No Place for Newbies

Happy Friday. Trucking posted a net gain of more than 5,000 operating authorities this year. But in a post-Montgomery world, new authority doesn't carry the same value.

Plus:

• States Sue Trump Administration over CDL Data

• Uber Freight Hacked, Feds Called In

• Fura Buys Its Seventh Brokerage

💡 QUESTION OF THE DAY:

FMCSA expects ______ non-domiciled CDL holders won't meet the new requirements.

🍳 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT

⚖️ States Sue Trump Administration over CDL Data. 22 state attorneys general, plus Pennsylvania's governor, sued the Trump administration on Thursday to stop FMCSA and DHS from seizing Social Security numbers, birthdates, and license records for 17 million commercial drivers. FMCSA first demanded the records July 23; DHS followed with a subpoena Aug. 11. Absent a court order, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) plans to hand over the data by Aug. 17 to preserve $10 million in federal funding. "The Trump administration is attempting to seize confidential state records without any lawful justification," New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

🔓 Uber Freight Hacked, Feds Called In. A hacker group calling itself Helix claims it stole nearly 1 million files from Uber Freight, including mailboxes, OneDrive accounts, and accounts-receivable records, posting the claim to its leak site Aug. 6. Uber Freight spokesperson Sam Hallock said the incident was "identified, contained and remediated" and that the company "promptly engaged federal law enforcement," adding there was "no impact to Uber Freight's business operations, which continue in the normal course without disruption." Google tracks Helix as part of a broader hacking cluster, UNC6671, that has collected at least $10.6 million in extortion payouts since January.

🤖 Fura Buys Its Seventh Brokerage. Fura Inc., a Cincinnati-based digital freight broker and 3PL, acquired Washington-based High Rise Logistics, its seventh brokerage acquisition. CEO Jeff Dangelo said Fura targets brokerages with less than $30 million in revenue and can onboard an acquired company in about a week. He said AI agents working through email, text and phone now source nearly 40% of Fura's booked carriers. One earlier acquisition had revenue fall from $26 million to $12 million before Fura bought it. Dangelo said it has since grown beyond $30 million, while headcount has dropped from about 30 to 6. Fura's revenue has grown from $10 million to more than $100 million in two years.

PRESENTED BY VOOMA

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The Capacity Illusion

More than 5,000 net new trucking authorities have been issued in 2026, FreightWaves data show, even though 19,594 were revoked over that stretch. By quarter: 400 in Q1, 2,910 in Q2, 1,996 in Q3 through the first week of August.

Julie Van de Kamp, chief customer officer at FreightWaves SONAR, said the headline number overstates available capacity.

Brokers aren't tendering freight to carriers running brand-new MC numbers with no safety rating, Van de Kamp said, not with the Supreme Court's Montgomery v. Caribe Transport ruling exposing them to negligent-hiring suits over it.

"I don't see the case for continued increase in capacity because you're not going to be able to find drivers to fill the seats," she said.

10 Trucks Acting Like 15

The real capacity story is at FMCSA's enforcement desk. Werner CEO Derek Leathers said at a Deutsche Bank investor summit that federal crackdowns on non-compliant electronic logging devices (ELDs) are pulling trucks off the road faster than new authorities can replace them.

FMCSA blacklisted 56 ELD models in 2026, on top of 32 last year, and blocked roughly 400-500 new devices from reaching the market.

Those devices let drivers illegally stretch their hours. "The reason the market was so saturated was that 10 trucks were able to behave like 15," Leathers said.

As Tight as We Have Ever Seen

Non-domiciled CDLs are squeezed too. Rhode Island stopped issuing them, and Utah issued one in a three-month window. FMCSA estimates about 194,000 of the roughly 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders won't meet the new requirements.

Schneider CEO Jim Filter called the market driver constrained. "It's structurally different than what it was in the past," he said.

"And so capacity won't grow as fast as it did after the pandemic, and that's why this recovery could last longer than other recoveries," Filter added.

Roughly a third of non-domiciled drivers haven't exited the system, he said, and a pending rule known as Dalilah's Law could pull that remaining capacity out abruptly.

J.B. Hunt CEO Shelley Simpson said the driver pool in certain markets is "as tight as we have ever seen."

The Brake Check Is Coming

Demand is expected to keep climbing into peak season, and the end-of-August "brake check" period, a seasonal inflection point, will show whether the market is entering a hotter cycle, FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller and Van de Kamp said.

Van de Kamp added that structural supply constraints, plus industrial activity broadening beyond data centers into housing and auto, could push the upcycle past the summer 2026 timeline analysts have predicted.

CVSA's annual Brake Safety Week is scheduled for Aug. 23–29, coinciding with the pre-Labor Day stretch that reliably tightens tender rejections and capacity.

PRESENTED BY HIGHWAY

With more than 500 drivers across the U.S., Billor has built a carrier network designed around the needs of brokers and drivers. That includes embracing technology that helps eliminate fraud, improve visibility, streamline operations, and create better opportunities for their drivers.

Now, with Highway’s Trusted Freight Exchange (TFX) integrated directly into its TMS, Billor can connect its drivers with relevant freight from verified brokers without adding more work to the process.

See how Billor is putting it all together in our latest Carrier Spotlight.

 🌎 AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB

⚖️ What Broker Margins Look Like Right Now. With seasonal spot volume shrinking, EASE Logistics' Ken Adamo says he's tweaking pricing to turn more quotes into booked loads while still hitting healthy margins.

🚢 East Coast Container Rates Break Another Record. Asia–East Coast spot rates hit a new high of $9,144 per forty-foot container, while West Coast rates jumped 11% in a week to $6,826.

📦 Most Cargo Theft Happens in the First 50 Miles. Overhaul's new Q2 report found that 68% of Southern California "Red Zone" thefts occurred within 50 miles of pickup, up from 61%, while pilferage widened its lead as the nation's top theft method, accounting for 46% of incidents.

🚂 States Push Back on the Rail Merger. Republican attorneys general from seven states told federal regulators the UP–Norfolk Southern merger's rate-protection plan covers too little traffic and could leave many shippers paying more, not less.

🏆 Freight Flex Makes the Inc. 5000 Again. The Denton, Texas brokerage landed at No. 204 on this year's Inc. 5000, its second straight appearance on a list that ranks companies by three-year revenue growth.

🔧 Breakdowns Just Got 25 Minutes Shorter. Continental Tire and myMechanic's new digital dispatch workflow connects fleets and dealers, resolving breakdowns more than 25 minutes faster than phone calls.

🎣 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER

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😂 FREIGHT HUMOR

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🎧 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR PODCAST

CEO & Founder at AscendTMS, Tim Higham, joined Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski and Tom Stawinski on the FreightCaviar Podcast to discuss his journey through the logistics industry, the future of freight tech, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and more.

Watch it on YouTube, or listen to the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.