Canada Freight Briefing | Driver Jobs Fall, FMCSA Deadlines

Good morning. It's Thursday, April 30th — here's what's moving the industry today.

Canada's truck driver workforce shrank 7.3% year over year in March — the steepest decline on record from Trucking HR Canada and the lead story in an edition heavy with cross-border compliance news. Two Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) deadlines are closing in for any carrier operating with U.S. authority, including the May 14 Motus registration cutoff and new Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse identity verification rolling out now. We also have Q1 results from Canadian National Railway, C.H. Robinson earnings with a Supreme Court broker liability ruling looming, and Fortune's exclusive on a cab-less autonomous truck startup that just emerged from stealth with $24 million in backing.

Canada's truck driver workforce shrinks 7.3% year over year in March

Canada's trucking sector shed 7.3% of its truck driver workforce year over year in March, according to new data from Trucking HR Canada (THRC). Truck News has the full breakdown, with the decline representing one of the sharpest single-month drops the sector has recorded and compounding existing capacity concerns for carriers operating on both sides of the border.

Cargo theft losses hold steady despite fewer incidents in Q1

767 supply chain crime events were recorded in the first quarter of 2026 — a slight decline in volume, but with total losses nearly unchanged year over year, Land Line reports, drawing on a new CargoNet analysis. The firm attributes the persistent loss value to organized crime networks and increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics targeting freight in transit.

Five charged after $2M in stolen cannabis recovered from York Region trailer

The organized crime dimension of Canadian cargo theft sharpened into focus this week — Truck News reporting five men charged and two firearms seized after more than $2 million in stolen cannabis products were recovered from a trailer north of Toronto during a York Regional Police investigation.

Eagle Pass bridge revamps truck crossing hours to cut wait times

FreightWaves is reporting that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is changing commercial crossing hours at the Port of Eagle Pass, Texas, effective Monday, prioritising loaded freight in the morning and shifting empty truck movements to later in the day to reduce northbound congestion on one of the busiest commercial crossings on the Mexico-U.S. corridor.

Tariff refund portal problems cloud May 11 payout

Thousands of U.S. importers are running into trouble with the new online portal for duty refunds on tariffs overturned by the Supreme Court, per Transport Topics — with the first payment set to go out May 11 in a process with direct implications for Canadian exporters who had goods caught in the tariff cycle.

Regional spread is notable — Vancouver sits nearly 50 cents above the national average, while Alberta remains the cheapest market in the country by a significant margin.

Border conditions: CBP restructuring commercial crossing hours at Eagle Pass (TX/Mexico) effective Monday, May 4 — loaded freight prioritised in morning windows.

FMCSA's Motus registration system: carriers have until May 14

Land Line has the most detailed breakdown of what FMCSA's new Motus registration system requires ahead of its launch: entities with a USDOT number or operating authority must confirm their FMCSA Portal account is active and registration information is current before the May 14 cutoff. The requirement applies to Canadian carriers with U.S. operating authority — and given that FMCSA has framed Motus explicitly as a security measure against fraudulent access, non-compliance could carry consequences for operating status.

State Department resumes commercial truck driver visa processing — under stricter standards

Commercial truck driver visa applications are moving again after eight months of regulatory overhaul, FreightWaves confirmed on April 23, though under stricter criteria than the system in place before the Trump administration overhauled how foreign nationals obtain commercial driver's licences (CDLs) in the U.S. The resumption has direct implications for cross-border driver supply and for Canadian carriers relying on foreign-national drivers on U.S.-side operations.

FMCSA expands identity checks to Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse

New identity-verification requirements for the FMCSA's Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse are now rolling out, Transport Topics reports, aimed at curbing fraud in the database covering 3.8 million commercial drivers. The changes tighten a system that all U.S.-operating carriers — including Canadian cross-border operators — are required to use for driver hiring and return-to-duty processes.

Humble emerges from stealth with cab-less autonomous truck and $24M seed round

Fortune had the exclusive on Humble, a San Francisco startup that emerged from stealth with a $24 million seed round led by Eclipse — with Energy Impact Partners also participating — and a fully electric, cabless autonomous freight vehicle called the Humble Hauler. Designed for 40- and 53-foot containers and built for dock-to-dock operation, the vehicle's cab-free architecture enables 360-degree sensor coverage across cameras, LiDAR, and radar, while freeing additional payload capacity. The company was founded by Eyal Cohen, who helped build Otto, the company behind the first autonomous freight delivery by semi-truck in 2016.

Nivalis acquires SolarEdge e-Mobility to expand electric reefer business

Nivalis Energy Systems has acquired SolarEdge e-Mobility in a move aimed at accelerating electric refrigerated trailer adoption across North America and Europe, Truck News reports. The deal gives the Canadian company access to additional electric drivetrain technology at a moment when fleet demand for zero-emission reefer solutions is building on both sides of the border.

CN Railway profit falls in Q1; shares post steepest drop since 2021

Canadian National Railway reported lower first-quarter profits despite higher overall freight volumes, with revenue falling short of expectations — and the share reaction was sharp. What carriers had been watching for was confirmed by Transport Topics: CN's shares dropped the most in more than four years following the result, a reading the market is treating as a signal about broader cross-border freight demand given the railway's role in Canada-U.S. intermodal freight flows.

C.H. Robinson posts Q1 earnings beat — but the Supreme Court may matter more

C.H. Robinson's non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $1.35 for the first quarter, up from $1.17 a year ago — a beat in a difficult quarter for brokers navigating the classic squeeze between higher spot rates and lower contract rates. FreightWaves reports that the looming Supreme Court ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II dominated the company's earnings call, with a broker liability decision that could force the entire 3PL industry to overhaul how it selects and documents carrier vetting.

The Supreme Court case now before the court could fundamentally change who pays when a broker-selected carrier causes a crash — and C.H. Robinson, which took the case all the way to the nation's highest court, used its Q1 earnings call to make clear that the stakes are industry-wide. At the heart of Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II is a question the freight brokerage sector has long wanted resolved, and may not like the answer to. It's the most consequential legal question in trucking right now for anyone who moves freight through a third party. Read the full analysis at FreightWaves.

U.S. truck freight generates $906 billion in annual revenue, according to the American Trucking Associations — a figure that helps explain why venture capital continues to flow into autonomous trucking even as commercial deployment remains years away for most players in the sector.