Last week, Highway released its Q4 2025 Freight Fraud Trends Report. The report outlined the countries outside the U.S.
Plus: AGX Freight suspends operations, Gatik goes fully driverless, Werner buys FirstFleet
Accounting teams play a critical role in carrier trust and customer relationships. Here’s how post-delivery workflows shape brokerage success.
January experienced a spike in spot demand due to winter storms, with spot load postings up nearly 50% from December, though still down 36.7% year-over-year. What did February bring? Scroll to our main story to find out.
Happy Friday. Time to review all the text messages you missed yesterday. We've got details on how much damage the AT&T outage caused for freight. Today's feature breaks down the Arrive Logistics February Market Update – January's optimism was just a fluke. But some good news: Convoy is back – well, Flexport has relaunched the tech platform, and Walmart eases up on shipping OTIF requirements.
Today at 8 AM CST, don't miss another exciting Freight Gong Friday. The co-founders of FreightCaviar will sit down with Reed Loustalot and special guest Bill Driegert from Flexport. Click here to tune in.
🤔 Fill in the Blank: ______ prices increased in early February, adding to the financial pressure on carriers. Scroll to our main story to find out.
In today's email:
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*Greenscreens.ai, forecasts real-time truckload buy prices that are suited to each freight brokerage's purchasing power using AI and machine learning. Its engine takes into account over 130 attributes and data points in each rate forecast.
🐔 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT
📡 Network Outage Impacts Freight. AT&T's nationwide cellular network outage on Thursday morning sent waves across the trucking industry. Major truck tech platforms like Motive, Samsara, and Trimble flagged potential disruptions due to their reliance on cellular data for tracking and communication. Justin Randall of Schneider says that since many rely on phones for scheduling, certain shippers and receivers were "nearly unreachable" yesterday. Plus, AT&T may have been the largest outage, but down reports from Verizon and T-Mobile also trickled in. The outage could lead to ELD errors and log issues for drivers, posing risks of what might seem like falsified logs. For now, service has been restored, but the ripple effect on automated tracking and ETA accuracy remains a concern.
🚚 Flexport Revives Convoy Trucking Tech Platform. Flexport, a global logistics powerhouse, announced the launch of the Convoy Platform on February 22. This strategic play follows their acquisition of Convoy, Inc.'s technology in November 2023, propelling Flexport towards becoming a one-stop logistics shop. Convoy Platform offers shippers access to a vast network of carriers and owner-operators, promising near real-time visibility and on-time performance. CEO Ryan Petersen says the company "brought back some of the biggest customers" and "dispatched almost 200 full truck loads" on the first day.
⏱️ Walmart Eases Up on Delivery Demands. Walmart is giving suppliers a break by lowering its 'on-time, in-full' (OTIF) standards from 98% to a more reachable 90% for on-time and 95% for in-full deliveries. This move is a big shift from the stringent requirements set during the 2020 pandemic peak. It also shows Walmart's effort to better manage its inventory amid the e-commerce boom and balance the supply chain's efficiency. Suppliers previously under the gun for not hitting the nearly perfect OTIF scores—and facing fines—now have a little more wiggle room.
TOGETHER WITH ARMSTRONG TRANSPORT GROUP
Are you an experienced freight agent looking to take your career to the next level? Or perhaps you're relatively new to the logistics industry and want to learn from the best. Whatever your background, Armstrong Transport Group is the partner you need to succeed. Click here to learn more.
Every month, Arrive Logistics publishes its freight market update for the current month. Here's a quick summary of their latest report. If you're interested in reading the full report, click here.
January experienced a spike in spot demand due to winter storms, with spot load postings up nearly 50% from December, though still down 36.7% year-over-year.
This dip is smaller than December's 57% year-over-year decline, which means a slow recovery.
Van tender rejection rates have reached about 5%, a minor increase in market sensitivity, especially to weather disruptions.
Reefer equipment showed more significant fluctuations, meaning its market might bounce back faster than van. The overall market, though, remains soft.
Spot Rates: Spot rates experienced volatility, with reefer rates showing the most significant changes. After a spike in rates towards the end of 2023 and early 2024, both van and reefer rates have begun to decline.
The spot-to-contract rate spread remains high, suggesting the market isn't close to flipping yet but could edge towards inflation as the year goes on.
Diesel prices increased in early February, adding to the financial pressure on carriers.
The data shows a market in flux, with capacity tightening due to carrier exits. The Net Change in Carrier Population metric points to a considerable decline in carriers, especially in the last quarter of 2023 and January 2024.
As for volume growth, it's expected to be flat to slow in 2024, with the potential for a restocking boom bringing an uptick in demand.
TOGETHER WITH LEVITY.AI
Levity helps fast-moving 3PLs and freight brokers to do more with less by automating the most time-consuming and repetitive email tasks.
Whether it is spot quoting, load building or answering track and trace requests. Levity connects to your inbox, TMS and other tools like rating engines, extracts the right information no matter the language or format. It performs tasks on your behalf automatically in the background so you can save time and focus on building shipper relationships instead of data entry. Learn more on Levity.ai today.
AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB
📈 Georgia's Export Milestone. Despite a decline in total trade, Georgia's exports hit a record high for the third consecutive year, reaching $49.7 billion. There was a marked decrease in imports from China, though the country remains the state's number one trading partner.
🚚 Major Drug Bust on I-57. A traffic stop on I-57 led to the arrest of Juan Carlos Oliva Lopez and the seizure of $700,000 worth of cocaine and fentanyl.
🌎 Trade Route Shift. An analysis reveals China is increasingly routing goods through Mexico to the US, bypassing tariffs.
🏗️ US Port Security Upgrade. The Biden administration plans to invest billions in domestic manufacturing of cargo cranes to replace those made in China.
📊 Spot Market Trends. February's spot market data shows significant declines in dry van loads and rates, indicating a challenging month for freight brokers, insights from Kevin Hill reveal.
💼 Triumph's Leadership Vision. Kimberly Fisk, the new COO of Triumph's factoring business, discusses the company's growth and commitment to technology and customer service.
🚨 CDL Cheating Scheme Uncovered. Illinois trucking company owner Mykola Datkun faces federal charges for allegedly helping individuals cheat on the CDL written test using an earpiece and microphone; charging test-takers at least $500 to do so.
🎣 FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER
Mutha Trucker News Founder and CEO Alex Mai talks about the beginnings and growth of his YouTube to over 500K subscribers, the opportunities it has created for him, and how he pays it forward.
Plus, here's how Levity brings harmony and flow to your freight email inbox in four simple steps.
FREIGHT MEME OF THE DAY
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