Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026:
Nussbaum raises driver pay for work beyond miles
Nussbaum Transportation (CCJ Top 250, No. 145) has announced a new series of driver pay increases built on the idea of paying drivers for everything the job demands.
The increases include:
- Activity pay rises from $20 to $23 on every pickup, delivery, and stop-off, with trailer relays and shuttles going from $12 to $15 per event.
- Detention pay climbs 25%, from $20 to $25 per hour, and still kicks in after one hour.
- The weekly minimum guarantee increases $50 per week.
- An extra $50/week for drivers who run on a special Illuminate Loop project.
- Trainer pay jumps 50%, from an extra $500 to $750/week (on top of the trainer’s regular mileage, activity pay, and guarantee).
The detention bump applies fleetwide, while the activity pay and guarantee bumps apply to OTR and Regional Van System drivers.
"There's far more to this job than the miles," said Jeremy Stickling, Chief Administrative Officer at Nussbaum. "We still pay per mile, but these features pay for the rest of the work, and cover drivers when trucking happens."
Rather than just paying “stop-offs” between the first pickup and final delivery, Nussbaum said it pays on every pickup and delivery, as well as drop-lot relays.
"That's exactly where the work is," Stickling said. "The guard shack, staging, hooking trailers, the paperwork, the dock. Our activity pay puts a floor under every stop."
It also helps high-volume weeks, when a driver running eight or nine shorter loads does considerably more hands-on work than a driver with two long hauls, yet logs fewer miles. Higher activity pay helps to close that gap, the company noted.
On detention time, “two hours free is the standard, and many times drivers only get paid if their company recovers the cost," Stickling noted. "Ours starts after one hour, and we pay even if we can't recover the time. The driver lost it, so they get paid. Collection is our problem, not theirs."
Nussbaum considers its weekly guarantee “one of the highest safety nets in the industry.” The $50 guarantee bump improves it even more, the company said, serving as a floor for weeks when things go sideways. It sits alongside layover and breakdown pay, plus perks like paid parking with no prior approval required.
On the company's Illuminate project, drivers run a recurring lane pairing that eats into a driver's hours-of-service clock and, in turn, their payable miles. After digging into the data, Nussbaum introduced Illuminate Loop Pay: $50 for any qualifying week, in addition to a driver's mileage and activity pay, paid automatically with no authorization request and shown as its own line on the settlement. The pay is meant to offset the productivity drop drivers see through no fault of their own, and it runs until the project wraps up.
These increases mark Nussbaum’s second major pay move in 2026. In May, Nussbaum unveiled Driver Profit Sharing in addition to boosting mileage rates, weekly guarantees, and payments for transition bonuses and its innovative Early Exit Program.
[Related: Nussbaum announces sizable driver pay increase]
Market conditions declined for carriers, shippers in July
FTR Transportation Intelligence’s monthly market conditions reports, which lag a month behind, showed that conditions for both trucking companies and shippers declined in July.
FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index for July declined to 12.4 -- a strong reading historically -- after the two most favorable months for carriers ever in May and June. Less upward pressure on freight rates was the main factor in a modest deceleration in market conditions. Partial offsets were tighter capacity and lower financing costs.
“While we still see truck freight market conditions as favorable for carriers during the two-year forecast horizon, the period of extraordinary improvement might be over,” said Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking. “The biggest wild cards remain whether pressure on foreign truck drivers and other enforcement efforts keep capacity growth in check and whether the buildout of data centers continues at its current pace into next year or beyond. If either of those situations prove to be the case -- and certainly if both do -- trucking conditions could remain robust.”
A major concern, of course, are rising diesel prices. While prices were only starting to climb by the end of July, they have since skyrocketed to all-time highs.
“Diesel prices are another concern, of course, although for much of the market they are mostly a pass-along cost,” Vise noted. “However, if spot rates were to soften while diesel prices are at a near-record level, trucking companies might find themselves with an ample supply of drivers who previously worked for failed small carriers. The result could be akin to the sharp increase in truckload employment in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
On the shipper side of the equation, the reversal of fuel cost relief in July was primarily responsible for a deterioration in FTR’s Shippers Index to -8.1 from June’s -5.4 reading.
More stable freight rates partially offset that unfavorable shift, while the contributions from capacity utilization and volume did not change much. Soaring diesel prices in August and September will push the SCI deeper into negative territory once the data is finalized, FTR noted.
“There’s nothing positive for shippers in the near term as freight-related factors -- especially rates and utilization -- are still unfavorable and diesel prices have surged to a record level, far surpassing the 2022 peak,” added Vise. “Very high fuel costs could help loosen the truck freight market over the next few quarters, although other factors would need to align to produce that result. That outcome isn’t the safest bet, but it bears watching.”
Wex intros cardless fuel payments
Fuel payments provider Wex this week announced the launch of cardless fuel payments for its over-the-road (OTR) customers, the latest in the company’s efforts to protect fleets from fraud at the pump.
The new capability lets drivers generate a secure, single-use fuel code directly in the Wex CardControl app, so they can fuel up in seconds with no physical fuel card needed across one of the largest cardless-capable fueling footprints in the industry, the company said.
Physical fuel cards can create fraud and security exposure for fleets. Lost, stolen, shared or skimmed cards can lead to unauthorized charges, driver downtime, and added administrative burden. Cardless fuel payments are designed to close those gaps, giving drivers and fleet managers a more secure way to pay at the pump.
"Fraud at the pump doesn't just cost fleets money, it costs them driver uptime and hours their teams don't have to spare replacing cards and chasing down unauthorized charges," said Tim Hampton, senior vice president and general manager for Wex OTR business. "Wex built cardless payments to reduce that exposure without asking fleets to change how they already manage spend, as it seamlessly integrates into their existing Wex card rather than replacing it."
With Wex OTR cardless, each fuel code is single-use, location-specific, and expires after a short window, virtually eliminating the exposure window a lost or stolen physical card leaves open. For fleets, cardless also simplifies the logistics of card distribution. Once new drivers receive their card, they can be authorized to fuel within minutes.
Cardless fuel codes run through a fleet's existing Wex card program, so the controls and reporting fleets already rely on carry over with zero disruption to existing workflows.
Drivers also aren't dependent on an app or data connection at the pump itself; physical cards and cardless codes can be used interchangeably, with limits shared across both.
Wex OTR cardless is live now at Pilot, One9, Love's, TA, Petro Stopping Centers, TA Express, and Maverik, with other networks rolling out through 2026.
Additionally, cardless payment functionally is available via the Wex application programming interface (API) to embed in customer apps and maintain their unique driver experience. The capability is available to Wex OTR customers at no additional cost and can be enabled by contacting a Wex account manager.
