A trade group is suing to strip California and New York of the power to issue commercial driver's licenses entirely. Plus: $3/mi is now breakeven, DOT wants to rate every carrier, routing guides are falling apart, and more.
Shippers want the same things they’ve always wanted: reliable execution, fair pricing, and a partner who shows up prepared.
"We're basically in the center of the United States. As middle as you can get. Every class one railroad comes through Kansas City. It makes it very unique."
Aurora's driverless trucks are moving real loads between Dallas and Houston right now, and nobody is in the cab. Plus: RXO signals a strong freight rebound, Ken Adamo joins Ease Logistics, rail got faster to Mexico, and more.
Happy Friday. Aurora's driverless trucks are moving real loads between Dallas and Houston right now, and nobody is in the cab. We break it down in today's feature.
Plus:
Top Lane Movers, Powered By Triumph
📈 RXO Signals Strong Freight Rebound. RXO’s Q1 2026 results highlighted improving trends in a tightening truckload market. Brokerage TL volumes rose every month through the quarter, while spot mix expanded sharply. This drove revenue per load to its fastest growth rate in 4 years, primarily from higher spot freight rates. Management pointed to “improving TL volume trends and spot mix” and issued a solid Q2 adjusted EBITDA outlook, expecting continued gains from spot opportunities, higher contract rates, and AI-driven productivity. The upbeat update reinforces the broader spot-rate recovery and capacity squeeze heading into summer.
🧠 The Brain Behind DAT's Data Just Bet on Brokerage. Ken Adamo spent six and a half years as chief analytics officer at DAT Freight, building their market intelligence business from one product manager to nearly 100 data scientists, and overseeing the acquisitions of Trucker Tools, Outgo, and Convoy. This week, he left to become Chief Strategy Officer at Ease Logistics, where he'll lead their AI pricing platform. On this week's episode of The Freight Pod, his take on where the market is headed was direct: "I think 2027 could be the best year for brokers in a decade." The brokerages setting the table right now — pricing with conviction, not giving back freight — are the ones who'll feast when it arrives.
🚂 Rail Just Got Faster to Mexico. CPKC and CSX launched an upgraded version of their SMX rail service this week, cutting transit times by 20% to 45% on Southeast U.S. to Mexico lanes, including service that's now 2.5 days faster between Atlanta and central Mexico. New origins include Charlotte, Jacksonville, and Central Florida. CPKC's chief marketing officer said on their Q1 earnings call that they're already seeing "early signs of incremental truck-to-rail conversions driven by higher fuel prices, tighter regulatory enforcement and reduced trucking capacity." One train on this route replaces up to 300 semi-trucks.
As freight fraud continues to rise, MODE Global partnered with Highway to strengthen carrier vetting and improve onboarding efficiency.
By implementing Highway, MODE gained greater visibility into carrier activity, identified suspicious behavior earlier, and removed non-compliant carriers from its network.
The result: a significant reduction in theft and double-brokering incidents while streamlining the carrier onboarding process.
See how MODE Global evolved its approach to Carrier Identity and fraud prevention.
This week, Aurora Innovation announced it is now running fully driverless (SAE Level 4) trucks for McLane Company, one of America’s biggest food distributors.
After a three-year pilot that racked up 280,000 safe autonomous miles and delivered 1,400 loads with 100% on-time performance, the Aurora Driver is handling the long-haul “middle mile” between Dallas and Houston without a human in the cab.
At the same time, refrigerated carrier Hirschbach Motor Lines (3,000+ trucks) signed a major memorandum of understanding to own and operate up to 500 Aurora-powered autonomous trucks, with deliveries starting in 2027.
Hirschbach will use Aurora’s Driver-as-a-Service model. They buy the trucks, and Aurora supplies the self-driving tech on a subscription basis.
Wall Street reacted strongly. Aurora’s stock (NASDAQ: AUR) jumped 11.3% on the McLane announcement day (May 6), rising from $6.53 to $7.27. It is up ~21% over the past 5 days and ~69% over the past month.
Kodiak AI, another public autonomous trucking company, also made moves this week. Announcing a $100M capital raise and a new deal with Roehl Transport for Dallas–Houston runs (still with safety drivers). Kodiak aims to go fully driverless later in 2026. The contrast is that Aurora is already running driverless commercial freight today.
Long-haul OTR jobs will gradually decline on straightforward lanes as robot trucks run more cheaply and safely 24/7. However, owner-operators and small fleets could benefit from easier scaling without driver recruitment headaches. Niche, local, and specialized work will remain human for years to come.
Trucking influencer Kevin Rutherford (@lets_truck) captured the mood perfectly:
“When I started following… in 2018, many people screamed at me that it would never happen… They are real, they are here, they are moving freight without humans… Are you prepared? What is your plan?”
Owner-operator sentiment was mixed but pragmatic:
Driverless trucks are here, moving real loads for real customers right now. Human drivers won’t vanish overnight. Local, niche, and customer-facing work will still need people for years to come. But the total number of long-haul seats will decline.
The smart move is the same one Kevin Rutherford has been preaching: face it head-on. Update your business plan, consider fleet ownership with autonomous equipment, or guide younger drivers toward skills that will still be in demand. The ground is shifting...
The fastest-growing brokerages aren’t adding overhead—they’re adding AI with Augie.
Augie is the AI teammate that automates freight’s daily chaos—building, booking, tracking, collecting, repeating—and learns from every load. Augie connects across every workflow and system so your team can focus on growth, not grind.
Built for logistics by Augment, Augie helps ambitious brokerages move faster, scale smarter, and become harder to catch.
📉 Forward Air Lost $250M Worth of Customer in One Night. The stock dropped 45% after hours, and Craig Fuller is already flagging covenant default risk.
🚨 WaveTMS Is Shutting Down. The TMS platform apparently emailed customers this week, saying services will "become unavailable in the near term." They filed Chapter 11 in November, but it seems like the restructuring didn't hold.
⚖️ Trump's 10% Global Tariff Just Got Struck Down. A federal trade court ruled 2-1 that the across-the-board tariffs (which took effect in February) exceeded presidential authority under a 1970s trade law. The administration is expected to appeal.
⛽ Gas Just Hit $4.48 a Gallon. That's up 50% since the Iran war started and up 31 cents in a single week. The Strait of Hormuz is still effectively closed, and experts say even a ceasefire won't bring prices back to normal for months.
🤖 FedEx Freight Is Using AI to Win More Bids. The largest LTL carrier in the country is deploying predictive analytics across demand forecasting, lane-level pricing, and equipment allocation ahead of its June 1 spinoff.
🏗️ Georgia Ports Is Spending $5 Billion to Get Bigger. Savannah is adding five new big-ship berths, a new inland port in Gainesville, and widening I-95 and I-16. Routing through Savannah already saves shippers $1,000+ per container vs. West Coast ports.
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A trade group is suing to strip California and New York of the power to issue commercial driver's licenses entirely. Plus: $3/mi is now breakeven, DOT wants to rate every carrier, routing guides are falling apart, and more.
"We're basically in the center of the United States. As middle as you can get. Every class one railroad comes through Kansas City. It makes it very unique."
S&P is cautiously optimistic about the freight recovery, but it still kept RXO's rating below investment grade. Plus: the Strait is set to reopen, Volvo pulls the safety driver, the U.S. goes after cheap trailers, and more.
The World Cup kicked off, and Amazon decided to become forklift certified. Plus: the Fed could spoil freight's party, C.H. Robinson in crosshairs again, the World Cup is a freight problem, and more.
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