Ted Fyock Jr

CEO @CarolinaExpwy. Tech-driven freight. Army Tanker, Big Four consultant, founder. Writing The Backhaul on what's actually moving in trucking and logistics.

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Poll for the room: what's actually holding rates down — too many trucks, shippers sitting on freight, or brokers bidding lanes to zero? Pick one word and drop it below. I'll share what carriers tell me this week. #Freight #SupplyChain

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Carriers: one word — what kills a lane for you first, the rate or the appointment window? Most owners tell me rate, then admit they've walked away from good money over a 6 AM dock. I'm collecting the real answers and will share the tally. #Freight #Trucking

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

One word: what's the first thing you check before you accept a load? Mine is the appointment window — rate second. If the dock can't take the truck, the rate never mattered. Drop your word below and I'll tally what the room says. #Freight #Trucking

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Carriers: what's the shortest notice you'll take on a load before it stops being worth the scramble? Most owners tell me 24 hours, then cover 4-hour notice loads anyway when the truck sits empty. I want the real number, not the policy. #Freight #Trucking

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Carriers: a broker offers a lane 40 cents under your cost with a promise of steady volume. What do you do — counter once and walk, take it to keep the truck moving, or ask for a backhaul to fix the round trip? Pick one and tell me why. #Freight #Trucking

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Agree or disagree: the carriers surviving this cycle aren't the ones with the cheapest rates. They're the ones who said no to freight that didn't cover the round trip. Discipline beats volume in a diesel market. Where do you land? #Trucking #Logistics

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Carolina Expressways runs the Southeast lanes brokers hand off twice: NC, SC, GA and the I-85/I-26 corridors. One carrier, one dispatch contact, updates before the check call. If your freight keeps getting re-brokered, let's talk. https://t.co/jbf1C2L6gW #Freight

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

TRAFFIX forecasts 5-8% higher truckload linehaul rates for 2027. What shippers miss: that's an average, and averages hide the lanes that move 20%. Bid your problem lanes now while carriers need volume. Waiting for flat is a bet against diesel. #Freight #SupplyChain

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Surcharge tip: index it to the DOE weekly average with a fixed mpg assumption, and put the reset day in writing. Carriers get made whole on the way up; shippers stop paying for a spike that already reversed. Most disputes are calendar, not price. #Freight #Trucking

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Shippers: when your carrier asks for a mid-contract rate bump because diesel is near record highs, what's the move — renegotiate the lane, add a surcharge floor, or hold the line and risk the truck? Curious how 2027 bids are being framed. #Freight #Logistics

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Poll for the room: what is actually holding rates down right now — too much capacity, shippers sitting on freight, or brokers bidding lanes to zero? Pick one and tell me why. I will share what 500+ carriers are telling us. #Freight #SupplyChain

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Retail diesel closed last week at $6.35/gal, $2.63 above the same week last year. At 6.5 mpg that's roughly 40 cents a mile more fuel than last October — about $200 extra on a 500-mile run. Is your rate indexed to today's fuel or last year's? #Freight #Trucking

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Shippers: when two carriers quote the same lane — one at $2.40 a mile, one at $1.95 — what actually decides it for you? The number, the transit time, or the last time one of them missed a pickup? Genuinely asking. #Freight #SupplyChain

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Sonar data this week: second tenders cost about 10% more than primary, third tenders nearly 20%. That's not a rate problem, it's an appointment problem. Fix dock scheduling and your freight bill drops faster than any bid cycle. @FreightWaves #Freight #SupplyChain

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Tip for carriers: check the base week on your fuel surcharge table, not just the rate. EIA diesel went from $6.18 to $6.35 a gallon in two weeks. If your table still runs a September base, you're absorbing 17 cents a gallon someone else owes. #Trucking #Freight

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Carriers: on a 500-mile dry van run, what's your all-in break-even per mile — deadhead included? Most owners I ask give me a range, not a number. That gap is usually the difference between a profitable lane and a busy month. #Freight #Trucking

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

McLane and Aurora launching autonomous hauls in Texas matters less for the technology and more for the lane economics. These are dedicated, repeatable, high-density runs with a shipper willing to absorb operational complexity. Autonomous won't take the spot market first. It will take the easiest contract freight, and that's already starting.

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

Three straight weeks of benchmark diesel declines while futures trend higher is the kind of split that quietly rewrites Q3 budgets. Fuel surcharge programs lag the pump by a week or two on the way down and lead it on the way up. Carriers running pass-through programs need to stress test now, not in July.

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

The CAPE portal opening for tariff refunds is a bigger operational story than most shippers realize. Billions in refunds will move through brokers and CHBs that were never built to handle reconciliation at this scale. The winners over the next 90 days won't be the loudest voices on tariffs. They'll be the ones with the cleanest entry data.

[Ted Fyock Jr @TedFyockJr]

April's trucking employment number was healthy, but the more interesting story is who's hiring. Small fleets are still bleeding, bankruptcies are accelerating in that segment, and the net gain is concentrated in mid-size and large carriers with private fleet exposure. The industry isn't recovering evenly. It's consolidating in real time.