🎣 Dark Money in Freight Lawsuits

Happy Hump Day. Someone is quietly funding the lawsuits hitting carriers, and eight states just decided they've had enough.

Plus:

• Diesel Stops Rising, For Now
• A 13-Year Customer Stopped Paying
• Congress Moves on Cargo Theft

and more.

🍳 What's Cookin' In Freight

⛽ Diesel Finally Blinked. The DOE/EIA benchmark diesel price fell Monday for the first time in 13 weeks, snapping a streak that added $2.184/gallon since late January and pushed prices to $5.643/gallon, the highest since July 2022. The Iran war drove most of the run-up; EIA still forecasts diesel peaking near $5.80/gallon this month before easing as Hormuz disruptions slowly unwind. One down week doesn't undo three months of margin damage for carriers, but it's the first break they've had since February.

⚖️ A 13-Year Customer Stopped Paying. R&R Express filed suit against Pittsburgh-based McElroy Metal Mill for $726,031.25 in unpaid freight invoices, money McElroy allegedly stopped paying in December 2025 despite 37,268 loads hauled and over $76 million billed across a 12-year partnership. R&R accuses McElroy of breach of contract for refusing to pay "despite repeated requests and demands." A 13-year relationship, $76 million in freight, and then silence. Brokers who run long-term shipper accounts without payment terms documentation should be paying attention.

🏛️ Congress Moves on Cargo Theft. The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act cleared the House Judiciary Committee yesterday with bipartisan support, backed by roughly half of House members, 43 senators, and the Trump administration. The bill would create a multi-agency federal task force to connect theft patterns across jurisdictions, something local law enforcement has never been able to do on its own. Cargo theft costs the industry $18 million a day. Advocates want it passed as a standalone before the pre-election window closes.

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Someone Is Bankrolling the Lawsuits Hitting Carriers

A LandLine report published yesterday documented at least eight states that have passed laws in the past 12 months targeting the outside investors quietly bankrolling lawsuits against carriers (third-party litigation).

Because their incentive is profit, not resolution, cases drag longer, settlements inflate, and the carrier pays for it at renewal, whether they won or lost.

How It's Impacting The Numbers

• Insurance premiums for trucking have risen 36% over the past eight years, with renewals in early 2025 alone up nearly 10%
• Commercial auto liability premiums rose 10.4% in a single quarter, with litigation funding cited as a primary driver
• Liability claim severity has increased 57% over the past decade, driven by large verdicts and awards exceeding $100 million
• Lawsuit abuse ranked second in ATRI's 2026 industry survey — its highest position in 21 years of tracking

Pavel Botev, a former hazmat carrier owner who runs a drayage operation and spoke to FC this week, lived this math firsthand.

A fender bender that caused roughly $3,000 in physical damage to another vehicle ended with an attorney's letter threatening a million-dollar lawsuit.

A separate claim from 2023, with no police report and disputed facts, had a plaintiff demanding seven figures, citing injuries that appeared inconsistent with social media posts made days after the alleged incident.

His insurance company's calculus: settle for less than fighting costs, regardless of merit.

"Insurance companies start settling for small amounts," he said. "All these claims are going to my record and next year, renewal, I'm gonna pay for that."

That's the mechanism. Each settled claim, legitimate or not, hits the carrier's loss runs. Loss runs drive renewal pricing. Renewal pricing pushes small operators out of the market or forces them to cut corners to stay in it.

States Step Up

LandLine's reporting details the legislative wave directly:

• Mississippi — new law requires disclosure of any foreign funder within 30 days of signing a deal. Effective July 1.
• Ohio HB105 — bans foreign governments and corporations from litigation funding entirely. Passed the House, headed to Senate Judiciary.
• Missouri HB3205 — blocks foreign players and their middlemen, makes willful violations a felony, voids non-compliant deals.
• Utah — funders must register with the state; foreign entities of concern banned outright.
• Federal — Senators Kennedy and Grassley introduced the Litigation Funding Transparency Act in February, targeting disclosure in mass tort and class action cases.

So What?

• Brokers are more likely to be named in lawsuits than before
• Those lawsuits may last longer and cost more
• Insurance will continue to get tighter and more expensive
• A strong carrier vetting process = part of your legal defense.

Pavel was blunt:

"The majority of the claims are extremely fraudulent, and there is no way for trucking companies to get protected from it."

But eight states acting in one year is real momentum.

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 🌎 Around the Freight Web

📦 Imports Still Coming In. U.S.-bound imports posted strong March gains according to the Descartes Global Shipping Report, with overall shipment volumes up despite ongoing trade policy uncertainty heading into Q2.

🚛 TruckSmarter Killed Its Load Board. Five years after building one, TruckSmarter is replacing it with the newest version of Dispatch, its chat-based interface where verified carriers search, negotiate, and book loads through a single prompt instead of scrolling a board. Brokers post free. Agents handle the rest.

✅ North Dakota Gets Recertified. FMCSA recertified North Dakota after a December freeze over non-compliant non-domiciled CDL issuance. Only about 150 of the 526 audited credentials will be reissued, with 22 other states still awaiting recertification.

🔍 60 Minutes Reaction. FreightWaves' Rob Carpenter spent eight months feeding CBS tens of thousands of documents on the Super Ego chameleon carrier network; here's what didn't make the final cut.

🌮 Mexico Didn't Get the Memo. U.S.-Mexico two-way trade hit $73.2 billion in February, up 7% year-over-year, keeping Mexico the top U.S. trading partner despite tariff headwinds, with Port Laredo ranking as the No. 2 international trade gateway.

📱 Trucker Path Got More Loads. Trucker Path integrated Truckstop.com's load board into its TruckLoads app, giving its 1 million+ drivers access to more than 10x as many loads, while requiring all carriers to meet Truckstop's existing fraud prevention and vetting standards.

🤖 PE Bets on LTL. STG acquired Carrier Logistics Inc., the leading TMS provider for LTL carriers, with plans to integrate agentic AI into its core architecture for autonomous dispatch, routing, and terminal dock optimization.

🎣 The FreightCaviar Corner

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