Dearest MODESians,
Well, this is it. Today is my last day at FreightWaves and my final edition of MODES … for a little while. I’m starting a new job outside of journalism in February and won’t be able to continue the MODES newsletter there. (At least for the time being.)
MODES has published on Tiny Letter, Substack and Business Insider, but its most stable and loving home has been at FreightWaves. I launched the newsletter in 2019 as a young lady living in Chicago. I brought it over to FreightWaves in 2022. Today, I sunset it. We almost got to five years of MODES — almost!
Since I began reporting on trucking in 2018, I’ve met hundreds of fascinating people — truck drivers, CEOs, brokers, cargo pilots, railroad conductors, professors. The job has taken me everywhere from a flower farm in Colombia to a man camp in the Arctic Circle to a Coca-Cola loading dock in the Bronx. I’ve gotten the chance to talk logistics on PBS NewsHour, Bloomberg Odd Lots, NPR, BBC World Service, NBC News, ABC News, and even French and Australian television channels. Reporting on logistics is hard work, but it’s not nearly as challenging as being in logistics. My stories wouldn’t be possible without you — the reader! — enjoying what I put out there and sending me emails on what I should report on next. (I even appreciate your hate mail. I’m still sorry about that time I used a European cabover truck instead of an American big rig on a story six years ago.)
I’m confident this won’t be the last article I ever publish. But if you’re ever feeling nostalgic for the salad days of MODES, here are some of the greatest hits.
Why Walmart pays its truck drivers 6 figures
The disturbing truth behind the Zyn memes
I rode with an ice road trucker to the Arctic Circle. Here’s what it was like
Why most of America’s 2 million long-haul truck drivers aren’t unionized
Federal law designed to make trucking safer may have aggravated worst issues
Giant container ships are ruining everything
America’s freight railroads are incredibly chaotic right now
Why Teamsters allowed 22,000 union jobs to vanish
(The rest are technically pre-MODES, but here are a few more beloved logistics stories.)
And some reporting from me that has nothing to do with trucking …
Why Korean companies are forcing their workers to go by English names
I’m around on Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also subscribe to MODES on its original Substack home if you like. You never know when I might issue a missive…
Thank you for sharing your stories with me and reading my work. Thank you for all that you do to keep America’s freight moving.
And keep on reading FreightWaves!
Farewell for now,
Rachel
