Friday, October 23, 2026
The news that moves freight
Ocean Oct 23, 2026 · 7 min read

Highway certifies Samsara as its first ELD data provider

Truck location data now comes with a trust label. On 21 October, carrier-vetting platform Highway named Samsara the first ELD provider in its Highway Certified Network. An ELD is the electronic logging device that records a truck’s driving hours and location. Our view: this is the start of a two-tier market for truck data, with certified feeds on one side and everything else on the other. Highway’s commercial chief Michael Caney: “Certification is our way of separating connectivity from trust.” CargoNet counted $304.6 million in US and Canadian cargo theft losses in Q2 2026. Our call: Highway names at least two more certified ELD providers by 31 March 2027.

Brokers can now ask which truck data to trust, and Samsara got the first answer

On 21 October 2026, Highway named Samsara the first certified ELD provider in its Highway Certified Network. Highway is a Dallas-based platform that US freight brokers use to confirm a trucking company’s identity before giving it a load. An ELD, or electronic logging device, is the unit in the cab that records a driver’s hours of service. Because it is tied to the truck, it also records where that truck has been.

The network launched earlier this year with certified insurance agencies. ELD providers are its second category. Highway says more providers are expected to join.

Our view is simple. This is the start of a two-tier market for truck data. On one side sit feeds that a vetting platform has checked and stands behind. On the other sits everything else. A broker who can choose between the two will choose the certified one, and a carrier who can’t offer it will have to work harder for freight.

What Highway is actually certifying

The release is clear on the commitments and quiet on the test. Samsara committed to standards for the integrity, availability, timeliness and reliability of the vehicle and location data it supplies to Highway. Certified providers must keep their devices in good standing with the FMCSA, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates US trucking. They must also tell Highway about material regulatory or technical developments.

What the release does not do is publish the technical criteria. We don’t know how often data must arrive, what error rate is allowed, or how Highway checks it. That gap matters, and we come back to it below.

Highway’s executives framed the move around the difference between being able to connect a data feed and being able to trust it. Michael Caney, Highway’s chief commercial officer, said: “The freight industry does not have a shortage of data. It has a shortage of data you can confidently act on.” He added: “Certification is our way of separating connectivity from trust.” And: “An integration tells you two systems can talk to each other.”

Marshall Smith, who heads the Certified Network, put the broker’s view: “ELD data has become an important part of how brokers determine whether a carrier has the capability needed to haul a load.” He went on: “The trust in that signal hinges on the quality and provenance of the underlying data.”

For Samsara, Ryan Yu, vice president of telematics AI, said: “Motor carriers benefit when the systems they depend on can exchange reliable data with clear standards and accountability.”

How the data gets used

The release describes two jobs for the data. First, identity. Highway says vehicle identifiers and VIN information “can be compared against insurance and other credentialing information” to find inconsistencies. In plain terms: if the truck number on the insurance certificate doesn’t match the truck the ELD reports, something is wrong.

Second, behaviour. Current and historical location data, Highway says, can support “carrier verification, fraud detection,” shipment execution and in-transit monitoring. A carrier that claims a Chicago base but whose trucks have never been near Chicago is a red flag. So is a load that wanders off its route.

This is why the certification matters. Location history is only useful for vetting if nobody in the chain can fake it. Certification at the source is Highway’s answer to that.

Why now: theft losses and shaky devices

The market backdrop explains the timing. Verisk’s CargoNet, which tracks cargo crime, counted 677 supply chain theft incidents in the US and Canada in the second quarter of 2026, FleetOwner reported on 10 August. That was down 26% on Q2 2025 and down 14% on Q1 2026. But estimated losses rose to $304.6 million, against $135.7 million a year earlier. The average reported value of stolen goods was $564,009.

Fewer thefts, much bigger losses. That pattern points to targeted crime, not opportunism. FleetOwner’s report noted that lower cargo theft volumes do not necessarily reduce risk for carriers, brokers or shippers.

The pattern was already visible a year ago. In Q3 2025, CargoNet counted 772 incidents worth $111.88 million, and the average value per theft doubled to $336,787 from $168,448 a year before. CargoNet said then that it saw “clear evidence that cargo thieves are becoming more strategic in selecting targets.” It also described criminals who redirect shipments to fraudulent addresses without ever being given the shipment.

The devices themselves are not a sure thing either. The FMCSA keeps a list of registered ELDs. On 20 May 2026 it removed 12 devices from that list, Fleet Maintenance reported, because they “failed to meet the minimum requirements” of the federal ELD rule. Carriers had until 20 July to replace them. On 9 July the FMCSA revoked 10 more, giving carriers until 8 September. After that date, carriers still using those devices were treated as running without an ELD.

Put those facts together. Brokers are using ELD data to decide who gets a load. Some ELDs on the road have failed federal minimums. And the crime that vetting is meant to stop is costing more each quarter. A certification that requires good FMCSA standing, and puts a named provider on the hook for data quality, fills a real hole.

The catch: a trust label nobody can inspect

We like the direction. We have doubts about the detail.

First, the criteria are private. Brokers and forwarders are being asked to trust a label without seeing the test behind it. If Highway publishes the standards, the label becomes something the whole market can check. If it doesn’t, certification is only as strong as one company’s word.

Second, one provider is not a network. Samsara is a large fleet telematics company, but many small carriers, the ones brokers worry about most, run cheaper devices. Until several of those vendors are certified too, an uncertified feed will tell a broker little. It may mean fraud. It may just mean a small fleet on a budget device.

Third, certifying the data is not certifying the carrier. A clean, reliable feed from a truck shows the truck is real and where it is. It does not prove the company booking the load is the one that owns that truck. Highway’s VIN-to-insurance check is aimed at that gap, but it depends on the insurance records being right too. That is presumably why insurance agencies were certified first.

What this means for forwarders

Most international forwarders don’t vet US truckers themselves. They buy inland legs, drayage (the short truck move from port to warehouse) and cross-border moves through brokers. That makes them exposed but not in control. When a load is stolen through a fake carrier, the forwarder still has to explain it to the shipper.

Here is what we expect to change.

Broker onboarding will ask harder questions. Expect carrier packets to ask whether the ELD is connected to the broker’s vetting tool, and which provider supplies it. A certified provider will become a box to tick, then a condition for high-value freight.

Forwarders should start asking their brokers the same things. Which vetting platform do you use? Do you require a live ELD connection before tender? What happens if the location feed drops mid-route? These are fair questions to put in a procurement review or an RFQ (request for quotation) now.

High-value lanes will feel it first. Electronics, pharma, food and drink, and anything with a resale market are the loads thieves target. Brokers handling them will narrow their carrier pools to fleets with trusted data. That could tighten capacity on those lanes at the margin, and carriers that qualify may price accordingly.

Small carriers face a cost. A carrier on a budget or recently revoked device may need to switch hardware to stay in the running for premium loads. Some will. Some will drop down to cheaper freight where vetting is lighter.

Shippers and cargo insurers will notice. If certified data becomes standard in vetting, it is a short step to asking for it in contracts and claims. We would not be surprised to see shippers write data-provenance terms into broker agreements.

Our call

Highway says more ELD providers are expected to join. We think the pressure on rival telematics vendors is now real, because no vendor wants its customers’ trucks flagged as second-tier in broker vetting.

Our prediction: Highway will name at least two more certified ELD providers by 31 March 2027. If it does not, the label will stay a Samsara feature rather than a market standard, and brokers will keep treating ELD data as useful but unproven.

Sources