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NASTC 2026 Speaker Lineup: Big Names, Big Ideas and a Big Reason to Be in Nashville

Brittney McMillan (NASTC New Member Sales & Conference Coordinator) — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 15:37:18 +0000

If you’ve been waiting for a reason to make plans for the NASTC Conference, consider this your sign: the 2026 speaker lineup is one you won’t want to miss.

This year’s conference brings together some of the most respected voices in trucking, business, leadership and beyond for three days of education, insight, networking and—because this is Nashville—some great entertainment, too.

We’re honored to welcome Dr. Ben Carson as our 2026 keynote speaker.

A renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, author and national figure, Dr. Carson brings a unique perspective on leadership, perseverance, decision-making and overcoming challenges. His message reaches well beyond the medical field—and straight to the heart of what it takes to build something that lasts.

Friday night will bring a very different kind of energy to the stage with country music hitmaker Jeffrey Steele. Steele has written and performed some of country music’s biggest songs and brings decades of experience, stories and Nashville energy to the conference. After a full day of learning and networking, attendees will have the chance to kick back, enjoy live music and celebrate the people who make trucking happen every day.

But the 2026 lineup goes far beyond the headliners.

NASTC brings together industry experts who understand the challenges small and midsize carriers face every day—from managing costs and navigating compliance to insurance, technology, safety, business management and everything in between.

You’ll hear from people who understand the numbers. People who understand compliance. People who understand safety, insurance, technology, policy and the day-to-day realities of running a trucking company.

From Kevin Rutherford to William Fitzgerald, Brent Hutto to Jeff Davis, Jim Edwards to Ellen Voie and Kathleen Roseman to Steve Goreham, this years lineup brings together a wealth of experience and perspective. Add Tom Robertson, Danielle Chaffin and Joe Rajkovacz to the mix, and you have a room full of people who know trucking—and aren’t afraid to talk about where it’s
headed.

Expect straight talk, real-world experience and ideas you can take back to your operation.

The NASTC Conference has become a must-attend event for small trucking companies looking to learn, connect and stay ahead of an industry that never seems to sit still.

And this year, we’re raising the bar again.

Three days of ideas. Three days of connections. World-class speakers. Industry experts. Vendors who understand trucking. And plenty of Nashville along the way.

Join us October 29–31 at the Omni Nashville Hotel for the 2026 NASTC Conference—the Best Three Days in Trucking. Don’t just hear about what’s happening in trucking. Be part of the conversation.

Register today and make plans to join us in Nashville.

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Keep Your Trucks Moving & Costs Down With PrePass

Stacie Wilson (PrePass Services Program Manager, NASTC) — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 15:36:27 +0000

For motor carriers, safety performance affects more than compliance. It can also have a direct impact on efficiency and operating costs. FMCSA’s Inspection Selection System (ISS) uses safety data to help enforcement officers determine which vehicles should be inspected. Fleets with stronger safety performance may experience fewer inspections, helping drivers spend less time waiting at weigh stations and more time moving freight.

For NASTC members, that can mean less idling, improved driver productivity, and more revenue-generating miles. PrePass helps carriers take advantage of eligible weigh station bypass opportunities while giving fleets greater visibility into the safety data that can influence inspection decisions. By understanding your ISS score and taking steps to improve safety performance, your fleet can turn better safety outcomes into meaningful operational savings.

Learn how your ISS score can help keep your trucks moving and your costs down.

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NASTC Letter to Sean Duffy

David Owen — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:44:04 +0000

July 15, 2026

The Honorable Sean P. Duffy
Secretary
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

Dear Secretary Duffy:

I know it’s over-used and trite, but conventional wisdom contributed this nugget to me which I have found to be almost always correct.

“To continue to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result is a sure sign of insanity”

Let’s apply this axiom to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) from a historical perspective in search of an answer as to why they never admit they got it wrong, never roll anything back, and never apologize for the harm, expense, and “unintended consequences” that have devastated small carriers and owner/operators for over 25 years now. Let me say up front, NASTC very happily acknowledges all the positive changes you have made for trucking already. We greatly appreciate your strong leadership and responsiveness addressing major challenges in our industry.

I’m including in this package enclosure (1) which is one of the last remaining copies of, “In the Crosshairs” – America’s Truckers at Risk. This book was written and compiled almost at the same time FMCSA was officially created. It was a last ditch and desperate effort from Henry Seaton, our transportation attorney and myself to point out the idiocy of the Hours-of-Service proposal pushed through at the end of the Clinton Administration in 1999. Following our comments on the substance and process of the proposed rule, we were able to recruit several of our members to hypothetically run their trucks employing the proposed HOS. Though it spelled out how out of touch with reality the proposal was, FMCSA didn’t change a thing! Thank goodness Congress stepped in and refused to fund the rule and sent FMCSA back to the drawing board. Four years later in 2004, the new rule came out, and it remains the same rule that we’ve operated under since with the exception of some flexibility alterations made during Raymond Martinez’s tenure as the Administrator. NASTC’s comments are mentioned several times in that final rule.

On or about the same time, 1999, one of the largest for-hire carrier’s safety numbers had deteriorated to the point that they requested and received a waiver to install electronic logging devices in their trucks. They utilize these devices still today. When ELD’s were mandated in 2019, they had been using them for almost 2 decades. It would be interesting to compare their true safety numbers, i.e., accident frequency, property damage, and fatalities before and after ELD implementation to see if there has been a measurable improvement. When CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) came into being in 2010, we did a study using the government’s Safestat data on the 36 largest carriers and based on the three safety criteria mentioned above, this carrier was the fifth worst. (See Enclosure

(2)). Had the agency used a little common sense and used WERNER’s safety numbers as a benchmark from 1999 to 2019, they might have come to the same conclusion that we did after their 1st decade and that is: mandating ELD’s will have very little, if any positive effect on safety numbers – hold the mandate and let the companies that need it to compete in the SAFETY marketplace, use it.

The industry’s true safety numbers i.e., accidents, fatalities, and property damage have worsened to an alarming degree since 2010, the year CSA came out. And, by the way, if you were to mandate the universal use of ELD’s by everyone, wouldn’t it have made some sense to standardize the specs uniformly for creating them? Who could possibly predict the disasters caused by the agency who decided to allow manufactures to SELF-CERTIFY the equipment? I believe the GAO or someone with common sense needs to put his arms around the billions of dollars wasted by small carriers to retrofit ELD’s. To make matters worse, it’s obvious to small carriers and owner-operators that a simple rule requiring all MC holders to audit all driver logs, every trip, every day with a simple and affordable app, would have eliminated the need entirely for mandated ELD’s. The agency would have had the data to hold all MC holders accountable based on LOG AUDITS. To my knowledge there is no such regulation in the 800-page rule book.

I could go on with my arm chair quarterbacking historical condemnation of FMCSA and there’s plenty more to add, but I’m going to return to my original definition of insanity doing the same things over and over will not produce different results, nor improve trucking safety numbers. And, me making the same arguments that fall on deaf ears over and over again will not give different results.

I have been making those arguments on behalf of the unrepresented and unappreciated in trucking for 37 years. I’m hoping this package or parting gift will be opened and read. I have a large amount of confidence in the current administration, the current FMCSA director, and the current Secretary of Transportation. Here are some parting questions and suggestions going forward:

All the FMCSA administrators have been political appointments at the behest of large trucking, i.e. the American Trucking Association (ATA). Challenge some of their suggestions as self-serving and monopolistic notions designed to thwart small carriers and OO/Ops from being competitive.
Get more input from million-mile drivers and replace some of the so called safety advocates with industry folks on the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee.
Don’t always look to the enforcement community for policy – they are naturally adversarial to truckers in general and curry favor with the safety organizations as if in a popularity contest.
Don’t look always to CVSA for policy – they are an NGO (non-governmental organization), funded by FMCSA’s budget (the taxpayers), and populated by non-elected ex enforcement folks that demand a bigger budget and more illegitimate power each year – a bureaucratic group that’s more autonomous than the agency. I think they primarily authored the debacle of all debacles – CSA.
Hold the agency and Congress responsible for the following:

Why were the goal posts moved with trucking statistically by very quietly adding class 7 trucks into our numbers?

Why were the criteria for AHI events (Apnea-Hypopnea Index) tightened up by almost 50% several years ago? Results: what was a very acceptable AHI of 15 was suddenly alarmingly high at 28 by moving the goal posts. Why were certified medical advisors ever put into play and why were they all trained to exercise STOP BANG protocol for apnea?

Why rollout policies before they’re ready – ELD’s, CSA, Certified Medical Examiners, Driver Physical cards going cardless, self-certified ELD makers and now, MOTUS?

I have just received a white paper written by the head of the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA). His resume is impressive and solid and many of his points I somewhat agree with. I’m curious as to how much of his “white paper” was generated by AI? It’s obvious he’s from large trucking, and its obvious that many of his proposals fall into the category of doing the same old things over and over and expecting a different result. Right out of the gate he asks for more funding and more resources. I understand that there are 1,000 folks in FMCSA and almost 50% of them are coming to work at least 3 days per week! I don’t know how many folks there are in CVSA, but for an NGO, they have a huge budget and number in the 100’s. FMCSA- has been charged with auditing all new entrants and rating carriers. The agency is auditing timely about 10% or less of the new carriers and as far as ratings go, because they’re too safe to have enough events to get into the system, only a small percentage have a rating at all. This is unacceptable. We have offered suggestions on how to rate all carriers by contracting this function out to the individual states and having the carriers pay for such ratings, not the taxpayers. This suggestion, as with many others, has received no response.

Scrap CSA entirely and start over. Stop allowing CVSA’s unfettered and questionable authority to make policy and rules without respect for the Administrative Procedure Act. I see that they just issued new criteria to put trucks out of service – they can’t legally do this.

Our new administrator comes from CVSA and the enforcement community. He’s already stated that “we need to be careful what we ask for.”

I fear his solution to cleaning up the safety mess we’re in the midst of in trucking will mean more funding and more regulations. I don’t think that’s the answer. There is simply too large a disparity between compliance and true safety. Better rule making will close that gap considerably.

I would suggest strongly as I have for 30+ years:

The number one safety issue in trucking is driver turnover. All the large carriers and many TCA members have turnover rates north of 100%. And, there is not now nor has there ever been a driver shortage.
Hold all states (blue or red) accountable for applying the rules to all MC holders and all CDL holders. Several very identifiable states are guilty of ignoring the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and allowing unqualified and sometimes illegal folks behind the wheel of MC holder’s trucks.
Help fight fraud and start to reel in the lawyers with strong tort reform.

I am also including as Enclosure (3) a copy of our latest newsletter in which you’ll find related articles.

Please accept this package in the spirit in which it’s meant. As always, NASTC would like to be considered as part of the solution, not part of the problem. Again, thank you for listening to us and acting to improve the lives and livelihoods of America’s trucking sector.

Sincerely,

David Owen,
President, NASTC

CC: Jim Edwards
Derek Barrs

Enclosure: (1) “In the CrossHairs” (2) Statistical data from 2010 (3) 2nd Quarter, NASTC Newsletter

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NASTC Sponsors Carson Scholars

David Owen — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 16:43:42 +0000

For 20 plus years, NASTC has proudly supported the Carson Scholars Fund. We were honored to be a signature sponsor at their recent Carson Scholars Awards Banquet in Chattanooga, TN. Dr. Carson, the renowned pediatric neurosurgeon and former presidential candidate along with his wife, Candy, will be joining us for our Annual Conference in October. We are thrilled to once again have Dr. Carson in our lineup of world-class speakers. Please join us in Nashville, October 29-31, better known as – the Best Three Days in Trucking!

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The Non-Rated Problem: Small Carriers, CSA, and The Supreme Court

David Owen — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 16:40:35 +0000

Dear Member,

In the recent U.S. Supreme Court Decision Montgomery V-Caribe Transport II, LLC, the Court ruled unanimously that negligent-hiring claims against freight brokers are no longer automatically blocked by federal pre-emption under The Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, better known as the FAAAA. This Act generally pre-empts state rules related to broker prices, routes, or services but it does not wipe out state authority over motor vehicle safety. It does not imply automatic liability when an accident occurs, but it does mean that a very uncomfortable question can be posed: did the broker use reasonable care when choosing the carrier? Going forward this ruling states, when you pick a carrier to load, you now must be prepared to explain how and why you picked them. The ruling doesn’t imply a new responsibility, but it clarifies that brokers can be held accountable. And, that the absence of a thorough in place carrier vetting process could result in either a vicarious liability or negligent hiring lawsuit against the broker or shipper in question.

The good news is that safe, properly insured, well-run carriers should benefit and carriers with questionable safety, questionable authority, sketchy insurance, fraud or compliance gaps, will be passed over by reputable brokers.

All of the above brings to the surface a problem that’s plagued the FMCSA and our NASTC member-companies for decades – the abject failure of CSA and SMS to accurately rate the safety performances of small or new carriers or owner-operators who obtain authority to run a one-truck, one-driver company. Besides that, the agency has proven it cannot audit and/or rate carriers as charged by Congress to do so. Close to 50% of NASTC members regardless of safety have never been rated and are not in the CSA database because of lack of data. In other words, they are not rated or scored because they are too SAFE or too NEW or too SMALL to qualify for scrutiny.The below letter is being sent to ranking members of The Transportation Committees in the House and the Senate and to the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, on your behalf.

May 11, 2026

Sen. Ted Cruz Sen. Maria Cantwell

Chairman Ranking Member

Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Commerce, Science and Transportation Cmte.

U.S. Senate U.S. Senate

554 Dirksen Senate Office Building 554 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510

Rep. Sam Graves Rep. Rick Larsen

Chairman Ranking Member

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives

2165 Rayburn House Office Building 2165 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairmen Cruz and Graves, Ranking Members Cantwell and Larsen:

The National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC) writes to direct the Senate and House transportation committees’ attention to a matter that has remained unmitigated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) for more than a decade and a half. The situation regarding the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) system has resulted in a variety of adverse consequences for commercial motor carriers and thus those they serve.

NASTC is a member-based organization whose members range from the single power unit owner-operator to small motor carriers with more than 100 power units, averaging 12 power units. These carriers largely operate in the long-haul, over-the-road, full-truckload, for-hire sector of interstate trucking.

On March 9, 2011, over fifteen years ago, NASTC and two other associations, The Expedite Alliance of North America (TEANA) and the Air & Expedited Motor Carriers Association (AEMCA), were awarded an arbitration settlement of their lawsuit, NASTC v. FMCSA.

In part, the arbitration court ordered FMCSA to revise the disclaimer language on the Safety Measurement System website to read:

“The data in the Safety Measurement System (SMS) is performance data used by the Agency and enforcement community. A symbol, based on that data, indicates that FMCSA may prioritize a motor carrier for further monitoring. The symbol is not intended to imply any federal safety rating of the carrier pursuant to 49 USC 31144. Readers should not draw conclusions about a carrier’s overall safety condition simply based on the data displayed in this system. Unless a motor carrier in the SMS has received an UNSATISFACTORY safety rating pursuant to 49 CFR Part 385, or has otherwise been ordered to discontinue operations by the FMCSA, it is authorized to operate on the nation’s roadways.” (emphasis added)

On December 13, 2010, FMCSA launched its CSA enforcement program. The above action came in response to the “Scarlet Letter” CSA and its badly flawed, underlying SMS have imposed on perfectly safe small carriers who, to quote one author of CSA, “just aren’t having enough accidents for us to effectively measure.”

The above ruling indicated to us that brokers and shippers may not use CSA data to refuse freight to unrated carriers or carriers that were rated “satisfactory” but had not had the four “events” in thirty months required to satisfy the SMS protocol. Further, the legal settlement’s amended disclaimer reiterated that it was FMCSA and FMCSA alone that has the right to determine whether a carrier is fit to haul freight in the USA.

Over the last fifteen-plus years FMCSA has tweaked CSA over 1,000 times, changed its name, and totally ignored the proven facts NASTC and others have provided, showing that SMS is defective, is especially unfair to small, perfectly safe carriers and, as such, has in effect put many safe small carriers out of business.¹

Despite the court’s ruling and despite our substantial recommendations and comments urging the agency to carry out its mandate of providing new entrant safety audits and rating all carriers, the agency only inspects annually about 5% of carriers. FMCSA continues to use CSA and SMS to discriminate unfairly against all small carriers, labeling the 95% who are among our safest carriers as bad actors, based on the absence of data. As a result, the over-the-road misbehaviors of the 5% who have gamed the rating system and gamed the mandated use of ELDs have irreparably damaged our industry’s ability to move freight legally and safely.

NASTC has commented on this numerous times over the past fifteen years, with little response. We have urged the agency to admit that CSA is hopelessly broken. We have urged the agency to refute the driver shortage myth and to acknowledge and address driver turnover as the number one safety issue. We have offered hundreds of pages and comments oftentimes offering suggested remedies. And yet, out of our more than 10,000 member companies, I dare say at least 40% have never been rated. Therefore, many in the broker and shipper communities use SMS data inappropriately and conclude that these carriers are not qualified to haul their freight safely.

At the Mid-America Truck Show, the new administrator commented that FMCSA is a very small agency –- it only employees 1,000 people. What, pray tell, are they all doing? Not rating motor carriers at any appreciable level pursuant to 49 CFR Part 385.

____________________________

¹NASTC and others provided FMCSA and Congress empirical studies by Wells Fargo, “CSA: Another Look With Similar Conclusions” (July 2012); Inam Iyoob, “BASIC Scores are Not Valid Predictors of Crash Frequency”; and James Gimpel, “Statistical Issues in the Safety Measurement and Inspection of Motor Carriers.” The House Small Business Committee held an oversight hearing on the CSA program on July 11, 2012; the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held an oversight hearing on CSA on September 28, 2012. The Government Accountability Office and the DOT Inspector General also investigated CSA and FMCSA’s misuse of faulty data rating carriers on a relative, rather than an absolute scale, finding adverse treatment of small and safe carriers. In 2015, Congress in the FAST Act directed FMCSA to remove its CSA scores from public view and ordered that SMS undergo a 22-month study and corrective action plan. The attempt to improve CSA and SMS eventually fell apart.

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They Really Are Listening to Us

Danielle Chaffin — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 16:31:42 +0000

A little over a year ago, I started posting on X with a specific hope in mind. It seemed a bit delusional, but I’m pretty good at doing anything someone tells me I cannot do. I blame that on my dad. Ever since I was little, he has never failed to tell me that he’s proud of me. My hope with posting on X was that the FMCSA would take notice and read my posts. I had a very strong belief that the American trucking industry was being failed by the people responsible for protecting it, and those people were my target audience. I continued researching and sharing my findings, but it felt like screaming into the void. The more I dug, the more infuriated I became with the mess. And I kept posting.

The last few years may have been some of the worst conditions this industry has ever seen. The small carriers, owner-operators, the men and women who keep this country moving, watched it unfold right in front of them as they were being uninvited from the party. And no one was doing anything about it. It seemed like we were experiencing the end times of the American trucking industry.

In March, I went to the Mid-America Trucking Show. Following Secretary Sean Duffy’s speech, in which he declared truckers the loudest group of users on the internet, I had the opportunity to interview Chief Derek Barrs and Secretary Duffy. The first question I asked was, “So, you do see our posts on X?” To which they both laughed and replied, “Yes.”

The industry’s attention, for once, is matching the scale of our problems. I don’t think we’ve had this much attention on the trucking industry, ever. In the last year, we have seen real change. The USDOT and FMCSA have acted on (almost) everything we’ve called out on social media. Non-domiciled CDLs, fraudulent ELDs, chameleon carriers, empty office spaces with 72 trucking companies “operating” out of it, and truck-driver training mills (I mean, CDL “schools”). To those of you on social media, particularly X: They are listening, I promise!

The latest big news is broker liability. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC that federal law does not shield freight brokers from state-law negligence claims when they hire unsafe motor carriers. Despite the online “crashout,” as the kids would say, this ruling does not automatically make brokers liable in every crash, but it does allow lawsuits to proceed when plaintiffs allege that a broker failed to exercise reasonable care in selecting a carrier, and the chances of the broker being held liable are far greater.

What is reasonable care? Well, that has yet to be defined.

For owner-operators and small carriers who have watched brokers profit from cheap freight rates and the speed of transactions while absorbing none of the risk when things go wrong, my hope is that this will be very good for you! It shifts the accountability calculus in a direction that should award those who have been doing it right all along.

I have spent the last year writing and speaking about fraud, regulatory failure, carrier identity schemes, and the human cost of an industry that moves too fast for most oversight mechanisms to keep pace. The work has reached our federal government. It has generated conversations I only dreamed of ever happening. There is no way I could have done this alone. It is because of the incredible support from people like David Owen that I can keep going. And I keep doing it because of you, the men and women who drive the trucks, who dispatch the loads, who have run on thin margins for far too long, and miss out on family dinner to make sure that dinner is on the table. You are not just truck drivers, you are heroes. You deserve an industry that works the way it is supposed to.

When the work is done in good faith, and the evidence holds, anything is possible.

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Open Letters to Our New FMCSA Administrator

David Owen — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:37:48 +0000

LETTER 1:

Dear Administrator, Barrs,

I read where you have an aggressive agenda of rulemaking headed our way in the coming months and NASTC will have comments to make accordingly.

From what I see, so far your reign as FMCSA’s administrator is poised to make tremendous positive strides toward “cleaning up the messes” that have been allowed to grow, fester, and damage almost irrevocably the image of trucking, its companies, and its drivers. I hope you’ll see fit to move away from “apnea-mania” and STOP-BANG protocol as you pick your fights. I hope you’ll be able to begin a de-regulation stance as opposed to the re-regulation era of the past two decades. And I hope you’ll allow the apnea/fatigue hysteria to die a quiet and unsignificant death. There is very little, if any connection directly between apnea, fatigue, and truck safety. There is however a direct connection between chronic fatigue, sleep deprivation, narcolepsy, and truck safety.

I ran across an article that I penned some time ago for our newsletter and I copied a former administrator then without any response. Please take it as intended and I would welcome acknowledgment of receipt, and a follow up conversation with you or your people about its content.

Sincerely,

David Owen,

President, NASTC

LETTER 2:

An open letter to our new FMCSA Administrator

While speaking at the Annual TCA Meeting recently, you “Vowed to Clean Up the Mess in Modern Trucking.” In my opinion, you need to clean up the mess in your agency first.

While NASTC intends to wholeheartedly support your mission, we’d also like to assure our membership and the entire trucking community that the agency will develop and use an accurate system to identify and segregate the drivers and carriers who are doing it right and the “bad actors who drag trucking down.” This looks and sounds a lot like past knee jerk, failed endeavors from the last few FMCSA regimes on its face.

A good start would be to identify the “bad actors” at the state level who have systematically ignored many of the regulations we’ve had in place for years. Our Secretary of Transportation has shown that the administration will do its part in helping to clean up CDL, non-citizen driver, and non-English-speaking drivers and companies, and is taking dead aim on addressing chameleon carriers. I can’t believe that FMCSA has not figured out how to eliminate these fraudsters years ago. We’ve got some ideas that we’d gladly share that could be implemented to help.

Please do not throw the baby out with the bath water and blame small carriers and owner-operators for this “mess” you’re speaking of. In the full-truckload, long-haul sector of trucking, they represent the best of the best – the safest and most profitable business model in the sector.

A second great move would be to scrap CSA in its entirety and start over. Please admit that it is broken beyond repair, does nothing to help identify bad actors, and has put 100’s of perfectly safe carriers out of business. Also, in this vein, you need to comply with the Congressional mandate given to the agency in its inception and audit all new entrants and RATE all carriers who have an MC number. By the way, is there a good reason why MC #’s were deemed unnecessary and US DOT numbers took their place? I see trucks all the time that do not have the name and location of the authority holder on the driver’s door like it used to be. NASTC plans to come up with their own rating system and give all our carriers a NASTC rating since the agency can’t come anywhere close to getting this done.

I’m delighted to see the renewed focus on freight fraud. A recent Transport Topics article was titled “Trucking Logistic Companies are losing $18,000,000 per day to fraud.”

I’m also delighted to see that you’re re-structuring the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Board and I’m hopeful that you’ll actually have small trucking company and owner-operator representation. A great idea would be to include a subcommittee composed of million-mile drivers to act in an advisory capacity. You could choose from ATA’s Driver Team, TA/Petro’s Citizen Drivers, NASTC’s Driver’s of the Year, Women in Trucking’s Drivers of the Year, OOIDA’s Driver of the Year, and TCA drivers for this committee. Their input could possibly temper some of the bone-headed ideas rolled out of laboratories, classrooms, and central planning inside the beltway.

Please consider driver-turnover percentages as a safety issue and cease promulgating the myth that there’s a driver shortage. We run good people out of the industry daily with the ways they are treated by mega carriers. If a company can’t maintain a turnover rate of 60% or less, they should not be allowed to add trucks until they reach that threshold. Also, pre CDL training as an entrance requirement has produced no positive safety results and greatly discourages young people from entering our industry. As a result this creates a fertile field for spurious CDL training schools to open and produce unending classes of window-foggers who are turned out on the road without the knowledge to safely operate. Here again, I see where the administration has pulled the credentials of over 500 of these CDL mills that only train for the test, not for the long haul.

I saw recently where CVSA was changing the maintenance criteria for placing a truck out of service. Where does that non-governmental, ad hoc group get the authority to do that? I know you come from that group, but I feel they have greatly over-reached by making policy, not through rule making, but by fiat. Let’s address the “mess” by cleaning up and simplifying the rules and regs, not by adding to them.

I could go on and on about the failed policies coming from inside the beltway regarding large trucks. Thank goodness sane minds prevailed regarding mandated speed limiters, automatic braking systems, the never-ending attack on the owner-operator model, sleep apnea, circadian rhythms, and the ridiculous and unnecessary forced 30-minute break and the 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM forced break. Thank goodness for Ray Martinez and his brief stint as administrator where he actually brought some relief and flexibility to the hours of service. Thank goodness we now have an administration who is taking trucking regulations seriously and, thank goodness we have a new administrator who is going to help clean up the mess that FMCSA has created by making the agency a political football and/or a DEI appointment.

NASTC will help you any way we can, but do not blame the industry, small carriers, or owner-operators for creating such a mess.

We are not guilty!

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Understanding FMCSA’s New MOTUS Platform: What Carriers Need to Know

James Caperton (Member Sales & Technology) — Thu, 07 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is taking a major step toward modernization with the rollout of its new MOTUS (Modernized Oversight & Tracking Unified System) platform. For small trucking companies, this isn’t just another system update—it represents a shift in how compliance, safety data, and regulatory oversight will be managed moving forward.

What Is MOTUS?

MOTUS is designed to replace and consolidate multiple legacy FMCSA systems into one unified, digital platform. The goal is to improve efficiency, transparency, and accessibility for both regulators and carriers.

Rather than navigating multiple portals and outdated systems, carriers will eventually interact with FMCSA through a more streamlined interface that centralizes key functions like:

Safety data tracking
Compliance monitoring
Carrier profiles and records
Communication with regulators

Why This Matters for Small Carriers

For large fleets with dedicated compliance teams, adapting to new systems is part of doing business. But for small trucking companies, changes like MOTUS can create uncertainty—and risk if not handled properly.

Here’s what’s at stake:

Increased Visibility
With improved data integration, FMCSA will have a clearer, more real-time view of carrier performance. Any compliance gaps may become more visible.
Faster Enforcement Actions
A modernized system can accelerate how quickly issues are identified and addressed.
Digital-First Compliance
Paper trails and outdated processes are being replaced. Carriers will need to stay organized and proactive in managing digital records.

The Opportunity Behind the Change

While change can be challenging, MOTUS also presents opportunities for carriers who are prepared:

Easier access to your own safety data
Better tools to monitor your compliance standing
More efficient communication with FMCSA

Carriers who stay ahead of these changes can actually gain a competitive advantage by running cleaner, more compliant operations.

How NASTC Helps You Stay Ahead

At NASTC (National Association of Small Trucking Companies), our mission is to help small carriers succeed in an increasingly complex industry.

As FMCSA systems evolve, the importance of strong compliance and operational discipline only increases.

We support our members with:

Compliance & Safety Programs – Including CSA review, monitoring, and guidance
NEST Training Program – Helping carriers understand regulations and best practices
Ongoing Support – So you’re never navigating changes like MOTUS alone
Operational Tools – From fuel savings to back-office support

Final Thoughts

The MOTUS platform is another sign that the trucking industry is moving toward a more data-driven, transparent future. For small carriers, success will depend on preparation, awareness, and having the right partners in place.

If you’re unsure how these changes may impact your business, now is the time to get ahead of it—not react after the fact.

Contact NASTC today to make sure your operation is ready for what’s next.

The post Understanding FMCSA’s New MOTUS Platform: What Carriers Need to Know appeared first on NASTC.

When Doing Everything Right Isn’t Enough: Carrier Vetting

Danielle Chaffin — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 20:06:34 +0000

The unintended consequences of automated carrier vetting.

Imagine doing everything right for years, only to be rejected by a broker in a second by a rule you cannot see.

Welcome to automated carrier vetting!

Modern carrier vetting systems emerged for a reason. Fraud has grown faster and more extensive than human reviews could keep up with. Fake carriers, identity swaps, double brokering, and cargo theft rings. The scale absolutely demanded automation. Technology stepped in and built defenses at machine speed, but machines lack the ability to understand context.

Most vetting platforms are not making moral judgments. They aren’t using human intuition or industry knowledge. They are simply pattern-recognition engines. They pull from public and commercial data: authority records, inspection history, insurance filings, corporate registrations, phone data, email age, address type, and activity levels. The software compares those signals to behaviors associated with fraud. When patterns line up, a big red flag appears.

The system says, “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…” Yet, anyone who has spent twenty minutes in trucking knows it is rarely, if ever, that simple.

The rules were set to catch the bad guys, rightfully so. The problem is that bad actors often mimic behaviors that are completely ordinary in the life of a small carrier or owner-operator. A truck sits idle, a phone number changes, insurance renews, an address is residential.

To a human, these are explainable. To an algorithm, they are inputs. The systems cannot tell whether a truck was down for a transmission rebuild or staged for theft. It cannot tell whether the number changed because of a new provider or a disappearing act. It only knows the pattern matches something it has been trained to distrust.

Any one of those examples deserves a closer look. None of them, standing alone, equals fraud. Yet, the system still places the carrier in a ‘do not use’ status.

Fraud prevention is necessary. No serious person argues otherwise. Without it, the market collapses under manipulation and theft. But in the race to shut out criminals, the net has widened in ways few anticipated, and small, legitimate carriers are absorbing the brunt of the impact. Without context or conversation, normal business behavior begins to resemble criminal intent.

When legitimate carriers are filtered out by an invisible algorithm, freight doesn’t stop moving. It goes to whoever can pass the screening test. If the goal is fewer small carriers, the system is wildly effective. If the goal is a resilient, competitive supply chain, what we have is a flawed approach to vetting.

Owner-operators built this industry, and small fleets supply the flexibility, regional knowledge, and capacity everyone depends on when the market tightens. Any safeguard meant to protect freight has to work for them too. Otherwise, protection becomes a very polished form of exclusion.

The system tells us that years of safe performance matter far less than a recent data change. This is absurd. This isn’t risk management. It’s distortion.

Repeatedly rejecting legitimate carriers is not proof that technology is succeeding. It is proof that the model is unfinished. The future of vetting cannot be just detection. It has to include dialogue; a path to clarification, a way to challenge inaccurate data, a mechanism that separates coincidence from intent.

The people on the receiving end of these decisions aren’t data points. They are businesses, families, and careers built over decades. We must protect them.

Fraud prevention has to evolve without criminalizing ordinary small-business life. Until it does, thousands of professionals will keep doing everything right and still find themselves locked out.

A system that can exclude a carrier should also provide a clear path back in.

The post When Doing Everything Right Isn’t Enough: Carrier Vetting appeared first on NASTC.

Thank You Letter To EPA Administrator Zeldin

David Owen — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:26:24 +0000

February 13, 2026

The Honorable Lee Zeldin
Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004

Dear Administrator Zeldin:

On behalf of the 14,000 member companies of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC), thank you very much for acting boldly and prudently in recent actions that will have the positive, beneficial effect of restoring appropriate balance between protecting our environment and the commercial activity vital to America’s economy and prosperity.

As you know, NASTC is the industry voice for a distinct segment of the trucking industry not expressly represented by any other trucking association. NASTC is a member-based organization whose motor carrier members range from a single power unit to more than 100 power units, the average being 12 power units. These carriers for the most part operate in the long-haul, over-the road, full-truckload, for-hire sector of interstate trucking. NASTC’s members are small motor carrier businesses, the largest segment of America’s long-haul trucking.

NASTC strongly supports the Trump administration’s broad deregulatory agenda. And we tremendously appreciate and fully back the consequential step of withdrawing EPA’s “endangerment finding.” Designating greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, a threat to public health and welfare under the Clean Air Act has defied sound science and mocked responsible environmental policy. This finding has empowered big-government politicians and eco-extremists to impose on American citizens and essential business sectors green mandates that neither the American public nor market forces have sought (nor under which can compete with foreign competitors).

Moreover, NASTC commends and fully backs your decisions that will rectify the overreaching GHG3 and NOx rules, which have hung over the trucking industry and have inflicted very significant operational and financial hardships on truck drivers and motor carriers, particularly small trucking businesses.

We applaud your initiative and the goal of discontinuation of DEF derates. We applaud that the forthcoming rule to accomplish this most welcome outcome will be evidence-based, relying on data gathered from DEF product makers related to DEF system failures. We applaud your pursuit of details about DEF systems’ warranty claims, failure rates, and repair information for commercial vehicle model years 2016, 2019, and 2023.

NASTC and its member companies were encouraged by last year’s EPA and Small Business Administration guidance that requires manufacturers to provide a software solution replacing the radical derate schedule with one more reasonable: gradual torque reductions over 340 engine hours with a slowest speed of 25 mph. This deregulatory move was a good first step. Eliminating DEF derates entirely will be the optimal final outcome.

NASTC thanks you for and strongly supports the intended withdrawal of the 2022 Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle NOx rule, scrapping the derate approach for trucks model year 2027 and newer. We also appreciate that EPA’s final rule disapproves the California Clean Truck Check, relieving out-of-state trucks from certain California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations.

In our correspondence of August 27, 2025, NASTC “urge[d] you to push the envelope as hard as you can to ease and, if achievable, eliminate the derate framework altogether. We urge[d] you to expel CARB from having any regulatory power outside the confines of the state of California and, in cases where federal law is controlling, preempt CARB and state regulators. We urge[d] you to enact a transparency regime at EPA.”

It appears you took NASTC’s requests to heart. We are thrilled with your deregulatory initiatives and greatly appreciate your common-sense, reasonable, beneficial actions. The American trucking sector will be better off for them.

NASTC stands ready to work with you and lend support for achieving as much deregulatory progress as possible. Please let us know how we may be of assistance.

Sincerely,

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