Trucking news and briefs for Monday, July 28, 2025:
New legislation would establish national autonomous trucking framework
U.S. Rep. Vince Fong (R-California) last week introduced the AMERICA DRIVES Act, which would establish a national framework for autonomous vehicle (AV) trucking.
The AMERICA DRIVES Act, which stands for the "Autonomous Mobility Ensuring Regulation, Innovation, Commerce, and Advancement Driving Reliability in Vehicle Efficiency and Safety Act," aims to create a national standard for autonomous truck development and deployment to preempt state regulation of autonomous vehicles and prevent a patchwork of state-by-state regulations.
According to a press release from Fong’s office, there are currently 35 states that allow some form of autonomous truck testing or deployment, while others have imposed restrictive or conflicting regulations.
Notably the bill would allow commercial motor vehicles equipped with Level 4 or Level 5 automated driving system (ADS) to operate in interstate commerce without a human driver on board or a remote human operator. Both Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous vehicles are capable of operating fully autonomously.
The move follows legislators attempting to include somewhat similar federal preemption of state regulation of all manner of automated systems in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" budget legislation. A survey of Overdrive readers, released this past Friday, showed high degrees of disfavor with the regulatory approach. A majority of readers viewed truly driverless automated trucks on public roads either too risky for cyberattacks/remote manipulation or one big accident away from being banned entirely.
[Related: Driverless-truck tech: Owner-operators worry over cyberattacks, crashes, competition]
Rep. Fong's introduced legislation would also direct the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to update rules by 2027 for ADS-equipped vehicles, exempt fully autonomous trucks from human-specific requirements (such as hours of service and drug testing), prohibit regulations that uniquely burden ADS vehicles and more.
The bill would also codify that a flashing, cab-mounted warning beacon may be used instead of warning triangles for disabled commercial vehicles, aligning with a 2023 FMCSA exemption request that was denied in December 2024.
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where it would need to pass before moving to the full House.
The legislation is mentioned in this week's edition of Overdrive Radio also featuring the Senate trucking-issues hearing last week that broached the subject of driverless-truck regulation:
DAT to purchase Convoy Platform tech and integrate in DAT One
The Convoy Platform adds automation and digital freight-matching technology to DAT's product portfolio, the company said. "Together, we will give customers a better, broader freight-matching network, the ability to manage more loads and capture incrementally more business, and ultimately more choice," said DAT President and CEO Jeff Clementz.
DAT plans to integrate the Convoy Platform into its DAT One product, allowing brokers and more than 30,000 Convoy Platform carrier users to access both automated and hands-on freight-matching options. In addition to loads, carriers use the platform to help manage paperwork, receive payments, and more, the companies added.
In under a year, DAT has acquired competitor Trucker Tools as well as factoring company Outgo. Convoy engineers, product experts, and operations professionals will continue to be led by Bill Driegert, the company said, who will join DAT’s leadership team.
[Related: Convoy back in court: Hundreds of carriers seek $2.6M in unpaid loads]
FTR: Trucking conditions strong in May
Market conditions for trucking companies in May were at their strongest since February 2022, according to the latest Trucking Conditions Index lookback from FTR Transportation Intelligence.
FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index for May rose to 3.56, up from April’s reading of -0.81, which was roughly in line with the two months prior.
While May’s TCI was strong it also probably was an outlier, the firm noted. The near-term outlook is for negative or near-neutral market conditions for carriers.
“The unusually robust TCI reading in May -- certainly by the standards of the past couple of years -- speaks more to the volatility of market conditions than it does improvement,” said Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking. “The index’s largest positive factor was falling diesel prices, which was not the situation in June or July, of course." Fuel hit its highest national average in more than a year just last week. "Nor do we expect May’s big improvement in freight volume to be sustained.”
Vise added that uncertainty around tariffs and other market impacts “make it difficult to get a firm read on the truck freight market’s trajectory. We still expect the start of a modestly more favorable market for carriers by early next year, but, frankly, we still see significant risks both to the upside and downside.”
