Day 2 of SMC3’s Jump Start 2026 built on the energy of day 1’s opening keynote, turning from mindset to mechanics. AI dominated the agenda, but not as a buzzword. Speakers discussed invoice automation, resolving exceptions at 3 a.m., freight moving without drivers behind the wheel and beyond.

In the second session of SMC³’s LTL 204 Hybrid Series, “Navigating Change in LTL,” industry analyst Adrian Gonzalez (president of Adelante SCM and founder and host of Talking Logistics) joined moderator Joe Tillman and co-moderator Dr. Karl Manrodt to explore how uncertainty, risk and rapid change are reshaping LTL.

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.

At its best, the carrier-shipper relationship is a close collaboration, with both parties working to build shared priorities around getting freight delivered on time and in one piece. But this ideal is not always realized, and carriers and shippers often remain at odds with one another. How can carriers strategically approach relationship-building with their customers? What does true collaboration look like in LTL?

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.