THE DAILY

Thursday, March 19, 2026

The five minutes that makes you the most informed person in freight today

Newsletter Brought to You By — Descartes

The #1 freight visibility platform, Descartes MacroPoint delivers real-time tracking via ELD, mobile app, and agentic AI — meet the future of intelligent visibility. Learn More

The Daily

House committee clears Dalilah’s Law CDL overhaul on party-line vote

The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee advanced Dalilah’s Law 35-26 Wednesday, the first legislative milestone for a CDL eligibility overhaul that could reshape the driver pool for every fleet in the country.

The bill’s centerpiece is English proficiency. Drivers must demonstrate they can converse with law enforcement, read road signs, and fill out required records. On-road inspectors make the initial call; anyone who falls short is placed out of service immediately. DOT would issue formal state-level enforcement standards one year after enactment, and drivers found non-proficient face a one-year suspension, the same penalty as a DUI under current law.

CDL mills are the other target. "Last year, FMCSA audited and removed nearly 3,000 training providers for falsifying training data or failing to meet federal curriculum requirements," said Rep. David Rouzer, the North Carolina Republican who introduced the bill. A House-only provision would require DOT to finalize CDL school self-certification rules 18 months post-enactment. The Senate companion, S. 3917, which was backed by President Trump in his State of the Union and introduced by Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana, has been referred to the Commerce Committee with no hearing scheduled.

The vote came two days after FMCSA’s non-domiciled CDL rule took effect March 16, a regulation that could remove roughly 200,000 non-domiciled drivers from the road over time. Dalilah’s Law would harden those changes into statute and extend them further through carrier liability provisions and federal funding penalties for non-compliant states. The lead Democrat on the committee, Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington, said English proficiency enforcement is already underway administratively, and criticized the one-year out-of-service penalty as disproportionate.

So What? Fleets dependent on non-domiciled CDL holders or drivers with limited English proficiency now face exposure on two fronts: a live FMCSA rule and an advancing bill. The one-year out-of-service penalty in the House version is steep. Audit your driver roster now because the qualified labor pool will shrink further if both measures reach full implementation in a market already stretched for qualified drivers.

Read the full story →

Top Stories

Trump suspends Jones Act for 60 days as Iran conflict drives fuel prices higher

The White House suspended the Jones Act for 60 days Wednesday, opening domestic energy trade routes to foreign-flagged vessels carrying crude oil, natural gas, refined petroleum products, coal, and fertilizer. The move, triggered by fuel price spikes following U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, could cut gas prices by up to 10 cents per gallon on routes like Houston to East Coast markets . The American Maritime Partnership is less optimistic, saying domestic shipping contributes less than one cent per gallon nationally.

So What? Domestic maritime carriers face 60 days of foreign competition on energy lanes they normally control. Every vessel movement under the waiver must be publicly disclosed under federal law; the American Maritime Partnership is already watching for overreach. The secondary freight story here is fertilizer: spring planting season is weeks away and supply disruptions from the Gulf could move agricultural freight markets fast.

Read the full story →

STB demands pre-filing business data from Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern on $85B merger

The Surface Transportation Board, acting on a DOJ recommendation, ordered Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern to produce internal reports, confidential memos, and advisor studies related to their proposed $85 billion merger before their revised application arrives in late April. The DOJ said the documents are of “critical importance,” citing real-time business forecasts and competitive analyses, the kind of data it and the FTC routinely pull in Hart-Scott-Rodino reviews. UP CEO Jim Vena told FreightWaves the company has “no concern” over the request.

So What? This is the first transcontinental railroad merger evaluated under the STB’s tougher 2001 standards, enacted after prior mergers caused catastrophic service failures. DOJ’s direct involvement from the jump signals a rigorous review. Rail shippers and carriers across the western U.S. should track the process closely because the outcome redraws the competitive map for most major freight corridors.

Read the full story →

Amazon delivery contractor convicted on 30 counts in $9.4M vendor fraud scheme

A federal jury convicted Brittany Hudson, owner of Legend Express LLC, an Amazon last-mile delivery contractor, after she used a relationship with a warehouse operations manager to push $9.4 million in fictitious invoices through Amazon’s vendor system. The proceeds funded a Lamborghini Urus, a Porsche Panamera, and a nearly $1 million home. Her co-conspirator, warehouse manager Kayricka Wortham, is serving 16 years; Hudson’s sentencing is set for June.

So What? The scheme worked because a single insider with vendor-approval authority could create and approve fraudulent payments without triggering controls. Retailers and 3PLs running large delivery-partner networks should audit vendor onboarding permissions and payment-approval hierarchies. This fraud vector is not unique to Amazon.

Read the full story →

Sponsored By Descartes

Launching AI Coworkers: A Guide to Better Freight Visibility Operations teams still spend hours chasing tracking updates and collecting missing documents, even after years of visibility investment. Descartes MacroPoint’s OpsForce AI Launch Guide shows how agentic AI digital coworkers automate 80–90% of routine exception management, eliminating manual intervention and moving teams toward scalable, do-nothing visibility. Download the guide →

FMCSA rule and Dalilah’s Law take separate approaches to the same CDL problem

FMCSA’s March 16 non-domiciled CDL rule is a regulatory patch: it closes the most urgent loophole by requiring existing holders to prove eligibility at renewal, while grandfathering current licenses. Dalilah’s Law is the legislative full toolbox: English-only testing requirements for all CDL holders, mandatory state audits of existing foreign-domiciled licenses within a year, up to 12% in federal highway funding penalties for non-compliant states, and direct carrier liability for employing drivers who don’t qualify.

So What? The regulation is live; the law is advancing. Fleets have less runway to assess exposure than they may think. Model the combined driver-pool contraction against your current headcount before compliance pressure becomes a capacity problem.

Read the full story →

Sponsored Insight

From the Research Desk

What We’re Watching

▸ Jones Act waiver disclosure filings. Federal law requires every vessel movement under the 60-day suspension to be publicly logged and justified. The American Maritime Partnership is already signaling it will scrutinize compliance. If filings suggest the waiver is being applied beyond its military-necessity mandate, expect legal challenges well before the 60 days expire.

▸ Senate Commerce Committee movement on S. 3917. The House bill cleared committee on a party-line vote Wednesday; the Senate companion has no hearing scheduled. Watch whether Senate Republican leadership moves to synchronize the two versions — the House and Senate bills have real structural differences, and any conference process will be complicated if those gaps widen further.

▸ UP-NS document response timeline. Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern must satisfy the STB’s data request before filing their revised merger application in late April. How quickly and completely they respond will signal how the merging parties view the regulatory risk. A narrow or delayed response tells you something. Watch the April filing date.

That’s your Daily for today. See you tomorrow.

Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here  |  Have a tip? Just reply to this email.

FreightWaves 405 Cherry St., Chattanooga TN 37402

Unsubscribe  |  Forward to a Friend  |  FreightWaves.com