Left Lane Associates

Just one more week until 𝘛𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘣 Fall Pop-Up takes place on Wednesday, October 7 at the The Crooked Cue, Port Credit in Mississauga!

Don’t miss out on a night of pool, ping pong, and with friends and colleagues from across the transportation industry, all in support of the TTC Scholarship Fund.

If you haven’t grabbed your ticket, get it today: https://lnkd.in/gWCn5E_9

Trucking WhereIndustryMeets

On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we honour the survivors of residential schools, their families, and First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities across Canada, and we remember the children who never returned home.

We recognize the responsibility to listen, learn, and contribute to a more informed and respectful future.

Bill C-39 - the Building Canada Strong Act - was introduced on September 21 with measures aimed at streamlining federal approval timelines for transportation projects, formally designating strategic trade corridors, and establishing a transportation project office to advance priority projects within one year. The Canadian Trucking Alliance welcomed the legislation, with CTA president Stephen Laskowski noting it demonstrates "a clear commitment to fortifying national trade corridors, eliminating unnecessary administrative friction at our borders, and ensuring our essential commercial drivers operate in a fair, safe, and modern environment."

The bill also includes trade digitalization measures to reduce administrative burdens at the border, port governance modernization, and expanded enforcement targeting worker misclassification, a longstanding concern for compliant carriers competing against operators who misclassify drivers to reduce costs. For Canadian carriers navigating an already complex regulatory and trade environment, the direction of this legislation is the right one, and the details of implementation will determine whether the promise translates into results.

Learn more by checking out TruckNews.com: https://www.trucknews.com/transportation/cta-backs-bill-c-39-to-strengthen-supply-chains-trucking/1003222093/

With qualified drivers increasingly difficult to replace and nuclear verdict exposure rising, private fleets are rethinking the instinct to dismiss underperforming drivers and find someone better. Dot Foods, highlighted in this FreightWaves article, operates nearly 2,200 trucks across the U.S. and Canada and has shifted from reactive safety management to a data-driven model built around driver scoring, predictive analytics, and targeted development plans. The goal is identifying risk before a crash occurs, not after.

The fleet also ties driver safety performance to a quarterly bonus now worth nearly 10% of driver income, giving drivers a direct financial stake in safe outcomes. A $250,000 investment in safety technology that prevents a single comparable accident pays for itself. That framing is increasingly how safety directors are making the internal case.

Take a few minutes to read the article if you're interested in learning more: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/driver-shortage-changes-the-playbook-for-private-fleet-safety

The BUILD America 250 Act passed the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee 62-2 in May, replacing surface transportation legislation set to expire September 30. Three provisions stand out for carriers and shippers alike. On truck parking, the bill expands grant eligibility and allows new parking on federal highways, weigh stations, and inside freight facilities, which is a meaningful step given how acute the parking shortage has become. On restroom access, it mandates that commercial vehicle operators must be granted bathroom access at any covered establishment when they're delivering goods or waiting to load, a basic operational need that remains inconsistently honoured across the industry. On pre-employment screening, it gives motor carriers expanded access to safety records, a long-overdue tool for improving hiring decisions.

Check out the article in Inbound Logistics for more details on this bill: https://www.inboundlogistics.com/articles/proposed-transportation-bill-what-does-it-mean-for-women-in-trucking/

Uber Freight's Q3 Market Update sheds some light on what to expect in the fourth quarter: truckload contract rates are up 18% year-over-year, spot rates remain 35% above the same period last year, and capacity is not rebuilding at the pace typical of a tightening freight cycle. More than 48,000 noncompliant drivers have exited the U.S. market over the past year, diesel hit US$5.65 per gallon in late August, and tender rejection rates at 13.45% are running well above the prior three years. Shippers that continue sourcing week to week are particularly exposed if demand accelerates during the traditional late-October peak.

The recommendation going forward is for shippers to use the relatively stable September and October period to secure baseline capacity, repair underperforming routing guides, and establish backup carriers before the traditional late-October freight peak.

Check out this FreightWaves article for more info: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/uber-freight-warns-tight-capacity-could-fuel-q4-freight-rate-surge

The Gordie Howe International Bridge recorded 343,507 crossings in August – its first full month of operation – nearly matching the Ambassador Bridge's 345,445 crossings. However, the composition of the traffic on these bridges was very different. The vast majority of crossings at the Gordie Howe Bridge were passenger vehicles (nearly 270,000 vs. roughly 74,000 trucks), while at the Ambassador, truck traffic was around 150,000, compared to 196,000 passenger cars. This was largely because many carriers are locked into existing toll contracts at the older crossing and won't shift until those terms expire or are renegotiated.

Traffic composition is expected to evolve as contract cycles turn over, and the real metric to watch isn't crossing volumes but wait times. For Canadian carriers and cross-border logistics operators, the bridge delivering on its promise of smoother commerce flow will matter far more than whether it immediately matches the Ambassador's truck count.

Read the CBC article to learn more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/gordie-howe-bridge-traffic-data-august-ambassador-open-9.7346456

The American Transportation Research Institute's spring insurance report highlights a striking disconnect between declining crash rates and rising liability premiums in the United States. Fatal crash rates involving heavy-duty trucks have fallen nearly 14% from their 2019 peak, yet average liability premiums have climbed 38% between 2015 and 2024, reaching 10.2 cents per mile. The culprit isn’t crashes, but rather claim costs, which have risen by 33.1% per mile over the same period. Nuclear verdicts, third-party litigation funding, heavy plaintiff attorney advertising, and aggressive legal tactics are pushing excess coverage costs even higher, with the $10M - $15M insurance layer up 45% from 2021 to 2024 alone.

The impact on smaller carriers is disproportionate, given that fleets running 5 to 25 trucks paid nearly double the per-mile premiums of larger fleets in 2024, with insurance consuming nearly 5% of total revenue. However, the levers carriers control are meaningful, and ATRI found that fleets investing in forward collision/lane departure warnings and collision mitigation systems saw statistically significant reductions in per-mile liability losses.

Learn more in Heavy Duty Trucking magazine: https://www.truckinginfo.com/news/truck-crash-rates-are-down-so-why-do-insurance-costs-keep-rising

U.S. spending on data center construction surpassed spending on traditional office construction in November 2025, and for flatbed and specialized carriers, the AI infrastructure boom is filling a gap left by weak housing and sluggish industrial recovery. FTR forecasts that flatbed loadings will grow 4.1% this year, with data center construction cited as the primary driver. DAT Freight & Analytics estimates that every gigawatt of new data center capacity requires roughly 100,000 truckloads, and approximately 20 gigawatts have been built since 2023.

The opportunity extends beyond the construction phase. Data centers require ongoing deliveries of servers, cooling systems, and power distribution components – often time-critical and high-value – creating recurring freight demand once facilities are operational. For carriers building capacity around this demand, the opportunity is real, and so is the need for planning around what comes afterward, as the current pace of growth is unlikely to sustain for five to ten years.

Check out this TruckNews.com article for more information: https://www.trucknews.com/business-management/data-centers-give-flatbed-freight-a-high-tech-boost/1003221303/

The LTL freight market is posting some of its strongest numbers in years. The TD Cowen/AFS LTL Freight Index is forecast to hit a record 76.8% in Q3, with weight per shipment and revenue per hundredweight rising across major carriers. Capacity constraints are improving freight profiles, and fuel surcharge tables – which rise alongside diesel prices – are adding to margins rather than simply passing through to customers.

The diesel number is where the story gets complicated. The national average hit $6.05 per gallon on September 11, up from $3.70 a year earlier, with California averaging more than $8.00. Filling the tanks on a Class 8 truck can now cost $900 to $1,200 per stop. For shippers navigating this environment, the advice from freight market observers is direct: broaden your carrier base, run targeted lane-level bids, and improve load consolidation.

Read this Transport Topics article to learn more: https://www.ttnews.com/articles/ltl-carriers-q3-freight-market