For a moment, forget headlines, the regulatory memos, the insurance renewals, and the message waiting for you the minute you look at your phone. Every year, people walk into this show and meet the very best of the American trucking industry. They see men and women who carry pride in their equipment, their work, and the families and businesses that keep freight moving across this country.

Look at the trucks lined up outside. Notice the polish, the customization, and the careful attention to the smallest details that only matter to someone determined to keep a machine alive for years, maybe decades. See the families gathered in front of them, taking photos beside the trucks that paid for homes, sent kids to college, and offered more than a few second chances when life demanded them.

Then look at the children. Watch their faces come alive at the sight of it all. They stand amazed, absorbing the moment with wonder. Somehow, they know, without being told, this is more than just a truck.

No one arrives at pride like this by accident.

For generations, trucking moved to a rhythm people trusted. Freight rates rose and fell. Capacity expanded and tightened. No one argued with it because it was simply the nature of the work. The cycle demanded patience and grit. It asked you to live with uncertainty and keep going anyway. It could be hard and wildly unpredictable, yet underneath it all, there was logic. You might not always like it, but you could understand it.

Then, gradually, it stopped making sense.

As margins tightened, another shift happened. Freight that moved on relationships and service started moving solely on price. Years of trying to do everything right were lined up beside everyone else, reduced to a number in the same column. Award decisions shifted from “Who will take care of this load for me?“ to “Who can do it cheapest?”

In this ‘new’ environment, the advantage shifted. Carriers who spent years building relationships and a reputation suddenly found themselves listed beside companies no one had ever heard of, separated only by a rate. The late nights, the rescues, the reliability, the calls answered at all hours… None of those showed up the way the number did. Everyone saw the rates, but fewer saw what was behind them. The character, the loyalty, the service.

At first, the shift was easy to dismiss. A load made you hesitate a second longer than usual. A phone call ended, leaving a little doubt. A truck and its driver caught your eye, yet the truck still got loaded at the dock. Things didn’t fully add up, but freight still had to move.

Everyone was busy. Survival demanded attention in every direction, all at once. Rates kept falling. Insurance kept rising. Equipment costs went up every month. Drivers needed miles, families needed stability, and the clock never slowed down. When you are trying to survive another quarter, curiosity and reflection feel like luxuries you cannot afford.

The industry did what it always does under pressure. It kept freight moving.

While you were focused on keeping your business alive, something else was gaining speed. Fraud grew more organized. Identities, USDOT numbers, and operating histories became interchangeable. Paper companies became experts at looking legitimate. On a screen, the line between real and fabricated blurred so much that even the well-informed were extending trust to people who had perfected the art of illusion. “Trust” became the easiest thing to manipulate and exploit.

By the time most of the industry recognized what was happening, the environment had already changed.

The response made sense, given what was at stake. The threat was scaling, so the defenses had to scale too. We needed a way to keep pace with the rampant fraud. Human judgment, no matter how seasoned, could not keep pace with fraudulent and criminal networks built for speed and volume. Decisions migrated into software, into layered signals, into instant automated systems. Technology alone began answering the question that determines everything in freight. Can this carrier be trusted?

The new wave of enhanced technology did much more than influence decisions. It changed what it feels like to be considered legitimate. Normal life began to cast longer shadows. A new phone number, a different address, a truck parked while someone tended to family, a delay in paperwork during a hard season. To software designed to detect patterns and instability, these ordinary moments shine like red alerts.

While part of the industry indulged its technology obsession, another part was trying to survive. Simultaneously, the carriers who built their operations on deception were studying the systems. The ones structured to double broker, to recycle or steal identities, to dissolve and reappear under new names. They learned how to move around without setting off the alarms. They mastered the appearance of normalcy and consistency. Again, the art of illusion.

The outcome was a harsh role reversal. The people trying to do everything right felt watched, questioned, and second-guessed. Those who built their business on deception showed up confident and ready. If that feeling has followed you in recent years, you are not alone.

Standing here, among the lights, conversations, and reunions, something else is just as visible. The people who built this industry are not asking for weaker standards, and they are certainly not asking anyone to tolerate dishonesty. They are not asking anyone to ignore or look the other way on fraud. They want the criminals out of the market as badly, if not more, than anyone writing policy or designing technology.

What people are asking for, more than anything, is to be recognized as human.

Freight doesn’t move from point A to point B because an algorithm told it to. It moves because people make it move. Life comes with interruptions, setbacks, recoveries, and seasons that no spreadsheet can fully capture.

The fog around all of this is finally thinning, not because the risks have gone away, but because people have found the words and the nerve to describe what they have been living through. And that, however overdue, is progress.

Once something can be named, responsibility has to follow. When unseen systems are deciding who works and who doesn’t, it is impossible to stay neutral. We have to wrestle with balance. We have to ask whether our appetite for speed and the lowest rate has caused us to lose sight of the humans who make this industry run.

We must face the truth that credibility is the most valuable commodity in this industry. Not technology, not the rate, not the compliance scores. Credibility. And for all we have built to measure, verify, and automate, credibility remains stubbornly human. It is built slowly. It shows up when choosing to do the right thing, even though cutting a corner would have been faster, and no one would have known. No algorithm will ever fully capture that, no software can score it. But every person in this building knows exactly what it looks like. They’ve either lived it or watched someone they respect live it.

Technology is essential, but it must support, rather than replace, human judgment. Systems can help us move faster. What they cannot do is recreate the instinct built from years of experience, from knowing exactly who will answer the phone, from trusting someone not because a dashboard said to, but because you’ve watched them show up again and again, when it counted.

The future of trucking hinges on remembering that this industry is built on relationships.

If we forget that, not only will we make it harder to fight fraud, but we’ll risk pushing aside the men and women who built this industry. The drivers and owners who endured recessions, fuel spikes, and markets that should have broken them. The ones who chose safety over speed and integrity over convenience. The ones who kept their word, even when it cost them. They didn’t inherit credibility. They earned it the hard way.

That credibility became the foundation on which this industry stands. It became the reason freight could move on trust. We inherited this industry. We didn’t build it. They did.

We cannot afford to be the generation that forgets them.

Last summer, I wrote What the Heck is a Chameleon Carrier? because I was listening in on an X space where no one in the room could actually define the thing they were all talking about. That article has been referenced and linked more than anything else I’ve published.

Now, it is time for part two.

Chameleon carriers remain the most intriguing and dangerous schemes operating in American trucking today. I use the word ‘epidemic’ deliberately, because I think it’s accurate. This is one of the greatest safety and security threats in the industry right now. And unfortunately, the chameleon carrier epidemic is not an industry-only problem. These carriers don’t just run gross-looking trucks with seven layers of tape residue on the door. They don’t just steal freight. They kill innocent Americans on our highways. They’re master manipulators, and they are running circles around shippers, brokers, and the FMCSA.

There are two distinct operating behaviors of chameleon carriers. They’re related, but not the same.

The Multi-Personality Chameleon

This variant operates multiple carrier authorities simultaneously, switching identities depending on the situation (which shipper or broker and the load booked). You may have seen them out in the wild, sliding a different paper in the plastic sleeve on the side of the truck. If you haven’t seen it, the videos below will show you exactly what it looks like in practice.

When a broker or shipper books a truck to haul freight, that truck is supposed to belong to one trucking company. The truck that shows up to get loaded should be from the same carrier that was booked. This seems very simple. And it should be, but of course, it isn't.

The multi-personality chameleon carrier has a folder of USDOT authorities sitting in his truck. When the load is booked, the dispatcher tells the driver which authority, or trucking company, must be used for this particular load. The driver pulls out the folder, finds the right paper, and slaps it on. Ready to go.

If you’ve blacklisted one of their identities, that’s simply not a problem for them. They do not care about your blacklists.What can we do to stop them?! Easy, stop giving them freight.

The companies can be connected. The VINs are documented in the inspection records, and the addresses or contact information are often the same across entities. The data is there. You just have to care enough to look for it.

*If you can’t figure it out, I can. Email me: danielle@daniellechaffin.com

The Standard Chameleon

This is the more common pattern, and in some ways the more insidious one, because it looks like ordinary business activity until you start connecting the dots across time. The standard chameleon moves their entire fleet from one authority to the next, a deliberate reincarnation.

The trucking company runs up their vehicle and/or driver out-of-service rates, loses insurance, causes a fatal accident, or racks up fines. By any reasonable and common-sense standard, they should be done. Out of the trucking industry, forever. Instead, they quietly wind down that legal entity and restart under a new name, a new USDOT number, and a clean record. The trucks are the same. The drivers are the same. The safety culture, or lack thereof, is the same. The only thing that changes is the sticker on the side of the trucks.

The Hope Trans case is the clearest example I've documented of this pattern in action, with the same assets cycling through a succession of identities. Kardan Trucking —> Bee Zone Logistics —> Hope Trans. Each one picked up where the last left off, and each one presented a fresh face to the brokers and shippers who kept giving them freight.

• December 9, 2022 – Iowa: A Kardan Trucking semi lost control in Iowa. Veered into the median. Struck a light pole. Rolled the truck. The driver was killed. The co-driver was sent to the hospital with severe injuries.

• January 8, 2023 — Iowa: Another Kardan Trucking semi lost control on the interstate in Iowa. Jackknifes. Blocks all three lanes. In total, 16 vehicles were involved in the pile-up. Another truck driver hit the jackknifed Kardan trailer. He died at the scene. The co-driver of the Kardan truck exited after the crash. He was struck and killed.

• November 28, 2023, to November 6, 2024: Multiple injury crashes involving Bee Zone Logistics trucks.

• June 28th, 2025 — Terrell, Texas: A Hope Trans driver fell asleep at the wheel.

  He woke up to a loud bang. That bang was his 80,000-pound semi crashing into four passenger vehicles and two other semis on I-20. The Terrell Volunteer Fire Department described it as horrific and declared it a mass casualty event. Five people were killed. Several others were injured.

Nothing changed from 2022 to 2025, except the signage on the trucks, and the number of fatalities.

We don’t have to live like this.

The American freight system moves everything you touch. It’s the invisible engine behind your economy, your medication, your groceries, the contents of your Amazon cart. Most people never think about it until something goes catastrophically wrong.

If you’ve ever wondered why we keep hearing about deadly crashes involving “rogue” trucking companies with little or no track record, why the investigations seem like they take far too long. This is why. The chameleon carrier and their stupid, manipulative games.

The industry [FreightX + SearchCarriers.com] has proven, time and time again, that the connections can be traced with precision.

The data exists. The capability exists. What remains is the question of will, specifically, whether industry-wide enforcement will happen before or after more innocent lives are lost.

To continue reading about the dangers of the Chameleon Carrier Epidemic:

Spell-check, please.

If you’ve spent any time inside the numerous foreign Telegram groups, you know that fake CDLs are very real. How many of them are out there? No idea, but it’s certainly more than one.

According to a post shared on X this week, a shipper checked a CDL before loading the truck. Looking at it, something felt off, but the shipper didn’t know why. Thankfully, the human intuition was not ignored.

Aside from the silly mistakes on the Class A line, we have a few terrible spelling errors. Clippy could have helped here, but I’m glad he didn’t.

These are the things that can fall through the cracks as we continue to push for faster, more efficient processes. Often, slow is so much faster.

While we’re looking at CDLs, here’s a wild stat from a FreightWaves episode this week:

80% of fictitious pickup attempts involve a non-domiciled CDL.

Go ahead, buy that USDOT.

On Thursday, March 13, 2026, the FMCSA published a notice to the industry, “DO NOT Sell, Purchase, or Lease a USDOT or MC Number.” When I started talking about this last summer and have continued to, I consistently get pushback from commenters. The argument is that this can be done legally by purchasing the entire business.

Yes, I hear you, but that’s not what these people are doing.

They are buying a USDOT or MC number because they can no longer generate revenue from the previous one. Far too often, our rose-colored glasses get in the way of understanding what’s actually happening in this industry. People do illegal things.

To the people buying USDOTs and MCs off Facebook, or Telegram, or Maria’s vibe-coded app [doubtful they read my articles, but they should]. When you legally purchase USDOT authority, you are assuming responsibility for everything that came before you. All the driver records, documentation, violations, unpaid fines for those violations, lawsuits, etc.

When the FMCSA shows up, they won’t just audit who you are today. They audit the company. All the documentation that must be kept for three to five years, they’ll come looking for it. And you have 48 hours to produce those records. Ready, or not, here they come.

As an example, Savar Muradov claims he sold Hope Trans before the horrific wreck last summer, in Terrell, Texas, that left five innocent people dead. Per court documents, because he “sold” the business, he believes he bears no responsibility and wishes for the case against him to be dismissed. I vehemently disagree with this and remain skeptical of the documents submitted to the court.

A summons has been issued for the buyers, Todd August and Steven Grover.

According to Hank Johnson Jr.

According to the same man who once feared the island of Guam might tip over, Hank Johnson Jr. believes the English requirement for truck drivers "has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with shutting out qualified drivers." He refers to Delilah's Law as an "anti-worker bill” and says that this will “raise the barrier to entry.”

Yes, Hank, raising the barrier to entry for operating an 80,000 lb metal missile on American highways IS the point. The ability to comprehend a digital road sign, a direct order from law enforcement, or the cries of a 16-year-old boy asking you to call 911 because his brother is dead is not a bureaucratic nicety. It is the absolute bare minimum we should expect, and a public safety standard that’s been required for commercial truck drivers since 1937.

My goodness, what a week.

Finally, MATS!

It’s almost here! The Mid-America Trucking Show is next week, and I cannot wait to see all of you. If you’re not going, you should. I’m speaking on the ProTalks stage Friday at 5:15 PM (1715).

Also, my article is on page 19 of the event directory. Make sure you grab a copy!

How is someone here illegally behind the wheel of an 80,000lb truck?

This is the question I am asked more than any other. It deserves a real answer, but it’s not simple. In fact, Gord Magill () wrote an entire book to explain how we got here. I highly recommend reading it if you have even the slightest interest in the American trucking industry and what is happening on our highways.

This article will cover part of it, but not everything.

The Border, or lack thereof.

For years, immigration policy created a class of individuals who were in this country without legal status, yet were still issued Employment Authorization Documents, or EAD cards, or ‘work permits.’ This gave them legal authorization to be employed in the United States while their cases moved through an immigration system that operates at the speed of a 1994 fax machine.

There’s really no need to wonder how we ended up here.

This EAD card does not establish citizenship, in any manner, but it was enough to enroll in CDL school, obtain a non-domiciled CDL, and get a job, or start your own company.

Federal regulations require a non-domiciled CDL to expire when the driver’s work authorization expires. The immigration document sets the ceiling on the license.

What actually happened is a different story.

Your taxes, your truck driver shortage.

I’ve written about this before, and I’ll keep writing about it.

The “truck driver shortage” narrative has been recycled in industry press releases since the 1980s. It was never about a labor crisis. It is a mechanism. One that opens the dam on federal funding. The perpetual shortage fairytale unlocked years of federal workforce development dollars. Grants, nonprofit “training partnerships,” and tuition assistance programs. $38 million here, $55 million there, all in service of getting as many bodies behind the wheel of an 80,000lb machine as quickly as possible.

What could possibly go wrong.

Federally funded CDL school tuition is available for those who qualify. You know who doesn’t qualify? Almost any American citizen who genuinely wants a CDL, like my brother. You, my fellow Americans, will pay $ 4,000-$ 6,500 out of your own pocket to get a CDL so you can provide for your family and earn a living.

Then, you’ll pay taxes to fund workforce development programs for refugees and asylum seekers to obtain their CDL for $0.00.

Your tax dollars funded this pipeline.

“We can help you set up your company!”

Inside the Somali, Haitian, Ethiopian, Central American, Central Asian, Afghan, and other immigrant trucking social media communities, you will find posts offering full-service trucking company setups. Insurance agents who specialize in new operators and know which carriers will write a policy for a driver with no history. People who walk you through the LLC filing and the USDOT registration process.

It is a complete, functioning parallel infrastructure for getting someone from “I have a CDL” to “I have a trucking company” in a matter of weeks.

This type of service isn’t illegal. People helping people navigate a complex system is not a crime. It is, however, strangely easy for a brand new arrival in a brand new country to complete all of this paperwork and get through the setup process.

Trucks move freight.

Now that we have a registered business and a CDL, we must find a truck. Without a truck, you can’t make money.

Some new drivers get absorbed into a trucking company owned by someone from the same ethnic community, but more often than not, the new driver is expected to run under the company’s authority as an independent operator. It’s his truck, and it’ll be his problems. Almost certainly a truck that he cannot afford.

The lease-to-own model in trucking is one of the most predatory financial products in America. Yes, there are great companies that do this the right way. And there are others that exploit and abuse every part of it.

Carriers and the financing arms attached to them offer lease agreements to new owner-operators that are structured to appear, on paper, like a path to ownership. You drive, you pay, you get paid for your work, and eventually, the truck is yours. It’s the path to the American dream! Or so they say.

Again, Facebook provides incredible intel.

The lease-to-own model is a mechanism designed to extract maximum labor at minimum cost. The weekly payments are structured so that after fuel, cargo insurance, ELD fees, trailer rent, maintenance, and the lease payment itself are accounted for, many of these drivers are netting almost nothing. Some are effectively working for free. If they fall behind on payments, they lose the truck, the investment, and the business. And they have absolutely nothing to show for it.

These programs are specifically marketed to new, inexperienced drivers, often immigrants or low-income, who don’t yet know enough about the industry to see it coming. By the time they understand what they signed, they’re already stuck in it.

Small Business Loans

Small business loans are the other avenue. Certain lenders, some predatory, some simply opportunistic, have identified the immigrant population as a target market.

Who wins?

Not the immigrant truck driver. He’s broke or in debt and is stuck in a situation that he cannot escape.

The American trucker doesn’t win. He’s spent decades building a career and is now competing against rates propped up by federally subsidized training, predatory leases, and a market that loves cheap rates.

Americans traveling on our highways don’t win. We’re sharing the roads with undertrained or never trained truck drivers.

The trucking company wins. The CDL school wins. The insurance agent wins. The lender, who collects months and months of payments, wins. The nonprofit responsible for facilitating the arrival and placement in the workforce program gets to report another successful placement to justify next year’s federal funding request.

They win. The machine wins, as it always does.

The system is the villain.

The man who went to a federally funded CDL school and got talked into a predatory lease was told this was a path to a better life. He believed it, as most people would. Should he be driving an 80,000lb machine without proper training? No. But he’s not the only villain.

The people responsible for this are the ones who designed the system. Who dressed a financial scheme in the language of workforce development. Who took federal money intended to lift people out of poverty and used it to churn out disposable labor. Who knew exactly what the lease terms meant and handed a new driver the pen anyway.

The immigrant driver is not the only one exploiting this system. More so, he is being exploited by it. And so is every American taxpayer who funded his training, every professional American truck driver competing against the rates his presence suppresses, and every innocent family driving on a highway that now carries the consequences.

He has the truck because the system was built to put him there.
And the system was built that way on purpose.

My mistakes and failures are plentiful. Some are funny, others are not. Yet, all of them make me, me. And all of yours make you, you. All of us are the same. We are imperfect humans.

Imperfect humans connect with other imperfect humans. Our mistakes and failures make us relatable. It is okay, and it is good to share that with others.

Garrett Allen’s response to a LinkedIn post last week echoes my sentiments.

“There are so many cool people out there but when they get on pods or in newsletters it’s just the facade and the same lines we’ve all heard 100 times.

Everyone’s afraid to show too much or bet on the wrong thing. But that’s what’s most interesting. Being human is being wrong, betting on the wrong things, making mistakes. I want more of those stories and the understandings that come from them.”

It takes courage to be real and honest. It takes courage to talk about your struggles, your failures, your mistakes. But it makes you human, and it makes it possible to connect with other humans. People want to connect with you and learn from you. They can’t do that when everything you do or say or write appears to be effortless and without struggle or failure.

Relationships are human. Trust is human. It is difficult to trust a person who consistently sells on their fictitious perfection and bland corporate slop.

Which brings me to my next stream of thoughts.

AI Sloppy Joes.

When you read my writings, I want you to hear my voice. Of course, you have to know me to know my voice, but I want to talk to you. My voice, narrating my articles, in your head.

That sounds weird when I read it out loud. I bet it wouldn’t sound as awkward if I threw it in ChatGPT. Yet, it wouldn’t sound like me. It would sound like the machine regurgitating AI sloppy joes.

AI-generated slop sounds like AI-generated slop. It’s not the em dashes or the ‘it’s this not that’ statements. It’s the flow of the writing. There are no strange angles, no lived details, no real humor, no little errors, no surprise words. It reads like it’s dead (because it is).

Maybe we can catch a fish or two with the fishing pole we’ll discuss later. Then, on Friday, we’ll have a fish fry!

You read a post or article. You mentally process it. You type an intelligent, articulate response. You read it over and think, ‘wow, that’s so good.’ Then, you click post.

Congratulations, you just spent more time and effort on your comment than the person who published the AI-generated article. Frustrating? Indeed, it is.

Writing teaches you how to think, how to learn, and how to inspire people to care about what you’re writing about. Artificial Intelligence cannot do that for you. You can do it, but no, AI cannot.

For the AI-compromised humans, you are effectively using Artificial Intelligence [a machine] to create a counterfeit version of yourself. I don’t care how much quicker you can push content out. I don’t care that your articles are seemingly intelligent. It is not you. It doesn’t sound like you. It will never be you. When you show up on a podcast or live show, it is uncomfortably obvious that your writings did not originate from you. You show up on camera. You, behind a soulless AI mask, show up in your copy/paste writings.

AI cannot replicate your unique nature. You have a soul, AI doesn’t. You have a conscience, AI doesn’t. You are passionate about what you do, AI does not care.

You were uniquely designed. You have an incredible brain. Your talents are a gift. You should steward those talents well and honor your uniqueness.

As humans, we are uniquely designed to think and create. We were designed for depth, wisdom, and love. Not just breadth, or just knowledge, or just productivity. We were made for purposes far greater than the boundaries and masks that AI attempts to place upon us.

What are the long-term implications of a society that slowly stops thinking and relies on AI for absolutely everything?

I don’t know the answer, but I can’t imagine it will be anything good. Perhaps it is a soulless society that speaks, writes, and builds only what it is fed by a large language model. Copy/paste AI sloppy joes, everywhere you look.

The moral compass that drives human behavior has no influence over a machine. AI doesn’t care about the consequences of its words or actions. AI cares about prompts, outputs, and efficiency. It doesn’t ponder a problem or idea in a quiet room, or while on a walk, or in a brainstorming session with your friends. AI doesn’t care about goodness. It [AI] could very well become one of the greatest tools of deception ever created.

Explaining freight to non-freight minds.

We’re going to take this giant ball of tangled fishing line, throw it in the air 3 times, clap 5 times, spin around, untangle it, then put it on a spinning reel and go fishing.

If I had to describe what it feels like to dissect and convey the complexities of the transportation industry to an audience who has no idea how their groceries get to the store, the fishing line analogy would be it.

We want people to listen. We want them to hear the concerns of those of us in the trucking industry. To do that, we have to talk with them, not at them. Throwing around numeric codes for the FMCSA regulations in conversation and in social media posts does very little to help the cause. Spitting out AI-generated articles does very little to help the cause.

If people don’t know what you’re talking about, they’re not going to care. If people immediately recognize AI-slop, they’re not going to read your article or posts. We want to help them care. We want to help them see the industry through our lens. We must do better in our efforts to help them.

This may be a good time to go back and re-read the previous section.

People need you, the real you.

For a long time, it felt like we were shouting into the void. I’ve spent countless nights digging through millions of rows of data, court cases, regulations, social media, and chat groups to document the absurdities of the industry that we all love. The industry that keeps this country moving. There were moments when I wondered if the truth would ever break through the noise. Today, I can finally say, it is happening!

For the past month, I’ve had the incredible privilege of working alongside Savanah Hernandez and the Turning Point USA Frontlines team to bring our investigative efforts into the spotlight.

To see the reality of our trucking industry finally getting attention is progress I wasn’t sure we’d ever see. The momentum we’re building right now is nothing short of incredible.

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Watch the full documentary here.

To everyone who has supported my research, shared my work, and encouraged me, thank you. Thank you so much. We are finally being heard, and we must not slow down!

This is for the families, the trucking company owners, the owner-operators, and the future of an industry that deserves so much better.

❤️

Sundays with my boys are my favorite. It’s the one day of the week when we feel like we do everything with intent. We don’t rush. It’s quieter. It feels more peaceful. We read more. We pray more. And we play more! My phone is on do not disturb most of the day. I try not to think about work, my crazy schedule, or project deadlines. *Hard emphasis on try.

As Sunday is ending, there’s a sadness that always creeps in. I pray with my boys, tuck them in, then find myself longing for every day to be a bit more like Sunday.

This is my first Lenten season as a Catholic. In preparing for it, I kept coming back to the question, how can I make every day a little more like Sunday?

The answer arrived rather quickly. Turn down the noise.

My days are busy. Between my full-time job, side projects through Highway Veritas, and two little boys, my life is 5th gear pinned, wide-open.

Social media is by far my greatest source of noise. Posting, scrolling, scheduling, talking, podcasts, shows, answering DMs, and so on. Social media is not bad. In fact, my efforts in posting on social media have been incredibly fruitful. However, for my interior life, right now, it’s a bit too loud.

No, I’m not completely stepping away from social media for 40 days, deleting the apps on my phone, or announcing a dramatic exit. That wouldn’t drive lasting change in my life, but I am going to turn the volume down.

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There is immense value in silence. When we turn down the volume on the external noise, we make room for so much more to happen. St. Faustina wrote in her diary about the necessity of silence:

A talkative soul lacks both the essential virtues and intimacy with God. A deeper interior life, one of gentle peace and of that silence where the Lord dwells, is quite out of the question. A soul that has never tasted the sweetness of inner silence is a restless spirit which disturbs the silence of others.

So, practically speaking, here’s my plan. Thursday night X Spaces and late-night guest appearances are going on pause.

Friends, I love our conversations on Thursday evenings. I enjoy hearing your thoughts on the issues in the freight world. I love answering questions. There is great value in conversing with one another, and I truly enjoy facilitating those conversations. But for now, for Lent, I’m logging off social media earlier in the evenings. I’m not sure what the plan will be after Lent, but I know we’ll figure it out!

When I deliberately create space for quiet, my brain floods with ideas. Like this one.

That’s Fraud! The Game

Over the last 12 months, I’ve studied fraud patterns. I’ve watched how fraudsters move through systems with surprising ease. I’ve seen where automation works, and where it fails. Algorithms can’t always catch the bad guys. Automated rules sometimes push the good guys out. There’s a strong need for intervention via human intelligence and intuition. That’s Fraud! was built with all of this in mind.

The game is meant to be strategic and educational. There’s one challenge per day. My hope is to facilitate a pause before a quick reaction that labels someone the bad guy or the good guy.

If we’re going to fight fraud, we have to do it intelligently. And if we are going to protect the credibility of this industry, we have to learn the difference between instability and deceit.

Try today’s challenge!

A pep talk.

We live in a self-centered age, and loquaciousness seems to be the norm, especially on social media. We’re in our own curated worlds typing away, often neglecting to pause for a few seconds and consider how our words will impact those who read them.

Being a voice in and for the trucking industry carries great responsibility. None of us should take it lightly. In this echo chamber of social media, we are often the conductors of a one-way conversation read by thousands. Sure, drama draws attention and gets impressions, but that’s about it. It doesn’t add value, nor does it advance anything that is good. On the contrary, it is the greatest distraction from truth and can erode credibility quickly.

Much could be said apropos of the social media circus, but that’s not why we’re here. This is a pep talk.

If we want to leave this industry better than we found it, then our voices should reflect that intention. This doesn’t mean we avoid difficult conversations or hard truths. It does, however, mean we deliver them without ego, theatrics, or turning stewardship into performance.

There are times to speak up, times to post, times to respond, and times to just be quiet. We must remember that our mission is bigger than this theater of shadows. May we have the courage to speak with prudence, and the humility to remain silent when speech would serve only our pride.

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. ―G.K. Chesterton

In the trucking industry, verifying who is hauling freight and whether they are safe to do so should be straightforward. Every carrier has a USDOT number, a safety record, insurance filings, and a traceable history tied to inspections and crash performance.

The industry has built and pays handsomely for technology designed to quickly evaluate carriers. Most systems are optimized to evaluate the USDOT number in front of them. It doesn’t necessarily give the history or story behind or beside that USDOT number. And that is the blind spot.

We do not suffer from a lack of data. We do not suffer from a lack of tech. We suffer from a lack of curiosity.

In the rush to keep freight moving, intuition gets outsourced to an algorithm. A green check mark becomes the end of inquiry rather than the beginning. The fragments are right in front of us in inspection patterns, insurance timelines, corporate registrations, and enforcement actions. They live in different places, waiting for someone to slow down just long enough to connect them. Too often, no one does.

A carrier can accumulate violations, fail audits, have unpaid fines, face insurance problems, cause a fatal crash, get shut down, and then continue operating on the highways as if nothing ever happened. We refer to such operations as chameleon carriers. They shed one identity and reenter the marketplace wearing another because revenue demands motion.

To continue generating revenue, the wheels must keep turning. Freight must keep running.

For years, safety professionals and investigators warned that identity resets weakened the credibility of the oversight system. Those warnings are no longer confined to insider conversations. Members of Congress and officials within the Department of Transportation are now acknowledging that chameleon behavior exposes the public, brokers, and legitimate carriers to real and preventable risk. This is good. Recognition has arrived. Prevention has not. The gap between the two is where precious human lives are lost.

We do not need more studies. We do not need another audit or round of recommendations. We need action.

We already have the data. We already have the systems capable of surfacing the connections. What’s missing is the insistence on using them.

Before more innocent Americans lose their lives.
Before more families are shattered.

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The Impact of Chameleons

Understanding the vulnerability in theory is one thing. Witnessing and confronting what it produces on the highway is another.

In recent years, fatal crashes have repeatedly prompted deeper reviews. When investigators move beyond the active authority, the narrative changes. The carrier that cleared vetting often proves to be something else entirely. Sometimes, nothing changes except the papers taped to the sides of their trucks.

The most frustrating part is that the information needed to identify these chameleon operations is not hidden. It is accessible. The clues sit in inspection histories, insurance timelines, corporate registrations, and enforcement records. There is rarely anything mysterious about the connections once someone takes the time to assemble them.

Yet that effort is often deferred until sirens and subpoenas make it unavoidable.

Each incident that follows has its own circumstances and must be evaluated based on its individual record. Viewed collectively, however, they show how often clarity arrives too late. By then, the consequences cannot be undone.

January 8, 2023: Texas

A Fairfield man and a Houston, Texas man were killed in a multi-vehicle crash early Sunday morning on Interstate 80 near the Dodge Street exit in Iowa City. According to the Iowa State Patrol, the crash occurred around 5:30 a.m. on an ice-covered stretch of highway and involved 16 vehicles. The scene blocked traffic for several hours. A report released Monday identified the victims as David Mosinski, 57, of Fairfield, and Junier Caballero-Verneo, 37, of Houston.

The incident began when a semi-truck, owned by Kardan Trucking, driven by Johan Caballero-Vereno, also of Houston, lost control on the icy road, jackknifed, and blocked all three lanes. That triggered a chain reaction of crashes. Mosinski, who was driving a truck, collided with the semi’s trailer and died at the scene.

Junier Caballero-Verneo, a passenger in the semi, exited the vehicle after the crash and was struck and killed.

This operation will be referenced again.

June 4, 2023: Texas

An Amazon Relay carrier crossed into oncoming traffic and hit 22-year-old Noah Leyman and his wife head-on. He died at the scene; his wife was critically injured. The truck driver, Firdavs Kubaev, and his passenger, Ergash Annakukov, were uninjured. They were driving for Timur Trucking LLC.

• Timur Trucking LLC

• KN Trans LLC

  • DREAMLINE EXPRESS LLC

December 8, 2023: Colorado

Hamza Alodat fell asleep while driving his semi-truck. The truck crossed the median barrier from the Interstate-70 Westbound lanes, across two eastbound Interstate 70 lanes, and collided head-on with another motorist. Alodat was employed by Lion Brothers Trucking, which had been subcontracted through IQ Logistics LLC to haul freight for Amazon Logistics. The driver of the car had to be extricated from his vehicle and suffered life-threatening injuries.

June 20, 2024: California

Partap Singh, an illegal alien from India, allegedly fell asleep behind the wheel of a semi truck on Hwy 395 in Adelanto, California. He plowed into 6 stopped vehicles. 5-year-old Dalilah Coleman was trapped in the back seat -- skull shattered, brain swelling so severe that surgeons removed half her skull. Weeks in a coma. Months in the hospital. She’s home now, but her childhood has been stolen.

Partap Singh was driving for US JET TRANS INC.

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December 9, 2024: Iowa

A Cuban truck driver was killed Friday morning when his semi, owned by Kardan Trucking of Bluffton, Indiana, overturned on Interstate 80 in Iowa.

According to the Iowa State Patrol, the crash occurred at 9:36 a.m. near mile marker 28. The Freightliner tractor-trailer, driven by Alain Hernández Rodríguez, 42, of West Palm Beach, Florida, veered into the median, struck a light pole, and rolled onto its side. Hernández Rodríguez was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in the truck, José Armando Valdez, 23, also Cuban and a resident of Miami, was injured and transported to a local hospital. Local press reports indicate that the truck overturned while entering the highway, and neither occupant was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

This operation will be referenced again.

January, 19, 2025: West Virginia

Truck driver Sukhjinder Singh, 37, jackknifes on the Cheat Lake Bridge in WV during a snowstorm. Deputies respond to the scene. Singh tells them he “lost control” due to weather conditions. Later that day, the Morgantown Police Dept received a missing persons report for Kevin Lataille, 59, of Pennsylvania. Phone location data placed Lataille’s last known whereabouts near the Cheat Lake Bridge. Investigators review surveillance footage. It shows a large vehicle sliding on the bridge, kicking up snow. Then, a separate passenger car fell from the bridge into the lake. Due to severe weather and dangerous lake conditions, deputies scheduled the recovery mission for January 26. The recovery teams pulled Kevin’s car from the lake. He was still in the driver’s seat, still wearing his seatbelt.

Singh was a driver for Gurjaap Multani Transport LLC, a carrier based in Riverside, California.

March 13, 2025: Texas

Solomun Weldekeal-Araya, a 37-year-old truck driver from Eritrea, is facing 22 felony charges in connection with a deadly multi-vehicle crash on I-35 in Austin, Texas. The crash, which occurred in a construction zone with reduced lanes and a 60 mph speed limit, resulted in five deaths and 17 injuries.

The crash involved 18 vehicles in total, including a box truck, two truck tractors, two semi-trailers, and 13 passenger cars.

Araya was working for ZBN Transport at the time of the crash. The lawsuit says that Araya was hauling a load for Amazon at the time of the crash.

June 28, 2025: Texas

On Saturday, June 28, 2025, Alexis Osmani Gonzalez-Companioni fell asleep at the wheel in Terrell, Texas, and woke up to a loud bang. That bang? His 80,000 lb semi-truck crashed into four passenger vehicles and two other semis. The sleeping driver killed 5 people and injured several others.

The tragic incident occurred around 2:40 p.m. in the westbound lanes of the I-20 and forced the highway to close for several hours. The Terrell Volunteer Fire Department described the crash as “horrific” and declared it a “mass casualty” event.

Before Hope Trans, this operation ran as Bee Zone Logistics. Before Bee Zone Logistics, they were Kardan Trucking (noted twice already). They never changed their behaviors, just the company name and USDOT authority.

August 12, 2025: Florida

On August 12th, another preventable tragedy played out on Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce. A California truck driver and his co-driver allegedly pulled an illegal U-turn through an “official use only” median, leaving his 18-wheeler sprawled across the highway.

A minivan carrying three Floridians slammed into the trailer. The 30-year-old driver was airlifted to a hospital but later died; his two passengers, ages 37 and 54, were killed instantly.

Dashcam footage shows the semi blocking lanes in the moments before impact. The truck drivers walked away without a scratch. Harjinder Singh was driving for White Hawk Carriers Inc.

October 14, 2025: Indiana

Borko Stankovic (41) crossed into oncoming traffic, killing a man instantly. According to the affidavit, surveillance footage from a nearby business shows the eastbound Ram Sprinter van slowing to a stop in traffic. Seconds later, he rapidly closed the distance, with no attempt to brake. The right lane ahead was completely open, but instead of slowing down or merging right, the semi veered across the centerline into the westbound lane in a reckless attempt to pass the stopped van.

The semi struck a black Subaru head-on, killing the driver instantly, then jackknifed into the van, throwing it off the road and into a business sign. Police said Stankovic claimed to own both the truck and a company called Move RPM Inc.

October 21, 2025: California

Jashanpreet Singh (21) was driving a Freightliner semitruck and failed to stop for slowing traffic, triggering a chain-reaction crash involving four commercial big rigs and four other vehicles.

Killed in the crash were Clarence Nelson, 76, of Fontana, and his wife, Lisa Nelson, 69, according to the San Bernardino County Coroner. The third fatal victim, who died at a hospital, was identified by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office as Jaime Flores Garcia, 54, of Upland. Clarence Nelson, who was in the passenger seat in their vehicle, was a former assistant basketball coach at Pomona High School.

Singh is also accused of injuring two others. At the time of the crash, he was driving for MATHAUN TRANSPORT LLC.

December 11, 2025: Washington

Kamalpreet Singh was driving for R V S XPRESS INC when he failed to slow for stopped traffic and plowed over the vehicle of 29-year-old Robert Pearson.

February 3, 2026: Indiana

On February 3, 2026, Indiana State Police responded to a fatal crash involving a semi-truck with a triangular logo. The driver, 30-year-old Bekzhan Beishekeev of Philadelphia, PA, swerved to miss another vehicle, rather than braking. Four men in the van died.

The truck involved was operating under the authority of AJ Partners LLC, an Illinois-based motor carrier that is part of a broader web of interconnected trucking companies. On paper, each company looks separate, but in practice operates as a single, unified enterprise.

• AJ PARTNERS LLC — 10 crashes, 8 injuries

• TUTASH EXPRESS INC — 58 crashes, 2 fatalities, 14 injuries

• KG LINE GROUP INCORPORATED — 11 crashes, 2 injuries

• + several others…

We don’t have to live like this.

The crashes you have just scrolled through are separated by miles, dates, and individual circumstances. They involve different drivers, different vehicles, and different victims. Yet, they share a common denominator.

The industry [FreightX +SearchCarriers.com] has proven, time and time again, that it can trace these connections with precision.

The data exists.
The system exists.
The capability exists.

The question before us is whether that identification will occur before or after human lives have been lost.

Four people are dead in Jay County, Indiana.

On February 3, 2026, Indiana State Police responded to a fatal crash involving a semi-truck with a triangular logo. The driver, 30-year-old Bekzhan Beishekeev of Philadelphia, PA, swerved to miss another vehicle, rather than braking.

This was yet another tragic accident that DID NOT have to happen.

The truck involved was operating under the authority of an Illinois-based motor carrier that is part of a broader web of interconnected trucking companies. On paper, each company looks separate, but in practice operates as a single, unified enterprise.

The triangular logo is all I needed to run with this one. I knew what it was as soon as I saw it. This operation has come up time after time within the FreightX community.

Which company did the truck belong to in this wreck? I’m not sure, but one of them. The constant movement is why pinning the crash to a single company isn’t straightforward. And why that ambiguity itself is part of the problem.

They’re all the same.

Public FMCSA records show multiple active trucking authorities tied to the same VINs, addresses, and officers, including KG Line Group Incorporated, Tutash Express Inc., Sam Express Inc., AJ Partners, and others.

These carriers present themselves as independent businesses. But court filings, service records, and publicly available authority data suggest otherwise. They share officers, overlap in operations, and appear to rotate trucks, drivers, and license plates between authorities.

Already Under Scrutiny

Months before the Indiana crash, this operation was already the subject of a federal civil complaint filed in the Northern District of Illinois, not for a crash, but for how it was doing business.

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At its core, the case alleges that several Illinois-based trucking companies, operating under different DOT and MC numbers, were never truly separate businesses. They were run as one outfit.

According to the filing, drivers are recruited with promises of a high percentage of revenue, legitimate dispatch services, proper insurance, and compliant logging.

Written leases are either incomplete or never provided. Rate confirmations, which are required so drivers can verify what a load actually paid, were not given. Despite that, money kept coming out of paychecks, without receipts or explanation. Fuel, insurance, dispatch fees, repair charges, and ELD fees.

One driver’s pay records showed roughly $14,000 in fuel deductions over about seven weeks. Based on mileage and fuel prices, this is theoretically impossible.

The lawsuit also alleges that drivers were quietly shifted between different carrier authorities [for reference, scroll back to the top of the article and watch the videos]. Loads might be dispatched under one DOT number, while insurance or logging was tied to another. On paper, everything stayed “active.” In practice, responsibility was constantly moving. If something went wrong, it wasn’t always clear which company was actually on the hook.

When it comes to insurance, the complaint alleges that drivers were charged for insurance policies that could be voided because they were instructed to operate under authorities other than those listed on the policy. In other words, drivers believed they were covered, but may not have been.

The case also raises serious questions about the safety (compliance) tools. It alleges that the electronic logging devices used by the operation weren’t independent safeguards, but systems with backdoor access that allowed hours-of-service records to be altered.

All of this, the lawsuit claims, was not by accident. It was deliberate. The companies are described as alter egos. Shell companies are being used to move drivers, trucks, and revenue while avoiding scrutiny, skirting enforcement, and keeping the operation insulated from consequences.

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When the case moved forward, and summons were issued, process servers had trouble locating the people associated with these companies. Addresses led to empty offices or unhelpful answers. Service wasn’t completed for multiple individuals. Again, not proof by itself, but consistent with an operation that may be operating from somewhere else...

A Failure of Enforcement

Four people are dead in Indiana. They didn’t consent to being part of a political or regulatory experiment. They didn’t know what a chameleon carrier was. They didn’t get to opt out.

Nothing about this operation is buried or hidden. The signals are clearly visible in authority records, court filings, and social media videos showing placards being swapped at truck stops.

When motor carriers operate multiple authorities as interchangeable shells, when trucks and drivers move freely between them, and when insurance coverage depends on which logo is taped on that day, it is no longer a paperwork issue. It is a serious public safety issue.

The FMCSA does not need new rules to address this. The authority already exists. What’s missing is action. At a minimum, the FMCSA should:

• Immediately review all active and inactive authorities connected by shared VINs, officers, addresses, and equipment tied to this enterprise.

• Conduct a unified safety and compliance audit, treating these carriers as a single operational entity, not isolated companies.

• Revoke authorities, if possible.

• Examine ELD vendors used across these carriers for improper access or manipulation.

• Close the loophole that allows drivers and equipment to rotate between authorities without triggering automatic review.

If all of this is allowed to fade into the background as just another “tragic accident,” NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Except for the numbers and company names on the trucks.

We do not have to wait for more innocent lives to be lost!

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Editor’s Note: This article is based on publicly available court filings, FMCSA records, crash reports, and publicly posted media. The civil allegations referenced have not yet been adjudicated, and no findings of liability have been made. Descriptions of business relationships, operational practices, and compliance issues reflect claims contained in court documents or observable patterns in public records and are presented for reporting and public-interest purposes only. This article does not allege criminal guilt and should not be construed as a determination of fault. All individuals and entities named are entitled to due process.

If you noticed a shift in 2025, you are not imagining it. 2025 was the year we finally understood what happened to the trucking industry.

The Industry We Thought We Knew

The trucking industry is cyclical. It always has been. Freight rates go up, freight rates go down. Capacity expands, capacity contracts. This isn’t a controversial concept; it’s just the way it is.

Every experienced business owner knows this. They’ve built their operations around knowing how to survive the cycles. They know how to weather downturns, cut costs, park equipment, and wait for the market to correct. That’s how trucking has worked for decades, but what started in 2020 was not normal trucking.

It Wasn’t a ‘Freight Cycle’

After 2020, everything we’ve ever known stopped working. The ones who had survived multiple downturns stopped offering timelines. Analysts stopped attempting to predict when the market would turn. There was no longer a “next quarter” or “next season” when things would normalize.

At some point, the entire industry quietly admitted it did not understand what it was experiencing.

When you cannot explain the problem, you stop trying to predict the outcome. You shift your focus to the immediate. How to get through the next month, the next payroll, the next insurance renewal.

This is the core of my theory.

Survival Mode

It took five years to understand what was actually happening because no one had the luxury of stepping back and looking at the system as a whole. Everyone was laser-focused, locked into survival mode.

When a business is under sustained pressure, curiosity fades, and strategy narrows by necessity. Everything becomes short-term. Owners shifted from asking structural questions and analyzing industry shifts to ‘how do we get through next quarter?’

They were focused on protecting and caring for their people, keeping them paid and the doors open. For some, that meant preserving a multi-generational legacy. Others were owner-operators whose livelihoods depended on keeping their truck running.

There was no margin for abstract thought. The survival mindset dictates priorities and narrows the field of vision, which explains why so few paused to ask broader questions. It wasn’t because they lacked experience or awareness, but because the environment did not allow it. Strategic thinking requires stability, and reflection requires time. Since 2020, neither existed.

No one missed what was happening because they were careless or incompetent. They could not see it clearly because the industry was operating under a prolonged state of emergency management.

Moving Forward

Conversations changed in 2025. People began talking more openly about what they were seeing, and social media helped connect experiences that had been isolated for years. Drivers, owners, advocates, and analysts were no longer reacting to separate fragments of the industry. They started comparing notes. In many ways, the industry began reconnecting with itself.

Trucking is not just another market. It is an industry built on people, on relationships, on generational businesses, and on trust that the system, while imperfect, is at least grounded in reality. When that foundation cracks, the consequences extend far beyond rates and capacity.

There is still so much work to be done. Understanding what happened is only the first step. What comes next requires honesty, accountability, and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths about how this industry operates. But for the first time in years, there is space to do that work.

That understanding comes with great loss. I am absolutely heartbroken for the companies and owner-operators who did not make it through this period. Many were disciplined, experienced, and responsible. They did everything right and still ran out of time. They were swept out by forces no one could name at the time. I wish, so badly, this reckoning had come sooner, before so much experience, livelihood, and legacy were lost.

I am cautiously grateful. Grateful that the industry is finally asking the right questions. Grateful that the people who lived through this period are still here to tell the story. And hopeful that what we build next leaves trucking in a much better, stronger place than we found it.

We cannot forget these years. Survival kept the industry we love alive. What we choose to do with what we learned will determine what comes next.

Every year, the U.S. Department of Defense/War (DoD/DoW) quietly moves hundreds of thousands of sensitive shipments across U.S. highways, including munitions, weapons components, hazardous materials, and classified equipment scheduled for destruction.

In far too many cases, the government cannot say with certainty who is driving the truck. Yes, you read that correctly, the Department of War often does not know who is behind the wheel hauling their sensitive cargo.

Before the freight ever moves, it must be planned. The systemic oversight gaps in the planning process allow unknown drivers, unverified companies, and, at times, outright fraudulent operators to transport military cargo with surprisingly little to no scrutiny. The result is a domestic logistics system vulnerable to fraud, theft, and, at worst, serious national security compromise.

Illegal U-Turn in Florida: The partial wake-up call.

On August 12, 2025, a fatal crash near Fort Pierce, Florida, shattered more than a minivan. It exposed how weak oversight in trucking can have deadly consequences.

A semi-truck driven by Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old undocumented immigrant, made an illegal U-turn through a restricted access point on Florida’s Turnpike. The truck blocked all northbound lanes. A minivan carrying three Haitian immigrants slammed into the trailer. All three were killed instantly.

Singh had obtained commercial driver’s licenses in multiple U.S. states that issue CDLs regardless of immigration status. Despite lacking legal authorization to work at the time, there was no federal system that prevented him from operating an 80,000-pound commercial vehicle on public roads.

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Yes, he was arrested. Yes, he was charged. And yes, the crash triggered federal scrutiny of how commercial driver’s licenses are issued, but none of that happened before the bodies were counted.

Regulators have no idea who’s behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound machine… until after people are dead.

That same lack of visibility exists inside the United States military logistics. In some months, tiny trucking companies outperformed the largest contracted carriers, an operational impossibility without hidden subcontracting.

The United States Department of War has no idea who is handling their cargo.

“The DoD Doesn’t Know Who’s Behind the Wheel”

Dale Prax, a Marine Corps veteran and founder of the freight-vetting platform FreightValidate, has spent decades studying freight fraud and carrier abuse. His conclusion is blunt:

“The Department of Defense doesn’t know who’s behind the wheel.”

Prax’s work, supported by law-enforcement collaboration and real-world case data, shows that the same fraud schemes plaguing commercial freight routinely touch government shipments.

These schemes include:

• Double brokering: a carrier accepts a load, then secretly hands it to someone else without notifying the other party that an extra party has now been involved.

• Phantom fleets: companies with minimal or no equipment (trucks) moving impossible volumes.

• Identity laundering: legitimate registration numbers used to mask unknown company representatives and drivers.

Cargo theft alone costs the freight industry $6.6 billion annually, with individual losses often exceeding $500,000. When the cargo belongs to the U.S. military, the stakes are astronomically higher.

How Military Freight Is Supposed to Work.

The DoD/DoW relies on a vast domestic transportation network overseen by U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM). Highway freight is managed primarily through the U.S. Army’s transportation arm, using a digital system called Global Freight Management (GFM).

In theory:

• Only approved carriers can bid

• Security requirements are defined per shipment

• Drivers must be verified at pickup

• Sensitive freight receives additional controls

In practice, the system isn’t designed as it should be and lacks many critical verification steps.

The System Issues.

1. Real-Time Safety or Authority Checks? None.

The military’s freight system does not automatically verify whether a carrier is active, insured, safe, or even legally authorized to operate, even though that information already exists in federal databases. This is the root of the problem.

The DoD/DoW relies on a carrier identifier, known as a SCAC (shipping code), to determine who can move military freight. But that code is not linked to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s live registration system, which tracks whether a trucking company is actually authorized to operate. As a result, hundreds of carriers retain valid SCACs within the military’s freight system even after their federal operating authority has been revoked, expired, or never issued.

Those entities can continue bidding on and winning military shipments indefinitely. Dormant, defunct, or outright fraudulent?

No issues, here’s your award to haul military freight!

2. Zero Capacity, Zero Validation

A company with one pickup truck can be awarded dozens of sensitive shipments to be picked up on a single day. You would expect an automated safeguard, something basic, to verify whether a carrier actually has enough trucks, or the right trucks, to move the freight. No, there isn’t one.

In 2023, a carrier operating a single Ford F-150 pickup truck and a small utility trailer was awarded 32 sensitive military loads in one day through the DoD’s Global Freight Management system. Each shipment required Signature & Tally (675) service, a security designation meant to ensure controlled handling. The average trip was 127 miles. The average payment was roughly $2,000 per load, totaling more than $64,000.

The trucking company did not have the equipment or capacity to move even one of those shipments, let alone thirty-two. Instead, the freight was quietly brokered out to unknown third parties, in violation of federal law and Department of Defense policy, exposing sensitive military cargo to drivers the government did not vet or approve.

Can this carrier actually move multiple shipments on the same day? We don’t know. Here’s the freight anyway.

In this case, the company approved by the Department of Defense to haul freight also operates a separate freight brokerage (not approved by the DoD/DoW). The owner accepts military shipments under the trucking authority, then reassigns those loads through the brokerage, without disclosure.

Publicly available information indicates the owner resides in NIGERIA. Yet shipments awarded to his U.S.-registered trucking company were ultimately handled by unknown trucking companies and drivers, outside the military’s vetting process.

Who will be hauling the freight? We don’t know. Here’s the freight anyway.

3. Unknown & unqualified truck drivers.

Once a carrier accepts a military shipment, the load can be quietly reassigned to a different driver. This ‘swap-seat’ maneuver is used when the original driver lacks the security clearances, identification, or base-access qualifications required to enter a military installation. In some cases, the replacement driver is recruited informally, at a truck stop or on Facebook, without the military’s knowledge or approval.

If a truck driver is deemed unqualified to make the final delivery, he shouldn’t be hauling military cargo!

Leadership has been warned.

Last year, a coalition of former Army officers and motor carriers, representing more than 300 combined years of DoD freight experience, submitted a 38-page briefing to USTRANSCOM and ARTRANS leadership.

The document included GFM screenshots, load manifests, broker chains, and documented fraud patterns. It called for immediate corrective action, system upgrades, and formal acknowledgment.

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To date, there has been no response. Hundreds of documented cases remain unresolved, including concerns of mismatched equipment, forged insurance, and unauthorized drivers recruited at truck stops to access military bases.

Addressing the fraud would require acknowledging systemic failure. Maintaining the illusion seems to be easier.

A National Security Issue

Overseas, the DoD strictly controls logistics to prevent adversaries from gaining access to sensitive equipment. Domestically, it seems we are turning a blind eye to it.

Foreign-owned or foreign-linked companies can legally operate within these gaps. In some cases, military freight is being managed from outside the United States, with shipment data transmitted to overseas data warehouses. Sensitive equipment can be photographed, tracked, delayed, or diverted without detection.

All it takes is one compromised shipment to trigger cascading consequences.

This Is Fixable

The fixes are neither experimental nor expensive. They already exist in the private sector.

1. Real-Time Vetting: Integrate existing federal safety, insurance, and authority data directly into military freight systems.

2. Capacity Enforcement: Match shipments to verified equipment and fleet size, automatically.

3. Transparent Brokering: Allow licensed brokers, but require full disclosure of subcontractors and equipment.

4. Accountability: Remove repeat offenders from eligibility. Enforce penalties consistently.

5. End-to-End Visibility: Track not just freight, but who touched it, when, and with what credentials.

Securing the Home Front

National security doesn’t stop at the border. It doesn’t stop at the port. And it certainly doesn’t stop at the loading dock. America’s highways are part of its defense infrastructure, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Linking military freight systems to real-time federal safety data, capping load awards based on verified equipment, restricting unauthorized brokering, enforcing automatic suspensions, and requiring full transparency would cost an estimated $12 million, less than 0.3 percent of a single year’s general-freight budget.

The cost of inaction is much harder to quantify and far higher.

The same blind spots that allow unsafe drivers onto public roads also allow unknown actors into military supply chains. Waiting for a catastrophic failure, a compromised weapons system, a terrorist incident, or a major diversion is not a strategy. It is negligence.

Senior officers and civilian leaders have been presented with documented evidence of these vulnerabilities. The systems remain unchanged. The technology to fix this exists. The data exists. What’s missing is urgency.

The Global Freight Management system can be fixed now, by choice.
Or later, by consequence.

Independent investigation requires independence. If you find this reporting valuable, consider supporting the research that makes it possible. Reader support funds data access, public records requests, and the analysis required to follow these issues wherever they lead.

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This article/project wouldn’t be what it is without the help of @supertrucker. Thank you for your dedication, sir.

The U.S. federal government is responsible for enforcing immigration laws, securing our borders, and deporting those here illegally. Yet Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with others such as the United States Postal Service (USPS) and even the Department of War, are relying on the very same cheap, unregulated foreign labor they’re supposed to restrict.

This isn’t some ignorant fear-mongering type claim. It is real, and it’s playing out on America’s highways right now. The evidence is all over social media.

Before we get too far ahead, let’s break down some key trucking basics for anyone not in the industry:

• A Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) is required to operate big rigs (semi-trucks/tractor-trailers/18-wheelers).

• A non-domiciled CDL is a special version issued to drivers who aren’t permanent residents of the U.S. or the issuing state. It’s often used by foreign nationals legally allowed to work here temporarily (e.g., via work visas). But recent federal crackdowns (including emergency rules from the Department of Transportation in 2025) have highlighted massive issues: some states issued them improperly, English proficiency wasn’t always enforced, and safety records suffered. These drivers are now facing greater scrutiny, with many at risk of losing eligibility.

• Out-of-service (OOS) rates measure how often a driver or truck is pulled over and ordered off the road during inspections due to violations such as unsafe equipment, hours-of-service violations, or language barriers (drivers must speak/read English well enough to understand signs and officials).

• USDOT authority is the federal registration that a trucking company needs to operate legally interstate. Companies that lose it (e.g., for repeated violations) can’t haul freight legally.

Now, let’s look at the irony.

The Department of War is infiltrated with foreign trucking companies and drivers, including those who live in other countries, like Moldova and Nigeria.

*As a reminder, from the trucking companies using their “own” Electronic Logging Devices, our cargo and critical infrastructure data are being fed overseas every single day.

The United States Postal Service almost collapsed when it tried to ban unvetted non-domiciled CDL drivers from its network in late 2025. They had to reverse course immediately, and only recently announced a phased crackdown with extra vetting. Time will tell whether this really happens.

In the most outrageous case of irony, we have truck drivers with non-domiciled CDLs hauling the very SUVs ICE uses to detain and deport illegal immigrants.

Using Grok and ChatGPT, I translated the video. I assume it’s somewhat accurate.

“Guys. I’ve got news. Look who I’m about to deliver cars to.
All this stuff here. With an officer in New York.
Let’s hope they don’t fucking lock me up there.
If they do lock me up there, that’ll be completely fucked.
I hope they at least treat me somewhat decently.
If I took it with him, fuck…
I hope there won’t be any bullshit.
I don’t know, we’ll see.
Nothing to do now anyway.
Lol, they grabbed me.
If it turns out the car’s registered to Vasya, I’ll leave fast, instantly.
Fuck, this is fucked.
It’s time — fuck — they’ve been discussing this for 10 years already.”

Question: Who is Vasya?

The caption on the video post jokes about delivering to “the den of the enemy” – while using a non-domiciled CDL.

#ICE agents, no domicile #CDL. #detention in the den of the enemy. I take wheelbarrows to detention 😂😂😂

This one was posted by an anti-ICE Facebook user in attempts to warn others that the vehicles are coming.

Another trucking company is hauling ICE vehicles with incredibly absurd out-of-service rates.

Another image was posted on Facebook, and the trucking company is directly connected to a ring of operations that can't seem to keep a USDOT authority for more than 9 months.

I’ve kept up with this ring of operations since they were at the top of the leaderboard for most inspections during the May 2025 Blitz Week.

They’ve never stopped trucking. They just pop up under a different company name and with a different USDOT authority. This is a serious public safety risk, but no one seems to care...

This truck wasn't hauling cars, but rather wire to secure the border. Notice that the trucking company name on the side of the truck isn't the same trucking company per the assigned USDOT Number.

Hello, feds? What the h*ll are we doing?!

ICE is raiding cities, workplaces, and borders, while at the same time, the federal government ships its own freight using the lowest-bid carriers, regardless of safety or security risk. This is a national security FAILURE.

Those low rates don’t come from efficiency. They come from undercutting American trucking companies and American drivers.

If we’re serious, we need real audits, strict enforcement of English proficiency and U.S. citizenship requirements, and an unapologetic preference for hiring American-based drivers first.

At a minimum, government freight should only be hauled by truly vetted American truckers. They’ve earned that right. And our beautiful country deserves nothing less.

To support continued efforts to expose fraud and carelessness in America’s trucking industry, consider donating. Independent analysis depends on independent support.

Donation link.

This article does not aim to review the tragic wrecks of 2025 but to emphasize the administration’s focus on the trucking industry.

For the last 4 or 5 years, everyone in freight has been trying to figure out what was/is going on. Year after year, the freight cycle didn’t end, as expected. The smartest data analysts, the most seasoned economists, and the loudest transportation experts eventually stopped trying to predict anything. At some point, we quietly admitted the truth… Nobody knew what the heck was going on.

It was the freight cycle that refused to cycle. A market that never corrected itself. It was the cycle that just… dragged on. And on and on… and on.

Then, we entered 2025. The smoke finally started to clear. We stopped asking, “What’s happening?” and started asking, “WHO made this happen?!!!”

And for better or worse, 2025 brought the trucking industry’s conversations into the open. This is the first time, maybe ever, that the trucking industry has held Americans' attention for more than a few days or weeks. We made headlines in major media outlets. You guys, we did it! We turned up the volume, and nobody turned it back down.

Before 2025, I rarely talked about anything outside freight tech. Freight tech is what I do for a living. That is my day job at Revenova, so that’s what I stuck to — our product, new features, demos, workflows, tech things. This was my comfort zone. But 2025 changed something in me, as it did for many of you. I realized the trucking community had been shouting about these issues for years, but no one was listening. For far too long, the American trucking community had been ignored. And I wanted to know why.

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I’m a skeptic to a fault. I heard the stories, I listened to the warnings, but most of what people shared didn’t come with data attached. So I went looking for it. I knew they were right, but I wanted the numbers. People listen to numbers. And so, I got to work. Starting with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Company census file.

The moment I started posting about all of this, the data mess, and calling it a dumpster fire, the messages started coming in.

“You’re going to get yourself in trouble.”

“Are you sure you want to say that publicly?”

“Can you not put this information out there?”

Those made me think deeply about what I was doing. Yes, it was risky. Financially, professionally, and personally. But I chose to do it anyway. And so did many of you. For that, I want to thank you.

Thank you for caring about this industry.
Thank you for caring about the future of the American truck driver.
And thank you for refusing to look away.

Year in Review

March 2025 - June 20, 2025

Doom-scrolling. Rage posting on X. Making new friends.

May 20, 2025

This is the first day Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X about trucking. On this day, he signed an executive order that upgraded English Language Proficiency (ELP) violations to out-of-service (OOS) violations. Remember, the requirement that truck drivers speak and read English has been around since 1937.

For a more in-depth review of the ELP, here’s an article for you:

June 20, 2025

Following my doom-scrolling of the FMCSA data and posting about it on X, FreightCaviar was the first to give me a platform to share my findings. In the article, ‘Eye-Opening Patterns in FMCSA Data,’ I exposed everything I had found in the millions of rows of trucking companies. It is, to say the least, concerning. **We still have so much work to do here.

June 25, 2025

ELP enforcement — activated.

I’ll admit, I was overly optimistic. I thought this would impact the industry harder and faster than it has. What we’ve observed instead is that enforcement is uneven at best. Some states are actively issuing out-of-service violations. And some are not.

Then, we have California, which is the most obnoxious. To date, they have issued only ONE out-of-service violation.

Some drivers continue to treat the ELP OOS violations like a time-out. They wait out the clock or until the enforcement officer drives off, then they keep on trucking. Other than having a rough estimate of the total number of non-English-speaking truck drivers and awareness of the issue, this has done nothing.

June 27, 2025

Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the USDOT launched a nationwide audit of state practices for issuing non-domiciled CDLs, specifically to review the potential for unqualified individuals to obtain licenses and pose a hazard on our roads.

It’s the government. They have to do everything to prove the potential.

August 8, 2025

I stumbled onto hundreds of CDL copies. Truly, a treasure chest of a find. *Shoutout to a vibe-coded app that left the backend wide-open. As I went through them, I realized they were not issued in accordance with the law. The only ones I could confirm with absolute certainty were from New York, because both the visa and CDL expiration dates are printed directly on the license.

When the immigration document (visa) expires, the CDL is no longer valid. I could only speculate that many states were following New York’s behavior. At this point, who knows how many invalid/legally expired CDLs are on our roads?!

As American Truckers United (ATU) has long pointed out, the issues we face in the trucking industry are in large part due to Employment Authorization Documents (EAD cards). Legally, these are issued as valid for 6-18 months.

This particular issue took off on the internet. It was instantly understood, instantly shareable, and it connected neatly to the massive H-1B fraud already being exposed in tech, healthcare, and other sectors.

The U-turn crash in Florida certainly pushed everyone over the edge. The matters in trucking were no longer siloed and ignored as some abstract policy debate. It was suddenly clear that something terrible was going on, and that something impacts every person who drives on America’s highways.

August 21, 2025

I was on my way to pick up my four-year-old from daycare when my phone started blowing up. It was this. Secretary Marco Rubio had announced a pause on all work visas for commercial truck drivers.

I cried. This is the moment when I knew they were listening. The administration acknowledged the potential fraud and the national security issue we had been talking and posting about.

September 26, 2025

Secretary Sean Duffy held a press conference to announce emergency action based on the initial findings of the USDOT’s CDL audit. This action drastically restricted who is eligible for a CDL. Non-citizens no longer qualify for a non-domiciled CDL unless they meet a much stricter set of rules. The EAD cards are no longer eligible.

The audit uncovered both a catastrophic pattern of states issuing licenses illegally to foreign drivers and the fact that, even if the current regulatory framework is followed, it can still fail. The confluence of these two factors has created an imminent hazard on America’s roadways that must be fixed.

There is one part of this press release that lives vividly in my head.

”We’ve heard from truckers and safety advocates, and news reports, that something was seriously wrong. It was alleged that the open-border policies of the last administration have led to the exploitation of our nation’s trucking licensing system. So today, I’m here to tell you after our audit that those reports… They’re all true.” —Secretary Sean Duffy

They. Are. All. True.
We were right.

November 12, 2025

California. Governor Gavin Newsom blatantly disregards Secretary Sean Duffy’s rules for truck drivers. Why? I have no idea. Why do we keep giving them X-number of days to fix it? Again, I have no idea.

“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”

Notices have been issued to the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders that their license no longer meets federal requirements and will expire in 60 days. FMCSA requires California to provide its full audit of all its non-domiciled CDLs so the agency can verify that every illegally issued license has been revoked and that the failures that allowed these licenses to be issued are corrected.

USDOT Audit Findings: California.

The non-domiciled CDL audits are ongoing. Thus far, we have numbers for three states.

• California: 25% of non-domiciled CDLs were illegally issued.

• New York: 53% of non-domiciled CDLs were illegally issued.

• Minnesota: 33% of non-domiciled CDLs were illegally issued.

We haven't even covered Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Utah, Washington, or Texas, yet... We have barely scratched the surface.

December 1, 2025

The FMCSA finally announced a complete overhaul of the vetting process for Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs). We’ve needed this since the beginning, but it is better late than never, I suppose.

In 2025, the FMCSA removed ~28 ELDs from the agency’s list of approved electronic logging devices (ELDs). For a deeper dive into how we got here and why it matters, see my July 2025 article.

Also, December 1, 2025

I won’t call them CDL schools; they are CDL mills. We lowered the barrier to entry so far that I’d say we have no barrier. It is a line drawn in the sand that one must tap their head three times, then hop across to become a truck driver. It seems that those days may be coming to an end. Or so I hope.

Secretary Sean Duffy announced the removal of nearly 3,000 CDL training providers from the FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry (TPR) for failing to equip trainees with the Trump Administration’s standards of readiness. Another 4,500 training providers were placed on notice due to potential noncompliance.

Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Cracks Down on Illegal Providers of Commercial Driver’s License Test Training Centers

When all else fails, call ICE.

As I mentioned earlier, the English Language Proficiency rule did very little to change the driver capacity pool meaningfully. But once the administration grasped the scope of the problem, immigration enforcement ramped up. Across seven state enforcement operations, ICE has detained 686 commercial truck drivers.

• Oklahoma: 125

• Indiana: 146

• New York: 30

• Texas: 31

• Wyoming: 40

• Mississippi: 145

• California: 87

*This total only includes the published operations.

December 21, 2025

Craig Fuller has kept us updated on the truckload tender rejections. Rejections have surged to 12.83%, the highest level we’ve seen since 2021! This is remarkable.

Capacity is tightening. The market is shifting. Buckle up, kids. We’re coming back.

And to FreightX,

I have a deep love for you and the community we’ve built. We’ve faced the most backlash and the most hardcore claims that we would never get anything done. But guess what? We did. We freaking did!

May you always remember, you can just do things. *You may get your account locked once a month by the mass reporters overseas or have deranged people coming after you online, but you must keep going.

We’ve received multiple confirmations that the administration reads X religiously and discusses our posts in their meetings. To echo Mike Cernovich, this has never happened in our lifetimes. Yes, it is an amazing feeling. To know we aren’t just shouting (posting) into the void… Yes, absolutely amazing.

Wow, what a year. I hope that years from now, we can look back on all of this and see how much real, lasting change was made for American trucking in 2025. I want to wish you a truly Merry Christmas! Thank you for the support, the conversations, and for caring enough about this industry to stay engaged.

Here’s to keeping the momentum going in 2026 ❤️

This article is not about immigration, politics, or who “belongs” in trucking. It’s about why English Language Proficiency has been a federal safety requirement for commercial drivers for decades. This is not some new rule Trump pulled out of his head just because he can.

Much of the public commentary surrounding the English Language Proficiency (ELP) enforcement fundamentally misunderstands what is actually happening. So, before we even start, it is important to clarify what an out-of-service (OOS) violation is. And what it is not.

When a driver is placed out of service, he does not lose his commercial driver’s license (CDL), and he is not permanently removed from the road. An OOS is not a trucking ban. It is a temporary safety hold. Basically, a time-out.

The driver is required to stop operating the truck until the specific violation is corrected. Once that condition is “resolved,” the driver may legally return to service and continue driving. And sometimes this means just after the enforcement officer drives away.

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Here, Axios, let me help you.

This Requirement Is Older Than the Debate Around It

Truck drivers have been required to read and speak English since 1937.

The English Language Proficiency requirement appears today in the Code of Federal Regulations at 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2) and has been codified as part of federal driver qualification standards since at least 1970. Its underlying safety rationale dates back even further, to the earliest federal motor carrier safety rules adopted in 1937.

Despite recent headlines, this is not a modern policy initiative and is not tied to any contemporary administration. It is a longstanding federal safety standard that has existed across multiple generations of trucking, enforcement agencies, and political leadership.

49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2) — General qualifications of drivers states:

“A person is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle if that person—
(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records.”

To be very clear. This rule predates Donald J. Trump.
It also predates FreightX.
And it predates most people currently arguing about it.

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Timeline: English Language Proficiency in U.S. Trucking

1937

Federal motor carrier safety regulations establish the foundation for driver qualification standards, including the expectation that drivers can communicate sufficiently for safety-related purposes.

1970-ish

Formal codification. The English language proficiency requirement is codified in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2).

2004-2005

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) votes to add ELP violations to the North American Standard Out-of-Service (OOS) Criteria, effective April 1, 2005, recognizing that an inability to communicate with inspectors poses an immediate safety risk.

Despite this, FMCSA enforcement personnel are initially instructed to cite ELP violations but not place drivers out of service.

2007

On July 20, 2007, a memorandum reversed that approach, directing inspectors that if a driver cannot understand and respond to official inquiries and directions in English, the driver must be placed out of service in accordance with CVSA criteria

2016

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued internal enforcement guidance that removed the requirement to place drivers out of service for failing to meet the English language proficiency standard. Under that policy, drivers could be cited but not immediately taken off the road solely for ELP violations.

***The timing here is quite ironic, as it barely predates the mass surge of immigrants into the United States. And into the trucking industry.

May 20, 2025

The FMCSA issued updated enforcement guidance rescinding the 2016 memo and restoring inspectors’ authority to place drivers out of service for ELP violations.

June 25, 2025

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) incorporated ELP noncompliance into the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, meaning drivers who fail the English proficiency assessment can be placed out of service during roadside inspections.

Post-June 2025

Public messaging chaos ensues. The English Language Proficiency rule seems to be the only safety standard routinely reframed as discrimination, despite being older than nearly every modern trucking regulation.

FYI, this enforcement is not ICE. Drivers are not automatically deported for failing an ELP assessment. An out-of-service order does not revoke a CDL, and it does not permanently remove someone from the workforce.

If I had $5 for every headline or X post that needed correcting, I would be rich, rich.

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Compliance or Control? Or Safety?

The narrative that the ELP enforcement is about control or exclusion collapses under the lightest scrutiny. As of this morning, 10,188 English Language Proficiency out-of-service violations have been issued between June 25, 2025, and December 12, 2025.

To understand what sits behind that number, I analyzed the top 20 carriers associated with these violations, reviewing their driver out-of-service rates, vehicle out-of-service rates, total crash counts, and operating start dates to assess how long each operation has been active.

My findings:

• Driver and vehicle out-of-service rates among these carriers are well above national averages.

• Many of the highest ELP violators are newly formed carriers, some of which have been operating (or operated) for only a few months.

• Several of the car haulers are actually the same underlying operation. They repeatedly get shut down and resurface under new company names and USDOT authorities.

• Crash counts are not trivial, even for companies with very short operating histories.

High ELP out-of-service counts do not exist in isolation here. They directly correlate with poor vehicle maintenance, unsafe driving practices, elevated crash involvement, and short-lived operating authorities.

Let me be very, very clear. This is NOT what well-run American trucking companies look like. And it should concern anyone who shares the road with an 80,000-pound vehicle (which is everyone).

A safety rule is not “unfair” simply because it is uncomfortable to enforce.
It becomes dangerous when it is ignored.

Ahem. California.

Since June 25, 2025, California has issued no more than ONE English Language Proficiency out-of-service violation.

At the same time, 1,005 trucks domiciled in California have been placed out of service for ELP violations in other states.

California isn’t producing safer drivers. It’s producing drivers who are being caught elsewhere. California truck drivers are not restricted to the state of California. Unfortunately, their refusal to enforce the ELP pushes the risk onto the rest of the country.

This is not up for debate.

It’s easy to attempt to debate English Language Proficiency in the abstract, as policy, enforcement, or politics. It is much harder to do so when confronted with what actually happens on the side of the road when things go terribly wrong.

When crashes happen, language is no longer a technical requirement. It becomes the difference between minutes and hours. Between survival and silence.

Here are two examples. Please know there are many, many more.

October 5, 2025

After a semi-truck slammed into their car, killing his 21-year-old brother, Toby, just 16 years old, ran to the truck driver and begged him to call 911.

The driver couldn’t understand him.

According to Toby, the truck driver barely spoke English. Instead of calling for help, the driver handed Toby his phone, forcing a teenager who had just witnessed his brother’s death to communicate with 911 dispatchers himself.

January 19, 2025

Kevin Lataille was 59 years old. A U.S. Navy veteran. He had just finished his shift at the Eat’n Park and was heading home during a snowstorm. Before leaving, he called his wife, Lisa.

“Hey, I’m leaving,” he told her. “I’ll be careful.”

He never made it home. She reported him missing.

Earlier that day, truck driver Sukhjinder Singh, 37, jackknifed his truck on the Cheat Lake Bridge in West Virginia. During the incident, Singh ran Lataille’s vehicle off the bridge and into the freezing river below.

A week later, rescue crews recovered Kevin and his vehicle from the icy water.

According to court documents, Singh did not call 911. He did not attempt to call 911. Singh does not speak English. He was unable to communicate with tow truck operators or law enforcement without a translator.

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—

I do not share these stories for “shock value.” I share them because they illustrate the exact scenarios federal safety regulations are designed to address. Or supposed to address.

After a crash, a commercial truck driver must be able to call 911, explain what happened, follow dispatcher instructions, communicate with law enforcement, and help coordinate the emergency response. When that cannot happen, the consequences are measured in lost time, lost evidence, and lost lives.

This is why English Language Proficiency exists as a safety requirement.

This was never supposed to be a topic of political or immigration debate. It became one because enforcement made people “uncomfortable.”

English Language Proficiency has been a federal safety requirement for nearly a century. The law did not change. The risk did not change. What changed was whether we were willing to enforce a rule designed to protect the public.

The data shows that English Language Proficiency violations are not occurring in isolation. They cluster with elevated driver out-of-service rates, poor vehicle maintenance, higher crash involvement, and short-lived operating authorities.

Out-of-service enforcement does not end careers.
It does not revoke licenses.
It does not deport drivers.
English Language Proficiency is not about exclusion.

It is about safety and accountability.
And accountability is the bare minimum the public should expect from anyone entrusted with an 80,000-pound vehicle on America’s roads.

When the next crash happens and minutes turn into hours because no one can call for help, please remember: This was never supposed to be about feelings, politics, or inclusion. It’s about holding everyone who operates an 80,000-pound missile on America’s highways to the same basic standard that’s been on the books since 1937.

Anything less isn’t compassion. It’s blantant negligence.

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On a lighter note.

Thank you to every single subscriber who reads my articles. Thank you for caring about the trucking industry, for wanting it to be safer and better for everyone who depends on it (which is all of us). A special, extra-big thank you to my paid subscribers. Your support makes this work possible, and it means the world to me.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas. May your Christmas season overflow with love, laughter, joy, and precious moments with the people you love most.

Here’s to a brighter, safer 2026.

🩷

High-value freight has a way of attracting the wrong kind of attention. Copper wire is a hot commodity. What follows is the quiet, step-by-step account of how one shipment almost disappeared. And how a handful of details kept it from becoming another loss no one could explain.

Day 1: Everything is fine.

The load was tendered to a carrier that checked every box. Their email domain matched the company’s actual domain. Their authority, insurance ($250k in cargo), and compliance records were all in good standing.

The dispatcher sent over the driver’s information, including a copy of his driver’s license. The broker confirmed that both the driver and the company had the proper approvals to haul copper wire. Nothing was out of place.

Dispatch confirmed, again.

Everything was fine, as it should be for a standard shipment.

Day 2: The Pickup

The driver arrived at the shipper as usual. The dispatcher called the freight broker several times to establish close communication. The driver called the broker and asked for the pickup number. The broker gave it to him without hesitation.

The shipper verified his identity, his paperwork, and his details.

Everything checked and verified, or so they were told.

The copper wire was loaded onto the truck. The driver left the yard with the shipment secured. Until this point, the load was as ordinary as any other.

The Intercepted Phone Call

As the truck headed down the road, the tracking stopped updating. One ping at the shipper’s location, nothing after.

The broker tried contacting the driver. No response.
Tried dispatch. No response.

Then a call finally came in from the real dispatcher. He asked if they had booked a load with them. The broker confirmed. The dispatcher explained that their email and phone system had been compromised. Before the broker could respond, another voice suddenly cut into the call, “No, no. We’re good. We’re good. Don’t worry.”

The interruption provided zero reassurance. If anything, it sounded like someone inserting themselves into the call to control the narrative, which is precisely what they did.

Driver spills the tea.

The broker managed to reach the driver directly. And everything unraveled.

He admitted that dispatch had told him to stop before arriving at the shipper.
They promised to send him $1,500 via CashApp if he would print and buy magnetic signs for the truck… signs with a different company name.

He didn’t fully understand why. He only knew they insisted. So, he did it.

After the copper wire was loaded, he was suddenly told to take it to a different warehouse. The driver realized something was wrong. Thankfully, the broker and driver arranged for the shipment to go to the proper destination.

Here’s the fake load and rate confirmation.

*Notice the suppressed delivery location and Zelle payment note.

The Shipper’s Missed Detail

Later, the shipper reviewed the event and realized their own SOP had been bypassed:

• They do not load trucks with removable signage.

• This truck had removable signage.

They also noted that the driver’s phone number didn’t match the number on file, but the load had already been released.

The small details that generally serve as guardrails were overlooked. Just enough to let a well-planned attempt move forward.

It’s Okay. We’ve done this before.

The broker reached back out to the people who had been impersonating the real dispatch. The response was quite casual: “It’s okay. We’ve already stolen four loads.”

Nearly every step leading up to that moment did precisely what the fraudsters hoped it would do:

• A verified-looking carrier profile

• A cloned or compromised email system

• A driver pressured into rebranding his truck

• A shipper overlooking their own SOP

• A broker trying to decode conflicting information in real time

This copper wire shipment didn’t nearly vanish because of broken broker processes or a rogue driver. It stayed on the map because the driver finally spoke up. And because someone kept pushing past a compromised line of communication until they reached a real, non-criminal human.

Please, pick up the phone!

In a world where a single missed detail can send a high-value load into the dark, the only real defense is vigilance. Carriers, brokers, and shippers can’t afford to assume anything anymore. Verify every document. Triple-check every contact. And when something feels even slightly out of place, pick up the phone and call the number you know is real. The difference between a delivered load and a vanished one is often just one confirmed phone call.

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—Danielle (maybe)

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State of California v
everyone else.

California may be the loudest problem, but it’s far from the only one. If it were just California, we could clean up this mess much quicker.

In my collection of CDLs, multiple states are issuing federal Real IDs as non-domiciled CDLs. I’ve redacted personal details, but I can confirm these identities do not belong to American citizens. And yes, I ran the background checks.

California should certainly be held accountable for its negligence and foolishness, but fraudulently issued CDLs are just one piece of a much bigger puzzle.

ICE x Oklahoma x Weigh Station

Federal and state law enforcement officers arrested 120 individuals for immigration-related violations during a multiday operation along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. Of the 91 commercial drivers detained, 39 were citizens of India, 13 of Uzbekistan, and 12 of China.

ICE said 80 of the 91 drivers had entered the U.S. illegally or were awaiting asylum hearings, while one had a final removal order.

ICE said the commercial driver’s licenses held by those arrested were issued in several states, most notably:

• California, with 44

• New York, with 14

• Pennsylvania, with 12

• and Illinois, with 11

Indiana.

On October 14th, Borko Stankovic (41), a truck driver with ties to Indiana and Illinois, crossed into oncoming traffic, killing a man instantly. He did not have a valid CDL; he was carrying a family-shared CDL. And his immigration visa expired in 2011.

Oh. And, he got at least 2 PPP loans.

Illinois.

Arminas Lubianskas, 33, an illegal alien from Lithuania, was arrested during a joint raid by local police & Homeland Security. Police recovered 27 stolen appliances, valued at up to $100,000, from his home that were taken from a warehouse in the 14500 block of Gougar Rd.

Lubianskas owns two US-based companies:

• ARMIN GROUP CORP. - 2016

• ARMMAX GLOVES INC. - 2024

At the same address as the two companies, there is an active trucking company.

Minnesota.

New York.

Florida.

Alexis Osmani Gonzalez-Companioni fell asleep at the wheel in Terrell, Texas, and woke up to a loud bang. That bang? His 80,000 lb semi-truck crashed into four passenger vehicles and two other semis. The sleeping driver killed 5 people and injured several others. He held a Florida CDL.

Which USDOT Number should we use next?

The Department of Transportation and the FMCSA have yet to address the company census data. Particularly, individuals or apartment buildings holding multiple DOT authorities. In my opinion, that’s every bit as serious as the CDL problem.

Why does this matter?

Because in any other profession, incompetence has consequences. If a neurosurgeon kills a patient due to a lack of skill, they lose their medical license. Permanently.

But, in trucking, we don’t do that. Why?! I do not know.

When a carrier is placed out of service, that should mean they’re done… for good. But that’s not what happens. Companies fail audits, they won’t answer for the auditor, the auditor can’t find them, they lose insurance, or rack up safety violations and ruin their reputation. You would think this would be the end, but no. Within days, they’re back on the road with another tapped on DOT number.

Same trucks. Same people. Same sh*t.

No one calls it out. No one asks questions. Carrier vetting tools slap on a green check, and they’re good to go.

This is absolutely absurd. It is dangerous. It is negligent. It is ludicrous. And it’s up to the FMCSA to fix this piece of the mess.

In the case of Hope Trans, the driver was from Florida. Hope Trans hasn’t always been ‘Hope Trans.’ Before Hope, they were Bee Zone Logistics. Before Bee Zone Logistics, they were Kardan Trucking.

Each new company looked perfectly clean on paper. Safe. Compliant. Gold star. But they were far, far from that.

Or, this one. Since 2024, they’ve had at least 12 USDOT authorities. I stopped counting at 12 because my level of anger was not healthy.

Total violations and crash data from 8 of their USDOT records:

• Out-of-service (OOS) orders: 3,336

• Crashes: 90

• Injuries: 43

This is absolutely ridiculous. Stupid, really.

Or, this one. This is ONE subdivision in Indiana.

Total trucking companies: 141

• 11 houses, each with 2 companies

• 2 houses, each with 3 companies

• 2 houses, each with 4 companies

Most operate with 1-2 trucks, but we do have a few fleets:

• 22 trucks

• 18 trucks

• 14 trucks

• 11 trucks

I wouldn’t call these out if I were unsure about the fraudulent activities, but I am sure. They are absolutely doing shady things.

Here are a few more examples.

• 55 trucking companies in a different Indiana subdivision.

• 55 trucking companies in one California apartment complex.

• 125+ trucking companies in another California apt complex.

• Some of the apt units have 2-9+ trucking companies

These people are running circles around the FMCSA.

I’m not one to point out problems without offering solutions, so I vibe-coded my first move should someone decide to hand me the keys to the USDOT/FMCSA registration system. When a new applicant matches anything (name, address, phone, email), they do not automatically get a pass. They go straight to the review pile.

If you’ve already burned down one house, you don’t get to build another on the same stupid foundation. Shut down the companies, and most of the problems solve themselves. No company = No employer = No driver on the road.

Recent media things.

SuperTalk 99.7: Dem’s ICE Tracker SCANDAL as Illegal Trucker Kills Three with Chris Hand

What a privilege it is to speak up for the industry that made me who I am.

If you made it this far and you’re thinking that some of this didn’t make sense, please know I am tired. I’m running on caffeine, nicotine, and Patriotism. A 72-hour nap is desperately needed.

Donation to help pay my PACER bill.

Until next time.

-Danielle (maybe)

I’ll continue updating this article as new details emerge and as my investigation into the trucking company progresses.

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Back in June, I exposed the “No Name Given” issue in my FreightCaviar article “Eye-Opening Patterns in FMCSA Data,” where I documented troubling patterns in how trucking companies are registering with the USDOT using some variation of ‘No Name Given.’

Following this article, I joined the FreightCaviar team for Freight Gong Friday to discuss all the details (mess).

Following that exposure, I turned my attention to commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) themselves to see if the same pattern was hiding there. Sure enough, it was. Since then, I’ve been documenting, in real-time on X, how this license category and the lack of a full legal name are being bent and abused.

Before diving headfirst into the “No Name Given” controversy, it’s essential that we define and understand precisely what a non-domiciled CDL is.

Non-Domiciled CDL.

A non-domiciled CDL is a commercial driver’s license issued by a U.S. state to an individual who is legally permitted to operate a truck in that state but is not considered a resident of that state.

Historically, a non-domiciled CDL was essentially a temporary license for individuals who trained and tested in one state but resided in another.

For example, Jim lives in Ohio but is hired by a trucking company in Arkansas. He goes through the company’s training school in Arkansas and takes his CDL skills test there. Arkansas, which cannot issue a full CDL to a non-resident, issues Jim a non-domiciled CDL instead. When Jim returns to Ohio, he applies for an Ohio CDL, and the Arkansas license is automatically voided. This system prevented a driver from holding two valid CDLs at once, while still allowing out-of-state training and testing.

Today, the non-domiciled CDL is most often issued to foreign nationals working under a work visa or another lawful status. Under FMCSA rules, a driver could qualify with a valid Employment Authorization Document (EAD) or a foreign passport accompanied by an I-94 arrival/departure record. Drivers from Canada and Mexico don’t need one because the U.S. recognizes their CDLs under reciprocity agreements.

Note: ‘Limited term’ and ‘non-domiciled’ are the same thing. Don’t let your state or governor confuse you!

What began as a policy with good intentions has, somewhere between intention and execution, fallen apart.

It is broken. The entire system is broken.

No Name Given Trucking Companies

It isn’t lovely. And to be frank, it’s pretty stupid.

According to USDOT / FMCSA registrations, this isn’t some long-standing data issue. It didn’t start 45 years ago, despite what some X users claim. It really only started showing up around 2022. From 2015 through 2021, I could only find 25 trucking companies registered with some variation of ‘No Name Given.’ From 2022 to now, that number has increased significantly. Since Jan.1, 2022, 623 trucking companies have registered under some variation of ‘No Name Given.’

‘No Name Given’ isn’t a clerical error or a typo. It’s a placeholder. How do I know? Because the same DOT records later get updated to a full legal name, sometimes just days or weeks after the DOT registration is approved.

Based on what I’ve seen, this appears to be a deliberate tactic to circumvent the system and avoid matching to a previously registered USDOT number. I won’t go into chameleon carrier behaviors here, but in my article, What the Heck Is a Chameleon Carrier?, I detail exactly why one person would register one or more “trucking companies.”

In CorporationWiki, 113 business owners are listed as “No Name Given.” Almost ALL of them are tied to trucking companies, and 98 of those are in California.

Why are we the only industry in America that allows this?

No Name Given CDLs + Real IDs

Some of the CDLs I’ve obtained in my private files do have a full legal name; it’s just not entered correctly. The first and last names are combined. On paper, the individual has a full legal name, but in the public records, it is not listed… Why? I don’t know.

Interestingly, as I reviewed the CDLs, I noticed that almost all of the non-domiciled and limited-term CDLs are issued with the REAL ID stamp. That should concern everyone.

On paper, getting a REAL ID license is supposed to be rigorous. You have to prove your identity, your lawful presence or citizenship/immigration status, your Social Security number (if applicable), and your residency in the state. Typically, these documents include your life story, a blood sample, a DNA strand, utility bills, lease agreements, a birth certificate, and other relevant documents.

The entire purpose of the REAL ID program is to reduce identity fraud and ensure that the person presenting the ID is genuinely who they claim to be and that they are legally allowed to be in the U.S. The REAL ID stamp is a credential designed for people who meet residency requirements… This, in itself, signals that something has gone off the rails.

Thankfully, we have an administration that hears us!

“It’s all true!” -Secretary Sean Duffy.

For months, I’ve been dismissed as an “alarmist,” and many people on social media have argued with me. Now the federal government itself is saying the same thing I’ve been saying! Last Friday, September 26, Secretary Sean Duffy publicly confirmed what I have been posting and suspected for the past eight months… IT’S ALL FRAUD AND THE REPORTS ARE ALL TRUE!

So true that Sec. Duffy declared it a national emergency requiring immediate action. That action came in the form of the Interim Final Ruling: Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers’ Licenses (CDL).

The final rule brings MUCH NEEDED reform:

• Specific visas only. Non-citizens must now hold employment-based visas (H-2A, H-2B, E-2). A work permit or asylum status no longer qualifies.

• Hard stop on expiration. Licenses must end when the visa ends, or after one year, whichever comes first.

• Verification required. States must verify and confirm immigration status through the SAVE system.

• In-person renewals and stricter documentation rules are now mandatory.

• Mandatory downgrades: States are now required to downgrade a non-domiciled CLP or CDL as soon as they become aware that the holder is no longer eligible.

• States like California have been given 30 days to audit and revoke invalid licenses, or risk losing millions in federal highway funding.

This isn’t just a trucking problem.

The industry and the public need to understand —> ‘No Name Given’ isn’t a harmless data error. It’s a symptom of a system that’s drifted far from its original purpose and has become a national security and safety risk.

It’s tempting to dismiss this as a “trucking only problem.” It’s not.

Everyone shares the road with commercial trucks. When oversight fails, the consequences aren’t abstract. They’re measured in fatalities, shattered families, and crashes that never should have happened.

For years, the driver shortage narrative has been used to justify lowering standards. “We need more drivers!” Rules were bent, verification was weakened, and the pipeline continued to flow. The cost of cheap labor, weak checks, and lax enforcement has finally come due.

The non-domiciled CDL loophole has been exploited long enough. That it took fatalities, investigative audits, and a looming public-safety crisis to force change should make all of us ask: What else is slipping through the cracks? *Spoiler: a lot.

Allowing someone to operate a heavy truck on U.S. roads without even a verified legal name undermines everything the CDL program was designed to ensure: one driver, one license, one verified identity.

This isn’t about vilifying immigrant drivers. It’s about closing loopholes that bad actors exploit to avoid accountability while driving an 80,000-pound machine next to or behind your family on the interstate.

//

And to all the naysayers, I told you so.

Update(s)

Gord () invited me back to the Voice of Gord! I joined Miranda & Gord (of course) to discuss No Given Name CDLs, chameleon carriers, shady Eastern European trucking operations, and all the other chaos wreaking havoc in the industry.

If you care about safety, fraud, or the future of American trucking, this one’s worth a listen.

I had the honor of joining TruckSafe Consulting to dig into some of the most pressing issues we’re facing. Non-domiciled CDLs, the rise of “No Name Given” registrations, and most importantly, where we go from here.

Until next time.

—maybe danielle

The Florida Highway Patrol has now confirmed that the driver, Harjinder Singh, has been arrested and charged with three counts of vehicular homicide.

According to investigators, Singh entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 and later obtained a California Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). With assistance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), troopers verified his immigration status and issued an immigration detainer under the federal 287(g) program.

Singh remains in custody and will no longer be able to operate commercial vehicles in the U.S. Once state charges are resolved, he will be turned over to federal authorities for deportation.

This case underscores what I’ve been documenting for months: structural gaps in licensing and enforcement that allow unqualified or illegally-present drivers to get behind the wheel of 80,000-pound trucks. The cost is measured in innocent lives lost.

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It starts making noise in the early 2000s, gains some traction between 2001 and 2005, then quietly fades into the background during the recession. But around 2012, the narrative comes back louder and far more persistent.

As you'll notice, the “shortage” narrative doesn’t just persist, it multiplies. With each passing year, articles become more frequent, more urgent, and more uniform in tone.

I've attempted to illustrate this trend by tracking the number of articles published each year. The pattern isn't subtle. It's a story that grows louder over time, regardless of whether the facts back it up.

1987

1997

1998

2001

2004

2005

2006

2007

This is the year of the most wholesome solution. Probably unrealistic for most, but wholesome.

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

For the record, I do not like this messaging.

2017

2018

2019

2019 appears to be the year skeptics began to gain traction. Before that, there were few, if any, published articles challenging the truck driver shortage narrative.

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

The truck driver shortage story has been repeated for decades, but repetition doesn’t make it accurate. It’s not a labor crisis. It’s a narrative. A fairy tale. Clickbait. Rage bait. A blatant lie.

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