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.
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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
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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.
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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.
CBP seizes 1,000-plus pounds of meth in produce truck at Texas border – FreightWaves
$500,000 SIG Sauer shipment stolen in fictitious pickup, two arrested in California – FreightWaves
Stolen shoes on eBay lead police to $1 million in missing BNSF train cargo – FreightWaves
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Self-flying planes are closer than most aviation and freight pros think. Reliable Robotics CEO Robert Rose breaks down why small aircraft still operate with outdated systems, what true aviation automation requires, and where autonomous cargo aircraft fit in the supply chain.
Rose shares how his time at SpaceX shaped his approach to safety, software and certification — and why he believes aviation has no excuse to stay this primitive.
#AutonomousAviation #CargoAircraft #FreightTech
Reliable Robotics, the autonomous aviation startup founded by former SpaceX software engineer Robert Rose, has raised more than $400 million and is now in execution mode on a FAA-approved roadmap to certify pilotless cargo aircraft, Rose said in an interview at the Up Summit. The company is modifying Cessna Caravans — a workhorse of small air freight — with its own flight computers, actuators, and sensors under a supplemental type certificate, targeting scheduled cargo runs between Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Durango, New Mexico.
The company completed its first series of demonstration flights last month at Albuquerque Sunport under the FAA’s eVTOL Integrated Pilot Program (EIPP), taxiing among commercial air traffic and flying instrument approaches. The next phase, expected to begin next year, will be point-to-point flights between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, eventually with no pilot on board.
The core product is a ground control station built around an off-the-shelf flight management system. An operator programs a route via touchscreen, uploads it to the aircraft, and the plane executes the plan autonomously. The system cannot be commanded to fly into terrain or obstacles, and every flight plan must terminate at a runway parking spot. Critically, there is no autopilot disconnect button and no remote yoke, joystick, or rudder pedals — the ground operator cannot take direct manual control of the aircraft.
“There’s no AP disconnect button. There’s no remote yoke or joystick or rudder pedals or anything like that,” Rose said.
A remote pilot remains in the loop primarily for airspace integration — communicating with air traffic control — but the aircraft is designed to operate fully autonomously if communications are lost, following lost-comm IFR procedures and executing automated collision avoidance maneuvers. The onboard radar covers 220 degrees around the aircraft and 40 degrees up and down, and uses an algorithm called ACAS X to perform evasive maneuvers. Rose noted that Congress is currently considering legislation to mandate ACAS X across the commercial fleet, starting with Part 121 carriers and eventually extending to general aviation.
Rose said the company spent its first six or seven years working with the FAA to define a certification roadmap for autonomous aircraft without an onboard pilot. “The plans are signed off,” he said. “We just need to actually build and deliver the system that is described by these approvals.” Despite its capital raise, he described the business as relatively asset-light because it modifies existing airframes rather than manufacturing new ones, with most spending directed at safety analysis, software engineering, and avionics.
On the question of pilot union resistance — a recurring obstacle for aviation automation — Rose was measured. Reliable Robotics is focused on Part 23 aircraft in Part 135 operations, well outside the scope of major airline labor agreements. He argued that automation will roll out incrementally, beginning with safety-enhancing features such as automated takeoff, landing, and taxiing, before any broader debate over cockpit crew numbers. “I think it’s going to take many years,” he said. “That’s a ways away.”
- Reliable Robotics has raised over $400 million and is modifying Cessna Caravans with autonomous flight systems under FAA-approved supplemental type certificates.
- The company completed its first demonstration flights at Albuquerque Sunport last month and plans pilotless Albuquerque-to-Santa Fe cargo flights starting next year.
- The autonomous system includes 220-degree radar and ACAS X collision avoidance; there is no manual override or remote joystick for ground operators.
This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.
The post Why Aviation Automation Still Hasn’t Reached Small Planes appeared first on FreightWaves.
Berlin-based Conlio announced a €6.4 million ($7.1 million) funding round on Tuesday for software that verifies road freight documents before forwarders pay carriers and invoice customers. Piton Capital led the round.
Conlio calls that check one of logistics’ most manual processes and says it slows payments and ties up working capital for forwarders and the carriers they hire. The round comes as weakness in European freight markets led Trimble this week to lower its full-year growth forecast.
Haufe Group Ventures joined the round, along with WaVe-X, WALTER GROUP’s venture arm, and F-LOG Ventures, FIEGE’s venture fund. Existing investors System.One, Puzzle Ventures, Booom Ventures, and Yellow also took part. Conlio works with midsize and enterprise road freight forwarders in Germany, the U.K., Spain, and Denmark.
Founder and CEO Claudio Consul said context is what has made the check hard to automate.
“Freight is one of the world’s largest industries, and digitalization has transformed large parts of it. But the industry is full of edge cases and decisions that depend on context, which has made true end-to-end automation difficult with traditional software. AI changes that,” Consul said in the release.
How forwarders check freight paperwork
European road freight runs on the CMR consignment note. Under the 1956 CMR Convention, the note confirms the contract of carriage and is made out in three original copies signed by the sender and the carrier.
Before a forwarder pays a carrier or bills a customer, it checks that the CMR, the proof of delivery, and the carrier’s invoice are complete and correct, according to Conlio. Those documents arrive in different formats and languages, often carry handwritten notes, and are checked against rules that vary by customer, route, and geography.
A single CMR can carry up to four dates, recording when it was issued, when the goods were collected, when they were delivered, and other events in transit. Conlio’s software works out which event each date refers to, then checks it against that shipment’s requirements.
What Conlio claims for forwarders
Conlio says it can automate more than 90% of freight document checks. By the company’s estimate, the software can raise a forwarder’s EBIT by up to 30%, or more than €1 million a year for a forwarder with €100 million in revenue.
But the release does not name customers, disclose revenue, or say how those figures were measured. It also cites a €430 billion European road freight market, a 2025 forecast from Transport Intelligence. The firm’s European Road Freight Transport 2026 report puts the 2025 figure at €440.4 billion and projects 1.6% growth this year.
What drew Piton and WaVe-X
Piton Capital investor Michael Macklin pointed to the team’s grasp of the problem.
“What we liked most about Conlio and Claudio was that they know the problem inside out, from the perspective of their customers, while also having the technologist’s insight on how it can be done differently,” Macklin said.
Consul was previously senior vice president of product at sennder, a Berlin digital freight forwarder valued at more than $1 billion in 2021. The company said he helped build sennder’s product organization as it grew from 200 to more than 1,000 employees.
Thomas Muscher, managing director at WaVe-X, said AI “is moving from pilot projects into the core processes of freight forwarding,” and that the finance back office is one of the areas “where the impact is most immediate.”
Conlio plans to use the money to build out its logistics technology team and expand across Europe.
“Our long-term ambition is to change how money moves across supply chains, and verified freight documents are where this begins,” Consul said.
Why it matters: Two logistics groups’ venture arms now back the idea that forwarders can hand most document checks to software and invoice customers faster. Until forwarders using it report results, the 90% automation rate and the EBIT gains are Conlio’s own estimates.
The post Conlio raises €6.4M to automate freight document checks appeared first on FreightWaves.
The number of workers employed in truck transportation in October was unchanged from September.
That end result in the October report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released Friday, came from two developments.
First, the BLS revised downward its initial figure on truck transportation jobs in September to 1,471,300 from 1,473,100.
And then the BLS’s estimate of truck transportation jobs for October came in at the same number as the revised September figure.
In the last 10 years of data provided by the BLS, it’s the first time in that span that truck transportation jobs were unchanged month-to-month after revisions.
Given that the September figure can be revised one more time before the broader full-year revisions released with the January report, and October can be revised two more times, the parity between the two months might not hold.
Data for August had its final revision for 2026. The BLS dropped the estimate for truck transportation jobs in August by 100.
With the latest revisions, the notable development that occured last month, where truck transportation jobs were more than they were a year earlier, is no longer in place. Last month was the first time since early 2023 that truck transportation jobs were up year-on-year.
But October 2026 jobs are 1,600 jobs less than they were a year ago.
Warehouse was quiet too
The lack of big movement in logistics jobs could also be seen in warehouse employment.
Those figures are often subject to more volatile movement than truck transportation jobs. But in October, they were only down 300 jobs from September.
Where the volatility reared its head again was in the revisions. The initial report for September put warehouse jobs at 1,831,800 jobs. But the latest revision significantly increased that number, putting it at 1,839,700 jobs.
With an almost 4,000 job upward revision for August figures, warehouse jobs in October were essentially unchanged over the prior 12 months. The figure for October 2025 was 1,839,900 jobs, just 700 jobs more than where they came in for October 2026.
No big shift in subsectors
In truck transportation, the subsectors also did not move much.
Data for specific subcategories within truck transportation showed little change. They are published on a one-month lag.
According to the BLS, truckload jobs fell 500 jobs in September from August, coming in at 502,800 jobs. They have been on a small month-to-month climb since March, but that comes after declines in late 2025 and early 2026. The end result is that the 502,800 jobs in September were just 1,500 jobs more than they were a year ago.
LTL jobs followed a similar pattern but with more growth. The 249,500 LTL jobs reported by the BLS for September were 2,200 jobs more than they were a year ago, but were a significant gain over the recent cyclical low of 243,600 jobs reported in February.
Long-term, the data provided by BLS goes back 10 years. And it shows that in September 2016, LTL jobs were 247,400 jobs, which means the industry has added just 2,100 jobs in ten years.
Capacity not coming back
Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management, saw in those relatively flat numbers for truckload an indication that “any rebound in capacity is very slow at best.”
However, looking to the report that will be issued in February with the full year revisions, Miller said in an email to FreightWaves that he thinks changes in the basic model will result in figures on truckload employment to be revised downward, “based on the more comprehensive administrative records.”
“With this said, the data suggest that amongst establishments that are responding to the BLS survey, we aren’t seeing further declines in capacity,” Miller added.
The broader numbers with their flat month-to-month figure, Miller said, carries a message that “capacity amongst reporting establishments has likewise halted the downward slide and is effectively moving sideways, neither expanding nor contracting.”
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