Deborah Lockridge
In the years since mandatory electronic logging devices for most U.S. truck drivers went fully into effect in late 2019, log falsification violations rank as one of the most common driver-related violations discovered by enforcement officials.
Log falsification is a misrepresentation of a commercial driver’s duty status or driving time on their daily record of duty status. They can be uncovered during roadside inspections or during Department of Transportation audits of motor carriers. And whether they are deliberate or unintentional, they can be a major problem for fleets.
But there are things you can do to reduce the number of violations.
Nearly 5% of all driver-related roadside inspections involved some kind of a log falsification in the years from 2019 to 2023, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration statistics — and they rank as the fourth most common driver-related violation.
It’s even worse in compliance reviews, AKA DOT audits, where log falsification is actually the second most common violation that’s discovered. The FMCSA has reportedly discovered around 21,000 log falsification violations in their DOT audits, which amounts to around 6% of the audits that they conduct, says Brandon Wiseman, president of Trucksafe Consulting.
“Those numbers — 5, 6% — don’t seem like all that all that big of a deal, but they are,” Wiseman says.
Why can log falsification violations be so bad for motor carriers, why are there so many false log violations, and what can fleets do to fix it?
Log Falsifications Hurt Your CSA Score
Log falsifications discovered during roadside inspections affect a motor carrier’s CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) score in the hours of service BASIC as shown in the FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System.
“They are heavily weighted, and they can cause a motor carrier’s CSA score in the hours of service basic to tick up pretty quickly,” Wiseman says. “And in fact, a high hours of service BASIC score is a very common trigger for a DOT audit.
“The more log falsifications you as a fleet are incurring, the more likely it is you’re going to have the DOT knocking at your door,” he says.
Log Falsifications Hurt Your Motor Carrier Safety Rating
What those DOT inspectors discover during that audit will mean the difference between a Satisfactory, Conditional, or Unsatisfactory Safety Fitness Determination (more commonly known simply as a safety rating.)
Wiseman explains that during a DOT audit, investigators are looking for critical-level violations in your hours of service records.
“What they mean by a critical level of violations is a pattern of noncompliance over a certain period of time, or over a certain number of logs that they are sampling,” Wiseman explains. “A 10% or higher violation rate in that context, that would amount to a critical level violation.”
Investigators are looking for violations of the rules themselves — the 11-hour driving rule, the 14-hour daily rule, the 70-hour rule, etc. — but they’re also looking for log falsifications.
“If they find a log falsification violation rate of 10% or more in the DOT audit — which is not that hard to find — then you’re going to get a critical level violation in the hours of service factor for that audit. And if you get a critical level violation in the hours of service factor, you’re not getting out of that audit with anything better than a Conditional safety rating.”
What he has seen in the years of working with clients on their regulatory compliance is that the most common way fleets get a downgraded safety rating is log falsifications.
“Aside from getting a downgraded safety rating, the other thing you can usually expect to receive is a civil penalty,” Wiseman adds. Just how much that fine may be will vary based on factors such as the size of your company and how many violations were discovered, but Wiseman said he’s seen log falsification fines from $5,000 up to $50,000.
False Logs + Crash Litigation = Bad News
And let’s not forget the potential for litigation following a crash.
In its 2020 research report on how “nuclear verdicts” affect the trucking industry, the American Transportation Research Institute found that there were five particular factors brought against a defendant that yielded 100% verdicts in favor of the plaintiff.
The top one was hours-of-service or logbook violations.
“If your fleet has a real problem with drivers falsifying their logs, whether it’s deliberately or inadvertently, and one of your drivers is involved in a catastrophic accident, you can be sure that the log falsification issue is going to come to light in that litigation,” Wiseman says. “And it may very well haunt you in that litigation, particularly if one of the reasons for the accident has to do with driver fatigue.”
How do Log Falsifications Happen?
One of the biggest culprits behind log falsification, says Wiseman, is the use and abuse of “personal conveyance” status.
“In fact, it is being widely misused by a lot of drivers to conceal hours of service violations,” he says.
“Personal conveyance has always been and continues to be a significant source of misunderstanding among drivers, among carriers, among law enforcement, among the FMCSA itself. Nobody can really get their arms around it.”
Personal conveyance, he says, is for a limited circumstance where a commercial driver could legally log their driving time as off duty. When ELDs were implemented, because the device will automatically log as on-duty driving if the vehicles is moving, officials added the “personal conveyance” status as an option so the ELD doesn’t count against their hours limits.
A legitimate use of personal conveyance might be an owner-operator who’s not under dispatch and needs to use his truck to help move his brother from Indiana to Florida. Or he has a boat that he needs to take down to the lake.
“Truly personal reasons,” Wiseman notes.
Part of the problem, he says, is that personal conveyance is not written in the official rules but is published as a guidance.
Mis-Using Personal Conveyance Status
Drivers can mis-use the personal exemption option in their ELDs, whether it’s from a lack of understanding of the rules or a deliberate falsification.
Wiseman offers the example of a driver who’s under dispatch for a motor carrier and has only 50 more miles to go when he or she hits the 11-hour daily driving limit. Regulations require the driver to shut down for the required rest period right there.
“But if you really want to get the job done, and you want to avoid the appearance of an hours of service violation, the way you get around that is by flipping yourself into personal conveyance status,” Wiseman says.
To someone who’s not digging into it very deeply, he says, it will look like the driver was in compliance with the hours of service rules that day.
However, he says, “it doesn’t take much for law enforcement and for motor carriers to do a little bit of digging on that personal conveyance segment of your time and figure out if you were legitimately off-duty for personal reasons or not. And if they find out that you weren’t, then it’s a log falsification.”
Ironically, Wiseman says, the driver actually would have been better off to have just violated the 11-hour rule than to be found falsifying driver logs.
Personal Conveyance Misconceptions
A common misconception is that the personal conveyance status can be used by drivers to get to a safe parking place for their required rest if the first place they stop is full. In fact, Wiseman points out, that is only for right after loading or unloading. The guidance says an accepted use of personal conveyance is “time spent traveling to a nearby, reasonable, safe location to obtain required rest after loading or unloading.”
“That’s a very common misunderstanding is that that there’s some so-called safe haven allowance in the personal conveyance guidance,” Wiseman says. “It’s not true. If you run out of hours and you’re in the middle of the highway, there’s no way for you to get to a safe location to rest except to go in violation. That’s your only option.
“DOT would tell you, you should have planned better for that situation. And now you’re going to suffer the consequences of your hours violation.”
Other Reasons for Driver Log Falsifications
Some of the other common reasons behind log falsification violations may be inadvertent.
For instance, a driver might put themselves into off duty status in a situation where the regulations require them to be in on-duty/not driving status.
The most common example, he says, is drivers logging off-duty when fueling their trucks. That time is supposed to be logged as on duty/not driving.
“A lot of times drivers just don’t realize that they’re supposed to be an on-duty status during while they’re fueling their vehicles, and so they flip themselves into off duty status. That’s considered a log falsification.”
Another common area where logs are falsified — deliberately or inadvertently — is unassigned driving time when using an ELD.
ELDs automatically start logging driving time whenever a vehicle starts moving. If nobody is logged in, that goes into the carrier’s back-office access to the ELD software and put on an unassigned driving report.
When the DOT comes to audit you, Wiseman says, “one of the first things they’re going to ask for when they’re looking at your hours of service is your unassigned driving report. And it’s a very common way that carriers run into trouble in those audits.
“They turn over this unassigned driving report, and if it’s got thousands of hours of unassigned driving time, DOT oftentimes considers those to be log falsifications. Because a way for drivers to conceal hours of service violations is just by not logging into the device.”
FMCSA expects motor carriers to be reconciling the time on those unassigned driving reports and assigning them to the driver to whom they belong.
There are certain instances where there’s no driver to whom they belong, like when a technician is taking the truck out to diagnose or evaluate a problem. In those cases, Wiseman says, it’s important to annotate what those unassigned driving time entries are.
What Can Motor Carriers Do to Prevent Log Falsification Violations?
“There’s no magic formula to this,” Wiseman says. “It takes effort on your part to get these things under control.
“First things first, you can’t fix what you’re not measuring.”
Wiseman recommends fleets watch key safety and compliance metrics. When it comes to log falsifications, he says, safety managers need to watch the carrier’s hours-of-service CSA score in the SMS.
“If you see that you’re getting a bunch of log falsifications, now’s the time to deal with that before it balloons into a big problem and you have DOT knocking at your door,” he says.
In addition, monitor key reports that come from your ELD system, such as personal conveyance and unassigned driving time.
Carriers need to regularly audit their driver logs to look for common problems, such as logging fueling time as off-duty.
“Once you know where you are having problems, you actually have to take action to get control of them,” Wiseman says.
If a driver is incurring false log violations or a lot of personal conveyance time, the first step is to have a conversation with that driver.
“If it turns out that it’s a nefarious reason, then you need to take disciplinary action against them,” he says. There needs to be a progressive discipline program in place in fleet policies and it needs to be followed.
But if it turns out that false log violation, an overabundance of unassigned driving or personal conveyance time stems from a lack of understanding of the rules, drivers need education.
“You need to be educating your drivers, making sure they understand when they can use personal conveyance and when they can’t. Or if it’s unassigned driving time that you’re having a problem with, making sure that they are being held accountable to logging into their device. “Holding drivers accountable, giving them the education they need. That’s really what goes into getting control of these issues.”
Deborah Lockridge
‘The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced what it called a complete overhaul of the vetting process for electronic logging devices that track truck driver hours of service compliance, but stopped short of requiring third-party certification.
It’s a step in the right direction to address what many in the industry say are growing problems with unscrupulous motor carriers and unscrupulous ELD providers editing driver logs to allow them to violate hours of service limits.
ELDs, mandatory for most interstate truck drivers, electronically record hours-of-service to help prevent fatigue-related crashes and ensure compliance with federal safety regulations.
However, the way ELDs get onto the FMCSA’s list of approved devices has been criticized since the mandatory electronic logging device rules went into effect in 2017. ELD providers “self-certify” that their devices meet the technical specifications in the rule (49 CFR Part 395, App. A).
FMCSA Targets Non-Compliant ELDs
A DOT news release said the overhaul will help ensure non-compliant devices are blocked before they ever reach FMCSA’s Registered ELD list.
The “move toward a more structured, hands-on vetting approach signals a notable evolution in federal oversight of the ELD marketplace,” said Brandon Wiseman of TruckSafe Consulting in a blog post.
As Wiseman notes, FMCSA has not historically tested the devices, validated the software, inspected the hardware, or otherwise verified the vendors’ claims before listing them.
Under the previous system, it was easier to register non-compliant devices or re-register devices that had been revoked by the agency. FMCSA said its updated process closes this loophole. New ELD listings will no longer flow straight from self-certification to public listing.
The New ELD Vetting Process
Key features of the updated ELD vetting process include:
- Initial review: Verification of contact information, technical specifications, and device images.
- Fraud detection: Cross-checking new applications against active, inactive, revoked, and in-process lists.
- Application categorization:
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- Category 1 – Approved: Application has met all necessary requirements for approval.
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- Category 2 – InformationRequested: Application is pending further information from the applicant.
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- Category 3 – Further Review: Application requires additional internal assessment and may require additional documentation from the applicant.
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- Category 4 – Denied: Application does not meet the required standards for approval.
“While the agency has yet to share the specific details of how this revised system will actually function, it seems the shift will at least serve as a basic gatekeeping function for nefarious actors,” Wiseman wrote.
“While the agency still is not conducting independent laboratory tests or validating devices in real-world settings, it is at least injecting a level of scrutiny that should prevent some of the most problematic devices from ever making it to the marketplace.”
Trucking Industry Outcry About Bad Actors
There has been a growing movement in the trucking industry pushing the FMCSA to take action to deal with unscrupulous ELD providers and motor carriers blatantly violating hours of service rules through ELD data manipulation.
Industry sources say the problem isn’t just a fleet or driver trying to manipulate logs, but an ELD provider editing the logs and not providing records of those edits.
Zach Meiborg, a former HDT Emerging Leader and owner of Meiborg Companies, has been on a mission to raise awareness of how bad-actor trucking operations are taking advantage of ELD loopholes, including adding fake co-drivers to an ELD to mask a truck driver’s hours of service violations.
Unscrupulous motor carriers, many of which Zeiborg maintains operate from oversees, are “webbing in overnight, and they’re erasing their driver’s hours of service showing that another driver completed that leg of the trip when that didn’t happen at all.”
When the FMCSA revokes an ELD from its list, Meiborg said, “You know what those non-compliant e-log providers do? They copy and paste their code and start a new e-log company the following week.”
Kevin Grove, ATA’s director of safety and technology policy, told ATA newspaper Transport Topics that earlier this year, CVSA discovered some instances of fraud that involved not only drivers or trucking fleets falsifying logs, but of ELD providers doing the editing on their end.
And Jeremy Disbrow, a roadside inspection specialist at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, told Transport Topics, “Tampered ELDs usually look perfect, and it is often difficult and time-consuming to identify instances of ELD tampering during a roadside inspection.
“In many cases, the ELD providers are not only manipulating the information within the ELD, but they are also manipulating the information on the shipping papers and other supporting documents to match the fraudulent entries within the ELD.”
The end result, he said, is that the problem ELDs give carriers the ability to do edits, “allowing these fleets to erase your hours every night and give the drivers fresh brand new hours.”
Danielle Chaffin, with TMS provider Revenova, wrote in a lengthy online article on problems with the ELD self-certification process, “I’ve reviewed dozens of so-called ‘certified’ ELD providers. Most are foreign-owned or operated outside the U.S., and virtually none undergo meaningful cybersecurity oversight.
“With backend access, tech teams can ‘reset’ or alter logs on demand,” she wrote. “That gives dispatchers the power to override reality, pushing drivers past legal limits while maintaining a perfectly clean digital paper trail.”
Third-Party Certification of ELDs
Some have been calling for the U.S. to adopt a system where approved third parties verify ELD compliance, such as Canada uses.
The American Trucking Associations, for instance, recently updated its safety policy to support third-party certification of ELDs and oversight such as auditing and monitoring of registered devices to prevent fraud by drivers, carriers or ELD providers.
Wiseman cautioned that the FMCSA’s new system is not the same as Canada’s rules.
“Fleets should recognize that the ELD marketplace in the U.S. is not yet entering a Canadian-style certification environment,” he wrote.
“Manufacturers continue to self-certify that their devices comply with the rule. FMCSA’s involvement remains procedural rather than technical. For that reason, carriers must continue to approach ELD selection with informed caution.”
More ELD Changes on the Way?
It’s unclear whether this announcement is related to proposed changes in ELD rules that the agency started working on in 2022 with an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, or “prerule,” to gather information on potential ELD changes. The self-certification process was one of the areas being looked at in that process.
In the DOT’s regulatory agenda this summer, the Trump administration’s agenda indicated plans to publish an actual proposal in May 2026.
NTSB Ghost Driver Investigation
Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended FMCSA strengthen ELD requirements when its investigation of a 2022 truck-bus crash found the truck driver was fatigued.
The motor carrier, Triton Logistics, created fictitious driver accounts for its electronic logging device systems that allowed drivers to exceed federal hours-of-service regulations and drive while fatigued.
When NTSB examined the ELD data from the day of the crash, it showed that the truck driver was operating in a driver/codriver arrangement. But they found no evidence of such a co-driver.
The driver told investigators that his company had told him that if he exceeded his allowable driving hours, he was to stop, call the carrier’s HOS department, and Triton personnel would log him out of the ELD and log in a new driver. He could then continue driving. A post-crash compliance review by FMCSA found this was not an isolated instance.
In its recommendation, the NTSB said FMCSA should strengthen electronic logging device requirements to prevent opportunities for the creation of fake driver accounts.
Regulations should require providers of electronic logging devices to create and produce an audit log, to include date, time and editor for driver logins, driver’s license numbers, and active driver list changes, the board said.
“This administration is cracking down on every link in the illegal trucking chain,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy in a news release.
Land Line Media
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s three-day enforcement blitz is underway.
CVSA’s International Roadcheck runs from May 12-14. During those days, enforcement personnel throughout North America will inspect commercial motor vehicles and drivers for compliance with vehicle, cargo and driver regulatory requirements.
During International Roadcheck, inspectors at weigh/inspection stations and pop-up inspection sites primarily conduct the North American Standard Level I Inspection. This 37-step procedure comprises two major parts: an examination of the driver’s operating requirements and an assessment of the vehicle’s mechanical fitness.
Inspections
For the driver portion of the inspection, inspectors check the driver’s qualifications, license, record of duty status, medical examiner’s certificate, seat belt usage, skill performance evaluation certificate (if applicable) and status in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. Inspectors also look for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment. If an inspector identifies driver out-of-service violations, they will place the driver out of service, restricting them from operating their vehicle.
For the vehicle portion of the inspection, inspectors assess the vehicle’s brake systems, cargo securement, coupling devices, driveline/driveshaft components, driver’s seat, fuel and exhaust systems, frames, lighting devices, steering mechanisms, suspensions, tires, wheels, rims, hubs and windshield wipers. Inspections of motorcoaches/buses and other passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicles also include examination of emergency exits, seating and electrical cables and systems in the engine and battery compartments. If out-of-service violations are found during an inspection, the vehicle will be placed out of service and restricted from movement until all out-of-service violations have been properly addressed.
A vehicle that successfully passes a Level I or V Inspection without any critical violations may receive a CVSA decal, which is valid for up to three months. A valid decal signals to commercial motor vehicle enforcement personnel that the vehicle was recently inspected and had no out-of-service violations.
2026 emphasis
Each year, CVSA’s International Roadcheck places special emphasis on specific violations. This year’s Roadcheck is focusing on ELD tampering, falsification or manipulation for driver inspections and on cargo securement for vehicle inspections.
Last year, falsification of record-of-duty status was the second most-cited driver violation, at 58,382 violations. And five out of the top 10 driver violations were related to hours of service or ELDs. Additionally, 18,108 violations were issued because cargo was not secured to prevent leaking/spilling/blowing/falling and 16,054 violations were issued for vehicle components or dunnage not being secured.
Traffic congestion costs the trucking industry $108B annually. From rising fuel and labor costs to driver retention challenges, traffic gridlock disrupts fleet operations. But there are strategies to keep your freight moving.
Justin Reynolds
Dreamstime.com
Sitting in traffic isn’t just frustrating. For motor carriers, it’s an expensive problem that burns fuel, eats labor costs, and results in missed delivery windows. As freight volumes grow and aging infrastructure struggles to keep pace, traffic congestion is becoming a persistent supply chain bottleneck—one that’s forcing owners to rethink the way they operate.
According to the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) 2024 Cost of Congestion report, annual trucking congestion costs soared to $108.8 billion in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, marking a 15% year-over-year increase.
With costs continuing to climb, fleets are under increasing pressure to minimize congestion impact on profit margins and uptime.
What is traffic congestion?
Traffic congestion occurs when the number of vehicles on the road at a given time and place exceeds the network’s capacity, causing drivers to slow down or stop altogether. (Putting 10 Lbs. of stuff in a 5 Lbs bag)
While congestion has long clogged highways and delayed freight, it’s become a bigger problem in the era of electronic logging devices (ELDs) and hours-of-service (HOS) mandates; if drivers can’t move, business grinds to a halt.
When it comes to traffic, Dean Croke, a former truck driver who’s now an industry analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, says it’s important to differentiate between truck and consumer traffic.
“Consumers sit in metro traffic twice a day, but carriers also have to contend with port gates, bridges, tunnels, intermodal yards, and distribution centers,” Croke told FleetOwner. While most experienced carriers understand these chokepoints and price accordingly, he said the bigger challenge is the disruptions operators can’t plan for.
More than just a condition drivers recognize, congestion is also quantifiable.
For more than two decades, ATRI has collected truck GPS data to support the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Freight Mobility Initiative, which uses real-world freight movement to measure fleet performance and roadway efficiency.
According to Rebecca Brewster, president and COO of ATRI, the organization uses its unique GPS dataset to develop and monitor key performance indicators that measure congestion and gauge the nation’s freight transportation system performance over time.
Top 20 trucking bottlenecks:
- Chicago: I-294 at I-290/I-88
- Fort Lee, New Jersey: I-95 at SR 4
- Atlanta: I-285 at I-85 (North)
- Houston: I-45 at I-69/US 59
- Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North)
- Atlanta: I-20 at I-285 (West)
- Nashville, Tennessee: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East)
- Houston: I-10 at I-69/US 59
- Cincinnati: I-71 at I-75
- McDonough, Georgia: I-75
- Dallas: I-45 at I-30
- Ontario, California: I-10 at I-15
- Houston: I-45 at I-610 (North)
- Hartford, Connecticut: I-84 at I-91
- Atlanta: I-20 at I-285 (East)
- Los Angeles: SR 60 at SR 57
- Indianapolis: I-65 at I-70 (North)
- Washington, D.C.: I-495 (West Side)
- Nashville, Tennessee: I-40 at I-65 (East)
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana: I-10 at I-110
ATRI also uses those insights to identify truck bottlenecks and measure how congestion affects freight movement across 238 locations nationwide.
“Our bottleneck analysis looks at truck speeds and truck volumes at each of the locations to identify the top 100 worst congested locations for trucks,” Brewster said. It “also provides a unique time-of-day profile for each of [those] locations, showing the best and worst time for trucks to navigate through based on congestion—a critical piece for fleets looking to minimize congestion impacts on drivers.”
ATRI’s 2026 Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks report named Chicago the most congested city in America, overtaking the New York City region. The Interstate 294 and I-290/I-88 interchange outside the Windy City is now more congested than I-95 at SR 4 in Fort Lee, New Jersey—the George Washington Bridge—about 10 miles from Manhattan.
DAT Freight & Analytics
Traffic congestion: The real costs to fleets
Beyond lost productivity, traffic congestion also affects trucking companies in several critical ways.
- Fuel and equipment costs
Congestion increases both fuel consumption and equipment wear. Every minute a truck spends idling in traffic burns diesel without moving freight. At the same time, repeated stop-and-go conditions accelerate vehicle wear.
According to ATRI’s Cost of Congestion report, congestion causes the trucking industry to waste more than 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually, costing fleet owners $32.1 billion based on 2022 data—figures that are no doubt higher in today’s environment of rising oil prices. The report also estimates that congestion adds more than $7,500 in annual wear-and-tear costs per combination truck.
- Labor costs
ATRI research shows that congestion accounts for 1.2 billion hours of lost driver productivity annually—equivalent to removing some 430,000 commercial truck drivers from the road for a full year. That lost time leads to higher labor costs, with drivers staying on the clock while covering fewer miles and making fewer deliveries.
Congestion also limits how much freight operators can move within hours-of-service constraints, further impacting operations.
“In the post-ELD world, time is the scarce resource—not miles,” Croke said. “Every unproductive hour comes off a fixed budget of driving and on-duty hours. Lose 90 minutes at a port gate and another two hours at the dock, and now your reload options are gone. The hours you can work and earn a living are compressed. You’re shutting down for the day somewhere you didn’t plan to.”
- Service and revenue impact
In addition to increasing costs, congestion degrades quality of service, frustrates customers, and cuts into the bottom line.
“Drivers sitting stuck in traffic burn available hours of service, ultimately impacting their ability to meet delivery schedules,” Brewster said. “This can potentially drive up detention time when they do reach their destination and may force those drivers to locate truck parking ahead of their planned locations due to depleted hours of service availability.”
Late deliveries can erode customer trust and influence future carrier decisions, particularly in industries where reliability is a key differentiator—like retail, manufacturing, and food distribution.
Brewster added that congestion can increase driver stress levels—sometimes to the point they consider leaving the industry instead of losing large portions of their day to traffic. In that light, congestion can also contribute to ongoing driver retention challenges.
Traffic congestion: Operational ripple effects
Congestion doesn’t just delay a single truck—it disrupts entire fleets. When a driver arrives late at one stop, that delay can cascade through the rest of the route, affecting delivery windows, dock schedules, and downstream pickups.
These disruptions also increase the workload on dispatch teams now tasked with constantly rebalancing routes, appointments, and driver hours in real time.
To keep freight moving, dispatchers have to rework plans on the fly while customers track ever-moving ETAs throughout the day.
Taken together, this unpredictability makes it harder for fleets to maintain consistent service levels—and harder for customers to trust future orders will arrive on time.
Why traditional planning is no longer enough
Traditional planning tools rely on historical averages, fixed assumptions, and so-called “typical” operating conditions. But today’s freight environment—full of dynamic congestion patterns and sudden disruptions—has made static planning far less reliable.
As route conditions shift throughout the day and lane performance changes each hour, capacity assumptions quickly fall out of sync with what’s happening on the ground.
“The bigger issue is the disruptions you can’t plan for—but even then, the market adapts pretty quickly,” Croke said. “Look at what happened when the Key Bridge came down in Baltimore in 2024. Drayage capacity had to reroute through the Fort McHenry and [Baltimore] Harbor tunnels, neither of which allows hazmat loads. Loads that used to run an hour were taking three. But the market adjusted. Rates firmed up on adjacent lanes almost immediately because the clock math had changed for every driver working that port.”
Even when disruptions are sudden, the freight market adjusts. But those adjustments highlight how traditional planning assumptions can break down when operating conditions shift—underscoring the need for a more dynamic, real-time approach to planning and execution.
How fleets are responding to traffic congestion
Addressing congestion starts with understanding where delays are forming and how they shift by lane. To anticipate changes in rates and capacity, Croke suggests tracking load-to-truck ratios by lane rather than by region.
“When drivers are turning down loads out of Atlanta or Laredo, it often means the back half of their clock is getting eaten somewhere predictable,” he said. “Watch the local news and DOT construction alerts. A bridge closure, a port strike, or a tunnel restriction doesn’t just affect trip planning. It can also discourage capacity from coming into the market, which gives you some leverage in your pricing.”
Beyond visibility, fleet owners are also rethinking how they plan, price, and operate in response to congestion.
- Real-time routing and telematics
Congestion is unavoidable. Rush hour, bad weather, and accidents will continue to slow fleets down. While operators can’t eliminate the traffic problem altogether, they can mitigate its impact with purpose-built technology.
Using real-time traffic data and advanced routing software, fleets can plan more efficient routes that avoid known bottlenecks. Dispatchers can also rely on telematics and GPS tools to reroute trucks around emerging congestion.
Beyond improving routing, visibility also changes the way fleets think about pricing and profitability.
“Bid the lane, not the mileage,” Croke said. Time lost at ports or shipper facilities, he continued, needs to be reflected in pricing if fleets want to avoid absorbing hidden costs. “If a lane burns 90 minutes of unpaid time at a port gate or a shipper’s dock, that time has to be in the rate.”
- Data-driven optimization
Beyond real-time routing, fleets are increasingly using data to improve the way they plan and operate.
Using AI and machine learning, operators can analyze historical and real-time data to identify recurring congestion patterns. AI-powered systems can also predict where delays are most likely to occur based on a range of factors, including time of day, facility type, and traffic history. This helps improve ETA forecast accuracy and, in turn, enhances the customer experience.
Fleets are also using data to move pickup and delivery windows away from peak congestion periods. By embracing alternative delivery timing, trucks spend less time at customer facilities and have to sit in less traffic on highways. As a result, operators can reduce time lost to predictable bottlenecks while optimizing overall asset utilization.
When trucks sit in stop-and-go traffic, brakes, tires, and powertrains wear down. By analyzing operational and telematics data, fleets can predict component failure and schedule preventive maintenance before breakdowns occur. This helps reduce unplanned downtime while ensuring trucks are ready to go during peak demand periods.
- Operational flexibility
While fleets can often plan for unproductive time—think seasonal traffic patterns or known urban bottlenecks—true disruptions are less predictable.
“When you can plan for unproductive time—and there are definitely places where you can anticipate schedule disruptions—you price it into your rate,” Croke said. “Volatility implies something unplanned. A named storm. The Key Bridge [collapse]. But rates adjust quickly on the spot market, where pricing is negotiated in real time.”
Ultimately, Croke argues the broader solution is operational flexibility.
“Fleets should work with their customers to help drivers make the most of their limited hours so they can be productive and well-rested,” he said. “Congestion isn’t just about sitting in traffic. It’s anything that soaks up time and can be managed.”
The new definition of fleet efficiency
As fleets continue combating congestion, operators are rethinking what productivity really means.
“The best-run fleets aren’t optimizing for miles,” Croke said. “They’re focused on revenue miles per driving hour, which includes congestion at distribution centers and receiving docks.”
In the age of congestion, time—not distance—is the industry’s most valuable asset.
Operation Safe Driver Week Is July 12-18
CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver Week is scheduled for July 12-18. During Operation Safe Driver Week, commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers and passenger vehicle drivers who are demonstrating unsafe driving behaviors will be identified by law enforcement personnel and issued a warning or ticket/citation. This year’s focus is reckless, careless or dangerous driving.
Today Is the Last Day to Take Our Membership Survey
CVSA is conducting a brief membership survey to help us better understand what we’re doing well, where we can improve and how we can continue to serve you effectively. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete, and your responses will directly influence future programs, services and member benefits. The deadline to complete the survey is today, May 1.
Deadline Approaching for 2026 IDEA
CVSA is accepting nominations for its International Driver Excellence Award (IDEA), an annual award that recognizes an extraordinary professional CMV driver and their commitment to public safety. Nominees for this award must be individuals who have gone above and beyond the performance of their duties as a CMV driver, distinguishing themselves conspicuously and beyond the call of duty through the achievement of safe operation and compliance carried out with evident distinction for an extended period of time. The deadline for nominations is in one week, on May 8.
CVSA Is Hiring an Administrative Specialist
CVSA seeks to hire an administrative specialist to support the organization’s headquarters office by performing a variety of office management, clerical, program support, general administrative and financial tasks. This position will be based at our headquarters office in Washington, D.C. The position will remain open until filled.
Mark Schremmer
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced this week that it is taking steps to address those problems.
DataQ is an electronic system run by the FMCSA that allows motor carriers, drivers and safety officials to request a review of data in the agency’s databases.
Under FMCSA’s updated system, states must now meet strict deadlines and follow a three-step independent review process when handling requests for correct data on crashes, inspections and violations.
“Accurate data keeps our roads safe,” FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said. “America’s hardworking truck drivers deserve a system that treats them fairly. These updates guarantee due process by ensuring drivers who challenge an inspection or crash record receive an independent, unbiased and complete review in a timely manner.”
OOIDA applauded the changes as the trade association spent years criticizing the program for its lack of timeliness, consistency and fairness. A common complaint was that the appeal was determined by the same person or agency that issued the initial violation.
“OOIDA has been leading the fight for a more fair and transparent DataQ system and (the) announcement is the culmination of our efforts,” Association President Todd Spencer said. “For years, we’ve highlighted the frustrating lack of due process, which routinely made it impossible for owner-operators and professional drivers to correct clearly inaccurate safety data. Unlike larger fleets, a singular erroneous violation can have devastating consequences for a small trucking company, which is why we pushed so forcefully for these changes.”
The revised requirements establish a more streamlined framework for handling Requests for Data Review (RDRs), specifically for states receiving Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) funding from FMCSA.
New requirements
- States must designate points of contact for crash and inspection RDRs
- States are required to review requests submitted within three years of an inspection and within five years of a crash
- All decisions, especially those where no data correction is made, must include detailed explanations, evidence reviewed and clear next steps in the review process
- States must participate in FMCSA program reviews and follow established policies, including those related to adjudicated citations
The three-stage review process will include an initial review, reconsideration and final review. The first two stages must be completed within 21 days, and the final review within 45 days. State MCSAP Lead Agencies must submit DataQ Implementation Plans detailing how they will meet the new requirements, address backlogs and prevent future delays. To promote transparency, all approved plans will be publicly available through the DataQ system.
“By requiring an independent review process, adding clear timelines and providing greater transparency, FMCSA has made the improvements that OOIDA pushed for and that truckers deserved all along,” Spencer said. “We appreciate FMCSA’s work on these DataQ updates and believe the new system will be one our members can finally trust.”
