FreightWaves Today | September 22

Craig (0:36)

Welcome to FreightWaves Today, it is Tuesday, and we're rocking, we got a full agenda today. We've got John Kingston in to talk about oil, what's happening in the fuel markets. We have Andy Sharpe, he is the CEO of MeshStix, talking about insurance. Obviously, this is a really important topic, Julie, when we think about how important insurance is. We're going to get to RxO capacity now, as routing guides break, it's all about the routing guides and what's happening there. Then we're going to talk to Sean Dehan, he's the COO and Chief Strategy Officer of TruckStop.

So, big, big day.

Julie (1:17)

It is going to be a big day. The 22nd, first day of fall, right? Fall weekend knocks.

First day, it hasn't been 90 here in Chattanooga in something like 50-something days, which is amazing. Maybe it really is fall. Thrilled with that?

Craig (1:31)

Yeah. So, let's get into the headlines.

Julie (1:34)

We kick things off with a major legal development in the controversial Super Ego Trucking Network case. A federal judge has dismissed several counts against Super Ego's Alexander Mimic in a lawsuit filed by drivers initially in 2022 with an amended complaint in 2025

Judge Martha Picold of the US. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois tossed out four counts without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled in amended form later. However, one count dealing with Super Ego's practices regarding the Federal Truth in Leasing Act was dismissed with prejudice and cannot be refiled. The day before the dismissal, the court clerk revealed an all-day settlement conference had made significant progress toward a settlement, though work remains to reach a final resolution.

While Mimic may be stepping out of the spotlight, the driver's lawsuit against Super Ego holding and nine other affiliated defendants remains fully intact. Over in Florida, state troopers just recovered two stolen tractor trailers in a coordinated cargo theft bust. Florida's Cargo Theft Task Force responded after Georgia State Patrol alerted them about a stolen tire shipment heading south along Interstate 95 on September 14th. Detective James Smith spotted the equipment near mile marker 334 and observed an international tractor pulling a white Hyundai trailer alongside a freightliner hauling green intermodal equipment, with both rigs continuously changing lanes together. Troopers stopped the vehicles at a TA travel center and arrested 42-year-old Eugenio Gonzalez-Murlo of Jacksonville, but a second driver fled on foot and escaped. Investigators recorded two first-degree grand theft counts against Gonzalez-Murlo, including one for automobile tires worth $100,000 or more. The case demonstrates how trailer photographs, registration checks, and identification numbers helped investigators locate stolen equipment across multiple jurisdictions.

Finally, groundbreaking new research from fleet technology company Samsara is revealing exactly which drivers posed the greatest crash risk. According to Samsara's new compounding risk report, the top 10 percent of drivers ranked as highest risk by the company's risk model accounted for a staggering 47 percent of all crashes, while 30 percent of high-risk drivers accounted for more than three-fourths of crashes.

The report found that combinations of behaviors were far more dangerous than individual behaviors alone. Drivers exhibiting mobile phone use alone were 2.7 times more likely to fall into the highest risk tier, but that figure jumped to 5.4 times when mobile use, distraction, and harsh braking were present together. The model evaluates more than 50 factors across driving behavior, exposure, situational context, and driver development, allowing fleet managers to focus their limited coaching resources on behavioral patterns most strongly associated with elevated crash risk rather than reacting to isolated safety events.

Craig (4:22)

Julie, obviously, this safety data is important for any fleet thinking about how to improve operational safety inside their business.

Julie (4:29)

Yeah.

Intuitively, it makes a ton of sense. They're just adding the data behind it, that the top 10 percent of risk rate drivers account for 47 percent of crashes and that it's not, and this is data from their new compounding risk report, risk model, they have a new compounding risk model, that it's not one-off behaviors, but it is a series of behaviors or patterns. The story talks about mobile phone usage is bad, but when it's distracted driving mobile phone usage and harsh braking, then that's a significantly higher risk. They're using their phone, they're not paying attention, and they're having to slam on their brakes. It's when you see it repeatedly. I know when we were revamping our safety and we started having our actual operators do some of the safety coaching rather than a safety department, so it was someone who the drivers knew, it made a huge impact because they were noticing, instead of working aboard of all of these incidents where we had received an alert that there was harsh braking or stop sign run or whatever, they would see these patterns. They would know the driver and they would know, this wasn't a one-off incident versus if you're working aboard of thousands of drivers, you might not notice those patterns unless the system tells you. And you can understand why, what's something going on in their life. Yes, I've been on my phone more because my wife's in the hospital, okay, let's figure out what we need to do.