The old keys still open everything
Motive tightened new API keys on Sep 28. Every key made before then kept broad access.
Good morning. Last week we promised the keys: every app connected to your ELD holds one. Here is what those keys can open, and the fifteen minutes it takes to take one back.
§ The Cold Open
On September 28, Motive changed how its API keys work. New keys must name their permissions, expire within six months, and can be fenced to a group of trucks. Before, Motive says, keys "were created with broad access by default."
The catch is in the last paragraph:
"Existing API keys remain functional with their current broad compatibility."
— Motive developer changelog, Sep 28, 2026
The new rules apply only to keys made after the change. A key you pasted into a broker's onboarding page two years ago still opens what it always did.
§ Three Signals
1. FMCSA said no to paper logs.
On September 30 FMCSA denied the Federation of Professional Truckers' request to let drivers run paper logs instead of ELDs. The agency "cannot grant a blanket exemption for any driver or carrier that wishes to be exempt," despite 901 comments, most from individuals in favour.
What to do: plan on the ELD staying. One more device left the registry on September 28, Rollingtrans RT ELD Plus (RTPS12). Check yours by identifier, not by brand.
2. Texas lifted dyed-diesel penalties and raised weights, for some loads.
Governor Abbott's September 28 disaster declaration covers all 254 counties. It suspends state dyed-diesel penalties (not the tax) and allows 95,000 pounds for fuel, farm and timber loads.
What to do: read it narrowly. By our reading the federal penalty for dyed fuel on the highway still applies, and the weight relief likely stops short of the Interstate. Check the permit before you load heavy.
3. About 1,000 non-domiciled CDLs a month are coming off the rolls.
FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs told truckers in Washington on October 2 that "around 1,000 or so a month" of the licences "issued improperly" are being removed. The D.C. Circuit still hasn't ruled on the rule itself.
What to do: if a driver on your roster holds one, know the renewal date and the document it was issued against. Don't wait for a court date.
§ The Market Read
Diesel: $6.382/gal, down 14.7¢ (EIA weekly, Sep 28)
Dry van spot: $2.17/mi, linehaul, fuel excluded (DAT weekly, week ending Sep 25)
Contract over spot: 22¢/mi (DAT, August, linehaul)
Dry van load-to-truck: 11.40 (DAT weekly, week ending Sep 25)
The Call. Diesel fell for the first time in a month, 14.7¢ off the record. A surcharge has to follow it down as well as up, so a table still built on $6.529 is now overcharging, and a shipper who checks will ask. Contract is holding 22¢ over spot.
Indicative figures. Not a substitute for paid intelligence.
Run your own: fuel.freightsignal.ai. The surcharge math is free and needs no account; pricing your own lane needs a Google sign-in (name and email only). Fuel Signal is ours (Logixtecs).
§ The Deep Dive: what each key can open
Three ELD vendors, three designs:
Motive. New keys name their permissions. Keys from before September 28 don't.
Samsara. A marketplace app gets admin:read or admin:write ("full read/write access"). Samsara's own instructions for third-party tokens are Global Read, or Global Read plus Global Write. Tokens can be cut narrow. Most aren't.
Geotab. No separate key at all. An integration is a user account with a security clearance, and Geotab's docs say that if a lower clearance lacks a feature, "assign the Administrator clearance."
Broker tracking runs on the same keys. Motive's is switched on once per carrier and stays on. MacroPoint and Trucker Tools say they pull location only for the load. That is a promise about what they do, not a limit on the key you gave them.
The law doesn't help here. 49 U.S.C. 31137(e) limits how the government uses ELD data; nothing in it governs the apps. Your one duty, §395.22(i)(2), is to protect drivers' privacy "consistent with sound business practices."
Two more things to know. Revoking stops future access only. Motive: "Check with the app provider for their retention policies." And Motive's engine-immobilizer permission is checked "when scopes are configured for the calling key." Old keys have none configured.
If you run immobilizers, ask Motive in writing what an old key can do.
§ Tool of the Week: the 15-minute key audit
Verdict: ADOPT · Type: three admin screens · Effort: 15 minutes · Risk: an integration stops syncing
First, list every outside company that sees your trucks: brokers' tracking, factoring, fuel card, TMS, insurance. Then open the screens.
Motive: Marketplace → Manage → Installed Apps. Then Admin → Developers → API Access.
Samsara: Settings → Apps → My Apps. Then Settings → API Tokens.
Geotab: People → Users & Drivers, then each account's security clearance.
Flag:
anything you can't match to your list
any Motive key from before September 28
any write or "manage" permission on an app that only reads
any immobilizer permission
any key named after someone who left
Replace before you revoke, and tell the partner first. Their tracking stops when you do.
§ On the Horizon: Torc
Stage: driver-out on a closed course (Oct 2024) · Backers: Daimler Truck subsidiary · Lands first: I-35, Dallas–Laredo, 2027 target
Torc has said since 2023 that it will run commercial driverless trucks in 2027, starting on I-35 between Dallas–Fort Worth and Laredo, in Freightliner Cascadias built with redundant systems. The last driver-out run it has made public was on a closed course in October 2024.
On October 1 it wrote that "third party endorsement of the safety case is one of the gating criteria for driverless deployment." Kodiak's 93% is self-scored. Kodiak, meanwhile, has named its I-45 launch shipper: IKEA.
§ Rule Watch: next 30 days
Fri Oct 9 (3 days): proposal to make English proficiency an out-of-service violation, comments close (FMCSA-2026-0826)
Fri Oct 9 (3 days): warning-beacon waiver for driverless trucks expires 11:59pm; FMCSA says it "will be reissued"
Thu Oct 15 (9 days): Driver Medication Form, comments close (FMCSA-2026-0760)
Mon Oct 26 (20 days): hearing-exemption renewals, comments close
Wed Oct 28 (22 days): PHMSA rule allowing ASME Section XII for cargo tanks takes effect
Fri Oct 30 (24 days): Cleveland-Cliffs HOS exemption, comments close (FMCSA-2016-0050)
Still waiting: the D.C. Circuit on non-domiciled CDLs.
§ Question of the Week
Which outside company could see your trucks that you'd forgotten about until today?
I'll print the pattern, not the names. Hit reply.
§ Off the Dock
Run it before Friday. The audit takes fifteen minutes, and the person with the admin login is the only one who can do it. If you find something you can't explain, reply and tell me what it was.
Next Tuesday: Operator Automation. Last week's check-call log, filled in by your ELD instead of by you.
— Aman Singh, editor
Know someone who holds their fleet's admin login? Forward this. Free, Tuesdays, 6 AM Central. Past issues at freightsignal.ai.
Freight/Signal · A Logixtecs Publication · Established 2026 · California · Vol. 1 · No. 21. Corrections: reply to this email, and they run in the next issue.