FreightWaves Today: Mergers, fraud rings and the mid-June rate pause

Rail: Bipartisan push for rigorous UP-SP merger review The bipartisan House Appropriations Committee added language to its fiscal 2027 transportation appropriations bill urging the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to apply strict scrutiny to the proposed $72 billion Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger.

If evaluated under the STB’s rigorous 2001 rules, the merger –which would create the first all-freight transcontinental railroad– must prove it enhances shipper options rather than just preserving current competition.

While the STB conditionally accepted the application in late May, it has requested additional information from Union Pacific by July 27 before starting its formal review.

Event Logistics: Rock-It Cargo coordinates the ‘most complex’ World Cup Daniel Rosenthal, CEO of Rock-It Companies, detailed the monumental challenge of managing logistics for the 2026 FIFA World Cup –an event he describes as the most complex in the sport’s history.

With the tournament expanding to 48 teams playing 104 matches across 16 venues in three countries, Rock-It is leveraging proprietary master delivery scheduling technology and its asset-light network to process roughly 1,500 highly time-sensitive shipments a day.

Drawing on its legacy of moving touring gear for three-quarters of the global music industry, the company is managing everything from teams’ bespoke training gear crossing international borders to the specialized broadcast infrastructure supporting 150 international networks. Cargo security: Eight indicted in $4.

49M carrier impersonation ring In a major victory for cargo security, federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted eight individuals accused of running a massive carrier impersonation scheme. Operating across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the group allegedly stole $4.

49 million in freight –including copper, beef and cigarettes– by using legitimate motor carriers’ MC and DOT numbers to trick warehouses. Once loaded, the stolen cargo was allegedly moved to New York City, transferred to secondary vehicles and sold off.

Air logistics: FedEx partnering with China Southern to expand Asia-Pacific footprint FedEx Corporate has signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with the air cargo division of China Southern Airlines to optimize their collective networks in Asia.

The collaboration will target capacity sharing, ground operations, hub connections and digitalization to improve network efficiency. This alliance aligns with FedEx’s major expansion of its Guangzhou hub, a project slated for completion next year that will double the facility’s terminal footprint and triple hourly sorting capacity.

Regulation: FMCSA Registration Glitch Halts New Carrier Entrants The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new “Modus” carrier registry has hit a major roadblock, completely failing to register a single carrier in the three weeks since its launch.

Designed to curb chameleon carriers and rampant registration fraud, the system’s extended outage has drawn intense complaints across social media.

However, analysts speculate this complete freeze on new entrants might actually act as a “feature, not a bug” for the health of the broader freight market by blocking new capacity and preventing fraudulent credential transfers.

Spot Rates: The mid-June rate dip is a seasonal pause, not a systemic drop Despite reports of capacity loosening over the weekend, history suggests that the current dip is nothing more than a seasonal pause typical of the second week of June.

Rates are expected to tighten significantly as end-of-month and end-of-quarter shipping volumes collide with the pre-July 4th holiday rush. With tender rejections currently sitting just below 18%, analysts are confident that the metric will breach the 20% threshold before the year is out.

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