Above The Fold: Supply Chain Logistics News (August 15, 2025)

The most important supply chain & logistics news, including logistics management, transportation management, third-party logistics, supply chain software.

Aug 15, 2025

What did I miss?

I was on vacation and off the grid last week, but apparently, I didn’t miss much during my time off. Tariffs continued to dominate the headlines, AI continued to march forward, and spammers continued to email me (I spent my first day back deleting 3,432 junk emails).

The world continues to spin, with or without me online. That is one of the best things about vacation: it reminds me that whatever role I play in the cosmos, it can wait.

Speaking of waiting, that is what my loving wife will be doing at the top of Mt. Washington tomorrow morning. She will be driving up that treacherous road early in the morning and waiting at least 3 hours for me to reach the summit on my bicycle. It’s one of the many definitions of love. But I have no doubt she will use this as leverage against me for the rest of the year. From now on, whenever she asks me to do something I don’t really want to do, she’ll undoubtedly say, “Remember when I drove up Mt. Washington and waited for you in the cold and windy summit for 3 hours?”

Yes, I am climbing up Mt. Washington in NH tomorrow morning on my bicycle. A big thanks to everyone who posted kind words of encouragement on LinkedIn and who have donated to the cause so far. Also, a big thank you to our Logistics Leaders for T1D Cure Team sponsors: TranzAct Technologies Inc., Descartes Systems Group, JBF Consulting, and Pando. (It’s not too late to become a team sponsor; we have other rides coming up in September and October. If interested, please contact me.)

Why am I doing this? For my daughter Hannah and everyone living with type 1 diabetes. I do it to raise money for Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF), the leading non-profit organization dedicated to research and advocacy for type 1 diabetes.

But I’m doing this particular ride for another reason too:

Using Robots to Load/Unload Trucks

A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted how “new advances in robotics are [enabling the automation of truck loading and unloading]. Improved sensors and algorithms, advancements in AI and faster image-processing technology are making these robots proficient players in tasks that are like a game of 3-D Tetris.” This survey sought to understand industry readiness, key challenges, and opportunities associated with using robots to load or unload trucks.

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