Freight/Signal
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§2The Cold Open
BROKER CARRIER FLEET COMPLIANCE — Aman Singh · 5 min read
Wednesday brought three federal moves to the same carriers and brokers in 72 hours. Montgomery v. Caribe Transport (Barrett, 9–0, Kavanaugh + Alito concurring) told 28,000 brokers their FAAAA preemption shield is gone. CSA scores are now the broker vetting standard. CVSA's Roadcheck closed the same day with a 31.4% day-1 out-of-service rate — ELD tampering was this year's driver focus. And MOTUS Phase II launched at 8 PM ET through the same Login.gov + IDEMIA flow that already halved newly-granted operating authorities in 2025. Three changes, one pattern: ecosystem caught flat-footed. This week — the 14-ELD replacement filter and the cancellation-fee fight.
§3Three Signals
Signal 1 · CVSA Roadcheck day 1 hit a 31.4% OOS rate
CARRIER · FLEET · COMPLIANCE
What: 496 of 1,580 inspections placed out of service across 1,417 carriers — 2,637 violations total — against a 2025 full-event benchmark of 18.1%. Why it matters: ELD tampering was this year's driver focus, and the 14 March-revoked Gorilla-firmware devices were still operating during the May 12–14 blitz. Do: if any of your trucks ran one of the revoked devices through Roadcheck, expect a follow-up notice. The replacement filter is in §5. [Source: FreightWaves, 2026-05-13.]
Signal 2 · MOTUS Phase II went live through the same flow that halved authorities in 2025
COMPLIANCE · CARRIER · FLEET
What: FMCSA's MOTUS registration system launched May 14 at 8 PM ET through the same Login.gov + IDEMIA identity-verification flow that took newly-granted operating authorities from 60–65% filed-to-published to ~30% in April 2025. Why it matters: if your Login.gov email doesn't match FMCSA's record, you can't transact in the new system. Do: verify the match now — FMCSA Office of Registration director Ken Riddle warned pre-launch that the manual-verification line "is going to be quite long." The 450-agent Contact Center runs 8am–8pm ET.
Signal 3 · The freight broker insurance gap is now real
BROKER · FLEET
What: Your $75,000 surety bond covers payment disputes, not tort liability. The policy that responds to a Montgomery-style negligent-selection claim is contingent auto liability — never federally required, often skipped by smaller brokers. Why it matters: Marsh's Janelle Griffith puts the underwriting shift bluntly — insurers will favor brokers with "consistent, data-driven, auditable carrier selection processes." Do: call your insurance broker today and confirm contingent auto + contingent cargo coverage and limits. Not tomorrow. Today.
§4The Market Read
Value | WoW | |
|---|---|---|
Dry van spot (national avg, $/mile linehaul) | $2.00 | +$0.01 |
Top-50 lanes avg ($/mile) | $2.36 | +$0.01 |
On-highway diesel (national, $/gal) | $5.639 | −$0.001 |
Dry van load-to-truck ratio | 8.68 | +21% |
The Call. Diesel printed essentially flat — still up $2.16 (~62%) year-over-year, with West Coast highest at $6.562 and Gulf Coast lowest at $5.152. National spot ticked up a penny. The real story is the load-to-truck ratio jumping 21% to 8.68 on Roadcheck enforcement sidelining capacity. Equipment posts hit the year's low (−12% WoW). Regulatory enforcement, not freight demand, is tightening spot this week.
Indicative figures. Public sources (DAT Trendlines, EIA Weekly Diesel). Not a substitute for paid intelligence.
§4The Market Read
Value | WoW | |
|---|---|---|
Dry van spot (national avg, $/mile linehaul) | $2.00 | +$0.01 |
Top-50 lanes avg ($/mile) | $2.36 | +$0.01 |
On-highway diesel (national, $/gal) | $5.639 | −$0.001 |
Dry van load-to-truck ratio | 8.68 | +21% |
The Call. Diesel printed essentially flat — still up $2.16 (~62%) year-over-year, with West Coast highest at $6.562 and Gulf Coast lowest at $5.152. National spot ticked up a penny. The real story is the load-to-truck ratio jumping 21% to 8.68 on Roadcheck enforcement sidelining capacity. Equipment posts hit the year's low (−12% WoW). Regulatory enforcement, not freight demand, is tightening spot this week.
Indicative figures. Public sources (DAT Trendlines, EIA Weekly Diesel). Not a substitute for paid intelligence.
§5The Deep Dive — The 14 ELDs FMCSA pulled
CARRIER FLEET COMPLIANCE TOOLS
FMCSA has revoked 67 ELDs since January 2025, per Administrator Derek Barrs. Ten of the 14 pulled on March 4 are Gorilla Fleet Safety firmware reskinned under different brand names — ClearPath ELD, SimpleX 2 Go, AllwaysTrack, HCSS Pro, ELDX Pro. Issue #0 covered the list. The harder question is which device to replace it with and how to get out of the contract you're stuck in.
The filter
Four bullets, in order:
Same form factor — BT-OBD dongle, hard-wired, or tablet
Same telematics tier — basic HOS / DVIR / full fleet
Vendor on the FMCSA registered list ≥ 2 years
Verify by model number, not vendor name — this is the trap that caught carriers running Gorilla-firmware reskins
Applied to a 5-truck dry-van fleet running BT-OBD, basic HOS, sub-$30/mo: three candidates survive — HOS247 (FLT2) at ~$19/mo with free hardware, Blue Ink Technology BIT ELD at ~$18/mo with no long-term contract, and Garmin eLog at a one-time ~$200 purchase with zero monthly fees. Verify each model number against the live registered list on draft day. Vendor names lie; model numbers don't.
The cancellation fight
Three steps:
Written cancellation request citing the FMCSA revocation notice + 49 CFR § 395.8(a)(1).
Refuse early-termination fees. Two doctrines apply: frustration of purpose + supervening impossibility. The contract's principal purpose (federally-compliant HOS) is now regulatorily impossible.
If the vendor refuses: complaints to your state AG's consumer protection division, the BBB, and FMCSA's NCCDB. Small-claims is the floor; the FMCSA notice is admissible.
Courts read these doctrines narrowly. Build the paper trail — written notice, cited regulation, complaint receipts. Vendors who see this stack rarely press for ETFs.
§6Tool of the Week — Login.gov
⚪ WATCH
Type: Federal identity proofing · Effort: Medium · Risk: Low for compliance, medium for timeline
The federal government's single sign-on — used by IRS, SSA, and now FMCSA via MOTUS. Verify identity once, reuse everywhere. Two setup gotchas trip operators: the phone-in-your-name check (DBA operators and recently-name-changed users fail) and SSN verification. If digital fails, the USPS in-person fallback runs through participating Post Offices — no appointment, but you wait in line, and your barcode expires seven days after starting online. Foreign-born, recently name-changed, and DBA operators see the highest friction. When it breaks, FMCSA's Contact Center (450 agents, 8am–8pm ET) is the unlock. Login.gov verification help →
§7Rule Watch — May 19 to June 18
When | What |
|---|---|
🟡 Late May 2026 | FMCSA Broker Transparency NPRM 2 projected publish — adds a 48-hour electronic records-delivery duty under 49 CFR 371.3. 60–90 day comment period to follow. The second leg of the broker regulatory floor, post-Montgomery. |
🟡 End of May 2026 | FMCSA Preservation of Records NPRM expected publish. |
🟢 Tue Jul 7, 2026 | Compliance deadline for the May 7 ELD revocations (Safe ELD by Bemorex Inc., MYLOGS ELD by Mylogs Inc.). If you run either, replace before then. |
Look-ahead | Friday, July 31 — IFTA Q2 fuel tax filing deadline. |
§8Off the Dock
Three federal moves, 72 hours, same operators. Carriers saw the enforcement wave coming through FMCSA bulletins; brokers may not have.
For carriers: what did MOTUS break, and what did you swap your ELD to? For brokers: how is your carrier vetting changing after Montgomery? Reply directly — replies become next week's Signals.
Next Tuesday: what AI dispatch agents actually do — three real fleets, the prompts, the costs, what broke.
— Aman Singh · Editor · Freight/Signal · [email protected]
Freight/Signal
A Logixtecs Publication · Established 2026 · Indiana · Chicago · Vol 1 · Issue 01
Corrections: [email protected] · Role prefs: /me · Tip the editor: [email protected]
Primary sources cited
Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, No. 24-1238 (May 14, 2026) — slip opinion
FMCSA — Removes 14 ELDs (March 4, 2026)
FMCSA — Registered ELD list (live)
49 CFR § 395.8 — eCFR
CVSA — 2026 International Roadcheck
Industry / trade press
FreightWaves — 2026 CVSA Roadcheck day 1 (Wingfield, 2026-05-13)
FreightWaves — Broker insurance gap (Carpenter, 2026-05-14)
FreightWaves — 67 ELDs revoked (Carpenter, 2026-05-07)
Scopelitis — Spring 2026 Newsletter, Montgomery coverage