The Load Letter

A 41,000-pound glycerin shipment vanished in Illinois after thieves spoofed shipment paperwork so convincingly even the driver never knew he was part of the theft, and it's a wake-up call on verifying delivery details independent of EDI. Also in today's briefing: FreightWaves and Ryder's October State of the Industry report shows dry van capacity loosening while flatbed stays tight, oi...

Crude oil is climbing on the Iran conflict, but the diesel surcharge benchmark just fell after three weeks of gains, and brokers need to know which number actually belongs in rate conversations. Also in today's briefing: dry van tightening under a flat rate while flatbed softens on stacked-up Midwest farm equipment, a $635K cargo theft bust that's a wake-up call on carrier vetting, Echo Gl...

A new U.S. ban on roughly a billion dollars of Canadian imports is stranding cross-border capacity at Detroit-Windsor, Port Huron, and Buffalo, and brokers who offer displaced carriers a domestic reload can lock in rate and loyalty fast. Also on deck: dry van tightens under falling tonnage while flatbed softens on farm equipment overstock, new California cold storage laws that will push up reefer...

Nussbaum and Roehl each raised driver pay for the second time this year, and that bidding war for seats is your forward cost curve showing up early. We also cover Ryder's warning that small brokerages face real liability exposure after Montgomery, Yakima apples topping fourteen thousand a load into the East, Kansas carriers taking lawsuit abuse to Washington, the US-China truce extension throu...

The Cass shipment index turned positive this week, statistically ending the longest freight recession on record, but dry van spot is still sliding at $2.17 linehaul, and that gap is where your margin lives until contract pricing resets. We break down why tightening capacity and the Lujan case against FMCSA could swing your cost to cover either direction, plus six straight down days in Brent crude...

Cass shipment volumes finally turned positive, officially ending the longest freight recession on record, but dry van spot slipped another penny and a half the same week diesel hit $6.29 a gallon on an 8% global supply drop. We break down why volume recovers before pricing does, why quick pay is now a capacity strategy instead of a margin line, and where flatbed freight is moving as industrial con...

Diesel hitting $5.97 a gallon is hammering carriers unevenly, and the ones underwater on your lanes won't tell you until they're already gone, audit your fuel surcharge tables this week. We also cover why the M&A crowd thinks human brokers are getting more valuable as automation eats the easy freight, PrePass and Kodiak giving autonomous trucks bypass authority at roadside inspection s...

Private fleets are expanding deliberately, pulling the high-value, service-sensitive lanes off the spot market, the exact accounts brokers built their margins on. This briefing also covers the reefer handoff from California to South Texas, Estes dropping $56 million on cross-border and offshore capacity, the tariff freeze ahead of the Xi-Trump summit, new Charleston-to-Huntsville intermodal servic...

The Fed's first rate hike in three years lands on top of $5.97 diesel, putting a slow financial squeeze on the small carriers who actually cover your tough lanes. We break down what "fragile market" talk at a New York shippers conference means for how you sell, why dry van, reefer, and flatbed are telling three different stories right now, and how corporate cash hoarding is about to...

Flatbed spot linehaul slid to $2.62 a mile as ag weakness and an 11% drop in Class 8 tractor sales split open deck into a two-speed market, soft out of the Plains, firm in Texas and the Southeast. We also cover the FMCSA emergency shutdown of CDL schools across twenty states and what it does to your 2027 capacity, the Motus registration outage and the phishing sites targeting small fleets, shiftin...

Cass says truckload linehaul rates are up 11% year over year and freight shipments finally turned positive after 42 straight months of decline, the leverage on your desk just shifted ahead of Q4 contract renewals. But diesel at $5.97 with Brent near $107 means fuel surcharge discipline decides whether that leverage turns into margin, and DAT's data confirms fall is peak season for double broke...

A half-million-dollar copper load stolen by carrier impersonation was recovered in eight hours on telematics data alone, and that recovery is the clearest argument yet that vetting the MC number isn't vetting the truck. We break down driver-level verification as a sales differentiator, why automated yard visibility turns detention into a receipt that cuts both ways, how to sell decisions to sh...

Diesel just topped six dollars a gallon for the first time ever, and every fuel surcharge schedule and deadhead-heavy lane on your board is about to get stress-tested. We break down why tender rejections holding at 13.5 percent after Labor Day gives you leverage on spot quotes, where the produce money is as Yakima tree fruit runs away with reefer rates, and what tariff pressure, Hyundai's near...

Diesel futures crossed five dollars a gallon for the first time since 2022 with pump prices closing in on six, and that number reprices every quote, every carrier call, and every margin on your board. We also cover the Port of L.A.'s busiest three months on record and an NRF forecast that September could be the year's biggest import month, DAT spot moves showing Yakima tree fruit paying th...

Brent crude punched through $100 a barrel overnight and diesel is already at $5.60, which means every stale fuel surcharge table on your desk is quietly costing you margin and carrier relationships. We also cover dry van capacity trickling back while linehaul holds at $2.21, flatbed staying firm at $2.66 with an ag equipment slump forming underneath, and C.H. Robinson putting broker liability and...

Brent crude hit a six-week high at $98.48 and diesel is sitting at $5.60 a gallon, with the usual post-Labor Day price break nowhere in sight, meaning stale fuel surcharge tables and fixed fuel caps are about to eat your margin. We also cover the Amazon cargo jet crash that has two runways closed at Miami International and what it means for South Florida reefer, an $155K Guinness heist with 880 ba...

Thieves pulled $31.8 million out of freight over Labor Day weekend, and they did it by breaching legitimate carrier accounts with real MC numbers and clean history, not by posing as fake carriers. We break down why 71% of those hits landed on the weekdays around the holiday, what a trucker protest over B-1 visas means for Laredo and El Paso capacity in the next 90 days, and how toll data is teachi...

C.H. Robinson's September Edge report projects double-digit spot rate increases across dry van, reefer, and flatbed heading into 2027, driven by contracting capacity, not demand, which means the contracts you sign this quarter need escalators. We also cover the White House whole-of-government push against trucking fraud, the hung jury in the Louisiana staged accident murder trial and what it m...

Crude punching through $96 a barrel has pushed diesel to $5.65 a gallon, blowing up stale fuel surcharge tables and squeezing small carriers before your rate data catches up. We also cover flatbed load-to-truck ratios doubling year over year while linehaul lags, vanishing California reefer capacity ahead of Central Valley produce commitments, and FMCSA decertifying 110 CDL training schools in a fr...

Diesel hit $5.65 a gallon as renewed fighting in the Iran conflict pushed Brent past $94, leaving brokers with stale fuel surcharge tables exposed on every long-haul quote. We also break down a flatbed load-to-truck ratio that doubled year over year while rates lag, an $800,000 Texas grain theft ring that moved 176 loads before anyone caught it, and an FMCSA purge of 110 driver training schools th...

Diesel at $5.65 and Brent jumping on renewed Iran fighting mean your fuel surcharge lag is about to eat margin on every stale contract in your book. We also cover August capacity contraction slowing to its weakest pace in six months while pricing keeps surging, a Border Patrol sweep in Arizona that pulled 95 CDL holders out of the Southwest driver pool, and what UPS shedding Amazon volume plus a 1...

A U.S. strike on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz pushed Brent crude up 3.4% to over $91, and with diesel already at $5.65 and retail lagging crude by one to three weeks, every all-in quote sitting on your board just got more expensive to cover. We break down the fuel surcharge exposure on contract lanes, why dry van, reefer, and flatbed all printing at $2.63 means national averages are use...

Dry van spot slipped four cents this week, but the softness is masking the real story: trucks are leaving the market, and that's what's holding the floor heading into fall bids. We break down diesel at $5.65 and why stale fuel surcharge schedules are eating your margin, FMCSA's hours-of-service pilots that could let drivers pause the 14-hour clock, the late-September New York non-domic...

The four-year freight recession is ending because trucks are disappearing, not because shippers found more freight, and CVSA's Roadcheck data now shows exactly which small carriers are getting pulled out of service. We also cover diesel above $5 as a refining problem that won't correct by winter, flatbed strength sitting on top of a housing pullback, retail bid season opening early with Ad...

Volume has returned to the spot board but truck supply hasn't followed, and that gap is set to move rates before the data catches up, with all three modes sitting flat at $2.63 and diesel at $5.65. We also cover the USPS 6% peak season parcel surcharge landing October 4th, Descartes buying broker TMS Tai Software for $100 million, a record $5.3 million Panama Canal transit slot and Crowley&#39...