Goodbye, Contract Cushion

Good Monday morning. The contract cushion brokers relied on is nearly gone. Here's what that means for your margins.

Plus:

• FMCSA Is Pulling ELDs Fast

• Hormuz Cracks Open, Barely

• The $821K Ghost Load Scheme

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Question of the Day:

A logistics company employee ran a ghost load scheme undetected for ___ years before FBI caught up.

Answer below.

🍳 What's Cookin' In Freight

🚛 FMCSA Is Pulling ELDs Fast. In the last 6 months, 435 Electronic Logging Device (ELD) providers registered products, and not a single one has passed the FMCSA’s new vetting process. The crackdown is already underway, with devices like HERO ELD being pulled for failing to meet federal standards. Carriers now have 60 days to replace revoked systems or risk citations and out-of-service violations. Since early 2025, more than 56 devices have been removed, as regulators tighten control to clean up the ELD market — creating serious disruption for fleets forced to swap tech mid-operation while trying to stay compliant.

🚢 Hormuz Cracks Open, Barely. Iran is letting “friendly” ships through the Strait of Hormuz — with vessels linked to the U.S. or Israel not allowed. A French container ship, three Omani tankers, and a Japanese LNG carrier have crossed since Thursday, with vessels quietly switching off AIS transponders mid-transit, while 45 Japanese-owned ships remain stranded. The U.S. has doubled its reinsurance guarantee to $40 billion, adding AIG and Berkshire Hathaway, as tensions rise. On Sunday, Trump escalated with a direct threat to Iran, “Open the Strait or you’ll be living in Hell,” sending shockwaves through energy markets, with U.S. crude jumping to around $115 per barrel amid fears of prolonged disruption.

💸 $821K in Fake Freight Jobs at Port of Savannah. A logistics company employee spent three years creating fake carrier contracts, collecting payment for freight that never moved. Philip Smith awarded the fake jobs to his partner, Antonio Evans. Evans collected the checks and kicked a portion back to Smith. $821,899 over three years before anyone noticed. Both men pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Smith gets 27 months, Evans gets 13. The hole in the system was simple: one person controlled both the contract awards and the carrier approvals. No outside hack required. Just unchecked access, and no one was auditing the work.

Presented By Lanesurf

Capacity's been the tightest in years.Your reps are calling the same carrier lists every other broker is calling ...but there are carriers actively looking for loads on your lanes right now that your team doesn't know about yet.Lanesurf finds these carriers.

Reaches out to them by call, text, and email - all at the same time.

Negotiates rates and books the load.That's how brokerages are covering their loads in minutes - even in this market

The Cushion Is Gone

A year ago, if your contract rate blew up, the spot market was your safety net. That net now has an $0.11 hole in it.

What the Numbers Say

According to the latest U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index — produced with DAT Freight & Analytics — the gap between contract and spot rates has nearly closed:

• Contract premium a year ago: $0.39/mile

• Contract premium today: $0.11/mile

• That's $0.28 of compression in 12 months

• Spot rates: $1.65 in November → $2.01 in February

• Contract rates: $2.02 in November → $2.12 in February

Spot caught up. Contract barely moved. The buffer shippers and brokers relied on is gone.

Why It Happened

This isn't a demand surge. ATA reported tonnage hit a three-year high in February — up 2.1% year over year — but nobody's calling this a boom. What moved the market was simpler and harder to reverse: carriers got selective.

Fleets have cut trucks, stopped chasing cheap freight, and started saying no. Spot rates climbed nearly 28% off their May 2025 bottom. Carrier behavior moved first. Volume is just now catching up.

The industrial side is doing the heavy lifting: data center construction, structural steel, infrastructure. Housing-tied freight (furniture, appliances) is still soft. Carriers know which lanes they want. They're choosing.

What's Coming

DAT Principal Analyst Dean Croke flagged this week that the spring setup looks serious:

• Flatbed spot rates at a 4-year high

• Dry van projected 35% above last year by mid-May

• Reefer up nearly 30% as produce season kicks in

Croke's call: this is the supply-side correction the market has been expecting. Not a bump.

For Brokers

When spot and contract rates are nearly identical, shippers have no reason to honor their routing guides.

Every load becomes a negotiation.

The carriers who've been doing you favors on tough lanes now have options, and they know it.

If you're still pricing like Q3 2025, you're already behind. The market repriced while everyone was waiting for volume to confirm it. Carriers moved first. That's your signal.

Presented by Convoy Platform

Win the fight for quality capacity.

When capacity tightens, every minute counts. The Convoy Platform connects brokers with continuously vetted, reliable carriers to quickly secure the trucks you need—eliminating dead-end calls and giving you the edge in a competitive market.

You set the strategy that's right for your business—from pricing to carrier preferences—while our automated marketplace covers vetting, tracking, document management, payouts and more, freeing up your team to focus on delivering top-tier service and reliability that your customers demand.

 🌎 Around the Freight Web

📈 BoA Survey Signals Real Recovery. The same dataset that called the Great Freight Recession in 2022 is now flashing bullish, and Craig Fuller says the market should believe it.

🌿 No CDL, No Problem. Alabama troopers stopped a driver with an invalid CDL on I-20 and found 185 pounds of marijuana in 23 boxes. Driver was in the U.S. illegally.

🙏 Sunday Shift Dispute. The EEOC sued California-based Blue Eagle Contracting after a driver was forced out for refusing Sunday shifts that conflicted with his Christian faith.

✂️ UPS Cuts a Deal with the Teamsters. UPS and the Teamsters agreed on a buyout plan for up to 7,500 drivers at $150K each, locking in union approval through 2028.

⛽ CHR Waives Fees. C.H. Robinson is dropping fuel card fees for carriers amid rising diesel costs. Small gesture, but in a tightening market, carriers are paying attention to who's making life easier.

🎮 Hasbro Got Hacked. A cyberattack hit Hasbro, disrupting orders and shipments across its supply chain.

🎣 The FreightCaviar Corner

CHATTANOOGA, TN. Join FreightCaviar on April 9th at Home Bar— 409 Market Street — for the drop of FreightCaviar Print Issue No. 2: The Freight Alley Edition, 80 pages tracing how one city became the heartbeat of American trucking, brokerage, and freight technology.The same night, we're premiering our Freight Alley film, where you can hear the story direct from Chattanooga legends like Max Fuller, David Parker, and Ted Alling.

Freight Humor