Latest Transport News
What's actually happening in vehicle transport right now, and what it means for you as a shipper.
Stolen Identities and Fake Brokers Now Drive Cargo Theft
Thieves have moved past breaking into trailers: they impersonate legitimate carriers to win a load, subcontract it to an unsuspecting trucker, then redirect the delivery and disappear before anyone notices the freight is gone. CargoNet logged 3,594 incidents and about $725 million in stolen goods in 2025, with California, Texas and Illinois hit hardest. The advice from insurers is blunt — verify a carrier through published phone numbers, never the contact details supplied by whoever is asking for the load.
Read Full StoryFirst Russian Diesel Cargo Since the New Deal Heads for New York
A tanker loaded roughly 40,000 metric tons of ultra-low-sulfur diesel at Primorsk on October 22 and is due in New York on November 7, the first shipment under the supply agreement announced October 9. Planned volumes run 300,000 metric tons now, 500,000 in November and a million after that — but the first cargo is only about 7% of what the U.S. burns in a single day, and energy analysts doubt it moves the pump price much.
Read Full StoryBenchmark Diesel Ticks Back Up After Three Weeks of Relief
The DOE/EIA benchmark behind most fuel surcharges rose 9.7 cents to $6.276 a gallon, ending a three-week slide. That is about 25 cents below the all-time high of $6.529 set September 22, so the pressure has eased slightly without going away. Traders describe a calmer market for now, with the diesel crack spread holding a narrow range for about a month.
Read Full StoryWholesale Used-Vehicle Values Firm Up on Leaner Inventory
The Manheim index rose 0.7% from September through mid-October to 207.4 and sits 2.2% above a year ago, with days’ supply down to 28.2. Compact cars led at 5.6% year over year while pickup values stayed soft, a split that tracks fuel prices. Cox Automotive credits lean inventory rather than stronger dealer demand, and calls the annual gain partly an easy comparison with last October.
Read Full StoryTexas Judge Upholds the $604M Verdict Against C.H. Robinson
A Dallas County judge affirmed July’s jury verdict over a 2021 crash that killed three people. With about $107 million in pre-judgment interest accruing at 6.75%, the judgment now exceeds $700 million. The jury found the carrier’s driver was under the broker’s control — the finding C.H. Robinson will target on appeal, and the one that matters most to every broker after the Supreme Court’s Montgomery decision removed federal liability protection.
Read Full StoryCarriers Are Rejecting Four Times the Loads on Barely More Freight
Tender rejection rates near 14% are roughly triple their 2023 level, while truckload volume is up only about 9% over three years. For-hire tractor counts fell by some 51,000 in August alone, and more than 202,000 CDL holders sit sidelined over drug and alcohol violations. New carrier authorities are being issued at a five-year high, but only about two in three new interstate registrants bought liability insurance. Analysts expect the market to stay tight into at least early 2027.
Read Full StoryExecutive Order Opens Red-Dye Diesel to Over-the-Road Trucks
An order signed October 5 allows dyed diesel — normally reserved for off-road use and exempt from the 24.3-cent federal excise tax — to be burned in highway trucks, with those excise payments deferred while the administration studies eliminating them. The benchmark price fell 18.3 cents to $6.199 the same week. State dyed-diesel laws still apply, so the relief at the pump is likely to be uneven.
Read Full StoryThe Oct. 1 ‘Trucker Strike’ Came and Went — the Data Shows No Shutdown
Following up on the rumor we covered in September: equipment posts on DAT were less than 1% above September 30, and across roughly 200,000 connected Class 8 trucks, location pings ran just 0.6% below the prior week. Drivers who did park mostly called it a vacation. The story still moved policy, though — the White House floated a diesel export ban, several states paused fuel taxes, and diesel fell about 15 cents nationally that week.
Read Full StoryTruckload Capacity Exodus Is 'Still in the Early Innings'
Carrier executives say the shakeout is far from over, with regulatory enforcement, weak freight economics and record diesel continuing to push marginal operators out of the market. Schneider has cut its approved carrier list from 60,000 to 14,000 partners, and Werner projects one-way rates up 10-13% year over year in the third quarter. The practical effect for shippers and dealers is fewer qualified trucks competing for each load.
Read Full StoryFMCSA Waives Hours-of-Service Limits for Fuel Haulers Through December
A national waiver running September 16 through December 16 lets drivers hauling gasoline and diesel drive up to 16 hours in a 24-hour period, with a six-hour sleeper-berth or eight-hour off-duty break required. Carriers holding conditional safety ratings are excluded. FMCSA cited global supply disruptions and record-low diesel inventories heading into fall.
Read Full StoryNo Evidence Behind the Oct. 1 'Nationwide Trucker Strike' Circulating Online
Viral posts on Facebook, TikTok and X claim drivers will park on October 1 over $6 diesel and urge the public to stockpile food. Fact-checkers at Snopes and PolicyWire found no credible evidence: no named organizer, no union backing, and OOIDA characterized it as social media chatter with no strike plans it is aware of. The fuel prices behind the rumor are real; the shutdown is not.
Read Full StoryBenchmark Diesel Sets Another Record as the $6 Average Arrives
The DOE/EIA weekly benchmark used to calculate most fuel surcharges rose 31.8 cents to $6.285 a gallon, up roughly $1.71 since July, while AAA's retail average hit an all-time high near $6.27. An outage at ExxonMobil's 264,000 barrel-per-day Joliet refinery and attacks on Saudi pipeline capacity kept pressure on supply. Chevron's CEO said it is hard to envision prices softening quickly.
Read Full StoryTruck Posts Hit a Record Low as Diesel Puts a Floor Under Rates
For the week ending September 12, dry van spot rates averaged $2.92 per mile, refrigerated $3.50 and flatbed $3.48. Equipment posts fell to 153,509, the lowest figure for that week in DAT's records, with van truck availability down 40.2% year over year. DAT iQ's RateCast projects mid-October linehaul rates running 52 to 57 cents above last year.
Read Full StoryUsed-Vehicle Prices Climb 7% to the Highest Average Since 2022
Cox Automotive put the average used-vehicle listing price at $27,239 in August, up 0.9% from July and 7% above a year earlier, on 2.13 million units and a 44-day supply. The squeeze is sharpest below $15,000, where inventory fell 25.9% year over year and now makes up just 15.1% of listings at 29 days' supply.
Read Full StoryCargoNet Tracks $31.8M in Labor Day Cargo Theft as Criminals Breach Trusted Accounts
Across five years of Labor Day periods CargoNet counted 273 incidents and about $31.8 million in stolen freight, with annual counts up 70% since 2021. California, Texas and Illinois accounted for 48% of cases, and food and beverage loads were hit hardest. Thieves increasingly compromise carrier logins and phone numbers to redirect loads already in transit, which means vetting at booking is no longer enough on its own.
Read Full StoryDiesel at Five-Year Highs: Why This Surge Isn't a Blip
Ultra-low sulfur diesel futures have posted effectively their highest settlements on record, and the diesel-to-crude crack spread has reached levels traders say they cannot recall seeing. Ukrainian drone strikes have removed more than a million barrels a day of Russian refining capacity while East Coast inventories sit near historic lows. California diesel has passed $7 a gallon on DOE regional pricing.
Read Full Story50% Tariff on Canadian Vehicles Takes Effect, Then Gets Suspended
A new 50% duty on motor vehicles imported from Canada, invoked under Section 338 of the Tariff Act, took effect August 19 before being suspended through today while talks continue. The U.S. and Canada are now weighing a 15% auto tariff with content-based deductions, and a fourth U.S.-Mexico bilateral round is set for September.
Read Full StoryLawmaker Pushes Federal Audit of Non-Domiciled CDL States
Rep. Harriet Hageman introduced legislation requiring federal regulators to audit states issuing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses. California, Washington, Colorado, and Pennsylvania have paused processing while DOT reviews compliance, and California and New York are contesting a threatened cut to highway funding.
Read Full StoryDiesel Hits Fresh Record as Global Supply Tightens Further
The national average diesel price climbed to $5.4677/gal, up nearly 15 cents in a single week and 38 cents month-over-month, as tension in the Strait of Hormuz and Russia’s total diesel export ban squeeze global supply. The Energy Department still expects prices to ease later this year, but forecasts remain well above seasonal norms.
Read Full StoryFleets Pivot to Vans as Light-Duty Registrations Climb 9%
While heavy-duty truck registrations struggled under new tariffs, U.S. van and pickup (Class 2-3) registrations rose about 9% year-over-year in 2025, as fleets favored cheaper, faster-to-deploy vehicles over long-cycle tractor commitments. Ford Transit posted a record year with over 161,000 units sold, and the lease/rental channel, led by Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, and Premier Truck Rental, grew 11% year-over-year within the segment.
Read Full StoryDetroit Automakers Warn Revised USMCA Rules Could Add Billions in Costs
Ford, GM, and Stellantis are pushing back on a proposal to raise the U.S.-made content threshold for tariff-free vehicles to 50 percent and lift the overall North American content requirement above its current 75 percent level. Two of the automakers estimate the change alone would add at least $2 billion a year in costs per company, stacked on top of tariffs already in place on steel, aluminum, and vehicles from Mexico and Canada. GM alone expects $2.5 to $3.5 billion in gross tariff expense this year, more than a fifth of its operating profit. Ford is already adjusting, shifting Lincoln Nautilus production out of China and into U.S. plants ahead of the next round of trade talks. For an industry that ships vehicles across borders every day, how this settles will ripple straight into production volume and lane demand.
Read Full StoryNew-Vehicle Inventory Tightens as July Sales Climb 8.5%
Dealer lots are thinning out fast: national inventory dropped to a 75-day supply as buyers cleared vehicles quicker than automakers could restock, according to Cox Automotive. Toyota, Lexus, and Honda are running the tightest lots in the industry, while SUVs and trucks saw the sharpest supply drops, a squeeze that means dealers need replacement inventory moved and delivered faster than ever.
Read Full StoryDiesel Prices Spike on War, Storms, and Drone Strikes
Wholesale diesel has pushed to roughly $180 a barrel worldwide, and analysts warn a single Gulf Coast hurricane could send it past $200. Drone strikes on refineries in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, layered on tight U.S. refining capacity, are tightening global supply, a cost that eventually shows up in transport pricing and fuel surcharges.
Read Full StoryBroker Liability Verdict Tests New Supreme Court Standard
The $604M verdict against a major freight broker is the first major test of the Supreme Court’s Montgomery v. Caribe Transport ruling, which held that negligent-hiring claims against brokers aren’t federally preempted. The broker is appealing, while industry groups are pushing FMCSA for clearer carrier-vetting standards.
Read Full StoryAvis Recalls Cost $50M as Rental Giants Bet on Autonomous Fleets
Recall campaigns generated more than $50 million in directly attributable costs for Avis in the first half of 2026, even as the company grew adjusted EBITDA 7.7% and expanded its autonomous-fleet partnership with Waymo. Rental companies are increasingly weighing total cost of ownership as they decide which automakers get future orders.
Read Full StoryUsed Vehicle Prices Near $20K as EV Lease Returns Flood Market
Used vehicle prices are threatening to break the $20,000 mark for the first time as inventory under that price tightens. Meanwhile, roughly 300,000 leased EVs are returning to the market in 2026, nearly triple 2025’s total, which should help stabilize EV pricing as dealers absorb the extra supply.
Read Full StoryHertz's Turnaround Shows Real Signs of Life
Hertz's second-quarter adjusted loss narrowed to 11 cents a share, beating the 24-cent loss analysts expected, and revenue per rental day climbed 9 percent. Shares jumped 11 percent on the news, a rare bright spot after the stock had plunged 70 percent this year through the prior close. The relief comes despite depreciation per unit rising 18 percent and a June warning of unexpected softness in the used-car market, the same market rental fleets rely on to sell off aging vehicles. It is a fragile turnaround, but the direction is finally pointed the right way after a punishing stretch of losses.
Read Full StoryRecord Diesel Exports Push U.S. Stockpiles to Lowest Since 1996
U.S. diesel exports hit an all-time high of 1.9 million barrels a day in early August, according to EIA data, as buyers in Europe scramble for fuel amid a Middle East-driven energy crunch and shrinking European refining capacity. The catch: domestic diesel production actually fell the same week, and stockpiles are now sitting at their lowest level since 1996. Refinery maintenance season, which typically runs August through October, will tighten supply further just as demand for heating oil starts climbing into winter. The fuel is not disappearing, it is being sold to the highest bidder, and right now that bidder is not in the United States.
Read Full StoryAvis Cuts Fleet Size as Summer Travel Demand Falls Short
Avis swung to a second-quarter profit of $63 million, its best Q2 EBITDA margin in three years, but got there partly by shrinking its Americas fleet 5.4 percent below last year, the smallest summer fleet it has run since 2021, after travel bookings came in softer than expected. The company accelerated vehicle dispositions in April and early May while used-car values were still favorable, exactly the kind of remarketing wave that ripples through the transport market. Avis also had roughly 18,000 vehicles grounded by recalls this quarter, up from 15,000 at the end of last year, adding more than $50 million in costs so far this year on top of the fleet cuts.
Read Full StoryU.S. Refiners Post Some of Their Best Quarters Ever Amid the Fuel Crunch
While drivers and carriers absorb high diesel prices, U.S. refiners are cashing in. Valero just reported its most profitable quarter on record, with net income jumping more than fivefold year over year to $3.7 billion, while PBF Energy and HF Sinclair posted their best results in years. A Valero executive told analysts the math is straightforward: importing gasoline from Europe does not pencil out because prices are high there too, but exporting fuel to Latin America does, because the price gap makes it worth shipping out rather than selling at home. Executives expect the margin environment to stay strong into the fall, meaning the price relief that usually comes with cooler weather may not show up this year.
Read Full Story$604M Verdict Puts Freight Brokers on Notice
A Dallas County jury held C.H. Robinson partly responsible for a fatal 2021 crash, applying a “borrowed employee” theory that lets injured parties treat a broker like the motor carrier’s employer. It’s the clearest sign yet that a wave of recent court rulings is making brokers legally exposed for the carriers they hire, not just liable for a bad match.
Read Full StoryFlatbed Rates Hit Record Highs as Hurricane Season Tightens Capacity
Forecasters expect a near-average 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, but that is cold comfort for shippers: flatbed spot rates hit a fresh high of $2.93 a mile in early June, up 25 percent over twelve straight weeks of gains and running 37 percent above last year, according to DAT Freight and Analytics. Meteorologists are still calling for 3 to 5 direct U.S. impacts this year, concentrated on the northern Gulf Coast and the Carolinas, the same lanes already squeezed by a tight flatbed market. A single storm making landfall near a major port can disrupt routes for two to four weeks, so a quieter storm season does not guarantee a calmer one for anyone moving a vehicle through the Southeast this fall.
Read Full StoryBBB Filings Show a Pattern of Transit Delays at Ready Logistics
Public BBB filings against Ready Logistics show a recurring pattern beyond one-off bad luck: a dealership reported a single vehicle held in transit for 51 days, another customer spent two and a half weeks calling daily just to get an account activated, and a third saw their delivery price change mid-shipment with no heads-up. It is a useful reminder to check a broker's complaint history, not just its star rating, before booking with a high-volume operation.
View BBB RecordCDL Crackdown Pulls Thousands of Drivers Off the Road
California cancelled roughly 13,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses after a federal audit exposed compliance gaps, and a new nationwide rule now sharply narrows who can qualify for one at all. Regulators estimate it could disqualify the large majority of the country’s non-domiciled CDL holders, a capacity hit that’s already nudging rates upward.
Read Full StorySubprime Auto Loan Delinquencies Hit a 32-Year High
Fitch data shows 60-plus-day delinquencies among subprime auto borrowers at their worst level since January 1994, while prime borrowers remain healthy, a split that shows real financial stress concentrated among buyers who can least absorb it. The causes stack up: 84- and 96-month loan terms are now common, some lenders have reportedly financed borrowers at more than 140 percent of a vehicle's value, and leasing, which used to cycle roughly a third of buyers back into the market every three years, has fallen to under 18 percent of sales. The result is a growing pool of buyers locked into long loans on depreciating vehicles, unable to trade in or upgrade, with industry voices drawing comparisons to lending standards before the 2008 housing crash.
Read Full StoryInvestigation Traces Luxury Car Thefts to Central Dispatch Load Board
A February 2026 investigation from MIT Technology Review traced a wave of high-value vehicle thefts back to Central Dispatch, the industry's largest online load board, which moved more than 17 million vehicles in 2025 according to Hagerty. Fraudulent brokers were found intercepting legitimate shipment postings and redirecting the truck driver to hand the car off at an unauthorized location instead of its intended destination, a scheme that cost a Detroit luxury rental company a Rolls-Royce posted for a routine Miami-to-Detroit move. Central Dispatch has since formed a dedicated fraud team working with Cox Security to shut down bad accounts, but it is a good reminder to verify who is actually showing up for a pickup, not just who accepted the load online.
Read Full StoryInvestigation Maps a Shadow Insurance Market Behind 200,000+ Trucking Crashes
A FreightWaves data investigation published in February 2026 mapped 2.84 million insurer-to-carrier relationships and found a troubling pattern: Risk Retention Groups, a category of insurer exempt from state guaranty funds, now cover roughly 29,400 motor carriers tied to more than 200,000 crashes. When those insurers collapse, crash victims are left with nothing. Two RRGs have already failed after their operators embezzled tens of millions of dollars, one of them issuing 512 policies that collected premiums but never actually provided coverage. The piece also documents major insurers reportedly exiting the Chicago trucking market after carriers exploited a loophole that let FMCSA show a truck as actively insured when it never really was.
Read Full StoryBroker Pleaded Guilty to Nationwide Phony Cargo Insurance Scheme
Federal prosecutors in Georgia convicted insurance broker John Paul Kill after he collected roughly $3.7 million from nearly 800 trucking companies across more than 20 states for cargo insurance he claimed to bind through Lloyd's of London. Most of his clients never had a real policy at all. To keep the scheme alive, Kill paid a handful of claims out of his own pocket using new victims' premium payments, just enough to avoid raising suspicion, before the fraud finally unraveled and he was sentenced to federal prison. It is an old case, but a useful reminder that the paperwork proving coverage is worth exactly as much as the agent who issued it.
Read Full StoryCommunication Gaps Show Up Again and Again in Montway BBB Complaints
Customer complaints filed with the BBB against Montway Auto Transport describe a similar theme: pickup windows that slip past the promised date, carriers that go unassigned for days at a time, and calls or emails that go unanswered while a vehicle sits waiting. None of it is unique to one company, but it is a pattern worth knowing about before you hand a large broker your keys.
View BBB RecordNews sourced from FreightWaves. Summaries are original and written by SparkLink; click through for the full reporting.