkansas Department of Transportation, officers conducted 1,724 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration inspections, placing 393 drivers and commercial motor vehicles out of service.

Authorities also identified more than 330 unqualified or unauthorized drivers and reported 74 immigration violations that resulted in federal immigration enforcement.

Arkansas enforcement operation by the numbers

Source: Arkansas Department of Transportation, Oct. 29, 2026.

During the two-day enforcement campaign, Arkansas Highway Police conducted enhanced inspections at designated weigh stations along interstate highways and other approved commercial vehicle corridors.

The operation focused on identifying unqualified drivers, unsafe vehicles, fraudulent trucking practices and criminal activity.

Officers also investigated suspected drug trafficking, human trafficking and smuggling, cargo theft, and stolen commercial vehicles and trailers encountered during inspections.

Authorities recovered one stolen trailer, although officials did not disclose its value or provide details about the circumstances surrounding the theft.

The state also did not provide a breakdown of the criminal arrests, the specific violations behind the out-of-service orders or the immigration enforcement outcomes.

The Arkansas enforcement campaign follows two previous waves of Operation Highway Shield conducted earlier this year.

The first operation took place in Florida in March, when inspectors conducted more than 3,300 inspections and placed 176 drivers out of service, including 54 for English-language proficiency deficiencies.

Florida authorities also made 35 criminal-related arrests and took 42 individuals into custody for violations of federal immigration laws.

A second enforcement wave, conducted July 28-30 across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, resulted in 766 drivers and vehicles being placed out of service.

Federal officials reported 86 arrests, 51 immigration detentions and 36 English-language proficiency violations during the Midwest operation.

Authorities also recovered nearly $1 million in stolen cargo.

Why it matters: The results highlight expanding federal-state enforcement targeting driver qualifications, trucking safety and criminal activity along major freight corridors.

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Posten Bring, the state-owned postal services and logistics provider in Norway, has installed hundreds more parcel lockers to offer more flexible delivery options and recently opened its largest parcel distribution center.

Norway Post has established new locations and upgraded the size of 300 existing parcel lockers this year in anticipation of record parcel volumes during the holiday shipping season, the company said in a news release on Friday. Posten Bring operates two brands: Posten for the private market within Norway and Bring for the business market and cross-border e-commerce shipments. 

The number of parcels delivered to parcel lockers in Norway in August broke last year’s Christmas record, indicating that demand for parcel boxes will be even greater this Christmas season, Norway Post said. From January to September, the number of parcels delivered to so-called Pakkeboks increased by around 50% compared to the same period last year.

Posten Bring encourages consumers to pick up packages as quickly as possible during the busy season because it frees up units for replenishment when millions of packages are due to arrive in a short time. At popular locations, Posten will replenish with new packages several times a day. More than nine out of 10 packages are collected within four days. On average, it takes about 26.5 hours for packages to be collected.

Earlier this month, Posten Bring opened its largest parcel terminal, capable of handling more than 500,000 packages per day. 

The automated sort facility is located in Moss, five minutes from a major highway, and will mainly handle import volumes from Sweden and Denmark, in addition to local packages from Østfold. During heavy volume peaks, the terminal will also relieve Posten Bring’s logistics center in Oslo, the country’s main terminal for parcel sorting. 

The postal carrier said the facility has plenty of room to accommodate future growth. 

Deutsche Post

In Germany, DHL’s Post & Parcel division, doing business as Deutsche Post, said Friday it will increase capacity for processing and delivering letters and parcels, hire additional temporary staff and continue to expand its network of parcel stations. Planning for the Christmas season has been going on for months.

The postal operator plans to add more than 500 more parcel lockers nationwide by the end of the year. It will also hire more than 10,000 temporary workers this year to support its more-than 150,000 employees making deliveries and working in mail and parcel centers. Post & Parcel Germany has also created additional capacity at its sorting facilities to handle the increasing volume of mail, is planning about 9,500 separate delivery routes for the busiest weeks and will again deploy about 11,000 extra vehicles to ensure it can reliably sort, transport and deliver millions of letters and parcels during the holiday rush, it said in a news release.

“Flexibility is very important to many customers today. That’s why parcel lockers have become an integral part of everyday parcel delivery. They enable the sending and receiving of parcels regardless of opening hours and at the same time help us to efficiently manage increasing parcel volumes. This is a great advantage, especially in the run-up to Christmas,” said Nikola Hagleitner, a Post & Parcel Germany board member. 

For sending and receiving parcels, customers across Germany now have access to about 19,500 DHL Packstations (automated, self-service locker systems that allow users to send, receive and drop-off parcels around the clock), Poststations (digital Deutsche Post retail outlets where users can take care of postal business), and partner-operated DeinFach automated parcel lockers. 

The U.S. Postal Service recently outlined the ways it has prepared for the upcoming peak season and also said it was hiring 10,000 temporary workers.

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

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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Speaking during the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based carrier’s third-quarter earnings call with analysts Friday, Parker said carriers will need additional rate increases to offset inflation in driver compensation, equipment, insurance and other operating costs.

“We’re going to continue to raise rates,” Parker said during the call. “We have to because of the cost.”

When an analyst asked whether the company expected another year of double-digit contract rate increases in 2027, Parker replied, “That’s my expectations.”

As of Thursday, shippers who reset their truckload contracts in recent months are paying about 12.8% more than the rates they replaced, according to SONAR’s Contract Rate Change Direction index (CRCD.USA). The rate is up from 4.1% during the same period in 2025.

Covenant Logistics Group’s (NYSE: CVLG) third-quarter results showed total revenue increasing 19.2% year over year to $353.9 million, while adjusted earnings per share rose to 50 cents from 44 cents a year earlier.

One of the most significant developments discussed during Friday’s call was Covenant’s transition away from traditional one-way expedited trucking toward multiyear committed capacity agreements.

Parker said approximately 25% of the company’s expedited trucks were operating under dedicated arrangements at the beginning of 2026. He expects that percentage to reach approximately 75% to 80% by the end of the year.

At the end of September, approximately 58% of Covenant’s expedited tractors were operating under committed capacity agreements, compared with about 40% at the end of the second quarter.

Parker said growing demand for high-security transportation, including technology-related shipments and equipment associated with data centers, is helping drive the transition.

“Technology loads have just been exploding,” Parker said.

Some customers are signing contracts lasting two to four years, providing Covenant with more predictable revenue and greater protection against fluctuations in freight volumes, according to Parker.

Unlike traditional expedited trucking, which historically emphasized maximizing miles and equipment utilization, the new arrangements often compensate Covenant for maintaining secure capacity even when trucks are waiting for shipments.

Some specialized operations may run approximately 3,000 miles per week, compared with 5,000 miles per week in the company’s traditional expedited network.

Parker said certain dedicated expedited contracts could eventually see operating ratios in the 80s, although he emphasized that those margins would apply to individual operations rather than the entire expedited segment.

Covenant executives said demand for specialized freight services remains strong, but finding qualified team drivers is becoming increasingly difficult.

Management said recruiting and training drivers capable of handling high-security freight requires additional time and resources, limiting how quickly the company can expand its specialized operations.

Management emphasized that its ability to capitalize on the demand depends on successfully recruiting qualified drivers, repositioning equipment and maintaining customer service.

The transition has already created operational challenges.

During the third quarter, Covenant reported an 8.9% reduction in its average truckload tractor fleet, which fell to 2,186 units from 2,400 a year earlier.

Truckload freight revenue excluding fuel surcharges declined 3.4% to $166 million, even as average freight revenue per total mile increased 19.8% to $3.03.

Covenant’s managed freight segment remained a major contributor to third-quarter earnings.

Managed freight revenue increased 68.4% to $121.6 million from $72.2 million a year earlier, while adjusted segment operating income rose approximately 133% to $7.1 million.

Management attributed the improvement to brokerage operations acquired during the fourth quarter of 2025, higher customer rates and improved availability of third-party carrier capacity.

Executives said the brokerage market experienced significant margin compression during the second quarter as spot freight rates increased rapidly.

However, conditions improved during the third quarter as purchased transportation costs eased while previously negotiated customer rate increases remained in place.

Management cautioned that the unusually strong third-quarter brokerage margins may not be sustainable every quarter.

Parker addressed the impact of federal trucking regulations on driver availability and freight capacity.

Responding to questions from analysts, Parker said he believes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration remains committed to enforcement involving driver training schools, commercial driver’s licenses and electronic logging devices.

He said he had spoken with FMCSA officials the previous day and did not believe the agency was retreating from its enforcement priorities.

“We have been working closely with FMCSA, and we think they’re doing a great job,” Parker said.

Parker predicted that regulators would eventually require third-party certification of ELD providers as part of efforts to address falsified driver hours-of-service records.

He also said 30% of trucks using ELDs may be operating with manipulated records.

“I think it’s a gigantic number,” Parker said.

Parker said he expects continued enforcement to remove additional trucking capacity from the market, particularly in team-driver operations.

Looking beyond the fourth quarter, Covenant executives said the company’s long-term strategy will continue emphasizing specialized transportation, dedicated freight, brokerage and warehousing.

President Paul Bunn said the carrier intends to avoid pursuing low-margin, commoditized freight and instead focus on customers willing to support acceptable returns on invested capital.

“Number one, we’re going to be focused on safety and execution and not chasing stuff,” Bunn said.

The company also expects continued organic growth in its managed freight and warehousing segments, while remaining open to acquisitions and share repurchases depending on market conditions.

Covenant ended the third quarter with approximately $283.9 million in net indebtedness and an adjusted leverage ratio of about 2.1 times.

Management said it expects leverage to improve over the coming quarters as the company generates additional cash flow.

For the fourth quarter, Covenant anticipates a modest sequential increase in adjusted earnings per share, supported by improving truckload margins, partially offset by a smaller contribution from its 49% investment in transport enterprise leasing.

Longer term, executives said the combination of higher freight rates, more specialized contracts and reduced exposure to traditional over-the-road operations should strengthen the company’s profitability.

Covenant Logistics Q3 2026 financial and operating performance

The following table compares the third quarters of 2026 and 2025.

Why it matters: Double-digit contract rate increases could signal a significant shift in trucking market pricing power after years of weak freight rates and pressure on carrier profitability.

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FreightWaves presented the award during F3 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, an annual event focused on innovation and the future of freight. The event also featured the FreightTech 25, an annual ranking of the 25 most influential freight technology companies selected from the broader FreightTech 100, which was announced in late September.

While the FreightTech rankings recognize companies for their current influence, the Vanguard Award recognizes founders for their long-term impact. McCandless was independently selected by FreightWaves for the award.

“So many technologies and innovations are driven by the vision, the relentlessness, the grind of our founders,” FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller said as he presented the award. “We thought that this particular founder represented the best example of all of those characteristics.”

For McCandless, receiving that award on the F3 stage meant a lot.

“To have that recognition from him (Fuller) has made for one of the most proud moments of my life,” McCandless said. 

McCandless founded project44 in 2014 to provide real-time visibility into shipments and supply chains. The company connects shippers, carriers and logistics providers with shipment data to help businesses track freight and manage transportation operations. 

In July, project44 split its operations into two businesses: project44, which focuses on enterprise shippers, and LSP44, which provides artificial intelligence agents and application programming interfaces to logistics service providers, including freight brokers, forwarders and third-party logistics companies. 

Fuller said project44 “defined a category” and has since extended its platform beyond where it started. He said McCandless’ path is what the award is meant to honor.

“I know that what they have built is not what they initially envisioned,” Fuller said. “I think that’s ultimately what being a founder is all about: applying grit, dedication, innovation, at times humility, admitting that things you set out to do may not be relevant currently, that markets change.”

McCandless dedicated the award to the people who handle freight’s worst moments.

“I want to accept this award on behalf of everyone who’s picked up the phone at 2 a.m. because a load went sideways,” McCandless said. “I’ve been that person, and I know a lot of you here have been too.”

Over the past decade, project44 has built a network that McCandless said now covers 286,000 carriers in 194 countries and territories and handles more than 700 million synchronized events a day. 

The company’s next chapter is focused on AI agents. Building an agent is now the easy part, what makes one useful is how well it understands the freight industry and the different needs of the businesses operating within it, McCandless noted.

“‘On time’ means something totally different for a retailer than it does for a port,” McCandless said. “An agent that doesn’t know that isn’t smart. It’s just confidently wrong.”

McCandless described a future in which the 2 a.m. call never happens because the system already knows what went wrong, what the reroute options are and which carriers are best suited to handle it.

McCandless closed with a message for other founders in the room.

“To every founder out there doing the hard work, the unglamorous work: keep going,” he said.

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Every carrier with a safety technology program eventually learns the same lesson: the hardware is the easy part. Cameras can be mounted, collision mitigation can be specified on new tractors, and telematics can be switched on. What’s harder to install is the belief, among people who spend their working lives behind the wheel, that the technology is on their side.

That gap between deployment and acceptance is where many programs succeed or stall. A fleet can invest heavily in sensors and software and still see limited results if drivers view the tools as surveillance instead of support. Carriers that close the gap tend to treat technology as one piece of a larger system that includes training, fair coaching and clear accountability.

Werner has spent years building that kind of system. Ryan Gass, Vice President of Safety and Terminal Management at Werner, walked through how the carrier approaches its safety program, from equipment decisions to driver trust to the role artificial intelligence is beginning to play in coaching.

A philosophy before a technology stack

For a carrier with a reputation as a safety leader among truckload fleets, the starting point isn’t a product. It’s a principle.

“Safety is one of our core values. It starts with the foundational belief that nothing we do is worth getting hurt or hurting others,” Gass said. That belief shapes how Werner approaches the tools it puts in front of drivers and safety staff. 

According to Gass, the company relies on a combination of technology, training and accountability, with the goal of giving associates the tools to work proactively and giving drivers the best possible in-cab experience.

The order matters. Technology is positioned as a means of delivering on a value the company already holds, not as a substitute for it. That framing has practical consequences. When a fleet’s safety program starts with a commitment, every technology decision gets tested against a simple question: does this help keep people from getting hurt?

Newer equipment, more tools

One of the more direct ways Werner delivers on that commitment is through the equipment itself. Fleet age is often discussed in terms of maintenance cost and uptime, but it also determines which safety systems are available to drivers.

“We made a commitment to provide our drivers with a best in class experience with their equipment and that is reflected by the low average age of our tractors and trailers,” Gass said.

A younger fleet means the latest collision mitigation technology is more widely deployed across the company’s tractors. Werner is also in the process of outfitting its tractors with sideview cameras, adding to the forward-facing camera technology it adopted several years ago.

That layering reflects a broader pattern in fleet safety. Individual systems each address a specific risk, such as a following-distance event, a lane change or a backing maneuver. Combined, they give a carrier more complete visibility into what is happening around the truck and inside the cab.

What changes for the driver

For a driver, the question about any new system is practical: what does it change on the road?

Gass described collision mitigation as a “belt and suspenders” approach, an added layer of protection on top of the skills and judgment drivers already bring to the job. “Collision mitigation technology provides a belt and suspenders approach to our drivers adding in a layer of safety for our drivers,” he said.

There is in-cab coaching that provides active feedback and coaching to the driver. The sideview cameras also feed a monitor the driver can watch, which helps with blind spot monitoring during lane changes and while backing.

Those are everyday moments, and they’re where many incidents start. Giving drivers real-time information in the moment shortens the distance between a risky behavior and a correction.

Werner reports results on both sides of the ledger that safety leaders watch most closely. “We have seen a reduction in our accident/incident frequency as well as the severity,” Gass said.

The same data also serves the back office. Real-time information captured in the cab is available as evidence to assist with claim resolution, which turns a safety tool into a claims tool as well.

Trust is the real installation

Cameras raise a fair question for any driver: what happens to the footage? Gass was direct that the answer determines whether a program works. “Driver trust is extremely important to the success of any safety technology program,” he said.

Werner acknowledges drivers may initially have concerns about cameras and how the information collected will be used. Gass called those concerns understandable and said the company takes them seriously. The carrier’s response is to be explicit about intent.

“At Werner, our focus is on using technology to improve safety, not to micromanage our drivers,” Gass said.

In practice, that means transparency, consistent coaching and helping drivers understand how the systems can protect them. Video is a central part of that argument. When an incident occurs, footage can help establish what actually happened, which can protect a driver from a false accusation. Gass noted that driver acceptance improves when technology is used fairly and drivers see the benefits firsthand.

Privacy is part of the equation, too. Werner says it works to be thoughtful about what information it collects and how that information is used. Gass summed up the approach this way: “Ultimately, trust is earned through actions, not just policies.”

The goal, he said, is an environment where drivers see safety technology as a tool working for them rather than something working against them. For carriers weighing similar investments, the lesson is that rollout and communication deserve as much planning as the hardware.

Coaching at the scale of 8,500+ trucks

Technology generates data, but data only changes behavior when someone acts on it. At Werner, camera and telematics systems help identify behaviors so the company can address potential risks before they result in an accident.

The challenge is scale. “When you’re managing a fleet of 8,500+ trucks, delivering timely and consistent coaching across the organization is a significant undertaking,” Gass said.

Werner’s answer is to begin incorporating AI-generated coaching that uses the actual likenesses of its safety team. The idea is to deliver consistent, personalized coaching while keeping a familiar connection between drivers and the safety professionals they work with.

It’s a notable approach because it addresses a tension that many large fleets face. Personal relationships make coaching more effective, but personal relationships don’t scale easily. Gass sees AI as a way to resolve that tension rather than deepen it. “AI provides an opportunity to expand our coaching capabilities without losing the personal relationships that are so important to a successful safety program,” he said.

The company is still early in that effort, which Gass described as beginning to incorporate AI coaching. But the direction is clear: use technology to extend the reach of the safety team, not to replace the people on it.

Recruiting, retention and the business case

In a tight driver market, carriers naturally ask whether safety technology helps or hurts hiring. Gass offered a measured answer. “Technology alone isn’t necessarily going to recruit or retain a driver. However, a company that demonstrates a genuine commitment to driver safety, provides fair coaching, and invests in tools that help drivers succeed certainly has an advantage.”

That distinction is useful for fleet leaders. The tools themselves aren’t the selling point. The commitment behind them is.

The same logic applies to the financial case. Werner views safety technology as an investment in its drivers, its equipment and the long-term performance of its business, and Gass said the return goes well beyond the initial cost of the equipment. The company evaluates improvements in driver behavior, accident frequency, accident severity, claims expenses and overall operational efficiency.

According to Gass, Werner has seen significant reductions in critical safety events, DOT accidents and accident-related costs through its operations. Those results reinforce the importance of pairing the right technology with consistent coaching and accountability.

He was careful not to overstate what technology can do. “The technology itself doesn’t prevent every accident, but when it’s used effectively, it can make a measurable difference,” Gass said.

Then there’s the math of severity. Preventing even a small number of serious accidents can have a substantial impact, Gass said, both financially and, more importantly, on the lives of drivers and the motoring public.

What comes next

Looking ahead, Werner will continue looking at ways to leverage artificial intelligence. Beyond virtual coaching, the company is exploring predictive analytics, enhanced driver communication, and tighter integration among its camera systems, telematics and driver platforms.

Gass expects those connections to pay off over time. As the technologies evolve, he believes there will be more opportunities to identify emerging risks and intervene before an accident occurs.

He also drew a line around what the company will and won’t pursue. “Our focus isn’t on adding technology simply because it’s available. It’s about finding solutions that genuinely improve driver safety and make our operations more efficient,” Gass said.

That discipline may be the most transferable idea from Werner’s approach. Fleets face a steady stream of new safety products, and the temptation to adopt tools for their own sake is real. Filtering every option through a practical test, whether it improves safety and efficiency for drivers and the business, keeps a technology program focused.

The takeaway for fleet leaders

Werner’s experience points to a few consistent themes. Start with a safety commitment the whole organization can repeat. Invest in equipment that gives drivers current tools. Be transparent about how video and data are used. Pair every system with coaching that drivers experience as fair. And treat the data as a starting point, not a finish line.

Gass framed the larger goal this way: “The future of safety technology isn’t just about collecting more data. It’s about turning that data into meaningful action that prevents accidents and keeps America’s roads safer.”

For carriers still deciding how to build or expand a safety technology program, that may be the most useful measure of success: not how much information the fleet collects, but how reliably it turns that information into action, and whether the drivers on the receiving end trust it enough to use it.

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The suspension follows negotiations between Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Segob) and four trucking organizations — the National Chamber of Freight Transport (CANACAR), the Honorable Mexican Alliance of Transport Organizations (HAMOTAC), the Mexican-American Federation of Transporters (FEMATRAC) and the Organization for the Integration of Conventional Rights (INDECO).

The groups agreed to establish negotiations with multiple government agencies covering highway security, infrastructure, taxation, labor regulations and social security.

However, trucking leaders emphasized that the agreement represents a temporary suspension of protests rather than a resolution of the industry’s demands.

The demonstrations began Monday when truckers staged protests and highway blockades over cargo theft, extortion, violence against drivers and rising operating costs.

Mexico’s Interior Ministry reported demonstrations at 38 locations across 19 states, involving 691 vehicles and 858 participants. CANACAR disputed the government’s assessment, saying the protest movement extended across all 32 Mexican states.

Trucking leaders demand concrete solutions

At a Tuesday news conference following negotiations with federal officials, Carlos García Álvarez, national president of HAMOTAC, thanked truckers who participated in the demonstrations and credited their efforts with bringing government officials to the negotiating table.

The trucking organizations outlined agreements to establish working sessions with federal agencies responsible for public safety, transportation infrastructure, taxation and labor regulations.

Lauro Rincón Hernández, president of FEMATRAC, said highway security remains among the industry’s most pressing concerns.

“We cannot continue to endure more highway robberies, more loss of property, more truck drivers murdered,” Rincón Hernández said, according to Mexican transportation publication T21.

The organizations are demanding stronger measures to prevent highway robberies, extortion and violence against commercial truck drivers.

According to various media reports here and here, CANACAR representatives said 15 truck drivers have been killed in Mexico this year, including three in Veracruz and two in San Luis Potosí.

Trucking representatives also expressed concerns that drivers and fleet owners are reluctant to report crimes because they fear retaliation from criminal organizations.

The industry has complained about difficulties recovering stolen commercial vehicles, even after authorities locate them.

García Álvarez told Mexican journalist Azucena Uresti that the demonstrations were suspended following months of discussions with federal officials, but highway insecurity remains unresolved.

“It seems like a crime to be a transport worker,” García Álvarez said.

Government agrees to four areas of negotiations

During the Tuesday news conference, the leaders of HAMOTAC, FEMATRAC, INDECO and CANACAR outlined four major areas of negotiations with federal officials.

The negotiations involve fiscal policies and fleet modernization about tax incentives, financing and measures to help carriers replace aging commercial vehicles; highway security, highway infrastructure, and labor regulations and social security.

Augusto Ramos Melo, president of CANACAR, said the trucking industry is seeking simplified social security requirements and more affordable options for small carriers and independent operators.

Ramos Melo said the discussions would also address proposed reductions in the workweek and how working hours and overtime should be calculated for truck drivers.

The CANACAR president emphasized that the industry is dominated by small businesses, making regulatory costs and administrative requirements particularly important.

He said the organizations would seek agreements with defined timelines rather than open-ended discussions.

Protests could resume if agreements fall short

Despite the suspension, trucking organizations have not ruled out renewed highway demonstrations.

Irma Serrano, FEMATRAC’s representative in Guanajuato, told Mexican news outlet La Silla Rota that national leaders had informed regional representatives about the agreements reached with federal officials.

Serrano said the suspension is temporary and depends on whether authorities establish specific commitments and deadlines to resolve the industry’s concerns.

No date has been announced for additional demonstrations.

Why it matters: Persistent cargo theft, extortion and attacks on truck drivers threaten Mexico’s transportation industry and the reliability of North American supply chains.

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Over the past month, output at Roush, which upfits Aurora’s trucks in Livonia, Michigan, was held back by material shortages, component quality problems and issues found in end-of-line testing, CEO Chris Urmson said on the earnings call. Aurora now expects Roush to reach 20 trucks a week in early December and delivering 200 trucks by the end of February

 “Instead of producing 20 trucks a week in October, we’re going to do that in December, it really has no impact on our ability to go and scale and deliver a thousand trucks next year,” Urmson told Bloomberg, which interviewed him about Aurora’s quarterly results.

Aurora re-sources parts for the Roush line

Some of the delay traced to complex components that arrived late or below Aurora’s quality bar. Maday said Aurora moved some of those parts, including wire harnesses, to “a more capable production supplier.” He said that in most cases the change was cost-neutral or could save money once reduced rework is counted, and that it would not materially affect gross margin.

Other problems are typical of any new line, where some parts don’t fit together perfectly at first. Aurora Driver kits from supplier Fabrinet are running ahead of truck builds, and Roush is adding a second shift, Maday said.

“I really do think that this is just a little bit of a pivot to the right in terms of when we can start hitting the run rate, but there is nothing that is really prohibiting us from hitting the run rate at this point,” Maday said.

Aurora said Roush can push past 20 trucks a week by expanding the line.

Cash use rises with the fleet

Third-quarter revenue rose to $3 million from $1 million a year earlier. The operating loss widened to $257 million from $222 million and included $54 million in stock-based compensation. Net loss was $234 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with $201 million, or 11 cents, a year earlier.

Aurora used about $170 million in operating cash during the quarter and spent $36 million on capital expenditures, which it said was within its quarterly average target.

Asked by a Morgan Stanley analyst on the call whether the fourth-quarter increase reflected a structurally higher expense base, Maday said the money goes to hardware kits, components and truck builds at Roush. Research and development spending will change little, he said, with some added general and administrative cost to support hundreds of trucks.

“The vast majority of the increase is planned, it has been expected, and it is all related to building up the fleet,” he said.

The bill for the fleet is arriving before the revenue.

Aurora ended September with just over $1 billion in cash and short-term investments, down from nearly $1.2 billion at the end of June. During the quarter, it sold 6 million shares through its at-the-market program for $41 million in net proceeds and used $23 million of that to cover taxes on vesting employee stock.

Maday said Aurora should reach positive cash flow in 2028 with more revenue and fewer assets on its books, via Insurance Journal / Bloomberg News.

MOUs now cover 1,000 trucks

Charger Logistics signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding to own and operate 500 Aurora Driver-powered trucks under Aurora’s driver-as-a-service model, with deliveries expected in 2027 and 2028. With Hirschbach Motor Lines’ 500-truck MOU in April, Aurora’s announced MOUs now cover 1,000 trucks.

The Charger MOU builds on the transportation-as-a-service agreement Charger signed with Aurora in July for freight between Dallas and Laredo, Texas. Aurora said the deal represents a potential multiyear revenue stream in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Since launching autonomous operations along the Laredo corridor, we’ve realized immediate operational benefits that point to a clear path to scaling,” Charger President Andy Khera said in Aurora’s shareholder letter.

Maday said Aurora and its customers agreed on pricing and volumes in the MOUs and that the remaining terms are operational, such as who services the trucks and how they are disposed of at the end of their lives.

“On the two MOUs, we fully expect these to convert,” he said.

Urmson said the initial 200 trucks are fully contracted, and Maday said Aurora has 10 driverless customers.

Weigh stations, customer sites and beacons

Autonomous trucks have relied on voluntary enhanced pre-trip inspections, or EPTI, to bypass weigh stations, Aurora said in its shareholder letter. Its system can now determine whether a station is open, pull into an available scale lane and handle different scale layouts, the company said.

“EPTI is a really useful tool that allows you to have certainty and bypass weigh stations, but it also adds complexity in training and operations at customer sites,” Urmson said.

In November, Aurora trucks will begin running directly to sites for several driverless customers, including navigating security checkpoints on their own.

Federal rules require the driver of a stopped truck to set out reflective triangles or flares. On Oct. 7, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration granted a five-year exemption letting Level 4 autonomous trucks use cab-mounted amber beacons instead. Other carriers running Level 4 trucks can use it after notifying the agency, according to the Federal Register notice.

Volvo and PACCAR to follow Roush

Roush is the first step in a phased manufacturing plan. Aurora is integrating its driver directly on Volvo’s factory line while preparing for full production with Volvo and PACCAR, according to the earnings release. Volvo Autonomous Solutions plans to launch driverless trucks with the Aurora Driver in the first quarter of 2027 and deploy more than 300 that year. AUMOVIO plans to start production of Aurora’s third-generation hardware kit in the second half of 2027.

Urmson tied the end-of-2027 goal back to February.

“We still expect to get 200 trucks out of this in February, and we see this still enabling the 1,000+ trucks we expect on the road by the end of next year,” he said.

Why it matters: Aurora still needs more than 1,000 trucks on the road by the end of 2027, now from a later start. For Charger and Hirschbach, whose 1,000 trucks still need binding contracts, and for investors facing a $250 million quarter, December’s 20-truck week at Roush is the next test.

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New Norfolk Southern service agreement

Schneider said its new service agreement with Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) will make the company the only entirely asset-based provider on a single-line transcontinental railroad in the U.S., assuming the railroad’s merger with peer Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) is approved. (Schneider transferred its Western intermodal business to Union Pacific in 2023.)

Schneider’s intermodal service is executed with its own drivers and tractors, chassis (23,900), containers (26,800) and over 60 rail hubs in North America.

“As we transition our primary eastern rail provider to Norfolk Southern, we’ll expand access to key markets, increase network flexibility and create new opportunities to better serve our customers,” said Michael Baumgardt, executive vice president of intermodal and logistics at Schneider. “It will strengthen Schneider’s competitive position and enhance the reliable service experience our customers expect.”

The new service begins in January.

Schneider pointed to the success it has had with CPKC’s (NYSE: CP) cross-border, steel-wheel service as a factor in its decision to switch providers. Schneider said the move doesn’t jeopardize its existing relationship with CPKC. Schneider was an early user of the Southeast Mexico Express (SMX), a joint offering from CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) and CPKC, connecting Mexico to Texas and to the Southeast U.S.

“I mean, if you look at the UP today, we’re using the CPKC out of Mexico, despite the fact that they have a service,” said Jim Filter, Schneider president and CEO, on a call with analysts. “And they continue to operate with us and love everything that we’re doing with them, but they understand there’s a place that we don’t use them. And so, it’s not that unusual that you’re not going to go with one provider for everything.”

Noisy Q3 on path to recovery

Schneider (NYSE: SNDR) reported adjusted earnings per share of 29 cents for the third quarter, a penny below consensus but 17 cents higher year over year. Net interest expense was a 5-cent y/y tailwind, in part due to a reversal of interest accruals tied to a claim settlement (3 cents). A lower tax rate also helped slightly. But a separate claim in its logistics segment partially offset these benefits.

Consolidated revenue of $1.59 billion was 9% higher y/y and slightly better than the $1.58-billion consensus estimate.

It raised the bottom end of its full-year adjusted EPS guidance range by 10 cents to a new range of $1 to $1.10. The consensus estimate was $1.06 at the time of the print. (The company reported full-year 2025 adjusted EPS of 63 cents.) 

Truckload revenue (ex-fuel) was flat y/y at $625 million as an 8% increase in revenue per truck (ex-fuel) was offset by an 8% decline in average trucks in service. The utilization metric was 3% higher y/y for its dedicated fleet and 21% higher for the one-way fleet.

One-way contract renewals averaged just under 20% in the quarter, as management said that the capacity crackdown is expanding. This allowed the fleet to return to profitability.

The company has sold dedicated service on 850 trucks this year, but is still working to offset a previously disclosed customer loss.

The TL unit reported a 93% operating ratio (inverse of operating margin), which was 380 basis points better y/y, but 120 bps worse than the second quarter.

Intermodal revenue (ex-fuel) increased 2% y/y to $288 million. A 2% decline in loads was offset by a 3% increase in revenue per load (ex-fuel). Intermodal contract renewals are “comfortably in the mid-single-digit range,” management said. The unit reported a 92.1% OR, 190 bps better y/y.

The logistics segment reported breakeven results as a confidential claim settlement negatively impacted the period.

Net debt leverage was 0.1x at the end of the quarter, down from 0.3x at the end of 2025. Schneider lowered its full-year net capex plan to a range of $325 million to $350 million. Net capex totaled $289 million in 2025.

Why it matters? Schneider’s new service agreement with Norfolk Southern expands its market access and potentially establishes it as a unique asset-based provider on a single-line transcontinental rail network alongside its growing cross-border intermodal service. Meanwhile, Schneider’s results serve as a bellwether for the health of the truckload and intermodal markets.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• FedEx Freight sees volumes stabilize, eyes Q4 margin improvement
• Saia’s expanded terminal network delivers record revenue, tonnage
• XPO’s pricing, operating initiatives drive Q3 beat

The post Schneider partners with Norfolk Southern; raises outlook despite Q3 miss appeared first on FreightWaves.

The Montreal-based railway (NYSE: CNI) maintained its full-year earnings outlook, saying growth was tracking toward the upper end of its forecast range.

CN earned C$1.209 billion ($866 million), or $1.43 per diluted share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $816 million, or $1.31 a share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 15% to $3.42 billion from $2.98 billion.

Adjusted diluted earnings rose 18% to approximately $1.55 a share, excluding a software impairment and rail-merger-related advisory expenses. That exceeded analysts’ expectations of about $1.50 a share, according to FactSet figures reported by Dow Jones. Revenue also topped the approximately $3.34 billion forecast.

Freight revenue increased 15% to approximately $3.28 billion. Grain and fertilizer revenue rose 19% to $661 million, petroleum and chemicals revenue increased 17% to $716 million, and automotive revenue jumped 31% to $203 million.

Revenue ton-miles increased 4%. Grain and fertilizer traffic rose 12% on that basis, while automotive traffic increased 20%. Those gains helped offset declines in coal, forest products and intermodal traffic. Total carloads were essentially unchanged, while freight revenue per revenue ton-mile rose 10%.

Chief Executive Tracy Robinson credited service execution and productivity improvements for the results.

“Their relentless focus on safely executing the plan across our unique network continues to strengthen service, enhance productivity, and support our customers’ success,” Robinson said of CN employees in the earnings release.

Operating expenses increased 19% to approximately $2.18 billion, outpacing revenue growth. Fuel expense rose to $474 million from $299 million, even as CN reported a 2% improvement in fuel efficiency and record third-quarter fuel-efficiency performance.

The quarter also included an approximately $84 million impairment after CN discontinued development of certain components of its dispatching and back-office technology projects. Another $10 million in advisory costs related to regulatory proceedings concerning the proposed Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP)–Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) merger.

CN’s reported operating ratio — operating expenses as a percentage of revenue — deteriorated to 63.7% from 61.4%. Excluding the impairment and advisory costs, the adjusted ratio improved to 61.0%. Operating income rose 8% to approximately $1.24 billion, while adjusted operating income increased 16% to $1.33 billion. The adjusted figures are non-GAAP measures.

CN continued to forecast low-single-digit growth in revenue ton-miles for 2026 and mid-to-high-single-digit growth in adjusted diluted earnings per share, with earnings growth tracking toward the upper end of that range. It maintained its capital investment plan at approximately $2.00 billion, net of customer reimbursements.

Free cash flow for the first nine months increased 25% to approximately $2.09 billion. Operating cash flow over that period was slightly lower, but cash used in investing activities fell to $1.33 billion from $1.78 billion. CN repurchased approximately 3.9 million shares for $484 million during the third quarter.

The railway cautioned that volatile economic conditions, geopolitical conflicts and global trade tensions continued to pose risks to demand.

Why it matters: The earnings report suggests CN is generating more revenue from modest freight growth while improving underlying operating efficiency.

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

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Read more:

Schneider to shift eastern rail business to Norfolk Southern from CSX

U.S. rail traffic up 7.8% as intermodal leads gainers

9 alleged Mexican Cartel associates arrested in California train theft ring 

CPKC reports record revenue on strength of grain and intermodal traffic

First look: CPKC earnings

The post CN 3Q profit rises 6% as freight revenue climbs appeared first on FreightWaves.

The agreement, effective in November, shifts Schneider’s NYSE: SNDR) company-owned equipment, drivers and logistics operations away from CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) and pairs it with Norfolk Southern’s 22-state intermodal network. The companies said the partnership would expand market access, increase capacity flexibility and help attract freight now moving by truck.

“As we transition our primary eastern rail provider to Norfolk Southern, we’ll expand access to key markets, increase network flexibility and create new opportunities to better serve our customers,” said Michael Baumgardt, Schneider’s executive vice president of intermodal and logistics, in a release.

The move comes as NS pursues a transcontinental merger with Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP).

Schneider’s intermodal operation includes approximately 23,900 chassis, 26,800 containers and more than 60 rail hubs across North America. Its company drivers handle more than 90% of its domestic dray moves, the companies said.

Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) said the partnership builds on a series of infrastructure and service investments intended to accommodate customer growth. Those projects include new service between Cincinnati and Atlanta, double-stack clearance improvements linking the Midwest and New England through its East Edge route, and terminal expansions in Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina and Illinois.

The railroad is also upgrading pavement, lighting, storage areas, maintenance facilities, truck access and security at terminals in several markets, including Atlanta, Louisville, Harrisburg, Chicago and St. Louis. Norfolk Southern said the work is intended to improve reliability and reduce the time drivers spend moving through terminals.

“Customers are taking a broader view of intermodal than ever before, and we are investing ahead of that demand,” said Ed Elkins, Norfolk Southern’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer.

Norfolk Southern reported that its intermodal volumes grew 3% in the third quarter of 2026, citing steady consumer demand, favorable truck-market conditions and network improvements. The companies said the new agreement would support further growth by broadening Schneider’s reach and creating opportunities to convert truckload shipments to intermodal service.

The announcement did not disclose financial terms, quantify the additional capacity expected from the partnership or specify a transition date.

Why it matters: While a key win for NS, a longer-term connection to the proposed Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger gives Schneider access to additional intermodal markets by reducing the difficulties associated with shorter rail hauls and transfers between railroads.

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

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Read more:

U.S. rail traffic up 7.8% as intermodal leads gainers

9 alleged Mexican Cartel associates arrested in California train theft ring 

CPKC reports record revenue on strength of grain and intermodal traffic

First look: CPKC earnings

Backlog grows as 35,000 containers await rail service at LA–Long Beach

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The ceremony followed the terminal’s operational opening on May 4. The facility provides direct Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) rail service between Gainesville and Savannah five days a week, giving regional businesses an alternative to the roughly 600-mile round trip by truck.

“Georgia’s ports are a major reason companies choose to invest and create jobs here, and the Gainesville Inland Port brings that advantage directly to Northeast Georgia,” Kemp said. “Connecting this region to the Port of Savannah with new supply chain options makes it easier for Georgia businesses to reach customers around the world and helps ease congestion on our highways.”

The inland terminal extends Savannah’s port services into a region with more than 330 manufacturers, including poultry, heavy equipment and forest products businesses. Its rail connection gives shippers access to Savannah’s network of approximately 40 weekly vessel calls.

“With the start of operations in Gainesville, we’re extending the reach of the Port of Savannah deep into Northeast Georgia,” Georgia Ports President and Chief Executive Griff Lynch said when operations began. “Manufacturers across the region now have a seamless rail connection to more than 40 weekly vessel calls linking to global markets.”

Georgia Ports expects the terminal to shift 26,000 containers to rail during its first year of operation, reducing truck traffic and emissions on highways across Georgia, including in the Atlanta region. The agency has not disclosed volume at Gainesville since it opened.

Gainesville is the latest inland hub serving a major East Coast port. Georgia Ports also operates the Appalachian Regional Port serving Savannah, while South Carolina’s inland ports at Greer and Dillon handle boxes from the Port of Charleston. Virginia Inland Port at Front Royal, and North Carolina’s Charlotte Inland Port, alsop connect inland cargo markets to U.S. East Coast seaports by rail, although their terminal arrangements differ.

The 104-acre facility, formerly known as the Blue Ridge Connector, is designed to handle 200,000 containers annually at full build-out. It also offers access to Interstates 85 and 985.

Georgia Ports also funded $4.8 million in surrounding road improvements, including rerouting an access road, eliminating an at-grade rail crossing and resurfacing another road.

The opening comes amid industrial growth in Gainesville-Hall County. Since 2020, 78 new and expanding businesses have added more than 4,800 jobs and $2 billion in capital investment, according to figures cited by Georgia Ports. Manufacturing, processing and logistics account for 33% of the area’s workforce.

The Gainesville terminal is part of Georgia Ports’ nearly $5 billion, 10-year expansion program, which also includes additional cargo berths in Savannah and Brunswick.

Why it matters: The Gainesville Inland Port gives Northeast Georgia manufacturers a rail alternative to trucking goods to Savannah, a connection state officials say will lower freight costs, support industrial growth and reduce highway traffic.

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

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Read more:

Schneider to shift eastern rail business to Norfolk Southern from CSX

U.S. rail traffic up 7.8% as intermodal leads gainers

9 alleged Mexican Cartel associates arrested in California train theft ring 

CPKC reports record revenue on strength of grain and intermodal traffic

First look: CPKC earnings

The post New Georgia hub aims to take 26,000 containers off the road appeared first on FreightWaves.

U.S. rail yards are less forgiving. Venti says a Class I intermodal railroad plans to run more than 130 Venti trucks across eight sites by 2027. First, the Boston-based company had to teach its trucks two skills Singapore never required, founder and CEO Heidi Wyle told FreightWaves.

Backing an articulated rig is among trucking’s most challenging maneuvers, FreightWaves noted when Outrider added autonomous trailer backing to its distribution-yard tractors in 2022.

“So now when we came to the US, we had to teach our big 60-foot-long tractor-trailer vehicles how to back up,” Wyle said. “So you know we have videos of them actually backing up with 4-inch clearance on either side.”

Where the trucks fit in an intermodal yard

At an intermodal terminal, hostlers bring containers trackside or to the storage area. That trackside shuttle is the work the railroad wants Venti’s trucks to take on, Wyle said. She put monthly driver turnover in some places at around 20%.

“If you ask where is it that people don’t want to be, it’s in Texas in July, right?” Wyle said. “So basically what they want us to do is to be trackside with the trains and have the vehicles do the unloading and the short hauls to get to the long hauls or the other wherever else they’re going to go.”

The company’s Oct. 1 release says the trucks will load, move, and unload containers during live yard operations with nobody in the cab and no dedicated lanes. It does not say whether human hostlers will keep working beside them at the U.S. sites.

The trucks also have to cross live track on their own.

“Our vehicle now sees trains,” Wyle said. “It’s just like you or I. They would see trains, you know, they would see the sign come down. We see lights, red lights, green lights just like humans do.”

Six weeks into a three-month pilot

The railroad deal grew out of a proof of concept scheduled for three months, Wyle said. Six weeks in, the railroad told Venti it had hit all the metrics. It then took two vehicles before committing to a larger rollout.

Venti signed a long-term agreement with the railroad in July, starting at two of its busiest U.S. intermodal facilities, according to the company’s July 8 release. That release projected “100-plus” trucks by 2027. The October release raised the figure to more than 130 and said the fleet could pass 600 by the end of the decade.

But the U.S. fleet has not started work. Neither company has named the railroad or disclosed terms. Venti announced a $28.8 million Series A in March 2023, led by LG Technology Ventures.

Nearly three years without a driver in Singapore

Wyle co-founded Venti in 2018 with Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Their first idea was slow-speed robotaxis for senior communities. Wyle dropped it quickly.

“That was a very bad market because they don’t have a lot of money and what they have they don’t want to part with,” she said.

PSA, which runs over 70 deepsea, rail, and inland terminals according to its January release, pulled Venti into logistics around 2020, Wyle said. The two mapped PSA’s Singapore port and developed the system there, and the fleet grew from one truck to two, four, and eight. Venti now runs a 30-truck driverless fleet in Asia, Wyle said.

At PSA Singapore, those trucks work beside about 1,200 human-driven trucks, according to the Oct. 1 release. The company says its fleet has logged more than 500,000 autonomous miles and moved more than 360,000 containers.

Rebuilding the intermodal yard

The larger payoff, Wyle said, is predictability. In intermodal yards today, chassis get dropped wherever there is room, and owners sometimes send drones to find them, she said.

“What’s interesting is when you think about it for a minute, autonomy, our trucks are going to be exactly at a place exactly when they’re supposed to be there,” she said. “And so it enables a complete redo of all of those yards and the core supply chain.”

The railroad wants to start that work, she said.

“One of the things they want to do is actually start rebuilding the supply chain yards so that they’re less chaotic and more controlled,” Wyle said.

Why it matters: Venti’s trucks have run without drivers in Singapore for nearly three years. The company is now moving to test this technology in US yards, part of a growing group of autonomous technology providers targeting areas outside of middle mile and long haul applications.

The post Venti brings driverless yard trucks to US yards appeared first on FreightWaves.

FedEx Freight (NYSE: FDXF) completed its spinoff from FedEx (NYSE: FDX) in June. FedEx reported financial results on Wednesday.

The carrier reported four-month results (June through September) Thursday after the market closed as part of a transition to calendar-year financial reporting.

Revenue in the period increased 9% year over year to $3.28 billion. Revenue per day was up 8%. Adjusted earnings per share of $2.15 were 70 cents lower y/y.

The revenue increase was driven by a 9% increase in revenue per hundredweight (yield), while tonnage was level with the prior-year period. The tonnage result stemmed from a 1% decline in shipments per day, which was offset by a 1% increase in weight per shipment.

Yield (ex-fuel) was up just 0.3% y/y. Revenue per shipment (ex-fuel) increased 2%.

It has repriced approximately 25% of its contract business since the separation and said net revenue churn has improved. It expects both volumes and yield (ex-fuel) to increase in the fourth quarter. September marked the ninth straight month of expansion for the U.S. manufacturing complex, which is a significant source of LTL freight. 

FedEx Freight’s 2027 general rate increase is expected to average 6.9% and takes effect on Jan. 8.

The company reported an 84.5% adjusted operating ratio (inverse of operating margin), which was 90 basis points better y/y.  

Guidance for the fourth quarter includes revenue of $2.3 billion to $2.37 billion, a 13% y/y increase at the midpoint of the range. Higher diesel fuel surcharges will be a primary driver of the increase. Diesel prices were 48% higher y/y in the third quarter.

Adjusted operating income is expected to increase 20% y/y (at the midpoint) to a range of $185 million to $205 million. (The guide implies a 91.4% to 92% adjusted OR, 50 bps better y/y at the midpoint.)

The company said it will soon decide on a dividend, and on buying back stock. It said that share repurchases would likely be executed to offset dilution as FedEx unwinds its equity position.

Shares of FDXF were up 3% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Why it matters? FedEx Freight’s standalone results provide deeper context around its LTL operations and broader market trends.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• Saia’s expanded terminal network delivers record revenue, tonnage
• XPO’s pricing, operating initiatives drive Q3 beat
• Old Dominion’s tonnage turns positive; recovery needs demand inflection

The post FedEx Freight sees volumes stabilize, eyes Q4 margin improvement appeared first on FreightWaves.

CEO Andy Jassy said investments in same-day fulfillment facilities and ultra-fast delivery services are helping the company attract more customers while lowering fulfillment expenditures.

“We’re on track to reduce cost to serve per unit for the fourth consecutive year,” Jassy said during a call with analysts.

The Seattle-based company reported third-quarter revenue of $201.9 billion, up 12% from $180.2 billion a year earlier. Operating income surged 61% to $28.1 billion, compared with $17.4 billion in the same period last year.

Revenue in the quarter came in below Wall Street estimates of $202.3 billion, while earnings per share came in at $1.89, lower than the expectation of $1.96.

Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) operating margin reached 13.9%, its highest ever, as improvements across its retail and cloud computing businesses helped offset higher expenses.

“In our fulfillment network, the team navigated higher transportation costs from fuel inflation and higher line haul rates,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said.

Despite those pressures, Amazon lowered its overall cost to serve during the quarter through better inventory placement, shorter shipping distances and package consolidation, he said.

Shipping costs increased 11% year over year, compared with 12% growth in units shipped. Excluding fuel and linehaul inflation, shipping costs rose 8%, approximately 4 percentage points slower than unit growth.

Amazon’s North America segment, which includes its U.S. and Canadian retail operations, generated $112.9 billion in third-quarter revenue, up 6% year over year.

Operating income in the segment jumped to $8.7 billion from $4.8 billion a year earlier, an increase of approximately 81%.

North America’s operating margin reached 7.7%.

International revenue increased 5% to $43.1 billion, while operating income climbed to $1.6 billion from $1.2 billion.

Amazon said the timing of Prime Day affected year-over-year comparisons because the shopping event occurred in the second quarter of 2026 for most major markets, compared with the third quarter in 2025.

Excluding that timing change, Amazon estimated third-quarter revenue growth would have been approximately 4 percentage points higher.

Amazon said it achieved its fastest third-quarter delivery speeds ever for Prime members, delivering more than 1.5 billion items on the same day or overnight during the three-month period ending Sept. 30.

Automation remains a major component of Amazon’s strategy to lower fulfillment expenses and increase productivity.

Jassy told analysts the company now operates more than 1 million robots across its fulfillment network.

He said robotics has contributed to improved productivity, reduced operating costs and record-low safety incident levels across its fulfillment operations.

Amazon doubled its fleet of robotic arms, including Cardinal and Sparrow systems, during 2026, according to Olsavsky.

The company is also developing robotics foundation models designed to help machines perform increasingly complex physical tasks.

During the question-and-answer portion of Thursday’s earnings call, Jassy said that transportation cost pressures are expected to continue into the fourth quarter.

Responding to an analyst’s question about fuel and linehaul inflation, Jassy said the impact would be somewhat higher in the fourth quarter than in the third.

Amazon implemented a fuel surcharge earlier this year for sellers using its Fulfillment by Amazon service, allowing the company to recover some of its higher fuel expenses.

However, Jassy said the surcharge does not fully offset the increases, leaving Amazon exposed to higher costs for inbound retail shipments and outbound deliveries.

Amazon expects fourth-quarter net sales between $240 billion and $247 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 12% to 16%.

The company forecast fourth-quarter operating income between $28.5 billion and $33.5 billion, compared with $25 billion in the year-earlier period.

Amazon Q3 2026: Key financial and operating metrics

The table below is suitable for inserting after the article’s opening financial results section.

Why it matters: Amazon’s ability to lower per-unit delivery costs despite higher fuel and linehaul expenses illustrates how automation, inventory placement and transportation network optimization could reshape the economics of e-commerce fulfillment and parcel delivery.

The post Amazon battles freight inflation as shipping costs jump 11% in Q3  appeared first on FreightWaves.

TFI International has tried to get investors to take notice of its Truckload operations, which are substantial but smaller than its more better-known LTL segment. The third quarter results may be the catalyst that gets that recognition to occur.

Where the third quarter LTL segment at TFI (NYSE: TFII) saw its operating ratio rise compared to a year ago, the OR for Truckload strengthened. And it was the Truckload operations that led CEO Alain Bedard’s comments in the prepared statement released Thursday afternoon along with its earnings.

Bedard described Truckload as having a “remarkably strong” quarter. “Our Truckload performance is particularly gratifying, with double digit top line growth despite fewer trucks and operating income that nearly doubled,” Bedard said. 

The overall impact of the higher LTL OR and the much improved truckload OR led to a company-wide OR of 89.5% compared to 91.2% from a year ago.

The Truckload segment had operating income of $100.2 million, up 13.3% from a year ago, while LTL’s operating income was $44.4 million, up 6.6%. A year ago, LTL’s operating income was $77.7 million while Truckload was $52.6 million.

TFI’s Logistics segment had operating income that surpassed LTL, coming in at $49.4 million.

Diluted EPS of $1.28, compared to $1.02 a year earlier, is expected to be surpassed in the fourth quarter, TFI said, projecting EPS for the three months to be between $1.30 to $1.40.

Several of the LTL metrics fell sharply, leading to the deterioration in adjusted OR. Revenue per hundred weight excluding fuel, the key yield figure, declined less than 1%. But revenue per shipment excluding fuel fell 22%.

The average weight per shipment was down 3.58%. TFI did see its total LTL shipments rise 4.62%.

With year-ago comparisons on revenue in Truckload impacted by the weak freight market of 2025, Truckload revenue rose 142.1%. But adjusted EBITDA in Truckload was up 24.7% and operating income rose more than 90%.

The Truckload segment was much smaller in size than a year ago, with the truck count down almost 12%. The number of owner operators also declined about 4.8%.

TFI International’s earnings call with analysts will be Friday at 9:30 am EDT.

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The post First look: TFI Truckload sparkles, but OR at LTL slips appeared first on FreightWaves.

The Chattanooga, Tennessee-based carrier (NYSE: CVLG) generated $353.9 million in total revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with $296.9 million a year earlier. 

Freight revenue excluding fuel surcharges rose 17.2% to $315.1 million from $268.8 million.

Other highlights during the quarter included improved freight pricing, even as the trucking company continued shrinking its tractor fleet and shifting capacity toward long-term contracts.

Net income increased to $10.7 million, or 40 cents per diluted share, compared with $9.1 million, or 35 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2025.

On an adjusted basis, Covenant earned 50 cents per diluted share, up 13.6% from 44 cents a year earlier.

Chairman and CEO David R. Parker said the results marked the first time since the second quarter of 2022 that adjusted earnings per share increased both sequentially and year over year.

“We were pleased with our third-quarter earnings of $0.40 per diluted share, or $0.50 per diluted share on a non-GAAP adjusted basis,” Parker said in a news release.

The company’s operating income increased to $12.5 million from $7.9 million a year earlier. However, its adjusted operating ratio deteriorated to 95% from 94.4%, reflecting continued pressure from operating expenses.

Covenant will hold a conference call to discuss results with analysts at 10 a.m. Friday.

Covenant Logistics Q3 2026 financial and operating performance

Managed Freight drives revenue growth

Covenant’s Managed Freight segment was the primary driver of the company’s third-quarter revenue growth, generating $121.6 million compared with $72.2 million in the same period last year, an increase of 68.4%.

Adjusted segment operating income more than doubled to $7.1 million from $3 million, while its adjusted operating ratio improved to 94.2% from 95.8%.

The company attributed the gains primarily to the integration of brokerage operations acquired during the fourth quarter of 2025, along with customer rate increases and lower purchased transportation costs.

Parker said the acquired brokerage operations delivered their strongest quarterly performance since joining Covenant.

The company’s existing brokerage business also benefited from sourcing additional carrier capacity to handle overflow expedited freight.

Covenant cautioned that sourcing qualified carrier capacity at prices below contractual freight rates remains challenging as trucking capacity exits the market. Rising insurance and claims expenses also pose risks to Managed Freight profitability.

Truckload fleet shrinks as revenue per mile climbs

Covenant’s combined Truckload operations generated $204.6 million in total revenue, up 2.5% from $199.7 million a year earlier.

However, Truckload freight revenue excluding fuel surcharges declined 3.4% to $166 million from $171.8 million.

The decline was largely attributable to an 8.9% reduction in the company’s average tractor fleet, which fell to 2,186 tractors from 2,400 a year earlier.

Despite operating fewer trucks, Covenant reported improved pricing and revenue productivity.

Average freight revenue per total mile climbed 19.8% to $3.03 from $2.53, while average freight revenue per tractor per week increased 6.1% to $5,778 from $5,445.

Average miles per tractor during the quarter declined 11.4% to 25,081 from 28,306.

President Paul Bunn said higher rates and an improved freight mix helped offset the impact of operating fewer tractors.

However, inflation and costs associated with repositioning equipment and drivers weighed on profitability.

Truckload adjusted operating income declined to $7.9 million from $10 million, while the segment’s adjusted operating ratio deteriorated to 95.3% from 94.2%.

Bunn said truckload operating expenses increased approximately 20.8% year over year on an adjusted basis, compared with a roughly 19.7% increase in freight revenue per total mile.

The company cited rising wages, employee benefits, equipment depreciation, maintenance and technology costs, along with temporary expenses related to starting new customer contracts.

Expedited revenue falls as Dedicated business expands

Covenant’s Expedited segment continued transitioning toward multiyear capacity agreements.

Expedited freight revenue excluding fuel surcharges declined 12% to $70.6 million from $80.2 million a year earlier.

The segment’s average tractor fleet fell 21.4% to 677 units from 861, while adjusted operating income declined 19% to $4.2 million.

Despite the reduction in fleet size, average freight revenue per tractor per week increased 12% to $7,934.

By the end of September, approximately 58% of Covenant’s Expedited tractors were operating under committed capacity agreements, compared with about 40% at the end of the second quarter.

Dedicated freight revenue excluding fuel surcharges increased 4.2% to $95.4 million from $91.6 million.

Dedicated revenue per tractor per week climbed 6.2% to $4,810, supported by expansion in the company’s agricultural protein-related transportation business and its decision to exit less profitable dedicated contracts.

Across its entire asset-based fleet, Covenant said approximately 80% of tractors were operating under long-term contracts at the end of the quarter.

Parker said the company’s longer-term goal is to place substantially all of its asset-based business under dedicated or other committed freight contracts by the end of the current freight market upcycle.

Freight demand holds steady, but costs remain elevated

Parker described freight demand as adequate across most sectors and strong in certain markets tied to U.S. economic growth.

However, he said tightening driver capacity and inflation continue to create significant operating challenges.

“Driver capacity is tight, and the cost of recruiting, retaining, and compensating drivers is increasing significantly,” Parker said.

He added that higher expenses for wages, equipment ownership, maintenance and technology have largely offset the benefits of freight rate increases.

Covenant expects its transition toward committed capacity contracts to reduce earnings volatility and improve profitability as the freight market strengthens.

The company’s Warehousing segment also faced profitability challenges during the quarter.

Warehousing freight revenue increased 7.8% to $26.7 million, but adjusted operating income declined to $888,000 from approximately $2 million a year earlier.

The company attributed the decline to operational inefficiencies at new customer locations and labor inflation.

Covenant forecasts further earnings improvement

Covenant expects a modest sequential increase in earnings per share during the fourth quarter as it continues shifting equipment into higher-margin committed contracts and reduces repositioning expenses.

The company also anticipates growth in its Dedicated fleet and a stable Expedited fleet, with a greater percentage of tractors operating under long-term agreements.

Its 49% ownership stake in Transport Enterprise Leasing contributed $5.7 million in pretax income during the quarter, compared with $3.6 million a year earlier. Covenant expects a lower contribution from the leasing business in the fourth quarter.

As of Sept. 30, Covenant reported approximately $283.9 million in net indebtedness, down $12.4 million from the end of 2025.

The company also reported $75.2 million in immediately available borrowing capacity under its asset-based lending facility.

For the remainder of 2026, Covenant expects net capital equipment expenditures of $35 million to $40 million.

Why it matters: Covenant’s earnings improvement highlights how trucking companies are using higher contract rates, smaller fleets and asset-light brokerage operations to offset persistent cost inflation and uneven freight demand.

The post First look: Covenant Logistics’ Q3 freight revenue surges 68% appeared first on FreightWaves.

As supply chains face constant disruption, rising expectations and growing pressure to make faster decisions, the gap between adopting new technology and putting it to work is becoming harder to ignore.

To better understand where the industry stands, Blue Yonder and FreightWaves surveyed transportation and logistics decision-makers, combining their insights with industry expertise and real-world examples.

Download the white paper to explore:

• How transportation and logistics leaders are approaching AI adoption
• Why visibility alone is no longer enough to stay competitive
• The biggest barriers to AI implementation and supply chain connectivity
• How companies can move beyond basic visibility to improve collaboration and decision-making
• What’s next for AI and the future of transportation

Fill out the form to download the full report.

The post How transportation leaders are turning AI and connected data into a competitive edge appeared first on FreightWaves.

Consolidated revenue grew 12% to $22.9 billion, with adjusted operating income of $1.2 billion, up 16% year over year, the freight transportation giant reported after the market closed on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations. Adjusted earnings per share was $3.74, up 28% from the prior year. 

A quarter of FedEx’s (NYSE: FDX) revenue growth is attributable to higher fuel surcharges. Results also benefitted from continued structural cost reductions from network optimization initiatives. FedEx so far has closed 260 delivery stations and expects to realize $1 billion in recurring savings because of network and corporate restructuring by the end of the year, and $2 billion in savings by the end of 2027. 

Network integration has been completed in large metropolitan areas like Dallas, San Francisco, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., along with Canada last year. Early next year, FedEx will tackle Los Angeles; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Oklahoma City, CEO Raj Subramaniam told analysts during a conference call about the financial results.

This is the first peak season for FedEx operating at scale under its Network 2.0 initiative to consolidate ground and express networks, with about 65% of eligible volume expected to flow through dual-purpose facilities. 

FedEx revised upward its full-year outlook. Revenue is now estimated to grow 12% year over year vs the prior estimate of 11% growth and adjusted diluted earnings per share are projected at $18.30 at the midpoint range, up from $17.50.

It was FedEx’s first quarterly earnings report aligned with its new calendar-year reporting framework, following the company’s transition from a May 31 fiscal year-end to a December 31 year-end. As such, FedEx also reported four-month results to cover June, alongside normal quarterly results.

FedEx, much like UPS, has pivoted since 2024 toward high-margin sectors that require end-to-end-logistics services, such as aerospace, automotive, healthcare, and high-tech, while foregoing no-frills, local and regional last-mile delivery for cost-conscious e-commerce retailers. B2B now represents 60% of FedEx’s revenue. The AI and data center industry was the fastest growing vertical at FedEx during the quarter. A recent Frost & Sullivan report, sponsored by FedEx, discussed how AI is influencing trade patterns in the Asia-Pacific region and trans-Pacific freight movements, which FedEx is capitalizing on. Healthcare grew double digits.

One year ago, as part of the focus on revenue quality, the company began offering more tailored services for the automotive production market, with a dedicated team, 24/7 support, flexible global pickup capabilities, and enhanced visibility. The effort paid off in the third quarter when it began serving 13 major automotive customers, Chief Commercial Officer Brie Carere said.

Capturing more non-parcel air freight

FedEx’s realignment of airline operations is also playing an important role in creating a better value proposition for customers, according to management. Under the Tricolor initiative, running parallel to optimization of the North American surface transportation network, the integrated logistics company essentially segregates overnight express parcels from deferred pallet shipments to better utilize aircraft and workforces, with the goal of creating better density, reducing cost and attracting high-value heavyweight cargo from logistics service providers.

Average daily freight pounds grew 15% year-over-year and FedEx is winning share in the air freight market, indicating that the approach towards heavyweight, premium service is paying off, management said. Rival DHL Express is similarly pursuing a strategy of pursuing more heavy freight to fill out available space on package aircraft. 

“Our expanding capabilities across key verticals are enabling us to address more of our customers’ logistic needs, unlocking air freight demand from traditionally parcel-centric customers. For example, we drove a 15-fold increase in aircraft engine moves and won new air freight business with an AI data center customer after more than a 40-year largely parcel-centric relationship,” Subramaniam said during the briefing. “Differentiation is increasingly centered on deep customer relationships and tailored service experiences, positioning us to capture more freight volume as we address customers’ needs beyond parcel.” 

Domestic

Revenue for the domestic business increased 10% year over year, supported by a 2% gain in average daily package volume. Adjusted operating margins ticked down 20 basis points to 6.6% due to the negative impact of higher costs for fuel and purchased transportation, offsetting savings from network restructuring. 

The 4% volume decline for the home delivery Ground Economy product was intentional as FedEx price hikes discouraged budget-conscious retailers from tendering shipments. 

Management expressed confidence for a good peak season, with revenue projected to be up 10% quarter over quarter, noting that the top 30 customers are planning for about 2% growth in average daily parcel volume from Black Friday through Christmas.

Rising costs could slow profit growth in the fourth quarter. FedEx outsources about 10% of its linehaul and executives said they anticipated about $130 million in higher expenses month over month due to elevated rates in the truckload sector, where capacity is very tight. The company will incrementally insource more linehaul operations next year and take specific commercial pricing actions to address the cost challenges. TD Cowen analyst Jason Seidl suggested FedEx is also likely to shift some volume to railroads, where intermodal costs are lower than truckload.

FedEx also faces pressure from its new pilot contract, with about $100 million of above- normal wage inflation quarterly expected through 2027 and an $80 million increase in aircraft maintenance expense versus the fourth quarter of 2025 because more aircraft are due for comprehensive, heavy inspections.

Management said it expects more bottom line capture of revenue from recently announced peak season surcharges and a 5.9% general rate increase next year.

International

Express international revenue increased 17%, primarily due to higher fuel surcharges, higher pricing for packages and freight, and growth in overseas export and freight volumes. Margins were up 4% year over year.

International freight revenue grew 28%, helped by the data center vertical. 

International economy and freight segments experienced strong volumes arising from recovery in the U.S.-China trade lane, which declined last because of the trade war between the countries, and demand from large-scale cloud service and technology companies. Low-yield U.S. exports were down 11% in the third quarter. FedEx next year is likely to squeeze out less desirable freight with higher pricing to improve margins, Seidl said in a client note.

FedEx is also consolidating its fragmented country operations in Europe to make it easier for customers to manage shipments across an integrated network across borders. In France, the company has closed 17 stations, modernized two hubs and 16 stations by installing advanced, automated sorting systems, and equipped 32 stations with new tracking and monitoring technology, said Subramaniam. 

In Italy, FedEx is similarly simplifying operations to prioritize higher-value international B2B and export services. As part of this process, FedEx is transitioning from an eight-hub footprint to a highly streamlined three-hub footprint and actively reducing  station count, the CEO said. In June, the company reached an important milestone when it consolidated two Milan area stations into a newly upgraded facility that allows more efficient pickup and delivery within one of the most densely populated areas of the country. 

FedEx plans to reduce domestic capacity by 20% in Italy by 20%, 30% in the United Kingdom and 40% in France. “The second part of our strategy is to improve the mix. Given the network utilization, we are now focusing our commercial teams on driving more intercontinental and intra-European volume and reducing lower-yielding intra-country volume,” Subramaniaam said.

The integrator is on track to reach its target of $650 million in adjusted operating income in Europe by the end of 2029, he added.

FedEx said it has returned the majority of its MD-11 tri-engine freighters to service after fixing a design flaw, per Boeing instructions, that had the potential to allow fatigue cracks in the engine pylon. U.S. authorities forced operators to ground their fleets for several months following the fatal crash last November of an MD-11 operated by UPS. 

Adjusted results exclude $270 million in costs related to expenses for network restructuring or the spin off of FedEx Freight last summer. FedEx rewarded investors by using some of its profits to buy back $2 billion in shares during the quarter.

FedEx earlier this month completed the sale of its contract logistics unit, FedEx Supply Chain, to France-based shipping and logistics giant CMA CGM for $1.4 billion as it focuses on its core freight transportation business. 

Meanwhile, consortium of investors is nearing the completion of the $9.2 billion InPost deal, which will give FedEx a 37% share in the European express delivery company and greater opportunities in the B2C parcel sector without having to divert resources from core B2B operations.

Earlier this week, FedEx announced the appointment of AutoZone executive Jamere Jackson as its next chief financial officer. 

Equity analysts continue to recommend FedEx, citing volume growth trends and higher profit margins once the U.S. ground network is fully merged next year and streamlining efforts in Europe take root. FedEx stock price was up less than a point to $307.08 a share in late day trading on Thursday.

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

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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Saia’s (NASDAQ: SAIA) reported third-quarter earnings per share of $3.41 on Thursday before the market opened. The result was 60 cents higher y/y and 11 cents better than the consensus estimate. A $3.6-million decline in net interest expense was a 10-cent y/y tailwind.

(The comparison to the 2025 third quarter excludes a $14.5-million net impact from real estate gains and impairments, resulting in adjusted EPS of $2.81.)

Revenue of $983 million was 17% higher y/y and $15 million better than analysts’ expectations. (Diesel prices were 48% higher y/y in the quarter.)

Tonnage was up 9% y/y as shipments increased 1% and weight per shipment grew 8%. On a y/y comparison, tonnage increased 7.8% in July, 8.7% in August and 10.3% in September. Tonnage is up 10% y/y so far in October.

Since 2022, the company has opened 45 new terminals and relocated or expanded another 25. While its 219-terminal network is still smaller than other national carriers, management said the company is finally “on equal footing.”  

September marked the ninth straight month of expansion for the U.S. manufacturing complex, which is a significant source of LTL freight. Also, Saia REV has reduced transit times in over 2,000 lanes, providing an additional source for “outsized volume growth.”

Revenue per hundredweight (yield) was 2% lower y/y, excluding fuel surcharges. However, higher shipment weights and a 1% decline in length of haul were headwinds for the metric.

Revenue per shipment (ex-fuel) was up 6% y/y even with continued weakness in the Los Angeles market, which carries higher freight bills. The company’s national expansion and improved service give it confidence that it can push pricing and close the gap to peers.

“Frankly, the service levels that we’ve been providing … support that,” said President and CEO Fritz Holzgrefe on a Thursday call with analysts.

Saia implemented a 7.1% general rate increase on July 6, which was 120 bps higher and three months earlier than last year’s rate hike. It said the GRI is performing well and that it continues to “see great results from that.”

Contractual rate renewals averaged 10.8% in the quarter, up 15.9% on a two-year-stacked comp.

The company logged an 87.6% operating ratio (inverse of operating margin), which was flat y/y and just 70 bps worse than the second quarter. It normally sees 150 to 200 bps of margin degradation from the second to third quarter.

The y/y comparison had the added headwind of two wage increases in the quarter. There was no pay bump in the 2025 third quarter as the increase wasn’t installed until October, while this year’s increase occurred as normal in July. Also, the new terminals are operating at a low-90% OR, but 40 bps better y/y.

It normally sees 250 to 300 bps of margin deterioration from the third to the fourth quarter, but is calling for just 200 bps of degradation this year, implying an 89.6% OR (230 bps better than the 2025 fourth-quarter unadjusted OR).

It said it will continue to lean on the cost advantage that the railroads provide.

Purchased transportation expense (as a percentage of revenue) increased 220 bps y/y. Saia’s rail and truck partners accounted for 15.7% of total linehaul miles during the quarter, but the company was able to manage outside rate-per-mile inflation to just 4%. It expects further cost inflation on purchased transportation, but noted that contracts with providers are staggered.

Saia announced a $250-million share repurchase program on Thursday. It has done most of the heavy lifting on the growth capex front. It expects capex to total 13% to 14.5% of revenue next year, with 12% to 15% the longer-term target.

Full-year net capex is now expected to total $350 million this year, down from the prior guidance range of $350 million to $400 million. Net capex was $544 million in 2025 and $1.05 billion in 2024.

It generated over $240 million in free cash flow through the third quarter and ended the period with over $100 million in net cash.

Shares of SAIA were up 3% at 2:51 p.m. EDT on Thursday compared to the S&P 500, which was down 0.6%.

Why it matters? Saia is one of a few publicly traded LTL carriers. Its quarterly results provide insight into a subsegment of trucking where few public datasets exist.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• XPO’s pricing, operating initiatives drive Q3 beat
• Old Dominion’s tonnage turns positive; recovery needs demand inflection
• Insurance claims adjustments tank Landstar’s otherwise strong Q3

The post Saia’s expanded terminal network delivers record revenue, tonnage appeared first on FreightWaves.

Carriers’ accelerating return to the Red Sea is reshaping shipping schedules, analyst and SONAR data contributor Freightos (NASDAQ: CRGO) said in an update, while a potential strike at Los Angeles-Long Beach adds another source of uncertainty for cargo owners.

Nearly two-thirds of capacity deployed between Asia and Europe is now routing through the Red Sea, according to Alphaliner. Its survey of the 10 largest carrier networks found that 24 of 46 direct services were using the passage, representing 63% of deployed capacity. The share was higher on Mediterranean routes, at 70%, than on North Europe services, at 58%.

Israeli carrier Zim announced a return to the Red Sea for its joint Asia-U.S. East Coast service with Mediterranean Shipping Co. The move is notable because Yemen-based Houthi rebels backing Hamas in Gaza declared the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the southern Red Sea closed to Israel-linked vessels as recently as August.

The return remains uneven. Some services are using the Suez Canal on voyages toward Europe while continuing to sail around Africa on their return journeys, emphasizing carriers’ continued caution about the route.

Typhoon Champi brought fresh disruption to East Asia last week, closing Taiwanese container ports, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Taipei, on Friday. The storm largely spared East China port operations before weakening as it moved toward Japan.

Major Chinese container hubs are still recovering from earlier summer storms, with many yet to return fully to normal operations. That congestion has helped support freight rates even as demand eases after the peak shipping season, according to the update.

The shift back to the shorter Red Sea route may also be complicating the recovery. Ships arriving ahead of schedules built around longer Africa voyages can bunch together at destination ports, adding pressure to terminals already working through backlogs.

Asia-Europe freight prices have risen since mid-October, supported by congestion and carriers’ efforts to restrict available capacity through blank sailings, or canceled departures. Carriers are seeking further increases in November, although forwarders have reported discounted offers and questioned whether the higher prices will hold.

The Freightos Baltic Index put last week’s Asia-North Europe rate at $3,551 per 40-foot equivalent unit, or FEU, up 3%. Prices to the Mediterranean rose 8% to $4,252 per FEU.

Carriers are pairing their November pricing plans with additional sailing cancellations. Drewry reported eight blank sailings scheduled on Asia-Europe routes for the following week, compared with two in the current week. European forwarders nevertheless said carriers had discounted their published rates during October and expected similar concessions in November.

Trans-Pacific prices also rose, defying expectations of a slowdown after China’s Golden Week holiday. Asia-U.S. West Coast rates increased 3% to $8,368 per FEU, while East Coast rates jumped 9% to $10,565, a high for the year.

Daily East Coast prices have since retreated but remained about $200 per FEU above the previous week’s level, Freightos said. The analyst noted forwarders are seeing signs that demand is cooling and space is becoming easier to secure.

At LA-Long Beach, approximately 250 port watchmen have authorized a strike that could begin Nov. 1 if contract negotiations fail.

Although the workers account for only about 2% of the ports’ International Longshore and Warehouse Union workforce, their role could give a walkout a much wider impact. The Pacific Maritime Association said terminals employing the watchmen handle roughly 85% of Long Beach’s cargo and 33% of Los Angeles’ cargo.

The employers’ association warned that other ILWU members were not expected to cross Local 26 picket lines, potentially stopping vessel, yard and gate operations at affected terminals. Negotiations remain underway, and a strike has not been confirmed.

Any work stoppage would add to existing delays affecting rail-bound containers at the port complex, according to the supplied update.

U.S. trade policy presents another approaching deadline. The White House extended its trade truce with China in late September, preserving the current arrangements on tariffs and other parts of the agreement until early January, according to the supplied update.

However, U.S. port fees on China-linked vessels remain formally scheduled top resume Nov. 10. Although much of the shipping industry expected those charges to be deferred alongside the broader truce, the U.S. Trade Representative had instead opened a request for comments on postponing them until January. That step points toward a possible delay but does not itself suspend the fees.

The update also said USTR expects to complete Section 301 investigations into excess manufacturing capacity in China and 15 other countries by year-end.

Those investigations could provide a basis for restoring tariffs to levels previously imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Following the Supreme Court’s invalidation of IEEPA-based tariffs, replacement duties left some countries, including China, facing rates below their negotiated levels, according to the supplied account.

Even if the investigations conclude by December, the required public-comment and hearing process could push implementation of any resulting tariffs back by another couple of months, leaving a further gap between the findings and new duties.

Why it matters: Importers face uncertainty over both shipping costs and delivery times, even as the return to the Red Sea promises shorter voyages. More capacity does not automatically mean cheaper or more reliable shipping when congestion, canceled sailings and labor disputes interfere.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Read more:

Trailer Bridge appoints new CEO

Strike threat by port security workers at Los Angeles–Long Beach

Backlog grows as 35,000 containers await rail service at LA–Long Beach

Port Houston container volumes jump 11% as imports surge in September

Canada port reaches new longshore union labor deal

The post Why container rates are climbing despite cooling demand appeared first on FreightWaves.

The deal moves Kodiak’s Driver-as-a-Service model from Permian Basin sand hauling onto interstate freight lanes, though Kodiak has yet to run a driverless truck on a public highway. Kodiak is ranked No. 12 in the 2027 FreightTech 25 list.

Under the agreement, DTL will own and operate the trucks and pay Kodiak a per-mile fee to use the Kodiak Driver. DTL, a family-run carrier that has hauled dry and refrigerated freight for more than 36 years, runs a fleet of more than 100 trucks. The release did not disclose the rate, the contract term or when the first of the 75 will run without a driver.

“This binding agreement reinforces what I have said from the beginning: The Driver-As-A-Service business model is tailor-made for commercial trucking,” said Don Burnette, Kodiak’s founder and CEO.

Lanes target hours-of-service limits

DTL will start on two lanes Kodiak has already tested: between Dallas and El Paso, Texas, and on Interstate 20 between Dallas and Atlanta. In 2023, Kodiak began hauling Forward Air freight on the Atlanta lane with teams of safety drivers aboard.

Carriers run teams to get past a solo driver’s limits under federal hours-of-service rules, which bar a property-carrying driver from driving more than 11 hours within a 14-hour window after 10 consecutive hours off duty.

Kodiak said the two routes give DTL the opportunity to operate beyond current service-hour limitations, with more lanes to be added over time. The release did not say whether the driverless trucks will replace DTL’s teams on those lanes.

“By integrating this technology into our fleet, complementing our experienced, professional workforce, we can expand capacity, enhance safety and drive innovation forward,” said Lucky Dosanjh, DTL’s president and CEO.

California pilot preceded the deal

The agreement follows a September pilot in which the Kodiak Driver hauled perishable goods for DTL 225 miles from Fresno to Los Angeles on Interstate 5 and State Route 99. A safety driver stayed behind the wheel, as required by the testing permit the California Department of Motor Vehicles granted Kodiak in August, Heavy Duty Trucking reported.

Kodiak said those were the first commercial goods autonomously hauled by a Class 8 truck in California.

Kodiak’s highway launch still ahead

Kodiak plans to launch driverless highway service by the end of this year, hauling IKEA freight on Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston, and still has to close its long-haul safety case. Its Autonomy Readiness Measure reached 93% at the end of August, up from 84% in February.

As of June 30, Kodiak’s 35 customer-owned driverless trucks ran for Atlas Energy Solutions in the Permian Basin. Kodiak has committed to growing that fleet to 100 trucks by mid-2027.

The company reported second-quarter revenue of $3.5 million, up from $503,000 a year earlier, and a $43.7 million operating loss. It ended June with $151.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Kodiak AI’s third-quarter earnings are set to release Thursday, Nov. 5 after market close.

Why it matters: Driverless trucks suit team expedite work, where freight has to keep moving past a solo driver’s hours limit. DTL can’t put that to work on its 75 trucks until Kodiak closes its long-haul safety case and launches driverless on public highways.

The post Fresno carrier DTL to run 75 Kodiak driverless trucks appeared first on FreightWaves.

RXO remains a publicly-traded company as it prepares to be acquired by C.H. Robinson, posting its earnings Thursday that showed mostly positive numbers in all key categories.

Given the pending deal with C.H. Robinson, RXO (NYSE: RXO) did not hold an earnings call with analysts. The summary slides that also accompany earnings were not released either.

On the growth side, the company’s revenue was $1.9 billion in the third quarter, compared to $1.4 billion a year ago. Revenue was $1.8 billion in the second quarter.

One key metric that was slightly negative was company-wide gross margin at 14.6%, compared to 16.5% a year ago. However, the third quarter performance was improved on the 13.9% margin in the second quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA numbers were improved. The $51 million recorded in the third quarter came with a 2.7% EBITDA margin, up from 2.3% a year ago when EBITDA was $32 million. The EBITDA margin in the second quarter also was 2.3%.

RXO’s EBITDA of $51 million exceeded the forecast of $35 million to $45 million issued by RXO in its second quarter earnings. “We exceeded the high end of our third-quarter profit outlook, demonstrating the momentum we’re building across RXO,” RXO CEO Drew Wilkerson said in the company’s prepared statement releasing earnings.

One of the more positive figures in the earnings was the fact that RXO made money for the second consecutive quarter. RXO had adjusted net income of 2 cents per share in the third quarter after a second quarter net income of 6 cents per share. Profitability at RXO has been spotty for several years, with some positive net income quarters reported but more frequently showing red ink.

Brokerage volume for the company–the specifics of which are not disclosed by RXO–was up 2% from a year ago. RXO also said truckload volume increased all three months of the quarter. 

The mix at RXO’s truckload segment shifted heavily toward the spot market in the quarter. It accounted for 51% of volume, up from 59% a year ago and 42% sequentially. 

“This helped drive the largest sequential gross profit per load growth rate in more than four years,” the company’s prepared statement said.

LTL volume was up 2% from a year ago, RXO said. The company’s Last Mile segment–which C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) touted as an attractive part of the RXO business that would strengthen the acquiring company–recorded a 5% increase in stops compared to a year ago.

Jacobs, RXO’s creator, backs its acquisition by C.H. Robinson

Wall Street analysts positive on C.H. Robinson deal; S&P more cautious

RXO, post-Montgomery, sees benefit in its insurance, vetting

The post RXO’s earnings still coming out, had solid profitable quarter appeared first on FreightWaves.

Florida Trucking Association CEO Scott Perry said the combination of higher diesel prices, insurance premiums, equipment costs and driver wages is squeezing motor carriers already struggling with tighter margins.

“Traditionally, driver pay was the number one line item on the P&L,” Perry told FreightWaves during an interview at the WEX OTR Summit in Jacksonville, Florida. “Fuel has surpassed that in many instances, and it’s extremely challenging for them to absorb that if they don’t have good fuel charge mechanisms or recapture ability with their customers.”

Perry, a trucking industry veteran with more than 35 years of experience, said carriers without adequate fuel surcharge arrangements are particularly vulnerable to sudden price increases.

He cited a roughly 70% year-over-year increase in fuel costs, warning that such a surge could be catastrophic for carriers unable to recover the additional expense from customers.

While he said he was unaware of any Florida Trucking Association members that had closed or laid off workers specifically because of the recent fuel increases, he acknowledged that financial pressures are mounting.

“I’ve had several that it’s definitely compressing their ability to operate with increases in insurance that they’ve been absorbing over the last three, four, five years or more, the pressure on wages from a driver retention standpoint,” Perry said.

“All of that combined adds up to generally a negative margin business that can’t be sustained forever.”

Perry said Florida trucking companies are becoming somewhat more optimistic about freight rates heading into 2027 as trucking capacity continues to tighten.

However, he cautioned that much of the improvement is being driven by fewer available trucks rather than a significant increase in freight demand.

“I think there is some improved confidence with rates and what they’re seeing in rate structures right now,” Perry said. “As we’ve heard and read, there’s not a real demand increase in many instances. It’s capacity is being taken out of the market.”

Perry said higher freight rates could help carriers recover some of their operating expenses, but much of the additional revenue is currently being absorbed by rising diesel costs.

He also said some shippers have attempted to reverse the substantial rate increases granted during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite trucking companies facing significantly higher operating expenses than they did before 2020.

“We’ve seen insurance costs go up substantially. Diesel rates are up substantially. Labor rates are up substantially,” Perry said. “Those don’t align with the depressing rates back to pre-COVID era. It just doesn’t.”

Perry said trucking companies need sustainable rates to maintain profitability and continue investing in their fleets.

He warned that many carriers are delaying equipment replacement because of financial pressures, potentially creating additional challenges involving reliability, productivity and driver retention.

“There’s got to be realism in the rates,” Perry said. “There’s got to be recognition that those costs are real. There has to be the ability for those carriers to make a profit so that they can reinvest in their businesses.”

Florida expands truck parking along I-4 corridor

Beyond operating costs, Perry said Florida is making progress on one of the trucking industry’s longstanding infrastructure challenges: the shortage of safe truck parking.

He said the state began 2026 with approximately 2,100 public-access truck parking spaces and is moving forward with a four-phase project to add another 922 spaces.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the project took place in July.

Most of the additional parking spaces are planned along the Interstate 4 corridor, which connects the Tampa and Orlando regions and carries significant commercial truck traffic.

“That will absolutely help put a dent in the need for secure parking, easily accessible parking,” Perry said.

However, he emphasized that the additional spaces would not eliminate Florida’s truck parking shortage.

“Will 3,000 public access parking spaces serve the entire need for the industry? No, it won’t,” Perry said. “Is this a significant step in the right direction? It absolutely is.”

Perry said the shortage can force drivers to choose between complying with federal hours-of-service regulations and stopping in potentially unsafe locations, including highway shoulders and exit ramps.

He said that expanding truck parking is essential to both driver safety and fleet productivity.

“We need to provide them with solutions that give them access to maximize their productivity for their driving hours, have a safe place to park and get their rest break,” Perry said.

Florida carriers support stronger enforcement

Perry also expressed support for federal efforts to strengthen trucking safety enforcement, including increased scrutiny of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses, English-language proficiency requirements and electronic logging device compliance.

Florida trucking companies generally support efforts to identify carriers that circumvent federal regulations and gain an unfair competitive advantage over compliant fleets, he said.

Perry specifically praised Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Derek Barrs, who previously served with the Florida Highway Patrol.

“They appreciate the fact that he’s pushing to eliminate those carriers who are breaking the rules, bending the rules, manipulating the rules,” Perry said.

He also supports proposed safeguards aimed at preventing the manipulation of electronic logging devices, which are used to track drivers’ hours of service.

Tampering with ELD records can allow drivers to operate beyond legally permitted hours, creating risks for truck drivers and the traveling public.

“Anything we can do to make sure that drivers aren’t operating beyond the legally allowable hours and there’s no manipulation of ELDs to extend those hours and create unsafe circumstances … can only improve public safety,” Perry said.

He said the association supports enforcement measures that promote a level playing field among motor carriers while improving highway safety.

Carriers need sustainable margins heading into 2027

Perry said trucking companies remain hopeful that improving freight rates will eventually provide some relief from years of weak margins.

However, he warned that a meaningful recovery must allow carriers to cover operating expenses and invest in replacement equipment.

New trucks, insurance and labor have become substantially more expensive, he said, making it increasingly difficult for carriers to operate profitably at freight rates comparable to those before the pandemic.

Delaying equipment investments can create additional problems for fleets already struggling to retain qualified drivers and maintain productivity.

“If they’re not able to reinvest in their business, they’re just buying time and postponing the inevitable,” he said.

Why it matters: Sustained operating cost increases could force trucking companies to delay equipment purchases, reduce investment or face greater financial distress despite signs of a freight market recovery.

The post Florida trucking CEO warns soaring diesel costs are squeezing carrier profits  appeared first on FreightWaves.

Weekly intermodal volume, which includes containers and trailers, rose 11.3%, while carload traffic increased 3.6%. Both measures grew faster than their respective year-to-date rates.

Eight of the 10 carload commodity groups recorded year-over-year increases. Petroleum and petroleum products led percentage growth, rising 15.4%, followed by motor vehicles and parts at 15.3%. Forest products increased 11.7%, and metallic ores and metals gained 11.6%.

Farm products excluding grain, and food fell 3.7%, while grain posted a rare decline at 1.4%.

For the first 42 weeks of 2026, combined U.S. rail traffic increased 3.8% from the same period in 2025. Carloads rose 2.7%, while intermodal traffic was better by 4.7%.

Despite its weekly decline, grain remained the strongest-growing carload commodity group for the year to date, up 10.6%. Metallic ores and metals followed with an 8.6% increase, while petroleum and petroleum products rose 8%. Coal fell by 1.6%, and motor vehicles and parts were unchanged.

Combined traffic on the nine reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads increased 8% for the week. North American carloads rose 5%, while intermodal volume increased 10.8%, according to the AAR.

Canadian railroads reported weekly carload growth of 7.6% and an intermodal increase of 5.5%. Mexican railroads posted a 12.7% increase in carloads and a 33.4% jump in intermodal traffic.

For the first 42 weeks of the year, total North American rail traffic rose 3.3%. Cumulative traffic increased 1.5% in Canada and 5.2% in Mexico.

Why it matters: Weekly traffic growth continues to outpace the year-to-date rate, led by intermodal shipments.

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

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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The post U.S. rail traffic up 7.8% as intermodal leads gainers appeared first on FreightWaves.

When a shipper puts an LTL lane out to bid, price is the number everyone can compare in five minutes. Price, however, doesn’t say much about what happens six months into the contract. A rate quote doesn’t indicate whether a shipment arrives on the dock when it’s supposed to, whether the weight matches the bill of lading, or whether a claim gets resolved in two weeks or two months. Those costs simply show up in a shipper’s bottom line in the form of detention charges, rebooked appointments, and customer service hours.

The Mastio & Company LTL Carrier Customer Value & Loyalty Study is one of the best resources for quantifying what happens after the contract goes into effect. Now in its third decade, the survey interviews more than 1,600 shippers directly and scores national LTL carriers across 28 performance attributes. It’s one of the few datasets shippers can use to parse out marketing language from measurable performance.

What’s Measured

Mastio’s methodology does not rely on a self-reported scorecard, and it isn’t built from carrier marketing claims. Each year, researchers conduct detailed interviews with shipping decision-makers (more than 1,600 of them for the 2026 edition) and collect thousands of additional data points from open-ended questions about specific carriers. The result is a grade across 28 attributes that roughly sort into four groups.

Operational performance covers the fundamentals: on-time pickup and delivery, transit time consistency, and whether a shipment arrives without damage or shortages. Service quality covers the human side, including how responsive a carrier’s team is, how proactively it communicates when something goes wrong, and how professional its drivers are at the dock. A third group covers the business mechanics shippers feel on every invoice: billing accuracy, weighing precision, accessorial pricing, and overall ease of doing business. The last layer is loyalty; i.e., whether shippers believe a carrier has earned their repeat business and would recommend it to a peer, which Mastio has found correlates with outsized revenue growth over time.

The study goes beyond a one-dimensional ranking system, and it’s not a simple popularity contest or trophy. It acts as a detailed breakdown of carrier performance and customer experience.

One Strength Isn’t the Only Strategy

No carrier typically wins all 28 categories. The attributes measure genuinely different things, and a carrier built to win on price often isn’t the same carrier built to win on claims prevention or proactive communication. That’s useful information, but only if a shipper knows which categories matter most to their own operation.

If you’re a retailer who moves time-sensitive inventory into stores ahead of a promotional window, you probably care more about on-time delivery and transit consistency than about accessorial pricing. If you’re a manufacturer and you ship oversized freight to a narrow set of industrial customers, you might weigh damage prevention and billing accuracy more heavily, since one mis-rated invoice or damaged pallet can cost more than a year of rate savings. If you’re a high-volume shipper and you juggle multiple carriers, you may care more about ease of doing business and visibility.

The goal isn’t to find the carrier that wins the most categories overall. It’s to find the carrier whose performance aligns with what matters most to a specific supply chain. There are typically a handful of attributes where consistency has an outsized effect on cost and customer experience, whether that’s transit reliability on a tight production schedule or billing accuracy across thousands of monthly invoices.

Old Dominion Freight Line’s Consistent Results 

Old Dominion Freight Line’s 2026 Mastio results are a useful illustration of what breadth across categories looks like in practice. The carrier was named the #1 National LTL Carrier for Quality for the 17th consecutive year and ranked first in 24 of the study’s 28 attributes, based on responses from more than 1,600 shippers surveyed this year.

The headline ranking isn’t the whole story as it pertains to shippers, though. If you’re evaluating the data, you need to see where those 24 wins land. They include categories tied directly to operational risk, like on-time delivery and damage and shortage prevention; alongside categories tied to cost predictability, like billing accuracy and ease of doing business; and categories tied to day-to-day account management, like timely customer service and carrier trustworthiness. That’s a carrier scoring well across the operational, financial, and relationship dimensions of the study at once, rather than leaning on strength in one area to offset weakness in another.

“This award is very important to us because it is selected by shippers,” Old Dominion President and CEO Marty Freeman said of the result. “It shapes how we focus our strategy. From strategic investments to our culture, it is all built around serving our customers.”

Mastio & Company President Kevin Huntsman, whose firm runs the independent survey, called the streak “a particularly impressive accomplishment” given how much the carrier landscape has shifted over nearly two decades.

If you’re building a scorecard, multi-category consistency is itself a data point that suggests performance across a range of conditions, not just the ones a single rate quote can capture.

Consistency Is the Important Signal

A 17-year win streak over a time period in which freight shipping has changed substantially is a track record that’s difficult to overstate. Not only have conditions changed drastically over the past two decades, but so have consumer expectations. 

Each year’s Mastio results show a carrier exactly where shippers think it’s falling short, and carriers that take the study seriously use that feedback to fix those specific weak spots before the next year’s survey. The relevant information for Old Dominion Freight Line has been less about any single year’s score and more about whether improvements are made in areas that matter most to shippers.

“Our business strategy is focused on customer service,” says Chip Overbey, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning at Old Dominion Freight Line. “When we look at Mastio, we recognize it outlines the key attributes our customers actually care about. If we know what our customers want, we then have to ask ourselves what we need to do to ensure we’re the best at delivering what they’re looking for. And that’s exactly what we’ve done. It hasn’t happened overnight, but we’ve stayed focused on chipping away at it and continue to do so year after year.” 

That’s a different kind of evidence than a single award cycle provides. A carrier that jumps to the top of one year’s survey could be having an unusually good year due to a fluke in the market, or could be benefiting from a competitor’s misfortunes. A carrier with close to two decades of sustained, broad-category performance has had to keep closing gaps as shipper expectations shift around digital visibility, accessorial transparency, or whatever attribute shippers start weighting more heavily next.

Those kinds of consistencies are evidence of an operation that’s built to keep responding to what shippers are saying year-to-year.

Building Your Own Scorecard

The practical takeaway, if you’re evaluating LTL carriers, is that Mastio gives shippers the opportunity to pull the attribute-level data, identify the four or five categories that matter most to a specific supply chain’s priorities, and compare carriers against those specifically.

For a time-sensitive operation, that likely means weighting on-time delivery and transit consistency above everything else. For an operation with thin margins on accessorials, it means scrutinizing billing accuracy and ease of doing business. For an operation managing dozens of lanes with a small team, it means weighting responsiveness and the digital tools that reduce manual follow-up.

If you want to see how a 17-year streak breaks down, category by category, rather than taking the headline ranking at its word, Old Dominion Freight Lines’s results are published in detail on its Mastio award landing page.

Click here to learn more about Old Dominion Freight Line.

The post What the Mastio Rankings Actually Tell Shippers appeared first on FreightWaves.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday that its Rural Crime Task Force arrested the nine suspects Oct. 16 during a search of a residence in San Bernardino.

Investigators said the suspects were part of a coordinated criminal network connected to the Sinaloa Cartel that had been burglarizing BNSF Railway trains over the past 12 months.

The investigation uncovered an operation involving numerous suspects and vehicles used to steal merchandise from rail shipments, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Authorities have not disclosed the total number of train burglaries connected to the investigation or the precise value of the cargo stolen during the yearlong operation.

On Oct. 16, investigators with the Rural Crime Task Force, assisted by the Sheriff’s Specialized Enforcement Division, executed a search warrant at a residence in the 1200 block of East 35th Street in San Bernardino.

During the search, deputies recovered more than $333,000 in stolen retail merchandise, including JBL speakers, Logitech computer hardware, Victoria’s Secret merchandise, Nike and New Balance shoes, and Husky tools.

Investigators also seized four semiautomatic handguns, a drone allegedly used for surveillance, a large amount of cash, tools used to access train cargo containers and four vehicles connected to recent rail cargo burglaries.

Authorities also reported recovering suspected fentanyl believed to have been possessed for sale.

The Sheriff’s Department identified the suspects as:

• Jose Navarrete, 24
• Brian Iran Fontes-Carrillo, 27
• Mauro Ruiz-Medina, 30
• Pastor Pena-Lerma, 43
• Alfredo Covarrubias-Navarrete, 24
• Jose Alfredo Castillo-Baca, 24
• Jose Ismael Palafox-Bernal, 18
• Cesar Daniel Navarrete-Martinez, 31
• Cristian Erubiel Navarrete-Zapien, 23

All nine suspects were identified as residents of Mexico and were booked into the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino County.

Authorities said the suspects face charges including conspiracy, theft of railroad property and possession of a controlled substance while armed.

The Sheriff’s Department did not specify the alleged role of each suspect in the cargo theft operation or provide details about how investigators established the suspected connections to the Sinaloa Cartel.

The arrests come as freight railroads and other transportation providers confront the threat of organized cargo theft, which can disrupt shipments and generate substantial losses for shippers and retailers.

In this case, investigators said the criminal network used multiple vehicles and coordinated activities to target trains carrying retail merchandise.

Authorities did not disclose whether the targeted trains were moving through San Bernardino County at the time of the burglaries, whether the thefts occurred at rail yards or along active rail corridors, or whether the recovered merchandise represented all of the stolen cargo connected to the investigation.

Why it matters: The investigation highlights how organized criminal networks are targeting rail shipments, exposing freight operators, retailers and supply chains to millions of dollars in losses.

The post 9 alleged Mexican Cartel associates arrested in California train theft ring  appeared first on FreightWaves.

The Jacksonville-based company announced the appointment Oct. 26.

Gittens succeeds Mitch Luciano, who left the company Oct. 1. He had served as CEO since 2015.

Gittens brings more than 30 years of transportation and logistics experience, including leadership roles in Caribbean shipping, commercial strategy and business operations, according to Trailer Bridge. Most recently, he served as president of trade for King Ocean Services, overseeing operations across the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the Eastern Caribbean.

Previously, Gittens was president and chief commercial officer of Seacor Island Lines. Trailer Bridge credited him with increasing revenue by 115% during his tenure while expanding services and improving operational efficiency.

“Charles is a valuable addition to Trailer Bridge, combining extensive industry expertise with proven commercial and operational leadership in the Caribbean trade,” said Eric Fabrikant, chairman of Trailer Bridge’s board, in a statement. “The Board is confident in the trajectory of the business, and his experience, together with the strength of the existing team, positions Trailer Bridge for long-term success.”

Gittens’ appointment comes as Trailer Bridge undertakes upgrades to its fleet and supporting operations. The comapny sold its domestic logistics division in 2025; recent initiatives include more than $9 million in improvements to its roll-on/roll-off barges, including onboard generators designed to expand refrigerated cargo capacity. It has also enhanced fleetwide monitoring technology and entered new long-term partnerships supporting terminal operations and tug services.

“I am excited to join Trailer Bridge and work alongside a team with an excellent reputation for customer service and a commitment to the markets it serves,” Gittens said. “The company has a well-established position in Puerto Rico, and I look forward to building on that foundation and working closely with customers and partners to support the continued growth of the business.”

Founded in 1991 by transportation pioneer Malcom McLean, Trailer Bridge operates roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off barges serving the Puerto Rico trade. Its cargo includes containers, vehicles, heavy equipment, oversized freight and breakbulk shipments.

Why it matters: Gittens takes over as Trailer Bridge concentrates on its ocean transportation business following an agreement to sell its domestic logistics division in 2025.

Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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The post Trailer Bridge appoints new CEO appeared first on FreightWaves.

Article updated Oct. 30, 2026: SIG Sauer confirmed to FreightWaves that the stolen shipment contained air guns, not firearms or firearm parts, as originally reported.

A fictitious warehouse pickup involving approximately $500,000 in SIG Sauer products led to two arrests in Southern California. SIG Sauer confirmed to FreightWaves that the stolen shipment contained air guns, not firearms or firearm parts. The company also clarified that it manufactures its firearms in New Hampshire. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives recovered the entire shipment. Authorities returned all the stolen merchandise to its owner.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrests and cargo recovery on October 27, 2026. Investigators first received information about the theft on October 12. The incident involved a warehouse near the 4200 block of West 190th Street in Torrance, California. Detectives assigned to the department’s Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team (CCATS) investigated the case. The specialized unit operates within the sheriff’s Major Crimes Bureau.

Torrance sits within one of the nation’s most active cargo theft regions. According to an Overhaul report examining cargo theft trends across Southern California, the surrounding 200-mile area accounted for 37% of reported U.S. incidents. Nearly 70% of regional thefts occurred within 50 miles of the city. Deceptive pickups represented 28% of cases in the region.

Authorities arrested Arman Mnatsakanyan, 26, and Ashot Yesayan, 23, both Glendale, California residents, on October 12. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department booking records confirm both arrests occurred that afternoon. Deputies booked the men on suspicion of grand theft cargo. Investigators plan to present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration. Both men are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Inside the cargo theft investigation

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective Division Chief Jose G. Mendoza initially described the recovered merchandise as “stolen gun parts” in a statement. SIG Sauer subsequently clarified that the shipment contained air guns rather than firearms or firearm components. The Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team works alongside other specialized units targeting organized theft. LASD established its Organized Retail Crimes Task Force in September 2023. That operation includes cargo investigators and the Burglary and Robbery Task Force. Personnel collaborate with local law enforcement agencies, regional task forces and federal partners.

Questions remain about the fictitious pickup

LASD has not explained how the fictitious pickup occurred or identified the transportation provider. The department’s announcement also omitted details about shipping documents, equipment and the recovery location. Investigators have not disclosed how they tracked the stolen merchandise. FreightWaves contacted LASD and SIG Sauer for additional information. SIG Sauer subsequently confirmed the shipment contained air guns, not firearms. The Sheriff’s Department had not responded to questions about the pickup method or cargo recovery.

Other California investigations have involved fraudulent pickups of commercial shipments. In one case, Montclair police investigated approximately $70,000 in stolen beer shipments involving fraudulent pickup documents. The incidents occurred at an Anheuser-Busch distribution center. Detectives identified discrepancies involving the trucking company, driver and vehicles.

A separate Southern California investigation exposed another method criminals used to obtain commercial freight. A Los Angeles jury convicted two defendants in a $2 million nationwide cargo theft scheme involving purchased trucking companies. The operation involved established motor carriers used to secure legitimate shipments. Prosecutors connected the defendants to cargo thefts across multiple states.

Why it matters

Fictitious pickups present a serious threat when warehouses release valuable freight without confirming the authorized transportation provider. This case highlights the importance of verifying pickup credentials before transferring custody of a shipment.

CFCO

Strategic theft often exploits the brief window before a shipment leaves the dock. Once freight changes hands, the opportunity to control who takes possession disappears. The Certified Fraud Compliance Officer (CFCO) program trains professionals to make that window count through independent carrier, driver and pickup verification. Confidence comes from verification, not assumptions.

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

Stolen shoes on eBay lead police to $1 million in missing BNSF train cargo – FreightWaves

Police recover $54K in Hot Wheels after BNSF freight train burglary in California – FreightWaves

Feds charge driver in alleged $12M cargo theft scheme built on hijacked carrier identities – FreightWaves

The post $500,000 SIG Sauer shipment stolen in fictitious pickup, two arrested in California appeared first on FreightWaves.

XPO (NYSE: XPO) reported third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.70, which was 13 cents ahead of the consensus estimate and 63 cents higher year over year. The adjusted EPS number excluded transaction and restructuring costs, among other items.

Consolidated revenue of $2.37 billion was 12% higher y/y but $10 million below analysts’ expectations.

Less-than-truckload revenue increased 17% y/y to $1.47 billion. Revenue was 9% higher excluding fuel surcharges. (Diesel fuel prices were 48% higher y/y in the quarter.)

LTL pricing is moving higher

The revenue increase in LTL was driven by a 5% y/y increase in tonnage and a 12% increase in yield (revenue per hundredweight). The tonnage result stemmed from a 6% increase in daily shipments and a 1% decline in weight per shipment. Yield (ex-fuel) increased 4% y/y, with revenue per shipment (ex-fuel) up 3% y/y.

The company’s freight mix includes more shipments from local accounts (SMBs), which are typically lighter but produce better margins. This customer segment grew by 30% y/y in the quarter.

September marked the ninth straight month of expansion for the U.S. manufacturing complex, which is a significant source of LTL freight. Management said a recent survey of its customers showed half of the respondents expect stronger demand in the first half of 2027 versus the second half of 2026.

Tonnage trends in the quarter outperformed normal seasonality.

On a y/y comparison, tonnage was up 5.8% in July, 3.7% in August and 5.4% in September. October tonnage is running 6.5% higher y/y. Tonnage growth is accelerating on a two-year-stacked comparison after turning positive in September (+0.7%) and rising 2.7% so far in October. The prior-year comparisons are slightly easier in November and December.

The y/y growth rate for yield (ex-fuel) in the third quarter (+3.6%) was slightly lower than the second quarter (+4.4%). However, the second-quarter yield metric benefitted from a larger decline in weight per shipment (WPS: -1.8% in Q2 vs. -0.7% in Q3), and an increase in length of haul compared to a decline in the third quarter (LOH: +1% in Q2 vs. -1.4% in Q3). (The third quarter had some regional truckload freight in the network, which was a drag on length of haul.)

So far in October, yield (ex-fuel) is 5% higher y/y, with revenue per shipment (ex-fuel) 4% higher. Both metrics are expected to accelerate sequentially and y/y in the fourth quarter as length of haul steps higher.

“We are delivering some of the strongest yield growth in the industry,” said Ali Faghri, XPO’s chief strategy officer, on a call with FreightWaves. “When you normalize for those mix factors—weight per shipment and length of haul—our core pricing accelerated.”

Full-year OR guidance improves again

The unit booked an 80.1% adjusted operating ratio (inverse of operating margin), which was 260 basis points better y/y and in line with management’s guidance (sub-81%). The OR result was just 20 bps worse than the second quarter, handily outpacing the historical progression. The company normally sees 200 to 250 bps of OR degradation from the second to the third quarter. A variety of pricing and operating efficiency initiatives are driving the improvement.

XPO normally sees 250 bps of margin deterioration from the third to the fourth quarter, implying an 82.6% OR. However, management expects to report a sub-82% adjusted OR in the fourth quarter, which would be at least 250 bps better y/y.

It also raised its full-year margin outlook again. It entered the year guiding to 100 to 150 bps of y/y improvement. The outlook was raised on the second-quarter call in July (to at least 200 bps of improvement) and again on Thursday (to 250 bps or higher). The guide includes a 100-bp headwind from higher incentive comp, which is expected to ease next year.

It estimates it could handle a low-single- to mid-single-digit increase in shipments without adding drivers and workers.

It is carrying 30%-plus excess door capacity currently, following a 15% increase to door count over the past four years. It recently opened terminals in the Phoenix and Kansas City markets, increasing its terminal count to 300 across North America. The new locations, along with AI-led efficiency initiatives, have resulted in more direct shipping routes (fewer empty miles), more stops per hour and less freight handling.

It has also grown its trailer fleet by more than 30% and its tractor fleet by more than 20% over the past four years.  

XPO’s European transportation segment reported a 5% y/y increase in revenue to $900 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $48 million was 26% higher y/y. It has grown the sales group at the unit and expects EBITDA to “meaningfully accelerate” in the fourth quarter. XPO still plans to sell the business for “the right price.”

Net debt leverage was reduced to 1.9x in the third quarter from 2.1x in the second quarter. It’s on track to double free cash flow this year to approximately $800 million. The company has already incurred the heavy capex years, funding investments in real estate, equipment and technology. It will continue to pay down debt (already within its desired leverage range of 1x to 2x) and buy back stock. It repurchased $250 million in stock this year.

LTL stocks under pressure

Shares of XPO were down 3.7% in midday trading on Thursday compared to the S&P 500, which was off 0.4%. Investors are concerned that recent earnings results have been boosted by higher fuel surcharges and that the industry’s favorable pricing fundamentals may be weakening.

XPO cited several positive demand catalysts on the Thursday quarterly call and reiterated its expectation for a multiyear double-digit rate growth cycle, which is partially idiosyncratic. Given improved operating results and lower capex needs, the company will likely use incremental cash flows to aggressively buy back stock. Less-than-truckload stocks are down roughly 20% to 30% since a near-term peak in June.

Why it matters? XPO is one of a few publicly traded LTL carriers. Its quarterly results provide insight into a subsegment of trucking where few public datasets exist.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• Old Dominion’s tonnage turns positive; recovery needs demand inflection
• Insurance claims adjustments tank Landstar’s otherwise strong Q3
• Werner Enterprises sees cost headwinds lingering into Q1

The post XPO’s pricing, operating initiatives drive Q3 beat appeared first on FreightWaves.

The bigger budgets come with bigger supply chain expectations someone has to pay for. In the survey, 73% of respondents said they consider free shipping standard when shopping online, 48% expect two-day delivery, 47% expect free returns, and 40% expect real-time tracking.

Most of the goods are already here. The Global Port Tracker that the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates released Oct. 8 shows August was likely the busiest import month of 2026, and NRF said most holiday merchandise has arrived.

Frank Loewen, senior vice president of retail operations at the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based third-party logistics provider, said the jump in planned spending can be read two ways.

“One, I am in a better place, so I can afford to spend more,” Loewen told FreightWaves. “Another one is I’m expecting prices to go up, but I still have to buy my kids presents, so I’m just going to end up spending more than I did last year for potentially the same item.”

Some of Kenco’s higher-end customers are seeing more volume than in the last couple of years, which Loewen said could reflect a K-shaped economy. Price pressure shows up elsewhere in the survey: 45% of respondents named import tariffs as a cost concern.

This year’s survey, fielded in August 2026, polled more than 350 consumers, up from 250 for Kenco’s 2025 report.

Free shipping costs shift to 3PLs

Loewen traced the free-shipping expectation to Amazon, whose Prime memberships give it income to offset the shipping it gives away. That has put pressure on 3PLs and retailers, he said.

“Nothing is free, right?” Loewen said. “When customers are not charged directly, those costs are absorbed elsewhere in the value chain.”

Kenco’s response is to place inventory as close to population centers and carriers as possible, he said, then line up carrier rates that leave flexibility for the last mile.

Free shipping also changed how shoppers order, and that feeds returns. Only 5% of respondents said return policies don’t matter when deciding where to shop.

“Consumers may order additional items when shipping carries no additional charge, then return what they don’t keep and expect their refunds as quickly as possible,” Loewen said.

More retailers now charge for returns, he said, while steering shoppers to drop-off points at malls and supermarkets. Fees carry their own risk: 32% of respondents said they would stop shopping with a retailer after encountering hidden fees.

Shoppers tie trust to stock accuracy

In the survey, 80% of respondents said inaccurate stock levels hurt their trust in a retailer.

Retailers once filled online orders from a single warehouse, Loewen said. Now they draw on inventory in stores and several warehouses at once.

“So the idea of having accurate, location-level inventory is essential because customers can see product availability before placing an order,” he said. “They may not know which store or distribution center will fulfill it, but the item has to be available within that network.”

Loewen said Kenco’s warehouse management systems send real-time inventory data to customers’ Shopify storefronts, order management systems, or enterprise resource planning software, and its cycle counts hold accuracy at 99.9% in many cases.

Kenco leans on robotics to scale for peak

Adding peak capacity once meant bringing in large numbers of workers or installing conveyors and automation sized for a single season, Loewen said.

“Traditionally, operators had to build labor and infrastructure capacity around their highest seasonal demand,” he said. “Flexible automation now allows us to scale throughput without carrying that excess capacity throughout the year.”

Kenco now uses goods-to-person systems in which robots bring product to pickers. The company announced plans in 2024 for a 130-robot AutoStore system serving multiple e-commerce customers at its Jeffersonville, Indiana, distribution center. AI tools now group orders so products are picked more efficiently, work people once did by hand, Loewen said.

“People are still involved and responsible for operating the technology,” he said. “But with automation, we’re able to fulfill orders more efficiently than we could in the past.”

Why it matters: Shoppers plan to spend more this peak, and 73% still treat free shipping as standard. Kenco is moving inventory closer to customers and leaning on robotics to absorb those costs, while its own executive says part of the spending jump may reflect higher prices.

The post 43% of shoppers plan to spend more this peak, Kenco finds appeared first on FreightWaves.

“Against a pretty dynamic backdrop, I’m pleased with what the team has delivered,” Chief Executive Keith Creel said on an earnings call after the close of markets.“We handled 6% more volume while continuing to improve the performance of the railroad, and more importantly, there is so much more opportunity in front of us.”

Quarterly operating income rose 11%, to $1.06 billion U.S., as revenue increased 15%, to $3 billion. Earnings per share grew 3%, to 74 cents.

The improved performance didn’t extend to the operating ratio, a key indicator of efficiency. The OR was 64.8%, a 1.3-point increase over a year ago as expenses climbed 18% largely due to higher fuel costs.

Volume was up 5% when measured by carloads and containers, or 6% on the basis of revenue ton-miles, which is CPKC’s preferred metric.

The Calgary-based company (NYSE: CP) set records for domestic and international intermodal volumes, as well as for grain. Grain carloads were up 20%, intermodal was up 9%, and metals, minerals, and consumer products traffic grew 8%. Potash and coal volume each declined 8%. Potash shipments were curtailed due to maintenance at port loading facilities, while mine production issues suppressed coal volume.

International intermodal volume was up 11% and domestic up 7% based on RTMs, Chief Marketing Officer John Brooks said. The railway’s Southeast-Mexico SMX interline service with CSX grew 30% compared to the second quarter.

Excluding coal, CPKC’s third-quarter revenue ton-miles are up 17% since the 2023 Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger. “That performance, despite a tough macro backdrop, is driven by disciplined commercial execution, self-help initiatives, and strategic share gains,” he said. “And our strong service product network fluidity and available capacity provide the foundation for this growth.”

CPKC’s Canada-Mexico land bridge business — which became a point of emphasis amid trade tensions and U.S. tariffs — are on a pace to reach $427 million U.S. this year, up from $71 million at the time of the CP-KCS merger.

“This is not growth we inherited,” Creel said. “It’s growth that we created, taking a challenge and turning that challenge into an opportunity, creating new markets enabled by this unique North American network.”

The railway announced a new contract with Elk Valley Resources, which operates four metallurgical coal mines in southern British Columbia. CPKC originates all of the coal but currently hands it off to rival Canadian National at Kamloops, B.C., for forwarding to tidewater and export through Vancouver. Under the new five-year deal, CPKC wins back 50% of the Vancouver-bound coal volume, or about 1.5 trains per day, Creel said.

CPKC’s key operational metrics improved, with average train speed up 8% and terminal dwell down 7%, which resulted in car-miles per day improving 10%. Fuel efficiency improved 3%.

The railway’s new locomotives — 170 ET44ACs from Wabtec and SD70ACe-T4s that are beginning to arrive from Progress Rail — are saving on fuel costs and reducing service failures, Chief Operating Officer Mark Redd said.

“The newer locomotives have contributed to more than 35% reduction in our service interruptions on our 100-series trains in Canada, a 10% reduction in interruptions in our Western Canadian grain fleet, while improving fuel efficiency on both services,” he said. The 100-series trains are CPKC’s highest-priority intermodal trains.

CPKC’s safety metrics were mixed for the quarter. The train accident rate improved 60%, but the personal injury rate was up 20% compared to last year’s third quarter. “The increase of the personal injuries does not meet our standard,” Redd said.

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Scan Global Logistics said the proposed acquisition will strengthen its presence in key markets and expand supply chain capabilities available to customers beyond traditional freight forwarding. 

Founded in 1988, OIA Global employs more than 1,200 people across more than 60 offices in over 30 countries. Its capabilities span freight forwarding, customs brokerage, contract logistics, project logistics, prime contractor management, packaging design and materials management. OIA had $780 million in revenue last year. 

Scan said the acquisition will complement its existing offering while significantly strengthening its position in the United States and other strategically important markets. The combination will also provide customers access to a broader range of supply chain solutions, making it easier to manage increasingly complex supply chains.

Why It Matters: Acquisitions, mergers and investments in the logistics industry have accelerated this year, especially in the United States, as the freight cycle turns more positive.

Armstrong & Associates ranks Scan as the 19th largest freight forwarder in the world based on gross revenue and ocean/air volume. It is near the top 50 logistics providers by gross revenue. Full-scale logistics providers provide warehousing, distribution and supply chain management in addition to arranging freight transportation for cargo owners.

Scan has rapidly expanded since 2018 through a series of acquisitions in Africa, Europe, and North America, and has also opened offices in several other countries. In 2021, it bought the international forwarding division of U.S. trucking giant Werner Enterprises. Scan has more than 5,100 employees and operates more than 200 offices around the world.

The company had $2.82 billion in revenue last year. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was up 12% year over year to $244.2 million. Scan lost $101.5 million, which management attributed to refinancing of debt and financing the acquisition of ITN Logistics Group in Canada. 

The OIA transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, were not disclosed.

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

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Under a final agreement, Charger would own the trucks and pay Aurora for the driving through its Driver as a Service model. Carrier-owned fleets are central to Aurora’s plan to run more than 30,000 driverless trucks by 2030.

Aurora now expects to pass 200 driverless trucks by the end of February, with its production ramp about six weeks behind plan. It still expects more than 1,000 by the end of 2027. In April, Hirschbach Motor Lines signed a nonbinding MOU to own 500 Aurora trucks under the same ownership model.

Charger’s president tied the larger order to its first months running autonomous trucks on the border lane.

“Since launching autonomous operations along the Laredo corridor, we’ve realized immediate operational benefits that point to a clear path to scaling,” said Andy Khera, president of Charger Logistics. “Aurora’s plans to open long-haul, high-volume routes position us to scale geographically while we integrate autonomy from our TMS to the road, building a resilient and autonomous ecosystem for our customers.”

How Driver as a Service changes ownership

Charger’s July agreement is a Transport as a Service deal, according to Aurora’s third-quarter shareholder letter. Under that model, Aurora owns and operates the trucks and charges about $2 per mile, including a fuel surcharge.

Under Driver as a Service, the carrier buys the truck and pays Aurora for the driving. That brings Aurora 85 cents or more per mile, on trucks Aurora expects to run about 250,000 miles a year.

The letter calls the Charger deal “a potential multi-year revenue stream in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” Neither company disclosed Charger’s per-mile rate.

Aurora made the case for carrier ownership in the release.

“Owning the physical asset is the logical choice for our customers: it makes today’s operations more efficient and enables carriers to grow their business, keeping them competitive,” said Zac Andreoni, vice president of business development at Aurora.

The Charger deal is not yet binding

The cautionary statement in Aurora’s release lists the risk that the Charger MOU may not lead to a final agreement and binding orders “on the anticipated timeframe or at all.” In September, Aurora pushed back its own target for breakeven gross margin on a run-rate basis to the first half of 2027, at about 500 trucks, from the end of 2026.

Werner Enterprises, another Aurora customer, was still negotiating economic terms in September. Daragh Mahon, Werner’s executive vice president and chief information officer, addressed the cost on a customer panel at Aurora’s Analyst and Investor Day in Dallas on Sept. 23.

“And I will be quite honest that we have a gap. We’ve got to figure this out,” Mahon said.

Aurora ranks No. 4 on FreightTech 25

The MOU landed the same day FreightWaves named Aurora No. 4 on the 2027 FreightTech 25, revealed at the F3 Awards Dinner in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Aurora previously ranked No. 2 on the 2026 list.

Four autonomous trucking companies made this year’s list, up from three last year: Aurora, Kodiak AI at No. 12, Torc Robotics at No. 19, and Waabi at No. 20.

Charger’s fleet and routes

Charger Logistics, a privately held, asset-based carrier, operates across the U.S. and Mexico. Its U.S. unit, Charger Logistics USA, lists 481 power units and 542 drivers in its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration registration, last updated in October 2025. The 500 Aurora trucks would exceed that count.

Charger plans to run the Aurora trucks on current and new high-volume routes near the border and across the country.

“With the launch of our second-generation hardware and trucks, Aurora is ready to support our customers’ ambitions to grow their networks and move more freight with driverless trucks,” Andreoni said.

Why it matters: The deal would move the cost of owning driverless trucks from Aurora to the carrier. If the deal completes and the MOU fulfilled, Charger would take on more trucks than its U.S. unit runs today.

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(Editor’s note: the initial article has been revised to note that the companies discussed increased claims, not insurance premiums).

Strong financial numbers released between Tuesday and Wednesday by C.H. Robinson and Landstar were overshadowed on Wall Street by concern over one particular issue: insurance and claims.

Landstar kicked off the issue Tuesday afternoon with its third quarter earnings release that showed heavier than usual claims charges.  

The C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) 3Q earnings, while not being as specific as the Landstar (NASDAQ: LSTR) report on the individual hits that elevated claims, did provide data that showed its claims were abnormally high during the quarter.

Coming in a six-month period in which the broader long-term risk of insurance costs rising was driven home by expanded broker liability exposure due to Montgomery vs. Caribe Transport II, and a whopping nuclear verdict that hit C.H. Robinson in Lipe vs. Lupus Superior and its subsequent affirmation by a Dallas County judge, the insurance aspects of otherwise solid earnings appeared to lead investors to effectively nullify otherwise strong financial reports.

One other negative factor cited by analysts for the slide at C.H. Robinson: operating cash flow fell to $124.1 million compared to $275.4 million a year ago. But that was sequentially an improvement from the second quarter figure of $35.9 million. The third quarter figure was said by C.H. Robinson to have been caused by “unfavorable changes in working capital driven by higher transportation rates.”

The transportation research team at Deutsche Bank cited several factors for the stock slide at C.H. Robinson, including its North American Surface Transportation gross margin compared to its peers within truckload carriers.  

The numbers at the end of the day

For the day, C.H. Robinson stock was down 11.14% or $15.99 to $127.60. It marked a continuation of a slide that saw the price reach $210.33 on July 22 and was as high as $158.35 at the start of October 

For Landstar, its stock closed down 17.76% or $29.98 to $138.80. Its 52-week high was $228.46 on June 8.

On the C.H. Robinson earnings call with analysts, several on the call asked a significant number of questions about the issue of insurance claims. It was a sign of a selloff that occurred despite a quarterly report that on its surface probably should have been at least neutral to the price.

What may have spooked C.H. Robinson investors was the company’s disclosure in its earnings report that its Selling, General & Administrative (SG&A) expenses were up 29.7% from a year earlier, “primarily due to higher claims expenses” though the company also had a real estate impairment charge. Insurance and claims costs at C.H. Robinson are in the SG&A category. 

CFO Damon Lee said SG&A for the year is expected to be $585 to $590 million compared to an earlier estimate of $540 to $580 million. While that is not all insurance or claims–Lee said depreciation and amortization will push that figure up as well–the comment appeared to have caught analysts off guard compared to their own estimates of C.H. Robinson’s insurance costs.

Adding to that, CEO Dave Bozeman said in his introductory remarks on the earnings call that C.H. Robinson is “progressing nicely” through the 2027 insurance renewal process, “and we believe this renewal will result in insurance inflation that is reasonable and manageable.”

But Bozeman added to that an example of inflation that may have been interpreted by the analysts as signaling a higher inflation rate for insurance costs than they anticipated.

“As a reference, we’ve been absorbing approximately $30 million of annual wage inflation, and we’ve still delivered double-digit earnings growth in 2024 through 2026,” Bozeman said. 

Can you clarify that?

That led UBS analyst Tom Wadewitz of UBS to ask Lee for a “clarification.” 

“You said that $30 million of inflation and compensation and benefits you absorb every year, are you trying to imply like we should assume that the increase in insurance would be less than that $30 million or that magnitude?” Wadewitz said. “It seemed like you might be implying that with the way you presented that comment.”

Lee said the $30 million comparison by Bozeman and himself was “provided..as an example of magnitude, just so you guys can get your head around the headwinds that we absorb every day and never talk about.”

“We’re built to offset headwinds, we’re built to absorb inflation and still deliver demonstrable results,” Lee said. “So we thought that was a pertinent example to give, just to give you some context around how our inflation on insurance is not going to be something that derails our earnings trajectory going forward.”

Not a big deal

Lee, at another point in the call, repeated that insurance increases were not a significant threat to C.H. Robinson’s basic finances. 

Lee said C.H. Robinson usually benchmarks its total insurance and claims expenses as 50 basis points of its total gross revenue. Year to date, he said, C.H. Robinson is below that number, even though third quarter numbers were relatively elevated.

Lee in a post-analysts call interview with FreightWaves, said insurance expenses as measured against gross revenue are “de minimis.”

“While our claims expenses are typically linear throughout our year, periodically, some quarters are higher than others, as demonstrated in Q3,” Lee said on the analysts’ call. “We typically look at these types of expenses on a longer trajectory than certainly one quarter, and we’re still well within that guidance.”

Hearing about it by the end of the year…possibly

Bozeman added that the insurance renewal process will be completed by the end of December, “and we will share an update on our 2027 insurance costs as soon as we can.”

The disclosure on the level of insurance increases in 2027, which are now likely to be anticipated to an almost manic degree, will likely come in mid-to-late December, Bozeman said. That is generally the time “when we get finality on what the insurance police will look like.”

He added that this year, the company is trying to get those nailed down sooner rather than later. Bozeman added he hoped the information would be available before the company’s next earnings call.

But he reiterated that insurance costs are not going to be a headwind for C.H. Robinson. 

“We still  feel very good about those proceedings,” Bozeman said of the insurance negotiations “We’ve said multiple times that we feel like the outcome will be close to industry leading, if not industry leading, and we certainly don’t feel like the inflation on those those costs will be anything that will derail earnings going forward.”

Bozeman reiterated a point he has made separately: “We continue to manage our legal docket as we have for years, with most cases being either dismissed or settled for amounts below our deductible.”

Issues at Landstar

On the Landstar call with analysts, CFO Jim Todd said “claim cost severity has been going up at a decent clip that we felt like for a period of years that (reserves) were sufficient.” 

However, the category of incurred but not reported reserves were up 27% in terms of gross dollars from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2025 at Landstar, Todd said, “and that’s on a declining truck count.”

Todd spelled out several metrics that showed how much Landstar’s insurance costs have risen. “We want to continue to book those higher loss estimates prospectively,” he said. 

He did say two claims in the second quarter were in federal jurisdictions where there previously had been protection for brokers under the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act that was eliminated as a protection for brokers by the decision in Montgomery vs. Caribe Transport II. 

Todd was asked about future estimates going forward but he demurred. “This is a highly complex environment to estimate insurance and claim reserves,” he said, adding that previous guidance on the percentage of revenues from the company’s business capacity owners (BCOs) that should go for claim reserves will no longer be disclosed.

RXO’s docket

Although the call was the first since the C.H. Robinson acquisition of RXO was announced, that subject took up relatively little time with analysts.

However, given the insurance and legal backdrop of the third quarter earnings, one aspect of the acquisition did come up: the legal landscape faced by RXO.

Bozeman reiterated a point made when the deal was announced that “RXO’s legal docket is a neutral factor when compared to our own docket. And like us, RXO has a significant insurance tower for contingent auto liability claims. 

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The Barbecue Detour That Doubled As A Marketing Lab

One of Cothran’s most telling ventures did not happen on the road at all but during a stretch when he had stepped off the truck. By his account it began around 2006 with a piece of small-town serendipity, a chance roadside encounter that ended with a pitmaster handing him an entire barbecue operation, grill and concept included, after a divorce pulled the man out of the business. Cothran did not have a building or a recipe, but he had Facebook, and that turned out to be enough. He built the whole thing on social posts, calling out his location in real time and pulling customers to a folding table. The early roadside version got shut down by the health department for operating without permits, a reminder that the hustle was ahead of the paperwork, and he went and took a driving job. But the barbecue kept pulling him back, and by 2015 he and a partner had opened a brick-and-mortar spot in Rome, Georgia that he says he took from ranked number 164 to the number one result on Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Bing in under 90 days, all of it off Facebook. He eventually handed the restaurant to his partner and went back on the road for good, but the instinct that venture revealed, that perception packaged well sells every time, is the same one that would later define his trucking content.

Into The Cab, And Then Onto The Screen

Cothran has been driving since around 2007, starting out at the kind of entry-level carriers most owner-operators remember before settling into the lease arrangement he has held for close to five years. He still runs real miles, around 2,000 a week hauling transformers and oversize freight on lanes that keep him close enough to get back to the house in a day, which is its own quiet philosophy about what over-the-road life should cost a person. The driving never stopped. What changed was that in May 2021 he started talking to a camera.

The first video that moved was a blunt one, a take on the gap between what the public thinks truckers earn and what drivers say they actually make. It landed around 13,000 views, FreightWaves reached out for an interview, and Cothran decided on the spot that trucking was his lane. From there he did the thing almost nobody sustains, posting one video every single day from May 2021 until September 2024 without missing once. He leaned into short, green-screen comedy, the trucker with the Bluetooth headset who takes a sudden phone call mid-conversation, bits built to be recognized and repeated, and several of them detonated. He points to a lion-statue clip that did 25 million views, a seven-second video that reached 164 million, and a news-style post about a highway incident that crossed 20 million views overnight and became, he says, his most lucrative post to date. Totaled up, he counts 5.11 billion views across a recent 365-day stretch, a figure he uses to plant his flag as the most-watched voice in the space.

The follower numbers fill in the rest of the picture. By his own tally he is roughly 3,000 people shy of 1.5 million on Facebook, sits near 497,000 on Instagram across more than 5,000 posts, and carries another 161,000 on TikTok against 6.5 million lifetime likes, with smaller footprints on Threads and Snapchat on top of that. He is deliberate about where that attention lives. Facebook is his house, he says, because it pays the most and holds his largest audience, while Instagram functions more like a mixtape, a channel that may not pay directly but keeps him in front of people so they do not forget he exists. It is a creator thinking like a distributor, matching each platform to a job rather than chasing whichever one is fashionable.

From Creator To Something Like Press

Lately Cothran has drifted from pure comedy toward reporting. He goes to truck stops and asks drivers directly what they are hearing, whether a rumored shutdown is real, how rates feel on the ground, and he has sat down with veterans, including a driver with more than half a century behind the wheel who lived through the 1983 strike. What is notable is his restraint. He says he does not put definitive calls out into the world, he asks questions and lets drivers supply the answers, staying neutral on the hot topics because his role, as he sees it, is to provide the platform rather than to tell people what to think. For a creator whose incentives all push toward hotter takes, that is a discipline worth respecting, and it is part of why his reporting travels.

The Cost Of Being Seen

Visibility on that scale carries a dark side, and Cothran is candid about it. As his reach grew, so did the trolls, and the harassment escalated past insults into inbox threats on his life, with some of the ugliest of it aimed at his family. He traces the real turn to around Easter of 2023, and it spiked again after one of his posts about a highway incident went viral the following year, the same stretch in which he says he earned the most he ever had in a single week. His response was counterintuitive. He stopped reading comments altogether, refused to engage, and let the online anger turn into its own form of traction rather than letting it push him off course. More telling, he answered the hostility with volume. The very window the threats were escalating is the window his output climbed, from the single daily video he had posted for more than three years to five videos a day in September 2024 and then ten a day by January 2025. The man who once admits he cared deeply what people thought decided he no longer would, stopped looking at the comments that used to sting, and poured that energy back into the work. That is the perseverance sitting underneath the view counts, a creator who met death threats and trolls by posting more, not less, and never broke stride.

The Part Nobody Teaches, Which Is What You Are Worth

The thread that kept surfacing in our conversation was value, and specifically how badly people in this industry tend to price themselves. Cothran has lived both sides of it. He was the number one recruiter at a major carrier for three straight years on the strength of links buried in his videos, paid per driver he brought in, and he describes the familiar sting of people walking up to tell him they signed because of him on months when the payouts somehow did not reflect it. That experience taught him to stop leaving his income to someone else’s referral math.

So he raised his prices, deliberately and repeatedly. He started out charging a modest rate for a single video and pushed it upward step by step over the years, climbing steadily into far higher territory, guided by a simple test he picked up along the way, that the right price is the one that makes you smile when you say it. The deeper shift was philosophical. He learned to stop accepting affiliate and link deals, the arrangements where a brand pays a small cut for every customer a creator funnels in while getting permanent access to that creator’s audience. The math, laid out plainly, is lopsided. A brand spending enormous sums on advertising will offer a creator a few dollars per converted customer, as if a direct line to millions of impressions were worth pocket change. The better model, the one he has moved toward, is to charge brands for the privilege of being present inside his community rather than renting out his credibility by the click.

That is also where the unglamorous business infrastructure comes in. Two of the strongest pieces of advice to come out of the sit-down were to put a general counsel on retainer and to never sign a scope of work a real attorney has not read. A friend who happens to be a lawyer is not the same as paid counsel whose job is to protect your interest, and the fine print is where creators get taken, the clauses that quietly dictate how long a video must be, demand that a post stay pinned to your personal page, or otherwise hand a brand control over real estate you own. The same applies to events. A sponsorship is not a favor, it is an investment a brand expects a return on, which means a creator needs a real activation kit that can speak to brand impressions, recirculation, and measurable ROI, not just a price and a promise.

Why He Is Building A Christmas Party

The project Cothran is pouring himself into now is a Christmas party for truckers in the Cartersville, Georgia area, north of Atlanta, and the why behind it says as much about him as the view counts do. He has been to plenty of industry events that feel buttoned-up and built for executives, and he set out to make the opposite, a come-as-you-are night aimed squarely at the driver. The pitch is intentionally unpretentious. Leave the suit that no longer fits at home, show up in jeans with the headset on, and just be yourself. The point is for drivers to eat, dance, let loose, and spend a night in a room full of people who do what they do, without the cost of admission being a dress code or a title.

Underneath the fun is a conviction about relationships that Cothran learned the hard way out on the road. He tells the story of a driver he once helped get on with a carrier who later returned the favor many times over, repeatedly putting Cothran’s name in for bigger oversize loads and, as he puts it, money in his pocket, all because of a single introduction. That, in his telling, is how doors actually open in this business, not through load boards or algorithms but through people who look out for each other, and he wants to build the room where those connections can happen. He is selling tickets now and still lining up sponsors, promoting the event with weekly videos in the run-up, and true to the lesson running through his whole story, it is the kind of event that should be heavily sponsored precisely because of the audience and the visibility he can put behind it.

Why It Matters

Cothran’s rise is a case study in two things the trucking world consistently undervalues, the compounding power of showing up every single day and the hard business discipline of pricing your own work correctly. For the driver, dispatcher, or small operator sitting on a good story and a phone, the takeaway is not that virality is luck but that it rewards relentless consistency, and the warning is that building the audience is only half the job, because the creators and small businesses who get taken advantage of are almost always the ones who never learned to put a real number, and a real contract, on what they bring to the table.

This article is based on a sit-down conversation between FreightWaves Playbook and trucking content creator Larry Cothran. Audience figures, view counts, and earnings are as stated by Cothran. His Christmas party for drivers is planned for the Cartersville, Georgia area.

The post How One Trucker Turned One Video A Day Into Billions Of Views, And What It Cost Him appeared first on FreightWaves.

Old Dominion (NASDAQ: ODFL) reported third-quarter earnings per share of $1.65 ahead of the market open on Wednesday. The result was 4 cents better than the consensus estimate and 37 cents higher year over year.

Revenue of $1.59 billion was 13% higher y/y (up 5% y/y excluding fuel surcharges) and $20 million better than analysts’ expectations. (Diesel prices were 48% higher y/y during the quarter.)

Tonnage per day was flat y/y, with a 13% increase in yield (revenue per hundredweight) driving the topline increase. Yield was up 5% y/y (ex-fuel), slightly better than management’s guidance (plus-4% to plus-4.5%).

The tonnage result was driven by a 2% y/y decline in shipments, which was offset by a 2% increase in weight per shipment. Tonnage was down roughly 1% y/y in both July and August, but up 1.6% in September and into October. The carrier continues to face easy prior-year comps (tonnage was down 10.7% y/y in the 2025 fourth quarter).

August updates from public carriers showed y/y tonnage growth has continued to accelerate cumulatively since first turning positive in March. September marked a ninth straight month of expansion for the manufacturing complex, and the LTL industry is seeing some freight return that was previously lost to a depressed truckload market.

Old Dominion is carrying over 35% excess door space currently, but noted that it should meaningfully take market share as capacity-constrained carriers are experiencing service failures. Old Dominion normally outgrows the market by 9 to 10 percentage points in an upcycle.

Higher shipment weights were a modest drag on the yield metric, partially offset by a slight increase in length of haul. Revenue per shipment (ex-fuel) increased 7% y/y. Old Dominion implemented a 4.9% general rate increase on Oct. 5.

A 71.5% operating ratio (inverse of operating margin) was 280 basis points better y/y and 40 bps better than the midpoint of management’s guidance range (150 to 200 bps of sequential deterioration from the 70.1% second-quarter unadjusted OR). Shipments per employee (per day) were 2% higher y/y. Revenue per shipment (including fuel surcharges) was up 15.5% y/y, with cost per shipment up 11%—a 440-bp favorable spread.

October trends, Q4 guidance

October revenue per day is 22% higher y/y given a modest tonnage increase and a roughly 20% jump in yield (up 5.5% to 6% ex-fuel). Yields continue to accelerate, even with the added headwind of higher shipment weights (up 3% y/y in October).

Management pegged fourth-quarter revenue to a range of $1.54 billion to $1.58 billion, implying better-than-normal seasonality and coming in ahead of the $1.51-billion consensus estimate.

The carrier normally sees 200 to 250 bps of sequential OR degradation from the third to the fourth quarter. It expects to perform at the better-end of that range this year, implying a fourth-quarter OR of 73.5%, which would be 320 bps better y/y.

It said an annual insurance true-up could swing the number 20 bps either way. It also flagged higher healthcare costs and fuel (operating supplies) as potential headwinds. However, demand is holding steady (third-quarter shipments and tonnage slightly outpaced seasonality), and yield is outperforming.

The fourth-quarter OR outlook implies a 43% incremental margin versus 50% in the third quarter.

Shares of ODFL were down 5.5% at noon on Wednesday compared to the S&P 500, which was up 0.2%.

Investors are concerned that an inflationary diesel fuel environment is allowing LTL carriers to over-earn and that results will likely moderate when prices recede. There’s also some concern around industry growth prospects even after a positive inflection in manufacturing data.

Why it matters? Old Dominion Freight Line’s third-quarter report serves as a key industry bellwether, signaling that LTL carriers are successfully prioritizing pricing discipline and profitability over volume despite only modest demand trends.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

• Insurance claims adjustments tank Landstar’s otherwise strong Q3
• Werner Enterprises sees cost headwinds lingering into Q1
• Knight-Swift again eyes big rate increases as new bid season nears

The post Old Dominion’s tonnage turns positive; recovery needs demand inflection appeared first on FreightWaves.

Revenue rose to C$4.22 billion ($3.01 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30 from $2.61 billion a year earlier, the Calgary-based company (NYSE: CP) said in earnings released after the close of markets. Core adjusted diluted earnings increased to 91 cents per share from 78 cents, while reported diluted earnings rose 3% to 74 cents from 72 cents. Freight volumes, measured in revenue ton-miles, increased 6%.

“CPKC delivered solid results, powered by momentum across our unrivaled North American network, countering macroeconomic headwinds during the quarter,” President and Chief Executive Keith Creel said in the release. “The railroad is running very well, our service remains strong, and we continue to deliver growth across key markets, including grain, intermodal and merchandise.”

Grain revenue climbed to $644 million from $500 million in the third quarter of 2025, while intermodal revenue increased to $581 million from $476 million. Revenue from energy, chemicals and plastics rose to $544 million from $499 million, and automotive revenue reached $266 million, up from $244 million. Coal revenue was nearly unchanged at $181 million.

The gains lifted operating income to $1.06 billion from $955 million, although expenses increased faster than revenue. Fuel expense rose to $475 million from $296 million, while compensation and benefits increased to $507 million from $441 million.

CPKC’s operating ratio —operating expenses as a percentage of revenue and a key efficiency indicator— worsened to 64.8% from 63.5%. Its core adjusted operating ratio increased to 61.9% from 60.7%. The company said higher fuel prices added 1.7 percentage points to the reported ratio and 1.9 percentage points to the core adjusted figure.

Despite higher operating income, net income attributable to controlling shareholders edged down to $653 million from $655 million. Reported earnings per share nevertheless increased as the weighted-average diluted share count fell to 877.6 million from 911.4 million.

Income tax expense increased to $319 million from $211 million. The quarter included a $67 million tax charge related to Canadian tax reassessments associated with the Kansas City Southern acquisition in 2023, along with a $12 million expense from a Mexican tax settlement.

The company also disclosed $12 million in advisory costs related to its analysis and advocacy concerning the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s review of the proposed Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP)–Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) merger.

Cash generated by operating activities increased to $1.10 billion from $905 million a year earlier. Spending on additions to properties declined to $437 million from $613 million, while cash used to purchase common shares totaled $1.02 billion.

Creel said disciplined execution and a “robust commercial pipeline” supported the company’s confidence in meeting its annual commitments.

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Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

Read more:

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Union Pacific posts record third-quarter revenue and profits

Norfolk Southern profits rise on higher volume and revenue

Commodity markets whip up railfreight gains

The post First look: CPKC earnings appeared first on FreightWaves.

Craig Fuller, founder and CEO of FreightWaves and SONAR, presented the awards during the F3 Awards Dinner at The Signal in Chattanooga.

The award evaluates shippers across several areas, including data connectivity, ease of doing business, carrier relationships and facility operations. Industry voting determines the winners, with an emphasis on the practices that make companies preferred partners for trucking carriers.

These factors can affect how efficiently carriers move freight. Long waits at shipping and receiving facilities, unreliable scheduling and complicated administrative processes can cut into drivers’ productive hours and limit the number of loads they can complete.

The winning shippers were recognized for taking steps to address those challenges and improve conditions for the carriers moving their freight.

“All of them have made investments to improve the lives of our drivers,” Fuller said. “(They’ve) gone out of their way to improve the lives of the carriers and their operators.”

Here’s a glimpse into the honorees: 

Schreiber Foods

Schreiber Foods, a dairy and food manufacturer, emphasizes long-term carrier relationships and predictable freight procurement. The company holds its annual freight bid at the same time each year, regardless of market conditions, and prioritizes the carriers already moving its freight.

Schreiber also trains plant employees on drivers’ hours-of-service rules, uses drop trailers to reduce detention and pays most carriers on net-35-to-45-day terms.

Kraft Heinz

Kraft Heinz focuses on regular communication and transparency with its carrier partners. The food and beverage company holds weekly scorecard calls, conducts in-person business reviews and collects anonymous carrier feedback more frequently than quarterly.

The company also works to handle detention and layovers fairly. It has brought carriers into the development process for a new claims intake portal, giving transportation partners an opportunity to test the system.

Aldi USA

Aldi USA earned recognition for predictable facility operations and reliable appointment scheduling. One carrier moves about 150 loads a week into the grocery retailer and reports detention on only a handful of shipments.

The company also provides clear feedback on freight bids, helping carriers understand where they stand when competing for business.

Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market stands out for facility efficiency and its approach to food safety. Carriers report that unloading typically takes less than two hours, while the retailer shares research-backed practices designed to protect product quality.

One example involves data-backed transit temperature guidance for cherries intended to extend shelf life. Whole Foods also rewards consistent service with long-term business relationships, including one carrier partner that has hauled a key portion of its turkey program for three consecutive years.

Sealed Air

Packaging company Sealed Air has invested in drop-trailer pools, cross-border transportation and API connections for tracking and billing.

Its approach to carrier relationships also includes flexibility when operational problems arise. In one instance, a plant changed its operating hours so a driver who had traveled 400 miles with the wrong freight could return and correct the mistake.

Agri-Mark/Cabot Creamery

Agri-Mark, the farmer-owned cooperative behind Cabot Creamery, emphasizes appointment flexibility and responsiveness. Drivers typically spend about 45 minutes at its facilities, and carriers can book or change appointments through an online portal.

The company also responds to carriers on weekends and operates a quoting tool that shows how their rates compare with market prices.

North American Stainless

North American Stainless honors contracted rates and volumes even when spot-market prices are lower. The steel producer also offers drop-and-hook operations and preloaded trailers at no cost to carriers, an uncommon arrangement for flatbed freight.

The company pays carriers on net-30 terms and assigns each carrier a dedicated logistics coordinator.

Henkel

Henkel, a global manufacturer of adhesives, sealants and consumer products including Loctite and Persil, was recognized for its data connectivity and relationships with transportation partners. Its North American operations span industrial and consumer markets, requiring coordination across a diverse supply chain.

Nestlé USA

Nestlé USA was recognized for its distribution network and supply chain relationships, which help the company coordinate deliveries and support retail partners. The company often takes on some of retailers’ distribution and logistics responsibilities, helping maintain a reliable flow of products.

Univar Solutions

Univar Solutions distributes chemicals and ingredients, including solvents, resins and surfactants, to industries ranging from agriculture to pharmaceuticals. Its operations combine a broad distribution network with logistics and formulation services.

The company emphasizes data-connected supply chains and collaboration with transportation partners to coordinate freight movement across its network.

Why this matters

Shipper practices can directly affect trucking efficiency, from the time drivers spend waiting at facilities to how easily carriers manage appointments, payments and freight scheduling. Companies that prioritize predictable operations and strong carrier relationships can help reduce delays, protect drivers’ productive hours and build more reliable transportation networks. The Shipper of Choice awards recognize businesses making those practices a priority.

The post F3: FreightWaves announces Shipper of Choice winners appeared first on FreightWaves.

Los Angeles police recovered approximately $1 million in stolen railroad cargo after tracing shoes advertised for sale on eBay. Investigators uncovered 35 pallets of BNSF Railroad property during an October 21 search of a local business. The merchandise included athletic footwear and backpacks from several major brands. Authorities arrested the business owner following the discovery.

The Los Angeles Police Department announced the recovery on October 26. Detectives identified DesignerDeals4Less in the 21000 block of Nordhoff Street in Chatsworth, a Los Angeles neighborhood within the San Fernando Valley. Officers discovered merchandise from Brooks, Hoka, New Balance, Adidas, ON, Salomon and JanSport. The discovery follows a separate $1 million railroad cargo recovery at a Whittier shoe retailer earlier in October.

An online shoe sale leads detectives to stolen cargo

The investigation began after detectives discovered stolen Brooks/Disney collaborative shoes advertised for sale on eBay. Investigators arranged a controlled purchase, which helped establish a connection to DesignerDeals4Less. That transaction led authorities to obtain a search warrant for the Los Angeles business. In August, deputies recovered more than $123,000 in Brooks shoes following a separate BNSF boxcar burglary near Ludlow, California. Two days later, deputies recovered more than $150,000 in New Balance shoes following another BNSF boxcar burglary near Daggett, California. Authorities have not established a connection between those recoveries and the Los Angeles investigation.

Under eBay’s stolen property policy, sellers cannot list merchandise obtained through theft. The company maintains a process for law enforcement to request records during criminal investigations. The federal INFORM Consumers Act also requires marketplaces to verify identifying information from qualifying high-volume sellers. LAPD has not disclosed whether eBay provided records or whether those federal requirements helped identify the business. FreightWaves contacted eBay to determine whether the company assisted investigators or took action against the seller’s account. The company had not responded before publication.

Detectives contacted the business owner while executing the warrant on October 21. According to LAPD, the individual acknowledged purchasing stolen railroad merchandise through unauthorized distribution sources. Police identified him as Heros Tasci, 51, of Simi Valley, California. Officers arrested Tasci and transported him to Van Nuys Jail. Tasci is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Authorities booked Tasci under California Penal Code Section 496(a), which addresses receiving stolen property. The department has not announced additional arrests connected to this investigation. Police have not publicly identified the distributors who supplied the merchandise.

Multiple agencies participate in cargo theft investigation

The LAPD Commercial Crimes Division’s Cargo Theft Task Force coordinated the operation alongside several law enforcement partners. BNSF Police, Union Pacific Railroad Police and Alameda Belt Line Police participated in the investigation. Los Angeles Port Police and Los Angeles World Airport Police also assisted. Homeland Security Investigations joined the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation in supporting the operation. The recovery follows a separate BNSF train burglary in Colton, California, where police recovered approximately $54,000 in stolen Hot Wheels merchandise.

BNSF Railway declined to comment on the specific investigation when contacted by FreightWaves. “These criminal acts disrupt the movement of goods, increase costs for consumers and businesses,” BNSF stated. The company also emphasized its ongoing collaboration with law enforcement to combat cargo theft.

LAPD has not disclosed when or where the merchandise was originally stolen from BNSF trains. Authorities have not publicly identified those responsible for the thefts. Investigators also have not confirmed how many shipments contributed to the recovered inventory. The department has not explained how the products reached DesignerDeals4Less. FreightWaves contacted LAPD for additional details but had not received a response before publication.

The investigation remains ongoing, with detectives seeking additional information about the stolen merchandise. Anyone with relevant details can contact LAPD’s Commercial Crimes Division at 213-486-8766. Investigators accept calls during regular business hours, from 6 a.m. until 4 p.m. Anonymous tipsters can also contact Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.

Why it matters

Stolen freight can reenter commercial distribution channels through businesses purchasing merchandise from unauthorized sources. This recovery highlights how investigators can trace stolen products through online marketplaces and identify additional cargo.

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

Police recover $54K in Hot Wheels after BNSF freight train burglary in California – FreightWaves

Feds charge driver in alleged $12M cargo theft scheme built on hijacked carrier identities – FreightWaves

Nearly $1M in Pokémon and sports cards vanish from FedEx truck, driver discovers missing lock – FreightWaves

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Steve Dowling outlined the agency’s expanding enforcement efforts Wednesday during a keynote address at the second annual WEX OTR Summit in Jacksonville, Florida, saying FMCSA is strengthening oversight of commercial driver training, licensing, carrier registration and trucking operations.

Dowling, who became FMCSA’s chief safety officer in August, said the agency is taking a more comprehensive approach to identifying unsafe trucking companies and preventing fraud before carriers enter the industry.

“If we want to protect the industry, we need to make sure that we start at the driver level and how they’re trained,” Dowling told attendees.

The former California Highway Patrol official and Covenant Logistics safety executive said FMCSA’s enforcement strategy focuses on five stages of commercial motor vehicle operations: training, licensing, registration, operations and enforcement.

More than 10,000 training providers removed

Dowling said more than 10,000 providers have been removed from FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry since December 2025.

The figure represents the agency’s broader registry cleanup and should not be confused with the separate emergency enforcement action announced in August.

That action targeted approximately 110 commercial driver training schools whose operations were linked to more than 5,000 drivers cited for English-language proficiency violations, according to Dowling.

“Since December of ’25, there have been more than 10,000 providers that have been removed from the training provider registry,” Dowling said.

He said the agency intends to continue reviewing driver training programs to ensure schools meet federal requirements.

“You’ve seen a real increased enforcement effort from us and emphasis on that,” Dowling said. “You’re going to continue to see us try to make sure that the schools are doing what they’re supposed to do.”

FMCSA is also strengthening oversight of state commercial driver’s license programs and third-party testing operations.

Dowling said the agency wants trucking companies to have confidence that drivers who receive CDLs have met consistent federal standards, regardless of the state issuing the license.

ELD crackdown expands

FMCSA has also intensified its scrutiny of electronic logging devices, which are used to record commercial drivers’ hours of service.

Dowling said the agency has removed more than 100 noncompliant devices from its registered ELD list and prevented nearly 600 others from being approved.

“We’ve removed over 100 noncompliant ELDs from the registered device list, and we’ve prevented nearly 600 from making it onto the list entirely,” Dowling said.

He said the agency is particularly concerned about logging systems that can be manipulated to conceal hours-of-service violations.

“You can’t go in and edit logs by making a phone call,” Dowling said. “Anytime we hear of that, we’re going and investigating.”

Dowling encouraged motor carriers to verify that their ELD providers remain on FMCSA’s registered device list and that the systems they use cannot be improperly manipulated.

He said the agency intends to continue strengthening oversight of ELD manufacturers and other transportation technology providers.

FMCSA targets chameleon carriers through registration overhaul

Another major enforcement priority is identifying so-called chameleon carriers — trucking companies that shut down and reopen under new identities to evade safety enforcement, penalties or other regulatory requirements.

Dowling said FMCSA’s modernized registration system, Motus, is designed to improve verification of carrier ownership and principal places of business.

He described instances in which multiple trucking companies have registered using the same address or post office box, potentially indicating attempts to conceal common ownership or circumvent federal requirements.

“One location that maybe has 20 different DOT numbers coming out of a PO box in a location, that’s a problem,” Dowling said.

The new registration platform is intended to identify suspicious applications before federal operating authority is granted.

Dowling acknowledged that Motus has experienced technical problems during its rollout.

He said approximately 95% of carrier registration activity was functioning through the system based on data he reviewed the previous week, but acknowledged that problems affecting the remaining users were unacceptable.

“That’s not acceptable to us,” Dowling said of the difficulties experienced by some applicants.

He said FMCSA temporarily suspended its biennial registration update requirement while the agency works to address technical issues.

Dowling said the registration changes are helping prevent potentially fraudulent businesses from entering the trucking industry.

“There are thousands of people that we’re keeping out of the industry because we’ve initiated [Motus],” Dowling said.

He did not provide a precise count of blocked applicants or a breakdown of how many were suspected of fraud rather than affected by registration problems.

Federal investigators coordinate on trucking fraud

During a question-and-answer session following the keynote, Dowling said FMCSA is increasingly working with the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors to investigate chameleon carriers and other suspected trucking fraud.

He said some investigations involve networks of companies that operate across multiple jurisdictions, making it necessary to coordinate with other law enforcement agencies.

“You’re going to see cases that start coming out that are specifically combating against chameleon carriers,” Dowling said.

He said investigators are looking beyond individual violations to identify connections among companies, owners, equipment and other operations.

“These investigations usually aren’t just linear to where, okay, it’s one violation to one carrier,” Dowling said.

The agency is also relying on information provided by trucking companies, industry representatives and others who identify suspicious carriers or potentially noncompliant ELD providers.

Dowling said FMCSA is actively investigating those reports.

CDL enforcement effectiveness remains under review

Dowling also addressed questions about federal enforcement of non-domiciled CDLs and English-language proficiency requirements.

He said FMCSA is seeing indications that drivers who do not meet non-domiciled CDL requirements may also have English-language proficiency violations.

However, he acknowledged that the agency needs additional time and data to determine whether its enforcement initiatives are producing measurable reductions in crashes.

“Sometimes you have to be patient to be able to see if the things that you are doing works,” Dowling said.

He said FMCSA is collecting more information and examining connections among driver training, licensing records and crash investigations.

The agency is also working with state licensing authorities to ensure non-domiciled CDLs are issued and maintained in accordance with federal requirements.

Asked whether FMCSA has an accurate count of non-domiciled CDL holders currently operating in the United States, Dowling said he could not recall a specific figure.

He noted that some non-domiciled CDL holders remain legally eligible to operate and that the total number is changing as states implement federal restrictions.

Dowling said the agency is focusing on auditing state licensing processes rather than relying solely on a nationwide count.

Hours-of-service flexibility and safety scoring changes ahead

Looking ahead to 2027, Dowling said FMCSA is evaluating potential changes to hours-of-service regulations and its Safety Measurement System, which helps identify motor carriers for intervention.

He referenced ongoing research into additional hours-of-service flexibility, including sleeper-berth provisions and the 14-hour duty window.

Dowling said the agency wants to determine whether existing regulations can be adjusted without compromising efforts to prevent driver fatigue.

“Just because that’s what the rule is doesn’t mean we don’t need to look at it,” he said.

FMCSA is also examining how it uses inspection, crash and compliance data to identify high-risk motor carriers.

Dowling said the agency wants to focus its limited enforcement resources on operations presenting the greatest safety risks rather than minor administrative violations.

“We can get more predictive by data analysis on who is more likely to crash,” he said.

Why it matters: FMCSA’s expanded scrutiny of CDL schools, licensing agencies, electronic logging devices and carrier registrations could significantly change how trucking companies enter the market, recruit drivers and demonstrate compliance heading into 2027.

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Of the 35,688 containers awaiting rail service on Oct. 26, 10, 562 had been on the terminals for at least nine days, according to The Dwell’s compilation of the ports’ daily rail reports. The figures count individual containers, rather than twenty-foot-equivalent units, or TEUs, the standard measure of port cargo volume.

The backlog was more severe at Los Angeles, where 8,133 of the 19,626 containers awaiting trains had waited nine days or longer. At Long Beach, 2,429 of 16,062 rail-bound containers had reached that threshold. That put the share of longer-waiting containers at 41.4% in Los Angeles, compared with 15.1% in Long Beach.

The daily inventory figures follow a broader increase in the time containers spend on marine terminals. Average rail-container dwell across the port complex rose to 7.19 days in September from 6.75 days in August, according to Pacific Merchant Shipping Association data. Average dwell for containers leaving by local truck increased to 3.18 days from 2.95 days.

Both ports handled record monthly cargo volumes in September. Los Angeles processed approximately 1.04 million TEUs, while Long Beach handled 997,177 TEUs. PMSA linked the increase in container dwell to the extended peak shipping season and heavy cargo flows.

Freight broker C.H. Robinson identified Southern California intermodal railcar shortages as a constraint in its October market update, saying limited equipment availability was extending import dwell and slowing inland movement. Empty-container repositioning was also complicating equipment flows, while truck-destined containers were moving relatively normally by comparison.

The figures point to particular pressure on the rail side of the ports’ operations. The Oct. 26 counts measure containers awaiting on-dock trains at a particular moment; they are not an average waiting time and do not establish that every container in the inventory is overdue.

Class I railroads BNSF (NYSE: BRK-B) and Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) serve the southern California port complex.

“Strong international volumes have tightened rail car supply, but Union Pacific’s buffer resources have positioned us well to maintain fluidity throughout the extended international peak,” a UP spokesperson said in an email statement to FreightWaves. “Strong westbound volumes are also supporting car supply. We continue to pull consistently from the docks and leverage our ICTF facility to keep freight moving, while maintaining the car supply needed to support fluid port operations.”

In addition to handling record cargo volumes, some Long Beach terminals are reaching 50% on-dock rail utilization.

“We’ve handled a lot of cargo over the last four months. On the LA side, about four million TEUs in four months, and on the Long Beach side, just about the same amount,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, in a phone interview with FreightWaves. “So, that’s 8 million TEUs over a four-month period. And, overall, we’ve done a good job. The dwell times on truck at about three and a half days have been pretty stable for the last 90 days. The rail dwell has also been stable at about five-plus, but both are higher than we would like.”

Seroka said rail moves have been slowed by an imbalance of import and export traffic as shippers order more than usual for this time of year, to try and get ahead of a host of supply chain issues. “But in the past three weeks we’ve seen a six-, eight-, and tenfold increase in the westbound train assets coming our way. So I think we’ve had a course correct here pretty quickly.”

“While average rail time remains under five days, some smaller inland rail hubs are experiencing longer delays than major destinations as the national rail network absorbs significantly more cargo,” said Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Noel Hacegaba, in an email to FreightWaves. “That is why we are committed to enhancing the efficiency of our operations with the Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility, which will reduce the time it takes to move cargo from ship to rail from four days to 24 hours.”

A BNSF spokesperson told FreightWaves the carrier had no comment outside of its customer advisories.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka is scheduled to speak with FreightWaves later Wednesday. FreightWaves has also reached out to BNSF for comment.

The buildup of containers on terminals has not been accompanied by evidence of a comparable offshore vessel queue. The Dwell’s separate congestion tracker reported one ship awaiting a berth during the week of Oct. 26, based on Maritime Administration and Marine Exchange data.

A possible labor disruption could add pressure in the coming days. The Pacific Maritime Association warned Oct. 27 that a potential Nov. 1 strike involving approximately 250 port watchmen could affect eight container terminals. Members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 26 voted to approve a walkout as soon as Sunday. 

According to the employer association, the terminals handle roughly 85% of Long Beach cargo and 33% of Los Angeles cargo.

This article was updated on Oct. 28 to add comments from Union Pacific, BNSF, the Port of Long Beach, and the Port of Los Angeles.

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Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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