Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026:
- Cheaper electric trucks coming to California?
- Police recover stolen cargo, arrest alleged cargo thief.
- Ag haulers get regs relief in Midwest state.
- More truck parking along major corridor.
California bill to lower electric truck costs signed into law
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that aims to lower the cost of battery-electric commercial trucks.
SB 1213, introduced by California State Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, received unanimous support throughout the legislative process, passing each committee and both the Senate and Assembly without a single no vote before reaching Newsom’s desk.
The new law requires manufacturers to provide information on the price of vehicles as a condition of receiving state subsidies through California’s Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) and other state incentive programs, which supporters say will bring transparency to California’s clean truck market and address pricing disparity which sees U.S. trucking paying more for electric trucks.
The bill follows a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation that showed electric truck prices remain high in the U.S. and have increased, despite falling prices in Europe.
To ensure long-term market stability, the new law also directs the state to explore alternative financing models by 2028, including low-cost loans and residual value guarantees -- tools specifically designed to scale the market, encourage new manufacturing entrants, and provide the financial confidence to fleets to invest in a zero-emission future.
[Related: Overdrive's RigDig Truck History Reports back in action]
Truck driver arrested in alleged cargo theft
The Delaware State Police arrested 35-year-old Dushatdaman Parihar, of Manteca, California, after he and a partner allegedly used fraudulent documents to steal a high-value cargo shipment from a New Castle warehouse on Sept. 14.
Dushatdaman PariharDelaware State Police
The suspects reportedly identified themselves as FedEx employees and presented driver’s licenses and shipping documents for a trailer containing more than $680,000 worth of electronics. The suspects then allegedly hooked to the trailer and left the area.
A short time later, the shipping documents were determined to be fraudulent. The caller later located the tractor-trailer parked at University Plaza and called 911. While speaking with the caller, troopers observed one of the suspects, later identified as Parihar, walking toward the tractor-trailer.
Troopers contacted Parihar and determined that the driver’s licenses presented at the warehouse and the registration plate displayed on the tractor-trailer were fraudulent.
Parihar was taken into custody without incident. The trailer was recovered and returned to the business with all the cargo still inside.
Parihar was charged with the following offenses:
- Theft Where the Property Value is $100,000 or More (Felony)
- Forgery First Degree (Felony)
- Forgery Second Degree (Felony)
- Conspiracy Second Degree
- Fictitious Registration Plate
Parihar is being held on a $66,550 secured bond.
[Related: Cargo theft proliferation ups the ante on truckers' prevention]
Iowa suspends weight regs with harvest proclamation
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds declared a state of emergency in the state coinciding with the beginning of grain harvest season.
In the proclamation, Reynolds noted that “concerns over a timely harvest have resulted in large amounts of agricultural truck traffic throughout the state and has hastened the need for efficient and effective collection of the harvest.”
As a result, the declaration suspends several regulatory provisions to allow trucks transporting soybeans, corn, hay, straw, silage, stover, fertilizer (dry, liquid, and gas), manure (dry and liquid), and distillers grains to be overweight, not exceeding 90,000 pounds gross weight, without a permit.
Suspension of the provisions applies to loads transported on all highways within Iowa, excluding the interstate system, that:
- Do not exceed 90,000 pounds gross weight
- Do not exceed the maximum axle weight limit determined under the primary and non-primary highway maximum gross weight table in the Iowa Code by more than 12.5%
- Do not exceed the legal maximum axle weight limit of 20,000 pounds
- Comply with posted limits on roads and bridges
The proclamation is effective through Oct. 10.
Love’s adds 127 parking spaces along I-40 with new location
Love’s Travel Stops is expanding its footprint in Arizona with the opening of a new travel stop in Kingman, located at 3375 W. Griffith Road (Exit 37 along I-40).
The new travel stop is the company’s second in Kingman and adds 127 truck parking spaces. So far in 2026, Love’s has added 1,262 truck parking spaces across the country.
In addition to parking, the new location also provides Buffalo Wild Wings Go and Subway restaurants, nine diesel bays, six showers, a Cat Scale, laundry facilities, among other amenities.
Under Love’s Road Ahead Plan, the company also recently completed the remodels of its locations in Chickasha, Oklahoma; San Antonio, Texas; and Dublin, Georgia.
Truck drivers already have a positive opinion on truck parking in Arizona, based on Overdrive's 2025 research. The state ranked No. 8 for best parking in Overdrive's 2025 Truckers' Highway Report Card survey.
[Related: 'Fix the potholes!' Truckers' Highway Report Card Best States pave the path forward]
