Freightvine

Autonomous trucks are already operating without a driver in the cab. What will it take to make them a practical option for more carriers? This week, Chris Caplice continues our focus on autonomous freight with Zac Andreoni, who leads business development at Aurora, to discuss how the company is bringing driverless trucks into carrier networks. For carriers, the opportunity goes beyond the technolo...

Brett Suma, CEO of Bot Auto, joins Chris Caplice to discuss what it takes to build a trucking business around autonomous trucks. In April, Bot Auto ran a 230-mile commercial load from Houston to Hutchins, Texas, on public roads with no driver in the cab and no remote driving. Brett says the company is now focused on making those operations repeatable and scalable. In this conversation, they cover:...

Autonomous trucks are already hauling freight. What will it take to make them a practical option for more shippers? This week, Chris Caplice continues our focus on autonomous freight with Olivia Hu, Head of Autonomous Trucking and Electrification at Uber Freight, to discuss how the company is bringing autonomous capacity into shipper networks through partnerships with Aurora and Waabi. For shipper...

In the second episode of Freightvine’s autonomous freight transportation series, Chris Caplice talks with Michael Wiesinger, COO of Kodiak AI, about the company’s approach to autonomous trucking and its work across long-haul, industrial and defense applications. They discuss: 🚛 Why Kodiak built one AI driver for multiple operating environments 📡 How cameras, radar and lidar help trucks navigate...

Interview recorded on September 2, 2026 Autonomous trucking is moving beyond pilots and into commercialization. To kick off a new Freightvine series focused on autonomous vehicles, Chris Caplice is joined by Eyal Cohen, founder and CEO of Humble Robotics, to explore where autonomous vehicles may fit into the freight network as the technology matures. Eyal has spent nearly two decades working acros...

Interview recorded on August 18, 2026. Freight rates are moving higher as the truckload market starts to tighten. In this episode, Chris Caplice is joined by Dr. Alex Leslie, Senior Research Associate at the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), to break down the findings from ATRI’s latest Operational Costs of Trucking report. The report points to a different kind of freight recovery...

The Logistics Manager’s Index has spent the last 10 years offering an early read on where the economy may be headed. In this episode, Chris Caplice is joined by Professors Zac Rogers of Colorado State University and Dale Rogers of Arizona State University to look at what the LMI is signaling now. The LMI tracks eight components across transportation, warehousing and inventory, using input from sen...

Intermodal is gaining ground, but the story looks very different depending on the type of freight and where it is moving. This week, Chris Caplice is joined by Andrew Sibold, Director of Economics for the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA), to discuss the forces reshaping the intermodal market. In this conversation, they cover: Why domestic intermodal volume is growing as international...

This week, Chris Caplice is joined by Andres Mendoza Pena, Partner at Kearney, to discuss the latest CSCMP State of Logistics Report, Forged in Disruption , and what it means for shippers navigating a more connected and unpredictable world. In this conversation, they cover: Why traditional cost-first supply chain playbooks are becoming less effective How companies are building more flexibility acr...

This week, Chris Caplice is joined by Jim Filter, Schneider’s newly appointed President and CEO, to talk about what it means to step into that role during a period of major change for the freight industry. Jim reflects on his nearly 30-year career at Schneider, the operational and international experiences that shaped his leadership, and how the company is adapting as customer needs, technology, a...

This week, Chris Caplice is joined by Dr. Jason Miller, Professor of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business, for his fifth appearance on Freightvine. Chris and Jason break down why they believe the current truckload cycle began in December 2025, why it took a few months to confirm the shift, and why this expansion looks different from past freight cycl...

The freight industry’s transition to alternative power is firmly in the “messy middle” This week, Chris Caplice is joined by Mike Roeth, Executive Director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, to unpack what that actually means for carriers, shippers, and the broader supply chain. Mike has been leading NACFE since its early days and brings insights from years of work plus the late...

A unanimous Supreme Court decision could have major implications for freight brokerages🚨 Chris Caplice is joined by Ken Adamo, Chief Strategy Officer at Ease Logistics, to break down the Montgomery case and what it means now that brokers can be held liable for negligent carrier hiring. ⚖️ Why this ruling could reshape broker liability 📈 The potential impact on insurance costs 🚛 How small and mi...

Chris Caplice sits down with Peter Swartz, CEO and co-founder of Altana, to talk about what it takes to navigate today’s fragmented global supply chain landscape. 🌎 Why multi-tier supply chain visibility matters more than ever 📑 Managing tariffs, trade regulations, and compliance at scale 🤖 How AI is helping businesses respond faster to disruption 📦 Understanding the full value chain from raw...

In this Freightvine podcast episode, Chief Scientist Chris Caplice interviews Bill Cassidy, Senior Editor for Trucking and Domestic Transportation at the Journal of Commerce and a transportation expert. They discuss the current "diesel squeeze," where costs jumped 32% in one month, reaching $5 per gallon instead of the expected $3.70—a devastating "black swan" event for small carriers. The collaps...

In this episode of the Freightvine Podcast, host Chris Caplice sits down with Dr. Matthias Winkenbach, Director of Research at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, to explore how the “last mile” problem is evolving under modern logistics pressures. Winkenbach explains how rising customer expectations for speed and consistency are stretching traditional optimization models and how mac...

Eric Johnson, Senior Technology Editor at the Journal of Commerce (JOC), part of S&P Global, is the guest on this episode of the Freightvine podcast. Eric leads coverage and analysis of technology's impact on global logistics and trade. He is co-chair of the annual Inland Distribution Conference and founder of TPM Tech, the technology-focused event held in conjunction with TPM - the Transpacif...

In this episode of the Freightvine Podcast, host Chris sits down with Jason Traff, co-founder of Shipwell, to explore the transformation of supply chain management from manual spreadsheets to AI-driven automation. Traff recounts his unique journey from shipping art globally to founding a modern Transportation Management System (TMS) at MIT, driven by the need to replace legacy "digital filing cabi...

This week’s guest is Chris Pickett, Chief Commercial Officer at Flock Freight as well as the Founder of Pickett Research. Chris Pickett returns to the podcast after 6 years! In the conversation, he discusses the evolution of freight brokerage, from his days building Coyote Logistics to his current focus at Flock Freight. He details how Flock is establishing "Shared Truckload" as a distinct mode fr...

In this episode, Erin Van Zeeland discusses the massive technological transformation of the logistics industry in general, and Schneider specifically. Here are Three Key Takeaways 1.AI and Digital Transformation: The company has transitioned from manual processes to using specialized "logistics bots" that interpret customer intent and automate maintenance requests. This technology allows for human...

In this episode, Fab Brasca (SVP at Kinaxis) discusses the evolution of supply chain technology from 1990s silos to modern, integrated systems. The three key takeaways: Concurrency over Silos: Moving beyond sequential processes, concurrency allows for instantaneous, cross-functional visibility. A change in one area—such as a forecast adjustment—immediately ripples across the entire network. Action...

In this podcast, Larry Gross, a long-time industry expert and 2024 Silver Kingpin Award winner, reflects on a career that began before the deregulation of the transportation industry in 1980. Gross spent over two decades developing Road Railer technology, which featured reinforced 53-foot trailers that could act as rail cars through the attachment of detachable rail running gear. Although this inn...

This week’s guest is Kevin Zweier, Partner & Lead of North American Transportation Practice for Argon & Co.  Kevin is a leading expert in transportation procurement having been in the practice for three decades now.    In today’s conversation, we discuss the current state of freight procurement as we enter 2026. While market volatility has led to a "cry wolf" syndrome regarding shippers fa...

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.  We did not do that well in our annual predictions for 2025 - we all expected dry van s...

In this episode, we’re joined by Corey Klujsza, VP of Pricing and Procurement Strategy at RXO. With experience spanning Coyote Logistics, UPS, and now RXO, Corey brings deep insight into how the truckload market works. He walks us through RXO’s quarterly market analysis framework—the RXO Curve—which tracks year-over-year truckload rate changes to understand market cycles and risk. We dig into the...