It’s WTF Wednesday on Do You Even Freight?, and today’s episode covers the kind of transportation stories that make you ask whether the industry has officially lost its mind.

Shimmi, Kevin and John break down a bizarre I-80 incident involving a barefoot, axe-wielding man who allegedly targeted two semis, plus a Waymo robotaxi that contacted police after detecting a firearm inside the autonomous vehicle.

The conversation then shifts to the bigger issue facing transportation professionals right now: When the Math Stops Working: The Mental Toll of Today’s Economy.

Drivers, owner-operators, fleet owners, brokers, dispatchers, tow operators, mechanics, safety professionals and small business owners are all dealing with rising costs, tighter margins and financial pressure that doesn’t stop when the workday ends.

The crew discusses how financial anxiety, business stress, higher operating costs and economic uncertainty can affect mental health, decision-making, burnout and even transportation safety.

Also in today’s episode: National Freight Weather, trucking and transportation updates, Freight Dictionary, Hot Load, Red Flag and the latest from Kiss This Media.

Topics include: trucking news, freight news, transportation industry, truck drivers, owner-operators, fleet owners, trucking economy, diesel prices, freight rates, financial stress, mental health in trucking, small business stress, autonomous vehicles, Waymo, trucking safety, I-80 trucking incident, logistics, supply chain, freight transportation, Driver Appreciation Week and WTF Wednesday.

Do You Even Freight? delivers real conversations about trucking, freight, logistics, transportation news and the issues affecting the people who keep the supply chain moving.

Presented by Kiss This Media.

Diesel prices are climbing while freight rates remain painfully low, and carriers are asking a very real question: how long can you keep running a truck when the numbers no longer work?

On this episode of Do You Even Freight?, Shimmi, Kevin and John break down the pressure facing owner-operators and small carriers as higher diesel costs collide with weak load-board rates, rising operating expenses and growing talk of parking trucks rather than hauling freight at a loss.

We also cover the latest trucking and transportation news, including a DEA seizure of more than 2,000 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a cabbage freight shipment in South Texas, the latest developments in Pink Cheetah Express v. TQL, and the legal battle between California and FMCSA over non-domiciled CDLs and federal highway funding.

Plus, we get into the bigger questions facing freight right now: Are fuel surcharges actually reaching carriers? When does parking a truck make more sense than taking cheap freight? What happens to capacity if more carriers refuse unprofitable loads? And could sustained diesel prices eventually push transportation costs higher across the broader supply chain?

In this episode:

• Diesel prices and trucking operating costs
• Low freight rates and load-board pricing
• Owner-operator and small carrier profitability
• Trucking capacity and carriers parking equipment
• Fuel surcharges and freight economics
• Methamphetamine discovered in a commercial freight shipment
• Pink Cheetah Express v. TQL
• California vs. FMCSA
• Non-domiciled CDL regulations
• Trucking and transportation industry news

Do You Even Freight? brings trucking news, freight industry conversation, regulatory updates and the issues transportation professionals are actually talking about.

Presented by Kiss This Media.

What happens to trucking, freight and the supply chain when the world suddenly stops?

On this episode of Do You Even Freight?, we mark the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001 by looking at an often-overlooked part of the story: how 9/11 affected transportation then — and what a world-stopping event could do to today's freight network.

We look back at the immediate impact on U.S. airspace, air cargo, trucking, border crossings, ports and just-in-time supply chains, along with the transportation security changes that followed. Then we bring the question into 2026: What happens today if airspace closes, borders tighten, ports restrict movement or critical infrastructure is disrupted?

With GPS, ELDs, telematics, electronic dispatch, automated warehouses, digital freight systems and autonomous trucks now woven into transportation, is the modern supply chain more resilient than it was in 2001 — or has being more connected made it more vulnerable?

Also on the show:

• Sparhawk Trucking is shutting down after nearly 50 years in business. Once generating close to $50 million in annual revenue and operating around 200 trucks, the carrier is now being liquidated after bankruptcy, mounting debt, questionable equipment deals and an unsuccessful search for a buyer. We ask: How does a trucking company doing tens of millions in revenue get to the point where nobody wants to buy it?

• Transportation industry news
• Weather and freight impacts
• Regulatory news with John
• Word of the Day
• Kevin's Hot Load
• John's Red Flag
• Community Corner

Do You Even Freight? covers trucking news, freight, logistics, transportation regulation, supply chain issues and the stories affecting the people who keep freight moving.

Freight talk without the filter.

#Trucking #Freight #Transportation #SupplyChain #Logistics #TruckingNews #FreightNews #September11 #911Anniversary #SparhawkTrucking #TruckDrivers #TransportationNews #AutonomousTrucks

A three-day weekend sounds great—until you work in trucking, freight, logistics or supply chain.

In this episode of Do You Even Freight?, the crew digs into what a short holiday week actually does to freight: five days of expectations crammed into four days of operations, tighter shipping and receiving schedules, backed-up appointments, drivers sitting on loads, dispatchers scrambling and everyone trying to catch up at once.

Who gets hit hardest by a short freight week? Drivers? Carriers? Brokers? Dispatchers? Shippers and receivers? And if holiday schedules create tighter capacity and more headaches, should those loads come with higher rates or additional compensation?

We also introduce the newest—and possibly most judgmental—member of the DYEF crew: our WTF Wednesday raccoon. He doesn't have a name yet, but he's already got opinions. Lots of them.

Also in this episode:

• The Amazon Prime Air cargo plane crash in Miami and the ongoing investigation
• An Amazon truck crash in northern Indiana that scattered packages across I-80/94
• PHMSA's federal preemption decision involving California and what it could mean for the federal-versus-state transportation regulatory debate
• Kevin's Hot Load gets personal with the story of a truck stolen in Miami
• John's Red Flag of the Day
• Freight Dictionary and more from the crew

Do You Even Freight? covers trucking, freight, logistics, transportation and supply chain news with real industry perspectives, real opinions and zero corporate filter.

🎙️ Freight talk without the filter.

Presented by Kiss This Media

#DoYouEvenFreight #WTFWednesday #Trucking #Freight #Logistics #SupplyChain #Transportation #FreightNews #TruckingNews

The U.S.-Mexico border, freight movement, and the federal government’s autonomous vehicle strategy are colliding in ways that could reshape trucking and transportation.

In this episode of Do You Even Freight?, the crew breaks down what’s happening at the Mexico border and what it means for cross-border trucking, carriers, drivers, freight brokers, shippers, and the North American supply chain.

Then we dig into the U.S. Department of Transportation’s national autonomous vehicle strategy and the bigger picture surrounding autonomous trucks, federal transportation policy, infrastructure, safety, regulation, and the future of the trucking workforce.

What does the USDOT strategy actually say? How does it fit with the autonomous trucking developments already happening across the country? And as technology, infrastructure, freight corridors, and federal policy continue to align, what should the transportation industry be paying attention to next?

We’re connecting the dots, asking the uncomfortable questions, and talking about what these developments could mean for the people and businesses that move America’s freight.

Topics include:
• U.S.-Mexico border trucking and freight
• Cross-border transportation and supply chain impacts
• USDOT autonomous vehicle national strategy
• Autonomous trucks and driverless trucking
• Federal trucking regulations and transportation policy
• AV infrastructure and freight corridors
• Truck driver workforce impacts
• The future of freight and logistics

Do You Even Freight? brings trucking news, freight industry analysis, current events, commentary, and conversations about the issues shaping transportation and logistics — without the corporate script.

What if the biggest AI disruption in trucking isn’t the driverless truck?

On this episode of Do You Even Freight?, we’re looking at the AI revolution already happening behind the scenes in freight, trucking, logistics and supply chain. While the industry has spent years focused on autonomous trucks, artificial intelligence has been moving into brokerage, dispatch, pricing, load matching, fraud prevention, compliance, customer service and freight planning.

We break down our latest LinkedIn poll and ask where AI is already making the biggest impact for carriers and brokers, whether it’s making freight professionals more productive or reducing the need for certain office-side roles, and what happens when both fraud prevention teams and the scammers have access to increasingly powerful AI.

Plus, we’re covering the freight news making headlines:

• More than 110 CDL training providers targeted in a nationwide federal crackdown
• 95 CDL-holding truck drivers arrested during an Arizona Border Patrol operation
• Tropical Storm Edouard and potential freight impacts along the Gulf Coast
• A phishing email impersonating Motus that landed in Kevin’s inbox
• What the latest diesel market movement could mean for trucking
• An overturned 18-wheeler spilling pipes and fuel across Houston’s East Loop
• John’s Red Flag: more than $647,000 in stolen Nike cargo recovered near Chicago after a fraudulent pickup

From AI in freight and trucking fraud to cargo theft, diesel prices, CDL enforcement and highway chaos, we’re breaking down what matters, asking the questions freight should be asking, and keeping an eye on what’s changing across transportation.

Do You Even Freight? — Freight news, industry conversation, and a little controlled chaos.

It was a wild weekend across freight and trucking — from 34 freight railcars blown over in Utah to two tractor-trailers left dangling from bridges in separate crashes just days apart.

On this episode of DO YOU EVEN FREIGHT?, we break down the transportation stories making headlines, including severe weather and freight disruptions in Utah, the dramatic semi-truck crashes on I-80 in California and I-71 in Cincinnati, and what these incidents reveal about heavy-truck crash response, recovery, hazmat operations and traffic management.

John takes us into the regulatory side with NHTSA’s latest interpretation of its authority over heavy-duty truck fuel-efficiency regulations, including the agency’s position that it can regulate commercial vehicles as complete vehicles but not standalone engines or components independently.

Then we get into our Topic of the Day: Busy ≠ Productive. Logistics runs on urgency — emails, calls, Teams messages, tracking loads, missed appointments, customer demands and fires that need putting out. But when everything becomes an emergency, are we actually being productive? We’re talking about the difference between reacting all day and doing the work that actually moves a freight business forward.

And for today’s Red Flag: approximately 40,000 pounds of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was stolen in California in two similar cargo-theft incidents involving allegedly fraudulent carrier documents.

Plus: Freight Dictionary, Hot Load, Community Corner, live viewer comments, industry shout-outs and the Question of the Day:

What’s the biggest thing in logistics that gets treated like an emergency — but really isn’t?

DO YOU EVEN FREIGHT? covers the stories, regulations, conversations and chaos shaping trucking, freight, logistics, transportation and the supply chain — with real talk and a little personality.

📅 Monday, August 31, 2026
⏰ 9 AM ET | 8 AM CT | 6 AM PT
🌐 KissThisMedia.com

Topics: trucking news, freight news, logistics news, transportation news, supply chain, semi-truck crashes, commercial trucking, NHTSA, heavy-duty trucks, cargo theft, freight rail, trucking regulations, logistics productivity, freight industry

In this Finally Friday episode of Do You Even Freight?, the crew breaks down the latest trucking and freight industry headlines, including more than 20 transportation and supply-chain bankruptcy filings in less than a month and signs that truckload capacity may be tightening.

John digs into FMCSA’s latest Hours-of-Service pilot program update and the bigger question behind proposed changes to the 14-hour clock: would additional flexibility actually give truck drivers more control over their day, or simply create more time for shippers and receivers to hold them up?

Then things get a little more Friday.

We get into the bizarre attempted semi-trailer theft involving a Chevy pickup, a fifth wheel, chains and a stack of doomed cinderblocks before turning to the Topic of the Day: The Load That Taught You the Most — and Still Pisses You Off.

Every driver, dispatcher, broker and freight professional has that load — the one that went sideways, cost money, burned time, ruined sleep or permanently changed the way they do business. We talk about who really dropped the ball, what those nightmare loads teach you, the warning signs you learn to recognize and the rules you never break again.

Kevin’s Hot Load takes us to I-10 near Beaumont, Texas, where an oversized load struck an overpass and came off the trailer — while another commercial vehicle reportedly struck a second overpass just miles away.

Plus: Freight Dictionary, Red Flag, Community Corner, trucking industry commentary, viewer reactions and the usual Finally Friday chaos.

Do You Even Freight? is a Kiss This Media podcast covering trucking news, freight and logistics, FMCSA regulations, transportation policy, truck drivers, brokers, dispatchers, carriers, freight markets, infrastructure and the stories shaping the transportation industry.