Newsletter
There's No Trucker Strike
A fake trucker strike is going viral because of a real number: diesel just hit $6.505 a gallon, an all-time high.
Nebojsa Lindic, Paul Jaroslawski · September 21, 2026 · 6 min read
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Happy Monday. If your phone's been blowing up about an Oct. 1 trucker strike, we tracked down where it actually came from.
Plus:
Produce Freight Splits: Texas Climbs, California Falls
$100M Settlement over Hidden Fuel-Card Fees
Fake FedEx Drivers Walk Off with a $680K Load
💡 QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Fewer than ___% of long-haul truckers are unionized today, down from about 50% before deregulation.
🍳 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT
🌶️ Produce Freight Splits: Texas Climbs, California Falls. South Texas freight rates jumped over the past week as Rio Grande Valley crossings kept moving Mexican peppers, tomatoes, limes, and melons: Boston rates rose 14% to $7,600-$7,900, and Miami climbed 9% to $5,200-$5,500, according to DAT's Dean Croke. California moved in the opposite direction: Kern County carrot rates to New York fell 12% to $9,300-$9,800, and Chicago dropped 10%. California citrus rates held flat for the week but are still running 60% above last September to Atlanta and 52% higher to Seattle. Washington's Yakima Valley to Los Angeles is running 90% above last September despite holding flat week over week, and several California routes remain 24-43% higher than a year ago.
💸 $100M Settlement over Hidden Fuel-Card Fees. Corpay (formerly FleetCor) and CEO Ronald Clarke agreed to pay $100 million to resolve FTC claims that the company charged hidden and unauthorized fuel-card fees for years. A federal court ruled against FleetCor on every count in 2023, and an appeals court has since upheld that judgment. Regulators say the company promised savings that never materialized, delayed adding fees for several billing cycles to make them harder to spot, and buried disclosures in separate reports. The $100 million goes toward redress for harmed business customers, pending a 30-day public comment period. Future violations carry penalties up to $53,088 each.
🚨 Fake FedEx Drivers Walk Off with a $680K Load. Two men posing as FedEx drivers presented fraudulent CDLs and fake shipping documents to a Delaware warehouse on Sept. 14, then hooked up to an already-loaded trailer of electronics and drove off. The theft wasn't reported to the police until the next morning. Officers eventually located the tractor-trailer in a Newark, Delaware parking lot and arrested 35-year-old Dushatdaman Parihar, whose CDL and license plate also turned out to be fake. He now faces charges of theft over $100,000, forgery, conspiracy, and displaying a fictitious registration plate. His accomplice is still out there, and police haven't identified him.
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It's Just a Guy on Instagram
A video posted to Instagram on Sept. 15 claims truckers are striking Oct. 1 over diesel prices. It has no name attached beyond an account called Red Pill Patriot 1776, which is the same account that's posted theories tying Charlie Kirk's death to Israel and pushing ivermectin as a cancer treatment.
"Shut down October 1st. Park it. Stand together," the creator says, on top of AI-generated flyers now circulating on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit claiming 50,000 truckers have pledged to join. No record of that pledge exists anywhere else.
The Real Numbers
Diesel hit $6.505 a gallon nationally as of Sept. 20, according to AAA, a new all-time record, up from $6.20 just a week earlier and from $3.70 a year ago.
Even though the reason behind the potential strike is real, the strike itself isn't: fewer than 20% of long-haul drivers are unionized today, down from about 50% before trucking deregulation in 1980, according to FreightWaves.
The accounts pushing the Oct. 1 date have no verifiable connection to any carrier, union, or driver group.
98% Certainty
Freight commentator Timothy Dooner pointed to the one recent strike that did have real legs, the 2022 Canadian Freedom Convoy, which mobilized actual drivers against COVID mandates, and called this one different: "grifter noise" from "content creators trying to capitalize on the interest."
Trucker Gord Magill, who covered that Canadian convoy, put the odds at "98% certainty" this strike is fake, and pointed to what's actually scheduled for Oct. 1: 10-4 DC, an annual trucker advocacy event on the National Mall that isn't a protest and has run for years.
What History Shows
Truckers shut things down for real twice during the 1970s fuel crises. In 1973-74, independent truckers blocked highways in 20-plus states during the OPEC oil embargo; Ohio and Pennsylvania called out the National Guard, and multiple shootings were reported.
In 1979, roughly 75,000 truckers went on strike over diesel prices during the Iranian Revolution. Both had organized leadership pushing Washington for a fuel-price freeze.
Neither started with an anonymous Instagram account, and neither looks anything like the mockery filling trucker social media now, where one popular joke post listed demands ranging from $2.50 diesel to a $550,000 salary, with a couple of items too crude to run here.
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🌎 AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB
🛒 He Meant to Do That. A trucker circled a Nashville Aldi's parking lot before driving his cake-mix-loaded rig straight through the storefront, on purpose, he told police. He's now facing a felony vandalism charge over $250,000.
📉 Hub Group's Delisting Notice Just Became Official. Nasdaq formally notified Hub Group that it will delist the company's stock after it missed a financial-reporting deadline tied to its $77 million accounting error. Hub Group has until Sept. 23 to appeal.
⚖️ CDL Crackdown Claims an Unlikely Casualty. A Denver nonprofit paid a trucking school $15,000 upfront to help four formerly incarcerated people earn their CDLs. The school got shut down in the federal CDL-mill crackdown before the training finished, and the nonprofit hasn't gotten its money back.
📉 A Produce Hauler's Numbers Tell the Whole Story. Xoco Transport pulled in $15.4 million in 2024. This year, through mid-September, it's at $6.8 million, and the Texas carrier just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
🤖 One Guy Is Trying to Ground Driverless Trucks. An Illinois cargo-van operator petitioned a federal appeals court to kill FMCSA's warning-beacon waiver for autonomous trucks, arguing it puts smaller vehicles at risk on shared highways. The agency's court-ordered response is due today.
🎣 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER
Earning the Freight: What separates preferred transportation providers? Hear live from James Hardie & GoodShip leaders on trust, data, and performance.
😂 FREIGHT HUMOR
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🎧 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR PODCAST
Michael Grace, Chief Compliance Officer at FreightFlex, joined Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski and Reed Loustalot on the FreightCaviar Podcast, to discuss why he believes freight theft is 99% preventable and how carrier vetting has changed over the past decade. He also breaks down the growing compliance and liability risks facing freight brokers, why shippers are increasingly looking for brokers with documented compliance processes, and much more.
Watch it on YouTube, or listen to the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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