This week in trucking: Broker liability, autonomous boom

Here are the latest headlines from the trucking industry.

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 Supreme Court ruled against brokers in the broker liability case

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in Montgomery v. C.H. Robinson. The Supreme Court case sets a national standard for how courts should interpret whether a broker can be found liable of negligent hiring. Their decision is that brokers can be found liable for negligent hiring.

Before this case, broker liability was inconsistently applied across a patchwork of states. The likely outcome of the Supreme Court decision is that brokers will be slightly more careful in which carriers they choose for their loads. Established fleets will have slightly greater influence among 3PLs.

A bill combating cargo theft passed the House of Representatives

House lawmakers passed the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act. The bill would, among other things, establish an agency to coordinate law enforcement efforts against cargo theft, called the Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center. The bill passed by an overwhelming 348-to-60 margin. The bill now moves on to the Senate for its next vote.

Courts are ping-ponging the latest 10% global tariffs

It is no surprise to hear that tariffs are still chaotic. On May 7, the U.S. Court of International Trade made headlines when it declared February's global 10% tariffs illegal in a case concerning two companies and the state of Washington. On May 12, though, an Appeals Court blocked that declaration with an administrative stay, meaning, right now, the 10% tariffs are still on the table.

On a related note, some importers have now started receiving their IEEPA tariff refunds.

Tesla started production of Tesla Semi in earnest

Nine years after its unveiling, Tesla’s Class 8 battery-electric tractor may have finally entered serial production. Tesla said on social media that its first Semi has rolled off the company’s high-volume production line in Nevada. The company hopes to have its Nevada facility eventually produce 50,000 trucks annually. While that number is difficult to believe, Tesla will certainly produce more Semis than ever before.

Charging depot company WattEV also recently revealed that it already ordered 370 of the Tesla Semi electric trucks. 

California has finally released autonomous vehicle rules for heavy-duty trucks

The California Department of Motor Vehicles adopted a new set of autonomous vehicle regulations that allow manufacturers to apply for permits to deploy heavy-duty autonomous trucks on California roadways. Under the new rules, heavy-duty autonomous developers must use a safety driver for 500,000 miles  and then undergo driverless testing for 500,000 miles before applying for commercial deployment.

Hirschbach Motor Lines plans to have 500 autonomous trucks

Hirschbach Motor Lines, a refrigerated carrier and the nation’s 32nd largest for-hire carrier by power unit according to the FleetOwner 500, announced an expansion to its partnership with autonomous truck developer Aurora Innovation. The partnership includes a plan for Hirschbach to own 500 autonomous trucks driven by Aurora’s software. The companies’ agreement is non-binding. Initial delivery of the trucks would begin sometime in 2027.

McLane Company also partnered with Aurora: The companies revealed that, since 2023, McLane has used Aurora for 1,400 autonomous hauls and that their collaboration is no longer a pilot program.

Roehl Transport launched an autonomous route from Dallas to Houston

Roehl Transport, No. 62 on the FleetOwner 500: For-Hire, revealed that it is now using an autonomous truck across Texas in four round-trip hauls per week. Roehl opted to have its autonomous truck driven by Kodiak.

Volvo opened its first cross-state autonomous lane

Volvo Autonomous Solutions opened its third lane in the U.S. Sun Belt: The autonomous Volvo VNL is running from Dallas to Oklahoma City using the Aurora driver. The trucks are picking up and delivering directly to and from customer locations, opting out of the traditional hub-to-hub autonomous model.

Several powertrain announcements at this year’s Advanced Clean Transportation Expo:

Volvo Trucks and Mack unveiled their next engines for EPA 2027 compliance; the next engines boast more power and stronger engine braking.

Hendrickson unveiled its very first e-axle: a Class 6-7 motor-powered drive axle for electric operations called Electraax.

Volvo Trucks teased its next two electric trucks: the VNL Electric and an unnamed vocational truck. The VNL Electric is an additional regional truck that would complement Volvo’s existing VNR Electric. Details on the VNL Electric and the vocational truck are still quite sparse.

Hydrogen-as-a-service company Hyroad Energy is deploying 40 of its hydrogen fuel cell Class 8 trucks in Southern California to support Toyota Motor North America. Though the announcement didn’t disclose more on the trucks, those hydrogen vehicles are almost certainly the Nikola trucks that Hyroad purchased last year.

And Hino Trucks debuted a new battery-electric medium-duty truck called the Le Series.

Finally, in fuel this week, diesel fell a tenth of a cent

The national average on-highway diesel price remained at an elevated $5.64 per gallon this week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Some lawmakers are considering suspending the federal excise tax on fuel in order to offset some of the pain of the Iran War. Removing the tax is opposed by major industry associations, including the American Trucking Associations (ATA), Truckload Carriers Association (TCA), and National Tank Truck Council (NTTC).