Smartway OTR Transportation

12/27/2025

From our family here in Louisiana
Thanks Joel D Back Sr

🎄 Merry Christmas from OOIDA! 🎄

This season, we want to say thank you to the truckers who keep America moving, through long nights, busy highways, and time away from home. Your hard work, dedication, and sacrifice make the holidays possible for so many.

Wishing you a safe, joyful, and well-deserved Merry Christmas from all of us at OOIDA. 🚛✨

04/25/2023

Gmail is email that’s intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.

04/25/2023

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl /FMfcgzGsmNMjdlBtDRCMBdtxPJbdSJnJ

Prepare for Roadcheck 2023 - May 16-18

Trucking voices press FMCSA on hair testing as agency awaits health ruling

Carriers have been allowed to use hair samples to screen potential hires for drugs, and companies say hair tests keep the roads safer because those tests detect drugs much more frequently than urine tests do.

Opponents, though, have raised numerous objections, such as the additional costs for smaller carriers and research suggesting drug results can differ based on physical factors, leading to potential discrimination.

In 2021, Knight-Swift had 37,000 truck driver applicants submit to a pre-employment urinalysis and hair drug test. During that period, “there were 1,472 truck drivers who were identified by the hair test for illegal drug use,” Sant emphasized in a bolded and underlined section of the comments. “But of this total, only 153 tested positive using urinalysis!”

Should the drug test include hair analysis?

Gmail is email that’s intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.

04/11/2023

In Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, Truckstop, a load board provider,
saw a 400% increase in double-brokering complaints, said Brent Hutto, its chief relationship officer

“Complaints reflect what is going on in the marketplace,” he said. “This is a constant in our market and sometimes it is worse than others.”

Today, about 30% of freight is moved in the spot market. “The sheer volume going through the spot market is much higher than it has ever been and is only predicted to increase,” Hutto said, adding that double-brokering tends to increase in a down market.

“I don’t know why that is other than, anecdotally, the marketplace is more desperate to get freight at a profitable level.”

“Brokers and shippers do not know who is actually in the custody of the goods,” she said. “If something goes wrong, there is often no cargo insurance. Even worse, there is a higher risk of theft.”

Looking for Solutions :
Those in the industry said a lack of enforcement is encouraging fraud. “Right now, it is the perfect crime,” Reinke said.
“There is no actor who is trying to stop it other than the broker community and, to some extent, the owner-operator community"

There needs to be more state and federal agency involvement. “There are so many government agencies turning a blind eye to it, but they know it is going on, The problem is that DOT is handing out MC numbers like candy at Halloween. There is virtually no vetting.”

STAYING AHEAD OF THE GAME

The Motor Carrier Safety Selection Standard Act, introduced in February, would implement an interim motor carrier selection standard that requires entities like shippers and brokers to verify certain trucking registration requirements before selecting them.
“It would provide a greater sense of comfort
over who you’re choosing.

Smartway-EGW has instituted securities and protocols to minimize the risk of hiring a double-broker carrier along with a number of other preventative measures to minmize risk.

Smartway-EGW has implemented procedures to fight fraud.
We won't elaborate at this point because ... We don’t want to show the easy way to rob the bank,but it bothers us a lot — to the point we’re willing to dedicate valuble time and resources to help protect our customer.”

Stay tuned for more on this subject

03/22/2023

A statistic that could help spur spot rates into a climb is a sad one for small carriers. The U.S. Department of Transportation reported nearly 2,000 carrier closings per day during the last quarter of 2022.

Many of those were single-truck operations, begun by drivers who purchased trucks to take advantage of record-high spot freight rates, that failed when rates came down.

As those trucks are removed from competition for broker freight, capacity tightens.
The “rebalance” indicates that when the number of trucks and loads is in balance, rates should rise again.

We’re not there yet.

03/14/2023

[email protected]&spMailingID=72753617&spUserID=NjE5MzA4NzU0OTM1S0&spJobID=2320929081&spReportId=MjMyMDkyOTA4MQS2" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://www.jjkeller.com/learn/news/022023/Out-of-service-criteria-changes-coming-soon?PromoCode=203851&cm_mmc=Email-_-March%2010,%202023-_-NTR%20C-00203851%20031023%20Transport%20SC%20-%20March%202023%20(1)-_-Hyperlink_20221206_151632556&utm_source=silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NTR%20C-00203851%20031023%20Transport%20SC%20-%20March%202023%20(1)&cm_lm=[email protected]&spMailingID=72753617&spUserID=NjE5MzA4NzU0OTM1S0&spJobID=2320929081&spReportId=MjMyMDkyOTA4MQS2

Effective date is April 1

03/02/2023

Truckers - Carriers

ALERT

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has updated the out-of-service criteria for 2023; new criteria around drug use and records of duty status, among other changes, will take effect on April 1. The annually published OOS guide provides law enforcement and motor carriers with guidelines for promoting uniformity in compliance and enforcement throughout North America.

Click the link below to read the full article

This year's updates to the CVSA's out-of-service criteria go into effect on April 1, here's what's changed.

09/19/2022

The FMCSA already has plenty of data showing that since the implement of ELDs, accidents have gotten worse. Forcing drivers to sleep when they are not tired and drive when they are tired isn’t the way to be safe

07/24/2022

07/19/2022

I see a little sunshine through the clouds

According to the latest short-term energy outlook released by the EIA, record production may occur by 2023.

07/14/2022

FYI - 7/14
Motor club AAA measured the price of diesel fuel to be $5.726 per gallon on July 5, making the current price 6 cents lower than last week’s U.S. average but 9 cents higher than last month’s.

The average price of trucking's main fuel this time last year was $3.252 per gallon, $2.474 less than the July 5 average.

Falling prices at the pump come as demand falls with fewer consumers fueling up. July, however, is the heaviest month for gasoline demand as Americans travel for their summer vacations. The slight relief people feel at the pump might be short-lived as increased demand for petroleum products signals a corresponding rise in prices.