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The Daily // Fri 09.04.26 View in browser →
The DailyFriday · September 4, 2026
The five minutes that makes you the most informed person in freight today
Lead Story
Retail diesel has never been this expensiveRetail diesel prices are at an all-time high according to one key measurement. The daily average national retail price for diesel, published by AAA, was set Friday at $5.85 per gallon, breaking through the previous all-time high of $5.82/g set in June 2022, months after Russia invaded Ukraine. A day earlier, the price stood at $5.7832/g, already the highest since military action began against Iran at the start of March. The AAA price on the Friday before the Iran attacks began stood at $3.758/g, meaning the latest price is up roughly $2.10/g since then. The last four days alone have added just under 25 cents per gallon. SONAR’s DTS.USA data stream showed a slightly lower Friday average of $5.81/g. The run-up traces back to a sharp rise in ultra low sulfur diesel futures on CME — the starting point for the multi-step process that sets pump prices — which settled at an all-time high of $4.6773/g on Tuesday after climbing from $3.7705/g a month earlier, driven largely by Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s diesel-oriented refining sector. Ironically, diesel futures have softened even as headlines highlight the record retail price: ULSD fell 8.86 cents/g Thursday and was down nearly 12 cents/g to $4.4739/g by midday Friday. ClearView Energy Partners’ Kevin Book told CNBC that U.S. refineries are running "flat out" as Middle East supply disruptions from the Strait of Hormuz closure compound Russian outages, and he was skeptical prices would quickly retreat even if the strait fully reopens: "There are real questions about the infrastructure on the other side … will it go back to flowing as it did? It doesn’t seem obviously that way right now." Why It Matters?
Diesel is the fuel that moves nearly all of the nation’s freight, so a record retail price directly raises operating costs for truckers and carriers already navigating tight margins, and the disconnect between falling futures and rising pump prices signals more volatility ahead rather than fast relief. Top Stories
Samsara Q2 revenue jumps 30% as transportation, Mexico fuel growthSamsara reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $508.4 million, up 30% year over year, as the connected-operations technology provider continued expanding among large customers and saw accelerating growth in transportation and Mexico. San Francisco-based Samsara (NYSE: IOT) said Thursday that annual recurring revenue reached $2.125 billion for the quarter ended Aug. 1, also increasing 30% from a year earlier, as net new ARR totaled $134.1 million, up 28%. Transportation accounted for Samsara’s second-highest mix of net new annual contract value, behind field services, with year-over-year growth in the segment accelerating for a third straight quarter, while Mexico posted its highest share of net new ARR in five quarters on strong demand for security features like panic buttons and vehicle immobilizers. The company posted GAAP operating income of $4.9 million, its fourth consecutive profitable quarter, and raised its full-year revenue outlook to $2.043 billion-$2.047 billion, up approximately 26%. Why It Matters?
Samsara’s accelerating transportation and Mexico businesses show that demand for connected fleet technology remains strong, while growing adoption of AI, maintenance, safety and asset-tracking products is giving the company more ways to generate revenue from each vehicle and customer. Sponsored · Aurora
Hung jury for pair accused of murder in NOLA accident scamA federal jury reached a mixed verdict Thursday in the New Orleans staged-accident scam case, declaring a hung jury on murder charges against Sean Alfortish and Leon "Chunky" Parker while convicting Alfortish on several fraud counts. The two were accused of murdering Cornelius Garrison in September 2020, shortly after Garrison pleaded guilty to helping stage accidents involving trucks and other vehicles and began cooperating with prosecutors. Judge Wendy Vitter declared a mistrial on the murder charges following the hung jury. Alfortish, a disbarred attorney, was also convicted on two counts of obstruction and suborning perjury tied to efforts to get Garrison out of the country to avoid prosecution, while being acquitted on two similar counts. Prosecutors immediately requested a hearing to seek a new trial on the murder charges, and both defendants were returned to custody. The case is part of "Operation Sideswipe," a scheme in which more than 50 people have been indicted for staging accidents with trucks to generate fraudulent injury claims; two other alleged ringleaders are still awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty. Why It Matters?
Staged-accident schemes exploit real truck-involved collisions to generate fraudulent injury claims, driving up insurance costs and legal exposure across the trucking industry — this mixed verdict signals prosecutors may pursue additional trials as dozens of related indictments remain unresolved. Trailer builder Fruehauf wants parts makers as co-defendants in suitTrailer manufacturer Fruehauf has moved to add component makers SAF-Holland, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems and dealer Hoosier Trailer Acquisition Corp. as co-defendants in a lawsuit brought by Indiana-based Summitt Leasing and Summitt Trucking, which alleges more than 20 of its Fruehauf-built trailers caught fire due to defective components. The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, stems from a 2022 order of 100 trailers that Summitt says began exhibiting brakes engaging without being prompted, plummeting fuel efficiency and dangerously hot wheel ends almost immediately after delivery. Fruehauf argues it "did nothing more than install" the component parts — supplied by SAF-Holland and Bendix instead of the Hendrickson suspension and Wabco ABS system Summitt says it ordered — and that liability belongs to the component makers. Summitt’s lawsuit cites an outside inspection finding Fruehauf installed a Bendix brake valve in a manner inconsistent with the manufacturer’s recommendations, and says repairs are ongoing but haven’t stopped the fires, the most recent of which occurred after remediation work began. Why It Matters?
The dispute shows how liability for defective trailer components can cascade across a multi-tier supply chain of manufacturers, dealers and carriers, complicating repairs and leaving fleets exposed to safety risk while fault is litigated. XPO’s August metrics align with Q3 guidanceLess-than-truckload carrier XPO (NYSE: XPO) reported a 3.7% year-over-year increase in August tonnage, driven by a 5.7% rise in daily shipments that was partially offset by a 1.8% decline in weight per shipment. The headline number decelerated from July’s 5.8% increase, though July’s year-ago comp was 400 basis points easier than August’s, and two-year-stacked comparisons show tonnage, shipments and weight per shipment all improved from July to August. The update keeps XPO on track to hit its third-quarter guidance for a mid-single-digit percentage tonnage increase and an adjusted operating ratio below 81% — at least 180 basis points of year-over-year improvement. Weight per shipment continues to face a headwind from a freight mix shifting toward lighter, higher-margin shipments from small and midsize accounts, even as manufacturing PMI held in expansion territory for an eighth straight month. Why It Matters?
XPO is one of a few publicly traded LTL companies. Its midquarter results provide insight into a subsegment of trucking where few public datasets exist. FreightWaves Today · Live at 12PM ET
Built with operators, for operators. Blind spots cause some of fleets’ costliest, most complex collisions. Learn how AI-powered 360-degree visibility helps you spot risks in real time and protect drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Download the Guide.
● LIVE at 12PM ET — tv.freightwaves.com/today, streamed on LinkedIn, FB and X.
Special thanks to our sponsors: Highway, Love’s, OTR Solutions, Pallet, Premier Trailer Leasing, RXO, Trinity Rail, Motorcity Systems, Descartes, Saia, Centerline, Shipium and SONAR.
FreightWaves Events
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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Diesel’s record retail price could keep climbing before it breaksRetail diesel hit an all-time high even as futures prices softened, a disconnect tied to Strait of Hormuz disruptions and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refining capacity. Watch whether falling ULSD futures eventually filter down to the pump, or whether supply constraints keep retail prices elevated. ▸
Samsara’s transportation and Mexico momentum builds toward Q3Transportation and Mexico posted their strongest growth in years as Samsara’s connected-fleet platform expands beyond legacy customers. Watch whether AI feature adoption — up more than fourfold in two months — keeps pulling emerging products past 20% of net new bookings. ▸
Prosecutors weigh a retrial after NOLA staged-accident mistrialA hung jury on the most serious murder charges against Sean Alfortish and Leon Parker leaves federal prosecutors seeking a new trial, even as Alfortish was convicted on fraud counts tied to the broader staged-accident scheme. Watch for a scheduling decision on the retrial and how it affects dozens of still-unresolved "Operation Sideswipe" indictments. That’s your Daily for today. See you tomorrow.
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