Cook County investigators recovered approximately $647,420 in Nike merchandise after a fictitious pickup involving fake documents. The incident began Aug. 21 at a company facility in Memphis, Tennessee. A driver picked up the shipment intended for Dallas using fraudulent paperwork, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Authorities later learned the shipment had gone toward the Chicago area.
A Nike representative contacted the Sheriff’s Police Organized Retail Crime Unit on Aug. 23. Detectives began working the case involving the pickup two days earlier. Their efforts led to a distribution facility in Des Plaines, Illinois. Officers found the shoes alongside a stolen trailer.
The recovery occurred in the 1300 block of South Mount Prospect Road. Authorities have not identified whoever carried out the theft. Officials also have not announced arrests or charges. Their inquiry into who bears responsibility remains ongoing.
Collaboration crosses jurisdictions
Cook County Sheriff’s Office Commander Michael Ware credited several groups with helping investigators recover the cargo. He identified law enforcement, retailers, transportation partners and private-sector organizations. Ware described cargo theft as sophisticated organized crime that frequently crosses jurisdictions. His team remains committed to disrupting criminal networks and protecting the supply chain.
“The recovery of approximately $647,420 in stolen merchandise demonstrates what can be accomplished through strong collaboration,” Ware told FreightWaves. He also praised his Organized Retail Crime Unit for its work. Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart received recognition for supporting those efforts. Ware connected that backing with resources available for complex cases.
“His leadership has provided us with the resources and support necessary to pursue these complex investigations,” Ware told FreightWaves. Detectives have not explained how the person obtained fraudulent paperwork. Police also have not disclosed how the load reached Illinois. Ware noted that the active case limits what his office can release.
Why It Matters
Fake documents can make a fraudulent pickup appear legitimate long enough for valuable freight to disappear. Quick communication across the supply chain can become critical once a shipment goes off course.
CFCO perspective
CFCO training emphasizes human-level verification before anyone releases freight. Documents alone cannot confirm the person standing at the dock belongs with that shipment. Teams need to verify the individual against trusted information before cargo leaves their control. Do not discover the driver at the dock. Confirm the driver at the dock.
Click here for more articles on cargo theft and freight fraud by Phil Brink.
Arizona police recover $400K in stolen cargo during stops 20 minutes apart – FreightWaves
Deputies recover $150K in New Balance shoes after BNSF boxcar burglary – FreightWaves
The post $647K Nike cargo recovered near Chicago after fraudulent Memphis pickup appeared first on FreightWaves.
Mexico rail is taking freight share — and 150-car rail ferries are part of the story.
Bill Stephens of Trains Magazine breaks down what Grupo Mexico Transportes is doing differently: winning volume from highway and short-sea moves, expanding rail ferry capacity, and using a more aggressive security strategy to cut cargo theft incidents. If you move freight across North America, this is a real look at where rail competition is shifting.
#RailFreight #CargoTheft #MexicoLogistics
Grupo México Transportes, the largest railroad in Mexico, has ordered two additional rail ferries capable of carrying 150 railcars each across the Gulf of Mexico, according to rail journalist Bill Stephens, who visited the company’s headquarters in Guadalajara this week. The expansion comes as demand on the joint-venture ferry service — operated with Genesee & Wyoming — outpaces capacity and volumes surge on finished-vehicle shipments manufactured in Mexico.
The service runs from the Port of Mobile and connects to Mexican ports, offering a faster transit for some U.S. origin points than an all-land routing. Rail equipment is carefully shoved onto tracks aboard the vessels, secured with chocks, and sailed across the Gulf — eliminating the transloading step that adds cost and time to competing barge moves out of the Port of Veracruz.
“Volume is so strong and demand is so strong, and they’re taking share from those barges that they’ve ordered 2 more rail ferries that can carry 150 cars each,” Stephens said.
Stephens described Grupo México — which operates the Ferromex and Ferrosur railroads — as the fastest-growing Class 1 railroad year to date, gaining share not only from barge operators but also from highway carriers. The company is part of the broader Grupo México conglomerate, one of the world’s largest mining companies, and has largely avoided the industry spotlight despite its scale.
Stephens also detailed Grupo México’s cargo security operation, which underwent a strategic overhaul in 2016 when the railroad moved away from armed guards aboard trains toward a proactive, technology-driven model. The railroad’s security monitoring center tracks every train’s speed and air brake line pressure in real time, deploys drones to surveil track corridors ahead of high-value intermodal and automotive trains, and embeds a Mexican National Guard liaison on-site. In its most recent weekly snapshot, the railroad logged 72 incidents out of 30,000 total shipments, with most incidents involving nothing more than open container seals.
To suppress theft hotspots — which Stephens said tend to be local in nature, sometimes involving gang-instigated derailments followed by community looting — Grupo México deploys 30 mobile trailers that house National Guard members near problem areas, covering their food and lodging costs in exchange for rapid response to criminal activity along the right-of-way.
The cargo theft contrast with the U.S. was notable, Stephens said. While organized international crime syndicates drive rail theft in the U.S. Southwest, Mexico’s challenge is more localized gangs operating within roughly a 30-mile radius. Back in the U.S., the Association of American Railroads and major retailers are backing federal legislation that would create a coordinated federal, state, and local response to cargo theft — a proposal that drew an enthusiastic reaction on the broadcast from advocates of the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act.
- Grupo México Transportes has ordered 2 new rail ferries, each with 150-car capacity, as Gulf of Mexico ferry demand outstrips supply.
- The railroad shifted its cargo security strategy in 2016 from armed train guards to drones, real-time monitoring, and embedded National Guard units, logging just 72 incidents out of 30,000 weekly shipments.
- Grupo México is the fastest-growing Class 1 railroad year to date, gaining share from highway carriers, barges, and competing rail operators.
This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.
The post Inside The Railroad Security Operation Taking On Cargo Theft appeared first on FreightWaves.
Peak season is upon us, but SONAR data reveals a surprising trend: tender rejection rates aren’t surging into Labor Day like previous years. While spot rates remain elevated year-over-year, the expected pre-holiday peak isn’t materializing. Is this the new normal for a supply-driven market, or a sign of deeper shifts with intermodal rail siphoning long-haul freight? Tune in for expert analysis on what’s driving this orderly market behavior and what it means for your operations.
Truckload tender rejections have stalled near 13.5% heading into Labor Day weekend, a notable departure from prior years when rejection rates began climbing earlier in August — a signal that the current freight cycle remains orderly rather than supply-constrained.
FreightWaves SONAR data reviewed on air shows the 2026 rejection rate peaked above 17.5% earlier this cycle, but has since consolidated. Julie Van de Kamp said she had expected rejection rates to reach the 18% range ahead of Labor Day but no longer believes that is likely. Craig Fuller put his informal forecast even lower.
“I’m not a forecaster, but if I had to bet, I would think we’re in the 15s,” Fuller said.
Comparing the current year to SONAR’s historical overlays — magenta for 2023, green for 2024, yellow for 2025 — prior cycles all showed a slow, steady August uptick culminating in a small Labor Day peak. The 2026 line, shown in blue, has not yet replicated that pattern, though Van de Kamp said she still expects some firming through the holiday weekend and in the typically busy week that follows.
A key structural factor suppressing the usual seasonal surge is rail. Both hosts pointed to railroads absorbing a significant share of long-haul freight that would otherwise move by truckload, keeping trucking volumes steady but not tight. Fuller noted the broader dynamic: “We haven’t seen demand pick up. It’s been pretty steady. And as we’ve talked about over and over again, this cycle is supply-driven.”
Van spot rates tell a similar story. At $3.29 per mile, rates are down roughly 2.5% month over month from a cycle peak above $3.80 per mile. Even so, Fuller emphasized that context matters: spot rates remain up 44% year over year. Contract rates, meanwhile, are up 17% year over year, and the gap between spot and contract continues to narrow as shippers adjust routing guides upward to keep them intact.
Fuller said he will be watching volume data market by market as Labor Day passes and the freight calendar moves closer to peak season, with particular attention on whether coastal markets begin to accelerate. Van de Kamp added that weekly AAR rail freight data — published every Wednesday — remains robust, reinforcing why trucking has not seen the kind of demand-driven tightening that characterized earlier cycles.
- Tender rejections are holding near 13.5% with no pre-Labor Day surge, below the cycle peak of 17.5% and well short of the 18% some had anticipated.
- Van spot rates sit at $3.29 per mile, down ~2.5% month over month but still up 44% year over year; contract rates are up 17% year over year.
- Rail is absorbing significant long-haul freight volume, a key reason truckload markets feel orderly rather than tight heading into peak season.
This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.
The post Peak Season Is Coming – But Where Is The Freight Surge? appeared first on FreightWaves.
Borderlands Mexico is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week in Borderlands Mexico: Nuevo León governor pitches border boom as Texas-Mexico freight surges; NADBank plans nearly $164M in water projects; and Otay Business Park completes first phase near US-Mexico border.
Nuevo León governor pitches border boom as Texas-Mexico freight surges
Nuevo León Gov. Samuel García is betting billions of dollars in infrastructure, industrial development and security investments can help transform the Mexican state into an increasingly important gateway for U.S.-Mexico freight.
Speaking Thursday at the 2026 North American Development Bank (NADBank) Summit in San Antonio, García laid out an ambitious vision for tightening Nuevo León’s economic ties with Texas, particularly along a trade corridor connecting Monterrey with Laredo, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas.
García said Nuevo León wants to further integrate what he called the “Gold Triangle” between Monterrey, Houston and Dallas as the state seeks to capitalize on growing nearshoring and cross-border trade.
“That is the goal,” García said.
NADBank’s two-day annual summit held Thursday and Friday in San Antonio included federal, state and municipal authorities, along with business organizations, academia, financial institutions, investors, project developers and experts, from both the U.S. and Mexico. The theme for this year’s summit was “Strengthening Cooperation to Deliver the Infrastructure of Tomorrow.”
García pointed to Nuevo León’s relatively small border with Texas as one of the state’s biggest opportunities for future trade growth.
García said commercial traffic through the state’s Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge has surged from roughly 800 freight movements per day in 2022 to more than 10,000 daily.
“Imagine the amount of commerce, revenue, money,” García said.
He said plans for two additional border crossings — including a freight crossing and the proposed Green Corridors project — could further expand capacity between Nuevo León and Texas. García described the projects as representing $17 billion in investment.
The infrastructure push comes as Nuevo León increasingly positions itself as a manufacturing and logistics hub serving North American supply chains.
García said the state accounts for about 14% of Mexico’s imports and exports and highlighted advanced manufacturing, automotive and logistics as three of Nuevo León’s most important industries.
The state has added seven highways and expanded airport infrastructure, García said, while increasing direct flights to the United States by about 40.
“We’re trying to have more business in logistics,” García said.
Security becomes part of the nearshoring pitch
García also emphasized security as a critical component of Nuevo León’s strategy for attracting foreign manufacturers and logistics companies.
“Every company we invite to Nuevo León, the first thing they ask is, what about safety?” García said.
The state has expanded its police capabilities with an aviation division containing 10 helicopters and a heavy-duty division with 100 trucks, according to García. He said Nuevo León also stations law enforcement personnel near border crossings and deploys roughly 200 to 300 officers to patrol major highways.
The strategy is intended not only to combat crime but also to reassure manufacturers, carriers and investors that freight can move safely between industrial areas around Monterrey and the Texas border.
“With the border and the new highways, you can go directly to Laredo and you don’t have to leave Nuevo León to go to the U.S.,” García said.
The governor acknowledged that Nuevo León’s rapid economic expansion has created its own infrastructure challenges.
The Monterrey metropolitan area’s population has reached roughly 6 million, García said, while the number of vehicles has grown from about 2 million to 3.5 million over the past decade.
Nuevo León is responding with highway construction and public transportation investments aimed at easing congestion and connecting Monterrey more efficiently with the U.S. and other Mexican states.
Nuevo León targets logistics investment at the border
One of the most freight-focused initiatives García outlined Thursday involves a new industrial development zone near the Colombia border crossing.
The project is part of the Mexican federal government’s Plan México industrial development initiative, which García said offers significant tax incentives for companies establishing operations in designated industrial zones.
Nuevo León plans to open a roughly 40-hectare industrial zone near the Colombia crossing and new highway infrastructure.
García pitched the location directly to U.S. manufacturers and logistics companies whose primary business involves assembling products in Mexico and shipping them back across the border.
“If any Texan, if any U.S. or any of you want to invest, but your main purpose is to assemble and return to the U.S., it does not make sense to go all the way up to Monterrey,” García said.
Warehousing development is already increasing around the border, he said.
“If you are in any import-export company, logistics, freight, transport, it makes a lot of sense for you to invest in the border of Nuevo León,” García said.
Nuevo León is also developing a larger, roughly 988-acre industrial zone in Pesquería, near automotive manufacturing operations including Kia and Ternium.
García said approximately 400 Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers from the U.S. and Asia are already clustered around the area’s automotive industry.
Nuevo León touts $135 billion investment boom
García framed the infrastructure push against what he described as an unprecedented wave of investment into Nuevo León.
The governor said the state has attracted $135 billion in foreign direct investment during roughly four years of his administration, compared with $11 billion during the previous governor’s six-year term.
Nuevo León is attempting to evolve from one of Mexico’s traditional industrial centers into a hub for electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, data centers, cybersecurity and other advanced technologies, he said.
García said the state’s economic relationship with Texas illustrates how integrated manufacturing has become across the border.
He cited Tesla as an example, saying that although geopolitical uncertainty paused the company’s proposed Monterrey factory, roughly 200 Tier 2 suppliers arrived in the region following Tesla’s original announcement.
García said about 65% of the components used in Tesla’s Model Y produced in Austin come from Monterrey-area suppliers.
“That’s how deep we are connected with Texas,” García said. “If both winners share technology, share companies, share this cooperation, I think that the best is yet to come.”
NADBank plans nearly $164M in water projects for Texas-Mexico border
The North American Development Bank recently announced $164 million in water conservation investments in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley, while advancing additional water reliability projects across northern Mexico.
The investments, announced Thursday during the NADBank Summit 2026 in San Antonio, are part of the bank’s Water Resiliency Fund, which aims to improve water conservation, efficiency and supply reliability in drought-stricken communities along the U.S.-Mexico border.
NADBank Managing Director John Beckham said the bank intends, subject to board approval, to provide $76 million in financing for projects involving 12 irrigation districts in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The projects are expected to conserve nearly 44,000 acre-feet of water annually through improvements including canal lining, conversions of canals to pipelines and other system-efficiency upgrades.
San Antonio-based NADBank’s contribution would include up to $76 million in grants and loans, while the Texas Water Development Board is expected to provide nearly $70 million in grants, subject to approval at its September board meeting. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and participating irrigation districts would contribute nearly $18 million combined.
“By partnering with and leveraging resources from the Texas Water Development Board, Bureau of Reclamation, and the irrigation districts, we will maximize the impact of every dollar invested to conserve precious water resources and provide a reliable water supply for Rio Grande Valley communities,” Beckham said.
NADBank is also evaluating projects across Mexico’s six northern border states after its Water Resiliency Fund received 112 expressions of interest from Mexican communities. About 60% came from states along the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo.
Projects in Mexico will focus on municipal utilities that conserve water or diversify water supplies, with NADBank continuing to evaluate and structure eligible investments with federal, state and local governments.
“Water security has become one of the most critical challenges facing the future of the U.S.-Mexico border region,” Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Roberto Lazzeri Montaño said, adding that he expects water infrastructure funding for Mexican border communities to be announced “in the near future.”
Launched in 2025, the Water Resiliency Fund is designed to accelerate investments in conservation, efficiency and water-supply diversification in communities facing growing water stress along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Otay Business Park completes first phase near US-Mexico border
Developers have completed the first phase of Otay Business Park, adding more than 612,000 square feet of distribution and logistics space near the U.S.-Mexico border in Southern California, according to a news release.
Elevation Land Company and a real estate fund advised by Crow Holdings Capital announced the completion of phase one of the 119-acre industrial campus in San Diego’s Otay Mesa logistics hub. The initial phase consists of four Class A industrial buildings totaling 612,240 square feet.
The development sits along Siempre Viva Road near State Route 11 and the planned Otay East — also known as Otay Mesa East — commercial border crossing. The first phase of the new port of entry is scheduled to open in late 2027, according to the developers.
The business park is designed for e-commerce companies, third-party logistics providers, warehouse and storage users, and manufacturers. All four phase-one buildings have 32-foot clear heights and are available for purchase or lease.
The largest of the buildings contains 233,880 square feet with 37 loading docks and 52 trailer stalls, while the four buildings collectively range from about 79,800 to 233,900 square feet. Developers said they are negotiating with several prospective tenants and buyers whose names have not been disclosed.
Why it matters: Nuevo León’s push to expand border crossings, highways, secure freight corridors and industrial zones could create additional capacity for U.S.-Mexico trucking while giving manufacturers another option for locating production close to the Texas border.
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Chart of the Week: Accepted Truckload Volume Index, SONAR Truckload Rejection Index – USA SONAR: ASTVI.USA, STRI.USA
The Accepted SONAR Truckload Volume Index (ASTVI), which measures the volume of truckload tenders carriers accept for loads moved under existing rate agreements, averaged around 9,800 last week. The SONAR Truckload Rejection Index (STRI), which measures the percentage of tendered loads rejected, hovered around 13.5%. While both are down from their 12-month highs, together they suggest the current truckload market cycle is more supply-driven than any in recent history — and still has room to run.
Accepted tender volumes are a fairly good proxy for total truckload demand when rejection rates are relatively low (<5%). When rejection rates are higher, ASTVI becomes more likely to undercount total demand, as more loads get covered on the spot market or outside existing contracts.
Accepted volumes and tender rejection signals
When the trucking market tightens and rejection rates increase, accepted volumes become a useful anchor for how much freight carriers are able to cover with existing capacity. When ASTVI rises and STRI declines, that’s a sign of capacity growth or an improvement in market efficiency. A good signal of capacity erosion is when accepted tenders are flat and rejections rise, as was the case in October of both 2024 and 2025. When the two fall together, that’s more reflective of pure demand deterioration — as was the case this past July.
The recent drop in demand pulled rejection rates lower, but that wasn’t a sign that capacity had grown. Shippers have been using intermodal more frequently because of its cost savings relative to trucking. Demand-side conditions tend to be more volatile and move the market faster. Supply-side shifts are much slower — which is why it took more than three years for the market to correct the dramatic oversupply that followed COVID.
Recent ASTVI levels are actually close to where they were in 2019 — lower than most of the past four years, with the exception of last October and November. Rejection rates were below 5% for most of 2019 and below 6% last fall — roughly the same demand, but with more than twice the tightness.
Supply’s slow crawl
While demand deterioration is still possible, the data suggests there’s more room for it to grow than to contract. Recent Q2 2026 earnings reports show no evidence of fleet growth — most carriers reported annual declines in active units.
Class 8 orders are up this year, but that’s off an abysmal 2025 comp, and both ACT and FTR cite fleet replacement, not growth, as the primary driver.
It may still be early to see strong movement, but carriers are coming off one of the longest and most challenging freight markets since the Great Recession in 2009. Cash reserves are low and debt is high. This cycle still has a ways to go if the goods economy holds up. Risks skew toward further tightening rather than rapid softening — demand growth, rail disruptions, intermodal rate increases, and continued government pressure on capacity all point the same way.
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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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration sent its broker transparency rulemaking to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on August 27, clearing the last internal checkpoint before publication and moving a document that had missed two target dates this year into the final stage of executive branch review. The listing shows the rule as pending review, with the stage recorded as proposed rule, consistent with the supplemental notice FMCSA has had on its agenda.
The rulemaking carries RIN 2126-AC63 and docket number FMCSA-2023-0257, and would amend 49 CFR Part 371, the section governing property broker records. The OIRA entry lists it as not economically significant and records no legal deadline.
Reaching OIRA does not make the proposal public. The review is where the White House and other federal agencies examine the draft before it publishes in the Federal Register. The text remains confidential until it clears. What the submission establishes is that FMCSA has finished drafting, which is more than the agenda alone had shown.
Why the Timing Matters
The Unified Agenda entry for the rule listed a supplemental notice for July 2026. Before that, the agency had targeted May. Trade coverage in early July reported the May date missed and the target moved to July, and through most of August the item still showed as pending with no published text.
The August 27 submission is the first concrete movement in the file since the comment period closed in March 2025. It reframes what looked like an indefinite stall as a drafting period that has now ended.
Executive Order 12866 sets a review period of up to 90 days, which the agency head may ask to extend once by 30 days. Reviews frequently conclude sooner, and rules that are not economically significant often move faster than that ceiling. The order also allows OIRA to conclude a review by returning the rule to the agency for reconsideration rather than clearing it, so submission is not the same as approval.
While a rule sits at OIRA, outside parties may request meetings with the office to discuss it. Those meetings are logged publicly and identify the participants. For the brokerage and carrier organizations that have spent six years on this file, the review window is the last opportunity to make a case before the text is fixed for public comment.
What the Proposal Would Address
The supplemental notice builds on the proposal FMCSA published on November 20, 2024 at 89 FR 91648. That document proposed requiring property brokers to keep transaction records in electronic format and to provide a copy to a motor carrier or shipper within 48 hours of a request. It proposed expanding the required contents of those records to cover charges and payments tied to a shipment, a description of the freight, amounts and dates, and any claims.
The petitions that started the rulemaking asked for more. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association requested that brokers provide an electronic copy of each transaction record automatically within 48 hours of the contracted service being completed, without the carrier having to ask, and that FMCSA explicitly prohibit contract provisions requiring carriers to waive access rights. The Small Business in Transportation Coalition requested that FMCSA bar brokers from coercing or requiring parties to waive the right to review the record as a condition of doing business, and prohibit contract clauses exempting brokers from the requirement.
FMCSA acknowledged in the 2024 document that its provisions differed from what the petitioners requested. That gap is the substance a supplemental notice would be expected to revisit, and it is what makes the forthcoming text consequential rather than procedural.
The underlying right is decades old. Section 371.3 has long required brokers to keep records of each transaction and given each party the right to review the record. The fight is over enforcement and over waiver clauses that appear routinely in broker carrier contracts.
In the 2024 proposal, FMCSA also rejected an argument raised against the requirement. The agency acknowledged that rate aggregation services give carriers pricing information useful in deciding whether to accept a load, but concluded that such data is not a substitute for the transaction record, because aggregated market data does not identify the shipper, the carrier or the bill of lading on a specific shipment and does not show chargebacks or other fees assessed against a carrier on a particular delivery.
The Small Entities Classification
One line in the agenda entry sits awkwardly against the origins of the rule.
FMCSA states that small entities are not affected and that a regulatory flexibility analysis is not required. Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, that finding relieves the agency of the obligation to analyze the rule’s economic effect on small businesses or to weigh less burdensome alternatives for them.
The rulemaking exists because OOIDA and SBTC petitioned for it, and both organizations represent small carriers. Both framed their petitions around the economic position of small operators in brokered transactions, and the agency’s own abstract describes them in those terms.
The classification is not necessarily inconsistent. Regulatory flexibility analysis measures burden on the regulated party, and the regulated party here is the broker rather than the carrier. Whether the affected broker population includes a meaningful number of small entities is a question commenters can raise once the text publishes. The agenda entry also lists legal authority for the rulemaking as not yet determined, an unusual designation for an action that already produced a published proposal.
The Record Behind It
FMCSA drew roughly 5,000 comments on the November 2024 proposal. At SBTC’s request the agency reopened the comment period on February 18, 2025 at 90 FR 9702, and that reopening closed on March 20, 2025 after producing roughly 2,000 more. The combined docket runs close to 7,000 comments.
Rather than finalize on that record, FMCSA chose to prepare a supplemental proposal. That decision has a cost in time. A supplemental notice reopens public comment, which places any final rule at least one full comment cycle and one further round of review beyond publication of the text now at OIRA. The process began when FMCSA sought comment on the two petitions on August 19, 2020 at 85 FR 51145.
What Changes for Carriers Now
Nothing yet. Section 371.3 stands as written. Waiver clauses remain a matter of contract and litigation rather than settled regulation, and no new obligation attaches to brokers until a final rule takes effect.
The next observable events are the conclusion of the OIRA review, which will appear on the same listing with a concluded date and a disposition, and then publication in the Federal Register opening the comment period. Carriers and broker organizations that want to shape the proposal have a decision to make in the interim about whether to request a meeting with OIRA while the text is still under review.
Why It Matters
The proposal moving to OMB is the first hard evidence in eighteen months that the broker transparency rulemaking is progressing rather than sitting, and it puts a public comment period within reach for the first time since March 2025. What clears that review will be a proposal rather than a rule, so the practical terms governing access to transaction records are still at least a full comment cycle and a final rulemaking away from changing.
The post Broker Transparency Proposal Clears FMCSA and Heads to the White House appeared first on FreightWaves.
Canada Post announced on Friday that it plans to introduce weekend parcel delivery in three major cities later this year, part of a plan to modernize its business model and capture more parcel business from electronic retailers as it tries to return to profitability.
The postal carrier credited this year’s resolution of a drawnout labor dispute with restoring customer confidence in the second quarter, which sparked an early-stage recovery of parcel business and helped reduce the pre-tax loss by a third to US$199.7 million.
The state-owned company also said it reduced costs by 6.3% during the quarter as operational productivity improved.
Mail carriers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers ratified a contract in early June after more than two years of rocky negotiations, interspersed with two general strikes, rotating strikes by area, and work slowdowns. The volatile labor situation caused huge uncertainty for households and businesses. Many e-commerce shippers switched to using private sector delivery companies, adding to the decline in Canada Post parcel volumes and revenues.
The retroactive, five-year contract runs through Jan. 31, 2029.
Canada Post’s loss for the first half was $347.5 million compared to $323 million in the same period last year.
Quarterly revenue grew 1.5% year over year to $1.1 billion, led by a 20.7% jump in parcel revenue as parcel volume increased 15.6%. Letter mail volume declined 9.2% compared to the prior year, which benefitted from an election and related mailings by candidates, which led to a 9.1% fall in mail revenue. The mail business has been trending down for years as more Canadians communicate through digital channels.
Direct marketing mail volume ticked down 0.2%, with a corresponding dip in revenue.
Stability from the labor contract is allowing Canada Post to implement more parcel services, as well as operational efficiencies, such as flexible staffing, tailoring workloads to workforce deployment, vehicle sharing and streamlining letter mail operations.
The national post is working with communities nationwide to convert 621,000 addresses from door delivery to secure community mailboxes by early 2027. In total, about four million addresses will be converted to community mailboxes over several years.
Centralizing residential delivery is part of a larger transformation plan, which includes closing post offices and lowering delivery standards, to turnaround the company’s finances and improve service. Since 2018, Canada Post has lost $4.76 billion, forcing it to rely on government assistance.
Management sees e-commerce as a growth opportunity and intends to strengthen its position in the competitive parcel delivery market by expanding home parcel pickup service to 8.6 million households; offering box-free, label-free returns with select online retailers; improving local next-day delivery service; offering strategic pricing discounts for businesses; and preparing to launch weekend parcel delivery in the Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto metropolitan areas later this year.
In the second quarter, Canada Post also launched a proof of concept for Canada Shops, a new online marketplace connecting Canadian small businesses with customers across the country through the organization’s delivery network.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.
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Highway and Motive said in a joint statement that they have reached an agreement to restore the frequency at which Highway can access electronic logging device data belonging to Motive customers when carriers authorize that access, ending a disruption that began earlier after Motive limited the application programming interface connection between the two platforms and indicated Highway would need to compensate it for the data. The companies said they are working together to ensure uninterrupted service for the carriers and brokers that rely on both.
The statement said no action is required from carriers or brokers.
Both companies framed the resolution around carrier authorization. They said they share a commitment to giving motor carriers transparency and control over how their data is authorized and used, and that they are in discussions to update their existing agreement to more clearly reflect current use cases. The companies also said they intend to build on the relationship by identifying opportunities to improve data fidelity, reduce latency and create better experiences for carriers and brokers.
“Motive and Highway both play important roles in the freight ecosystem, and we are committed to serving customers together,” said Jordan Graft, CEO of Highway. “We have a clear path forward that protects carrier choice and allows us to continue improving the experience for brokers and carriers.”
Shoaib Makani, co-founder and CEO of Motive, said: “Our carriers depend on an ecosystem of partners to run their businesses. We are pleased to have reached a path forward with Highway that supports our customers and provides clarity around data use.”
What the Statement Does Not Say
The announcement restores the data flow. It does not resolve the question that stopped it.
Highway’s notice to its brokerage customers earlier this week stated that Motive had asked to be compensated for access to carrier data, and that Highway does not charge carriers and did not intend to begin doing so in order to preserve the connection. The joint statement makes no reference to compensation, licensing fees or any payment between the two companies. Neither company has said whether money will change hands, in which direction, or on what basis.
The statement is also explicit that the underlying contract has not been rewritten. The companies describe themselves as in discussions to update their existing agreement, which places the commercial terms in an open state even as the technical connection returns to normal. What has been announced is a restoration of service, not a settlement.
Neither company disclosed how long the disruption lasted, how many carriers were affected, or how many brokers experienced reduced visibility during the period. Motive serves customers across trucking, construction, oil and gas, agriculture and other sectors and does not break out how many motor carriers have equipment connected to Highway.
The Performance Guarantee Question
One element of the disruption is unaddressed in the joint statement.
When Highway notified its customers of the limits, it said it could not provide location-based Load Lock Alerts for loads hauled by carriers using Motive devices and that it could no longer back freight moved by those carriers under its Performance Guarantee, the commercial backstop under which Highway assumes financial responsibility for outcomes on loads moved by carriers it has verified. Withdrawing that coverage moved risk back onto the broker.
The joint statement addresses data refresh frequency. It does not state that Performance Guarantee coverage has been reinstated for Motive carriers, and neither company has separately confirmed that it has. Whether restored data access automatically returns those loads to covered status is a question for Highway, and it is the detail brokerage risk teams will want answered before adjusting their carrier selection back.
How the Dispute Started
Highway told brokerage compliance leaders this week that Motive had imposed new limits on the existing integration between the two platforms, effective immediately, and had begun restricting API access while indicating that Highway would need to pay for carrier data. Highway said the practical effect was that Motive ELD data refreshed less frequently inside its platform, reducing broker visibility into those trucks.
During the disruption, Highway offered an alternate tracking path for Load Lock Plus customers through its carrier-facing mobile application, while acknowledging that application-based tracking is disconnected from the equipment itself. The company also said it would work with the more than 275 other ELD providers it integrates with to offer discounted alternatives to carriers considering a change, a step that pointed carriers toward Motive’s competitors.
Highway didn’t comment during the disruption. Motive made no public statement until the joint release.
The speed of the resolution is notable. The dispute became public and was resolved inside the same week.
What Remains Open
Three questions survive the announcement. Whether either company will pay the other, and on what terms. Whether Performance Guarantee coverage has been restored for loads moved by Motive carriers. And whether the updated agreement now under discussion will establish a pricing framework for ELD data access that other integrations across the industry might follow.
That third question is the one with reach beyond these two companies. Carrier vetting platforms depend on data connections to dozens of ELD providers, and the commercial terms underpinning most of those connections were set years ago, when both categories were smaller and the verification layer was not yet load-bearing for freight movement.
Why It Matters
A connection that brokers rely on to verify capacity went down and came back inside a week without carriers or brokers taking any action, which demonstrates both how quickly commercial disputes between vendors can reach freight and how little visibility the affected parties have into them. The agreement that governs that connection is still being written, so the conditions that produced this disruption have not yet been resolved.
The post Motive and Highway Restore ELD Data Access After Integration Dispute appeared first on FreightWaves.
