Originally published at: Fuller, Adamo clash over freight recession, CDL enforcements, trucking outlook - FreightWaves
FreightWaves’ Craig Fuller and DAT’s Ken Adamo recently debated freight demand, CDL enforcement and whether automation will define the industry’s future.
Is camouflaging rate-boosting capacity trims in terms of language skills and home address labeled ‘safety concerns’ really the best look for our FMCSA?
In the recent FreightWaves–DAT debate, the stark difference between Ken Adamo’s data-driven analysis and Craig Fuller’s media-driven narrative could not have been clearer. Both men are sharp observers of the freight economy, but they approach the industry from fundamentally different vantage points. Adamo grounds his conclusions in signals emerging from the marketplace itself — volumes, rates, tender rejection behavior, capacity counts. Fuller, by contrast, tends to frame the market through FreightWaves’ cyclical storytelling, emphasizing dramatic swings and crisis rhetoric to drive attention. It sells advertising.
On key issues, Adamo’s temperate, disciplined interpretation aligns far more closely with real-world conditions.
- Oversupply Still Defines Today’s Freight Market
Adamo’s core argument is simple: The freight recession is demand-driven, not capacity-driven.
His point is validated by the market. Rates remain depressed because the industry remains structurally oversupplied. If a meaningful number of drivers or carriers were being removed from the system, capacity would tighten and spot prices would rise. They have not. Even incremental “melting up,” as Fuller calls it, does not signal structural tightening — only momentary volatility.
Adamo’s view reflects the actual data: imports are soft, retail spending is muted, and industrial production remains uneven. This is not a collapse of capacity. It is a collapse of freight demand. In short, the freight market is depressed by too many carriers and brokers chasing too few shipments.
- Claims About Non-English-Speaking or Unqualified Drivers Are Overstated
Fuller argues that 10% to 40% of the U.S. driver workforce cannot meet English language proficiency standards. That range has no factual basis. The U.S. DOT Census File, the largest dataset on carrier composition, supports a far narrower and more realistic estimate: approximately 5% to 10% of commercially licensed drivers are either non-English proficient or operating with language limitations. This is still a meaningful concern — but data matters. When rhetoric replaces measurement, policy risks lurching into overcorrection. The industry needs accurate numbers, not panic.
- There Is No Driver Shortage — Only a Compensation Problem.
On this point, Adamo and Fuller both nodded in the right direction, but it deserves sharper articulation: There is no driver shortage when drivers are paid a living wage.
The “shortage” emerges only when wages are suppressed, freight rates are gutted, and working conditions deteriorate. When compensation rises, qualified drivers appear — because trucking has never lacked for capable talent. It has only lacked for sustainable economics.
The real culprit is the industry’s self-inflicted race to the bottom:
- Brokers chasing margin with sub-cost rates
- Carriers underpricing lanes to keep their wheels turning
- Shippers demanding bottom-dollar pricing despite rising complexity
- A deregulated market that rewards instability
- And technology-driven marketplaces that prioritize liquidity over quality
Until sustainable freight rates reflect the true cost of safe, professional transportation, no amount of enforcement or automation will correct the labor imbalance.
- Data Must Drive the Policy Conversation
Adamo’s approach — careful, grounded, and informed — stands out at a time when much of the freight commentary space thrives on tension and sensationalism. The industry needs more voices arguing from data and fewer pushing narratives that inflate risk or distort scale.
The freight recession is real. Fraud is real. Immigration inconsistencies are real. But none of these issues can be solved through media hyperbole or exaggerated claims.
The path forward requires:
- Data-driven analysis (Adamo’s strength)
- Accurate risk assessment
- Realistic policy grounded in measurable conditions
- And, most critically, freight rates that allow carriers to pay drivers fairly
If the industry truly wants safe, qualified, English-proficient drivers and stable capacity, it must abandon the decades-long economic free-fall that undercuts every effort to build a professional workforce.
In freight, as in any market, you get what you pay for.