The Middle East crisis is already hitting carriers. Plus: Florida lost $3B in crops, flatbed rates posted a fifth straight weekly increase, a $5B brokerage was just acquired, and more.
Plus: autonomous trucking just raised $113M, California is fighting to keep 20,000 drivers, Arrive's 2026 truckload freight forecast, and more.
Two bills just dropped in the Senate that could reshape trucking faster than anything since deregulation. Plus: Russian hackers targeted your load board, flatbed rejection rates just hit 40%, and a robot is taking the Houston-Dallas overnight run.
For freight brokers, these rankings are key. Knowing the top performers in specific regions, mileage bands, and direct retailer deliveries leads to smarter carrier selection.
Happy National Carrier Day. We just made that up, but it might as well be National Carrier Day after Isometric Technologies (ISO) presented its third annual carrier awards yesterday. Today’s main story will reveal the best carriers in our industry.
In today's email:
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🐔 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT
📉 Stockton, CA: Warehouse Boom to Gloom. Once, towns like Stockton, California rode the high wave of the e-commerce boom, with giants like Amazon transforming sleepy towns into bustling freight hubs, creating jobs and economic growth. But as the online shopping frenzy cools, these towns face a new reality: job cuts and economic uncertainty. Nationally, warehousing employment dipped by 0.9% from the previous year in January, while Stockton experienced a sharper decline of 5.4% YoY. Plus, Stockton's unemployment rate shot to 6.8% from a low of 4.4% in May 2022.
🐭 Family Dollar Fined $41.6 Million for Rodent Infestation in Warehouse. Family Dollar Stores are hit with a $41.6 million fine for operating a mouse-infested warehouse in Arkansas, leading to the distribution of contaminated goods to 400 stores. Though aware of the problem in August 2020, the company continued shipments until a 2022 FDA inspection uncovered live and dead rodents and other poor conditions. With 1,270 dead mice found post-fumigation, Family Dollar pleaded guilty to causing goods to be adulterated. Now, under new leadership, the company commits to safety overhauls and plans a $100 million investment to revamp the facility, creating a clean slate and 300 jobs.
🧮 IKEA vs. Convoy Lawsuit Exposes Freight Rates. IKEA's lawsuit against digital freight brokerage Convoy has thrown the curtain back on brokered freight rates, revealing some eye-opening numbers. A contract showed IKEA paid Convoy rates significantly above and, in one case, below spot market averages, sparking debate on broker transparency and margins. For example, a lane from Bolingbrook, IL, to Merriam, KS, fetched a 49% higher rate than the spot average.
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On Tuesday, Isometric Technologies (ISO) presented its third annual "Excellence in Service" Top 50 Awards. ISO gathered data from across their network of ISO shippers and awarded carriers based on their ISO Score, a comprehensive analysis of performance data across shipments. By analyzing over $18 billion in order revenue from top-tier CPG, food, and beverage shippers, ISO evaluated performance across more than 3,630 carriers.
For freight brokers, these rankings are key. Knowing the top performers in specific regions, mileage bands, and direct retailer deliveries leads to smarter carrier selection. It's a way to pinpoint partnerships that elevate service quality and reliability in a broker's offerings.
Let's get to the results. We're looking at the top performers by category, note that the top category performers may not be in the overall Top 50 (View the full list here).
Highlighting the best carriers operating within specific North American regions.
Recognizing carriers excelling over distances, from local deliveries to long hauls.
ISO honored Convoy, who would have been a Top 50 performer but for the company ceasing operations in October 2023. Even as Convoy bows out, its mention calls attention to the evolving landscape of digital freight brokerage. ISO nods to the "hard-working employees and technology that will continue to move our industry forward," as evidenced by Flexport's recent relaunch of the Convoy Platform.
Adriana Pulley
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AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB
🤖 Einride Moving Forward. An Einride autonomous truck now delivers for GE Appliances in Tennessee.
🚚 Parking Pains at KeHE. Truckers are up in arms over KeHe Distributors extreme parking and lumper fees, leading to calls for a boycott of the facility.
📉 Layoff Wave Crashes Over Freight. 573 workers face layoffs across California, Illinois, and Michigan freight firms, including DHL Supply Chain, Ceva Logistics, Hillside Logistics, and more, due to market conditions and customer losses.
🔄 CEO Shuffle at Knight-Swift. Knight-Swift Transportation announces Adam Miller as new CEO, following Dave Jackson's departure amid profit slumps and insurance venture losses.
💸 Bankruptcy Blues for Boateng Logistics. Boateng Logistics, a California freight forwarder, files for bankruptcy, leaving carriers and the SBA among its top creditors with millions owed.
📦 E-Commerce Giants Choke Air Freight. The influx of cheap goods from Chinese firms Temu and Shein is causing air freight bottlenecks and record-high rates.
🎣 FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER
Our latest FreightCaviar Podcast episode features Michael Sachaj of Hyde Park Angels (one of the first investors in FourKites). We talked about the world of venture capital funding, AI and its impact on the future of freight tech, and what that means for investments in the sector.
You can catch the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube read about it here.
FREIGHT MEME OF THE DAY
Also, check out:
The Middle East crisis is already hitting carriers. Plus: Florida lost $3B in crops, flatbed rates posted a fifth straight weekly increase, a $5B brokerage was just acquired, and more.
Plus: autonomous trucking just raised $113M, California is fighting to keep 20,000 drivers, Arrive's 2026 truckload freight forecast, and more.
Two bills just dropped in the Senate that could reshape trucking faster than anything since deregulation. Plus: Russian hackers targeted your load board, flatbed rejection rates just hit 40%, and a robot is taking the Houston-Dallas overnight run.
This week: The Dalilah Law, a trucking bankruptcy that wiped out thousands overnight, a FreightGuard civil war on Reddit, and the payroll data that's predicting Q4 capacity.
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