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.

The post Tires: The Small Line Item Doing the Most Work appeared first on NATCO Transport.

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.

Hydrogen: abundant…and elusive.

The hydrogen conversation in commercial trucking has shifted from “when” to “who’s left standing.”

Once a crowded field of competitors racing toward zero-emission freight, the hydrogen fuel cell truck sector in the United States has contracted dramatically in 2025. Nikola filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. Hyzon closed its doors permanently the day before. Both companies had spent months searching for buyers or additional funding. Neither found either.

That leaves Hyundai standing alone as the only active supplier of Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell tractors in North America. Legacy manufacturers delayed their hydrogen programs indefinitely, citing infrastructure gaps and profitability concerns.

The irony? Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the known universe. Yet turning that abundance into practical trucking fuel remains expensive and complicated.

The appeal is obvious. Hydrogen fuel cell trucks can match diesel’s range and refueling time — critical factors for long-haul operations (battery electric vehicles still struggle with weight and charging delays). For routes exceeding 500 miles, hydrogen starts making sense, on paper.

Here’s the rub: hydrogen trucks need hydrogen stations. California aimed for 15 to 20 public refueling stations by 2025 to support zero-emission long-haul freight. And that’s for one state. Scaling that nationally translates into billions of dollars in infrastructure investment. Meanwhile, federal support for alternative fuel infrastructure has been reduced.

The technology itself works. Hyundai’s XCIENT trucks are logging real miles globally. The challenge isn’t the engineering. It’s the ecosystem. Even proven technology struggles to gain traction without widespread refueling infrastructure and stable financial support.

For commercial trucking, hydrogen represents a promising option for specific applications, particularly heavy-haul, long-distance freight. But the recent industry shake-up proves that hydrogen won’t replace diesel overnight.

While we don’t predict the future, here’s a decent guess: expect hydrogen to carve out a niche in specialized corridors first, supported by substantial investment. For most carriers, the hydrogen transition is still a few years and a lot of infrastructure dollars away.

The post About Those Hydrogen-Fueled Trucks appeared first on NATCO Transport.

NATCO VP Cori Eckley-Ritchards

As the trucking industry explores autonomous vehicle technology, one innovation stands out for what it reveals about the irreplaceable value of human drivers: External Human-Machine Interfaces, or eHMIs.

These visual communication systems — typically light displays mounted on autonomous vehicles — are trying to replicate something our professional truck drivers do naturally every single day.

When our experienced NATCO drivers roll up to an intersection, they catch a pedestrian’s eye. They give a friendly wave to let someone cross. They flash their lights to help out a fellow trucker. These quick, human moments help to keep our roads safe and everyone moving.

eHMIs show us that the tech world has figured out something important: autonomous vehicles have a real problem on their hands. How do you replace decades of human judgment, road courtesy, and just knowing what to do? These systems use colored lights, symbols, and patterns to tell others what the vehicle plans to do.

Research shows that cyan-colored, flashing displays work best, but here’s the rub: while human error does cause accidents, even the fanciest eHMI can’t match the adaptability of a well-trained driver who’s learned from experience. Our professional drivers combine their hard-earned skills with modern safety technology to make better decisions than either humans or machines could make alone.

Here at NATCO, we see this technology development as proof of what we’ve always known: our drivers bring something to the road that you just can’t quantify through an algorithm. Not yet, anyway.

While we’re all for innovations that make things safer and more efficient — from collision avoidance systems to smarter route planning — technology today does seem to work best when it helps our drivers shine, not when it tries to replace them.

The whole eHMI story tells us something worth remembering: the autonomous vehicle folks are working overtime to artificially recreate what our professional drivers bring naturally. As we look ahead, NATCO stays committed to investing in both smart technology and the skilled professionals who remain the backbone of safe, reliable transportation.

Our drivers aren’t just steering wheels — they’re the gold standard that technology is still trying to reach.

The post The Human Touch in Autonomous Technology appeared first on NATCO Transport.

Adopter of early technology. Code name: “Rusty.”

There’s this perpetual tug-of-war. Old school vs. new technology. John Henry vs. the machines. Luddites vs. technology. And a good deal of Don’t Tread on Me vs. Big Brother.

With that in mind, here’s yet another acronym: ADAS — advanced driver assistance systems.

The ADAS technologies “use various sensors and cameras to monitor the vehicle’s surroundings, providing warnings or even taking control of certain functions to help drivers avoid accidents or navigate more easily.” Says Wikipedia.

This is, in a way, just another advancement on safety devices that we’ve put on vehicles since at least 1908, when J.E. Francis gave us the Slip Prevention Regulator for Rail Vehicles. That evolved into the anti-lock braking system (ABS), which, um, keeps our wheels from locking up while braking.

ADAS involves a lot more:

• adaptive cruise control

• collision avoidance

• obstacle alerts

• lane departure

• lane centering

• satellite navigation

• traffic warnings

• automated lighting

So, maybe to ease us through that Don’t Tread on Me approach, they’ve come up with ADAS levels. In Level 0, ADAS simply provides information. (think of a chirp or flash in your sideview mirror when you veer out of your lane). Level 1 works to take over one function. Level 2 assumes control over multiple functions. Levels 3 to 5 angles toward fully autonomous vehicles.

Think of adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency brake assistance, lane centering, lane keeping.

As our friends at Transport Topics describe it, “FMCSA has reported that trucks with both automatic braking and forward collision warnings were associated with about a 40% ­lower crash rate compared with trucks without ADAS.”

Those numbers are quite impressive in terms of increasing safety on our roads.

Also on the horizon? Get ready for automated valet parking, which “allow(s) a car to park itself in certain parking lots or garages, without a driver in the vehicle.” And don’t forget to tip your programmer.

The post ADAS Adoption appeared first on NATCO Transport.

And, well, the commercial transportation industry finds itself in a familiar, yet no less serious, pickle.

First, some numbers from the report:

• The United States relies heavily on truck drivers, as they moved roughly 72.6 percent of the nation’s freight (by weight, in 2022).

• Since 2011, truck drivers alone have accounted for approximately 2.2 percent of the workforce.

• In 2024, 3.58 million people were employed in truck driving roles, with some 57.6 percent of them working as tractor-trailer truck drivers.

• The remaining drivers primarily operate in local, last-mile, or direct-to-customer roles.

So far, so good. Right? Not exactly.

For example, “During moderate to strong economies, nearly every motor carrier will decline profitable revenue loads due to a lack of truck drivers; this reality creates a ‘de facto’ driver shortage that is not easily addressed by motor carriers alone.”

Other challenges include an aging driver pool, women accounting for only 4.1 percent of truck drivers, the average truck driver age now at 47 years old, and a faster pace of retirements.

So far, pretty bad, Right? Again, not exactly. Over the next select entries, we’ll dig into the downsides and upsides of the industry’s always-fluid driver situations ⏤ that’s situations, plural, because there are always variables that complement and compete.

Autonomous Trucking. Former Foster Youth. Justice-Involved People. With so many current and potential ways to get deliveries from point A to point B, there’s always friction among the actual competition and whatever’s on the horizon.

That said, NATCO’s success with driver acquisition and retention is still hiding in plain sight. We always emphasize clear communication, and we always treat our drivers with the respect and the appreciation they deserve.

Part of that approach is rooted in our rich history in the transportation industry. Cori Eckley — VP of NATCO’s operations since 2005 — represents the fourth generation in the family business. The value of transportation drove Eckley family dinner conversations then as surely as it drives Cori’s business strategy today.

Watch this space, and we’ll show you how that Eckley dinner talk has contributed to transportation.

The post Who’s Driving That Truck? appeared first on NATCO Transport.

Keep it down, hey?

Yes, idling regulations here. And we’re not talking about HR’s rules for standing around the water cooler. States and counties and cities have laws covering how long drivers can keep their engines running before being subject to tickets and fines. For example:

California has a maximum idling time of 5 minutes. The minimum first fine is $300, with subsequent penalties from $1,000 to $10,000. Of course, there are a number of exemptions, such as bad weather conditions; mechanical problems; emergency vehicles; and having a “California Certified Clean Idle” label.

Chicago has a maximum idling time of 3 minutes in any 60-minute period. The fine is $250. Exemption include traffic conditions; idle reduction technologies; exhaust filter regeneration; and power auxiliary equipment.

Nevada has a maximum idling time of 15 minutes. The fine is not less than $2,000. And, get this, the fine in Clark County, where Las Vegas resides, is not more than $10,000. So, gamble at your own risk.

Philadelphia’s maximum idling time is 2 minutes or 0 (zero) minutes for layovers, with variances of 5 minutes if it’s below 32 degrees and 20 minutes if it’s below than 20 degrees.

All firm yet fair and reasonably flexible.

Why the focus on idling? It’s a terrible culprit of air and noise pollution. Idling of personal vehicles alone puts some 30 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air every year, which translates to about six billion gallons of fuel. That all contributes to hazy conditions, particulate and chemicals and gases in the air, breathing problems, heart disease, and worsening of asthma. Plus all the economic toll of wasted fuel, which requires us to refill our gas tanks more often.

Utah’s Department of Environmental Quality has an interesting set of facts and debunked myths. Some highlights:

• A car that’s idling gets zero mpg.

• It’s good practice to turn off your engine when stopped for more than 10 seconds. “More than 10 seconds of idling can use more fuel than turning off the engine and restarting it. If you are stopped for more than 10 seconds, you’ll save fuel and money by turning off the vehicle and then restarting it when you’re ready to drive away.”

• Studies show that restarting the engine many times has little impact on components such as the battery and the starter motor. Component wear caused by restarting the engine is estimated to add $10 per year to the cost of driving, money that will likely be recovered several times over in fuel savings from reduced idling.

So, can we turn off the engine for 60 seconds and restart the vehicle and, you know, get away with it? Maybe. Probably not. It all speaks to honoring the spirit of the law. A lot of cops were born at night…but not last night.

Idle quietly, eh?

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