Big carriers keep FMCSA’s crackdown alive, Fuller says
FreightWaves' CEO told Optym Convergence non-domiciled CDL holders were probably the main reason the downturn dragged on, and that enforcement will outlast any change in Washingto
FRISCO, Texas — Small carriers and brokers waiting for Washington to ease up on trucking enforcement should not expect relief from the next administration, FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller said Nov. 2, because the industry’s largest fleets now want the crackdown.
Fuller gave the industry keynote at Optym’s Convergence 2026 conference. He tied together the federal push against non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses, a Supreme Court ruling that opened brokers to negligent-hiring suits, and a $604 million jury verdict against C.H. Robinson. Together, he said, they mark the most transformative period in trucking since deregulation in 1980. For brokers and small carriers, he argued, that means fewer cheap trucks to hire and more liability for the ones they do.
Fuller said he is frequently asked whether a change in administration would ease restrictions, let more new operators into the industry, or end enforcement. “And I will say no,” he said. “Follow the money.”
The largest motor carriers, along with the American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association, have concluded that tighter standards for hiring drivers are “desperately needed” and “the only way that they will survive,” Fuller said. That support, he argued, holds whichever party wins.
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