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The Daily // Fri 08.28.26 View in browser →
The DailyFriday · August 28, 2026
The five minutes that makes you the most informed person in freight today
Lead Story
Motive restricted Highway’s data access over a payment demandHighway notified its customers this week that Motive had imposed new limits on the electronic logging device (ELD) integration between the two platforms, telling compliance leaders that Motive had begun restricting its API connection and indicated Highway would need to compensate it for access to carrier data. The change took effect immediately. Highway’s stated position is that it does not charge carriers for its services and does not intend to begin charging them to preserve an ELD connection; the company said the practical result is that Motive ELD data now refreshes less frequently inside its platform. The downstream effects are specific. Brokers hiring carriers that run Motive hardware now have reduced visibility into those trucks. Highway said it cannot currently provide location-based Load Lock Alerts for loads hauled by those carriers, and that it can no longer back freight those carriers move under its Performance Guarantee — a commercial backstop under which Highway assumes financial responsibility for outcomes on loads moved by carriers verified through its platform. The company said it would offer an alternate tracking path through its carrier-facing mobile app, while acknowledging that application-based tracking is disconnected from the equipment itself, and that it would work with the more than 275 other ELD providers it integrates with to offer discounted alternatives to carriers considering a change. Motive has not publicly addressed the change, and neither company has disclosed the commercial terms at issue. Highway’s August 2025 growth equity round, led by FTV Capital with Lead Edge Capital participating, put the Dallas company at more than 1,050 brokers served, including 70 of the 100 largest brokerages. Motive, for its part, filed publicly for an IPO in December, reporting revenue of $327.3 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2025, against a net loss of $138.5 million; the listing has not priced, and the company remains in patent litigation with Samsara. Why It Matters?
Carrier vetting has consolidated onto a small number of platforms whose access to operational data depends on commercial agreements between vendors that neither carriers nor brokers are party to. When one of those agreements breaks down, the verification layer brokers rely on degrades without any action by the carrier being verified. Top Stories
Averitt expands logistics network with Jackson, Mississippi, facilityLess-than-truckload carrier Averitt said Thursday it has opened a 100,000-square-foot distribution and fulfillment facility in Jackson, Mississippi, near central Mississippi’s major freight lanes of I-20 and I-55. The announcement follows other recent network investments and comes as Mississippi’s Department of Transportation announced a $400 million project this week to improve the roadways and bridges along those corridors. Averitt operates a 57-door LTL terminal next to the new facility, which will serve rail connections and provide service to ports in New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, letting customers flex warehouse space for seasonal and overflow inventory without long-term contracts. "Jackson is an important market for Averitt, and this facility expands the ways we can support businesses in the area," said Barry Blakely, president and chief operating officer. The 55-year-old, Cookeville, Tennessee-based company operates over 140 terminals, employs more than 9,000 people, and plans to add 900,000 square feet of warehouse space, 379 dock doors and 2,000 truck parking spaces by 2027. Why It Matters?
Averitt’s opening of a new 100,000-square-foot facility in Jackson, Mississippi, underscores the carrier’s strategic commitment to expanding network capacity and integrating flexible warehousing with its existing LTL terminal operations. Sponsored · Aurora
FedEx to invest $150M for air cargo terminal in DelhiFedEx made its second major commitment this year for air freight expansion in India, saying Thursday it will spend $150 million to equip a dedicated air cargo hub at Delhi international airport. The proposed 230,000-square-foot facility will include a high-speed conveyor belt with automated sorting and AI-enabled computer vision scanners, increasing FedEx’s processing capacity at the airport from 600 to 5,000 packages per hour and bringing scattered pickup-and-delivery operations under one roof. The terminal will be part of a larger cargo campus being developed by GMR Airports Ltd., with a first phase of about 1 million square feet. "Strengthening our presence in Delhi will enhance connectivity across these markets and support businesses as they grow and expand," said Kami Viswanathan, FedEx president for the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa. The Delhi project follows a $250 million investment FedEx announced in February for a new airport in Navi Mumbai and a 60,000-square-foot facility it opened in Bengaluru in December. Why It Matters?
FedEx’s second major India air cargo investment this year signals accelerating confidence in the country’s trade growth, and the jump from 600 to 5,000 packages per hour at Delhi shows how much automation capacity global carriers are now building into emerging air cargo gateways. Drewry index edges lower on decline in trans-Pacific ratesThe Drewry World Container Index fell 1% this week to $4,473 per forty-foot container, driven by lower spot rates on both the trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe trade routes, though resilient demand and carrier capacity management continue to support the market. Shanghai-to-New York rates decreased 2% to $9,333 per FEU, while Shanghai-to-Los Angeles held unchanged at $6,818. Carriers have announced four blank sailings for the coming week on the trans-Pacific, down from seven this week, suggesting more capacity ahead and less volatility. Asia-Europe capacity is tighter: four blank sailings are planned next week versus two this week, and congestion at the Port of Shanghai intensified, with average vessel waiting times rising to 96 hours from 35 hours. Uncertainty over the Strait of Hormuz persists, some carriers are cautiously resuming Suez Canal transits, and the Panama Canal is set to reduce transit capacity in September because of water constraints. Why It Matters?
A 1% dip in the benchmark index looks modest, but the diverging capacity picture beneath it — easing blank sailings on the trans-Pacific against tightening capacity and worsening Shanghai congestion on Asia-Europe — shows carriers managing two very different supply pictures on the two largest east-west trades at once. FMCSA, New York ready to rumble over non-domiciled CDL rulesNew York and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are headed toward oral arguments Sept. 28 in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals over the federal cutoff of roughly $73 million in funds to the state, tied to a dispute over New York’s issuance of non-domiciled CDLs and commercial learning permits. With FMCSA having filed its brief last week, both sides have now spelled out their case ahead of arguments in lower Manhattan. New York argues the DOT is enforcing a rule that doesn’t exist in the regulatory text, while FMCSA’s December 2025 "preliminary determination of substantial noncompliance" found 101 sampled licenses with expiration dates exceeding the holders’ documented lawful-presence period — in several cases by seven or eight years. DOT’s brief also says New York refused to work with the agency toward compliance before the April Final Determination that triggered the funding cutoff. Separately, Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman introduced a bill mandating similar federal audits of state non-domiciled CDL programs, backed by the American Trucking Associations, the Truckload Carriers Association and OOIDA. Why It Matters?
The fight over New York’s non-domiciled CDL practices tests how far federal regulators can go in withholding highway funding to force state compliance with licensing rules, with implications for how other states handle non-domiciled CDL issuance and lawful-presence verification going forward. FreightWaves Today · Live at 12PM ET
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F3: Future of Freight Festival
Your team works hard every day to keep supply chains moving. This Labor Day, invest in their growth—and your company’s bottom line—by sending them to F3: Future of Freight Festival (Oct. 27-28 in Chattanooga). Get ahead of market trends and regulatory shifts, experience the latest FreightTech insights that directly impact your margins, and expand high-value relationships with 1,000+ supply chain leaders spanning the industry. October 27–28, 2026 · The Signal, Chattanooga
Sponsored Insight
Presented by Aurora
Your next truck could drive itself.Aurora Driver 2 is hauling freight on public roads. From the Research Desk
In partnership with CargoWise Landside
What It Takes to Win in the Next Era of DrayageFreightWaves and CargoWise Landside surveyed drayage operators on the automation investments separating growth from margin compression amid demand volatility and driver shortages. In partnership with Werner
High-Stakes Freight Brokerage: Risk and AccountabilityFreightWaves and Werner surveyed shippers moving high-value freight and found compliance failures and limited visibility are turning low-cost brokerage into a reliability risk, not just a pricing one. In partnership with Trimble
White Paper: AI Agent Readiness and Adoption in FreightAI is moving beyond experimentation and into everyday freight operations. FreightWaves and Trimble surveyed carriers, brokers, shippers and owner-operators on where the industry is adopting AI today and what leaders expect next. Courtesy of Infios
New Research: Tariffs Didn’t Raise Costs. They Raised the Execution Standard.Infios-backed research breaks down how tariff volatility turned transport-mode selection and trade-route monitoring into daily operating decisions instead of annual ones. Watch on FreightWaves TV
What We’re Watching
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Carrier-vetting data disputes are exposing a hidden dependency in freightMotive’s restriction of Highway’s ELD access shows how much brokerage risk management rests on commercial agreements between vendors that carriers and brokers never see. Watch whether other ELD providers follow Motive’s lead. ▸
Global logistics networks keep expanding even as ocean rates softenFedEx’s $150M Delhi cargo hub and Averitt’s new Jackson, Mississippi, facility landed the same week Drewry’s index dipped on trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe softness. Watch whether capacity build-out keeps pace with demand. ▸
A state-vs-federal fight over CDL rules heads to court next monthNew York and FMCSA face off Sept. 28 over a $73M federal funding cutoff tied to non-domiciled CDL expiration dates. Watch whether the ruling reshapes how other states verify lawful presence for CDL issuance. That’s your Daily for today. See you tomorrow.
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