Freightvine

In this episode, Fab Brasca (SVP at Kinaxis) discusses the evolution of supply chain technology from 1990s silos to modern, integrated systems.

The three key takeaways:

Concurrency over Silos: Moving beyond sequential processes, concurrency allows for instantaneous, cross-functional visibility. A change in one area—such as a forecast adjustment—immediately ripples across the entire network.

Actionable Control Towers: While many towers only monitor, the sources emphasize that they must become actionable. Through scenario planning, teams can evaluate disruptions (like labor shortages) and agree on responses before committing changes to a master plan.

AI Democratization: Agentic AI and LLMs are lowering skill barriers, allowing non-planners to use natural language to identify supply chain trouble spots. However, human-in-the-loop governance is essential to ensure reliability.

Ultimately, as volatility becomes structural, firms must build adaptable environments to thrive.

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In this podcast, Larry Gross, a long-time industry expert and 2024 Silver Kingpin Award winner, reflects on a career that began before the deregulation of the transportation industry in 1980. Gross spent over two decades developing Road Railer technology, which featured reinforced 53-foot trailers that could act as rail cars through the attachment of detachable rail running gear. Although this innovation was eventually supplanted by the 53-foot domestic container on double-stack rail, Gross notes that "ignorance is the mother of innovation," as he likely would never have started the project had he known the true nature of the obstacles ahead.

Gross describes the current relationship between freight modes by stating that truckload is the "dog" and intermodal is the "tail," meaning the health and movements of the trucking market inevitably govern the domestic intermodal sector. Currently, the industry is split between international ISO containers and domestic 53-foot containers, with approximately 60% to 65% of all U.S. intermodal volume tied directly to international trade. While intermodal service is currently as good as it has ever been, its market share has remained stuck in the 6% range for domestic moves. This stagnation is partly due to Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), a strategy focused on reducing costs and operating massive trains, which often restricts intermodal service to only the largest, longest-haul markets.

Looking toward the future, Gross is excited by autonomous, battery-powered rail cars that move in platoons. This technology could allow intermodal to reach shorter-haul markets by removing the need to accumulate giant trainloads. However, he warns that autonomous trucking poses a significant threat to rail; by removing the driver, trucking could offer team-driver service levels at costs lower than a single driver, making it even harder for intermodal to compete. Ultimately, Gross views intermodal as a "good enough story," where the service must be reliable and roughly 15% cheaper than trucking to remain an attractive alternative for shippers.

Top Three Takeaways

1. The Two-Thirds Rule of Competitiveness: As a practical rule of thumb, intermodal can typically compete with trucking if the rail portion of the trip represents at least two-thirds of the total door-to-door miles. This ratio determines the "drainage area" around a terminal where rail remains economically viable despite drayage costs.

2. Diversified Port Strategies: Importers have shifted from a West Coast-centric model to a "four-corner" or "five-corner" strategy, diversifying volume across the Pacific Northwest, Southern California, the Gulf, the Southeast, and the Northeast. This shift has hurt intermodal because the shorter lengths of haul from East Coast ports naturally favor trucking.

3. The Tension Between PSR and Growth: While Precision Scheduled Railroading has significantly improved railroad profitability and operating ratios, its focus on cost-cutting and large-scale operations acts as an impediment to gaining market share. By restricting service to major long-haul corridors, the railroads may be hitting a ceiling for potential growth.

Larry Gross suggests that major shifts in the supply chain are like tectonic plate movements: they are incredibly slow and inexorable, meaning you cannot fight them but must simply learn to accommodate them.

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This week’s guest is Kevin Zweier, Partner & Lead of North American Transportation Practice for Argon & Co.  Kevin is a leading expert in transportation procurement having been in the practice for three decades now.    In today’s conversation, we discuss the current state of freight procurement as we enter 2026. While market volatility has led to a "cry wolf" syndrome regarding shippers falsely sensing the market tightening for three bid cycles, shippers are now prioritizing stability. There has also been a significant shift toward removing low-volume lanes from traditional bidding processes in favor of API-driven digital solutions and dynamic pricing. Zweier also explains that while generative AI is becoming a valuable tool for task automation and data translation, it has not yet replaced human decision-making in complex strategies. Finally, the discussion touches on the rise of committed capacity, a more flexible alternative to traditional dedicated fleets, as a way for companies to secure reliable transportation in a shifting market.

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This week’s guests are my two DAT iQ colleagues: Ken Adamo, Chief of Analytics, and Dean Croke, Principal Analyst. This is our annual end of the year podcast where we revisit our predictions from last year, discuss the major issues of the current year, and take our best guesses as to what will happen next year.  We did not do that well in our annual predictions for 2025 - we all expected dry van spot rates to increase by anywhere from 3 to 12% when in fact they dropped by more than 2%.  Tariff uncertainty and weak demand were noted as the primary culprits.  Ken aptly described 2025 as "a long protracted sigh." Dean expressed the surprising influence of social media on regulatory policy, as a questionable TikTok video led to an executive order and strengthened FMCSA policy regarding English language proficiency and CDL standards.   This led to predictions that 2026 will bring a gradual recovery mainly due to the exodus of capacity rather than any increase in demand.  The conversation concludes with predictions for 2026 dry van spot rates, with forecasts ranging from an increase of 3% to 10% by the end of the year.  Let’s see how we do!

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In this episode, we’re joined by Corey Klujsza, VP of Pricing and Procurement Strategy at RXO. With experience spanning Coyote Logistics, UPS, and now RXO, Corey brings deep insight into how the truckload market works. He walks us through RXO’s quarterly market analysis framework—the RXO Curve—which tracks year-over-year truckload rate changes to understand market cycles and risk.

We dig into the logistics business cycle from equilibrium to peak and through the downturn, examine current market conditions, and discuss factors like tariff uncertainty, the flat market since Q2 2023, and the ongoing gap between spot and contract rates. Corey also weighs in on whether technology and faster information flow are changing the fundamentals of supply and demand or simply speeding up how the market reacts.

If you work in freight procurement, carrier relations, or market analysis, this episode offers valuable perspective on today’s truckload market.

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In this episode, we welcome Tim Gagnon (VP of Analytics and Data Science) and Mark Albrecht (VP of AI and Enterprise Strategy) from C.H. Robinson to discuss how AI is transforming the freight industry. We explore the evolution of AI—from traditional methods like machine learning and robotic process automation, to generative AI, and now Agentic AI, which can plan, use tools, learn from past mistakes, and act like a true assistant.

C.H. Robinson’s unique approach, “Lean AI,” aligns operational discipline with AI priorities, focusing on high-leverage initiatives while keeping customers and carriers at the center. They also limit AI agency in critical areas like order building to maintain reliability and low failure rates.

This episode is a deep dive into how AI is fundamentally rewiring logistics and a must-listen for anyone interested in the state-of-the-practice AI in freight transportation.

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This week’s guest is John Motley, the founder and CEO of LogNet.  LogNet was founded over 30 years ago and in our conversation we discussed the evolution of supply chain technology over that time.  John recounts LogNet's origins as an early pioneer, being the first client-server solution to utilize SQL databases on PCs, focusing specifically on visibility across order, transportation, and warehouse management. Today, LogNet’s core technology centers on a "large trade model" which is similar to a large language model but based on graph theory with attributes like weight, cube, and carrier data.  We also discuss how AI is replacing traditional User Interfaces by fostering conversational, agentic solutions and moving past aesthetically pleasing but often useless features like maps. This episode is essential for understanding how importers and retailers can leverage advanced technology to mitigate volatility from tariffs, geopolitical challenges, and other disruptions and keep the majority of their freight on what John refers to as the Happy Path.

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This week’s guest is Patrick Pretorius, Senior Director of Enterprise Shipper sales at DAT. Patrick provides unique insight, drawing on his extensive international experience that began in Cape Town, South Africa, and included working across multiple continents with steamship lines, global 3PLs, and other transportation providers. In our conversation Patrick outlines the distinctions between managing ocean and truck shipping, particularly regarding the challenges of treating freight as a commodity. He addresses how shippers are transforming procurement by focusing on continuity of supply, rationalizing carrier bases, making strategic shifts in their allotment of asset-based carriers and brokers, and leveraging dynamic pricing technology (such as the "buy now" or "best offer" approach) to execute shipments. 

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This week’s guest is Dr. Angi Acocella, a Research Scientist here at MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics and a key member of the MIT FreightLab.   Angi was last on the Freightvine in the fall of 2021 - 4 years ago - when she was a doctoral student.   A lot has changed over that time and after a post-doc in the Netherlands, Angi is back at MIT doing great research exploring shipper-broker-carrier relationships within the full truckload industry.  For this conversation, I have asked Angi to describe some of her more recent work to include the idea of Ghost Lanes, Network segmentation and transportation portfolio management, Predicting truckload market cycles, and, finally, the idea of whether shippers and carriers are Elephants or Goldfish.  That is, do they remember how they were treated in one part of the business cycle after the market turns - or not.  All of Angi’s work is both theoretically rigorous and immediately applicable to actual transportation procurement and management.  

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This week’s guest is Ari Ashe, Senior editor of the Journal of Commerce which is part of S&P Global.  Ari explains the ins and outs of the proposed, and potentially transformational, merger between the Union Pacific (UP) and the Norfolk Southern (NS) railroads.  This deal would create the first transcontinental railroad across the United States. Our conversation delves into what is driving the merger, what's at stake, and the potential benefits for carload customers by addressing messy interchanges in key hubs like Chicago and Memphis. Ari also discusses the timeline for approval, the motivations behind UP's pursuit of this historic deal, and the “Christmas Wish Lists” of concessions that opposing parties, such as other railroads, shippers, and unions, will be assembling.  And as required in all podcasts, we talk a little bit about AI - using it as an example of where technology adoption can be used to improve effectiveness vs. efficiency.  

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