The Load Letter — June 4, 2026

A New World screwworm detection in Texas has the USDA racing to establish a quarantine zone, and if you cover Laredo, McAllen, or anything moving north out of South Texas, border friction is coming before the rate board tells you about it. Today's briefing covers why that quarantine ripples beyond livestock into reefer and dry van out of the Texas crossings, California citrus running hot with Dallas up 20% and Miami and New York both up 17% — the seasonal reefer playbook lighting up in real time, and freight theft hitting $18 million a day with deceptive pickups rising as the specific threat that costs you the shipper relationship, not just the load. We also get into roadside camera networks reconstructing driver trips across state lines and what honest enforcement means for effective capacity, the U.S. Bank index confirming flat volumes with surging costs as permission to stop apologizing on price, and railroads posting solid intermodal gains as a signal that cost-conscious shippers are converting long-haul van to rail — and where that leaves truck. Real capacity is shrinking. Quote like it is.