SONAR expands National Insights to flatbed and LTL

SONAR has updated the Truckload National Insights dashboard. It now runs on SONAR’s new blended datasets and adds two new tabs: Flatbed and LTL. Users get a pre-built national view across modes, with no tickers to enter.

Key takeaways

• Truckload National Insights now uses SONAR’s new blended datasets.
• New Flatbed tab: rejections, volumes, fuel, spot rates, Weekly Top Moving Markets and the TRAC Spot Market Conditions Map.
• New LTL tab: rates by region, length of haul and freight class, plus regional comparisons, top rate movers and historical trends.
• Actionable Insights still gives a plain-language summary of what the data means.

What’s new in National Insights

The Truckload National Insights dashboard gets three upgrades: new blended datasets and two new tabs.

Blended datasets

• Dashboard metrics now draw on SONAR’s new blended datasets

Flatbed tab

• Tender rejections and volumes
• Fuel
• Spot rates
• Weekly Top Moving Markets
• TRAC Spot Market Conditions Map

LTL tab

• LTL rates by region, length of haul and freight class
• Regional comparisons
• Top rate movers
• Historical trends

Why it matters

Flatbed and LTL often move on different cycles than dry van. Flatbed tracks industrial output and construction, and LTL pricing tends to lag truckload. Seeing all four modes together helps teams spot those divergences early.

Audience	How they use it
Shippers	Benchmark flatbed and LTL costs before bids and budget conversations
Brokers	Spot flatbed capacity tightening and price loads with current context
Carriers	Decide where to deploy flatbed equipment and when to push rates

Frequently asked questions

What is SONAR National Insights? National Insights is a pre-built SONAR page that summarizes national freight conditions, including capacity, demand, rates and fuel, with plain-language analysis and no tickers required.

Does SONAR National Insights include flatbed data? Yes. A new Flatbed tab shows tender rejections, volumes, fuel, spot rates, Weekly Top Moving Markets and the TRAC Spot Market Conditions Map.

Does SONAR National Insights include LTL data? Yes. A new LTL tab breaks down LTL rates by region, length of haul and freight class, with regional comparisons, top rate movers and historical trends.

What data does Truckload National Insights use? The dashboard now runs on SONAR’s new blended datasets, with tabs for truckload, flatbed and LTL.

Who is National Insights for? Shippers, freight brokers and carriers who need a fast read on the national market before making pricing, procurement or capacity decisions.

How do I access National Insights? National Insights is available to SONAR subscribers inside the SONAR platform.

See flatbed and LTL in National Insights

SONAR subscribers can find the new Flatbed and LTL tabs in Truckload National Insights today. Want to learn more about SONAR? Request a SONAR demo to see the updated dashboard in action.

The post SONAR National Insights Expands With Flatbed and LTL Data appeared first on FreightWaves.

 CSCO James Butler has reordered Chili’s supply chain priorities to focus on the customer experience, resulting in sales growth for the restaurant chain and its suppliers.

Hail the return of the preighter. Latam Airlines is the first airline in four and a half years to operate a passenger plane with cargo loaded in the cabin. 

The South American carrier said it activated an Airbus A319 to deliver emergency aid from Quito, Ecuador, to the Galapagos Islands, which suffered flooding after being hit by heavy rains, and stored cargo in passenger seats in addition to the lower deck.

When air travel and the global economy shut down in 2020 during the Covid pandemic many airlines quickly turned passenger aircraft into temporary freighters, commonly referred to as preighters, often loading cartons in the cabin where people normally sit to meet soaring demand for medical supplies and other goods in high demand. Those flights ended by the first half of 2022 as the travel industry and other cargo transport modes rebounded. 

Latam Airlines said it transported about 28,450 pounds of food, water and hygiene kits last week for more than 2,000 families impacted by the flooding on Santa Cruz Island. Latam donated the relief flight at the request of the Chamber of Industries and Production and Grupo Entregas, according to the news release. 

Latam Cargo, which separately operates 19 Boeing 767-300 cargo jets, helped coordinate logistics for the flight. The medium widebody freighters couldn’t be used, Latam said, because Baltra Airport doesn’t have a long-enough runway to handle a fully-loaded jet of that size and officials didn’t want to reduce the amount of aid that could be delivered. 

On a regular passenger flight, an A319 can carry about 7,700 pounds of cargo. With no passengers and only the hold in use, it can carry about 15,000 pounds. By utilizing the cabin seats, the flight was able to carry another 13,450 pounds of relief supplies, nearly doubling the maximum cargo payload 

Why It Matters: Latam’s use of a jet to move cargo is unusual because the use of passenger aircraft as auxiliary freighters ended when the world recovered from Covid in 2022.

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

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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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: US foreign-trade zones push to fix USMCA tariff obstacles; Mexico to deploy 826 National Guard officers to boost highway security; and Ametek to invest $25M in Mexico border expansions, add 650 jobs. 

US foreign-trade zones push to fix USMCA tariff obstacles

U.S. manufacturers operating in foreign-trade zones face growing competitive pressures from tariffs and trade policies that can leave them paying duties their counterparts in Mexico and Canada avoid.

Jeff Tafel, president of the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones, said the association is pressing Congress to eliminate longstanding duty disadvantages affecting American manufacturers exporting goods to Mexico and Canada under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The push comes as businesses across North America reassess sourcing, manufacturing investments and distribution strategies amid uncertainty surrounding tariffs and the ongoing USMCA review.

“One of the most significant competitive disadvantages facing U.S. FTZ manufacturers involve the treatment of goods exported to Canada and Mexico under USMCA,” Tafel told FreightWaves.

Under current rules, manufacturers operating in U.S. foreign-trade zones can be required to pay duties on imported components used to produce finished goods subsequently exported to Mexico or Canada, even when those products qualify for preferential treatment under USMCA.

Competing manufacturers in Mexico and Canada, meanwhile, have access to duty-relief programs that can eliminate comparable costs, Tafel said.

“The result is an uneven playing field,” Tafel said. “A U.S. manufacturer can face costs that its North American competitors avoid simply because it chose to manufacture in the United States.”

NAFTZ backs legislation to eliminate duty disadvantage

NAFTZ is supporting two bills aimed at addressing the disparity: the Foreign-Trade Zone Export Enhancement Act of 2025 (H.R. 6792), introduced by Rep. Lance Gooden, and the Foreign-Trade Zone Export Enhancement Act of 2026 (S. 4793), introduced by Sen. Tim Scott.

The companion measures would provide duty relief for qualifying merchandise manufactured or altered within U.S. foreign-trade zones and subsequently exported to Mexico or Canada.

Tafel said Congress should address the issue without waiting for the USMCA review to conclude.

“American manufacturers shouldn’t have to wait for that process to conclude before this longstanding competitive disadvantage is addressed,” Tafel said.

He described the proposed legislation as a targeted solution that would support U.S. manufacturing and improve the competitiveness of American exports.

Foreign-trade zones are designated areas under U.S. Customs and Border Protection supervision where companies can store, assemble, manufacture and distribute merchandise under special customs procedures.

The program allows businesses to defer duties on imported goods until they enter U.S. commerce, while certain goods exported from FTZs can qualify for duty exemptions.

However, Tafel said some recent tariff actions require imported merchandise to enter FTZs under “privileged foreign” status, which can limit traditional duty advantages.

Despite those restrictions, he said FTZs continue to provide benefits through duty deferral, streamlined customs procedures and inventory management efficiencies.

Texas leads nation in foreign-trade zone activity

The economic importance of foreign-trade zones is reflected in the latest available federal statistics.

According to the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board’s 2024 Annual Report to Congress, released in November 2025, FTZ operations nationwide received $963.8 billion in merchandise during 2024, compared with $948.8 billion in 2023.

Exports from FTZ operations totaled $133.5 billion, down from $148.8 billion the previous year.

The program supported nearly 543,000 jobs across approximately 1,300 active operations, including 381 production operations.

Texas ranked first nationally in both merchandise received and exports from FTZ operations in 2024, according to the report.

The state’s FTZ network includes major trade gateways such as Houston, Laredo, El Paso, McAllen and Brownsville.

El Paso’s FTZ Nos. 68 and 150 ranked third and fourth nationally, respectively, among warehouse and distribution zones for exports, while McAllen’s FTZ No. 12 ranked seventh and Brownsville’s FTZ No. 62 ranked eighth.

Laredo’s FTZ No. 94 ranked 14th in the same category, highlighting the importance of foreign-trade zones to Texas’ cross-border distribution network.

The federal report also found that production operations accounted for approximately 61% of merchandise received by FTZs nationwide in 2024, with automotive manufacturing, oil refining, machinery and pharmaceuticals among the largest industries.

Tariff uncertainty complicates US-Mexico supply chains

The tariff challenges are particularly significant along the U.S.–Mexico border, where manufacturers, logistics providers and distribution operators rely on closely integrated cross-border supply chains.

Tafel said FTZ operators are hearing from companies evaluating changes to sourcing, freight volumes, warehousing requirements and transportation networks.

Some businesses are also considering whether to relocate manufacturing or distribution operations across the border.

“What we’re hearing from FTZ grantees along the border is that companies continue to struggle with how to plan for that uncertainty,” Tafel said.

“They’re evaluating a range of considerations, including sourcing decisions, freight volumes, warehousing needs, inventory management, transportation patterns, and even whether to relocate manufacturing or distribution operations across the border.”

Tafel cautioned that those discussions do not necessarily mean companies have already changed their operations.

However, he said uncertainty is becoming a significant factor in decisions involving major capital investments.

Relocating an existing manufacturing facility or establishing a new distribution center can require substantial financial commitments, making those decisions difficult to reverse even if trade policies subsequently change.

“The concern isn’t simply whether companies relocate existing operations, but how today’s uncertainty influences where they choose to make their next major investment,” Tafel said.

“Those decisions can have lasting consequences for American manufacturing, investment, and jobs well beyond the current trade cycle.”

Supporting data: U.S. foreign-trade zones

Metric	2023	2024	YoY change
Merchandise received	$948.8B	$963.8B	+1.6%
Exports	$148.8B	$133.5B	-10.3%
Production merchandise received	$584.9B	$589.8B	+0.8%
Warehouse/distribution merchandise received	$363.9B	$374.0B	+2.8%
Active FTZs	200	199	-0.5%

Mexico to deploy 826 National Guard officers to boost highway security 

Mexico’s National Guard plans to deploy 826 additional officers to strengthen highway surveillance following nationwide protests by truck drivers demanding greater protection from cargo theft, violence and extortion.

The deployment was announced during a Nov. 5 meeting between federal authorities and trucking industry representatives, according to Mexican transportation publication T21.

Lauro Rincón Hernández, president of the Mexican-American Federation of Transporters (FEMATRAC), said the officers are completing training at the San Luis Potosí Police Academy and are expected to begin deploying in the coming days. No specific deployment date was announced.

The meeting followed an Oct. 26 nationwide trucking strike in which transportation groups demanded stronger government action against cargo theft, highway insecurity and alleged abuses by authorities.

Trucking representatives identified nine states as particularly problematic for highway security: the State of Mexico, Puebla, Nuevo León, Jalisco, Veracruz, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Tlaxcala and Tabasco.

Industry groups also requested permanent National Guard patrols and changes to security strategies in high-crime areas. Authorities discussed continuing Operation Enjambre, or Operation Swarm, in municipalities and states experiencing elevated criminal activity.

Additional meetings are planned with security officials and federal prosecutors, with trucking organizations seeking measurable improvements before the end of the year.

Ametek to invest $25M in Mexico border expansions, add 650 jobs 

U.S.-based manufacturer Ametek Inc. (NYSE: AME) plans to invest $25 million to expand its operations in Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, creating 650 jobs across the two border cities.

The expansion will add 400 jobs in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, and 250 jobs in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, according to a Nov. 5 announcement from the Tamaulipas Ministry of Economy.

Ametek currently employs about 2,600 workers at its Reynosa operations. The company did not disclose a construction timeline or specify when the new positions would be filled.

Ametek, headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, specializes in precision components and technology solutions serving industries including medical devices, aerospace and semiconductors. The company currently has 22,894 employees worldwide.

The company operates 150 locations — including more than 100 manufacturing facilities and over 100 sales and service centers. 

Why it matters: Unequal duty treatment could influence where manufacturers invest, establish production facilities and move freight across North America.

The post Borderlands Mexico: US foreign-trade zones push to fix USMCA tariff obstacles appeared first on FreightWaves.

Iran and the US traded strikes on commercial vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.

Chart of the Week: Intermodal Contract Rate per Mile – Transcontinental and East Coast lanes  SONAR: IMCRPM.TRANSCON, IMCRPM.LOCALEAST

Intermodal contract rates, including fuel, have taken off in the fourth quarter. Transcontinental (TRANSCON) rates are up more than 12% year over year, and rates on the shorter Eastern lanes (LOCALEAST) are up close to 9%. Intermodal rates are typically negotiated on annual cycles, with most resetting near year-end. While the increases look aggressive, intermodal still offers a deep discount to truckload, and fuel is playing a major role in both.

These indices are based on invoices that include fuel surcharges. Invoice data lags the actual freight movement by a few weeks, so diesel price swings show up in the indices later. That lag is clearly part of the two strong jumps over the past year.

The roughly 50% rise in diesel prices in March and April was followed by a 6% increase in the transcontinental contract index from April to May. The roughly 36% increase in diesel from July to September was followed by a 10% increase in the index from August to October.

Based on how closely the indices have tracked diesel, fuel explains roughly two-thirds of the transcon increase and three-quarters of the Eastern increase. Excluding fuel, transcon rates are up about 5% and Eastern rates about 2%. A common published intermodal fuel surcharge schedule would imply an even larger fuel effect, more than the entire increase in either index. That suggests many larger shippers have negotiated their own, less aggressive tables. This nuance matters because service providers look at the total rate during negotiations.

J.B. Hunt, which has a large intermodal book, said it secured only low-single-digit rate increases in the bid season that closed in September. That squares with this data, which should be capturing the front end of those new contracts. High fuel surcharges are probably why the increases weren’t larger: the total rate was already elevated, and surcharges were doing most of the work. This creates a dilemma for both carriers and shippers when fuel is volatile.

A larger fuel surcharge share means more price volatility. But if the contract is set when fuel prices are high, the total rate has more room to fall over the life of the contract. If fuel is a smaller share of the rate, costs stay more consistent through the year, but shippers get less benefit when fuel prices drop. Fuel surcharges are not meant to be a profit center for carriers. They are a way to share the risk and price volatility of fuel.

The market suggests that even after these sharp increases, intermodal rates have plenty of room to rise and still remain cost competitive with trucking. The Intermodal Contract Savings Index (IMCSI), which measures the average rate difference between comparable truckload and intermodal lanes, still shows a 30% savings for intermodal, down only slightly from a peak of 33% in June.

Most of the increases should be fully reflected in the data in the coming weeks, which will give a clearer picture of where intermodal lands relative to trucking. It appears intermodal will remain a strong cost-saving alternative for the foreseeable future. However, the recent weather-related BNSF washout in New Mexico and the CSX technical outage are reminders that rail infrastructure can be disrupted just like trucking.

So far, shippers do not seem to mind: volumes have largely recovered, and growth is still running around 7% annualized.

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.

The post Intermodal rates coming in hot this fall; mostly fuel driven appeared first on FreightWaves.

FRISCO, Texas — Small carriers and brokers waiting for Washington to ease up on trucking enforcement should not expect relief from the next administration, FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller said Nov. 2, because the industry’s largest fleets now want the crackdown.

Fuller gave the industry keynote at Optym’s Convergence 2026 conference. He tied together the federal push against non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses, a Supreme Court ruling that opened brokers to negligent-hiring suits, and a $604 million jury verdict against C.H. Robinson. Together, he said, they mark the most transformative period in trucking since deregulation in 1980. For brokers and small carriers, he argued, that means fewer cheap trucks to hire and more liability for the ones they do.

Fuller said he is frequently asked whether a change in administration would ease restrictions, let more new operators into the industry, or end enforcement. “And I will say no,” he said. “Follow the money.”

The largest motor carriers, along with the American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association, have concluded that tighter standards for hiring drivers are “desperately needed” and “the only way that they will survive,” Fuller said. That support, he argued, holds whichever party wins.

Fuller has tracked the non-domiciled CDL issue for more than a year. In a November 2025 debate with Ken Adamo, he said the federal interim rule on non-domiciled CDLs could remove 5% to 7% of drivers from the market.

Lower standards sent drivers to small fleets

For years, Fuller said, ATA argued that trucking faced a driver shortage, and much of the trucking legislation in Congress over the last decade cited it, including funding for driver schools.

By lowering the barriers to entry, Fuller said, ATA and its members were “creating an environment that would result in their own demise.” Executives of his father’s generation expected new drivers to go to work for large fleets, he said, because they never pictured freight brokers becoming a primary channel for freight. Many of those drivers went to small operators that found their loads through brokers.

Fuller traced the shift to the long-haul market. Owning a long-haul truckload carrier was one of the most profitable businesses in the country through the 1980s and 1990s, he said, until railroads won much of that freight with intermodal service.

Brokers went from handling 6% of freight in the early 2000s to “probably in excess of 30%” today, Fuller said, as shippers’ procurement departments took over transportation buying and mandated bids. “The brokers are effectively the day traders in our industry,” he said.

That access to loads changed how downturns end. Small carriers washed out in large numbers during the 2008 financial crisis, Fuller said, but they largely survived the Great Freight Recession that began in 2022.

“The most deadly thing to happen to a trucking company is to run out of freight, run out of miles,” Fuller said. A carrier that covers its variable costs per mile, he said, can keep operating “for five to ten years without filing bankruptcy.”

Non-domiciled CDLs and the long downturn

FreightWaves spent much of the downturn trying to explain how so many carriers stayed open, Fuller said. “We kept looking at the data and saying, where, how are they staying in business? It made no sense.”

His answer is drivers holding non-domiciled CDLs and operators working outside the rules, often at lower pay. “We now know that’s probably the primary reason that this market suffered,” Fuller said.

Steve Troyer, president of California Midwest Xpress, told FreightWaves in December that brokered freight moving more than 500 miles had routinely paid 25 to 75 cents a mile below his company’s operating costs for much of the prior three and a half years.

Freight analysts have pinned the downturn on carriers that entered during the pandemic freight boom. In September 2024, FTR’s Avery Vise told DC Velocity the market still had “something on the order of 95,000 more for-hire carriers” than before the pandemic. When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit stayed FMCSA’s interim rule in November 2025, the majority wrote that, by the agency’s own data, non-domiciled CDL holders were “approximately 5 percent of all CDL holders but only about 0.2 percent of fatal crashes.” One judge dissented, arguing the five crashes behind that figure were not an exhaustive count. FMCSA’s final rule, published in February, took effect March 16.

Crash rates and broker liability

Fuller described trucking as suffering from “a security crisis, a safety crisis, and an economic crisis.” At least one major freight theft makes FreightWaves’ daily show every day, he said. On safety, his point was that crash rates climbed even as the largest carriers spent more on training than ever and ran the safest equipment the industry has had. Adding to the data challenges, the FMCSA does not track crash data by CDL category.

FMCSA’s Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts 2022, the latest edition of that report, shows large trucks involved in fatal crashes rising from 1.22 per 100 million vehicle miles in 2010 to 1.76 in 2022. NHTSA’s newer Traffic Safety Facts 2024 shows that rate has since eased to 1.58, with 5,340 people killed in crashes involving large trucks in 2024.

Brokers, which Fuller said FMCSA oversees only lightly, now face their own compliance problem. On May 14, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that a state negligent-hiring claim against a broker falls under the safety exception of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. Brokers had argued the law’s preemption of state rules on their services blocked those suits.

Before the decision, Fuller said on FreightWaves TV that a loss would be “an extinction event for a lot of freight brokers.” He said the call drew “a lot of heat.”

Large brokers he spoke with after the ruling expected it to push smaller rivals out of business, Fuller said. Then, in July, a Dallas County jury returned the $604 million verdict in Lipe v. Lupus Superior, finding C.H. Robinson 23% responsible for a 2021 crash in Mississippi that killed three people. “It was an oh my god moment for them,” he said.

C.H. Robinson has said the carrier held a Satisfactory FMCSA rating when it was selected and after a federal review of the crash. Fuller singled out the jury’s finding that the driver was effectively a C.H. Robinson employee, a theory the plaintiffs built on his use of the company’s app. The court confirmed the verdict in October, and Overdrive reported interest brings it to about $711 million, with the borrowed-employee finding leaving the broker exposed to nearly all of it.

FMCSA’s own Safety Measurement System site warns that readers “should not draw conclusions about a carrier’s overall safety condition simply based on the data displayed in this system.” It treats any carrier without an Unsatisfactory rating or an FMCSA order to stop operating as authorized to run.

“So now, when you’re a freight broker, you’re hiring capacity, you’re on your own,” Fuller said. “The federal government is not going to help determine that aspect. You’ve got to do it yourself.”

Brokers are already adjusting. By late May, C.H. Robinson had begun moving carriers to non-certified status based on their safety scores, though the company has not publicly tied the change to the decision.

Shippers and warehouses named in suits

The liability is spreading past brokers, Fuller said. He pointed to the suit over the crash that injured Dalilah Coleman, the girl President Donald Trump recognized in his State of the Union address. The amended complaint names Unilever and warehouse operator United States Cold Storage alongside C.H. Robinson, alleging they failed to verify the carrier that picked up the load.

Fuller said he would bet at least 20% to 30% of loads leave a warehouse without anyone checking that the truck at the dock belongs to the assigned carrier. “It’s been a security problem, and now we have a litigation problem,” he said.

But the extent of broker liability is still being tested. In a concurrence joined by Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that brokers “should be able to successfully defend against state tort suits if the brokers have acted reasonably.” C.H. Robinson has said it will appeal the Dallas verdict, and its May 14 statement on the ruling reports one serious accident claim for every 500 million miles driven on its customers’ loads.

Looking ahead, those same shippers may revert to having more large asset based carriers in future bids due to these liability issues. A shipper that tenders a load to a carrier that hired its own driver and met the standards is in the strongest position, Fuller said. “And so my final prediction is that the asset carriers are going to win this round.”

Why it matters: Brokers and shippers heading into 2027 truckload bids have to price two costs at once: liability for the carriers they pick, and fewer cheap carriers to pick from. For asset based carriers, this crackdown presents an opportunity to regain lost market share or push for higher rates.

The post Big carriers keep FMCSA’s crackdown alive, Fuller says appeared first on FreightWaves.

A legitimate trucking company can have established operating authority, verified credentials and years of transportation history. But those records cannot guarantee that the person requesting freight actually controls the business. Criminals exploit trusted carrier identities to obtain shipments without immediately raising suspicion. Highway’s latest fraud findings document how compromised communications and ownership changes create opportunities for cargo theft.

Highway’s third-quarter Freight Fraud Index reveals how criminals targeted established carrier accounts between July and September 2026. Ownership change reports increased 111.4% from the previous quarter but rose 12.4% year over year. Meanwhile, fraudulent and spoofed calls blocked by the company increased 90.3% year over year. These findings highlight growing identity-related concerns across the freight network.

Despite these warning signs, Highway received fewer stolen load reports than during the previous quarter. The company recorded 184 incidents, representing a 28.1% quarterly decline. However, that figure remained 8.2% higher than the same period last year. Highway cautions that its findings reflect activity within its network, not nationwide cargo theft totals.

In written comments to FreightWaves, Highway attributed part of the decline to stronger verification procedures within its network. The company highlighted increased adoption of authenticated rate confirmations and additional identity checks before releasing shipment information. Those measures aim to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing freight through compromised carrier accounts. However, Highway cautioned against crediting any single measure for the entire decline. Highway emphasized that brokers must verify the individual accessing shipment information, not just the carrier.

Criminals accessed carrier email accounts and used familiar addresses to request sensitive shipment information. Brokers encountered messages that appeared to originate from trusted transportation partners. Highway attributed 40.2% of its third-quarter stolen load reports to compromised communications. Unlike the second-quarter statistic covering fraud vectors, this figure measures the share of reported stolen shipments involving compromised communications.

The report identifies emailed rate confirmations as another vulnerability when criminals compromise carrier accounts. Unauthorized individuals can access shipment details through those inboxes. The risk extends beyond onboarding because criminals can gain access after brokers approve legitimate carriers. Its findings reinforce previous warnings about evolving freight fraud tactics.

Highway documented cases involving carriers that accepted legitimate shipments before stealing the freight themselves. Direct theft incidents declined 16% quarterly, but their share of reported stolen loads increased from 31.3% to 36.4%. The company previously examined the shift toward direct cargo theft involving established carrier identities. Some operators collected multiple loads within several days before brokers discovered the missing freight.

In its response to FreightWaves, Highway explained why these incidents present a particularly difficult verification challenge. The carriers involved may have established operating histories, legitimate equipment and trusted relationships with brokers. Their pickups can appear routine, making suspicious activity difficult to identify before the theft occurs. Unlike some other fraud methods, direct theft may offer fewer warning signs before a shipment disappears.

Real credentials, different people

Highway received 518 carrier ownership change reports during the third quarter. Its findings describe how criminals exploit established motor carrier authorities to obtain freight under recognizable company identities. A recent federal cargo theft case involving more than $12 million illustrates the potential consequences. Prosecutors allege conspirators took control of established trucking companies and impersonated previous owners to secure freight shipments.

Alyssa Fleury serves as director of operations at PEI, a freight brokerage based in Griffin, Georgia. She described the challenges brokers face when established carrier credentials no longer reflect who controls the business. Her team has encountered unauthorized carrier substitutions, suspicious communications and trucking companies operating under familiar authorities. Those situations require additional verification beyond the carrier’s operating history. Fleury emphasized that legitimate credentials alone cannot establish who will actually transport the freight.

“A carrier can look great on paper, with established authority and a clean history,” Fleury wrote. However, she cautioned that the individuals currently operating under that authority might differ from its previous owners. Her brokerage sometimes hires one carrier only to discover another trucking company arriving for pickup. Those discrepancies trigger additional checks of operating authority, insurance coverage and the relationship between the businesses. The distinction requires brokers to verify both the authorized contact and the company physically transporting the freight.

Highway reported that some buyers offered sellers money to falsely confirm that carrier ownership had not changed. These statements could conceal transfers involving established trucking authorities. Meanwhile, thefts associated with sold authorities declined from 21.1% to 7.1% of reported incidents. Highway says its ownership verification checks contributed to that decline.

Another finding raises questions about carrier identity verification and screening under legitimate trucking authorities. Highway reported that 87% of direct theft events involved carriers with a particular identity verification history. Those carriers had at least one Highway user whose records included a non-domiciled or limited-term CDL designation. The company measured this association across reported direct theft events during the preceding 90 days.

Asked how frequently the same verification history appears across its overall carrier network, Highway did not provide a percentage. The company confirmed that its Q3 Index lacks the network-wide comparison necessary to evaluate the finding. Without that baseline, the 87% figure cannot establish whether flagged histories occur disproportionately among carriers involved in direct theft. The association also does not establish that flagged users transported or stole the shipments.

Highway estimates that targeted non-domiciled and limited-term CDL screening reduces available carrier capacity by approximately 7%. The calculation assumes brokers configure restrictions for higher-risk states and a defined historical review period. The company recommends evaluating these settings against individual transportation networks. Its report does not quantify how many thefts the screening measures prevented.

FMCSA’s non-domiciled CDL rule took effect March 16, 2026. It limits eligibility for foreign-domiciled applicants to H-2A, H-2B and E-2 immigration classifications. Those licensing restrictions are separate from Highway’s fraud findings. The report does not establish that non-domiciled CDL holders are more likely to commit cargo theft.

Thousands of shared identities and vehicle records

Highway identified 22,020 vehicle identification numbers appearing on insurance certificates for multiple carriers. Among those records, 975 appeared across at least three authorities. Another 104 connected to five or more trucking businesses. One VIN appeared on certificates involving 15 different companies.

The report also identified 5,336 identity documents associated with multiple Highway user accounts. Of those, 746 connected to more than one carrier authority. Highway cautions that shared records do not automatically indicate fraudulent activity. Equipment leasing, affiliated businesses and clerical errors can produce legitimate overlaps.

Geographically, California remained the leading pickup location for stolen loads reported to Highway. The state accounted for nearly half of the company’s third-quarter incidents. New Jersey ranked second, followed by Texas. General merchandise, electronics and bulk commodities represented the most frequently targeted freight categories.

Highway identified Colombia, India and the Philippines as the leading recorded origins of blocked foreign sign-in attempts. Its systems flag suspicious access originating outside a user’s home country. However, criminals can disguise their internet connection locations through technical methods. The recorded country therefore does not necessarily identify where an individual physically operated.

Highway also blocked 670,230 fraudulent inbound emails during the quarter. That figure represented a 10.6% increase compared with the previous year. Unauthorized FMCSA contact changes reached 15,491, climbing 12.7% from the second quarter. These indicators demonstrate the volume of suspicious activity the company’s systems encountered.

Highway expects holiday shipping demand to create additional opportunities for cargo thieves during the fourth quarter. Tighter capacity could increase pressure on brokers to bypass established verification procedures. The company recommends confirming authorized carrier contacts, checking driver information and documenting exceptions before releasing shipments. Its findings emphasize maintaining those safeguards during urgent bookings, including nights and weekends.

Why it matters

Legitimate operating authorities and established carrier relationships cannot independently establish who controls a shipment. Freight brokers must verify the individuals requesting freight before granting access to sensitive information or releasing cargo.

CFCO

In my opinion, Highway’s findings reinforce a critical lesson: Fraud prevention cannot stop at carrier onboarding. The Certified Fraud Compliance Officer (CFCO) program teaches transportation professionals to verify identities, investigate suspicious activity and make consistent decisions. Technology can identify warning signs, but trained employees must know how to respond. The most expensive mistake is often the one your team was never trained to recognize.

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

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