Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, June 30, 2026:
Schneider unveils new leadership team
Schneider National (CCJ Top 250, No. 6) is building out its new leadership team around incoming President and CEO Jim Filter.
Filter, July 1, will succeed Mark Rourke, who will transition to the role of executive chairman.
Under the new structure, support services will closely align with their respective service offerings.
"As we look ahead to a new chapter, I am confident the tightly aligned structure we are announcing today will help us remain nimble, maintain close relationships with our customers and continue building a stronger, more agile Schneider for the future," Filter said in a statement.
- Michael Baumgardt has been named executive vice president of intermodal and logistics, reporting directly to Filter. Baumgardt joined Schneider in 2001 and has held leadership roles in customer service, sales, network management, and operations.
- Steve Wells will join the parent company as executive vice president of truckload, also reporting to Filter. Wells previously served as president of Cowan Systems LLC, a Schneider subsidiary. He brings more than 27 years of industry experience to the role.
- Angela Prill has been promoted to senior vice president of intermodal operations, reporting to Baumgardt. Prill has more than 15 years of supply chain experience, most recently serving as vice president of intermodal network management and operations for Schneider.
The company noted that the reorganization was the result of a thoughtful evaluation by the executive team and the board of directors to position the carrier for long-term growth and efficiency.
Waabi successfully deploys autonomous tech on Volvo VNL Autonomous
Autonomous truck technology developer Waabi and Volvo Autonomous Solutions have announced a milestone in their partnership -- the Volvo VNL Autonomous, powered by the Waabi Driver, is now driving autonomously on public highways and surface streets.
In announcing the achievement, Waabi said there are two “distinct frontiers of generalization” with autonomous vehicles -- the AI’s ability to generalize across environments and behaviors, and the ability to generalize across embodiments.
With the first “frontier,” the virtual driver should be able to operate across different Operational Design Domains (ODDs), from highways to dense urban streets, across different traffic patterns, road geometries and driving behaviors.
The second frontier Waabi outlines means the virtual driver should be able to seamlessly transfer to an entirely new vehicle platform with different sensors, control system, and physical characteristics.
The Waabi Driver’s implementation into the Volvo VNL Autonomous hit both marks, the company said. Without requiring new real-world data, simulation data, or fine-tuning, the Volvo VNL Autonomous, powered by the Waabi Driver, was fully performant from the very first mile, driving autonomously across both highways and complex surface streets safely, confidently, and smoothly.
“Road testing the Volvo VNL Autonomous, integrated with the Waabi Driver, on public roads is an important proof point of our partnership with Waabi,” said Nils Jaeger, President, Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “It also demonstrates the scalability of Volvo’s autonomous truck platform, which is designed to integrate different vehicle models and virtual drivers to enable a wide range of use cases and applications. Together with Waabi, we are advancing autonomous transport solutions toward commercial reality.”
With this achievement, Waabi said it’s autonomous system “has set a new benchmark for generalization across the entire industry.”
“This is a defining moment for physical AI,” added Raquel Urtasun, Founder and CEO, Waabi. “For the first time in the industry, we have shown that a virtual driver can generalize across fundamentally different embodiments without requiring a single training example —neither real or simulated— or finetuning. This capability has the potential to transform far more than transportation. It is the foundation for a new generation of intelligent machines that can adapt, scale, and operate across the physical world, creating possibilities and opportunities we can scarcely imagine today.”
Driver arrested in Indiana for suspected cargo theft
Police in Indiana arrested a truck driver who allegedly used fraudulent documents to obtain a load of nearly 40,000 pounds of tungsten oxide powder that was bound for Japan, valued at more than $2.8 million. The commodity was being shipped to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation in Japan.
On Saturday, June 27, Greenfield (Indiana) Police Department officers were alerted to a wanted tractor-trailer traveling westbound on I-70 that was allegedly involved in a June 25 cargo theft in Pennsylvania.
The driver of the truck, Deepak Kumar, 31, of Fresno, California, was arrested during the stop. An arrest warrant from Pennsylvania accused Kumar of Theft by Unlawful Taking Moveable Property and Criminal Use of Communication Facility.
The truck and trailer were impounded by Inman’s Towing out of Greenfield, and after obtaining a search warrant, police confirmed the stolen cargo was present in the trailer. A representative of Mitsubishi arrived in Greenfield on June 28 and took possession of the stolen goods.
Kentucky making progress on I-65 closures in downtown Louisville
A two-mile section of I-65 Southbound in Louisville, Kentucky, reopened Monday June 29 -- two days ahead of schedule, reflecting continued progress on the project to replace three key bridges along the corridor.
Reopening I-65 SB from University Boulevard to the Watterson Expressway (Interstate Highway 264) also reopens four ramps: both on- and off-ramps at Crittenden Drive and the on-ramps from Eastern Parkway and University Boulevard.
Southbound I-65 between downtown Louisville (Jefferson Street) to University Boulevard remains closed as construction continues.
“It’s great to see that we’re not just meeting this key milestone but on track to beat it by at least a couple of days,” said Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman. “We know how many drivers rely on I-65 every day, and crews are working hard to hit all deadlines.”
The full closure of I-65 that began June 1 has allowed contract crews to complete enough work at the Bradley Avenue bridge over I-65 to reopen southbound lanes to traffic.
Through traffic should still use the official signed detour to I-264 west (Georgia Davis Powers Expressway) and I-64. The detour route uses roadways with the most available capacity and creates the least traffic impacts.
