A carrier vanishes from the road, sells its MC, and reappears just long enough to “accept” a $3.8M server load. Sounds absurd—until you see how often the digital record diverges from real-world behavior. We sit down with Genlogs CEO Ryan Joyce to unpack their $60M Series B and the larger vision: an all-source intelligence platform that fuses roadside cameras, satellite imagery, IoT signals, open datasets, and financial clues into one reliable source of truth.

We walk through why data quality—not flashy demos—determines AI ROI in logistics. Ryan breaks down how Genlogs’ nationwide camera network establishes ground truth, then correlates it with other signals to expose mismatches: carriers that stop appearing on highways, fleets that claim 200 trucks online while their physical footprint stays flat, or flatbed operators suddenly “hauling” high-value electronics in dry vans across the country. These anomalies are the breadcrumbs that prevent theft and steer teams away from risky tenders. More importantly, the same signals power precision sourcing—finding the one carrier in the right city with the right equipment today—so you can stop blasting a hundred calls to cover one load.

The conversation expands beyond fraud. Ports use the platform to measure dwell at the gate, improve turn times, and identify BCOs draining cargo from neighboring gateways. Insurers, lenders, and truck sales and service centers get access to verifiable activity data that refines underwriting, targeting, and revenue planning. With fresh capital, Genlogs is sequencing a multi-product roadmap, expanding coverage into Mexico and Canada, and staying disciplined on spend to protect quality and customer trust.

If you care about accurate carrier validation, fewer costly mistakes, and sourcing that actually lands on the first or second call, this conversation offers a practical blueprint. 

Follow The Freight Pod and host Andrew Silver on LinkedIn.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Stuut Technologies: Your AI coworker that collects your cash automatically.

https://www.stuut.ai/

Cloneops.ai: Not just AI. Industry-born AI.

https://www.cloneops.ai/

Rapido Solutions Group: Nearshore solutions for logistics companies.

https://www.gorapido.com/

GenLogs: Freight Intelligence on every carrier, shipper, and asset via a nationwide sensor network

https://www.genlogs.io/

What if your sales motion created real partnerships instead of fragile price wins? That’s the thread we pull with Hans, CEO of Odyssey Logistics, as he maps a journey from Danish directness and early Maersk rotations to leading a global multimodal platform through a roll-up-to-one-brand transformation. The conversation is practical, candid, and loaded with moves you can copy tomorrow—whether you’re running a desk or running a P&L.

We start with the foundation: a value proposition built on facts, not slogans. Hans explains how probing, silence, and quarterly KPI reviews expose true customer pain, unlock share of wallet, and make relationships stick at multiple levels, including the C-suite. He shares why he spends heavy time in the field, what onsite town halls surface that email never will, and how a consistent cadence—global Q&A, divisional sessions, defined values—turns culture from posters into behavior.

Then we dig into Odyssey’s shift from 16+ legacy brands to One Odyssey. Hans breaks down the integration playbook: centralizing shared services, standardizing procurement, and rebranding fast without crushing entrepreneurial spirit. He’s frank about PE carve-outs, IT risk, and why overcommunication beats overpromising during ownership changes. On growth, we get specific: three levers—share of wallet, new logos, and cross-sell—powered by a cross-trained sales force and subject matter experts. Multimodal strategy is the differentiator, with intermodal often beating truckload on cost and CO2 when planned well.

Technology underpins the whole plan. A data lake fuels route optimization, predictive analytics, and automated bidding, while better systems lift both customer outcomes and employee satisfaction. Odyssey’s rebranded brokerage in Atlanta becomes the easy entry point—truckload and LTL open the door to deeper multimodal solutions. Hans closes with career advice that never expires: choose training over titles, learn every job, stay humble, and remember the team is smarter than any one of us.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague who sells on price, and leave a quick review so more people can find conversations that move logistics forward.

Follow The Freight Pod and host Andrew Silver on LinkedIn.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Stuut Technologies: Your AI coworker that collects your cash automatically.

https://www.stuut.ai/

Cloneops.ai: Not just AI. Industry-born AI.

https://www.cloneops.ai/

Rapido Solutions Group: Nearshore solutions for logistics companies.

https://www.gorapido.com/

GenLogs: Freight Intelligence on every carrier, shipper, and asset via a nationwide sensor network

https://www.genlogs.io/

This week, Andrew sits down with Harish Abbott, CEO and cofounder of Augment, the AI teammate for logistics. Harish says, “Logistics is broken,” and in this episode, he goes deep into just how broken, talking about the inefficient ways information is shared between numerous parties on any given shipment. He talks about how overwhelmed operators are by emails and manual processes, leading to costly inefficiencies, a lack of time for creative work, high turnover, and burnout. The former CEO and cofounder of Deliverr, which was acquired by Shopify for $2.1B in 2022, is setting out to change that with Augment.

In this episode, Harish shares:

• Why the flow of logistics information is broken and the real-world costs of its inefficiency, including missed appointments, wasted labor, and asset underutilization.
• How Augment aims to solve these problems with an AI teammate named Augie that can understand SOPs, manage workflows like tracking and document collection, and learn from context, freeing up human operators for judgment-based tasks.
• The critical importance of living out your company’s values and deeply understanding operator pain points in building scalable businesses.
• Insights on navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape, balancing innovation with delivering tangible business value, and Harish's approach to fundraising for a capital-intensive AI venture.
• A five-year vision for Augment focused on significantly reducing waste in the $10+ trillion global logistics industry and enabling more efficient commerce.

This week, Andrew is joined by Sean Henry, CEO and founder of Stord, a major player in omnichannel fulfillment and supply chain technology. In this episode, Sean shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey, which started by selling Christmas presents on eBay at age seven to launching Stord in 2015 as a student at Georgia Tech. In this episode, he reflects on the company’s early days, turning points, and what’s next following Stord’s recent $200 million fundraise and major acquisition of Ware2Go from UPS.

In this episode, you’ll hear from Sean on:

• How a few Christmas sales on eBay, plus a few other ventures, sparked his entrepreneurial drive and how mentors like Ted Alling shaped his approach to leadership.
• The founding premise of Stord: helping brands compete with Amazon-level logistics by offering flexible, tech-powered fulfillment solutions.
• How Stord evolved from an asset-light model to owning facilities and building a robust software platform to deliver a Prime-like experience to companies of all sizes.
• What it takes to make big business decisions, including how he thinks through market shifts, customer obsession, and staying committed to a long-term vision.
• His advice for entrepreneurs: don’t be afraid to ask, learn from people one step ahead, and “just start.” Iteration and momentum are everything.

Andrew welcomes Clay Curran, CEO and cofounder of FreshX, a young company tackling the tricky reefer LTL space. Clay shares his entrepreneurial journey, marked by a willingness to pivot that has shaped both his personal career trajectory and the FreshX business model. Today, FreshX is a marketplace that connects brokers with more than 80 reefer LTL carriers.

In this episode, Clay also covers:

• His path to entrepreneurship and early lessons learned from his entrepreneurial parents.
• The evolution of FreshX, including two major pivots from a last-mile delivery carrier to a reefer LTL brokerage, and finally to its current iteration as a tech-driven marketplace.
• The challenges and nuances of the reefer LTL market, including carrier specialization, capacity visibility, and the difficulties brokers face in sourcing reliable options.
• How FreshX is working to unlock hidden capacity and digitize pricing by building relationships with more than 80 reefer LTL carriers and providing a "Google Flights-like" platform for brokers.
• His advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in the freight industry, emphasizing the importance of good advisors, rapid iteration, and deeply understanding the real problems you're trying to solve.

This week, The Freight Pod flips the mic as host and former MoLo Solutions CEO Andrew Silver becomes the guest. Hosted by colleague and friend Derek Zetlin, this candid conversation dives deep into Andrew’s journey through freight, including growing up around logistics, learning the ropes at Coyote, and ultimately founding, scaling, and selling MoLo.

In this episode, you’ll hear Andrew talk about:

• His early experiences and pivotal moments at Coyote Logistics, from being a high school-aged intern to learning from key mentors and the challenges of early career growth.
• The decision to leave Coyote and his motivations behind founding MoLo, including the itch to build something independently and overcome his own personal insecurities.
• The early days of MoLo, the importance of culture, and the strategies behind the company’s rapid and transformative growth, going from $5M in revenue in 2017 to $625M in 2021.
• His reflections on leadership, the pressures of being a CEO, and the acquisition of MoLo.
• His perspective on the evolving freight brokerage landscape, the potential impact of AI, the future of the industry, and his own next steps.

In this episode, Andrew welcomes Matt O’Mara, CEO and founder of Whimsy Intermodal and Whimsy Trucking. Matt’s journey into the transportation industry began in 1994 when he worked as an owner-operator for a trucking company. When that company was acquired and its drivers let go, Matt seized the opportunity to start Whimsy Intermodal in 1996 and hired many of those drivers. Today, Whimsy has about 50 company drivers, 145 owner-operators, and 150 trucks. 

Andrew and Matt also cover:

• Whimsy’s organic business growth and unique capability in handling challenging freight, the importance of finding consistency, and Whimsy’s focus on execution, including how they add value beyond transportation.
• The significant challenges Matt ran into of implementing new TMS systems in a legacy company, the importance of team buy-in, and the eventual success of digitizing and going paperless, including leveraging AI for order entry and real-time driver coaching.
• Treating drivers with respect and providing robust support as the key to retention, highlighting the reason why Whimsy has a waiting list for owner-operators.
• The importance of transparency, leading by example and avoiding hypocrisy, and the critical role of communication, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness in leadership.
• Current market conditions, the lack of impact from Chinese New Year, potential tariff effects, and the critical need for robust infrastructure and processes.

In this episode, Andrew welcomes three seasoned logistics leaders with a unique perspective, having all started on the brokerage world before transitioning to the shipper side: Nicole Schuman, transportation procurement manager at Reser’s Fine Foods; Marco Vargas-Avila, director of U.S. logistics at Dole Packaged Foods; and Andrew Dafnos, director of supply chain at KeHE Distributors.

Andrew and the panel cover:

• Balancing cost vs. service, the importance of understanding different provider models (asset vs. non-asset), and strategic bid cycle planning.
• How shippers evaluate potential partners, the critical role of transparency, and why understanding a shipper's specific network needs (not just offering a truck) is key.
• Direct feedback on what makes cold outreach successful, common pitfalls to avoid, and the power of demonstrating genuine understanding before pitching.
• Perspectives on how the logistics landscape is changing and preparing for future trends.

In this roundtable-style episode, Andrew brings together a panel of industry experts at the center of cross-border shipping and trade compliance: Matt Silver, CEO and cofounder of Cargado; Emil Stefanutti, CEO and cofounder of Gaia Dynamics; and Justin Sherlock, CEO & cofounder of Caspian.

These leaders break down how complex, ever-changing global trade regulations are impacting shippers, brokers, and carriers and how AI is being used to bring order to the chaos. From tariff classifications and regulatory confusion to duty refunds and compliance risks, this episode uncovers the real headaches businesses face and the tech that's helping them navigate it.

Andrew’s conversation with Matt, Emil, and Justin covers:

• The challenges businesses face in navigating the volatile landscape of tariffs and trade regulations, including the complexities of product classification and the impact of geopolitical events.  
• How AI is being used to streamline trade compliance processes, offering solutions to automate classification and other time-consuming tasks.  
• The impact of recent tariff announcements on businesses, with real-world examples illustrating the challenges companies face in managing increased costs and supply chain disruptions.  
• Insights into the potential implications of trade policies and the importance of adapting to the evolving global trade environment.

In this episode, Andrew welcomes Charley Dehoney, CEO and cofounder of Upwell. Charley has worked at brokerages like Worldwide Express. He bootstrapped his own brokerage, Dehoney Transportation Management. He bought and sold the 50-year-old Mannings Truck Brokerage. He’s worked for a digital freight startup, a supply chain accelerator, and a container shipping company. And that’s not even all of it. Across every chapter, one thread stands out: Charley’s intimate understanding of freight payments and the cash flow challenges that logistics companies face.

So when Charley reflects on his career, it’s clear why it’s led him to where he is today. As he puts it, “The sum of all of those experiences have positioned me uniquely to do exactly what I’m doing at Upwell.” 

In this conversation, Andrew and Charley also get into:

• The trust problem in freight and why we need more API: Assume Positive Intent
• Trends across the rise of managed transportation, broker consolidation, and the old guard versus the new guard of brokerage ownership. 
• How Upwell is tackling the freight payments problem — and the cash flow lessons Charley learned the hard way (including selling his Mercedes in front of his own brokerage).
• A candid take on VCs in freight: why they’ve earned a bad reputation, when they make sense, and how to spot the good ones.
• Tactical advice on fundraising — how much to raise, how long it should last, and what investors really expect in return. 
• Why starting a business in a down market might be the smartest move you can make. As Charley says, “You never want to waste a good crisis.”

In this episode, Andrew sits down with Greg Paulson, CEO of Giltner Transportation, a transportation and logistics company based in Jerome, Idaho. Greg’s journey with Giltner began in 1999 when, as an accountant, he worked closely with then-owner Doug Blevins, who eventually offered him a job. Now, 26 years later, Greg and his wife, Shawna, own and lead the company.

Giltner started in 1980 as a milk tanker transporter and has since expanded into a 300-truck reefer fleet, a $250M brokerage, a $100M factoring business, and an insurance and compliance arm helping small carriers.

In this episode, Greg also shares:

• Hard lessons learned from Giltner’s toughest challenges, including near-bankruptcy in 2003 and how the company rebounded.
• The four pillars of a successful trucking business and his philosophy on business. 
• What he’s learned from running a trucking business, like navigating bid cycles, developing smart bidding strategies, managing the emotional toll of losing key lanes, and why a diversified network is key to long-term stability.
• Operating an asset-based trucking company alongside a brokerage and the pros and cons of company drivers vs. owner-operators.
• Growing a factoring business to 300 trucks without any sales or marketing, just by word of mouth.
• Trucking’s biggest safety challenges today, including the impact of nuclear verdicts and how Giltner is investing in technology to protect its drivers.
• Advice for entrepreneurs looking to start and scale their own trucking businesses.

Andrew sits down with Jin Stedge, CEO and cofounder of TrueNorth. Jin grew up in a family of owner-operators, including her dad, uncles, and grandparents, but didn’t see herself in the family business. Instead, she headed to MIT, earned an aeronautical engineering degree, and built her career in consulting, HR tech, and — autonomous trucking. But Jin knew truckers had more immediate needs and that's how the industry pulled her in. 

In this episode, Jin also talks about:

• The evolution of TrueNorth, which evolved from being a carrier to an AI load board with a virtual dispatcher named Loadie, and what she hopes the business looks like five years from now.
• The biggest challenges of building a load board, the necessary features and qualities of an AI load board, how TrueNorth approaches fraud, and what new solutions could improve load boards.
• How technology should enhance rather than replace the human connection to make freight relationships more successful.
• Raising a $50M Series B with Sam Altman as an early backer, how she made the decisions to use the money and what she may have done differently, and best practices for staying in touch with investors, including her “Weekly Reflection.”
• Running the business through maternity leave and early motherhood.

Cash flow is oxygen, and too many teams are holding their breath waiting on portals, proofs, and “who handles this?” handoffs. We sit down with Tarek, a former TQL broker turned founder, to unpack the culture of persistence he learned on the brokerage floor and how that same grit now powers an AI platform that doesn’t just assist accounts receivable—it does the work.

We start with the reality of freight sales: real-time chaos, creative problem solving, and an all-out push to win accounts. Then we widen the lens to founder-led growth, the kind of leadership that gets teams to feel the mission and deliver through tough cycles. From there, we go deep on AR. Why does a missing lumper fee stall a giant remittance? How do portals, short-pays, and missing documents consume weeks? Tarek breaks down a task-based system that sits on your ERP, automates the repeatable steps, and routes exceptions to the right humans in sales and CS. Think instant W‑9s, dispute drafts with proof attached, and AI-powered calls that surface the exact invoice history mid-conversation.

This isn’t AI as a buzzword. It’s time-to-value measured in days, not months, with reductions in overdue invoices and DSO you can feel in your working capital. We talk hiring A-level engineers who talk to customers and ship fast, the difference between commodity selling and value selling, and how a platform partner like A16Z adds real leverage in talent, BD, and brand. We also draw a firm line on ethics: automation belongs in B2B workflows where it creates clarity and speed, not in consumer collections that cross the line.

If you want practical tactics to close your cash gap, align finance with sales, and keep customers happy while the money moves, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a teammate who’s drowning in AR follow-ups, and leave a review with the next bottleneck you want us to break down.

Follow The Freight Pod and host Andrew Silver on LinkedIn.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Stuut Technologies: Your AI coworker that collects your cash automatically.

https://www.stuut.ai/

Cloneops.ai: Not just AI. Industry-born AI.

https://www.cloneops.ai/

Rapido Solutions Group: Nearshore solutions for logistics companies.

https://www.gorapido.com/

GenLogs: Freight Intelligence on every carrier, shipper, and asset via a nationwide sensor network

https://www.genlogs.io/

In this episode, Andrew welcomes Dan Manshaem, CEO and founder of Ally Logistics, for his first podcast appearance ever. In 2012, Dan and his cofounder Jeff Chidester started Ally — they quit their jobs, put $2,500 in the bank, and signed a lease for $300 a month for some office space. He calls that time, “One part exhilarating, one part terrifying.” Today, Ally has grown to a team of 95 with a projected top-line revenue of $145M in 2025. 

In this episode, Dan shares:

• How his initial finance career aspirations led him to freight brokerage, starting as an intern before founding Ally Logistics.
• Practical tips for launching a brokerage, winning early customers, and differentiating in a competitive market. 
• How Ally integrates AI tools like FleetWorks and Qued to enhance operational efficiency, how Ally team member roles have evolved to support AI, and the biggest challenges in implementing new tech.
• His perspective on selecting tech providers, managing vendor relationships, and using a “super user program” for smoother integrations.
• How he thinks about remote work in 2025 and Ally’s approach with “earned flexibility.”
• Valuable advice for interns and young professionals entering the logistics world.

Andrew welcomes Krenar Komoni, CEO and founder of Tive, to The Freight Pod. Krenar left Kosovo at 17 years old to pursue his education in the U.S., but the aspiring entrepreneur knew he’d be back one day to create jobs in his home country. 

Krenar went on to earn degrees in computer engineering, math, and electrical engineering and discovered a passion for radio frequencies and wireless communication systems. But it was his father-in-law's trucking company and the constant tracking calls — where’s the truck? Will it be on time? — that led Krenar to build him a GPS tracker. And that's how Tive started in 2015. Today, Tive supports more than 900 customers from its offices in Norway, Mexico, South Africa, Boston — and Kosovo.

In this episode, Krenar also shares:

• The early days of Tive: bootstrapping, landing the first customer, and building Tive’s innovative trackers.
• Tive's near-collapse in 2019 and the moment that turned things around.
• Building a global, remote team and culture across Tive’s offices.
• The biggest mistakes a CEO or founder can make, Krenar’s advice for founders and entrepreneurs, the journey to product-market fit, and how Tive has built a moat around its tracking capabilities.
• Krenar’s vision for the future of visibility and AI, and what’s next for Tive.

In part two of this special two-part episode, Andrew continues his conversation with his dad, Jeff Silver, CEO and founder of Mastery Logistics Systems. Part two picks up with the founding and rapid growth of Coyote Logistics, a company that redefined the industry's expectation of service with its "No Excuses" mentality. Jeff says the experience was “magical the whole time.” 

After UPS acquired Coyote in 2015, Jeff could have easily retired, but as he says, he doesn’t like golf. In 2019, Jeff started Mastery Logistics Systems to tackle a really hard problem: building a modern transportation management system for enterprise carriers, brokers, and shippers.

In this episode, Jeff also talks about:

• How Coyote’s "No Excuses" mentality fueled its growth and changed the industry, what made a great Coyote hire, and his proudest Coyote moments.
• Why freight brokers really exist, what shippers need from a brokerage, and how digital brokerages have gotten this wrong.
• The challenges of building technology for asset-based carriers and how Mastery balances its product roadmap with customer expectations.
• His take on AI’s impact on freight, brokerage’s future in the next five to 10 years, and when autonomy will truly change the game.
• His advice for the next generation of logistics entrepreneurs and what he’s proudest of in his 40-year career.

In this special two-part episode, Andrew sits down with his dad, Jeff Silver, CEO and founder of Mastery Logistics Systems. This is part one, beginning with Jeff’s life in 1980 at the University of Michigan. 

In 1984, Jeff joined Paul Loeb and others in building what became American Backhaulers, one of the industry’s first and most successful freight brokerages. C.H. Robinson acquired American Backhaulers in 1999, and a key driver of that industry-changing deal was Express, the technology system built by Jeff and his team that helped accelerate C.H. Robinson’s growth for years to come.

In this episode, Jeff also shares:

• His college years at the University of Michigan, passion for language, and early jobs scrubbing yachts and painting houses.
• How he got started at American Backhaulers and what led him to write the industry’s first load-matching algorithm. 
• The lasting impacts of American Backhaulers that live on in the industry today and how its acquisition by C.H. Robinson unfolded. 
• What makes a great seller and the book that changed his view of sales.
• His time at MIT, pursuing a master’s in engineering and logistics, and the path to founding Coyote Logistics, which was acquired by UPS in 2015.
• The challenges that Mastery Logistics Systems is tackling today for major trucking companies like Werner, Schneider, and others.

Andrew welcomes Paul Singer, CEO and cofounder of FleetWorks, a carrier-facing voice AI agent. It’s been a year and a half since Paul and his cofounder Quang Tran tested the idea for FleetWorks. They signed up for a load board, posted an attractive load, and to their surprise, three carriers responded and negotiated with their AI agent — a product Paul calls “janky” compared to what they have today. “Ever since those three calls, we’ve been off to the races.” 

On this episode, Andrew and Paul cover:

• The recent DeepSeek announcement and why it’s a foundational moment for AI
• Paul’s biggest takeaways from his four years working in carrier product for Uber Freight
• What separates FleetWorks from other AI companies and how it's returning 10x the ROI in operating costs for its broker-customers
• The biggest challenges the FleetWorks team has faced so far
• Can a brokerage with a sophisticated tech team build AI on its own?

On this episode, recorded live from Manifest: The Future of Supply Chain & Logistics, Andrew interviews nine founders about their budding startups:

1. Ed Burns with TruSygnal, a connection platform for shippers and carriers
2. Tom Curee with Qued, automated appointment scheduling through AI
3. Omar Singh with Get Real Rates, an API pricing tool
4. Chip Reeves with Enablers, logistics human and AI staffing
5. Alex Bezzubets with myMechanic Inc., a roadside assistance platform
6. Shan Wu with Forward Labs, a brokerage sales prospecting tool
7. Sadie Frank with N4EA, predictive intelligence tools for climate risk
8. Thomas Mella with TrackFlo, a track-and-trace optimization platform
9. Annalise Sandhu with Chain, AI-powered freight booking and visibility

Andrew welcomes Jim Berlin, CEO and founder of Logistics Plus, a company he founded in 1996 and has built into a global logistics powerhouse in more than 50 countries, with $600M in revenue, customers like GE and WeWork, and a HQ within Erie, Pennsylvania’s Union Station. But success didn’t come without taking risks — and learning from failures. “I dive in with both feet without checking the depth of the water.” 

In this episode, Jim and Andrew cover:

• The journey of how Jim built his company from a small operation supporting GE's transportation into a global logistics powerhouse.
• His biggest lessons, best leadership advice, and hiring mentality at Logistics Plus, which has more than 1,200 employees.
• The biggest failure of his career — launching a cargo shipping business on the Great Lakes that nearly sank his entire company.
• Stories of how simple gestures, out-of-the-box thinking, and creative problem-solving have sustained his career and the growth of Logistics Plus.

Andrew welcomes Grace Maher, COO of OTR Solutions, one of the industry’s top factoring companies. Grace graduated from Georgia Tech with a business degree and an accounting certificate and went on to be an auditor for five years. But she felt she was meant for something else. In 2011, Grace got her first job in freight at Nolan Transportation; a year later, Nolan founder Kevin Nolan was starting OTR Solutions, and Grace found the opportunity she was looking for. 

In this episode, Andrew and Grace cover:

• The best parts of her dad that she’s carried into her life and career 
• Grace’s journey into freight and to OTR Solutions, the early days at OTR, and how the company continues to evolve and differentiate itself
• Factoring 101: What it is, how it works, and its importance in the industry 
• Grace's personal story of sobriety — how it has influenced her career and where she is today

In this episode, Andrew welcomes Cole Stevens, chief strategy officer at Stevens Trucking, a family-owned trucking company based in Oklahoma. Cole’s dad, Kenney, founded the business in 1979 with a single hotshot pickup truck in an Oklahoma oil patch. Today, they operate 400 tractors and 1,800 dry van trailers across the U.S. 

Andrew and Cole cover:

• The founding story of Stevens Trucking and how the Stevens family uniquely runs the business.
• All that Cole has learned from his dad about business and leadership, and what Cole believes has led to his dad’s success.
• How Cole evaluates what new tech to bring into the business, how he thinks about tech for a team of employees ranging in age from 20 to 80, and the three things you have to get right to ensure internal adoption.
• The current tech landscape for asset-based providers and where Cole sees the greatest opportunity.
• The challenges of managing drivers and driver turnover and how to get drivers to buy in to delivering exceptional service for Stevens Trucking customers.

Andrew welcomes David Bell, CEO and founder of CloneOps.ai. David has been in the logistics industry for more than 30 years. He once had a vision to make Lean Solutions Group a 10,000-employee organization — he and his team accomplished that. Now, with his new voice AI business, CloneOps.ai, he plans to hit 1 billion talking minutes for his customers in three years.

In this episode, David shares:

• How he founded his early LTL brokerage business and the challenges of LTL.
• How he and cofounder Roberto Cadena built Lean Solutions Group.
• His recipe for building long-term loyalty with the people who work for him. 
• What inspired him to start CloneOps.ai and how he got it off the ground.
• How CloneOps.ai is solving the biggest challenges in brokerage.

What if your operations team started each day with every check call completed and only the real exceptions waiting? We sat down with Happy Robot co-founder Pablo Palafox to unpack how an AI workforce is changing the cadence of work in freight—beyond chatbots and into end-to-end execution.

Pablo’s path runs from deep learning research and a Meta internship to YC, a hard pivot, and a clear problem: late deliveries, fines, and interns glued to phones. That pain created an opening for agents that don’t just “assist,” but actually do the work—track and trace, carrier sourcing by phone and email, POD collection, and data updates—while writing everything back into your systems. We dig into the three-layer model his team uses to scale results: execution (agents that act), data (records that get richer with each action), and intelligence (an observability layer where leaders can ask the business direct questions and get grounded answers).

We go inside the enterprise stack: why orchestration and developer-grade tooling matter, how forward-deployed engineers capture tribal knowledge and SOP nuance, and what “manage by exception” looks like for a rep when agents handle the repetitive flow. From reviving dormant LTL accounts to surfacing carriers for real loads, we talk about what to automate, what to avoid for compliance, and where human creativity stays central—especially in customer sales. Pablo shares real outcomes, including dramatic reductions in manual workload and teams redeployed to higher-leverage roles without heavy headcount cuts.

Call it minute one of a much bigger game. As operations interconnect—maintenance signaling brokerage, intelligence spotting margin leaks—agents become the connective tissue and humans become the strategists. If you’re serious about scaling service, protecting scorecards, and growing without linear hiring, this is a blueprint for turning AI from buzzword to advantage.

If this convo sparked ideas for your team, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and drop a review with the one workflow you’d hand to an agent first.

Follow The Freight Pod and host Andrew Silver on LinkedIn.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Stuut Technologies: Your AI coworker that collects your cash automatically.

https://www.stuut.ai/

Cloneops.ai: Not just AI. Industry-born AI.

https://www.cloneops.ai/

Rapido Solutions Group: Nearshore solutions for logistics companies.

https://www.gorapido.com/

GenLogs: Freight Intelligence on every carrier, shipper, and asset via a nationwide sensor network

https://www.genlogs.io/

For the 50th episode of The Freight Pod, Andrew welcomes Dhruv Gupta, CEO and cofounder of Drumkit. Dhruv shares his journey from studying transportation planning at Harvard to founding Drumkit, an innovative AI-driven workflow solution for logistics companies. 

In this episode, Andrew and Dhruv talk about:

• Dhruv’s experience of dealing with failure — calling his first business a “faceplant” — and what he learned that he still carries with him today. 
• The importance of leading with confidence, especially through uncertain times.
• How Dhruv and his team are building Drumkit to be a tool that “conforms” to customers’ processes — and with that, how he thinks about scaling his team internally to build faster and land more customers.
• The biggest challenges the Drumkit team is having with securing new business and the unique qualities they’re bringing to the brokerage sales process.

In this episode, Andrew talks to Brad Perling, CEO and co-founder of Bitfreighter. Brad was an aerospace major waiting to get into air traffic control school when he became an early employee at Calvary Logistics. He says that’s where he got his freight MBA, working up from carrier rep to general manager. Frustrated by the lack of options when it came to EDI technology, this former broker is now building another cost-saving option for integration technology in Bitfreighter, named to FreightWaves’ 2024 FreightTech 25 awards.

Andrew and Brad cover:

• When brokerages should invest in building their own tech versus buying it
• If you can build truly differentiated technology without prior brokerage experience
• Is EDI dying? Its role in modern logistics and the role Bitfreighter is playing
• Fostering company culture in a remote working environment
• The challenges of bootstrapping a tech business

In this episode, Andrew is joined by Jesse Buckingham, CEO and cofounder of Vooma. Jesse studied law and economics at the University of Sydney and got his MBA from Stanford. Before Vooma, he was CEO at ASG LogisTech, whose businesses included Trucker Tools, Record360, e-Courier, and PackageRoute. He was also a consultant at Bain & Company.

Now, Jesse’s leading the Vooma team in building AI tools that will automate the shipment lifecycle and help brokerage teams enhance productivity and reduce opex. Vooma recently raised $13M in Series A funding led by Craft Ventures, on top of a $3.6M seed round led by Index Ventures, with support from founders and execs at companies like Motive, Project44, Ryder, and Uber Freight. 

Andrew and Jesse cover:

• How to motivate teams, lead with passion, and build trust when you’re not the founder.
• The greatest challenges around addressing and automating manual processes in logistics. 
• How AI tools like Vooma will reinvent the way brokerages run their internal operations. 
• The future of hiring for the skills required to thrive in an AI-driven environment.
• The artful balance of building an innovative, new business with having a newborn at home.

For the last episode of 2024, we welcome our first driver to the show: Chad Boblett. He created the longstanding Rate Per Mile Masters Facebook group, which, in its 11 years, has grown to be a vibrant community of close to 37,000 owner-ops, carriers, brokers, and agents. 

In this episode, we go back even further — 13 years — to how Chad got started in trucking, when a severe injury caused him to lose just about everything in his life — including his job and his house. He was living in a motel. But he still had his CDL. So with a $35,000 credit limit and a half a tank of gas, Chad bought his first truck and ran his first load. And that's how his trucking company, Boblett Brothers, was born. 

In this episode, Chad joined The Freight Pod from his house, on a lake in Lexington, Kentucky, where he talked to Andrew about:

• Building community in trucking
• What he's seeing in the truck market
• His rules of engagement with brokers
• The broker rate transparency debate
• What he thinks about freight AI
• The one thing that irks him about digital brokers

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

In a special episode to announce the acquisition of Trucker Tools by DAT, we are joined by Trucker Tools CEO Kary Jablonski to break down the deal. She walks us through why now was the time for Trucker Tools to go to market, why DAT makes the most sense as the long term home for the TT platform, and what the future looks like for Kary and her team. 

This move helps further DAT's position as the premiere freight marketplace and rate analytics platform, enhancing their product pipeline and capabilities. Tune in to learn everything you need to know about the deal.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

Andrew is joined by Jonathan Salama, the CEO and co-founder of Transfix, a logistics technology company. He discusses Transfix's origins, starting as a freight brokerage business that he and his co-founder Drew built from the ground up. They focused on automating key functions like pricing, scheduling, and carrier management using machine learning models. 
When the pandemic hit, Transfix's technology proved invaluable in navigating the volatility. However, Transfix later had to pivot away from being a full-service broker when plans for a SPAC deal fell through. Salama then took over as CEO and refocused the company on its pricing automation technology, which he believes is highly differentiated and can be licensed to other brokers and shippers. 
Salama emphasizes the importance of building a strong team and doing right by people as key lessons from his 10 years in the freight industry. He remains optimistic about Transfix's future, believing the company can continue to make a positive impact by helping carriers and the broader supply chain through innovative technology solutions.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

In this captivating episode, Andrew sits down with Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, for an insightful and candid conversation about leadership, personal growth, and business. Ryan shares his journey of self-discovery, discussing how he reevaluated his values after a challenging period in China and the profound impact of mentors like Tony Robbins on his life and leadership style.
The discussion delves into Flexport's operational processes challenges, including the impact of COVID-19 on their Net Promoter Score and the subsequent reorganization to improve quality and customer satisfaction. Ryan emphasizes the importance of customer obsession, highlighting Flexport's use of AI to analyze both employee and customer feedback to drive improvements. He also discusses the company's unique position in the industry, leveraging custom-built software and a worldwide network to provide innovative solutions in logistics.
Throughout the interview, Ryan offers valuable insights on balancing technology and traditional forwarding practices, the importance of attracting top talent, and the potential for AI to revolutionize the logistics industry. He shares personal reflections on leadership, and specific changes he has made to have a positive impact on his health and decision-making. The conversation concludes with a discussion of Flexport's recent acquisition of Convoy and its plans to integrate this technology to expand into new markets and improve efficiency in domestic trucking operations.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

FreightVana has acquired the brokerage operations of Loadsmith. We are joined this week for a special episode breaking down the making of the merger between these two organizations. FreightVana CEO Shannon Breen and Loadsmith CEO Brett Suma join the show to break down the deal, explaining why Loadsmith is divesting it's brokerage operations and why FreightVana is the perfect complementary partner. 

With mutual backgrounds at Knight, it was easy for Shannon and Brett to see eye to eye on how a deal like this could come together. Both organizations had a similar approach to brokerage, focusing on power only and leasing their own trailers to build an asset-like network for their shipper customers. These similarities should lead to an efficient integration opportunity.

Shannon and Brett explain the due diligence process and integration plans for the organizations, emphasizing the importance of transparency, learning from one another's teams, and making decisions in the best interests of their people and customers to ensure as much continuity as possible throughout the transition.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

The episode features an in-depth conversation with Ryan Joyce, the CEO of freight intelligence startup GenLogs. Ryan shares his unique background, having previously worked as an undercover CIA officer, a path he unknowingly would find himself on after a frightening situation with his father working in the Pentagon during 9/11. He discusses how that experience shaped his empathetic approach to problem-solving and his desire to make a positive impact. 
Ryan explains GenLogs' mission to bring unprecedented visibility and data insights to the trucking and freight industry through a nationwide network of roadside sensors. He outlines how GenLogs' technology can help recover stolen assets, provide capacity insights to brokers, and increase overall supply chain efficiency. Ryan emphasizes GenLogs' focus on responsible growth, as the organization will only be onboarding 200 customers in the next year to ensure high service levels.
Throughout the discussion, Ryan reflects on his leadership philosophy, emphasizing the importance of vulnerability and authenticity. He shares lessons learned from his time in the CIA, where he struggled with the pressures of leadership, and his desire to apply those learnings at GenLogs. Overall, the episode provides a fascinating look at Ryan's background and the unique approach he is bringing to the freight tech space with GenLogs.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

Chadd Olesen, CEO of automation technology company AVRL, joined us this week to discuss his company's journey. AVRL started in 2017 focused on natural language processing, but pivoted in 2020 to automate spot freight pricing for brokers. 
Chadd shared how AVRL had to rethink their approach and technology to better fit the needs of freight brokers, rather than trying to force brokers to adapt to their original product. He emphasized the importance of being consultative and collaborative with brokers, allowing their domain expertise to shape the automation rather than fully replacing the human element.
The conversation also touched on the evolving API pricing landscape, the challenges of change management when implementing new technology, and Chadd's personal growth as a leader in navigating the complexities of the freight industry. Overall, the episode provides insights into building a successful freight tech company by deeply understanding the industry and empowering rather than replacing human expertise.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

A 23-year-old with a pager, a bag phone, and a point to prove—Chris O’Brien takes us from apologizing for not owning trucks in the early days of his C.H. Robinson career, to shaping one of the most influential commercial engines in logistics, then into a new play: One Armada. We dig into the early days of brokerage at Robinson when check calls ruled and service meant relentless follow-up, and we unpack the moment that rewired Chris’s approach—working on-site at a shipper and learning to think outward first. From opening Raleigh and hiring for mission, to selling in French while integrating an acquisition, this is a masterclass in how hustle matures into scalable systems without losing its edge.

We also get a rare look inside Armada’s unique model. Chris lays out why restaurant supply chains are different—SKU velocity extremes, temperature control, and LTO shocks—and how redistribution, inventory visibility, and engineering create leverage. Then we zoom into managed freight: a curated carrier base treated like strategic partners, long-term commitments that outperform spot-market whiplash, and the power of behaving like a good shipper. Add Sunset’s LTL and truckload brokerage and ATEC’s export specialization, and the strategy gets clearer: combine capabilities to win complex, multi-modal, multi-temperature flows where savings and service matter most.

One Armada isn’t just a new logo; it’s a deliberate way to sell and deliver—aligning brand, enablement, and go-to-market so customers can say yes faster and teams can sell more without losing what already works. Chris shares how he designs change—listen broadly, anchor on growth, and build collaboratively—and what success looks like in two years: greater scale across industries, tighter integration, and customers and carriers saying the experience got better because Armada got smarter.

If you care about freight brokerage, managed transportation, restaurant logistics, or building a sales engine that actually helps customers win, this conversation is a roadmap. Subscribe, share with a teammate who leads sales or operations, and tell us: where would you place your bet—redistribution, managed freight, or both?

Uber Freight announced it's newest capacity-as-a-service offering, Broker Access. The tool is designed to provide capacity for other brokers through the Uber platform. Uber has tens of thousands of carriers within it's network through the development of it's own brokerage and the acquisition of Transplace. My concern with this program is, in my opinion, this is a case of double or co-brokering. Whichever terminology you choose to use, it represents a problem as most shippers would be very opposed to any type of arrangement where one broker is procuring capacity from another broker. 

During the episode, I break down why I believe what I do about this program, and what I think Uber should focus on moving forward to eventually reach sustainable profitability.

Kara Smith-Brown joins us on this week's episode to discuss her career in marketing, how her company, LeadCoverage supports the freight industry, and her new book, The Revenue Engine, that comes out November 19th. Together, we explore how aligning sales with marketing can lead to a harmonious and successful business environment. By sharing her journey from the early days at Echo Global Logistics, Kara illustrates the potential of modern marketing tools to create a distinct edge for businesses in a competitive landscape. Her experiences underscore the underestimated power of marketing in shaping a company’s culture and future.

Leadership and emotional resilience take center stage as we discuss the importance of maintaining composure under stress, drawing inspiration from leaders like Doug Waggoner and Scott Pruneau. Our conversation spans meditation practices, the evolving nature of leadership styles, and the unique strengths of Type A personalities. We also tackle the challenges women face in male-dominated spaces, advocating for data-backed opinions and a deep understanding of business finance to gain influence. This episode promises an insightful journey through entrepreneurship, leadership, and strategic marketing, with a dash of real-world triumphs and personal anecdotes to inspire and motivate.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

We are joined this week by entrepreneur and multiple-time founder, Prasad Gollapalli. Prasad got his start in the industry at the old school load board, GetLoaded, which was later acquired by DAT. From there, he began his entrepreneurial journey as he started TruckerTools. After a successful exit, he is now focusing his time and attention on the world of scheduling appointments, and bringing automation and AI to reduce the human touch on this mundane, but important task. His startup, Qued, is receiving a lot of attention in the industry as one of the first players to tackle the appointment scheduling problem.

Our conversation weaves in and out of the startups we've been a part of, as we discuss the challenges and opportunities of building businesses in the freight sector. Prasad provides great insight and advice to logistics professionals and future entrepreneurs. 

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

After 6 months of mental back-and-forth, I finally pulled the trigger and recorded a solo episode. No more self-doubt, no more negative self-talk, no more procrastinating. 

Today's theme is Just Do It. 

Hope you enjoy. 

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

On this week's episode, Andrew welcomes his older brother Matt Silver to discuss the official launch of his new startup, Cargado - a load board and technology platform focused on simplifying cross-border freight operations between the United States and Mexico. 

Matt shares his background, starting in the logistics industry at Coyote Logistics, where he helped build out the Mexico division. He left Coyote to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, founding Forager. Matt's business would eventually be acquired by Arrive, where he stayed on to lead their Mexico division. He recounts his experience from his first startup, including lessons learned, and opens up about some of the specific challenges that can happen if you don't manage your finances effectively. All those lessons and experiences set Matt up well to bring his next business to life.

The discussion dives into the complexities of the Mexico freight market - from the intricate web of carriers, customs brokers, and logistics providers involved in a single cross-border shipment, to the lack of technological infrastructure compared to the domestic US market. Matt explains how Cargado is aiming to bring more transparency, efficiency and collaboration to this growing segment of the supply chain.

The episode provides valuable insights for freight brokers and carriers looking to expand their cross-border capabilities, as well as the broader opportunities and challenges in the Mexico logistics landscape. Matt's entrepreneurial journey and the vision for Cargado offer an intriguing look at innovation within the freight industry.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

What happens when you record a podcast from the moment your guest walks in, capturing every spontaneous and candid moment? That’s exactly what we did in this episode, and it led to a fascinating discussion about the power of authenticity and the often-overlooked value of raw, unfiltered conversation. We also dive into the challenges of maintaining mental health and motivation without the structure of a traditional job, sharing our own experiences and the importance of personal routines. The conversation gets personal as we talk about how intrinsic and extrinsic motivations drive us in our everyday lives, from professional aspirations to fitness goals.

Our guest, Ryan Schreiber, brings a wealth of experience from his journey from law school to the logistics industry. Through personal anecdotes, Ryan sheds light on how upbringing and familial expectations shape our motivational drivers. We discuss the constant balancing act between financial goals and personal values, using the freight brokerage industry as a case study. The conversation highlights the essence of genuine care and ethical leadership in business, along with the subjective nature of success. Ryan's three business rules—constant vigilance, getting uncomfortable, and the pursuit of fun—offer invaluable insights into maintaining control without micromanaging.

Leadership is a recurring theme in this episode, examined from various angles including personal growth and conflict resolution. We reflect on the importance of self-awareness, vulnerability, and setting personal boundaries. Our discussion touches on the complexities of leadership, the emotional chaos it can involve, and the significance of showing up every day with the intent to improve. We also explore the dynamics of the drama triangle in workplace conflicts and the empowerment dynamic that fosters positive interactions. By candidly discussing our flaws and the lessons learned from mistakes, we aim to set a positive tone for your week ahead. Tune in for a raw, honest, and energizing conversation that promises to leave you with new perspectives on motivation, leadership, and personal growth.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

Alyssa Correale's journey in the logistics and supply chain industry is nothing short of inspiring. Ever wondered how a career can evolve from a small family business to leading roles in major companies like Niagara Bottling and Uber Freight? Alyssa shares her path, from her humble beginnings at Giovanni Foods, where she learned the ropes of logistics on a personal level hand-writing BOLs for drivers, to tackling the immense challenges of supply chain efficiency and innovation in larger corporate settings. Her story is a testament to the power of perseverance, resilience, and embracing change at each stage of her career.

Facing gender bias and professional hurdles, Alyssa's narrative is rich with personal anecdotes and lessons from her professional life. She recounts her strategic move to Colorado, the transition from Molson Coors to MicroStar Logistics, and the pivotal roles she played in these companies. Through her experiences, Alyssa emphasizes the importance of supportive networks, informal mentorship, and maintaining a growth mindset. Her candid reflections on overcoming bias in a male-dominated industry provide valuable insights for anyone facing similar challenges.

From the complexities of transportation in the bottled water industry to the innovative leaps at Uber Freight, Alyssa's career highlights the importance of adaptability and continuous improvement. She discusses building robust carrier networks, handling rapid industry growth, and balancing professional life with motherhood. Alyssa's insights into digital brokerage and the ongoing evolution of logistics are a must-listen for industry professionals. Join us for a compelling episode filled with actionable takeaways and an in-depth look at the triumphs and tribulations of a remarkable career in logistics.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

Discover the secrets to mastering recruitment in the logistics and transportation industry with insights from two of the industry's leading professionals, Charlie Saffro and Brent Orsuga. Charlie shares her serendipitous transition from marketing to establishing her own firm, CS Recruiting, while Brent reflects on his journey from construction recruitment to becoming a renowned figure in logistics with Pinnacle Growth Advisors. Together, they reveal the strategies that set them apart, including the power of reputation, referrals, and the relentless work ethic essential for securing initial clients.

Gain valuable tips on maintaining a positive work environment, balancing hands-on roles with strategic leadership, and the importance of authentic leadership. From leveraging LinkedIn to securing pivotal meetings, we explore how building strong candidate networks can lead to early success. Listen as Charlie and Brent discuss the intricacies of emotional regulation, evaluating company culture, and the ethical responsibilities that come with recruiting. You’ll also learn about the critical aspects of employee satisfaction, retention, and the nuanced process of navigating counteroffers.

This episode is packed with practical advice, from best practices for interviewing to the nuances of differentiating as an external recruiter. Gain insights on retaining talent through aligning values and growth opportunities. With compelling anecdotes and expert advice, Charlie and Brent underscore the importance of building strong, genuine relationships within the logistics and transportation industry, providing you with the tools to excel in your own career.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

We are joined this week by Shannon Breen, CEO of FreightVana. We begin the episode walking through Shannon's story, as he explains his early entrepreneurial spirit, from aspiring franchise owner to real estate, before finding his way into logistics with industry giant, Knight Transportation. We talk through lessons he gleaned from his first freight years, including the experience of navigating the Knight-Swift merger.

Shannon would eventually scratch his entrepreneurial itch with the founding of FreightVana (FV) in 2021. FV's approach to the market has been rather unique, from the intentional and aggressive social media presence, to the significant investment in leasing their own trailers to develop a power only network, Shannon's team has worked to stand out from Day 1. We get into the details of how any logistics organization can stand out as we discuss the art of making business proposals unforgettable, a result of meticulous preparation in advance of a pitch. 
Shannon's insights emphasize the power of genuine effort and exceptional customer service in an industry where margins are tight, and competition is fierce.

Leasing trailers as a broker is a newer concept, and certainly not one many companies have done at scale. FV's approach here is rather unique, and this is the most in depth conversation we've had on the show about the benefits and challenges of such an approach. In the end, it can generate a lot more opportunities with customers, but at the same time, carriers more cost for the broker to navigate. Ultimately, building the right network will drive a broker's ability to succeed on the path FV is taking. 

Shannon is a super easy guy to talk to and someone that has developed tremendous insight that our entire industry can learn from. I hope you enjoy the episode.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

The episode features an interview with Rebecca Brewster, the President and COO of the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI). She discusses her background and how she came to work in the trucking industry. She explains ATRI's role as a non-profit research organization that identifies and addresses the industry's top research priorities through a diverse Research Advisory Committee, made up of relevant industry players from carriers, to shippers, to brokers, and vendors who support the trucking ecosystem. 

Throughout the episode, Rebecca highlights several recent ATRI studies, including research on the operational costs of trucking, which provides detailed benchmarking data for fleets, as well as studies on the growing issue of "nuclear verdicts" against trucking companies. She also delves into ATRI's work examining the challenges of electrifying the trucking fleet, a hot topic as a result of recent California regulation. This part of the conversation is especially compelling, as ATRI's research shows the significant infrastructure and grid capacity issues that would need to be addressed to meet the governmental requirements. Throughout the conversation, Brewster emphasizes ATRI's commitment to providing objective, data-driven research to inform decision-makers, rather than engaging in advocacy or lobbying.

Rebecca stresses the importance of industry participation in ATRI's research process, as well as the organization's efforts to widely disseminate its findings through user-friendly summaries. She demonstrates ATRI's deep understanding of the complex issues facing the trucking industry and its dedication to helping address these challenges through rigorous, independent analysis.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

What does it take to build a $220 million logistics company from scratch? Peter Coratola, CEO and founder of EASE Logistics, reveals the hard-earned wisdom behind his remarkable journey from unemployed college graduate to logistics leader.

After being let go from his first industry job at 23, Peter launched his own brokerage with nothing but determination and a newborn son to support. His philosophy was simple yet powerful: "The more you do, the more you make." This approach became the foundation for a company that now handles hundreds of millions in freight and employs teams across brokerage, asset-based transportation, and warehousing operations.

The turning point in EASE Logistics' growth came from an unexpected direction – taking on high-stakes automotive line production freight. "That's like taking your driver's ed on the Indy 500," Peter explains, describing how the unforgiving standards of automotive logistics (where line shutdowns can cost manufacturers $5,000 per minute) forged operational excellence that transferred to other industries.

Peter's perspective on technology and AI reflects his commitment to customer service above all else. While embracing innovation internally to make his team more effective, he remains cautious about technology replacing the human connections that differentiate his business. "It's easier for logistics companies to be good today, but harder to be great," he observes, pointing to EASE's true 24/7 operations with 25% of staff working night shifts to ensure problems get solved, not just acknowledged.

As market conditions continue to challenge freight brokers, Peter's leadership lessons offer valuable insights for anyone building a business. The hardest moments weren't market crashes but people decisions – learning to balance emotional investment with necessary business choices. His advice for navigating tough times? "Stick to the plan, not your mood," and focus on putting points on the board every day through small wins.

What will the freight market do next? Peter sees challenges continuing through 2025 but anticipates improvement by mid-Q1 2026, particularly with automotive manufacturers launching 27 new models. For those weathering the current market, his story demonstrates that preparation, adaptability, and maintaining team swagger through continued investment can position companies to thrive when conditions improve.

This week's episode provides a captivating look into the rise and fall of Surge Transportation, a freight brokerage founded by Omar Singh. In July 2023, Surge filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. One year later, the US Bankruptcy court of Jacksonville confirmed their plan of reorganization, making them the first brokerage to successfully reorganize post-bankruptcy. We dive into all the details of the ups and downs of this story, as told by it's CEO and owner himself.

The episode begins with Omar's journey, which has admirable and humble beginnings. He got his CDL license out of high school and drove trucks to pay for college and an MBA, eventually starting his own trucking company. Omar is a true trucker at heart. But, his experiences during the 2008-2010 recession led him to pivot to brokerage, and in 2016 he launched Surge Transportation. The company experienced strong growth, reaching over 280 employees and a $300 million run rate by late 2021, driven by prioritizing backup routing guide support and dynamic pricing.

However, a number of strategic decisions and financial mismanagement would spell trouble as the market shifted in 2022. Surge's reliance on the spot market and lack of long-term primary contracts became problematic as the industry reached the latest down cycle. Omar walks us through every step of the way, the challenges he faced, the sale attempts in the final months, etc. Despite filing for bankruptcy in July 2023, he expressed his intent of doing the right thing, taking personal responsibility and working to restructure the business in a way that allows him to repay debts and rebuild trust. His story serves as a cautionary tale, but also demonstrates the resilience and determination required to rebuild a business in the face of adversity. 

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

Join us as Jason Provonsha, the CEO of Steam Logistics, shares his career journey and the lessons he's learned along the way. Starting from an unexpected pivot into logistics with Access America Transport to the acquisition by Coyote Logistics before ultimately finding his long term home at Steam, Jason's story is a masterclass in adaptability and growth. 

This episode isn't just about career milestones; it's a deep dive into the fabric of leadership and organizational culture. Jason shares insights into the complexities of private equity buyouts/acquisitions and the critical importance of prioritizing workplace environment. We'll explore the benefits of a flat organizational structure that fosters collaboration and accessibility, and how leaders can inspire passion within their teams—even in industries that might not seem inherently exciting. Jason also provides a candid look at the stress and triumphs of steering a company through periods of significant change and growth.

We'll also unpack the strategic evolution of Steam Logistics, from its roots in freight forwarding to becoming a fully integrated, multimodal 3PL. Jason gives The Freight Pod it's first look at international freight forwarding. He also details the Cradle-To-Grave pod model that encourages entrepreneurial behavior within the company and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the logistics industry. With insights into the crucial role of custom technology in enhancing business efficiency, this episode offers a comprehensive understanding of the evolving logistics landscape. Tune in to gain valuable wisdom on intentional culture-building and how to navigate the highs and lows of leading a growing organization.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

We're joined this week by Corey Ritenour, current Sr. Director Transportation and interim Head of Supply Chain for Lindt & Sprungli, one of the premier chocolate manufacturers in the country. Corey comes to the table with 20 years of industry experience, all working for large, established manufacturers. He began his career at the ground level at Conagra working as a Transportation Planner, working his way up and across various roles as he moved on to PepsiCo, Smurfit Stone, and Mars PetCare before establishing himself for 5 years at Dairy Farmers of America. He has now spent the last 5 years in his current role with Lindt. This wide breadth of transportation experience makes for a riveting conversation that any supply chain professional can learn from. He provides advice and insights that he gathered from his time at each of these great companies.

We spend time doing deep dives into Dairy Farmers of America and Lindt & Sprungli, two very unique organizations, one owned by farmers, the other representing a shared services model across three chocolate companies. The nuances from these experiences and depth provided make for quality conversation and valuable learnings for listeners.

We pivot from there to Corey's perspective on brokers and carriers pursuing his business. He gives us an inside look to his role, the challenges he faces on a day-to-day basis, and the "do's and don'ts" for prospective partners. We get into a market cycle conversation as well, looking at the last four years, from the highest of highs during Covid, to the lowest of lows brought on the last two years in the aftermath. 

End to end, this episode is filled with great nuggets of information thanks to Corey's decades of experience and wisdom shared. 

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

How did a part-time, hourly worker on the production floor rise to become a corporate transportation leader within Coca-Cola? Uncover Rob Haddock's  journey from stacking cases in the early 1980s to becoming a pivotal figure in Coca-Cola's logistics and supply chain operations. Rob’s story is a testament to the power of adaptability, continuous learning, and seizing opportunities as they arise. His experiences reveal how hands-on roles can set the stage for significant career growth, even in a challenging job market.

Gain insights into Coca-Cola's approach to supply chain resilience and the critical role logistics play in its operations. Discover the strategies that helped the company navigate frequent organizational shifts and industry-wide crises, including the implementation of E-logs and the Covid pandemic. Rob sheds light on the importance of aligning logistical capabilities with sales and marketing ambitions and the benefits of robust in-house reporting tools for strategic decision-making. This episode emphasizes the necessity of effective collaboration across various teams to ensure seamless operations and customer satisfaction.

Peek into the future of transportation trends and strategies with Rob's expert analysis. Learn about the evolution of shipper-carrier relationships and the key metrics that drive successful logistics operations. Rob discusses the importance of being a "shipper of choice" and how fostering strong partnerships with carriers can optimize freight capacity. With advice for both industry veterans and young professionals, this episode is packed with actionable insights on improving transportation efficiency, managing operational costs, and enhancing industry collaboration.

***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***