🎣 This Could Reshape Trucking

Good morning. Today we’re looking at how the Trump administration’s new crackdown on non-domiciled CDLs and English-language rules could upend parts of the U.S. trucking market.

Plus:

• 🥃 Tequila Heist Tied to Armenian Crime Ring
• 📉 Werner CEO Predictions
• ⚖ Broker Liability Case

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🍳 What's Cookin' In Freight

🥃 $1M Guy Fieri Tequila Heist Linked to Armenian Crime Ring. Thieves stole 24,000 bottles of Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar’s Santo Tequila, worth $1 million, by hijacking two semis using fake carriers, spoofed GPS, and falsified documents. The trucks vanished after leaving Laredo for Pennsylvania. “It hurt bad, we couldn’t fill the shelves,” Fieri said. Investigators later found 11,000 bottles in a Los Angeles warehouse linked to an Armenian crime ring. CargoNet’s Keith Lewis called the case part of a “1,200% surge in digital cargo crimes over four years,” driven by online load-board fraud and identity spoofing. LAPD recovered half the shipment, but the rest remains missing.

📉 Werner CEO Warns of “Multiyear” Freight Capacity Crunch. Werner Enterprises CEO Derek Leathers warned that the freight market faces a “multiyear” recovery, calling current rates “stably horrible.” Speaking at the WEX OTR Summit, he cited plunging semi-truck orders, just 13,000 in August, down 14% year over year, and new 25% import tariffs that will inflate fleet replacement costs. “You’re going to spend about twice as much as you would during a normal cycle,” Leathers said. He predicted small and mid-size carriers will continue to exit as safety rules tighten and thefts rise. Still, he pointed to nearshoring as a bright spot: “Mexico is the only neighboring country that actually has good demographics.”

⚖ Supreme Court to Rule on Broker Liability in Montgomery v. Caribe. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Montgomery v. Caribe II, a landmark case that could determine whether freight brokers are shielded from negligence claims under the FAAAA’s safety exception. The case follows conflicting circuit rulings, the Sixth Circuit’s Cox v. TQL held brokers could be liable, while the Seventh Circuit protected C.H. Robinson. Industry leaders including Benesch’s Marc Blubaugh called the decision “extraordinarily good news” for brokers seeking legal clarity. C.H. Robinson said the case “opens the door to long-overdue certainty,” as the Court weighs how far federal law preempts state safety-based claims against brokers.

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Crackdown Could Reshape U.S. Trucking

For years, many small and mid-sized carriers built their operations on immigrant drivers who held state-issued CDLs despite lacking work visas or even legal U.S. residency.

These drivers (often from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent) were willing to run harder, longer, and cheaper than their American counterparts.

Now, that pipeline is shutting down.

A Model Built on Quicksand

Craig Fuller, CEO of FreightWaves, warned that “many small and midsize truckers hired non-domiciled CDLs and drivers without work permits. The Administration’s outlawing of this practice will put these carriers into bankruptcy.”

“Some carriers can only survive if they break the law,” wrote Trucking Made Successful, a popular industry commentator. “If you build your company on quicksand, one day it’s going to crumble.”

The Enforcement Wave

At the same time, inspectors are now enforcing English-language proficiency as an out-of-service violation. Drivers unable to communicate or read signs can be pulled off the road immediately.

Across certain weigh stations, including New Buffalo, MI, ICE agents are checking licenses and English skills, creating immediate pressure on fleets built around non-domiciled drivers.

Serbian media reported a dozen drivers arrested in recent days, showing how fast the crackdown is spreading.

THE HUNT FOR TRUCKERS IN THE US HAS BEGUN: About a dozen Serbs arrested, asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, and even Green Card holders targeted! (VIDEO) | Serbiantimes.info EN

In the last few days, raids on roads across America have seen immigration agents arrest at least a dozen Serbian truck drivers, which has caused great concern and fear in the Serbian community in America, especially in the Midwest region, where most of our compatriots currently live. ICE agents, who were deployed in large numbers

Serbiantimes.info EN |Antonije Kovačević

A Market About to Correct Itself

Carriers exploiting this system thrived by slashing wages and ignoring rest limits, driving down rates and setting unrealistic delivery expectations. Brokers, knowingly or not, kept them loaded.

• 500-700 miles/day: what a legal driver can run under the 11-hour rule.
• 800-1,000 miles/day: what illegal or non-domiciled drivers often run to compete.

As enforcement tightens, that artificial capacity could disappear. Fewer trucks on the road means tighter supply and possibly the end of the so-called “Great Freight Recession.”

Still, the near term will sting. Bankruptcies are likely to surge, especially among foreign-owned carriers with 50–100 financed trucks that relied on this labor model to stay afloat.

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🌎 Around The Freight Web

🚨 474 Carriers, One Number. FMCSA data shows 474 trucking companies registered since 2021 using the same Chino Hills, California cell number.

⏱️ Truck Driver Exposes the “Unlimited Clock”. A trucker reveals how some Chicago carriers allegedly bypass hours-of-service rules with an “unlimited clock” system that lets drivers run nonstop.

📉 Broker Count Slips. According to Kevin Hill on LinkedIn, freight brokerage counts turned slightly negative in September after a brief August rebound.

🚫 Canada Closes Trucking Schools. Canadian regulators shut down five trucking schools and thirteen carriers for noncompliance and safety issues.

🚂 Rail Volumes Rise. The Association of American Railroads reported weekly U.S. carload and intermodal volumes rose year-over-year for the week ending September 27.

🚦 States Halt CDLs. California and Oregon suspended issuing non-domiciled CDLs amid the federal crackdown on fraudulent licensing.

🎣 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER

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FREIGHT HUMOR