March was a reminder that carriers are now operating under pressure from several directions at once: rising costs, operational disruption, tighter border controls, and growing scrutiny around emissions and compliance.
Section 01Fuel pressure is back where it hurts most: margins
Across parts of Europe, diesel prices rose sharply again, putting immediate pressure on already thin carrier margins. In Italy, for example, diesel was reported up roughly 24% since the end of February, while haulage rates fell from around €2 per kilometre to €1.6 and, in extreme cases, even to €1.1. For many small and mid sized carriers, that is not a difficult month. It is a margin crisis.
For carriers, the practical lesson is simple: a tender that rewards only the lowest price per kilometre, without any fuel adjustment logic, can quickly become loss making when market conditions move faster than contract terms.
Section 02Protest action is not just political noise. It affects capacity
That pressure did not stay theoretical. In France, dozens of lorries and tractors staged a slow moving protest east of Paris over rising fuel costs, and wider mobilisation has also been reported across European road haulage networks.
For transport buyers, this matters operationally. When drivers are stuck in protests, rerouting around blockades, or delaying departures because economics no longer work, capacity is no longer fully available, even if the trucks technically still exist. Carrier cost pressure should be treated as a service risk issue, not only as a procurement issue.
Section 03Borders are becoming more digital and less flexible
At the same time, the EU Entry / Exit System (EES) is moving into full operation. The European Commission states that the system became operational in rollout form on 12 October 2025 and becomes fully operational on 10 April 2026, replacing passport stamping with digitally recorded entries, exits, refusals of entry, and biometric registration for non-EU nationals entering for short stays.
For operators using non-EU drivers, this is not just a border policy headline. It means driver movement, legal stay periods, and border formalities become more system driven and less dependent on informal tolerance or manual interpretation. Route planning, documentation, and scheduling discipline will matter more.
Section 04Emissions reporting is becoming more comparable
Another important shift is happening around transport emissions. The Count Emissions EU file is designed to create a common method for calculating greenhouse gas emissions from transport services, and the EU institutions have explicitly linked that framework to EN ISO 14083.
This does not mean every carrier faces an overnight compliance shock. It does mean the market is moving toward a common language for transport emissions, one that will make figures easier to compare across providers, customers, and tenders. Over time, that raises the bar for how environmental claims are presented and defended.
Section 05What all of this adds up to
None of these developments exists in isolation. Rising fuel costs, protest action, tighter border procedures, and more standardised emissions calculations all affect the same transport ecosystem, and they all increase the cost of uncertainty.
Trusted Carrier Logistik GmbH CEO and Founder Karlheinz Toni puts it this way:
“"March made one thing very clear: volatility is no longer the exception. Carriers are being asked to absorb cost pressure, compliance pressure, and operational risk at the same time. That is exactly why reliable partner verification matters. If you can trust who you work with, you can focus on keeping your fleet moving and your business stable."”
For carriers, the takeaway is simple: resilience now depends on more than trucks and rates. It depends on pricing discipline, compliance readiness, and partner quality.
Section 06Fraud focus: phantom carriers are easier to stop before pickup than after loss
Fighting phantom carrier fraud after the act is too late. By the time a shipment is missing, the cargo is gone, the claims process has started, and legal clarity is often limited.
The pattern is familiar. A fake or hijacked carrier identity looks legitimate on paper, wins a load, picks up the freight, and disappears. The Santo Tequila case, analysed by OpenCorporates, is a useful example: the shipment passed through several hands in a classic double brokering chain until a non-existent carrier inserted itself, took control of the cargo, and vanished.
The broader lesson is not unique to logistics. In financial crime prevention, firms have increasingly moved from retrospective investigation to real time monitoring, layered controls, and risk based intervention before losses settle. Recent Hong Kong Monetary Authority actions, for example, emphasise stronger anti fraud systems and controls rather than relying only on after the fact review.
Logistics still too often works the old way: manual document checks, siloed tools, rushed onboarding, and deeper scrutiny only once something feels wrong. That leaves a wide opening for phantom carriers, especially where there is urgency, fragmented communication, and little visibility across subcontracting chains.
A preventive model would turn that around:
- verify carrier identity before pickup,
- cross check against trusted registers and insurance sources,
- re-check critical data continuously rather than only at onboarding,
- make suspicious changes visible early enough to stop the handover.
As our CFO Gert-Jan Wunderink says:
“"In fintech, we learned that fraud is not a post mortem exercise. If you investigate only after the money is gone, you are already too late. In logistics, the same principle applies: if you verify only after the load disappears, you are solving yesterday problem."”
The companies that reduce fraud most effectively are usually not the ones that investigate best after a theft. They are the ones that make the theft much harder to execute in the first place.
Section 07Trusted Carrier news: where we have been, and what we are hearing
March was our out of the office, in the real world month, and the message we heard was consistent.
At BASF Carrier Day, one theme came up again and again: reliability must be verifiable. Shippers are no longer satisfied with broad assurances. They want to know who is actually moving their loads, how partner quality is checked, and how risk is managed in real time.
At LogiMAT 2026, the appetite for digital tools was obvious. But in many of the quieter conversations, the reality sounded less glamorous: spreadsheets, email chains, urgent phone calls, and too much manual checking. What resonated most strongly were not more dashboards, but practical ways to make partner networks more transparent and more trustworthy without creating extra admin work.
That confirmed something we believe strongly:
“The next step in logistics is not more noise. It is better trust infrastructure.”
Section 08Where you can meet us next
23 April. Webinar with the national operator association
A joint online webinar focused on phantom carrier fraud, real time carrier verification, and what preventive risk management can look like in practice for carriers, shippers, and forwarders. Date: 23 April 2026. Time: 14:00 CET. Format: online.
27 April. Industry round table, Frankfurt
Our CEO, Karlheinz Toni, will join a round table on how road transport can remain economically viable as expectations around compliance and sustainability continue to rise.
28 April. Automotive supply chain dialogue, Frankfurt
Karlheinz Toni will also speak about supply chain resilience in the automotive sector, including the operational impact of ghost carriers and how stronger verification can reduce risk without slowing transport down.
If you join us online or in person, bring your toughest questions. These topics need practical answers, not abstract slogans.
Section 09Product update: real time carrier verification, now open to more of Europe
Cargo theft and phantom carrier fraud are no longer isolated anecdotes. Across Europe, they are increasingly treated as structural risks that affect lanes, insurance discussions, partner selection, and daily operations.
That is why we are taking Trusted Carrier real time carrier verification solution to the broader European market now.
“Our goal is simple: help you know who is really moving your load before the truck reaches the ramp.”
No folders full of PDFs. No detective work after a loss. No complicated integration project. Just a fast, clear verification process designed to reduce manual work and lower fraud risk before the handover happens.
To make it easier to test, we are opening a limited offer. If you complete your first verification with Trusted Carrier in April or May 2026, you can use the platform for your driver or subcontractor verification for free for one full year.
We want dispatchers, planners, freight forwarders, and shippers to experience what a faster, more reliable verification process looks like in practice.
Stay close to what is next at Trusted Carrier: product updates, concrete fraud cases, and practical insights from the road transport market. If this edition was useful, feel free to share it with your network.
Your Trusted Carrier team. 💚