Freightvine

This week’s guest is Mike Roeth, Executive Director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency or NACFE.  NACFE has been around for over 15 years - originating from a workshop run by the Rocky Mountain Institute in 2009.  Their objective is to drive the development and adoption of efficiency enhancing, environmentally beneficial, and cost-effective technologies, services, and operational practices in the movement of goods across North America.  Mike has been leading NACFE in these efforts pretty much since its inception.  In the conversation, Mike discusses the concept of the “Messy MIddle” - a term that NACFE introduced to the industry.  The Messy Middle is the period between the trucking industry transitioning from a well established and known technology (that would be diesel internal combustion engines) to a future technology (zero emission battery electric vehicles).  Major technology transitions are never simple or clean, and NACFE recognizes this and analyzes how different powertrain technologies (to include Renewable diesel, Biodiesel, Natural Gas, Green Hydrogen, and battery electric) can be employed to bridge this middle ground.   In the podcast, Mike discusses how different trucking operations (payload, duty cycle, required range) are better suited to different powertrain technologies, highlights the challenges and hurdles to the adoption of these powertrain technologies, and outlines the roles that the various stakeholders play.

This week’s guest is Bobby Holland,  Vice President and Director, Freight Business Analytics, at US Bank.  US Bank has been around since 1863 and is currently the 5th largest bank in the United States.  They also process over $40B in freight payments each year.   In our conversation, Bobby explains his unexpected entry into the trucking industry and the incredible reliance everyone has on it.  He also discusses how US Bank’s Freight Payment Index provides data-driven insights into freight trends at the national and regional levels and utilizes a "same-source sales" type algorithm to ensure data accuracy.  The conversation also touches on challenges and importance of data integration, quality, and governance.  Finally, Bobby discusses future plans for the index, including incorporating more transportation modes and using AI for predictive analytics.

This week’s guest is Jerrod Mounce, Vice President of Energy & Sustainability at JB Hunt.  Our conversation focuses on JB Hunt’s sustainability initiatives and the broader landscape of alternative fuels in trucking.  Jerrod discusses his 26-year career at JB Hunt, detailing his shift from operations to a focus on fuel efficiency and sustainability. He highlights the complexities of fuel surcharge programs and JB Hunt's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 32% by 2034. The conversation explores the challenges and opportunities in transitioning to alternative energy platforms, such as electric and natural gas, and the importance of a "polyfuel" approach. Jerrod emphasizes the need for technological advancements in battery technology, considering economic factors, and achieving carbon reduction targets. Finally we discuss the role drivers and technology play in fuel efficiency.

This week’s guest is Matt McLelland, VP of Sustainability and Innovation at Covenant Logistics Group.  In our conversation today we discuss the connection between sustainability and innovation, the potential impact of emerging technologies, and the paroles of overly prescriptive regulations. We also talk about the pros and cons for alternative fuels. Matt makes a strong case for having regulations that encourage innovation in a variety of different energy platforms, rather than dictating a single one. All shippers, carries, and brokers can learn from this conversation. 

This week’s guest is Ian Jefferies, President and CEO, Association of American Railroads.  Ian has been with the AAR for over 10 years taking over as President in 2019.  Ian was last on the Freightvine in February 2023 and obviously a lot has happened since then.  In the conversation, Ian talks about the long term effect of the 2022 Railroad Labor Dispute, how the rail industry is currently evolving, and where it is heading over the long-term.  He discusses the challenges of adopting new technologies that improve both safety and efficiency in a highly unionized and regulated industry and finishes up discussing cybersecurity noting the critical role that railroads play in the national infrastructure.    

This week’s guest is Andrew Petrisin, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multimodal Freight in the U.S. Department of Transportation and the creator of the USDOT’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works or FLOW. FLOW is a public private partnership whereby different players in the global supply chain share previously unshared commercial data to better understand changes in international freight flows.  These data are securely anonymized and harmonized within the platform and the results are available for the members to use in their analysis.  Created and launched by Andrew just over three years ago during the depths of the massive containership backlogs in West Coast ports, FLOW is  now a well-established source of freight flow data as well as a consortium of almost 100 supply chain partners ranging from port operators, ocean carriers, trucking companies, railroads, freight brokers as well as manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.  In our conversation we discuss the importance of being a neutral trusted party and how trust is earned (hint - consistency over time), how different companies are using FLOW both strategically and tactically, and the challenges of getting so many private sector organizations (to include competitors) to contribute detailed data.  

This week’s guests are my two DAT iQ colleagues: Ken Adamo, Chief of Analytics, and Dean Croke, Principal Analyst. This is our annual end of the year podcast where we revisit our predictions from last year, discuss the major issues of the current year, and take our best guesses as to what will happen next year.   As always our conversation ranged wide - to include the continued soft market of 2024, challenges of current air travel, predictions of a rising market in 2025, the impact of the election, and the misery of being an Ohio football fan.  Our predictions from 2023 for the spot market were pretty much dead on - while our contract forecasts were slightly off the mark.   

This week’s guest is Rob Haddock the recently retired Group Director of Planning & Logistics at Coca-Cola North America.  In his retirement, Rob has started a new firm (Albedo Logistics), begun consulting projects on the side, and written a book!  I asked Rob to join me on the Freightvine to discuss his book, titled, Transportation Adventures of a Food Shipper: A Shipper’s Guide to Truckload Transportation - The Sapient Shipper Adventures.  Rob has distilled his almost 40 years of experience in the freight trucking and supply chain  industry and instilled it into his book.  In our conversation, we talked about how transportation executives should communicate up to their C-suite, the importance of having intellectual curiosity and willingness to ‘break things’, and the need for an organizational ‘plan on a page’ to act as a north star to guide strategy and actions.  Rob also discussed how he believes that Artificial Intelligence is akin to Iron Man’s AI equipped suit, J.A.R.V.I.S., in that it can make an executive or manager be better and smarter at their job.  Not as a replacement.  

This week’s guest is Kevin Zweier, Vice President of Transportation Practice at NTT, formerly Chainalytics.   Long term listeners might recall that Kevin has actually been on the Freightvine 3 times: pre-pandemic in 2019, during the pandemic in 2021, and in the post pandemic in 2022.  Now that we are apparently ending the pandemic induced TL market cycle, it is time to bring him back again to talk about how shippers’ TL Procurement strategies are, or should be, changing.    During our conversation, we discuss the current TL market cycle, the impact of low lane volume strategies on the RFP process, and how shippers are taking risk off the table when it comes to bids.  Finally, we debate whether it is better to expand or contract a carrier base as the market starts to turn inflationary.   It is always a great time to talk with one of the leading experts in freight transportation.    

This week’s guest is Tim Denoyer, VP and Senior Analyst at ACT Research.  Tim has been a financial analyst covering the transportation space for pretty much his entire career.  At ACT Research, he is the lead analyst in their transportation research effort and is the primary author of the ACT Freight Forecast, U.S. Rate and Volume Outlook.  In our conversation, we talked about the current state of the TL market, the rise of private fleets, and why he views it as “revolutionary change at an evolutionary pace.”  We also discuss automation versus Artificial Intelligence and the lag in productivity gains following the implementation of any technological innovation.