Canada's 50% tariffs hit Sept 8, and the EPA comment window closes first

Truckers have days left to comment on the EPA's proposed truck-emissions rule, which OOIDA's Land Line reports offers relief in one area while rolling back protections in another. If you want a say before the window shuts, the comment docket is worth ten minutes this week.

The other clock is at the border. Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on US imports from September 8, matching US rates on steel, dairy, appliances and agricultural equipment, according to Trucking Dive. Cross-border haulers should expect the paperwork and the freight mix on northbound lanes to shift as the date lands.

On enforcement, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance released final results from this year's International Roadcheck, tallying more than 3,800 out-of-service violations, The Trucker reports. If your brakes, tires or logbook are borderline, that is the line between rolling and sitting.

On cost, diesel stayed expensive. The national average pump price was $5.454 a gallon in the week to August 17, up 3.7% on the week and up nearly 47% on the year, per the Energy Information Administration. That is a retail average including taxes, surveyed every Monday; fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less, so read it as direction rather than what you will pay. The West Coast remained the costliest place to fill at $6.203, California at $6.785, while the Lower Atlantic was the cheapest major region at $5.204. Where you fuel still moves more money than most line items you can control.

The freight side stayed soft in July. The dry van truckload producer price index slipped 1.3% to 195.6, and less-than-truckload fell 4.6% to 293.7 -- the sharpest drop of any segment. Both are indices, not rates: they track change from a base period rather than dollars per mile and blend contract with spot business, so they turn later and more gently than the load board does.

For something that moved the driver's way: FreightWaves reports fleets are starting to treat guaranteed truck parking as a recruiting perk, after one owner-operator kept drivers by renting a $150 space five minutes from their homes. Parking that used to be your problem is becoming someone's hiring pitch.

Two more worth a glance: the US Postal Service proposed a 6% peak-season surcharge on parcels, and a Mexican trucking group is pressing US officials to clarify B-1 visa revocations affecting cross-border drivers, both via FreightWaves.