This week in trucking: Freightliner safety tech, Clearinghouse security

Here are the headlines from this week in trucking as of April 30.

Listen to the news on this week's episode of The Fleet Lead podcast here or search for The Fleet Lead on your favorite podcast app.

Summaries of the stories are below:

The Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse has tighter security

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced that it added identity verification requirements to the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse online database. Now, additional verification steps will be required for medical review officers, substance abuse professionals, third-party administrators, and employers.

FMCSA’s new registration system is coming soon

The agency also announced it will soon roll out its new online motor carrier registration system. Fleets have been waiting years for a new system—while there is still no official launch date, FMCSA is urging carriers to make sure their FMCSA Portal account information is up to date.

Freightliner is getting new driver assistance safety features

Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) has announced new features for the Detroit Assurance Suite of Safety Systems. The features are Cross Traffic Assist and Active Side Guard Assist 2 with left turn protection. The safety features will be introduced for new Freightliner Cascadias beginning in 2027.

The Cross Traffic Assist will use radar to predict when a vehicle is crossing the truck’s path at intersections. Active Side Guard Assist 2 with left-turn protection engages when the left turn signal is active, monitoring the truck’s path for potential hazards.

Upon sensing a vehicle in either scenario, the safety system would issue audible and visual warnings and, if necessary, begin automatic braking.

Bot Auto completed its first fully driverless commercial haul

Bot Auto, an autonomous truck company offering its own Transportation-as-a-Service solution, delivered a commercial truckload without any human input for the driving component. The commercial load moved 230 miles from Riggy’s Truck Parking in Houston to Safe Stop in Hutchins, Texas. A recent episode of the Fleet Lead features Bot Auto’s founder and CEO as he discusses the autonomous truck company’s goals and achievements. We’ll have a link to that episode in the show notes.

Descartes acquired an AI driver safety company for $28 million dollars

Fleet technology company Descartes announced it acquired Idelic, a provider of AI-powered driver safety management technology, for $28 million. Idelic provides a platform for training, monitoring, reporting, and coaching—and uses machine learning to predict driver risk. Descartes may additionally provide up to $12 million in performance-based earn-outs, depending on future revenue goals.

In fuel this week, diesel fell again by 5 cents

The national average on-highway diesel price fell to $5.35, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). While still much higher than before the Iran War, average diesel pricing has now fallen for three weeks in a row.

But gasoline prices continued to surge this week, reaching the highest cost per gallon since 2022. According to AAA, regular unleaded was up to $4.22 on average nationally on Tuesday.