Navistar Wins $16.5M Lawsuit Over 1,100-Truck Delivery Delay
Michigan jury rejects Central Transport's claim that late 2022 tractor deliveries cost the fleet $15.7 million in lost resale value during the used-truck boom.
Tess Crawford
Markets, Rates, Fuel & Carrier Business
Tess Crawford tracks the money flowing through trucking, spot and contract rates, diesel and crude markets, fuel surcharges, lane capacity, freight demand, LTL tonnage and yield, plus the carrier-business side: bankruptcies, M&A, layoffs, and insurance pricing. She writes for the dispatcher checking the load board between calls and the small-fleet owner reading the P&L over coffee.
Diesel Up 40% in Two Months, What Small Fleets Are Doing to Survive
National diesel averages hit $3.78 to $3.81 by spring 2026, with California fleets paying over $4.50. Fuel surcharges lag weeks behind, leaving small carriers…
How a felon with no license built a 40-truck fleet in seven years
Jerry Murphy started in 2017 with a suspended license and a felony. This summer he bought a 40-year-old carrier and added 25 trucks and 140 trailers to the…
Nine Carriers, Logistics Firms File Bankruptcy as 245 Jobs Cut
Small trucking companies, a drayage fleet, and a trailer maker entered Chapter 7 or 11 protection in the past two weeks while four logistics facilities…
Operating Costs Rose 4.2% in 2025, Outpacing Inflation by 1.5 Points
ATRI data shows trucking costs climbed faster than consumer prices for the second straight year, with driver benefits up 6.6% while wages lagged at 2.5%.
BulkLoads Buys Livestock Network, Adds 25-Year-Old Load Board to Ag Portfolio
Springfield, Missouri-based BulkLoads acquires livestock load board founded in 2000, giving 10,000-carrier network access to factoring, insurance, and TMS…
Truckload Rates Hit 16% Above Baseline, LTL Up 76.5% in Q2 2026
Contract rates climb as 48,000 non-compliant drivers exit, small carriers park trucks over fuel costs, and routing guides collapse.
$104M verdict lands on MVT after driver fell asleep, killed co-driver
El Paso jury found Mesilla Valley Transportation and its trainer responsible for 2020 crash that killed Orlando Robles in sleeper berth.
Transportation Prices Hit 92.4 in June, 3.6 Points Off Record
Capacity declined for the seventh straight month while utilization jumped to an eight-year high in the back half of June. Routing guides are crumbling and…
Van Spot Rates Top Contract for First Time Since 2022
June data shows dry van spot linehaul at a premium to contract, flatbed spread down to 11 cents, and capacity pressure driving pricing power even as volumes…
Indiana State Police Recover $11M in Stolen Freight Since April
Twelve truckloads recovered across central Indiana as investigators track chameleon carriers, forged documents, and fake ELD data.
Freight Rates Hit Record High in May Despite Soft Demand
FTR's Trucking Conditions Index surged to an all-time high in May, driven by tight capacity and fuel cost recovery, not volume growth.