FreightCasts

Host Thomas Wasson sits down with Drew Farwell, Chief Operating Officer at Midwest Carriers, live from the Barkcast booth at Trimble Insight 2026. Drew breaks down the operational philosophy behind his whitepaper, "The Next Generation TMS: From Load-Centric to Network-Centric Intelligence," and why traditional transportation management systems fall short in today’s complex trucking landscape.

In this episode, they discuss:

The Load-Centric Fallacy: Why viewing freight as individual, isolated transactions misses the bigger picture of round-trip costing, equipment moves, and total network efficiency.

Asset Utilization & Unused Capacity: Managing drop-and-hook operations, reefer pre-cooling costs, trailer pools, and non-revenue equipment moves.

Capturing "Commitment Intelligence": How tracking lost opportunities and unawarded lanes from RFPs helps carriers price smarter and optimize network health.

The "Madden Profile" for Fleet Operations: Leveraging AI and predictive modeling to build individual driver and asset profiles—evaluating performance, safety, and operational fit like stats in a video game.

The Future of Human-AI Collaboration: Moving dispatchers away from manual data entry toward high-level network orchestration.

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The freight industry continues to digest C.H. Robinson's acquisition of RXO, described as the largest brokerage M&A transaction in history. Craig and Julie speak with Chris Wofford, founder and managing partner of Wofford Advisors, for a deeper look at the roughly $5.8 billion transaction, the importance of the $300 million in expected synergies, the challenges Robinson will face in delivering those savings, and what the deal could mean for competition, market consolidation and the next wave of M&A across freight and logistics.

The episode also features an in-depth conversation with ImportGenius co-founder and CEO Michael Kanko about what shipment-level trade data reveals about the U.S. economy and the ongoing trade war. Kanko explains how ImportGenius tracks nearly 8 billion international shipment records, offering granular visibility into products, shippers, receivers and sourcing patterns. The discussion covers shifting import activity in China, Vietnam and Mexico, the gap between Chinese and U.S. trade data, compliance and enforcement applications, and the company's push for the Manifest Modernization Act to bring greater transparency to air cargo.

The show also takes a closer look at freight capacity through a SONAR market update, challenging the idea that rising operating authorities necessarily mean more trucks are entering the market. Julie examines elevated tender rejections, relatively modest truckload volume growth, declining new-fleet tractor counts and the barriers keeping capacity from returning, including driver availability, insurance, litigation, regulation and diesel costs. The outlook points to a capacity-constrained market through early 2027 and potentially longer, with tractor counts, fleet miles and the gap between tender volumes and rejections emerging as key indicators to watch.

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For years, trucking has been told it has a driver shortage.

But what if the bigger problem isn't how many drivers we have?

What if we're wasting the ones already here?

Research led by Dr. David Correll at MIT FreightLab found long-haul drivers averaged roughly 6.5 hours of actual driving in an available 11-hour driving window. When Correll compared utilization with the industry's then-claim of an 80,000-driver shortage, the math produced a wild alternative:

Roughly 18 more productive minutes per existing driver per day could theoretically create comparable additional capacity, Not 18 more hours....18 MINUTES.

So where the hell is the rest of the driver's day going?

Detention, Appointment delays, Loading, Unloading, Congestion, Parking,

And hours of a professional driver's life that somebody else controls.

On this episode of Brake Check, we put the policy AND the data in the same show.

OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh joins us fresh off TenFour D.C. on the National Mall to talk about what truckers actually told Washington, what FMCSA heard, broker transparency, detention, parking, diesel, bad actors, CDL enforcement and why OOIDA continues challenging the industry's driver-shortage narrative.

Then Dr. David Correll of Telegraph, formerly with U.S. DOT and MIT FreightLab, brings the receipts.

We ask him to revisit the famous 18-minute calculation for TODAY'S trucking market.

Is it still 18 minutes?

How much productive capacity are we wasting?

How much money does detention really cost?

Are railroads taking freight from trucks?

And if Washington gets ONE chance to increase trucking capacity, should it put more people behind the wheel...

OR GIVE THE DRIVERS ALREADY HERE THEIR DAMN TIME BACK?

Because maybe trucking doesn't need another recruiting funnel.

Maybe it needs to stop wasting the professionals already moving America.

SOUND OFF: What's the most time you've lost at a shipper or receiver WITHOUT getting paid for it?

And the bigger question:

DRIVER SHORTAGE...OR DRIVER-TIME SHORTAGE

#Trucking #DriverShortage #TruckDrivers #OwnerOperator #OOIDA #Detention #Freight #TruckingIndustry #FMCSA #BrakeCheck

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In this episode, we kick things off by examining the major leadership changes at STG Logistics, where ⁠the intermodal marketing company has installed a new CEO following its massive financial restructuring⁠. Jack Holmes, a UPS veteran who previously led UPS Freight, takes the helm after the company slashed its funded debt by a staggering ninety percent through a pre-packaged Chapter 11 that reduced debt by nearly one billion dollars while securing one hundred fifty million in fresh capital.

Over in Washington, truckers responding to regional disasters just received significant regulatory relief as ⁠FMCSA published a final rule doubling the automatic hours-of-service exemption period from fourteen days back to thirty days⁠. This change, which took effect immediately, reverses a 2023 policy that had shortened the emergency relief window and is expected to drastically reduce administrative burdens, cutting annual extension requests from approximately fifty down to twenty-five.

Finally, we explore the heavy-duty truck market where ⁠Class 8 orders climbed eighteen percent in September as fleets navigate murky regulatory terrain heading into model year 2027⁠. While year-to-date orders have surged a massive ninety-five percent compared to last year, the market faces significant uncertainty over upcoming EPA nitrogen oxide emissions requirements, with nonconformance penalties potentially adding six to seven thousand dollars per truck versus eight to twelve thousand for fully compliant engines.

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The freight industry wakes up to a blockbuster deal as C.H. Robinson announces its acquisition of RXO in what the show describes as the largest transaction in freight brokerage history. Craig and Julie break down the roughly $5.8 billion deal, the $300 million in expected synergies, the strategic rationale behind the acquisition, and what the combination could mean for competition and further consolidation across the brokerage market.

The episode also features an in-depth conversation with Estes President and COO Webb Estes, about the current freight market, including strong tonnage growth, available trucking capacity, regional freight trends, manufacturing, retail and grocery demand, and the outlook for the next phase of the freight cycle. The discussion explores Estes' emphasis on customer transparency, employee retention and service, along with the company's plans for a new Chattanooga-area cross-dock facility.

Later, the show returns to the C.H. Robinson-RXO deal with John Kingston for a deeper look at Dave Bozeman's transformation of C.H. Robinson, the role of technology and AI, the companies' recent financial performance, and why the transaction could become a catalyst for additional M&A throughout the freight industry.

The episode also includes a Highway Verified segment covering a major cocaine seizure at the Lewiston Bridge and a cargo theft involving a redirected shipment of glycerin, plus a preview of the upcoming F3: Future of Freight Festival in Chattanooga.

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