What Freight Operators Should Actually Be Watching

Sean Dehan breaks down Truckstop strategy and the freight market view on FW Today. Truckstop Chief Operating & Strategy Officer Sean Dehan joins FreightWaves to talk through what he’s seeing in the market, how strategy is shifting and what matters for freight operators right now. Straight discussion, no filler. #FreightWaves #Truckstop #FreightMarket

Spot market load volume on Truckstop’s platform is tracking roughly 20% above year-ago levels in September, with flatbed freight posting its strongest year-over-year gains since 2008 — surpassing even the COVID-era surge — according to Sean Dehan, COO and Chief Strategy Officer of Truckstop. Dehan made the remarks in an interview on FreightWaves Today, offering a data-forward read on a market defined by diverging segment performance, persistent cost pressure, and mounting legal uncertainty for brokers.

Dehan said spot overflow is the clearest signal of tightening conditions. With roughly two-thirds of September complete at the time of the interview, Truckstop’s platform was already up 15% year over year, putting the full-month figure on pace for about 20%. “We’re about 15% year over year in September, and we’re about two-thirds of the way through September,” Dehan said. “So I’d expect us to be somewhere around 20% year over year up on load volume in September.”

The flatbed segment is the standout, fueled largely by data center construction and broader AI infrastructure investment. Dehan said those drivers have pushed Truckstop’s flatbed volumes to levels not seen since 2008, eclipsing the COVID spike. Van and reefer, by contrast, are telling a capacity story more than a demand story. Some shippers facing proposed contract rate increases of 10% to 15% on linehaul box freight are at least exploring intermodal alternatives, though Dehan noted that even if intermodal doubled its share, it would remain a small fraction of the overall truckload market — and drayage capacity is already tight.

“Really being ignorant to the data is not going to be a defense in the court of law that you had a reasonable standard of care,” Dehan said, explaining why broker customers are now demanding more carrier safety data than ever before.

On costs, Dehan said carriers are seeing margin pressure from multiple directions. Insurance premiums have risen 10% to 20% annually for four or five successive years, and diesel prices have reached record levels — including, Dehan noted, a first-ever $10-per-gallon reading in California. Spot carriers have some natural buffer because spot rates adjust faster than contract fuel surcharges, but prolonged fuel increases can still erode margins, particularly on unfamiliar lanes.

Dehan framed the broader rate environment through an internal Truckstop chart that plots actual dry van linehaul rates against an inflation-adjusted baseline starting around 2005, using a 3% annual inflation assumption. After years of running below that line, rates have only recently climbed back to it. “All we’ve really done after going way below that average adjusted inflation line is we finally have gotten back to it — we’re just barely above it,” he said, adding that regulatory and safety-compliance frameworks have effectively re-baselined the market to an inflationary rate floor.

The interview also covered the legal fallout from the Montgomery and Lupus decisions affecting freight brokerage liability. Dehan said Montgomery was the “shot over the bow” but the Lupus case — which raised the question of whether a carrier using a C.H. Robinson app could be considered a borrowed employee of the brokerage — was “the actual cannonball that hit the ship.” He said larger, compliance-ready brokers view the new environment as a potential competitive advantage, but warned that basic broker practices such as requiring carrier tracking could expose firms to claims of operational control over drivers. Dehan said Truckstop is developing tools to let carriers proactively share their own safety data with brokers, shifting vetting from a one-sided surveillance model to a more collaborative process.

• Truckstop’s platform is tracking roughly 20% above year-ago spot load volumes in September, with flatbed year-over-year gains at their highest since 2008, surpassing even COVID-era peaks.
• Carrier insurance premiums have risen 10%–20% annually for four to five consecutive years, and diesel hit a record $10 per gallon in California, squeezing margins even as spot rates improve.
• Post-Montgomery and Lupus rulings, broker customers are demanding more carrier safety data; Truckstop expects carriers to begin proactively sharing internal safety processes to stand out in vetting.

This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.