Fraud Can Run, But Can It Drive?

Happy Hump Day. FMCSA, together with DHS and DOJ, launched a coordinated crackdown on CDL fraud this week.

Plus:

• Brake Safety Week Broke a 10-Year Capacity Record

• Trucking Groups Fight Penske Liability Ruling

• One Playbook, Two Scams, Three Stolen Loads

💡 QUESTION OF THE DAY:

FMCSA has linked ___ commercial-vehicle fatalities to drivers certified by training providers now facing removal.

🍳 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT

📈 Brake Safety Week Broke a 10-Year Capacity Record. Truck postings fell 10% for dry van during Brake Safety Week, which is more than double the usual 2-4% seasonal dip, pushing the load-to-truck ratio to 12.01, up from 9.62 the week before and 6.69 a year ago, the highest Week 35 reading in DAT's 10-year comparison. Reefer's ratio hit 23.55. The Logistics Managers' Index put transportation capacity at 40.0 in August, still below the 50-point line that separates growth from contraction, though a slower contraction than July's 28.4. Transportation prices hit 90.0, up 3.1 points; the fourth time in five months that metric has topped 90 on a 100-point scale.

⚖️ Trucking Groups Fight Penske Liability Ruling. ATA and the Truckload Carriers Association are asking the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit a ruling that held Penske Logistics liable. A three-judge panel had already decided the case once, on Aug. 4. That panel held that Penske Logistics could be a "statutory employer" liable for a fatal crash caused by a driver for OK Trans, a carrier with which it had never contracted. In their filing, the two groups wrote that the panel "imposed statutory employment liability on Penske Logistics under the federal leasing regulations for an accident caused by an employee driver for a separate, authorized carrier, which Penske Logistics knew nothing about."

🕵️ One Playbook, Two Scams, Three Stolen Loads. Cook County, Illinois, sheriff's deputies recovered $647,420 in stolen Nike merchandise on Aug. 23, two days after a thief used fake paperwork to pick up the shipment in Memphis and divert it to Chicago instead of its intended destination in Dallas. Days earlier, on Aug. 17, thieves arranged two separate fraudulent pickups, an hour apart, at an Anheuser-Busch/Pabst distribution center in Montclair, California, making off with a combined $70,000 worth of beer. Montclair Police Officer Dominguez said the same broker arranged both pickups, and had already tried to send in a truck the week before, only to be rejected.

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FMCSA Emergency-Removes 110 CDL Schools

FMCSA used emergency authority Monday to remove 110 commercial driver's license schools from its Training Provider Registry, effective immediately.

"Fraud can run, but it can't drive," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on X, announcing the shutdown. The same day, in a separate action, Homeland Security Investigations ran an inspection sweep of more than 200 schools across 23 states.

DOJ also formed a new task force, Crossroads of America, pairing U.S. Attorney's offices in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio with FMCSA and several other federal agencies, including the FBI.

The Bar for Getting Shut Down

FMCSA said that every one of the 110 emergency-removed schools had certified at least 10 drivers who were later cited for English-language proficiency violations during roadside inspections.

Those removals followed a separate review in which FMCSA sent 175 investigators into 40 states to conduct nearly 400 inspections, turning up unlicensed instructors, missing records, and one classroom that was the back of a parked semi-trailer.

That review produced 160 additional notices of proposed removal. FMCSA said drivers certified by those providers have been linked to 239 commercial-vehicle fatalities.

Not All Schools

A registry pull on the morning of Sept. 1 found just 103 providers flagged so far, according to Rob Carpenter, a compliance consultant who closely tracks the registry. DOT's "more than 110" figure may still be catching up as entries post.

Almost a fifth of those are in Pennsylvania alone. At least 14 of the 103, Carpenter found, aren't training schools by any plain reading.

They're motor carriers registered as their own in-house training providers, which is legal under FMCSA rules, but it means the same company that trains a driver, certifies him, and then hires him is also the only party checking whether that training actually happened.

The Numbers So Far, and What's at Stake

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the actions build on 18 months of enforcement.

That effort has already pulled 28,000 drivers off the road for failing English-proficiency checks, forced states to cancel more than 30,000 non-domiciled licenses, and removed over 8,000 training providers from FMCSA's registry.

FMCSA can also withhold federal highway funds from noncompliant states, or move to decertify their CDL programs entirely.

If the Crackdown Keeps Going

Speaking at the FTR Transportation Conference, Reliance Partners Chief Revenue Officer Thom Albrecht argued that the broader regulatory enforcement push, of which Monday's action is one part, could stretch the current capacity crunch into a "supercycle", a run of freight pricing well above historical averages that lasts past 2028.

Whether that holds depends on continued enforcement, since it's part of what keeps the driver pipeline and capacity tight.

"If the FMCSA and the DOT overall just pause ... then I believe the cycle will generally be losing momentum by either the end of 2027 or Q1 of 2028," Albrecht said.

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 🌎 AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB

😬 Brake Safety Week Ended, So Did These Brakes. A semi's brakes failed on an I-71 ramp in Cincinnati the day after Brake Safety Week wrapped, leaving the cab dangling off the overpass.

🏈 A Fantasy Football League Is Backing a Truckers' Relief Fund. Transfix's freight-industry league has already raised $26,200 against a $10,000 goal for the St. Christopher's Truckers Relief Fund, before Week 1 even kicks off.

🧾The Annual Fee Every Trucking Company Pays Is Going Up 20%. FMCSA is moving forward with the Unified Carrier Registration hike over trucker objections, with the smallest carriers paying $9 more a year and the largest fleets facing an increase of over $9,300.

🍁 Canada Draws the Line: No More Memes, Eh. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the Americans to "stop doing memes" and "throwing shade" before Ottawa comes back to the table, with 50% tariffs on Canadian goods still in effect.

🔌 A Major Free Load Board Is Shutting Down Friday. TruckSmarter told customers directly that it's being acquired and will shut down the app entirely on September 4. No word yet on who's buying it or what happens next.

📸 Flock Cameras Are Citing Trucks They Can't Weigh. A Lake County, Indiana driver got a $2,500-fine warning for a weight violation from a license-plate camera that has no way to actually measure weight.

🎣 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER

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😂 FREIGHT HUMOR

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🎧 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR PODCAST

John Ferguson, Founder & CEO of Pivot Supply Chain Solutions, Inc., joined Reed Loustalot on the FreightCaviar Podcast to discuss how he grew his brokerage from zero to $50M, what it took to build the company from a basement with no credit, and why relationships and phone calls still matter in freight.

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