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.
The March LMI reads like 2022 with prices at a 4-year high. Plus: warehouse arson in California, Mexico's trucker strike enters day three, and broker margins are still underwater.
Good Monday morning. The March Logistics Managers' Index just dropped, and it's giving 2022 vibes as transportation prices hit their highest reading in four years.
Plus:
🔥 Fires Hit Both Ends of the Supply Chain. A 6-alarm blaze destroyed a 1.2M sq ft Kimberly-Clark distribution center in Ontario, CA (about 11 city blocks), with 175 firefighters responding and multiple big rigs destroyed at the docks. An NFI Industries employee was arrested on felony arson charges. Separately, a fuel tanker explosion near the Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal killed one worker and temporarily shut down the bridge, though canal shipping was unaffected.
🇲🇽 Mexico's Trucker Strike isn't Over. What started Monday as blockades across 20 Mexican states stretched into a second day, and organizers say it could continue indefinitely. Truckers are demanding action on cargo crime (16,000+ incidents annually), diesel costs, and highway security. Key corridors linking Mexico City, Sinaloa, and border crossings in Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez remained disrupted Wednesday. Rejection rates in Laredo were already up 37% YoY heading in. If you have cross-border freight moving right now, route around city centers and keep drivers in contact with dispatch.
📉 Brokers, the Math isn't Working. March broker gross margin landed at $206.12 per load, up just $7.74 from February, with a GM% of 9.91%, essentially flat, per DAT's Ken Adamo pulling from 1M loads across 439 companies. His read: "the industry is operating at or below total operating cost." Some brokers are cherry-picking higher-margin loads; others are going after market share and bleeding quietly. Neither works until contract rates move.
As freight fraud continues to rise, MODE Global partnered with Highway to strengthen carrier vetting and improve onboarding efficiency.
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See how MODE Global evolved its approach to Carrier Identity and fraud prevention.
The March Logistics Managers' Index dropped yesterday. The headline number: 65.7, the fastest rate of expansion since May 2022.
But the number that should stop brokers cold is 89.4.
That's the Transportation Prices reading. Up 12.7 points in a single month. The highest since March 2022, when the freight market was on fire and everyone was printing money.
The Iran war closed the Strait of Hormuz, taking roughly 20% of global oil supply off the market. For context: Russia's Ukraine invasion took 10%.
Diesel nationally is now $5.64/gallon, up over $2 from a year ago. In California, it's $7.57.
Carriers are already responding. A DAT survey of 540+ trucking companies found:
The gap between Transportation Prices and Transportation Capacity is now 50.2 points — the widest inversion since November 2021, the height of the Covid freight boom.
Costs are moving across the board:
Four years ago, inventories were bloated. Warehouses were stuffed. When demand dropped, freight cratered fast — "the bigger they are, the harder they fall."
Today, inventories are lean. The LMI's Inventory Levels reading is 54.8, versus 75.7 in March 2022. This means there's less buffer. Firms can't draw down stockpiles the way they could last time.
That cuts both ways: supply chains are more flexible, but there's less cushion when things tighten.
So what does this mean?
Small brokers are feeling this hardest. Without contracted lane coverage, they're chasing capacity on a spot market that's tightening fast. Tender rejections have been in double digits for most of 2026. Every load is a negotiation they're less equipped to win.
Meanwhile, larger brokers are facing contract repricing. Shippers will push back.
With AI-powered agents built to manage calls, emails, and texts, CloneOps.ai delivers unmatched speed, precision, and real-time control. Designed for scale and built to adapt, the platform helps businesses automate communication without sacrificing quality.
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💼 Echo Logistics' AI Hire. A brokerage posting a dedicated AI ops role says more about where this industry is going than any white paper.
🚨 Kroger Sued. After Quickway shut down, Werner, Swift, and U.S. Xpress allegedly refused to hire its former Teamsters drivers on Kroger's written instructions. A federal class action says the motive was the union card.
🤖 Driverless On I-70. Kodiak AI ran Level 4 autonomous trucks on Interstate 70 in Ohio and Indiana, its first deployment outside the Sun Belt.
🚛 Prime Inc. & GoodShip. One of North America's largest trucking companies just signed on for AI-driven bid management, jumpstarting GoodShip's expansion to serve carriers and brokers, too.
📋 CA Revoked CDLs Unrestored. A judge ordered the DMV to restore non-domiciled CDLs, but the DMV says processing will take a year, and the feds may still block reissuance. Next hearing: October 2026.
🚂 Rail's Comeback Year. While trucking fights diesel and capacity, rail posted broad recovery numbers.
⚖️ Truckstop Goes Heavy. Truckstop has acquired heavy-haul platform Wize Load and rebranded as Truckstop Heavy Haul.
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.
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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