FreightCasts Weekly Recap (9/21-9/27)

WHAT THE TRUCK?!?

• Following the money in FreightTech
  • Dooner and The Dude are talking about the state of FreightTech in 2020. Two dynamite leaders will get us up-to-date on what’s new and investable as we’re joined by Tracy Black from NewRoad Capital Partners and Tim Gagnon of C.H. Robinson’s Robinson Labs.
  • Plus, Bad News / Good News concerning driver pay increases, Ring’s Always Home Cam, black licorice, LinkedIn Stories, and the Sony Playstation / Microsoft XBox console wars.
  • This episode features Tracy Black, Operating Partner, NewRoad Capital, Board of Directors Emerge, Board of Directors Platform Science; Tim Gagnon, head of Robinson Labs and vice president of analytics and data science at C.H. Robinson; Steven Root, Senior Manager, Loyalty, Pilot Flying J.
• Nikola: Gravity of allegations
  • Dooner and The Dude look into the fallout from Trevor Milton’s leaving Nikola, talk to TikTok-ing truckers about social media becoming part of their business and find out if small carriers are worth saving.
  • They’re joined by special guests Tom Whaley, president, Level One Technologies; Omar Qazi, @WholeMarsBlog; Wayne Cragg, trucker; Trucker Beetle Bailey, trucker; and Alan Adler, Detroit Bureau Chief, FreightWaves.

Global Trade Tech Summit

• China and tariffs: Why covid has increased cargo yields
  • With bookings of U.S. imports from China currently up 89% year-over-year (y/y), ocean freight out of China is surging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Steve Ferreira, CEO of Ocean Audit Inc., and Daniel Gardner, president of Trade Facilitators, recently discussed what’s causing the spike and how long it will last.
• Ryder CTO looking for next great technology
  • Ryder System Inc. (NYSE: R) Chief Technology Officer Kendra Phillips cannot lean on information technology that is already in place at the third-party logistics provider. Her job is to find the next IT. “I get to explore the future in how we leverage technology and how we bring value to our customers,” Phillips told JT Engstrom, FreightWaves’ chief strategy officer, during American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech summit.
• Air cargo and the airline industry amid the pandemic
  • Air cargo and the airline industry amid the pandemic: A look at the present and what to expect in the future with Brandon Fried.
• Venture investment trends in the supply chain
  • JT Engstrom, Chief Strategy Officer, FreightWaves talks with Paul Asel, Managing Partner, NPG Capital in this Fireside Chat.
• COVID-19 should spur discussions about visibility, execution platforms
  • The unprecedented supply and demand shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to a focus on resilience, the development of regional supply chains, and the absorption of more buffer inventory in warehouses to ensure that companies have enough product on hand should a similar crisis occur, said Pervinder Johar, CEO of the Pleasanton, California-based company. Supply chain leaders who routinely spend 80% to 90% of their time on operations would be wise to allocate at least 10% of their work life to thinking of ways their company, industry and country should never have to go through a crisis like this again, Johar told FreightWaves Senior Editor Greg Miller during the second day of the summit.
• XPO Logistics deploys machine learning to optimize supply chain
  • XPO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE: XPO) is leveraging technology solutions to meet shippers’ demand for speed and agility, along with inventory management and reverse logistics, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to accelerate interest in e-commerce purchases.Mario Harik, chief information officer for the transportation and logistics giant, discussed the company’s tech strategy Thursday during a fireside chat with George Abernathy, president of FreightWaves. The conversation took place during American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech summit.
• Get to the source: Sourcing strategies in a post-Covid world
  • The coronavirus will have lasting effects on global supply chains, according to a new survey by Panjiva, a division of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Annelise McCarthy, head of client engagement for Panjiva, publicly unveiled the results of the new survey on Wednesday during the American Shipper Global Trade Tech summit with FreightWaves Greg Miller.
• Propelling global supply chains into the future with open networks
  • With the breakneck speed of global trade — and disruptions such as the pandemic — no one has the luxury of going it alone in the supply chain. In fact, more than ever, companies need to collaborate and share data via open networks. “The open network, it’s a flywheel. That flywheel is really starting to spin fast,” said Jett McCandless, founder and CEO of project44, a Chicago-based supply chain visibility provider. McCandless discussed the importance of open networks in global supply chains with Paige Cox, senior vice president and head of Supply Chain Networks at SAP, during a virtual fireside chat at American Shipper’s first-ever Global Trade Tech Summit.
• Global logistics: How are technology startups disrupting global freight?
  • Catch this episode and other FreightCasts shows on Spotify.
• Choice: The secret ingredient to creating a cross-border marketplace 
  • Creating a cross-border marketplace from scratch is a tough business, but Forager CEO and co-founder Matt Silver looked to tech giants like Amazon, eBay and Airbnb for inspiration.“It’s not about thinking how we used to do this back in the day, it’s how do we do this differently now,” Silver said. “We want shippers and carriers to be able to have choice on what they do on a daily basis. We want to position this technology as a way for people to grow their businesses.”
  • Forager is a freight tech startup founded in 2018 by Silver and Vice President of Finance and Analytics Jordan Salins, with Chief Operating Officer Jessie Essman joining shortly thereafter. The Chicago-based company specializes in cross-border truckload freight matching between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Silver recently discussed his company’s vision and purpose with Toronto-based transportation lawyer Heather Devine of the law firm Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP. Their virtual fireside chat — “Forager: manically focused on cross-border with tech” — was part of American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech summit on Thursday.
• Wavestalk with IBM’s Jonathan Wright
  • IBM’s Jonathan Wright explains at American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech summit how to prepare by building resilience and making supply chains smarter.

Midday Market Update

• What future bans on diesel mean for fleets now
  • Kevin Hill and Zach Strickland talk about the SONAR-powered data, issues and news that move you.
  • This episode features Kyle Lintner, principal and managing director at K-Ratio; Michael Ryan, managing partner at the M. Ryan Group; and FreightWaves market experts John Kingston and Andrew Cox.
  • This is a live interactive event, viewers are encouraged to comment during broadcasts every Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET on FreightWaves’ Linkedin and Facebook channels.
  • Viewers are encouraged to comment and call-in during broadcasts Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET on FreightWaves Linkedin and Facebook, channels.
• What’s next for Nikola after leadership reset?
  • Kevin Hill and Michael Vincent talk about the SONAR-powered data, issues and news that move you.
  • This episode features Hunter Whirley, managing partner/operations, FPC Riverwood; Lori Ann LaRocco, CNBC senior editor of guests; and FreightWaves Market Experts Alan Adler, Detroit Bureau chief, Anthony Smith, lead economist, and Zach Strickland, director of Freight Market Intelligence.

Put That Coffee Down

• Visual strategies: Selling the infographic
  • Dooner and Hill are talking all about selling data visualization, brand identity and infographics with the purpose of driving leads and closing sales.
  • This episode features Amy Balliett, the co-founder and CEO of Killer Visual Strategies. If looks could kill, Balliett would be the brand assassin you would want on your team!
  • She went from producing the world’s worst infographic ever created to scaling her agency, Killer Infographics, to a multimillion dollar industry leader before being acquired by one of the top branding insights and research firms in the world. Her agency has helped global brands including Microsoft, Boeing, Adobe, Nikon, Starbucks, the United Nations and more. Balliett’s mission is to empower brands to deliver game-changing experiences through impactful storytelling and killer visuals.
  • Plus, listener feedback, advice and community building!

Freightonomics

• Could driver recruitment issues keep trucking rates elevated?
  • Anthony and Zach talk about driver retention and recruitment issues and how they will contribute to keeping the spot market for trucking active through the rest of 2020.

Great Quarter, Guys

• What should Nikola do with its $700 million in cash?
  • Andrew, Kevin and Seth talk about the next steps for salvaging Nikola and what to expect for Tesla’s Battery Day.
  • Thanks again to the research contributions from CarrierDirect.

Drilling Deep

• A greater private sector role on the nation’s highways?
  • Governments are strapped as a result of the pandemic, the nation’s infrastructure isn’t any better than it was at the beginning of the year and states are faced with keeping their roads in good shape. What’s the solution?
  • John Kingston speaks with Bob Poole of the Reason Institute about bringing the private sector into the mix to turn toll roads into privately owned and operated highways. But that always raises the prospect of higher tolls, and Poole explains why users of the roads shouldn’t be worried about that.
  • Kingston will also talk about how three seemingly disparate developments about the future of truck fuel this past week ultimately come back to the fact that the internal combustion engine powered by diesel might turn out to be a tough competitor after all.

On The Spot

• Los Angeles tightens the national trucking market
  • FreightWaves Director of Research Zack Strickland speaks with Associate Editor JP Hampstead about contracted freight.

FreightWaves Morning Minute

• Monday-Friday
  • The fastest minute in freight.
  • The top headlines from FreightWaves.com every weekday morning. Available on FreightWaves.com/podcasts, your favorite podcasts player and Alexa by adding the skill “FreightWaves.”