SMC³ recently hosted an exclusive webinar delving into seismic industry shifts, offering detailed insights into tariff, impacts, the state of play in the LTL market and manufacturing outlooks.

In the second session of SMC3’s 2025 LTL Online Education Hybrid Series, Jenni McCammon, Senior Sales Director for Truckload at Ascend, offered an inside look at how less-than-truckload (LTL) freight operations turn a profit—or lose one.

The first day of SMC3’s Jump Start 2025 conference offered its 700+ attendees a blend of practical insights and forward-looking discussions from across the supply chain industry. The day featured expert panels, economic forecasts, and a thought-provoking keynote from Zack Kass, former head of OpenAI’s Go-To-Market strategy, and one of the foremost authorities on artificial intelligence. 

As we enter 2025, a major challenge confronting the industry is the likelihood of shifting freight trends due to the relocation of production and manufacturing facilities worldwide, as companies strive to enhance cost-efficiency, manufacturing speed, and inventory management.

Often, data science is misunderstood as a specialized application of various tools and technology. But as Martin Ryan, vice president of pricing at XPO, emphasized in a recent SMC3 session, the real power of data science lies in knowing how to ask the right questions.

Sometimes, technology alone can be the fast fix for improving business outcomes. More often, the difference maker is technology delivered and backed by a true business partner, a partner who supports business functions and is invested to ensure their solutions perform and directly contribute to improving LTL transportation management. This is especially true in LTL, where digitized execution, visibility and optimized efficiency are key to customer service.