THE DAILY

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

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

The Daily

Trucking Group Asks Court to Strip New York, California of CDL Authority

A federal court petition is forcing a reckoning over how two of the country’s largest states issue commercial driver’s licenses. It has a body count behind it.

The Small Business in Transportation Coalition filed a petition June 10 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking federal judges to order the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to decertify the CDL programs of New York and California. The filing escalates a dispute over immigration-related licensing policies and English-language proficiency standards for commercial drivers, a fight that has been building through audits, noncompliance notices, and competing lawsuits for more than a year.

SBTC’s core argument is simple: federal statute says that once FMCSA finds a state in substantial noncompliance with CDL regulations, the agency must revoke that state’s authority to issue commercial licenses. FMCSA has already made those findings. New York’s noncompliance rate exceeded 55% in federal audits. California’s reached roughly 25%. Both states received final notices of substantial noncompliance after reviews of how they handled non-domiciled CDL and permit applications. SBTC argues the agency has no discretion. The law says "must," not "may."

The timing of the filing isn’t incidental. Less than two weeks before the petition was filed, a bus operated by E&P Travel Inc. crashed on Interstate 95 in Virginia, killing five people and injuring dozens more. SBTC’s filing points to the crash as evidence that stricter enforcement of federal licensing standards is overdue. The driver, identified as Jing S. Dong of Staten Island, holds a New York-issued CDL and now faces five felony involuntary manslaughter charges. Federal investigators are examining E&P Travel’s broader connections to a network of bus operators in the Northeast. The case isn’t directly about CDL certification. SBTC used it to put a human cost on what could otherwise read as an administrative dispute.

This fight was already playing out in parallel at the Supreme Court. In May, the Court declined to hear Florida’s attempt to bring an original-action lawsuit against California and Washington over similar CDL-to-undocumented-immigrant policies, leaving the underlying issue unresolved at the federal level. SBTC’s DC Circuit petition takes a different route: rather than challenging state policy directly, it targets FMCSA’s failure to act on its own noncompliance findings.

So What? Decertification of New York or California CDL programs would mean drivers licensed in those states could no longer legally operate commercial vehicles in interstate commerce, a disruption with serious implications for every carrier moving freight in or through the Northeast or West Coast. The DC Circuit will have to decide whether FMCSA’s noncompliance findings legally trigger mandatory action or whether the agency has discretion to delay. Watch this case. If the court rules for SBTC, the agency will face a hard deadline, and the downstream impact on the driver pool could hit carrier capacity before the freight market has time to adjust.

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Top Stories

Port of LA May Volume Jumps 17% as Importers Front-Load Ahead of Tariff Uncertainty

The Port of Los Angeles processed 840,165 TEUs in May, up 17% year over year, with loaded imports surging 26% to 449,370 TEUs, a comparison that comes against the tariff-hammered May 2025. Port Executive Director Gene Seroka attributed the gains to "inventory replenishment, concerns about fuel costs, trade-policy uncertainty and preparation for upcoming retail seasons," noting companies are now "operating with shorter planning horizons." Year-to-date volume reached 4,119,869 TEUs, up 1.4% over 2025.

So What? Importers are pulling freight forward, not waiting for traditional peak signals. If you haven’t locked capacity for Q3, the window is narrowing faster than the calendar suggests, and a July demand plateau won’t soften the pricing pressure that’s already baked into June surcharges.

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FedEx Makes Progress Clearing Vietnam Cargo Backlog After Botched Partner Transition

FedEx says operations in Vietnam are stabilizing after a chaotic April 26 switch from long-time delivery partner Song Binh to Viettel Post that triggered cascading delays, stranded shipments, and overloaded call centers. Backlogs have fallen roughly 50% from early May peaks. Cargo holds at Hanoi airport have been cleared, and extra wait times at Ho Chi Minh City have dropped from two days to one. The company is now completing approximately 4,500 deliveries daily. "We fully recognize the service disruption experienced by our customers in Vietnam," said Masamichi Ujiie, president of FedEx North and South Pacific, adding the company is treating recovery "with the highest urgency and focus."

So What? The worst of the backlog appears to be clearing, but "trending toward pre-transition levels" isn’t the same as pre-transition levels. Build extra lead time into Vietnam import schedules until FedEx confirms full service restoration. One additional day of hold at HCMC is still a delay.

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FRA Clears Five-Year Waiver for Automated Track Inspection; CSX Plans July 1 Rollout

The Federal Railroad Administration approved a five-year waiver allowing railroads to expand use of Automated Track Inspection technology: laser- and sensor-equipped systems that scan tracks for defects at operating speeds, supplementing traditional visual inspections. CSX plans to deploy the technology July 1 across more than 3,000 route miles and 4,500 track miles, using nine Ensco autonomous boxcars, two geometry cars, and one Holland locomotive-based system. "ATI is more effective than visual inspections alone, in some cases reducing track geometry defects by 90 percent," said Ted Greener, senior vice president of communications for the Association of American Railroads. Critics including some rail unions argue automated systems can miss surface defects and vegetation-related issues that trained workers catch.

So What? For shippers relying on CSX corridors, particularly Northeast and I-95 lanes. This rollout should gradually reduce track-condition service interruptions. The five-year waiver timeline means the FRA collects real-world data before updating permanent rules, so watch CSX performance metrics as the benchmark for what broader adoption looks like.

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Ocean Spot Rates Face Multiple Pressures as Hormuz Reopening, Peak Surcharges Collide

Asia–U.S. West Coast spot rates held at $4,836 per FEU last week while Asia–East Coast ticked up 4% to $6,558, according to the Freightos Baltic Index. A U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding scheduled for signing June 19 sets up a Strait of Hormuz reopening within roughly 30 days, but Freightos Research Chief Judah Levine cautions that full traffic normalization could take months. "Even once vessels exit, it takes about seven weeks for crude to arrive in the Far East," Levine noted, with refined bunker fuel taking even longer. Mine-clearing commitments from participating countries remain conditional on a final peace accord. Meanwhile, General Rate Increases and Peak Season Surcharges took effect June 1, and carriers are rolling containers and cutting allocations to keep them in place.

So What? A Hormuz reopening is good news for fuel costs long-term, but BAFs on Q3 contracts will stay elevated even as spot fuel eases; the timeline doesn’t align. If peak season bookings top out in June as frontloading exhausts demand, July GRI pushes will meet resistance. Secure capacity now; don’t count on Q3 rate relief materializing before your fall bid cycle closes.

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From the Research Desk

From Our Partners

What We’re Watching

▸ The DC Circuit’s next move on CDL decertification. SBTC’s petition puts federal judges in the position of deciding whether FMCSA’s noncompliance findings legally trigger mandatory action, or leave the agency room to stall. A ruling for SBTC would force a timeline, and a sudden CDL program shutdown in New York or California would hit carrier capacity in major freight corridors before the market could absorb it.

▸ June 19 MOU signing and the Hormuz reopening clock. If the U.S.-Iran agreement goes through as scheduled, a 30-day countdown to Strait reopening begins. Watch whether mine-clearing commitments hold and how quickly daily vessel transits approach pre-war levels. Freightos puts the fuel-cost recovery timeline at weeks for initial easing, months for full normalization. Q3 BAFs are already locked in either way.

▸ LA import volumes through June. The frontloading surge is running hot, and Seroka’s team is seeing shorter planning horizons across the board. If bookings plateau before July as Freightos predicts, carriers will face a demand gap right as PSS enforcement peaks, exactly when July GRI pushes tend to get walked back. The next two weeks of booking data will tell you whether peak season arrived early or was pulled forward and spent.

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

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