🎣 Freight Fraud Goes Viral

FreightCaviar Weekly Recap. From Guy Fieri’s $1M tequila heist to driver cancellations and the ongoing CDL crackdown - here are this week’s most talked-about freight stories.

Reddit Post of the Week

On r/FreightBrokers, it’s understandable that unfortunate situations happen, delays, accidents, and the occasional illness can all affect a load. But is ICE becoming the new excuse?

It’s well known that U.S. authorities have increased enforcement to ensure all drivers are both proficient in English and legally authorized to work. However, this crackdown now appears to be affecting driver availability to the point where loads are being canceled because of it.

Whether the above post is true or not is up for debate, but one thing is clear according to its author: the new “driver got COVID” excuse has arrived.

Brought To You By OTR Solutions

Utilize funding options that fit your unique brokerage needs with OTR Solutions.

• Unlock liquidity and create additional revenue opportunities
• Flexible credit limits
• Select from (1) Quick Pay funding, (2) Supply Chain Financing, or (3) AR Factoring

Take advantage of OTR Solutions’ industry leading working capital solutions now made available within the Epay Manager platform. Leverage OTR’s flexible offerings directly inside your TMS.

X Post of the Week

Following the theme of the earlier Reddit, Craig Fuller voiced his opinion of the current "Compliance Crunch" which has left an impact on the industry.

Fuller has been an advocate for road safety and ensuring that the industry is running properly and efficiently. But obviously that can't happen if truck drivers are showing up to work.

There were some critics who called Fuller out, with one commenting:

So are you saying it's a bad thing to have CDL holders to know how to read road signs in English and to know driving rules?

But commentor countered with this argument:

Trucking companies shifted their focus to increasing the number of trucks rather than boosting margins on lanes because profits were slim and labor was plentiful. Now, those same carriers are overleveraged, with too many trucks and no one to drive them.

ELP enforcement or companies controlling their margins could be a legit reason why things are what they are. But something has to change soon if the industry wants to survive during the upcoming holiday period.

FreightCaviar Story of the Week

This week's feature examines how the federal crackdown on non-domiciled CDL holders could fundamentally reshape U.S. trucking. For years, many small and mid-sized carriers relied on immigrant drivers operating under questionable licensing, allowing them to run longer hours and offer cheaper rates. That system is now collapsing.

With FMCSA and ICE tightening enforcement, drivers are being sidelined, and carriers built on this model face potential bankruptcy. Industry voices like FreightWaves’ Craig Fuller warn that a market correction is coming, one that could finally rebalance rates but at the cost of widespread disruption across fleets, brokers, and supply chains.

👉 Read the full feature to take a deeper dive on the current crackdown.

LinkedIn Post of the Week

Ryan Joyce, CEO of GenLogs, who argues that digital-only carrier vetting isn’t enough to safeguard freight. Joyce revealed that GenLogs has analyzed more than 300 stolen loads, many linked to carriers that passed standard digital verification but vanished from the road before thieves assumed their identities. His post shines a light on a growing flaw in current vetting systems, and previews GenLogs’ upcoming lane-level compliance filters, designed to verify a carrier’s physical presence and equipment before tendering.

It’s a wake-up call for brokers relying solely on software to prevent theft. And his post is garnering praise from people who are enjoying what GenLogs has offered to the industry.

Brought To You By Levity

Levity automates high-volume email and phone tasks like quoting, load building, and track & trace, without black-box agents or risky AI experiments.
Designed for teams that need control, transparency, and results they can trust.

• Built for high-reliability, high-volume workflows
• Seamlessly integrates with inboxes, TMSs, and rate tools
• Works quietly in the background with human-in-the-loop and clear fallback paths

YouTube Story of the Week

Guy Fieri’s Santo Tequila became the latest victim of freight fraud after two semis hauling 24,000 bottles (worth over $1 million) vanished en route from Texas to Pennsylvania. What looked like a routine shipment turned out to be a double-brokering scam involving fake carriers, forged documents, and spoofed GPS signals. Investigators later tied the theft to an Armenian crime ring running global cargo scams. The story aired on 60 Minutes and has already surpassed 1 million views on YouTube this week, signaling that freight fraud has officially gone mainstream.

Meme of the Week

🎣 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER

• FreightCaviar Podcast: We caught up with Atul Raghunathan, (CRO) and Sriharsha Guduguntla, (CEO) at Hyperbound, an AI sales coaching platform. The episode is on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
• Shipper CRM: A FreightCaviar product built for brokers to find, track, and win shipper freight. Click here to learn more.
• FreightCaviar Forum: We launched a forum for brokers, carriers, and freight tech pros to connect, share insights, and trade industry intel.
• Manifest 2026: We're proud to be an Official Partner of Manifest: The Future of Supply Chain & Logistics conference, the premier event shaping what's next in freight and logistics. Save $200 on the current price with our link.