A penny stock wiped $4.8B off C.H. Robinson's market cap yesterday. Plus: self-driving trucks are now running 1,000 miles nonstop, STG Logistics cleared a major bankruptcy hurdle, the FMCSA revoked nine ELDs, and more.
For a long time, secure parking lived in the “nice-to-have” bucket. That framing no longer works. In today’s environment, secure parking functions as a preventative security layer.
Here’s what’s trending across freight and logistics on X, LinkedIn, Reddit, and YouTube.
Plus, an Illinois-based trucking company files for bankruptcy, a Memorial Day cargo theft alert, and more.
Happy Hump Day. Yesterday, we hosted our first-ever LinkedIn Live event with Trucker Tools & a produce shipper. We discussed what makes the produce season special, how to prepare as a freight broker, and how a produce shipper finds the right freight brokers to work with. There was also a produce season meme contest. Scroll to the main story to see which memes won.
🤔 Question of the Day: A study from FreightWaves and FlockFreight showed that __% of truckloads in 2023 ran partially empty, wasting an average of 29 feet of deck space. Find out in our What's Cookin' in Freight section.
TOP LANE MOVERS POWERED BY GREENSCREENS.AI
*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
✊ Forward Air Faces Shareholder Revolt. Forward Air is in hot water as shareholders file a class action lawsuit over the Omni Logistics merger. They argue they were denied a vote on the $2.1 billion deal. The complaint highlights a dramatic drop in share price and alleges the board manipulated the merger structure. Amid this chaos, Forward announced Jamie G. Pierson as interim CFO, succeeding Rebecca Garbrick. CEO Shawn Stewart praised Garbrick's contributions and welcomed Pierson's expertise. The company now faces a critical vote on preferred shares and plans to reduce debt leverage by 2025.
🚚 Two Trucking Companies and a CDL School Go Bankrupt. Recent bankruptcies highlight the trucking industry's ongoing challenges. Illinois-based Patriot Transport and Expeditor Systems filed for Chapter 11 to reorganize amid rising operational costs and high liabilities. Meanwhile, Toro Trucking Academy, a CDL training school in the Pacific Northwest, shut down and filed for Chapter 7, citing market forces like soaring fuel prices and increasing regulations. The exits emphasize the market pressure as capacity tightens, potentially driving rate increases.
📈 Underutilized Trucks & Rising LTL Rates. A study from FreightWaves and FlockFreight showed that 43% of truckloads in 2023 ran partially empty, wasting an average of 29 feet of deck space. That's like one in four trucks running completely empty. Meanwhile, LTL rates are on the rise, jumping 8.2% YoY in April, while TL rates fell by 4.4%. It's a tough choice, thinking you'll need to gamble on unpredictable LTL services or ship half-empty trucks to meet deadlines. These trends mean higher costs and tighter margins for brokers.
TOGETHER WITH ISO: Watch out! These key markets saw the biggest service drop-offs over the past month across the ISO* network.
*Isometric Technologies' (ISO) Service Index helps brokers scorecard, benchmark, and source by service level performance across their customer and carrier network. ISO Scores are a composite of OTD, OTP, and Bounce Rates.
Yesterday, FreightCaviar hosted the first-ever LinkedIn Live with Trucker Tools. We sat down with Kary Jablonski, CEO at Trucker Tools, Reed Loustalot, CMO at Truck Parking Club, and Bill Loupée, COO of Ben B. Schwartz & Sons, a produce shipper based in Detroit, Michigan.
We discussed what makes the produce season special, how to prepare as a freight broker, and how a produce shipper finds the right freight brokers to work with.
Shipping Challenges:
"My least favorite is definitely cantaloupes and melons, because a round fruit in a square box makes so many problems in a truck, and I don't know how to fix it, and it's super frustrating for everybody."
Selecting the Right Broker:
"What we're looking for, if we're going to add more brokers, is the ones that really provide a lot of value to us are the guys who have worked hard to develop that produce-specific carrier base, the guys that have a lot of teams, the guys who really understand reefer freight and really understand produce."
Ensuring Team Drivers:
"I was absolutely shocked when we started doc checking to see when we procured a team, if a team actually came in... When we found out through the doc check that it was just a single driver, we'd go on DAT, we'd take the single rate, and then we'd cut the single rate in half, and that was what we'd pay the carrier. So it was a huge financial deduction, which eventually helped us pretty much solve the issue."
If you want to learn more about the produce season and how to effectively work with produce shippers, make sure to rewatch the session here.
Toward the end of our live event, we hosted the first-ever Produce Season Meme Contest. Here are the winners:
TOGETHER WITH LEVITY
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's spot quoting, load building, or answering track-and-trace requests, Levity connects to your inbox, TMS and other tools like rating engines, extracting 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
🕵️ Memorial Day Cargo Theft Alert. CargoNet warns of increased cargo theft during Memorial Day weekend, noting a significant trend in theft events from previous years. Supply chain professionals should enhance security, especially in high-risk states like California, and for targeted commodities like food and electronics.
📉 Freight Cycle Payroll Analysis. Supply chain expert Jason Miller discusses the historical payroll trends in truck transportation, noting that the current decline mirrors patterns seen in 1990 rather than the severe drops of the Global Financial Crisis.
⚡ Toyota Electric Rollout. An announcement states that Toyota and Hexagon Purus’ Tern Class 8 electric trucks will be distributed across the US by Hino Trucks.
🤖 Volvo and Aurora's Autonomous Truck. Volvo teams up with Aurora to unveil a "production-ready" autonomous semi-truck. Volvo's new Class 8 Semi VNL was purposely built and designed for Aurora's Level 4 autonomous driving system.
🚨 Tragic Semi Accident in Utah. A semi driver was found deceased in the cab after his truck, hauling propane, crashed into Deer Creek Reservoir in Utah. The incident led to road closures due to propane leakage.
🎣 FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER
In this week’s episode, we sat down with Anthony Fecarotta, Founder & President of linehaul.ai. Anthony brings us through his road to success, starting at XPO as an Account Manager, later The Grane Companies, Schneider National, Covenant, and Everest. He unveils his future plans for linehaul.ai, and shares his thoughts on the future of AI, the importance of human element in freight, and why he thinks it’s too soon for an AI revolution in logistics.
Tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
FREIGHT MEME OF THE DAY
Also, check out:
A penny stock wiped $4.8B off C.H. Robinson's market cap yesterday. Plus: self-driving trucks are now running 1,000 miles nonstop, STG Logistics cleared a major bankruptcy hurdle, the FMCSA revoked nine ELDs, and more.
Here’s what’s trending across freight and logistics on X, LinkedIn, Reddit, and YouTube.
In just three years, we have moved from an industry that relied heavily on manual phone calls and emails to one where many of us use AI to some extent to support the above.
Plus, XPO and Hub Group Q4 2025 earnings, a trucking private-equity firm files bankruptcy, Mexico long-haul truckers win union rights, and more.
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