On Wednesday, 2/11, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a Final Rule regarding CDL eligibility for non-citizens.

The rule titled, "Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Drivers Licenses", officially takes effect 30 days from the date of this ruling. Essentially, this ruling has significantly narrowed the immigrant statuses allowed to hold a CDL in the United States.

This rule could effectively push out approximately 200,000 non-citizen drivers out of commercial driving work.

FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs stated that the rule closes a "critical safety gap" that "allowed unqualified drivers with unknown driving histories to get behind the wheel of commercial vehicles. We are closing that gap today to ensure that only qualified, vetted drivers are operating on our nation's roadways. If we cannot verify your safe driving history, you cannot hold a CDL in this country."

This article also highlights a survey conducted by Overdrive in December where 70% of individuals said this ruling would likely boost rates.

Warehousing has been stuck in limbo over the last few years due to multiple external factors but seems poised for strong growth in 2026.

Due to uncertainty surrounding trade policy changes and high financing costs, warehousing has been in a rut but recent indicators show light at the end of the tunnel.

The food and beverage industry is seeing dynamic growth driven by technology and increased demand for groceries from online shoppers. Grocers are looking to increase their warehousing footprint to accommodate this growing need. Additionally due to the whirlwind of trade policy changes, the warehousing industry is seeing an increased demand for Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs) as a way to mitigate cost increases. These zones allow companies to import goods, store or manufacture them, and defer or avoid tariffs until the goods enter the domestic market.

There are still challenges ahead, in particular competition for commercial real-estate from data centers, and potential pushback from the "Not in My Backyard" (NIMBY) movement where towns and residents pushback against the encroachment of warehousing and datacenters. Despite these challenges, the outlook is positive for warehousing for the first time in a long time.

Recent data shows U.S. container imports ended 2025 in a four-month decline, likely to continue.

Inbound volumes in December dropped 6.4% from a year earlier to 1.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) after a 5.7% dip from the previous month. Industry experts point to tariffs as the primary cause for this slide.

The U.S. is now lagging behind in container growth rates compared to the rest of the world. Los Angeles, Houston, and New York all posted year-over-year declines in imports in December. As demand softens, spot container rates also continue to drop. Per Peter Sand, chief analyst at Xeneta, "The market is set to turn further in the favor of shippers rather than carriers with further softening rates."

On February 2nd, Donald Trump announced that tariffs on India will be lowered to 18%, down from 25%.

The move comes in the wake of Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi's agreement to stop buying Russian oil. Trump has spent months pressing India to cut reliance on cheap Russian crude in an effort to help end the war in Ukraine. According to Trump, India has agreed to reduce their import taxes on American goods to zero and also purchase $500 billion worth of American products.

In previous years, Koch Logistics and SOS attended these events independently but now after Koch acquired SOS earlier this year, we attended the event on February 1st together.

Connecting Point Marketing Group hosts multiple events throughout the year, their StorePoint event offers a unique opportunity to meet with retailers and supplier partners in the FF&E space. The Koch and SOS teams joined forces to engage with and present our expanded services to over thirty different executives across multiple board room meetings throughout the event.

Thank you Connecting Point Marketing Group for putting on another great event!