Matt Cartwright has spent 25 years building trucking technology, and he has a blunt take on why so many carriers leave money on the table: it isn't that they don't want to save it; it's that "not broken" feels a lot safer than change.

In the fourth and final episode of our podcast mini-series, Kara Brown sits down with Matt, CEO of Magnus Technology, to talk about the real cost hiding inside systems everyone assumes are fine. They get into why AI without clean, complete data is just confident guessing dressed up as insight, why fuel surcharge should be simple math instead of a running negotiation, and why building tech for tech's sake has never once solved a real business problem. Matt also makes the case for why legacy TMS platforms were never built to capture what actually happens to a load, and why that gap, not features, is the real story behind margin.

If you run a fleet, sell into one, or just want to hear someone in software be honest about software, this one is worth the drive.

www.magnustech.com 

Most carriers think they know their margin. In this episode, Kara Brown sits down again with Matt Cartwright, CEO of Magnus Technologies, to break down the gap between real margin and assumed margin, and why a shipment-by-shipment P&L can't capture your true cost to serve. Matt explains why a truck, trailer, and driver never start or stop at a single load, why legacy TMS platforms were built around a single shipment order instead of the full cost timeline of the business,, and why margin improvement comes from a string of 1-3% wins across the whole business life cycle, not one flashy 43% number. If your revenue-per-mile figure never quite matches your bank account, this one's for you.

Find us here: www.magnustech.com 

While lanes are one of the most accepted ideas in trucking, they're also one of the most limiting.

In this episode of The Margin Equation, Kara Brown sits down with Matt Cartwright, CEO of Magnus Technologies, to break down why the A-to-B lane model is an outdated way to think about pricing, planning, and network efficiency -- and what carriers should be thinking about instead.

In this episode:

1. Why lanes are a vestigial way of thinking -- and what circuit planning actually looks like in practice
2. How freight density within your network matters more than any single lane
3. Why your revenue per mile headline number is probably telling you an incomplete story
4. What it looks like when data replaces the guy who had every rate memorized
5. How to be human in the loop without being afraid of what the data shows
6. Why a 1-3% mindset shift can produce a 10-12% change in your economics

If you've ever said "I have a lane imbalance," this episode is for you.

Find Magnus Technologies: Magnustech.com

Fuel surcharges are supposed to be cost-neutral -- so why are so many carriers still getting burned? In this episode of The Margin Equation, host Kara Brown sits down with Matt Cartwright, CEO of Magnus Technologies, to unpack why fuel volatility is really a timing problem -- and how modern TMS technology is finally fixing it.

Matt breaks down why the legacy approach to fuel surcharges leaves carriers exposed, how index-based automation eliminates audit headaches for both carriers and shippers, and why framing the problem correctly is half the battle when driving operational change.

In this episode:

• Why matching fuel surcharges to the moment of pickup or delivery -- not when the order was placed -- is the key to true cost neutrality
• How Magnus automates EIA index ingestion to re-rate shipments in real time
• The hidden administrative burden that legacy fuel processes create for both carriers and shippers
• Why objections to change vanish when you come with a solution, not just a question
• How rethinking a "boring" line item can unlock real margin and operational efficiency

If you're an asset-based carrier, this episode will change how you think about one of transportation's most misunderstood cost centers.

Connect with Matt Cartwright: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-cartwright-94b9952/  

Find Magnus Technologies: https://magnustech.com/