Diesel Prices Put More Pressure on Heartland Carriers

Record diesel prices are squeezing trucking companies across the Heartland, according to KFVS12. Fuel is one of the few operating costs that can move sharply in a matter of days, and smaller carriers feel the impact first because they usually have less purchasing leverage, thinner cash reserves, and fewer options for absorbing a sudden increase.

For owner-operators, the problem is not limited to the pump price. Higher fuel costs affect the profitability of every mile, including deadhead miles, detention-related idling, and repositioning between loads. A rate that looked workable last week may no longer cover fuel, maintenance, insurance, and driver pay. Carriers should review fuel surcharge tables, route planning, and customer contracts instead of waiting for the next settlement statement to show the damage.

When diesel reaches record levels, the most important number is not gross revenue—it is the contribution margin left after fuel on every load.

Small fleets should also be careful about chasing higher-paying freight that adds excessive empty miles or delays. A practical fuel strategy includes comparing fuel networks, reducing unnecessary idling, and using dispatch and TMS data to identify lanes where fuel consumption is consistently eroding margins. VAU0’s TMS tools can help carriers track load economics and make those comparisons before committing equipment.

Truck Driver Appreciation Week Brings Attention to Retention

Industry groups are observing Truck Driver Appreciation Week, with DC Velocity highlighting the role drivers play in keeping freight moving. Appreciation matters, but drivers generally judge a company by the daily experience: predictable pay, safe equipment, fair dispatching, clean facilities, and whether management responds when a problem occurs.

For small carriers, this week is a useful reminder that retention is an operating strategy, not just a morale exercise. Replacing a driver can create recruiting costs, missed loads, onboarding time, and additional pressure on the remaining team. A direct thank-you, a safety bonus, a better home-time plan, or a review of detention-pay practices can have more impact than a generic message.

Carrier owners should ask drivers what creates the most unnecessary frustration. That may be slow paperwork, unclear load instructions, poor communication with brokers, or avoidable delays at shippers. Fixing one recurring problem can demonstrate appreciation more credibly than a one-time gesture.

New Song Salutes America’s Truck Drivers

The Alabama Trucking Association is supporting a new song recognizing America’s approximately 3.6 million truck drivers, as reported by Yellowhammer News. The project is a public-facing reminder that trucking remains largely invisible to the people who depend on it. Most consumers notice a supply-chain problem only when a product is late, unavailable, or more expensive.

For carriers, the broader value is in making the profession more visible to potential drivers and the communities where trucks operate. Recruiting messages that explain the responsibility, skill, and economic importance of the job can help counter the idea that trucking is simply long hours behind the wheel. That is especially important for smaller fleets competing with larger companies for experienced personnel.

Carriers can build on the attention by highlighting safe driving records, community involvement, training opportunities, and realistic pay and home-time policies. Public recognition will not solve the driver shortage by itself, but it can support a stronger industry image when it is paired with better working conditions.

FMCSA Teases a Busy 2026 Rulemaking Schedule

FMCSA is signaling a flurry of rules for 2026, according to Land Line Media. A busy regulatory agenda means carriers should expect continued movement on compliance requirements rather than assuming current procedures will remain unchanged throughout the year.

Rulemaking can take time, and an announced agenda does not necessarily mean every proposal will become final on the same schedule. Still, small carriers should pay attention early. New requirements can affect driver qualification files, equipment standards, reporting, enforcement practices, and the systems used to document compliance. Waiting until a rule takes effect can leave a carrier scrambling to update forms, train drivers, or adjust customer operations.

Owners should designate someone to monitor FMCSA updates and industry alerts, then keep a written record of what each proposed change could mean for the business. A current compliance process should make it easier to identify gaps, assign responsibility, and document corrective actions before an inspection or audit.

Key Trucking Rules to Watch in the 2026 Agenda

FleetOwner’s review of FMCSA’s 2026 regulatory agenda gives carriers a second look at the rules most likely to shape trucking operations. The common thread is preparation: regulations can influence costs and workflow well before a final compliance deadline arrives.

Small carriers should focus on the practical questions behind each proposal. Will a rule require new equipment or software? Will it change driver training or recordkeeping? Could it affect scheduling, qualification, or the way violations are evaluated? These questions are more useful than simply bookmarking a headline.

Regulatory changes also reinforce the importance of clean, accessible records. Carriers using disconnected spreadsheets, paper files, and email chains may struggle to prove that procedures were followed. A centralized workflow can reduce that risk and give management a clearer view of expiring documents, open violations, and required follow-up. VAU0 helps carriers connect day-to-day transportation operations with the documentation needed to manage growth responsibly.

What carriers should do this week

• Recalculate fuel cost per loaded and empty mile, then review fuel surcharge terms and lane profitability.
• Ask drivers for one specific operational improvement and address the most common issue promptly.
• Review FMCSA updates and assign responsibility for tracking proposed 2026 rules.
• Audit driver qualification, maintenance, and compliance records for missing or outdated documents.
• Use TMS data to compare total load economics, including deadhead, waiting time, fuel, and accessorial revenue.

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.