THE Daily

Friday, March 27, 2026

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The Daily

Congress Moves to Strip EPA Authority Over Diesel Truck Emissions

A bill introduced in the House this week would end federal regulation of diesel truck emissions systems, removing EPA authority, eliminating compliance mandates for emissions control devices, and shielding truckers from federal penalties for modifying or removing that equipment. It is the most sweeping proposed rollback of heavy-duty vehicle environmental rules in decades, and it has a Senate companion already in motion.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) introduced the Diesel Truck Liberation Act on Thursday. Companion legislation is moving in the Senate under Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), with several House co-sponsors already signed on. The bill arrives as the Trump administration separately moves to rescind the EPA’s 2009 "endangerment finding," the legal foundation for greenhouse gas regulation of heavy-duty vehicles. Collapse that finding via executive action, and the regulatory scaffolding around diesel emissions weakens regardless of what Congress does. Collins is pursuing both tracks simultaneously.

"American truckers and farmers are the backbone of this nation, but the EPA has treated them like criminals for maintaining their own equipment," Collins said in a news release announcing the legislation. The truck cost argument has been persistent across the industry for years. Diesel exhaust fluid systems, emissions components, and onboard diagnostics have driven up both acquisition costs and maintenance complexity, particularly for small carriers lacking the shop infrastructure to manage them efficiently. Industry groups have argued that high equipment costs pressure operators to run older trucks longer — an irony that potentially undercuts the environmental case for the rules themselves.

Environmental groups are pushing back hard. The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that rolling back federal emissions standards could produce more than 10 billion additional tons of climate pollution and cost consumers more than $2 trillion through 2055 in health and environmental impacts. The Sierra Club warned that eliminating EPA authority would strip the federal government of its core tool for regulating vehicle air pollution. Neither side is backing down, and this fight is heading toward committee markups, floor votes, and likely legal challenges whether or not the administration’s parallel regulatory action succeeds.

So what? For carriers, this is the most significant regulatory relief proposal since the ELD mandate debates, and unlike that fight, this one arrives alongside coordinated executive action. Watch whether Senate leadership schedules the Lummis companion bill for markup. If both chambers move simultaneously, the timeline for a meaningful change in federal emissions enforcement could compress faster than most fleet managers are planning for. Carriers managing multi-year equipment replacement cycles should be modeling both scenarios now.

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Top Stories

Small Businesses Still Absorbing Tariff Costs a Year After ‘Liberation Day’

Members of the We Pay the Tariffs coalition said Thursday that an estimated $140 billion in duties ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in February have yet to produce a single refund, even as new tariffs under Sections 122, 232, and 301 replaced the old ones. Small business owners described raising prices, freezing hiring, and cutting order sizes to manage cash flow. Those sourcing shifts are rippling into reduced demand for ocean freight and cross-border trucking. "Tariffs have hit us from every direction — raw materials, finished goods, and freight," said Matt Cagle, owner of outdoor gear company Rig’Em Right in Morehead City, North Carolina.

So what? For brokers and carriers serving small and midsize importers, this is a demand signal worth tracking. Smaller orders and shifting supplier networks mean shorter-haul moves, more volatile volumes, and less predictability on lane-level capacity planning. Businesses waiting on refunds are sitting on tied-up cash, which delays inventory replenishment and suppresses load frequency. The uncertainty is the story, and it’s not resolving quickly.

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Cold Storage Vacancy Reaches 20-Year High as Pandemic-Era Building Boom Settles

Pandemic-era overbuilding has pushed cold storage vacancy to a 20-year high, according to a Newmark report released Thursday, though the market still recorded roughly 3.5 million square feet of positive absorption in 2025, suggesting underlying demand is intact. The development pipeline has dropped to 5.9 million square feet, its lowest since 2020, and Newmark expects the supply-demand gap to narrow through this year. A bifurcation is sharpening: legacy facilities carry a 7.6% vacancy rate, while modern pre-pandemic assets sit at just 2.7%. E-grocery sales, up 32% year over year in the fourth quarter, are driving demand for more extensive cold-chain footprints to support faster delivery.

So what? 3PLs and food manufacturers with leases expiring in the next 12 to 24 months have negotiating leverage they haven’t had since before COVID. Obsolete facilities will keep losing tenants to modern builds. If your cold-chain strategy is anchored in older infrastructure, this is the window to renegotiate or relocate on favorable terms.

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UK’s Qargo Enters U.S. TMS Market with $33M in Funding and Two Early Customers

Qargo, a UK-based TMS provider with 600 European clients and 170 employees, has made its first U.S. sales and is establishing a Chicago base after closing a $33 million Series B. Speaking with FreightWaves at the Truckload Carriers Association’s annual meeting in Kissimmee, CEO Samuel Evans argued that legacy American TMS platforms, some built 40-plus years ago, are too brittle to adapt cleanly to modern technology demands. "It’s taken five years to get the product fit, to get all the right features in the right place," Evans said of the timing. The one named U.S. customer: Premier Refrigerated Transport, dedicated logistics arm of Monterey Mushrooms.

So what? Carriers and brokers on legacy TMS platforms already facing an overhaul may be more open to switching than in a stable environment — the switching cost calculus shifts when the incumbent is mid-rebuild anyway. Whether two U.S. customers becomes 200 depends on execution at scale, not pitch at a conference booth.

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Marad Opens $488 Million in Port Infrastructure Grants, Applications Due June 27

The Maritime Administration announced $488.6 million in Port Infrastructure Development Program funding Thursday, drawn from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The grants target cargo handling improvements, port modernization, and seafood business support across the more than 300 ports eligible to apply. New priorities include projects in Qualified Opportunity Zones and those aligned with national multimodal freight goals; at least $122 million is reserved for small projects at small ports. Applications close June 27.

So what? Port authorities with infrastructure projects already in development should treat the June 27 deadline as a hard stop, roughly 90 days to assemble a competitive submission. The Qualified Opportunity Zone priority and the small-port carve-out create a genuine opening for gateway communities that rarely factor into large federal grant cycles.

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From the Research Desk

What We’re Watching

▸ Senate action on the Diesel Truck Liberation Act. Collins’ bill has a Senate companion under Lummis. Watch for committee assignment and markup scheduling. If leadership fast-tracks it alongside the EPA’s endangerment-finding rollback, the regulatory outlook for Class 8 equipment could shift within months.

▸ Tariff refund timeline for small importers. The We Pay the Tariffs coalition says $140 billion in now-illegal duties remain unrefunded. Treasury’s timeline for processing those claims will determine whether small and midsize shippers restart inventory investment — and when ocean and cross-border volumes reflect that demand.

▸ Cold storage lease negotiations through Q2. With vacancy at a 20-year high and the pipeline contracting, the leverage window for tenants in older facilities is open now. 3PLs and food manufacturers should be actively exploring terms before absorption tightens and landlords reclaim negotiating power.

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

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