Apparently, the answer was “Yes” for Oberman Logistics, an owner-operator trucking company with 14 trucks based in Tennessee. As reported by Angel Coker Jones in Commercial Carrier Journal, “Oberman Logistics owner Wes Oberman created a custom transportation management system using ChatGPT and Claude Code for just $55 per month, automating back-office processes and saving the company 20 to 25 hours each week.”

Oberman evaluated existing TMS solutions in the market, but “none of [them] worked,” he said. “My problem with TMS is they’re all so bloated (having more features than needed). They all look like they were made from the ‘70s. They’re not very intuitive, and man, they cost a lot.”

You can read the article for more details.

As I wrote back in February, two things can be true at once. First, despite the early benefits achieved by Oberman Logistics…

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

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Predictive Safety: What Sets the Best Fleets Apart

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• Walmart Let’s Grow 2026 Seller Summit

  Source: Descartes

• Amazon Accelerate 2026

  Source: Descartes

• Werner Premium Services: Tailored logistics for high-value, high-stakes freight

  Source: Werner

• Werner’s tech advancements fuel its logistics growth

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

Winter is coming.

If you’ve watched Game of Thrones, you know the saying. But we’ve still got one more weekend of summer to enjoy, with the season unofficially coming to an end this Labor Day weekend here in the U.S.

Not surprisingly, many people have already left work to make the long holiday weekend even longer.

Before I join them, here is the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

Download Report

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Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Predictive Safety: What Sets the Best Fleets Apart

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• Tennessee Trucking Association Fall Conference

  Source: Descartes

• NAW Innovators Summit

  Source: Descartes

• Werner Premium Services: Tailored logistics for high-value, high-stakes freight

  Source: Werner

• Werner’s tech advancements fuel its logistics growth

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

I’ve written many supply chain and logistics research reports in my 27 years as an industry analyst. These reports have covered a wide range of topics, including transportation management systems, supply chain operating networks, third-party logistics, and global trade management. I’ve also read a lot of reports from other industry analysts and consulting firms.

There is a set of learnings and recommendations, typically found at the end of these reports, that have remained constant over the years. Here are the five most common:

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

Download Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Predictive Safety: What Sets the Best Fleets Apart

Watch More Episodes

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Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• Tennessee Trucking Association Fall Conference

  Source: Descartes

• NAW Innovators Summit

  Source: Descartes

• Werner Premium Services: Tailored logistics for high-value, high-stakes freight

  Source: Werner

• Werner’s tech advancements fuel its logistics growth

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

Artificial Intelligence continues to dominate supply chain headlines and conversations. Much of the discussion focuses on what AI can do within a company’s four walls, but supply chains are inherently multi-enterprise. How does AI become more valuable when it operates across a Supply Chain Operating Network (SCON) rather than only within a single application or company? That’s the primary question I discussed with Heidi Benko, VP of Product Management and Strategy at Infor, during a recent episode of Talking Logistics.

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

Download Report

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Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

AI in Supply Chain: Why Data and Context Matter

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• Your Power Cold-Chain Experts

  Source: Werner

• The Road to Reliability: Navigating Cold-Chain Success

  Source: Werner

• K&R International Services Uses Descartes to Help Automate High-Volume EU Ecommerce Import Filings

  Source: Descartes

• NBWA Next Generation Success in Leadership Conference

  Source: Descartes

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

What did I miss?

I’ve been “off the grid” the past two weeks — the first one on vacation, the second one moving my youngest daughter into her dorm room at the University of Maryland as she begins her college experience.

After driving close to 11 hours back to Boston yesterday — through thunderstorms, rush hour traffic, accidents, construction, and more — I am back in the office today. Well, my body is back. I’m not so sure about my mind.

My wife and I woke up this morning as empty nesters.

I don’t know what I missed these past two weeks in the world of supply chain and logistics, but I’m already missing waking up my daughter in the morning in my annoying ways (annoying to her, not me), and her hour-long singing performances in the shower — sometimes the full soundtrack to Hamilton or Les Misérables, or a mixtape of Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, and Olivia Rodrigo songs.

Her bedroom is next to my office, and I was very quiet this morning. I didn’t print anything or roll my chair across the floor, careful not to wake her up too early.

I forgot.

What else did I miss?

Let’s find out together.

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

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Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

AI in Supply Chain: Why Data and Context Matter

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• Pharmaceutical Logistics: Finding Shipping Solutions That Match Your Level of Precision and Care

  Source: Werner

• From Regulations to Best Practices: Navigating the Complexities of the Healthcare Supply Chain

  Source: Werner

• NBWA Next Generation Success in Leadership Conference

  Source: Descartes

• Evofenedex Dag van de Declarant 2026

  Source: Descartes

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

Note: Today’s post is part of our “Editor’s Pick” series where we highlight posts published by our sponsors that provide practical knowledge and advice on timely and important supply chain and logistics topics. This post, published by Transporeon, is a guest commentary written by Adrian Gonzalez sharing the key themes and takeaways from a webinar conversation he moderated with industry executives on the impact of AI on logistics and transportation operations.

Artificial Intelligence has quickly become one of the most talked-about topics in supply chain and logistics. While opinions vary on how quickly it will transform the industry, few doubt that transportation management is entering a period of significant change.

The Pulse Report 2026 explored this shift through survey data from more than 230 shippers, carriers and logistics service providers across Europe and North America. When respondents were asked, for example, what benefits they expect Agentic AI could bring to transportation operations, “reduced manual work” topped the list at 66%, followed closely by cost savings and faster decision-making.

Those findings framed a recent webinar conversation I moderated, hosted by Transporeon, featuring Lucia Danisova from Bekaert, Carlo Pinamonti from FERCAM, Denys Kochurin from Hegelmann Express, Stefan Kremsner from S2data and Bernhard Schmaldienst from Trimble.

Here are the key themes and takeaways from the discussion.

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

Download Report

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Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

AI in Supply Chain: Why Data and Context Matter

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• Descartes Acquires Tai

  Source: Descartes

• The Dedicated Advantage for Automotive Logistics

  Source: Werner

• TikTok Shop Gains US Ecommerce Share, Expanding Opportunities for Ecommerce Sellers

  Source: Descartes

• When Demand Spikes, Can Your Transportation Network Keep Up?

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

A year ago tomorrow, I rode my bicycle up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

It’s 7.6 miles to the summit — 4,678 feet of climbing, a 12% average grade, extended sections at 18%, and a crushing 22% over the final 50 yards. There are no flat sections to catch your breath. It’s been called “the toughest hill climb in the U.S., if not the world.”

When I crossed the finish line after two hours and twenty-five minutes of pedaling — with an average heart rate of 172 bpm from base to summit — I used just one word to describe it:

Brutal.

But it was also awesome and inspiring. I crossed the finish line wearing a jersey that read “No Thyroid, No Limits” — my way, as a cancer survivor, of giving cancer the middle finger.

If you’re wondering what it’s like to ride up Mt. Washington, you can experience it from the comfort of your home or office by watching this 16-minute video I put together. And if you just want to see me tackle “The Wall” at the end, skip ahead to the 11:05 mark.

I have to admit, as crazy as it sounds, watching the video again last night made me want to do it again. Could I make it up a little faster? I wondered. Then again, the weather was about as good as it gets on Mt. Washington last year — sunny, in the 60s, with almost no wind. In fact, it was actually too hot, especially when your heart is pounding for 2+ hours. The weather forecast for the summit tomorrow is more typical for Mt. Washington this time of year: temperatures in the upper 40s, with 30-45 mph winds gusting up to 55 mph.

I’m going to the beach tomorrow, which sounds a lot more pleasant. But I’ll be thinking of all the riders heading up the mountain, each doing it for their own reasons. I wish them all gusty tailwinds.

What I learned from my experience last year is that when you set a difficult goal for yourself, the road to achieving it will likely be difficult too. There will be countless opportunities to give up along the way, each one more tempting than the last. But if the reason you started is strong enough, you keep pedaling. And eventually, if you’re fortunate, you cross the finish line.

Brutal, yes. But exhilarating too.

—

Before I kick off my vacation, here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

Download Report

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Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• Back-to-School Price Competition and Social Trends Put Pressure on Ecommerce Sellers

  Source: Descartes

• Supply Chain Brain: Data-Driven OFAC Enforcement: The Pivotal Role of Recordkeeping and Reporting

  Source: Descartes

• When Demand Spikes, Can Your Transportation Network Keep Up?

  Source: Werner

• Four Trends Reshaping Final Mile Delivery for Furniture Retailers and Manufacturers

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

Artificial intelligence is dominating conversations in supply chain today. Every software vendor seems to have an AI story, and every executive is being asked about their AI strategy. But amid all the excitement, many organizations are discovering that implementing AI is much harder than simply plugging a large language model into an ERP or supply chain application. Data is fragmented, business processes are complex, and without the right operational context, even the most advanced AI models can produce recommendations that are incomplete, impractical, or simply wrong.

So, what does it really take to unlock AI’s potential in supply chain operations? That’s the main question I discussed with Valentina Jordan, CEO and Founder of Nauta, during a recent episode of Talking Logistics.

Read More

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

Download Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• The IFDA National Championship

  Source: Descartes

• ArrowXL Reduces Fleet Mileage in Home Delivery Operations by 13% with Descartes

  Source: Descartes

• When Demand Spikes, Can Your Transportation Network Keep Up?

  Source: Werner

• Four Trends Reshaping Final Mile Delivery for Furniture Retailers and Manufacturers

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

Last Saturday, my wife and I cycled 55 miles. The distance was intentional: 55 miles for my last day being 55 years old. The next day, for my birthday, we spent the day at the beach — the perfect way to rest my sore legs.

I’m still relatively young, but the truth is that every year I’m a little slower on the bike and a little slower to recover from long rides.

Ten years ago, I made a commitment that, for as long as I’m physically able, I will complete a 100-mile bike ride every year and raise money for type 1 diabetes research until we find a cure — for my daughter Hannah and the millions of others living with this disease.

This year’s Breakthrough T1D Ride in Cape Cod is just 51days away. I still have many training miles ahead of me, and I’m only 51% of the way to my fundraising goal.

The training is up to me, but you can help me reach my fundraising goal.

If you enjoy and get value from the content we create at Talking Logistics, I hope you’ll consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our Logistics Leaders for T1D Cure team and Breakthrough T1D. Every dollar brings us closer to better treatments and a cure

Donate here to help me reach my goal: http://www2.breakthrought1d.org/goto/ll4t1dcure

In just a few days, Hannah will turn 26. She has been living with type 1 diabetes for nearly 15 years, since she was 11 years old. I know a cure won’t come in time for this birthday, but I still hope that one day, in my lifetime, we can give her the greatest birthday gift imaginable: a world without type 1 diabetes.

On behalf of my family and everyone affected by T1D, thank you so much for your support. It truly means more than you know.

—

Before I head out for a training ride, here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

Download Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• Online Retail Fraud Continues to Rise, Prompting Ecommerce Sellers to Strengthen Fraud Prevention

  Source: Descartes

• NAFCD + NBMDA Annual Convention

  Source: Descartes

• When Demand Spikes, Can Your Transportation Network Keep Up?

  Source: Werner

• Four Trends Reshaping Final Mile Delivery for Furniture Retailers and Manufacturers

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble Published on: 2026-01-13

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble Published on: 2026-01-08

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

As the U.S. federal government continues to modernize operations through digital transformation, regulatory enforcement is evolving in step. Fraud detection, global trade compliance, and investigations into sanctions violations are increasingly centered around shared data intelligence and the use of advanced technology to expedite and simplify enforcement activity.

Regulatory agencies, such as the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), are implementing AI and sophisticated algorithmic tools to increase the efficiency, accuracy and consistency of enforcement tasks. A technology-driven approach is particularly useful in “performing many of the most time- and resource-intensive tasks associated with regulatory enforcement, such as synthesizing voluminous records, determining patterns in complex filings, and identifying activities that might require additional review by a human being.”

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The First Half of 2026: What’s Changed, What’s Worked, and What’s Next

The first half of 2026 has been anything but predictable. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, AI advancements, changing transportation market conditions, and other developments have created new challenges — and new opportunities — for supply chain organizations. As we reach the midpoint of the year, we’d like to understand what has had the greatest impact on your organization, what has surprised you, where you’ve made the most progress, and what priorities will shape the months ahead.

Download Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

Watch More Episodes

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Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• Online Retail Fraud Continues to Rise, Prompting Ecommerce Sellers to Strengthen Fraud Prevention

  Source: Descartes

• NAFCD + NBMDA Annual Convention

  Source: Descartes

• When Demand Spikes, Can Your Transportation Network Keep Up?

  Source: Werner

• Four Trends Reshaping Final Mile Delivery for Furniture Retailers and Manufacturers

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble Published on: 2026-01-13

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble Published on: 2026-01-08

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

Are you still skeptical about the business value of digital twins?

This past January, I highlighted how PepsiCo had entered into a multi-year collaboration with Siemens and NVIDIA to transform plant and supply chain operations through advanced digital twin technology and AI (see “PepsiCo Demonstrates How Digital Twins Deliver Quantifiable Benefits” for more details.)

This news prompted us to survey our Indago members — supply chain and logistics executives from manufacturing, retail, and distribution companies — about the strategic importance, readiness, and potential value of AI-enabled digital twins within their organizations.

Among respondents, adoption of digital twins for facility planning and operational simulation…

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Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

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Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• Online Retail Fraud Continues to Rise, Prompting Ecommerce Sellers to Strengthen Fraud Prevention

  Source: Descartes

• NAFCD + NBMDA Annual Convention

  Source: Descartes

• When Demand Spikes, Can Your Transportation Network Keep Up?

  Source: Werner

• Four Trends Reshaping Final Mile Delivery for Furniture Retailers and Manufacturers

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble Published on: 2026-01-13

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble Published on: 2026-01-08

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

What do you want for your birthday?

My answer today is very different from when I was a kid, or even a young adult.

All I want for my birthday this year is to spend the day at the beach with my wife and kids, and for another year of health.

Is that too much to ask for?

If not, then can I also get some soft serve ice cream, chocolate and vanilla twist, in a cone?

—-

Before I head out, here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

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Subscribe to Podcast

Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• 7 Signs Your Operations Are Cracking: Growing Pains of a Maturing Business and How to Fix Them

  Source: Descartes

• Predictive Safety: What Sets the Best Fleets Apart

  Source: Descartes

• The future of logistics: Five questions with Uber Freight’s new chief product officer, Amir Pelleg

  Source: Uber Freight

• Moving from hype to ROI: Uber Freight CTO Val Marchevsky on real-world AI in logistics

  Source: Uber Freight

• Grow Here, Stay Here, Thrive Here: Driver Career Opportunities at Werner

  Source: Werner

• Know a Great Driver? Here’s How to Earn More Than $5,000 with Werner’s Referral Program

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

For many companies, saying fleet safety is important is a lot like saying people are our most important asset. It sounds good, but it seldom matches reality. That may be changing. For a growing number of forward-thinking companies, fleet safety has become about more than simply responding to accidents after they occur or focusing on compliance. They are using data, technology, and AI to identify potential risks, improve driver performance, and prevent incidents before they happen.

What separates these companies from the rest, and what lessons can we learn from them? That’s the topic I discussed with Hayden Cardiff, Vice President of Safety Solutions at Descartes, during a recent episode of Talking Logistics.

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

Watch More Episodes

Subscribe to Podcast

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• IT Toolkit: Delivering the Route to a More Efficient Fleet

  Source: Descartes

• Forefront Global Logistics Building AI-enabled Digital Brokerage on Unified Descartes Platform

  Source: Descartes

• The Future of Logistics: Five Questions with Uber Freight’s New Chief Product Officer, Amir Pelleg

  Source: Uber Freight

• Moving from hype to ROI: Uber Freight CTO Val Marchevsky on real-world AI in logistics

  Source: Uber Freight

• Grow Here, Stay Here, Thrive Here: Driver Career Opportunities at Werner

  Source: Werner

• Know a Great Driver? Here’s How to Earn More Than $5,000 with Werner’s Referral Program

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

There were two developments last week that caught my attention because they relate to the two most consequential trends shaping supply chains today: tariffs and AI.

Yesterday, I wrote about tariffs — specifically, the new levies imposed by the Trump administration on more than 80 countries based on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (see “The Trump Tariffs Strike Back”).

Today, I want to focus on a question prompted by this Wall Street Journal headline: “OpenAI Models Escaped and Hacked a Company in Cybersecurity Test Gone Wrong.”

Can We Really Trust and Control AI?

As reported by Robert McMillan and Amrith Ramkumar in the WSJ, last Tuesday “OpenAI said two artificial intelligence systems it was testing broke out of their test environment, hacked their way onto the internet and broke into another company. The victim was Hugging Face, a provider of open-source AI tools. The cause was a cybersecurity benchmarking test that went very, very wrong.”

The article adds that “OpenAI had caged the models in a ‘sandbox,’ a system that didn’t have access to the internet. But during the test, the AI software used its hacking skills to break out. It found a way to get online, and then hacked into Hugging Face’s network, OpenAI said.”

I encourage you to read the rest of the article for the full story.

When I read the article, my first thought was…

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

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New from Sponsor Blogs

• The Future of Logistics: Five Questions with Uber Freight’s New Chief Product Officer, Amir Pelleg

  Source: Uber Freight

• USPS Shipping Rule Changes Create New Cost and Compliance Challenges for Ecommerce Sellers

  Source: Descartes

• Moving from hype to ROI: Uber Freight CTO Val Marchevsky on real-world AI in logistics

  Source: Uber Freight

• Descartes XPS Ship Adds FedEx Extra Small Box Support for Ecommerce Sellers

  Source: Descartes

• Grow Here, Stay Here, Thrive Here: Driver Career Opportunities at Werner

  Source: Werner

• Know a Great Driver? Here’s How to Earn More Than $5,000 with Werner’s Referral Program

  Source: Werner

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

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I was out of the office last Friday attending the ⁠2006 USATF Outdoor National Championships with my oldest son, so I wasn’t able to write my regular “Above the Fold” post — my weekly roundup of supply chain and logistics news.

But I want to highlight two developments from last week because they relate to the two most consequential trends shaping the industry today: tariffs and AI.

The Trump Tariffs Strike Back

With apologies to George Lucas, allow me to make a Star Wars analogy here.

If the “Trade Wars” launched by Trump at the start of his second term were the first installment of a movie trilogy, ending with the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year invalidating the administration’s tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), then the second installment began last week with The Trump Tariffs Strike Back.

As Gavin Bade reported in The Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is imposing tariffs “ranging from 10% to 12.5% on its major trading partners as part of a new set of duties that the Trump administration says are designed to combat forced labor.” Here are additional details from the article:

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

Watch More Episodes

Subscribe to Podcast

Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• USPS Shipping Rule Changes Create New Cost and Compliance Challenges for Ecommerce Sellers

  Source: Descartes

• Descartes XPS Ship Adds FedEx Extra Small Box Support for Ecommerce Sellers

  Source: Descartes

• Grow Here, Stay Here, Thrive Here: Driver Career Opportunities at Werner

  Source: Werner

• Know a Great Driver? Here’s How to Earn More Than $5,000 with Werner’s Referral Program

  Source: Werner

• How outsourced carrier contracts mitigate operational risk: Why a strong logistics partner matters

  Source: Uber Freight

• Q2 freight market update: Market pressures converge and create urgency

  Source: Uber Freight

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

As e-commerce for oversized items grows, furniture brands face severe margin erosion from transit damage and poor doorstep experiences. In this post, I outline the key infrastructure, technology, and handling capabilities shippers must evaluate to build a resilient final-mile network. By shifting from standard parcel networks to dedicated big-and-bulky models, brands can protect both their profits and their customer reputation.

Protecting Margins and Reputation: The Strategic Value of the Final Mile in Furniture Retail

For furniture brands, shipping big, bulky, and high-value items is fundamentally different from shipping standard parcels. A single scratched dining table, a cracked bed frame or a frustratingly vague delivery window can instantly wipe out profit margins and cost a retail brand a lifetime customer. Because the final mile is the only physical touchpoint a customer has with a brand, the delivery network is no longer just a logistical necessity; it is as a direct extension of customer service and brand reputation.

To safeguard the bottom line, furniture logistics must be treated as a highly specialized discipline rather than a generic transportation requirement. Transitioning from a standard shipping model to a resilient, high-performing final-mile network requires logistics leaders to focus on four critical pillars: specialized network design, the doorstep experience, technological visibility, and reverse logistics.

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

Watch More Episodes

Subscribe to Podcast

Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• USPS Shipping Rule Changes Create New Cost and Compliance Challenges for Ecommerce Sellers

  Source: Descartes

• Descartes XPS Ship Adds FedEx Extra Small Box Support for Ecommerce Sellers

  Source: Descartes

• Grow Here, Stay Here, Thrive Here: Driver Career Opportunities at Werner

  Source: Werner

• Know a Great Driver? Here’s How to Earn More Than $5,000 with Werner’s Referral Program

  Source: Werner

• How outsourced carrier contracts mitigate operational risk: Why a strong logistics partner matters

  Source: Uber Freight

• Q2 freight market update: Market pressures converge and create urgency

  Source: Uber Freight

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

We’ve had a week of bad air quality days here in Boston (and elsewhere) due to Canadian wildfires.

I went for a bike ride anyway.

As I left my driveway, I cycled past my neighbors who were walking their dog. They were both wearing duck-billed N95 masks.

The sky was rust orange, the air had a burnt wood smell.

I waved to my neighbors and turned the corner.

Crazy.

—

Here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

Watch More Episodes

Subscribe to Podcast

Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• Know a Great Driver? Here’s How to Earn More Than $5,000 with Werner’s Referral Program

  Source: Werner

• How outsourced carrier contracts mitigate operational risk: Why a strong logistics partner matters

  Source: Uber Freight

• Everything You Want to Know About Power Only Loads (Updated: July 2026)

  Source: Werner

• Descartes Acquires Drivin

  Source: Descartes

• Frosty Acres Summer Conference

  Source: Descartes

• Q2 freight market update: Market pressures converge and create urgency

  Source: Uber Freight

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

Remember the ERP vs. Best-of-Breed debates from years ago?

If not, here’s the short version:

ERP vendors, such as SAP and Oracle, argued that a single integrated platform spanning finance, human resources, customer relationship management, order management, logistics, inventory management, and supply chain planning was the best approach. Why buy separate WMS, TMS, OMS, CRM, and planning systems — and deal with the cost and complexity of integrating and maintaining them all — when one platform could do it all?

Best-of-Breed vendors argued that beyond finance and HR, the capabilities offered by ERP vendors were too limited and not sophisticated enough to meet the complex needs of manufacturers and retailers. Deep specialization and domain expertise were what customers wanted and needed, they argued.

This often resulted in a battle between logistics teams and the CIO. As I wrote back in November 2013 in “The Rising Power And Influence Of Enterprise Software Users”:

I can’t tell you how many times, over the course of my career, I’ve come across the following situation: The logistics team spends several months evaluating software vendors, including the incumbent ERP vendor, and they ultimately select a best-of-breed solution, but when they present their decision to the CIO (who was disconnected from the process), he responds by asking why the ERP vendor wasn’t selected. This then triggers another round of evaluations, this time with corporate IT involved. Or the CIO simply overrules the logistics team and selects the ERP vendor in the name of “IT simplification and standardization.”

The ERP vs. Best-of-Breed debate ultimately became less relevant, as time and acquisitions (and the move away from proprietary architectures) blurred the distinction between the two camps. Generally speaking, there is much more feature-function parity between applications today, so companies are placing more emphasis on other important factors when evaluating solutions and vendors: time-to-benefit; how often new functionality is released (innovation cycle); how quick and easy those innovations are to deploy; and ease of use (see “Will Software Vendors Start Competing on Design?”).

Fast forward to today, and a similar debate is emerging around AI: Do you use one AI agent that does it all, or deploy many specialized AI agents?

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

Watch More Episodes

Subscribe to Podcast

Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• Know a Great Driver? Here’s How to Earn More Than $5,000 with Werner’s Referral Program

  Source: Werner

• How outsourced carrier contracts mitigate operational risk: Why a strong logistics partner matters

  Source: Uber Freight

• Everything You Want to Know About Power Only Loads (Updated: July 2026)

  Source: Werner

• Descartes Acquires Drivin

  Source: Descartes

• Frosty Acres Summer Conference

  Source: Descartes

• Q2 freight market update: Market pressures converge and create urgency

  Source: Uber Freight

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

My beloved aunt Gloria died last Saturday, on the Fourth of July. She was 81. Another victim of cancer.

Last August, not long after she started chemotherapy, I took the train to Brooklyn to visit her and my uncle. It had been years since we had seen each other. I brought her a bowl of fruit candies in a heart-shaped bowl—“something sweet to enjoy,” I told her.

During my afternoon visit, despite my protests, she took some tamales from the freezer and cooked them for me, along with rice. Ever since I was a kid, feeding me had always brought her joy, so I ate the tamales, the rice, and the dessert she served. (I was so full, I canceled my dinner reservations afterward.)

There we sat in the dining room, the same one from my childhood. We laughed out loud, recalling stories from when my cousins and I were kids in the neighborhood, when our fathers worked at the bodega, when the future was unimaginable.

We briefly acknowledged the elephant in the room, then pushed it aside.

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Final Mile Excellence: What Separates the Best from the Rest

Watch More Episodes

Subscribe to Podcast

Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• How outsourced carrier contracts mitigate operational risk: Why a strong logistics partner matters

  Source: Uber Freight

• Everything You Want to Know About Power Only Loads (Updated: July 2026)

  Source: Werner

• Descartes Acquires Drivin

  Source: Descartes

• Frosty Acres Summer Conference

  Source: Descartes

• The 2026 Mid-Year Nearshoring Check-Up: What Shippers Need to Know Now

  Source: Werner

• Produce season is here. Are you ready?

  Source: Uber Freight

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors

Want to cycle 102 miles through Death Valley?

I have to admit, the invitation to spend hours cycling through one of the hottest places on Earth isn’t very enticing.

But 10 years ago, a handful of people answered my call, and the Logistics Leaders for T1D Cure cycling team was born.

The idea came to me in the middle of the night.

It was a cold December night in 2015. I had woken up to test my daughter Hannah’s blood sugar. (She had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11, four years earlier.) I had a hard time pricking her finger to draw a drop of blood, and when I looked closely, I realized why: her fingertips were scarred from the thousands of finger pricks she’d endured to test her blood sugar — more than 12,000 by my conservative estimate.

I went back to bed and decided then and there that I needed to do something more to help find a cure for this disease.

That’s when a big, audacious idea came to me:

Read More

Charter Sponsors

Would You Put Your Freight on a Driverless Truck?

Driverless trucks have been “coming soon” for more than a decade. But recent developments suggest the industry may finally be approaching a new phase. This month, for example, PepsiCo disclosed that it is operating 35 driverless trucks on public roads in Arizona as part of its live supply chain operations.

Back in August 2022, we asked Indago members about testing driverless trucks. At the time, most respondents were not testing the technology. It’s now four years later. Has shipper sentiment changed? Are companies more willing to test or use driverless truck capacity, and what barriers remain to broader adoption?

Download the Report

Subscribe to "Be Uncommon" Newsletter

Latest Talking Logistics Episode:

Navigating the Post-IEEPA Regulatory Landscape

Watch More Episodes

Subscribe to Podcast

Platinum Sponsors

New from Sponsor Blogs

• Descartes Acquires Drivin

  Source: Descartes

• Frosty Acres Summer Conference

  Source: Descartes

• The 2026 Mid-Year Nearshoring Check-Up: What Shippers Need to Know Now

  Source: Werner

• Risk Mitigation at the Source: The New Standard for Carrier Vetting and Qualification

  Source: Werner

• Q2 freight market update: Market pressures converge and create urgency

  Source: Uber Freight

• Produce season is here. Are you ready?

  Source: Uber Freight

• 2026 Outlook: Spot Market strategies for shippers, carriers and brokers

  Source: Trimble

• Transportation in 2026: From experimentation to acceleration

  Source: Trimble

Read Guest Commentaries

Gold Sponsors