The old tire got stuck. Yours doesn’t have to.

ATRI’s Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking breaks equipment spending into four buckets: trucks, trailers, repair and maintenance, and tires.

Of the four, tires are the smallest line item on a per-mile basis, but they’re also the one that fleets have the most day-to-day control over, and the one where the newest technology is making the biggest difference.

According to ATRI, the industry’s average tire costs rose 6.4 percent in 2025, to $0.050 per mile, after two years of near-flat pricing. Tariffs on natural rubber from Southeast Asia and on the petroleum feeding synthetic rubber production both pushed costs up.

Specialized fleets, the category that includes flatbed, felt it more than most: mid-sized specialized fleets running five to 100 trucks saw some of the highest tire costs in the industry, largely a function of harsher duty cycles and heavier loads.

With per-tire costs climbing, the industry’s response has been to focus less on price and more on how long a tire lasts. Manufacturers are leaning on advances in tread design, compounding, and casing durability to stretch tire life and hold performance over longer service periods. A few specific shifts stand out:

Smarter compounds. Tire makers are turning to silica-enriched rubbers, bio-based polymers, and chemically recycled PET fiber cords to build tires suited to high-load and long-haul duty. The goal is a casing that holds up to heat and load without sacrificing rolling resistance.

Built-in sensors. Integrated sensors now feed real-time data on wear, pressure, and overall tire condition back to fleet managers, letting crews catch a slow leak or uneven wear pattern before it turns into a roadside breakdown. Some manufacturers are going further, embedding radio tags that stream tire data to the cloud for lifecycle tracking.

Retreadability by design. Newer casing technology is engineered from the start for durability and multiple retread cycles, which matters more than ever as fleets stretch trade cycles and hold onto trucks longer.

None of this changes the tariff pressure driving prices up in the near term, but it does change the math on total cost of ownership. A tire that lasts longer or retreads better closes some of that gap. Full tire and equipment cost data is available at truckingresearch.org.

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Fuel costs start at the source, long before diesel ever reaches the pump.

Every year, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) publishes one of trucking’s most closely watched benchmarks: the Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking. The 2026 update, covering 2025 data, tracks costs across driver pay, equipment, insurance, and fuel, giving carriers and shippers a clear picture of what it actually costs to move freight.

For once, fuel gave the industry a break. Diesel prices swung by just 41 cents between their highest and lowest points in 2025, the calmest year since before the pandemic. That stability held the industry’s average fuel cost to $0.482 per mile, barely a tenth of a cent higher than 2024.

Scale mattered. In the truckload sector, fleets running more than 1,000 trucks spent 8.8 cents less per mile on fuel than fleets with fewer than 5 trucks, a gap ATRI attributes to both economies of scale and newer, more efficient equipment. Specialized carriers, the category that includes flatbed and oversize freight, generally paid more at the pump than truckload fleets of comparable size, though that gap narrowed in 2025.

Fuel economy also nudged upward, averaging 7.43 miles per gallon industry-wide, up slightly from 7.41 in 2024. Weight matters more than almost anything else here: trucks running between 60,000 and 70,000 pounds hit the sweet spot at 7.56 MPG, while loads above 70,000 pounds saw efficiency drop off, a detail worth knowing for anyone specing out heavy or oversize hauls.

None of these numbers exist in a vacuum. ATRI corroborates its fuel data against EIA figures and builds it into a report that also tracks driver pay, equipment costs, insurance, and more, freely available at truckingresearch.org.

And as we all know too well, prices change, sometimes dramatically. We’ll need to wait another year for ATRI’s next report, but we can already see, and with confidence, that those fuel prices spiked in 2026.

At NATCO, we read these reports closely because line-haul economics change how we route, spec, and price freight. Whether it’s a flatbed load headed cross-country or an oversize haul that needs special permitting, we’re always looking for the most economical way to get yourr freight from Point A to Point B.

The post The Calm Before the Spike appeared first on NATCO Transport.

On May 14, the United States Supreme Court ruled, nine to nothing, that federal law does not shield freight brokers from state lawsuits claiming they negligently hired an unsafe motor carrier.

The case is Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, and it ends a decades-long argument over where a broker’s responsibility begins and ends. The answer, for now: somewhere in the middle. Which is exactly where a brokerage lives.

Consider the position. A 3PL doesn’t hire drivers. It doesn’t train them, maintain the trucks, or hold the CDL or maintenance records. Those obligations belong to the carrier. Yet, the Court has confirmed that a broker can be held answerable, under the tort laws of 50 different states, for the safety of the carrier it selects.

And here’s the rub. Dig too deep into a carrier’s record, or direct a driver too closely, and a court may decide the relationship looks less like a contract and more like employment, with an entirely different set of liabilities attached. Know too little and you’re negligent. Know too much and you’re the employer. The window between those two outcomes is narrow, and it just became the most consequential real estate in transportation.

Across the industry, the diligent response is taking shape: documented vetting processes, automated screening parameters that stop a carrier failing multiple federal safety categories before setup ever completes, authority – history requirements measured in months and years rather than weeks. And, optimally, there is verification at every step in the process, from load to off-load. Recycled MC numbers and double-brokered loads are real, and the people running those schemes study the industry’s timing rules closely.

Industry groups are pressing for a federal safety-hiring standard. Plaintiffs’ attorneys read the ruling differently. That debate belongs to the courts and the trade associations. The brokerage’s job is the pivot point, the place where a shipper’s freight meets a carrier’s truck. Diligence there has always been good practice. As of May 14, it’s also the law’s expectation.

The post The Middle of the Road Just Got Narrower appeared first on NATCO Transport.

Gauging the future of vehicle fuel

We’ve been tracking hydrogen fuel cell technology in commercial trucking since 2017. Back then, the promise was enormous and the timeline was uncertain. Nearly a decade later, a cleaner picture has emerged. It’s not the revolution some predicted. It’s something more durable: slow, serious, structural progress.

Nikola Corporation, the startup that once dominated hydrogen trucking headlines, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2025. It’s a cautionary story about startup capital and timelines, and it’s worth noting. But it’s not the story of hydrogen trucking.

The manufacturers doing the real work are the established heavyweights. Toyota has moved its Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell trucks out of the pilot phase and into production-level fleet operation, running routes from the Port of Long Beach to its North America Parts Center in Ontario, California. Hyundai’s XCIENT Fuel Cell truck, the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen-powered heavy-duty truck, has now been deployed in 13 countries and has accumulated over 13 million kilometers since its 2020 launch. Volvo, meanwhile, has begun on-road testing of hydrogen combustion engine trucks, with a commercial launch planned before 2030.

The performance case for long-haul applications is becoming harder to argue against. Hydrogen trucks typically achieve ranges exceeding 300 miles per fill, with refueling times of roughly 10 to 15 minutes, far more practical than the hours required to recharge battery-electric vehicles on long-distance routes.

The honest challenge remains infrastructure. As of early 2025, just seven hydrogen refueling stations in North America were equipped to service Class 3 through Class 8 vehicles, with only three of those capable of handling Class 7 and Class 8 trucks. That number is growing, but primarily through private, fleet-dedicated stations built around specific deployments. Hyundai’s HTWO Energy Savannah facility opened in late 2025 to support its XCIENT fleet at the Georgia Metaplant. Toyota is building dedicated fueling infrastructure at its North American Parts Center in Ontario, California. The public corridor network still needs to catch up, but the private model is proving the concept.

What we’re watching in 2026 is an industry consolidating around players with the engineering depth and capital to see it through. The startups tested the concept. The manufacturers are building the future.

The post Hydrogen Trucks: Where Things Stand appeared first on NATCO Transport.

When the list shrinks, the stakes don’t.

On May 20, FMCSA removed 12 more electronic logging devices from its registered list, citing failure to meet minimum federal technical requirements. Motor carriers using any of the 12 have until July 20, 2026 to switch to a compliant device or face out-of-service citations.

Twelve sounds manageable. But zoom out and the number is 79 devices pulled since January 2025. That’s not a one-off. That’s a pattern.

The Door Was Open on Purpose
Here’s the thing about the ELD registration system: it runs on self-certification. A provider says their device meets FMCSA’s technical specs, submits documentation, and lands on the registered list. There’s no independent lab test, no pre-market third-party audit, no one in a white coat running the device through its paces before it ships to a fleet.

That’s not an oversight so much as a design choice, meant to keep the market open and the process moving. The logic isn’t unreasonable. The result, though, is that FMCSA catches problems after the fact, when carriers are already depending on the device to stay compliant.

Think of it less as a locked gate and more as an honor system with audits.

What Would Help
FMCSA records compiled by FreightWaves showed Day 1 alone produced 1,580 inspections, 2,637 violations, and 496 out-of-service orders, translating to a 31.4% OOS rate against total inspection volume. For comparison, the full 2025 event ended at 18.1% vehicle OOS and 5.9% driver OOS across 56,178 inspections. Final 2026 numbers are expected later this year.

What You Can Do Right Now
If your fleet is running ELDs, it costs nothing to spend five minutes cross-referencing your devices against FMCSA’s current registered list. Do it before July 20th.

The post 79 ELDs Pulled Since January appeared first on NATCO Transport.

The face of modern cargo theft looks legitimate.
Until it doesn’t.

Cargo theft isn’t new. Neither is the urge to dismiss it as somebody else’s problem, something that happens to other carriers, on other routes, with other shippers. That’s a comfortable position, and it’s also the reason cargo theft keeps working.

Here’s what Verisk CargoNet found when they ran the 2025 numbers: estimated losses surged to nearly $725 million, a 60 percent jump from 2024. The total number of incidents, though, stayed roughly flat. Read that again. Fewer incidents, vastly higher losses. Criminal enterprises aren’t casting a wider net. They’re getting more selective, targeting higher-value shipments, and walking away with more each time.

What’s changed is the sophistication. Thieves have graduated from opportunistic grabs at unattended trailers. Strategic cargo theft, as it’s now called in the industry, involves coordinated crews, advance research, and deliberate infiltration of the supply chain.

Transport Topics recently covered a panel at the Transportation Intermediaries Association’s 2026 Capital Ideas Conference where logistics security leaders detailed what’s new. One tactic stood out: organized crews get a member hired as a legitimate driver at a reputable carrier. The operative runs a load or two without incident. When a high-value shipment gets assigned, the driver parks the truck, walks away, and the crew takes the cargo. The carrier fires the driver for abandoning a load. The incident never gets flagged as strategic theft. The operative moves on to the next employer. It’s engineered to look like negligence, not conspiracy.

The stolen MC number problem runs parallel. Established carrier credentials, complete with shipper access and client relationships, are bought and sold as a commodity. A load can look perfectly legitimate until it vanishes.

None of this calls for panic. It calls for tighter process. Carrier vetting has to go deeper than the MC number. High-value shipments warrant tenure requirements for assigned drivers. Tracking isn’t optional. And an incident response plan written before you need one is exactly the kind of preparation that separates professional freight operations from everyone else.

NATCO has spent three decades building carrier relationships we trust. Cargo security is part of that equation, not a footnote.

The post The Heist That Looks Like an Accident appeared first on NATCO Transport.

When the season turns, the loads stack up. NATCO keeps pace.

Across the country, construction crews that spent the winter in holding patterns are mobilizing now. Heavy equipment is coming off storage lots and heading to job sites. Steel, lumber, and prefab components are moving up supply chains. Infrastructure projects that were green-lit in the fall are finally breaking ground.

Commercial builds that stalled through the cold months are back on schedule, and the contractors running them are already behind. Project managers are locking in delivery windows, coordinating with subs, and trying to compress six months of work into four.

Every piece of freight in that picture has a deadline attached to it, and the margin for error is thin.

At the same time, the broader economic picture is keeping a lot of shippers on their toes. Rates are shifting. Capacity moves in ways that aren’t always easy to predict. Supply chain planners who thought they had a clear runway heading into the year are finding that the variables keep changing. That kind of uncertainty doesn’t stop freight from moving, but it does raise the stakes on who you trust to move it.

That’s where NATCO comes in.

We’ve spent more than 30 years building the kind of flatbed and oversized freight operation that performs when the calendar gets crowded. Deep carrier relationships, fast and accurate quotes, and a team that actually picks up the phone. When the loads start stacking up and the pressure is on, you want a partner who’s already in motion, not one you’re still trying to get up to speed.

Spring is a proving ground for freight carriers. The shippers who come out of Q2 in good shape are the ones who got ahead of it, locked in their logistics, and worked with partners they could count on.

If your freight is part of the spring push, let’s talk. NATCO is ready.

The post Spring Season Is Here. Is Your Freight Ready? appeared first on NATCO Transport.

Finding a legal parking spot at the end of a long shift shouldn’t be a gamble. ATA wants Congress to make sure it isn’t.

Congress is preparing to write the next long-term surface transportation bill, and the American Trucking Associations has a clear message for lawmakers: focus federal dollars where freight actually moves.

That means the National Highway System. That means congested freight corridors. And that means, finally, a reliable funding stream for truck parking. Here’s why all three of those priorities matter to everyone in the supply chain.

For Drivers: A Safe Place to Stop
ATRI’s 2025 industry survey put truck parking at number four on its list of pressing concerns, and the problem is real. When a driver’s hours-of-service clock runs out and the nearest legal parking spot is miles away, the choice becomes dangerous: park illegally or push on. Neither option is acceptable.

ATA is backing the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, which would authorize $755 million over five years and fold truck parking investment into the larger highway bill.

Combined with the roughly $200 million Congress has already approved, a sustained funding commitment would mean more spaces, fewer risks, and drivers who arrive at their destinations rested rather than rattled.

For 3PLs: Reliability You Can Plan Around
Parking shortages don’t just affect drivers. They create ripple effects throughout the logistics chain. Delays cascade into missed delivery windows, rescheduled pickups, and the kind of uncertainty that makes freight planning harder than it needs to be.

When drivers can park safely and legally, they run their Hours of Service more predictably. That predictability is something every 3PL, including NATCO, can build better schedules around.

For Customers: Freight That Arrives on Time
ATA is also pushing Congress to target investment at the freight bottlenecks that cost the industry (and ultimately shippers) the most. Chicago, New York, and Atlanta top ATRI’s bottleneck list for good reason. Infrastructure investment in those corridors means faster throughput, lower dwell times, and shipments that reach their destinations on schedule.

The highway bill won’t pass overnight. But the priorities ATA is putting on the table would seem to help move the situation in the right directions. We’re watching closely.

The post The Highway Bill That Could Change Everything appeared first on NATCO Transport.

Magical thinking to solve the traffic jams.

ATRI’s 2026 Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks report is, as always, a useful document for anyone who moves freight for a living and a depressing one for everyone else.

Chicago reclaimed the top spot. Houston placed eight interchanges in the top 100. Atlanta showed up so many times, it’s starting to feel personal.

The conventional prescription is familiar: widen lanes, rebuild interchanges, add capacity. That’s expensive, slow, and politically complicated. So what else might actually work?

The most practical alternative is probably the least glamorous: aggressive off-peak incentives for freight. Several of the worst bottlenecks are peak-hour problems, not all-day problems. If shippers and receivers received meaningful cost reductions for accepting deliveries between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., a measurable share of truck traffic would simply migrate out of rush hour. No new concrete required. The barrier is coordination, not engineering.

A close second is dynamic routing powered by real-time GPS data of exactly the kind ATRI has been collecting for 25 years. The data already exists. The question is whether carriers, fleet management platforms, and state DOTs can get talking to each other fast enough to matter. Platooning technology, where trucks run in close convoy to reduce drag and increase lane efficiency, could amplify this if the regulatory framework ever catches up to the hardware.

Now, to let our imagination off the leash a little:

Someone will eventually propose dedicated freight tunnels under the worst urban corridors, particularly in Houston, where you could practically route a separate underground highway system beneath the existing one and still have room for a food court. The boring (pun intended) part is the $40 billion price tag.

And then there is the full science fiction option: autonomous electric freight drones handling last-mile and short-haul loads currently moved by truck. Eliminate enough of the smaller delivery trucks from those interchanges, and the math changes. The skies above I-45 at I-69 doing 20.2 mph at rush hour suddenly seem more appealing than the pavement below.

None of these solutions are fast. But neither, apparently, is Houston at 5 p.m.

The post Thinking Outside the Interchange appeared first on NATCO Transport.

If only all bottlenecks were this clean.

Every year, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) releases its Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks report, converting a massive database of freight GPS data into a ranked list of the worst chokepoints in the country.

We covered one of the worst offenders last October, New Jersey’s notorious Fort Lee interchange on I-95, which held the number-one spot for years before Chicago reclaimed it in 2026. The bigger picture, though, is what the list reveals about where freight congestion is getting worse, and where it’s getting worse fastest.

As a flatbed and oversize carrier 3PL headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, we read this year’s report with a personal interest. We’d rather know where the trouble is so we can route around it whenever possible.

Source: ATRI

Texas claimed 12 of the 100 worst bottlenecks in the country, more than any other state. Eight of them are in Houston alone, which tells you something about what explosive population growth combined with aging freeway infrastructure looks like at rush hour.

Houston’s worst, I-45 at I-69/US 59, ranks fourth nationally, with peak speeds averaging just 20.2 mph. The I-10/I-69 interchange jumped a staggering 77 positions to land at number eight, a signal that conditions there deteriorated sharply year over year.

Why is Texas so congested? The state added roughly 1.6 million residents between 2020 and 2023 alone, making it the fastest-growing state in the nation. Its major metros, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio, are all in the top ten for urban population growth, and the highway network was never designed to absorb this pace of expansion. Texas also sits at the center of NAFTA-era freight corridors, meaning the truck traffic was already heavy before the population boom intensified commuter congestion on top of it.

We navigate this every day. When the routing allows it, we avoid these corridors. When it doesn’t, we plan around peak hours and build the delay time into the schedule. That’s not a workaround; that’s just operating professionally in the state we call home.

You can see ATRI’s bottleneck map at truckingresearch.org.

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