Newsletter
TQL to Carriers: Blame Yourselves
Six carriers allege racketeering, while TQL says they simply lost freight to lower bidders.
Nebojsa Lindic, Paul Jaroslawski · October 23, 2026 · 6 min read
TGIF. TQL wants the RICO lawsuit dismissed, blaming the carriers’ losses on “poor business practices” and citing signed agreements requiring disputes to be heard in Ohio.
Plus:
Reefer Rejections Hold Above 20%
AI Equipment Theft Tops $150 Million This Year
Knight-Swift Wants Double-Digit Rate Increases
💡 QUESTION OF THE DAY:
A RICO lawsuit filed by six carriers alleges TQL posted loads at rates as low as $____ per mile.
🍳 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT
❄️ Reefer Rejections Hold Above 20%. Reefer tender rejections have held around 20%–22% since early September, compared with roughly 11% for dry van, according to Arrive Logistics’ October market report. Arrive expects holiday food shipments and demand for freeze protection to further tighten reefer capacity. The report also flags higher fuel costs and lengthy payment terms as financial pressure on carriers, warning that some could park trucks or close. Meanwhile, September Class 8 orders rose to about 10,300 from 8,580 in August but remained below replacement levels. The average age of a U.S. Class 8 tractor held at 6.4 years, its highest level in more than a decade.
🚨 AI Equipment Theft Tops $150 Million This Year. Thefts of data-center equipment, chips, and computing components have risen 34% since 2024, according to Overhaul’s AI Infrastructure Intel Report. Deception accounted for 92% of the high-value technology shipment thefts it studied, with criminals using fraudulent carrier identities, double brokering, spoofed communications, and falsified paperwork. A single flagship AI server rack costs roughly $3 million, according to Overhaul, and one truckload routinely carries eight figures in value before the equipment is installed. “Visibility into a shipment alone isn’t enough to stop it from being taken,” Overhaul founder and CEO Barry Conlon said.
📈 Knight-Swift Wants Double-Digit Rate Increases. Knight-Swift will open its November bid season seeking “low-to-mid double digits” in truckload rate increases, CEO Adam Miller said. Truckload revenue per loaded mile, excluding fuel, rose 10% year over year in Q3, while the average tractor count fell 4%. Miller said Knight-Swift’s load rejection rate was two to three times the market average, with spot pricing above contract rates. In its Logistics segment, estimated brokerage loads fell 32.5%, but revenue per load jumped 46.7% to $2,885. Brokerage gross margin rose to 18.9% from 17.8%, while segment revenue slipped 1% to $139 million. Logistics’ adjusted operating ratio improved to 93.1% from 94.3%.
PRESENTED BY VOOMA
Teams have seen an increase of 0.5-1% in GP, Quote win rates up by 15%, carrier re-use doubling and reps focusing their time on relationships and more strategic work.
TQL: Losing Freight Isn’t Racketeering
Six carriers say TQL and C.H. Robinson used a network of allegedly illegal carriers to undercut their rates.
TQL blames their losses on their own “poor business practices,” saying they lost to cheaper competitors and haven’t shown that the broker broke the law.
What the Carriers Say Happened
Stevens Trucking, Western Flyer Express, Freymiller Trucking, IWX Motor Freight, Christenson Transportation and E.O.S. sued the brokers in September.
They allege TQL and C.H. Robinson steered freight to carriers whose safety and labor violations allowed them to operate more cheaply, including fleets tied to Super Ego.
The suit alleges drivers exceeded hours-of-service limits and that some bills of lading named TQL or C.H. Robinson as the carrier.
A RICO lawsuit filed by six carriers alleges TQL posted loads at rates as low as $1.60 per mile. The complaint also cites a TQL employee allegedly liking a FreightCaviar meme on LinkedIn.
TQL’s Answer: Wrong Court, Wrong Theory
TQL filed three motions to dismiss on Oct. 19 in the Eastern District of Texas.
The broker says the carriers it contracted with signed agreements requiring disputes to be litigated exclusively in state court in Clermont County, Ohio, under Ohio law.
It wants the court to enforce those terms before considering the merits. Enforcing them would address where the covered claims against TQL belong, without resolving the racketeering allegations.
A separate motion seeks dismissal of IWX’s claims, saying the carrier had no direct contract or business dealings with TQL.
On the merits, TQL says the carriers “cannot plead a single TQL act that caused a single lost account.”
Losing a Customer Isn’t a Conspiracy
TQL says the lawsuit blames C.H. Robinson for many of the lost accounts, but often accuses both brokers without explaining what TQL did wrong.
The broker also says receiving fake records doesn’t prove it knew they were fake or helped falsify them.
“Low rates, carrier noncompliance and a declining freight market do not establish that TQL committed racketeering or false advertising,” its filing states.
Overdrive contacted IWX and the plaintiffs’ attorneys but received no response before publication.
TQL blames the carriers’ losses on their own “poor business practices.” But, as Overdrive noted, the broker didn’t specify what those practices were.
PRESENTED BY HIGHWAY
Join Highway, G2Mint, and Linkt on October 29 at 2:00 PM CT to explore why Carrier Identity verification matters after the Montgomery decision and how trust can be checked continuously throughout the shipment, from booking through pickup.
They’ll discuss how Linkt uses Highway within G2Mint’s TMS to support secure, efficient freight booking, then walk through the end-to-end carrier verification workflow in a live demo.
🌎 AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB
🚨 $12M in Cargo Stolen Using Hijacked Carrier IDs. Prosecutors allege Nursulton Khaydarov and others hijacked carrier identities to book and steal at least 24 loads, sometimes demanding ransom.
⚖️ FedEx Settles Mid-Trial. Nine days into an Oregon trial over a fatal 2022 crash, FedEx reached a settlement with the plaintiffs. The amount remains undisclosed.
🚨 Sixteen Carriers Filed for Bankruptcy in a Month. FreightWaves counts 16 trucking companies that filed Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 between Sept. 18 and Oct. 21, including a Chicago carrier with $2.31 million in liabilities against just $108,000 in assets.
⛽ U.S. Turns to Diesel Reserve as Prices Climb. The Energy Department plans to lend 315,000 barrels, nearly a third of the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, to help ease regional fuel shortages.
🔎 Indiana Candidate Targets Chameleon Carriers. Max Engling, the Republican candidate for Indiana Secretary of State, proposed a portal to flag suspicious trucking-company registrations and share information between agencies.
🚛 DSV’s $90 Million Border Expansion. DSV opened an 853,000-square-foot Laredo facility that combines warehousing, cross-docking, transportation, and customs services.
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🎙️ FREIGHT GONG FRIDAY
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