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.

A recent webinar hosted by SMC3 and the Truckload Carrier’s Association focused on cost clarity as a critical factor for making better business decisions. While cost clarity comprises many related ideas, at root, it’s about developing an increasingly granular understanding of what your costs really are—and through that process, improving your profitability.

LTL professionals need to be well-versed in the intricacies of contracts and insurance to protect themselves from risk. A recent SMC³ LTL webinar brought in legal experts Rocky Rogers and Fred Marcinak from Moseley Marcinak Law Group to weigh in on the critical role that insurance and contracting play in modern logistics.

After more than a decade of hype around autonomous trucking, we’re now on the cusp of an inflection point. Autonomous trucking will become a widely adopted reality over the next several years, driving significant impacts in the shipping and logistics industry—and the LTL segment, in particular.