66% of logistics pros say talent quality — not cost — is the #1 factor in choosing a nearshore partner. Rapido's integration model explains why that's the right question to be asking.
Plus, a carrier pleading guilty to mob money laundering while still FMCSA-active, Iran's first post-ceasefire attack and what it means for diesel surcharges, FedEx Freight's first earnings as a standalone company, and more in today's newsletter.
Freight brokers are measuring their inboxes wrong. Most inbound email is monitoring, not work. And the longtail categories that look like noise are costing real margin. Here's how to audit what's actually in your inbox, and why it matters in 2026's margin-first market.
Plus, C.H. Robinson's 2026 rate forecast update, Hormuz tankers still stuck, a $1M LEGO heist, and more.
TGIF. The data center construction boom is supposed to be flatbed's next "super cycle," but now a wrench has been thrown into the works.
Plus:
📈 C.H. Robinson Forecast Rising Rates. C.H. Robinson's Director of Market Intelligence, Ryan Hammett, tagged us directly to share their April forecast update: dry van costs are now projected to rise 17% year-over-year, with reefer up 16% y/y. The chart tells the story — rates bottomed out through most of 2025, surged sharply in early 2026, and the C.H. Robinson forecast shows no reversal through end of year.
🛢️ Hormuz Confusion. A U.S.-Iran ceasefire was announced Tuesday, but shipping hasn't recovered. Only a handful of vessels have transited the strait since the truce — 5 on Wednesday, 7 on Thursday — against a normal flow of hundreds per day. More than 600 vessels, including 325 tankers, remain stranded in the Gulf. Analysts expect safe transit capacity to max out at 10–15 passages a day even if the ceasefire holds. Oil prices dropped toward $95/barrel on the ceasefire news, but don't count on pump relief until those tankers actually start moving.
🧱 $1M In LEGOs & $470K in Stolen Vehicles in the Same Week. Two cargo theft stories that should be on your radar. In California, three people were arrested after stealing approximately $1 million worth of LEGO products from trailers in transit from Fort Worth to Moreno Valley; deputies caught two box trucks fleeing the scene and found the stolen loads inside. Separately in Texas, authorities intercepted two semis carrying $470K in stolen vehicles believed to be headed to Honduras. The real story is that those vehicles moved through what looked like legitimate freight channels before anyone flagged them. Both cases in the same week, same corridor. Vet your carriers.
Transparency builds trust. Trinity Logistics provides clear reporting tools, consistent pay schedules, and no surprises, so Freight Agents always know where they stand.
The AI money is real. The flatbed opportunity is real. The timeline just got a lot messier.
$185 billion in new U.S. data center projects were announced for 2026. Tech giants are on track to collectively spend close to $700B on AI infrastructure this year alone.
FreightCaviar is in the South this week, and we're told the scale of what's going up is genuinely hard to process if you haven't seen it up close. Massive flatbed loads. Structural steel. Generator equipment. Mile after mile of new construction corridor.
But here's what the freight industry needs to understand right now: nearly half of planned U.S. data centers slated to open in 2026 are expected to be delayed or outright canceled. Not due to demand. Not due to funding.
Because you can’t get a transformer.
Electrical components make up <10% of total project cost, but they’re the one piece you can’t skip.
And they’re stuck.
Of the 12 gigawatts worth of data centers supposed to come online in the U.S. this year, only about a third are actually under construction.
Translation: a lot of “planned” capacity isn’t moving yet.
Craig Fuller said it plainly: ."...energy + data centers is going to power the trucking super cycle."
Polymarket currently puts a 35% chance on a data center moratorium passing this year, a risk that wasn't on most brokers' radar two weeks ago.
Drivers already running these lanes are seeing it up close:
Then the reality check:
“Didn’t half of them just get delayed or canceled?”
That’s the tension right now:
On-the-ground momentum vs. looming delays.
The short version: the boom isn't dead, but the timeline is stretched out.
Flatbed demand is already ticking up:
Drivers behind it:
But delays change the shape of demand.
A load expected in March might move in August...or next year.
Introducing: OTR Select "Post and Pray" shouldn't be the only way to find new capacity - now with OTR Select it's never been easier to find reliable capacity and market insights.
OTR Select is a capacity and rate intelligence platform available to a select group of brokers.
🔥 Warehouse Arson Aftermath. An NFI Industries contractor allegedly filmed himself torching a 1.2-million-sq-ft Kimberly-Clark distribution center in Ontario, CA — then posted it. His quote "should've paid us enough to live" went viral. The building didn't survive.
🚂 Norfolk Southern Wins. The STB formally granted NS control of the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line serving the Port of Virginia — a dispute that's been dragging since 2019. CSX lost.
🤖 project44 Goes Shopping. At its Decision44 event, the visibility giant launched a full AI agent portfolio, then immediately acquired AI-native logistics execution company LunaPath.ai in an all-cash deal.
🛤️ Dead Line Breathes. Palmetto Railways is reactivating its 40-mile South Carolina Salkehatchie Subdivision, dormant since a coal plant closed in 2012. First railcar moves expected this month.
🚛 DMV Goes Sideways. 13 arrested, dozens fled, with some abandoning semis on the street, after ICE responded to an unusual crowd of non-domiciled CDL holders at a Pennsylvania licensing center. PennDOT remains under a federal pause on new non-domiciled CDL issuance.
🇲🇽 Strike Called Off. ANTAC suspended highway blockades across 20 Mexican states after police clashes made it too dangerous to continue. The demands: cargo crime, diesel costs, extortion, went unresolved. This one isn't done.
💰 Kickback Scheme Sentenced. Two trucking company owners and two USPS employees got a combined 99 months in federal prison after paying $1.5M in kickbacks to secure $15M in postal contracts. The math didn't work out.
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66% of logistics pros say talent quality — not cost — is the #1 factor in choosing a nearshore partner. Rapido's integration model explains why that's the right question to be asking.
Plus, a carrier pleading guilty to mob money laundering while still FMCSA-active, Iran's first post-ceasefire attack and what it means for diesel surcharges, FedEx Freight's first earnings as a standalone company, and more in today's newsletter.
Freight brokers are measuring their inboxes wrong. Most inbound email is monitoring, not work. And the longtail categories that look like noise are costing real margin. Here's how to audit what's actually in your inbox, and why it matters in 2026's margin-first market.
Bad carriers are gaming the weigh station system. Plus, C.H. Robinson's own engineer goes scorched earth on Reddit, the Ghost Truck Act gets roasted, and more in today's newsletter.
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