Consumers may be worried about the economy, but they are not necessarily cutting their holiday budgets, according to a study from the third-party logistics (3PL) provider Kenco.

Forty-three percent of consumers plan to spend more during the 2026 peak season, while 39% expect to spend about the same. Only 18% plan to spend less, compared to 28% in 2025, the company said in its “2026 Peak Season Consumer Report.”

Still, price pressures remain consumers’ dominant concern, according to Kenco’s market survey of North American shoppers. Fifty-nine percent of consumers identified product pricing and inflation as their biggest worry heading into peak season. When asked what could drive higher prices, 45% pointed to import tariffs and 18% to product shortages.

“Consumers are entering peak season with a value-first mindset, but that doesn’t mean they plan to sit it out,” said Frank Loewen, Senior Vice President over eCommerce at Kenco. “Retailers have an opportunity to further improve consumer sentiment by making delivery timing, locations of packages, and returns as transparent as possible.”

Other findings from the survey include:

• Consumer expectations around fulfillment continue to grow as 73% consider free shipping standard when shopping online, 48% expect two-day delivery, 47% expect free returns, and 40% expect real-time tracking.
• Reverse logistics influences purchasing behavior as 82% say a return policy is important or very important when deciding where to shop, and 24% say a poor return experience could cause them to stop shopping with an online retailer.
  
• Shipping visibility during delays is critical for consumers as 35% want an updated delivery date, 29% want a proactive notification before they have to ask, and 29% want an explanation for the delay.
• Social channels and generative AI will largely influence peak season shopping, with 60% saying they are likely to use an AI tool to help with peak season shopping, and more than half expect at least 20% of their gifts to be purchased directly through social media platforms.

As the trucking sector lurches into a recovery from a three-year freight recession, the latest statistics show that contract rates increased from June through August while spot rates dropped over the same period, according to the quarterly “U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index – Rates Edition,” produced in collaboration with DAT Freight & Analytics.

By the numbers, contract rates moved higher over that span, rising from $2.30 per mile in June to $2.38 in July and $2.39 in August. But dry van spot rates decreased from $2.38 per mile in June to $2.35 in July and $2.17 in August. And by August, contract rates carried a premium of roughly $0.22 per mile over spot freight.

Fuel costs also played a growing role in overall transportation spending, the report found. Average fuel surcharge rates increased from $0.62 per mile in June to $0.70 in August, elevating total freight costs even as spot linehaul pricing softened.

“Fuel costs are increasing while linehaul pricing is softening, making it important for transportation teams to closely analyze the components of their freight spend,” said Jeff Pape, head of transportation for U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems.

The report is the latest reflection of a sector that is struggling to define a normal plateau, as it is squeezed between contrasting forces such as rebounding freight rates, soft demand, spiraling diesel prices, and restricted carrying capacity hindered by a dwindling roster of drivers.

“Fuel made up about 21% of the per-mile broker-to-shipper spot rate on dry van loads in June,” said Patrick Pretorius, General Manager Shipper Segment, DAT. “By August, it was 24%, and diesel is trending higher into the fall. Higher fuel costs push smaller, thinner-margin carriers out of the market, which adds to an already shrinking driver pool. Shippers who've spent two years squeezing rate per mile would do well to shift focus to consolidation and network planning, as the market is tightening from two directions at once.”

The supply chain management and e-commerce third party logistics provider (3PL) Arvato has opened its seventh logistics facility in Louisville, Kentucky, saying the move further expands its presence in one of the United States’ most important logistics hubs.

The new, wholly-owned site adds approximately 400,000 square feet of capacity, taking Arvato’s total Louisville footprint beyond four million square feet. Expected to create approximately 150 new jobs, the facility further strengthens the company’s ability to support growing fulfillment and distribution requirements for clients across North America, Arvato said.

According to Germany-based Arvato, brands need supply chain solutions that can support growth without adding complexity, whether they are entering new markets, managing rising order volumes, or optimizing delivery performance.

Its new Louisville facility is a direct response to these changing market requirements, the company said. By expanding its U.S. network, Arvato is providing clients with additional capacity, greater operational agility, and access to a highly connected distribution hub. Located near Louisville International Airport (SDF), the facility enables efficient distribution across major consumer markets and supports faster, more reliable fulfillment operations. It also benefits from late cut-off times, enabling faster direct-to-consumer deliveries and supporting time-critical shipments such as spare parts and critical equipment.

The Utah-based material handling installation and integration service provider Wize Solutions today said it had acquired four systems integrators, vaulting the company into the ranks of the largest warehouse system installation companies in the U.S.

Wize said it has acquired Engineered Storage Solutions Inc. (ESSI), ESSI Midwest, Tech Products, and Warehouse Equipment Solutions (WES).

The deals also strengthen its position in providing turnkey material handling installations, including automation, conveyance, and beyond, the firm said.

Specifically, the acquisition of ESSI and ESSI Midwest will enhance Wize Solutions’ industrial material handling and warehouse installation footprint in the Midwest, Northeast, and South, providing additional resources for pallet racking, shelving systems, mezzanines, pick modules and traditional warehouse products. Meanwhile, the addition of Tech Products allows Wize to further expand its automation capabilities. And finally, buying WES supports its goal to expand into additional service offerings.

As well as buying the companies themselves, Wize said it plans to retain their employees, saying that both employees and senior leadership teams from all four companies will join Wize Solutions as the company continues expanding its geographic reach and service capabilities. The leadership teams that made up ESSI, ESSI Midwest, Tech Products, and WES have expertise that expands decades and is an invaluable resource that aligns with the mission and goals of Wize Solutions.

“These acquisitions represent an important step in our national growth strategy,” Tyson Bigelow, CEO of Wize Solutions, said in a release. “They expand our geographic reach, strengthen our service capabilities, specifically in the conveyor and automation markets, while bringing additional experienced professionals into our organization.”

Wize Solutions says it supports warehouse projects of all sizes, including pallet rack installation, pick modules, mezzanines, shelving systems, rack repair, and dock-and-door services. The addition of these companies, specifically their expertise in conveyor and automated installs, further strengthens Wize’s ability to provide turnkey solutions for new warehouse construction, facility expansions, retrofits, and ongoing warehouse upgrades.

Freight broker C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. has agreed to acquire fellow truck brokerage firm RXO for an implied value of $5.8 billion in a stock-and-cash transaction that it said will combine the two companies’ trucking brokerage and managed transportation businesses, and also merge their individual strengths; C.H. Robinson’s global forwarding and RXO’s expedited and last mile services.

Upon completion of the transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of 2027, C.H. Robinson will integrate RXO primarily into its North American Surface Transportation (NAST) division.

“This transaction is a natural next step in our transformation, allowing us to create a more scaled, resilient North American third-party logistics provider positioned to offer exceptional customer service and redefine the future of our industry,” said Dave Bozeman, C.H. Robinson President and Chief Executive Officer. “Like Robinson, RXO is a customer-focused company with expertise and talent that will allow us to expand our capabilities to better support customers of all sizes on their most complex challenges. By applying our proven Lean AI model to RXO’s business, we expect to significantly enhance productivity to unlock compelling cost synergies.”

The move is the latest transformation for Charlotte, N.C.-based RXO, which calls itself a Fortune 1000 provider of asset-light tech-enabled transportation solutions. The company was originally created as part of XPO, the sprawling logistics and transportation conglomerate built by investor Brad Jacobs.

Then in 2021, XPO split up into the brokerage unit RXO, the contract logistics provider GXO, and the less tank truckload (LTL) unit called XPO. After becoming a standalone company, RXO continued to grow through its own acquisitions, including the $1.025 billion purchase in 2024 of UPS Inc.’s freight brokerage arm, Coyote Logistics.

Minnesota-based C.H. Robinson will buy the company from its owner, the asset management firm Orbis Investments, which backs the deal. “Orbis is RXO’s largest shareholder and has owned the company since it became independent. We know the business and the team well, and we fully support this transaction. It gives RXO shareholders substantial cash today and continued ownership in a combined platform with significant upside,” Adam R. Karr, President and Portfolio Manager at Orbis Investments, said in a release.

Cargo theft is more sophisticated than ever—and as a result, business leaders are increasingly concerned about the security of goods moving through supply chains, according to a recent report from technology provider SmartSense by Digi.

The company surveyed 150 U.S.-based loss and organized retail crime (ORC) prevention leaders for its latest Cargo Theft Report. The results show that cargo theft has become increasingly coordinated and sophisticated: 81% of respondents said it has become more organized in recent years, and 79% said their organization is more concerned about cargo theft today than ever before.

And the researchers say technology is playing a growing role on both sides of the issue.

“Cargo thieves have continued to escalate their tactics and expand their use of technology,” Guy Yehiav, president of SmartSense by Digi, said in a statement announcing the findings. “Businesses need to evolve with it. New forms of instantaneous location tracking and visibility intelligence are needed to understand what normal movement looks like, identify anomalies quickly and act before suspicious activity turns into a multimillion-dollar loss.”

According to the survey, businesses are facing highly coordinated criminal networks that exploit vulnerabilities across the supply chain using increasingly sophisticated tactics. And they are facing them more frequently. More than 60% of respondents said cargo theft incidents have increased compared to last year, for instance, and 81% said organized retail crime is a growing concern for their organization. Those problems are creating big losses: 80% of respondents said cargo theft incidents have led to lost sales for their organization, 40% reported annual losses of at least $1 million due to cargo theft, and 28% reported annual losses of more than $2 million.

When asked about cargo theft tactics, respondents identified fraudulent pickups and carrier impersonation (78%), GPS jamming and spoofing (71%), trailer theft (66%), and double brokering (64%) as their top concerns.

The researchers said the data paints a “troubling picture” of organized criminal operations targeting U.S. supply chains through a wide range of tactics designed to evade traditional security measures.

“Cargo theft is increasingly a cybersecurity issue as much as it is a physical security issue. If criminals gain access to transportation or logistics systems, they can potentially identify what is being shipped, where it is going and when it will be there. That intelligence can turn a shipment into a very specific target,” Scott Glenn, vice president of asset protection at The Home Depot, said in the statement. “As criminal organizations become more sophisticated, companies have to think about protecting the data surrounding a shipment just as seriously as they protect the shipment itself.”

The good news is that companies are taking the threat seriously: 70% of respondents said their organizations are investing more this year in cargo theft prevention compared to last year. And they are specific about the capabilities they say will make the biggest difference in fighting cargo theft, citing real-time location visibility and data that can be used to identify recurring theft patterns or high-risk routes.

But technology is only one part of the solution, according to the research.

“Successfully combatting cargo theft also requires faster coordination and response when incidents occur,” according to the report. “Just 37% of respondents say they regularly report incidents and work directly with law enforcement on investigations. Since many thefts go unreported, the true scale of the problem is likely larger than current figures suggest.”

SmartSense by Digi is a business unit of Digi International. The company provides IoT Sensing-as-a-Service solutions, including personalized asset tracking, monitoring, process digitization, and decision-making solutions.

Nearly half of professional service robots sold in 2025 were used for transportation and logistics, helping drive a total increase of 24% in global shipments of those robots to almost 250,000 units in 2025, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

Sorted by application, transportation and logistics stayed in the lead, with 117,500 units sold in 2025. This was up 21%, and represents a market share of 47%. Although traditional sales remained the main monetization channel, RaaS business models continued to grow in popularity and are already the dominant business model in the U.S.

Hospitality robots rank in second place. Machines for mobile guidance, information points in public environments, and telepresence account for the majority of these robots. The market for professional cleaning robots follows in third place, with floor cleaning as the main application in this segment.

“Service robots are expanding into everyday operations,” says Jane Heffner, President of the International Federation of Robotics. “Sales went up across all three segments with double-digit growth rates: professional service robots gained 24%, medical robots grew 19%, and consumer service robots surged by an impressive 37%.”

A much smaller slice of market share went to humanoid robots, which are designed to resemble humans and are gaining massive attention for their potential flexibility. But while recent advances in AI, sensors, and control systems have enabled impressive pilot projects, most current applications remain specialized and often require human teleoperation, IFR found. In 2025, about 7,000 units of full-size humanoids (above 140 cm) were sold globally. These robots are intended for commercial and professional applications beyond R&D and entertainment.

Widespread adoption of humanoid robots continues to be limited by key challenges such as safety standards, high training and maintenance costs, and the lack of a strong business case, particularly in industrial settings. For humanoid robots to become practical everyday tools, further progress in intuitive programming, robust manipulation, economic scaling, and standardized safety is essential, IFR said.

Package and delivery giant UPS Inc. has launched a “secure commerce” service for end-to-end protection against fraud, revenue loss, and business disruption, the company said today.

The “UPS Secure Commerce” offering fuels competitive advantage by supplying data-driven intelligence, actionable insights, and proactive risk management before fraud, delivery issues, shipment loss, or operational mishaps become costly mistakes, the company said.

The service bundles three existing UPS solutions into one portfolio: InsureShield Shipping Insurance for shipment protection and frictionless and fast claims recovery, Parcel Pro for high-value and specialty shipment protection and CommerceShield technology for proactive shipping and e-commerce risk mitigation.

UPS announced the capability as global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated $6.4 trillion in 2025, while reported fraud losses represented roughly 3.2% of e-commerce revenue – and that’s before the added cost of disputes, refunds, reshipments, claims handling, returns, customer recovery, and reputational risk, the company said.

Furthermore, risk does not stop at the moment of delivery. Merchants also must plan for inventory challenges, purchase experience, and the endless decisions that drive customer loyalty. “With UPS Secure Commerce, we’re protecting more than just the package,” UPS Chief Digital and Technology Officer Bala Subramanian said. “We are empowering businesses to protect revenue, strengthen customer trust and make more confident decisions during each step of the supply chain journey.”

The new service follows a similar announcement from fellow parcel powerhouse FedEx Corp., which two weeks ago launched “FedEx Authenticated Delivery,” calling it a service that adds extra security for high-value and sensitive shipments.

The Port of Savannah says it is 60% finished with a $1.6 billion renovation that will grow the capacity of its Ocean Terminal from 200,000 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) to 1.75 million TEU per year.

Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) said it would work smaller vessels at the 2,650-foot Ocean Terminal berth until mid-fall 2027, when the first phase of the container yard renovation is complete. The entire Ocean Terminal yard will be completed by the end of 2028.

The truck gate at Ocean Terminal is now fully operational and features 12 inbound and six outbound lanes. A $29 million port–funded overpass routes those departing trucks from Ocean Terminal directly onto U.S. 17 and Interstate 16, bypassing neighborhood streets.

“Transforming a 200-acre terminal while keeping the port operating is a tremendous undertaking, and the progress at Ocean Terminal is a testament to the hard work of our GPA team and our partners,” said Georgia Ports Authority Board Chairman Alec Poitevint.

The improvements at Ocean Terminal are part of GPA’s port master plan. Over the next 10 years, Georgia Ports plans to invest $5 billion in capacity enhancements to support future supply chain requirements, adding five container berths in Savannah and one RoRo berth in Brunswick.

Eight months after freight broker Echo Global Logistics Inc. agreed to acquire the third-party logistics provider (3PL) ITS Logistics, Chicago-based Echo said it has united ITS with another acquisition, the less-than-truckload (LTL) and cold-chain specialist Roadtex.

Those combined operations will constitute Echo's North American Supply Chain Solutions Suite, an operation which enables shippers to replace fragmented vendor networks with one trusted partner for streamlined supply chain management and improved operational performance, the company said.

"Bringing together the proven solutions of Roadtex and ITS under Echo's North American Supply Chain Solutions Suite creates one trusted partner our clients rely on," said Dave Menzel, President and Chief Operating Officer at Echo. "Echo now provides distribution and fulfillment, warehousing and value-added services, temperature-controlled and food-grade transportation, retail consolidation, and parcel solutions — fully integrated."

Roadtex, which was acquired by Echo in 2022, brings more than 30 years of experience in food-grade, temperature-controlled transportation, warehousing, and warehouse services. ITS, which was acquired by Echo in March 2026, offers omnichannel distribution and fulfillment capabilities, as well as expertise in the growing e-commerce market. The combined network spans 8 million square feet of warehousing space across more than 40 facilities connected by first, middle, and final mile transportation services, enabling next-day reach to 85% of the contiguous U.S.

The financial and lending business U.S. Bank has expanded its focus on serving manufacturing businesses, saying it now offers specialized expertise, tailored financial solutions, and dedicated industry support.

According to Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, manufacturers today are balancing supply chain pressures, rising operating costs, workforce challenges, global trade complexity, cybersecurity threats, and the need to continuously invest in equipment and technology to remain competitive.

To help its manufacturing clients meet those challenges, the bank said it has named an industry specialist for manufacturing, trained relationship managers on the specialized needs of the industry, added foreign-exchange specialists, launched educational client events, and adopted lending changes that support these businesses.

"Manufacturers are the backbone of the U.S. economy, driving innovation, job creation and economic growth in communities across the country," said Dee O’Dell, head of business banking sales at U.S. Bank. "We understand that manufacturers face a unique set of financial and operational challenges. By combining industry-specific expertise with a comprehensive suite of banking and financing solutions, we're helping these businesses build resilience, improve efficiency and position themselves for long-term success."

The expanded focus is U.S. Bank’s latest offering of specialty services for industry verticals. In 2023, the bank launched an initiative to serve medical, dental and veterinary practitioners, and it plans additional industry-specific services in the future.

A pair of new California laws signed over the weekend sets demands for cold storage warehouses in a bid to hold them accountable for industrial disasters like the recent fire at a warehouse in Los Angeles, but some industry voices say they go too far.

The June 17 fire at a nearly 500,000-square-foot cold storage facility operated by Lineage Logistics in Boyle Heights, California, burned for eight days and was followed by significant cleanup and public health challenges. The immediate fallout featured air pollution that has since caused health problems for neighbors, and a persistent rotting odor caused by the decomposition of some 89 million pounds of frozen food.

The $100 million cleanup plan took months, and Lineage announced it had cleared all remaining food waste and debris from the wreckage on September 5.

The state’s legislature drafted two bills in response, and on Sunday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 817 and Senate Bill (SB) 716, saying they strengthen accountability to help communities respond to future emergencies. Specifically, AB 817 establishes new contingency-fund requirements for specified community needs for certain large cold storage facilities. And SB 716 strengthens local enforcement tools by increasing fines for violations of local ordinances involving specified nonresidential structures of 20,000 square feet or more when the violations pose a threat to health and safety.

However, one business group opposing the new laws is the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), which expressed “disappointment” in the move, saying today that it had actively opposed the bills since they were introduced in August.

In the GCCA’s view, the warehouse fire offered an opportunity to strengthen emergency preparedness and response at industrial sites statewide. But rather than directing new resources or support to communities affected by industrial incidents, the new bills primarily add financial and regulatory burdens on the food and pharmaceutical cold storage supply chain — raising costs for growers, processors, distributors, manufacturers, and retailers alike, the group said.

"We're disappointed that this legislation moved forward in its current form, because it doesn't deliver what communities actually need in the wake of the Boyle Heights fire, and adds real costs to an industry that keeps food and medicine available and safe for millions of Californians," said Sara Stickler, President & CEO of GCCA. "However, we look forward to sitting down with Assemblymember Gonzalez, other lawmakers, and community stakeholders in the next legislative session to build a policy that genuinely strengthens emergency preparedness without pricing responsible businesses out of California.”

GCCA said it will continue to update its members and industry stakeholders as it works with the state legislature ahead of the laws' effective date of January 1, 2027.

Workforce modernization software that uses AI to schedule workers’ shifts is beginning to deliver on two goals that had long been seen as competing priorities—helping organizations operate more efficiently while also giving employees greater flexibility—according to a study from California-based Legion Technologies, a workforce management platform vendor.

The study also pointed to future opportunities in modernization, such as using AI to improve manual tasks like scheduling, while giving managers more time to lead teams. Those results came from Legion’s “2026 State of the North American Hourly Workforce” report, which surveyed 1,044 hourly employees and 846 managers across 11 industries, including retail, fashion, grocery, warehousing and distribution, and transportation.

The survey showed that employees and managers reported consistent priorities across various industries. Specifically, employees want schedules that better reflect their preferences, more control over when they work, and greater flexibility in accessing their pay. And managers want technology that makes it easier to create and adjust schedules, balance employee needs with business requirements, and lead their teams.

According to Legion, that progress comes as employers continue to face significant workforce management pressures. Staffing shortages and turnover remain persistent challenges, while many employees are seeking more hours than they currently receive or are considering leaving their jobs in the next 12 months. The research suggests that these issues are closely connected: better matching can help qualified, available employees access the hours they want while reducing the manual work required of managers to build schedules that work for both employees and the company.

Additional findings showed that:

• Hourly workers prioritize flexibility in both scheduling and pay. 53% of employees say their top priority is control over their schedule, which ranks second only to pay, and 38% say early access to wages is a top incentive. On scheduling, 82% of employees say technology helps their manager accommodate schedule preferences.
• Managers see the same needs for flexibility from an operational perspective: 53% of managers say if they can’t offer flexibility, it leads to retention challenges. Delivering flexibility can help alleviate staffing shortages and turnover, which 51% of managers say are their biggest workforce challenges.
• AI has the potential to connect employees with more of the hours they want, match employees to the right shifts, and ensure that shifts are properly staffed. This is good news for the 35% of employees who say they want more hours than they currently receive. In fact, employees who don’t receive enough hours are twice as likely to consider leaving their job within six months as employees who do receive enough hours. At the same time, 72% of employees want to be reassured that AI will not replace their jobs or reduce their hours.
• As companies modernize, managers report spending less time on administrative work. The share of managers who spend three or more hours per week on scheduling declined from 58.5% to 51%, while time spent tracking attendance also declined from 52% to 45%. With less time spent on administrative work, 39% of managers say they would spend the time coaching and developing their teams. However, one major manual process remains: 49% of managers still fill open shifts by calling or texting employees individually, highlighting an opportunity to automate more routine work.

Freight management software provider Banyan Technology has launched an AI-powered tool designed to identify shipments likely to miss expected delivery timing before a service failure occurs.

The tool expands Banyan’s predictive freight intelligence with the launch of Deliveries at Risk, the Cleveland-based company said.

The new capability evaluates incoming shipment tracking updates using current location, destination information, expected delivery timing, and destination dock close time to predict the likelihood of an on-time arrival. Shipments that fall below the established confidence threshold are automatically identified as “At Risk”, helping transportation teams focus on potential exceptions before they become late deliveries.

By automatically evaluating new tracking information, Deliveries at Risk helps reduce the need for transportation teams to manually monitor every shipment. Instead, teams can focus on freight most likely to require intervention and use AI-assisted workflows to help determine and execute the appropriate next steps, from Carrier follow-up and customer communication to delivery planning and service recovery.

“Transportation teams have more data available to them than ever, but the real value comes from turning that data into better, more proactive decisions,” Banyan CEO Brian Smith said in a release. “Our focus is on building intelligence into freight management so clients can identify opportunities faster, reduce manual work and take action with greater confidence.”

Retail sales rose modestly in August, marking the 11th consecutive month of gains, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF).

By the numbers, total retail sales, excluding automobile dealers and gasoline stations, were up 0.22% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 3.87% seasonally adjusted year over year in August, according to the Retail Monitor. Sales increased 0.32% month over month and 5.15% year over year in July.

Unlike survey-based numbers collected by the Census Bureau, NRF said the Retail Monitor uses actual, anonymized credit and debit card purchase data compiled by Affinity Solutions and does not need to be revised monthly or annually. Beginning with this release, the Retail Monitor uses a new methodology that weights the card data to reflect the makeup of U.S. consumers and projects it to match U.S. Census Bureau retail sales totals.

"Retail sales climbed steadily once again in August," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. "Supported by low unemployment and steady wage gains, households remained budget-conscious but took full advantage of back-to-school promotions to stretch their dollars. Retailers stayed committed to affordability, keeping everyday products accessible for American families."

The container carrier A.P. Moller – Maersk today said it has completed the first ship-to-ship commercial ethanol bunkering of a deep-sea container vessel in the United States, marking progress toward its exploration of lower-emission logistics for shipping.

According to Maersk, the operation provided insight into the operational, infrastructure, sourcing, and supply chain considerations for using ethanol as a marine fuel. While ethanol benefits from an established production base, existing infrastructure, and compatibility with alcohol-enabled vessel technology, scalable future fuel pathways will also depend on fuel availability, regulation, and operational readiness across the maritime value chain.

The event achieved the bunkering of Tangier Maersk, a dual-fuel alcohol-enabled container vessel, using U.S.-produced corn ethanol. It builds on previous ethanol trials aboard Laura Maersk and Antonia Maersk, and reflects Maersk’s continued commitment to exploring and advancing credible pathways to drive progress within the shipping industry’s energy transition.

It seems everyone in the shipping and supply chain communities has an opinion on the proposed merger of the Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) railroads. Whether it’s a shipper or industry organization, labor union, local community advocate, politician, or another Class 1 railroad, questions of competition, capacity, safety, job protection, increased costs, and potentially reduced services loom large in the discussions—and will certainly factor into deliberations by the Surface Transportation Board (STB), the federal agency that has the ultimate thumbs-up or thumbs-down decision-making role on the matter.

Rail unions vividly recall what in their view were the “adverse” consequences of rail merger activity in the 1990s. That saw the Union Pacific swallow up the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, the creation of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway, and the CSX/NS-Conrail transaction. Ultimately, rail employment was reduced by some 20%, according to union figures.

Shippers and their industry advocacy organizations also have voiced concerns over the merger. The National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) “has consistently been on the record as opposing further consolidation in the rail industry,” said Nancy O’Liddy, NITL’s executive director, in a news release. She also cited the impact of prior mergers that “drastically reduced” rail competition and left NITL members “captive to only a single railroad. Despite past promises that rail customers would benefit from mergers through more efficient service, today, captive rail customers pay increasingly higher prices for unreliable and inadequate services,” she added.

She has called for more information and transparency regarding how the combined UP-NS organization will 1) meet the public good; 2) enhance rail-to-rail competition; 3) mitigate anti-competitive practices involving gateway access and pricing, and joint asset ownership; and 4) be held accountable for service failures and increased fees.

​BIGGEST RAIL DECISION IN THE LAST 100 YEARS

Jason Seidl, managing director, industrials – airfreight and surface transportation at investment firm TD Cowen, has been in the transportation business in one form or another for some three decades. He is unequivocal in his view of the impact of the UP-NS merger. “This is the most important decision being made in the rail space in the last 100 years,” he says.

“If you are an intermodal shipper, you love the deal, automotive shippers too,” he opines. “If you are in the bulk commodities market, it probably depends.” Seidl notes there are a large number of shippers who have long memories and recall some of the disruptions from previous mergers, “so they are cautious,” he says.

He does point out that unlike previous combinations, where rails that shared territories had to integrate their networks, the UP-NS deal is an end-to-end merger. He says that’s not nearly as complex as earlier mergers or breakups, “so it should not be that bad.” Shippers, however, “still have some fear of disruption. The onus is on UP to soothe some of those fears.”

He believes the STB will ultimately approve the deal, but not without some concessions from the UP and NS. “Will those be too onerous for the UP to accept; that’s to be decided,” he says. Nevertheless, he does think ultimately there will be advantages. “When you look at a true, integrated transcontinental offering versus a marketing agreement for coast-to-coast service, it is very hard for anyone to argue that such an offering would not be better service-wise.”

For its part, UP says much the same thing. In a commentary published on the UP website last month titled “If This Railroad Merger Isn’t Approved, It Hurts America,” Eric Gehringer, Union Pacific’s executive vice president of operations, wrote that since the pandemic, changes the railroad has made have improved service, increased resiliency, and helped customers better respond to changing market demands.

That foundation will support and enable future benefits shippers could gain from the merger, he argues. “Those experiences reinforced a simple lesson: Supply chains work better when unnecessary complexity is removed. That’s why Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are working to create America’s first transcontinental railroad,” he wrote. “In a global economy where speed and reliability matter, those advantages can be the difference between winning and losing.”

He points out that today, freight moving across the country often transfers railroads simply because the current system requires it. That “adds unnecessary time, cost, and complexity,” he said. Gehringer defended the merger, adding that the combined railroad can reduce transportation costs through the opportunity to shift more freight from higher-cost truck to lower-cost rail, which he estimates will save shippers “$3.5 billion annually, helping lower costs for consumers.” Finally, Gehringer says the combined railroads “will allow parts, raw materials, and finished goods to move coast to coast faster and more reliably. That will help manufacturers reduce inventory costs and lower the risk of production disruptions.”

The UP and NS currently invest about $5.6 billion annually in infrastructure and innovation, Gehringer wrote, and they’re prepared to invest even more. “If our merger is approved, we will invest an additional $2 billion in new track, terminal capacity, rail yards, and technology.”

The flip side of the argument comes from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF). “We believe the proposed merger is costly and unnecessary in an otherwise thriving industry while being harmful to customers, communities, the entire supply chain, and the U.S. economy,” said Zak Andersen, chief of staff and vice president of communications for the BNSF, in a statement. “A transaction of this size would give around 50% market share to one company, which greatly reduces competition, eliminates customers’ choices, and [would] eventually result in increased prices for the American consumer.”

Andersen says “the standard set by the STB for this merger to be approved is [that] it must not only maintain but enhance competition and be in the public interest. On that point alone, this merger doesn’t even come close to passing the test,” he notes. “But it really doesn’t matter what we think. What’s most important is what customers, communities, and consumers think.”

​NEW CHOICES, UNDERSTANDING THE TRADE-OFFS

One thing is for sure, choices that shippers have today will change. A possible outcome of the merger would be shippers who today have three options for rail service could see those reduced to two. And shippers who today might have two options for rail service could end up with one.

In a recent commentary in the trade publication Railway Age, Bob Granatelli, an industry consultant who advises on railroad competition and transportation economics, explained the competitive issues facing the “two-to-one” customer. “These are locations where UP and NS both provide direct rail service today,” he noted. “Combining the two railroads would leave the customer with one of those two independent carriers.”

He notes the applicants (UP and NS) have proposed access by another railroad to address those locations.

Physical overlap at the shipper’s facility isn’t the only way the shipper could go from two choices to one. “Consider a customer shipping from an origin served only by UP” where UP does not serve the destination, he notes. In this pre-merger example, the UP can interchange traffic with either NS or CSX, which would then complete the route to the open destination served by both carriers. In this case, the shipper can choose NS or CSX, who are “bridge carriers” providing two independent, interline routing possibilities.

In a post-merger world, that structure changes. “The expanded UP would serve the origin, and, through the former NS network, the destination,” he explains. “The UP-NS interline movement becomes a single system UP movement.”

The first form of two-to-one “results from combining two railroads that directly serve the same facility,” Granatelli adds. “The second results from combining the origin carrier with one of the two independent destination carriers, thereby changing the rail buyer’s ability to use the other.” He emphasizes that rail customers should carefully evaluate their own traffic, how the merger could potentially change those movements and the choices they have, and what combination of mainline and short-line rail services best meets their supply chain needs in a post-merger environment.

​INTERMODAL SURGING

In the midst of all the merger talk, intermodal marketing companies (IMCs)—the middlemen who buy capacity directly from railroads and truck lines to offer shippers seamless, door-to-door freight transportation—and their Class 1 rail partners are quietly experiencing a record surge in traffic. “The first six months of this year, we moved more [intermodal] loads than in any ‘first six months’ in our history,” noted Ian Jefferies, chief executive officer of trade group the Association of American Railroads. That continued through the second half of the year, with week-over-week increases of about 5.7%.

Jefferies cites intermodal’s lower cost as one factor attracting more traffic. “We are cheaper,” he notes. “In the July Producer Price Index, ‘cost of moving goods by rail’ went up 1.2%, well below the rate of inflation. ‘Cost of moving goods by truck’ went up over 10%. We are absolutely taking advantage of that and taking traffic off the highways,” he says.

The rails’ three priorities, Jefferies says, are “safety, service, and affordability. If we are hitting those marks, the traffic should be sticky. Intermodal is premium traffic that requires near 100% on-time performance, so it is incumbent upon us to hit those marks so [freight shippers won’t be tempted] to go back to the highways.”

Shelli Austin, president of intermodal marketing company InTek Logistics, thinks intermodal is at a tipping point and has an opportunity to shift the market perception to one where shippers “level set on intermodal as the first choice, not just a backlash reaction for when truck capacity gets tight.”

And whether one is for or against the merger, “the sheer discussion around whether it happens or not, good or bad, to me has created this wonderful effect, this recognition of intermodal’s role as a fundamental supply chain resource,” she notes. “Everything is competitive by nature. Those [rail operators] not involved in the merger are stepping up their game. It is about competition in the rail space and how current developments are bringing to light new opportunities and services.”

Examples include the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and initiatives like its “Shortline Select” program. The program, which currently has eight short-line railroad participants and plans to add more, aligns service schedules, improves handoffs, and uses shared data systems “to ensure smoother car movement between BNSF and short-line partners,” the railroad says.

It also points to its service agreements with CSX that provide coast-to-coast service today that, the BNSF says, moves freight with greater reliability. The company also added expedited service from Los Angeles to Houston and is continuing the buildout of its Barstow International Gateway, a 4,500-acre, fully integrated rail, intermodal, and transload facility in Southern California.

​DRAYAGE UNDER PRESSURE

Anne Reinke, chief executive officer of the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA), listens to the comments and concerns of her members over the rail merger talks and has come away with one prescient observation. “What I appreciate about both sides of the argument is that they both want to push conversion of over-the-road [truck freight] to intermodal,” she notes. “UP is doing it by consolidation and merger. The BNSF is pursuing it through collaboration. Both emphasize how critical intermodal is to their future success. And I’ll take that as a win.”

The double whammy of increasingly tight truck capacity and surging fuel costs “means that truck is seen by shippers as too expensive,” Reinke adds. It is a supply-driven market for domestic intermodal. “The truck markets have been shedding capacity” because of regulatory initiatives that have pushed drivers out of the market, and the simple economics of trucks being more costly to operate, due to rising wages, insurance, fuel, maintenance, tolls, and other factors. “That’s driving more shippers to explore intermodal, which is considered a lower-cost option,” she notes.

One underlying issue that could derail the growth and reliability of intermodal service is capacity constraints on the drayage side. The regulatory mandates and rulings that are culling drivers from the highway trucking markets—from the English language requirement to removing non-domiciled drivers to closing questionable “paper mill” CDL (commercial driver’s license) schools—is complicating drayage operators’ ability to find and keep enough qualified drivers. “They [drayage operators] are not immune from the pressures facing [over-the-road] trucking operators,” she notes.

And that pressure is likely to ratchet up. “Look at the DOT [Department of Transportation] and the FMCSA [Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration] actions they’ve taken in the name of safety [by removing unqualified drivers from the highways],” says TD Cowen’s Seidl. “That will continue to remove a lot of excess capacity, and rightly so,” he says. “Most people will agree there were questionable carriers out there on the highways. The FMCSA is not done; there will be more [actions] to come over the next six months,” he predicts.

“So you have reduced supply in truck and increased demand for intermodal; that’s usually not a good omen for price if you are a shipper,” Seidl notes. “The industry should consider [itself] lucky that the housing market is not strong right now, because if it was, we would likely have a supply chain crisis on our hands similar to what we had coming out of Covid.”

Editor’s note: On Sept. 18, the Surface Transportation Board issued a ruling denying several motions that sought summary denial of the revised major merger application filed by the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroads. The decision allows the STB’s proceedings considering the merger application to continue.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Lynn C. Fritz Medal for Excellence in Humanitarian Logistics, marking the first time the medal has been awarded to a UN organization.

Presented annually by the Logistics Hall of Fame and sponsored by the U.S.-based Fritz Institute, the award recognizes outstanding innovation and impact in humanitarian supply chain management. Previous recipients include International Medical Corps (USA), Strategies for Northern Development (Kenya), and Welthungerhilfe (Germany).

The WFP is being recognized for Scout, an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled solution that has been transforming upstream supply chain planning since 2022. By optimizing decisions on what food commodities to procure, where to source them, and where to strategically position them, Scout enables humanitarian organizations to move from reactive, manual planning to proactive, data-driven and anticipatory decision-making.

Originally developed as an internal WFP initiative to improve needs assessment, procurement, and logistics planning, Scout rapidly progressed from concept to operational reality. “When used responsibly, artificial intelligence has the potential to transform humanitarian action. Scout demonstrates how AI and data strengthen our ability to make faster, smarter decisions in some of the world’s most challenging environments. This award is a recognition of the innovation and dedication of WFP teams, who are constantly developing new ways to make our operations more efficient and reach more people facing acute hunger with lifesaving support,” said Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director of WFP.

By improving forecasting, planning and efficiency at the start of the supply chain, Scout has already generated more than $6.5 million in cumulative savings within just 24 months of deployment and will continue to scale, enabling WFP to maximize limited resources and reach more people with lifesaving assistance.

The home improvement retail chain Lowe’s today launched airborne drone delivery service, saying it could deliver select home improvement items directly to both do-it-yourself (DIY) and professional contractor customers in as fast as 20 minutes.

This pilot project is now live only at Lowe’s store in Matthews, N.C., and is provided in partnership with Wing and DoorDash. Online shoppers can use the service by browsing Lowe’s merchandise in the DoorDash app, selecting eligible items, and choosing drone delivery by clicking on the dedicated “Lowe’s Air” storefront. Wing drones then transport orders weighing up to 2.5 pounds per flight.

The new fulfillment method follows other same-day fulfillment options supported by Lowe’s, including buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS); curbside pickup, and same-day delivery.

“Home improvement is an inherently friction-filled experience. Any technology we implement is designed to eliminate that friction so our customers can complete their projects quickly,” said Seemantini Godbole, chief information and AI officer at Lowe’s. “By piloting drone delivery, we’re addressing a real project pain point with an innovative solution that is integrated into the retail journey, giving our hometown customers next-generation fulfillment right when they need it.”

Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe’s operates over 1,750 home improvement stores, 540 branches and 120 distribution centers, employing approximately 300,000 people.

As tech firms continue to scale up production of mobile robots, the industrial machine vision firm Cognex said Tuesday that it has spent $500 million to acquire RealSense, a maker of depth-sensing cameras and vision technology for robotic perception and Physical AI.

Natick, Massachusetts-based Cognex said the acquisition advances its strategy to diversify its growth engine by entering the robotic perception market, a high-growth adjacency that expands its served market opportunity.

Originally founded by Intel in 2014 and spun out in 2025, RealSense says it has established a leading position in 3D robotic perception, with applications across fixed arm perception-guided robotics, autonomous mobile robots, quadrupeds and humanoids.

The acquisition expands Cognex's served market opportunity by adding exposure to a robotic perception market estimated at $600 million today and expected to grow more than 25% annually to approximately $1.6 billion by 2030.

In addition to the $500 million price tag for the firm, Cognex said it would also offer a three-year, $56.5 million cash retention program for RealSense employees, subject to performance modifiers, and would grant restricted stock units valued at approximately $50 million under Cognex's existing 2023 Stock Option and Incentive Plan.

Prior to closing, RealSense will spin out its Facial Authentication product line into an independent company, including all necessary functions to continue its focused growth strategy in the biometrics market.

Uber Freight will expand its European fourth-party logistics (4PL) business, with new investment in operations, dedicated product, and engineering resources and a second European location in Krakow, Poland, the company said Thursday.

According to the company, the new investment builds on momentum with Uber Freight's North American customers, many of which also operate in Europe and are looking to work with fewer logistics partners across their global operations.

“Logistics is global by nature, but too often it’s managed through disconnected partners and regional silos,” said Rebecca Tinucci, CEO of Uber Freight. “The more of that complexity we can bring together, the simpler and more efficient it becomes for customers to run their global supply chains. That’s the opportunity we see in Europe.”

Uber Freight already operates an established 4PL business in Europe, with operations in the Netherlands. The business became part of Uber Freight through its 2021 acquisition of Transplace and is distinct from the European freight brokerage business the company sold in 2020.

The company is investing across technology, operations and talent, including dedicated product and engineering resources focused on improving the Transportation Management System (TMS) experience for European shippers.

Uber Freight is also growing customer-facing operations and Customer Service & Success teams and plans to establish a new Control Tower and operations hub in Krakow, Poland, in 2027, expanding its European footprint alongside its existing operations in the Netherlands.

DHL on Tuesday said it is expanding its global battery logistics network to support the rapid growth of the electrified value chain, spanning electric mobility, battery manufacturing, industrial equipment, and energy storage systems.

According to DHL, demand for electric vehicles, battery energy storage systems, and renewable energy solutions is creating new supply chains that require specialized handling, regulatory expertise and global coordination. As electrification expands beyond passenger vehicles into industrial equipment, mining applications and energy infrastructure, logistics requirements are becoming increasingly complex, with many battery systems weighing over 50 tons. These shifts are driving demand for advanced battery logistics capabilities across all regions, including Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.

"Battery logistics is fundamentally different from traditional supply chains," said Francisco Milián, Head of Inbound to Manufacturing, DHL Supply Chain EMEA and member of the DHL New Energy Board. "Customers need specialized capabilities throughout the entire battery lifecycle, from inbound logistics and manufacturing support to storage, distribution, refurbishment, returns and recycling. By building a connected global network that combines supply chain and transport expertise, we can bring these capabilities closer to production sites, energy projects and end markets while ensuring the safety, compliance and responsiveness that battery supply chains require."

DHL’s new strategy will combine capabilities across DHL Supply Chain, DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Express, building an integrated network of EV (electric vehicle) and Battery Centers of Excellence that connects manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, aftermarket, and battery lifecycle services across key markets worldwide. The network today already connects more than 20 sites globally, with further expansion planned.

These facilities dedicated to battery logistics combine specialized warehousing with technical services such as battery diagnostics, testing, charging, conditioning, repair, reverse logistics, and recycling preparation. Many locations also integrate transportation, customs and cross-border logistics services, creating end-to-end solutions for battery manufacturers, automotive companies, and energy providers.

Investors continue to pour money into U.S. cold chain infrastructure for grocery, healthcare, and life sciences, as Copeland—a provider of compression technologies and controls solutions—said it has acquired Dickson, a Chicago-based provider of environmental monitoring and compliance technology solutions.

More precisely, Copeland provides heating, cooling and refrigeration compression technologies and controls solutions for commercial, industrial, cold chain and residential end markets. Dickson provides environmental monitoring solutions for pharmaceutical, life sciences, research, biotech, healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the deal involved some heavy hitters in the world of finance, since Copeland is owned by private equity giant Blackstone and Dickson had been owned by May River Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm.

May River first acquired Dickson in 2018, and says that it has since transformed the business from a family-owned, single-site operation into a global environmental monitoring platform serving customers in more than 50 countries from its operations in Addison, Illinois, Montpellier, France and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Investors have been attracted to supply chain operations in the highly regulated life sciences and pharmaceutical application sectors, which typically offer more lucrative margins than consumer packaged goods (CPG).

For its part, Blackstone had bought a 60% ownership stake in Copeland in 2023 for $9.7 billion and bought the remaining shares in 2024 for $3.5 billion.

The Port of Oakland saw the number of full export containers it handled rise 2.9% in August from the previous month, but that traffic was not enough to sustain total volume at the port, which saw combined loaded import and export cargo containers sink 9.0% from the same month last year.

Through August, the Port has now handled 1,468,482 total twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs), down 4.5% from the same period in 2025. Loaded cargo is down 2.5% year to date, with full imports down 4.6% and full exports up 0.2%. Empty container movements are down 11.4% through August.

The Port recorded 82 vessel calls in August, compared with 90 in August 2025.

“Our loaded cargo volumes remain relatively stable year to date, with exports slightly ahead of last year, and we’re focused on building on that foundation,” said Port of Oakland Acting Maritime Director Jason Garben. “We’re working closely with our ocean carrier, shipper, and terminal partners to identify opportunities to grow cargo through Oakland and give more customers reasons to choose this gateway.”

As Saudi Arabia continues to pour resources into the massive logistics buildout described in its Saudi Vision 2030 plan, the middle eastern nation today announced it will purchase 780 railcars from a U.S. manufacturer to support freight transportation capacity and infrastructure development.

Oregon-based freight transportation equipment provider The Greenbrier Companies said the Saudi Arabian government-owned railroad company SAR had purchased tank cars for transporting phosphoric acid and molten sulfur, as well as intermodal units. The order represents Greenbrier's first sale of intermodal units to SAR and builds on a customer relationship that began with a 2015 tank car order.

The Saudi order was part of a total of Greenbrier’s fourth quarter results, which included a total of 3,400 new railcar orders with an aggregate value of approximately $600 million. Greenbrier says it pioneered double-stack intermodal railcar technology in the 1980s, building specialized, low-profile railcars that are designed to maximize freight efficiency by enabling double-stacking of containers while maintaining a lower center of gravity.

Greenbrier has already begun fulfilling the large order, saying the tank cars were formed from U.S. steel, have been completed at Greenbrier's North American manufacturing operations in Mexico, and have already begun shipping to SAR.

"Our fiscal fourth-quarter orders demonstrate global customer demand for Greenbrier's products and the value of our commercial and engineering capabilities. We are honored to continue our partnership with SAR and look forward to supporting SAR's ongoing rail projects and contributing to freight infrastructure development and upgrades in Saudi Arabia for years to come,” Brian Comstock, Greenbrier’s executive vice president and president, The Americas, said in a release.

ReturnPro, a provider of returns management and recommerce services, has acquired iF Returns, a Madrid-based enterprise returns technology platform serving more than 200 brands across Europe.

Florida-based ReturnPro said the deal adds post-purchase technology that the company can bring to its existing U.S. customers. Specifically, iF Returns’ Returns Management System (RMS) platform helps brands increase exchanges, retain revenue, and improve the post-purchase customer experience. Its technology converts 30–40% of would-be refunds into exchanges and new purchases, the firm says.

ReturnPro plans to add iF Returns’ front-end returns and exchange technology to its existing end-to-end returns, reverse supply chain, and ReCommerce capabilities. ReturnPro will then make these capabilities available to existing customers, including sellers across third-party marketplaces such as Walmart Marketplace, while combining them with its marketplace management expertise to help retailers and sellers retain more revenue and maximize recovery from returned products.

The acquisition also establishing a platform for ReturnPro to extend its reach outside the U.S. and focus on international growth.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the firms said that iF Returns co-founders Galo De Reyna, Marcello Valerio, and Paul Obando will continue to lead the business, working with Jelle Schoenmaker, CEO International at ReturnPro, who will oversee ReturnPro’s international growth.

Self-driving trucking technology vendor Aurora Innovation Inc. says it plans to finish 2026 with 200 driverless trucks in operation through Transport as a Service (TaaS) agreements, and is targeting a rollout of more than 30,000 driverless trucks in operation by 2030.

The Pittsburgh-based company says its Aurora Driver platform has safely completed over 500,000 driverless miles since commercial launch. The firm’s driverless truck technology is designed as a vehicle-agnostic model, allowing customers to have it installed on various models of commercial trucks.

For example, users can upfit the Aurora Driver on the International LT Series truck, or integrate it lineside on the Volvo VNL Autonomous. And automaker PACCAR is planning to integrate Aurora’s third-generation commercial hardware kit with PACCAR's future autonomy-enabled platform on their assembly lines.

Aurora also said it has nearly doubled its driverless customers in 2026. That growth features a major order from the freight fleet Hirschbach Motor Lines, which plans to scale up their autonomous fleet with the intent to own and operate 500 trucks through a Driver as a Service (DaaS) agreement, with truck delivery slated to begin in 2027.

A huge order this week for Tesla Semi vehicles will nearly double the fleet of Class 8 electric trucks on U.S. highways, according to Catalyst Mobility, the clean transportation nonprofit formerly known as CALSTART, and the Smart Freight Centre, an international non-profit organization focused on reducing the emission impacts of global freight transportation.

The deal comes as a coalition of the world's largest cargo-owning shippers have enabled the largest electric truck order to date in the United States — 2,500 battery-electric Class 8 trucks — a single deal that nearly doubles the U.S. electric Class 8 fleet.

Specifically, the order was organized by Catalyst Mobility and the Smart Freight Centre through their joint program called the Zero-Emission Truck Shipper-Carrier Alliance Leading Electrification (ZET SCALE). According to the partners, ZET SCALE aggregates freight demand at a scale no single company could reach on its own, thus building a market for electric trucks that did not exist before.

That aggregated shipper demand has reduced electric truck prices through large-scale volume orders, they say. ZET SCALE selected Tesla as its primary original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the initial 2,500 trucks, after evaluating price, range, charging capability, and production capacity, the group said. It also listed Kenworth, RIDE, and Volvo as secondary OEMs that carriers can utilize as additional options that may meet their specific operational needs.

The group did not provide a schedule for when the trucks will be provided. Tesla launched its Tesla Semi in 2017, but has struggled to ramp up production levels despite attracting initial demand and reservation deposits for the models.

However, when they are delivered, ZET SCALE said the new trucks will run primarily from freight hubs located in 10 places: Southern California/Los Angeles, Northern California/Stockton, Central California/Bakersfield, Seattle/Tacoma, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, the Chicago area, Atlanta, and Northern New Jersey/Newark/New York City. Those locations satisfy ZET SCALE’s strategy of concentrating deployments in high-density freight hubs with the strongest initial routes and economics, driving up utilization of both the trucks and the charging infrastructure they depend on, and reducing total cost of ownership.

"You can have good technology and still not have a market," said Catalyst Mobility’s President and CEO, Michael Berube. "What is different about ZET SCALE is that the demand was organized so manufacturers could price at scale. That is how costs move, and that is how clean trucks leave the pilot phase.”

Amid Trump Administration policies on increased regulatory scrutiny of truck drivers, the U.S. the trucking industry is entering a new era defined not by the availability of freight capacity, but by the availability of capacity that can be deployed with confidence, according to a report from the payments network operator Triumph.

That shift comes as many drivers have been forced out of the sector by White House moves to tighten enforcement on commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), English-language proficiency, and electronic logging device (ELD) compliance. Those moves appear to have helped shrink the freight-hauling capacity on U.S. highways, contributing to a nascent recovery from a three-year freight recession that featured stubbornly depressed rates. However, they may have gone so far that shippers, brokers, and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) are now struggling to find reliable carriers to haul their loads.

The increased regulatory scrutiny has contributed to a tougher barrier for entry for new carriers, Triumph says. And that means that risk to the broker or shipper ordering the load is becoming far more important than cost, Triumph said. That analysis comes from the “Triumph Mile Marker” report, which is based on transaction-level data from the Triumph Network, one of the largest payments networks in North America, that touches 7 out of every 10 transactions in brokered freight.

"For years, discussions about capacity centered on whether trucks and drivers existed," said Ben Volkwyn, executive vice president, head of enterprise data and intelligence for Triumph. "Increasingly, the question isn't whether capacity is available. It's whether capacity is trustworthy."

While freight markets have historically been shaped by cyclical shifts in supply and demand, the report suggests the industry may be experiencing a structural change. Regulatory oversight, carrier vetting practices, and risk-management requirements are becoming larger factors in determining which carriers can effectively participate in the market. As a result, the lowest-cost option may not always be the preferred option, creating new opportunities and challenges for brokers, carriers, and shippers alike.

According to Triumph's analysis, enforcement activity, carrier verification requirements, and broader regulatory developments appear to be influencing freight market behavior in ways that become visible in transaction data before they are reflected in conventional market narratives. The report suggests the transportation industry is entering a new phase in which capacity is increasingly evaluated through the lens of compliance, risk, and operational readiness.

Maritime cargo moving from India to the U.S. east coast has begun moving faster in recent weeks as some shipping lines begin testing a return to the Suez Canal routing instead of detouring around the southern end of Africa to avoid missile threats in the Red Sea, according to the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA).

The extended route became necessary late in 2023 amid attacks on passing ships conducted by local rebels, as regional violence spread in reaction to the war between Israel and Hamas. The risk of missile strikes pushed maritime insurance providers to hike their rates, and container lines responded by passing those new charges on to shippers.

However, Indian cargo is now reaching the Port of Savannah 10 to 14 days faster than it has since those events unfolded. And port officials said the improved supply chain velocity means faster inventory fulfillment and lower inventory carrying costs for cargo owners.

Specifically, GPA said that Maersk has shifted its MECL service from routing around the Cape of Good Hope back to the Suez Canal, cutting the transit time from Nhava Sheva, India, to Savannah to 28 days. The Maersk Denver made the ocean carrier’s first new westbound sailing via the Suez last month, reaching Savannah on August 9.

And ocean carrier CMA CGM is also in the process of returning its INDAMEX service via the Suez Canal. The move will reduce transit time from Nhava Sheva to Savannah by five days and require two fewer vessels to maintain weekly frequency.

“We are glad to see ocean carriers resuming Red Sea transits using the Suez Canal, the fastest and most economical way to link Asia, South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East to the U.S. market,” said GPA Chief Commercial Officer Flavio Batista. “Cargo owners have made significant investments to diversify manufacturing to countries in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Now they will be able to enjoy the full benefit of that manufacturing shift with shorter lead times and a more predictable supply chain.”

For companies moving goods from India and other international markets, faster ocean transit is only one part of the logistics equation. GPA said companies are increasingly seeking logistics partners that can position inventory closer to customers and respond to demand with greater speed and flexibility.