Love's Travel Stop #84 — Madill, OK Truck Stop

FTR reports dry van spot rates up 6 cents last week, reefer up 3 cents, flatbed down 6 cents. DAT shows lower national linehaul averages across all three equipment types.

Sep 18, 2026

Electric Vehicles

Can a trailer pay for itself by selling power back to the grid?

Electric axles, roof solar, and battery storage let trailers recover energy during braking and generate power on the road. One project claims 7,000 liters of diesel saved per tr…

Sep 18, 2026

TMS & Software Reviews

SONAR's new Custom Insights tool is built for shippers, not carriers

FreightWaves launched SCI: Custom Insights for its Shipper Consortium. The platform combines shipper tender data with SONAR market benchmarks. Owner-operators won't see it, but …

Sep 17, 2026

Driver Life on the Road

Dot Foods cuts high-risk drivers from 2,200 to 30 with data coaching

Private fleets can't replace drivers anymore, so they're scoring behavior and coaching the bottom 10% instead of firing them. Dot Foods' system costs $250,000 but prevents one c…

Sep 17, 2026

Equipment & OEM

Digital color tools cut fleet truck repaint time by 15%

PPG's spectrophotometer and cloud platform eliminate test-panel cycles in collision shops, speeding fleet livery repairs.

Sep 17, 2026

Markets & Rates

Diesel Hits $6.26/Gallon as Freight Posts First Growth in 42 Months

Spot rates lag fuel surge by 15 cents per mile. Cass Index turns positive for the first time since 2022. Tender rejections at 14% signal tight capacity into peak.

Sep 17, 2026

Fuel & Energy

Diesel Hits $6.33/Gallon, 50 Cents Above Prior Record

Saudi pipeline shutdown and refinery losses push diesel to new high. Tom Kloza says next 100 days could be rougher still for fleets and owner-operators.

Sep 17, 2026

Fuel & Energy

Diesel Spike Cuts Natural Gas Truck Payback to Under 3 Years

Energy Vision report says RNG trucks now pencil faster for fleets replacing pre-2013 diesels, but fueling infrastructure remains the gate.

Sep 16, 2026

Compliance & FMCSA

FMCSA Pauses Biennial-Update Enforcement During Motus Rollout

Agency extends customer-service hours as carriers report problems with the new registration system. Intrastate carriers are not subject to the federal biennial-update requirement.

Sep 16, 2026

Equipment & OEM

Michelin regional tire cuts rolling resistance 9%, targets 1M-mile casing

New tread compound and reinforced bead aim to survive high-torque starts and stop-and-go cycles in pickup-and-delivery work.

Sep 16, 2026

Compliance & FMCSA

Trucking Groups Push Excise Tax Repeal, Cargo Theft Bills Before Recess

Industry advocates are lobbying Congress to advance federal excise tax repeal and cargo theft oversight measures before lawmakers leave Washington.

Sep 15, 2026