Your business runs on people who are almost never in the building. A driver on I-35 has a phone, a tablet, an electronic logging device, and a signal that comes and goes by county. Dispatch is juggling a board, a phone, and an inbox. Somewhere in between, a rate confirmation arrives by email and a load gets covered. It works because your people are good at it, not because the technology is elegant.
That scattered setup is exactly what makes trucking an appealing target, and criminals have noticed. One note before the practical part: this is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Driver hours rules, device requirements, and recordkeeping obligations depend on your operation and change over time, so confirm what applies to you with FMCSA or a qualified compliance advisor. Here is how we think about the technology side.
Your Drivers Are Remote Workers With the Worst Connectivity
Office remote workers get talked about constantly. Drivers rarely do, even though they face every remote work problem plus a few of their own: intermittent coverage, devices living in a hot cab, public Wi-Fi at truck stops, and nobody to walk over to for help.
- Assume the connection will drop. Anything a driver depends on should work offline and sync later. A tool needing constant signal will fail somewhere between Amarillo and nowhere.
- Treat truck stop Wi-Fi as public. Fine for streaming. Not for reaching company systems unprotected.
- Cellular data beats free Wi-Fi. A data plan on company devices removes the temptation and costs less than one bad incident.
- Make getting help easy. A driver who cannot reach support quickly will work around the problem, and the workaround becomes permanent.
Logging Devices and Dispatch Systems Are Now on Your Network
Electronic logging devices came into most fleets as a compliance purchase, and many carriers have never thought about them as network equipment. They are. FMCSA states that the ELD rule “applies to most motor carriers and drivers who are currently required to maintain records of duty status,” and that the carrier is responsible for checking that its device is registered, including “checking both the registration and revocation list periodically.” FMCSA also notes that “a motor carrier must retain a driver’s ELD records in a manner that protects driver privacy.” That is a technology obligation as much as a paperwork one. Those records live in a system, that system has logins, and those logins are your responsibility.
- Check the registration list periodically. FMCSA puts that on the motor carrier, not the vendor, so put it on a recurring calendar.
- Limit who can see driver records. Log data belongs to people whose job requires it.
- Inventory the connected systems. Logging platform, dispatch software, telematics, cameras, maintenance. Most carriers cannot name them all from memory.
- Ask each vendor two questions. Where does our data live, and who at your company can access it?
Tablets and Phones in the Cab
Devices in trucks get treated as tools, not computers. But they hold customer information, delivery addresses, signatures, photos of paperwork, and a live connection to dispatch. They also get dropped, traded between drivers, and occasionally stolen at a truck stop. The Federal Trade Commission’s August 2023 guidance “Start with Security” applies here as well as anywhere: limit access based on the parameters of a particular task rather than handing out all-access credentials.
- Require a passcode and encryption. Both are built into current devices and take minutes to turn on.
- Be able to wipe a device remotely. A basic device management service does this and is affordable for small fleets.
- Each driver logs in as themselves. Shared logins make it impossible to know whose account did what.
- Close accounts when someone leaves. The device usually comes back. The account often stays open.
- Decide on personal use up front. A written rule is kinder than an argument afterward.
Load and Rate Confirmation Fraud by Email
Read this section twice. In a public service announcement titled “Cyber-Enabled Strategic Cargo Theft Surging,” numbered I-043026-PSA and published April 30, 2026, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center described criminals who “impersonate and spoof brokers via email, sending links for a carrier broker agreement” using shortened, spoofed web addresses leading to phishing sites that distribute malware, giving attackers what the FBI called “total, undetected access to the brokers’ or carriers’ systems.”
It gets more specific. The FBI reported that after compromising accounts, threat actors “impersonate brokers using compromised carrier accounts to post additional fake loads,” and that criminals “change the legitimate carrier’s contact information with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and update insurance information” to authorize shipments they otherwise could not take. Victims often do not realize it until brokers call about missing loads booked under their authority.
The FBI’s recommended mitigations are refreshingly practical. Carriers and brokers should “independently verify shipment requests and pickups using secondary methods prior to releasing any loads” and should “implement multi-channel verification to prevent criminal infiltration.” In plain terms: never trust a single channel. If a rate confirmation, a pickup instruction, or a banking change arrives by email, confirm it by phone using a number you already had, not one from the message. These emails are convincing on purpose, a subject we covered in the surge in phishing attacks and why blocking them remains a challenge.
Cargo Theft Now Has a Keyboard Attached
The old picture of cargo theft was a trailer disappearing from a lot. The version the FBI described in that April 2026 advisory starts on a computer. Someone gets into an email or load board account, borrows a real carrier’s identity, and the freight is handed over willingly to a driver holding paperwork that looks correct.
- Lock down email first. Multi-factor authentication on every account touching dispatch, billing, or load boards is the highest value hour you will spend.
- Watch your own carrier records. The FBI noted criminals altering carrier contact and insurance details. Periodically confirm your listed information is still yours.
- Give staff permission to slow down. Urgency is the tool being used against them. Verifying a load is never a performance problem.
- Document the handoff. The FBI recommends maintaining thorough documentation at pickup, including photos of drivers, licenses, vehicles, license plates, and Department of Transportation and motor carrier numbers.
Keeping the Office Running When Everything Is Scattered
Freight does not pause because your systems are down. If dispatch loses access, drivers keep driving, customers keep calling, and detention keeps accruing. The carriers that handle a bad day well decided in advance what happens. If you are weighing whether to build that capability in house or bring in help, we covered the tradeoffs in why more businesses are outsourcing IT and what to look for in a partner.
- Keep a printed contact list. Drivers, customers, key vendors. If it only lives inside the system that is down, it does not exist.
- Decide who dispatches from a phone. Name the person and confirm they can actually do it.
- Test a restore of dispatch and billing data. Untested backups fail at the worst moment.
- Write the driver message in advance. One clear text beats forty phone calls when the board goes dark.
The Bottom Line
Trucking has always run on trust between people who cannot see each other. That is the strength of the industry and, right now, the thing being exploited. The fixes are not complicated: multi-factor authentication on email and load board accounts, verification by a second channel before any load or payment change, real management of the devices in cabs, and a written plan for the day the office systems stop. As noted at the top, this is general information rather than legal or compliance advice, so confirm your obligations with FMCSA or a qualified compliance advisor.
We work with logistics and trucking operations around Denton County and the wider DFW area, and we know nothing can stop for a technology project. If you want a straightforward look at your dispatch systems, driver devices, and email security, we are glad to help. Contact us today.
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