Women in Trucking Take on Capitol Hill

The American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) Women In Motion initiative is actively bringing critical trucking industry priorities to the forefront in Washington, D.C. Leaders from the program have met with members of Congress to discuss a variety of issues, aiming to ensure that the interests of the trucking workforce, especially women, are taken seriously in policy considerations.

With priorities ranging from addressing workforce shortages to enhancing safety standards, the group has emphasized the importance of diversity and inclusion in the trucking industry. For small carriers and owner-operators, this focus could mean more resources and support for female drivers, potentially easing recruitment challenges. Initiatives that promote a more inclusive workforce might help mitigate driver shortages and improve operational efficiency.

Efforts like these highlight the growing influence of women in an industry traditionally dominated by men. For carriers, embracing diversity can be a strategic advantage, opening doors to a wider talent pool. Keeping an eye on these developments could offer insights into future workforce trends and how best to align your recruitment strategies with evolving policies.

Trucking Companies Face Financial Turmoil

Recent reports indicate a troubling wave of bankruptcies and financial hurdles faced by various trucking companies. The economic pressures, including fluctuating fuel prices and altering regulations, have led to significant instability across the industry. For smaller carriers and owner-operators, staying financially viable is becoming increasingly challenging.

Understanding these financial hurdles is crucial. Rising operational costs and competitive freight rates are squeezing profit margins more than ever. Small carriers must be particularly vigilant and adaptive, exploring technology solutions and strategic partnerships to navigate these adversities. Collaborating with logistics technology companies like VAU0 can streamline operations, helping to reduce costs through optimized route management and improved fuel efficiency. Consider visiting our Transportation Management System (TMS) page for tools that can enhance your company’s resilience.

Staying informed on the broader economic impacts and preparing contingency plans can be vital strategies for survival and growth in these trying times.

Pressing for Policy Reforms: Industry on Edge

ATA women leaders have been actively pressing Congress to consider a variety of policy reforms essential for the trucking industry. From infrastructure improvements to regulatory adjustments, the focus is on creating a supportive environment that facilitates growth and efficiency in trucking operations.

The push for legislative support in areas such as infrastructure investment and more lenient regulations can directly affect carrier operations. For smaller carriers, policy shifts might offer potential relief from stringent regulations that often disproportionately impact smaller operations. Proactively monitoring these legislative sessions could provide opportunities for advocacy and aligning business strategies with upcoming changes.

These ongoing efforts underscore the critical need for small and mid-sized carriers to engage with industry advocacy groups actively. Staying involved ensures that your business interests are represented and addressed at the national policy level.

FMCSA's 2026 Regulatory Agenda

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has outlined its regulatory agenda for 2026, with several key issues up for attention. Upcoming regulations cover a broad spectrum, including hours-of-service adjustments, new safety mandates, and emissions standards.

Staying compliant with these emerging regulations is crucial for all carriers. These changes could mean adjustments in operations and additional investments in training and technology. It’s wise for small carriers to review these proposed rules to understand their business implications thoroughly. Leveraging compliance resources and staying updated via VAU0’s compliance guide could prove beneficial.

Anticipating regulatory changes allows carriers to plan and adapt proactively, minimizing potential disruptions to operations.

Broker Transparency and Other Rule Timelines

The timeline for implementing broker transparency and other important rules is gradually taking shape. As these developments unfold, they have significant implications for carrier-broker relationships and operational transparency.

For smaller carriers, enhanced broker transparency can build trust and potentially offer more stable revenue streams. Understanding the implications of these rules is essential to position your business for success. Regularly engaging with industry news and updates ensures that your operations remain both competitive and compliant with evolving standards.

Keeping communication lines open with brokers and staying informed about transparency requirements can help in fostering mutually beneficial partnerships.

“Staying ahead of the curve in regulatory and economic shifts is crucial for ensuring the resilience and growth of your trucking operations. Embrace technology, advocacy, and strategic partnerships as essential components of your business strategy.”

What Carriers Should Do This Week

• Review upcoming FMCSA regulations and incorporate necessary compliance measures into your operations.
• Engage with advocacy groups like ATA to ensure your business interests are represented in ongoing policy discussions.
• Utilize VAU0’s TMS solutions to optimize routes and improve fuel efficiency, reducing operational costs.
• Monitor developments in broker transparency regulations to adjust your business relationships and practices accordingly.
• Consider strategies to enhance diversity within your workforce to improve talent acquisition and retention.

In 2022, we were running a small fleet and spending approximately $400 per truck per month on software. TMS license, ELD subscription, e-sign service, separate accounting integration. Four different logins. Four different monthly invoices. Four different support teams to call when something didn't work.

None of it talked to each other without manual data entry.

The software evaluation that changed everything

We spent three months evaluating every major TMS and fleet management system on the market. AscendTMS, McLeod, Motive, EZLogz, KeepTruckin, TruckingOffice, Axon. We signed up for demos, trials, and in two cases, paid for actual subscriptions to test them properly.

What we found was consistent across almost all of them: the software was built by people who had never dispatched a truck. You could tell immediately. The terminology was slightly wrong. The workflows assumed steps that no real dispatcher would take. The ELD and TMS were always separate systems that "integrated" — meaning they sometimes shared data, if you configured things correctly, and the configuration broke whenever either vendor pushed an update.

"The best way to evaluate trucking software is to use it under real pressure. Not in a demo. Not in a test environment. On a real load, with a real deadline, when a broker is calling every 30 minutes for an update."

The specific things that were broken

Without naming specific vendors: one major TMS required five screen transitions to update a load status. Not five clicks — five full page navigations. On a mobile browser from a truck stop, that meant 45 seconds to tell a broker the truck was loaded. Another system had beautiful analytics dashboards but couldn't tell you, in real time, how many hours of drive time your driver had remaining without navigating to a separate compliance module.

The ELD market was worse. Most ELD systems were designed to satisfy FMCSA's technical requirements — which they did — while making the user experience as painful as possible. Drivers hated them. When drivers hate their tools, they find workarounds. Workarounds create compliance risk.

The moment we decided to build

The decision was made on a Tuesday afternoon when our dispatcher spent 40 minutes re-entering data from a rate confirmation PDF that our ELD had already captured in a different system. The information existed. It was digital. It lived in three different places that didn't talk to each other, and a human was manually transferring it between systems.

That's not a technology problem. That's a lack of ambition problem. Nobody had decided to solve it because the existing systems were profitable enough without solving it.

What we decided to build instead

One platform. ELD and TMS as the same system, not integrations. AI that reads rate confirmation PDFs so dispatchers don't have to. A dispatcher — eventually an AI dispatcher — that covers nights and weekends so loads don't get missed. E-sign built in, not bolted on.

And priced at zero through 2026, because the goal was to prove the product worked before asking carriers to pay for it.

Two years in: did it work?

The Rate Con AI has a 95%+ accuracy rate on standard broker formats. ERETH ELD passed FMCSA's technical certification. Our AI dispatchers book real loads for real carriers after hours. The carrier dashboard still occasionally has a minor bug — we fix them the same day they're reported.

Would we have been better off just using an existing system and focusing on freight? Financially, in the short term, probably yes. But we would have kept paying $400 per truck per month for software that we knew was mediocre. And we would have missed the opportunity to build something that actually works the way the industry needs it to work.

We don't regret it.