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This week’s top stories in trucking

More Trucks, Drivers Put Out of Service as Commercial Vehicle Crackdown Expands

Arizona Highway Patrol troopers ran 96 commercial vehicle inspections July 15-17 along State Route 87 near Payson and turned up 350 violations, sidelining 13 vehicles and 23 drivers. The most common findings: driving without a CDL, missing or falsified logbooks and equipment defects. One driver drew drug charges. The operation followed an Arizona DPS stop days earlier of a hotshot driver hauling more than 30,000 pounds with no CDL, no medical certificate and failed emergency brakes. Nebraska State Patrol inspected 41 trucks July 9 in Madison County — targeting units that typically bypass weigh stations — and logged 155 violations, 13 vehicles out of service and 22 citations, with 27 trucks earning CVSA decals. In Ontario, provincial police and Ministry of Transportation inspectors pulled 10 of 18 trucks checked in Kirkfield. Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s June data ranked brake adjustment defects first at 186.

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Staged Truck Crashes Could Bring 20 Years in Federal Prison Under New Bill

Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., introduced the Staged Accident Fraud Prevention Act on Wednesday, making it a federal crime to intentionally cause a collision involving a commercial motor vehicle. Participants and organizers alike would face up to 20 years, with a 20-year minimum when serious bodily injury or death results. Attorneys, physicians and other knowing co-conspirators could be prosecuted. Reps. Mike Collins, R-Ga., and Brandon Gill, R-Texas, filed companion legislation, H.R. 2662, in April 2025; it sits with House Judiciary. OOIDA endorsed the bill, with Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh calling staged crashes premeditated assaults that drive up premiums for small carriers. ATA, the Florida Trucking Association, NMFTA and TIA also signed on. Moody’s office pointed to New Orleans attorney Danny Patrick Keating, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to paying a man to stage 31 tractor-trailer crashes and settled 17 of them for roughly $1.5 million.

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UPS Labels Allegedly Diverted $2 Million in Nike Shoes, Indictment Says

Federal prosecutors indicted 12 people over an alleged scheme that moved at least $2 million in Nike product out of the company’s Memphis logistics center between July 2021 and June 2024. Court records say insiders inside the warehouse placed unauthorized UPS labels on specified cartons, rerouting them to addresses in California, Wisconsin and Indiana. Roy Harvey Jr. allegedly generated labels through an account tied to his RHJ Global business; conspirators used about 3,119 of them across the run. Floor manager Michael Perkins allegedly carried labels onto the floor and passed them to four employees, continuing after Nike placed him on leave in January 2024. Three resale businesses are named — Chicago Emporium allegedly paid roughly $492,000 in a three-month stretch. No filing alleges UPS knowingly participated. Prosecutors seek $2 million in forfeiture. All defendants are presumed innocent.

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Truck Tractors Hauled 132 Pounds of Cocaine to Florida, Sheriff Says

Pinellas County deputies arrested nine people and seized 60 kilograms of cocaine — about 132 pounds, valued near $2.1 million — in Operation Hall of Fame, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced July 14. Investigators worked the case roughly three years before tracing the supply to El Paso. By April, detectives learned kilograms were riding inside truck tractors: one operable unit towing two disabled tractors, an arrangement Gualtieri called a complete facade, with the drugs believed to be riding in a sleeper compartment high enough to complicate a roadside canine alert. The convoy ran monthly, checking into the same Wesley Chapel hotel before a nighttime handoff of duffel bags. Detectives intercepted the July 10 run near Lake City. Alleged Florida distributor Daniel Pinales faces a 15-year mandatory minimum and $2.25 million bail. Gualtieri said similar deliveries have surfaced elsewhere. All charges remain allegations.

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Woman in $150M Counterfeit Postage Shipping Scheme Sentenced to Prison

A federal court in California sentenced Lijuan "Angela" Chen, 53, to two years and six months and ordered more than $158 million in restitution for a counterfeit postage operation that cost the U.S. Postal Service over $150 million. Chen pleaded guilty in April 2024 to conspiracy to defraud the United States and use of counterfeit postage. From January 2020 to May 2023, she and co-defendant Chuanhua "Hugh" Hu mailed more than 34 million parcels bearing fraudulent labels, running a City of Industry shipping business that helped China-based logistics companies move packages through the U.S. mail. Hu printed duplicate Netstamps, then fled to China in November 2019 as investigators closed in, later building software to fabricate labels. Chen ran the warehouses. Labels frequently carried intelligent barcode data recycled from previously mailed packages. One October 2022 tender alone held about 4,780 packages. Hu remains a fugitive.

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SONAR spotlight: Spot rates party like it’s the Fourth of July

(Source: SONAR)

Summary: The National Truckload Index (Linehaul Only), NTIL.USA, sits at $2.71 per mile, off 0.37% — about a penny — on the day and down roughly 7 cents from a week ago. The index has now given back about 34 cents from the early-July peak just above $3.05. It still runs 58 cents above the $2.13 trailing-year average, but the direction has flipped: what looked like post-holiday cooling two weeks ago has turned into a sustained retreat.

Diving into the data, the NTIL sat near $1.75 from August into late November before its first sustained move, reaching roughly $2.20 by mid-January. It chopped between $2.00 and $2.25 through winter and spring — a February run that faded, a March pullback to $2.05 — then broke hard in May, adding about 80 cents in six weeks to crest above $3.00 in late June. The July decline has been steady rather than sharp, stepping down through $2.90, $2.80 and now $2.71 without a meaningful bounce.
To calculate the NTIL, fuel costs are based on the average retail price of diesel and an assumed fuel efficiency of 6.5 miles per gallon. The formula is NTID – (DTS.USA / 6.5).

Looking ahead, the supply-side story that lifted the index hasn’t reversed. Enforcement continues to pull noncompliant capacity off the road, and this week’s inspection results out of Arizona, Nebraska and Ontario show that pressure isn’t easing. What’s unclear is whether spot rates overshot in June and are finding a truer level, or whether the retreat runs further. Watch $2.60 as the next test. Contract rates lag spot by a couple of weeks, so carriers that repriced off the July peak may be negotiating against a market that has already moved.