By Day 3 of Connections 2026 at The Breakers in Palm Beach, one thing was clear: the LTL industry isn’t just waiting for the next freight cycle—it’s actively reshaping what comes next.

Day 2 of Connections 2026 kept the momentum going with a new crop of thoughtful conversations and productive Q&As.

Connections – an annual SMC³ educational and networking event – brings together carriers, shippers, logistics service providers, and technology companies each summer for three days of networking and industry education.

Monday kicked off with sessions led by some of the industry’s most credible minds, covering AI adoption, the freight market cycle, LTL operations, and the implications of May’s Supreme Court ruling on broker liability.

Collectively, their findings described an industry with less margin for inaction than it had a year ago.

Carrier costing has evolved well beyond a purely accounting function to become a strategic driver of pricing, operations, and sustainability. As margins tighten and demand for better data grows, carriers are reexamining how costing informs daily decision-making across bids, yield management, and emissions reporting. In this Jump Start 2026 Q&A, SMC³’s Justin Springer discusses how costing is becoming a source of real-time intelligence that shapes how carriers compete and collaborate.

For shippers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs), effective communication is central to orchestrating complex supply chains and ensuring reliable shipment lifecycle management. In today’s fast-paced logistics environment, every connection matters: whether you’re managing thousands of shipments or coordinating with a diverse network of carriers and partners, aligning different systems and protocols is essential for success. Whether it’s Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or Application Programming Interface (API) messaging, the goal remains the same: seamless, secure and efficient data exchange.

The final day of SMC³’s Connections 2025 conference wrapped up three days’ worth of conversations around LTL, AI, and the evolving pressures reshaping global logistics. From evolving shipper strategies to the ethical use of AI and the implications of NMFC reclassifications, Day 3 offered attendees a mix of boots-on-the-ground insight and forward-thinking predictions. A shifting […]