Supply Chain Intelligence Brief

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TRUCKING

LTL industry meets in Atlanta: Economy, AI, and fraud topped discussions at SMC³ JumpStart 2026

DC Velocity Victoria Kickham January 29, 2026

JumpStart brings together professionals from across the less-than-truckload (LTL) industry for three days of networking, presentations, and panel discussions on the issues affecting the industry. More than 500 people turned out for the event, which was held at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly, January 26-28.

LTL Freight in 2026: Repriced, Not Broken —What Leadership Needs to Know

Logistics Management Mike Regan January 29, 2026

The 2026 LTL market is often described as “soft,” but for many organizations it doesn’t feel that way. Rates remain firm. Accessorial charges continue to rise. Bid events deliver limited movement. And transportation leaders are left explaining outcomes that don’t align with historical market cycles.

FMCSA Administrator Barrs drives home the need for heightened safety enforcement on U.S. roads

Logistics Management Jeff Berman January 29, 2026

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Administrator Derek Barrs provided a detailed overview of various aspects of trucking, as it relates to things like safety and regulations, among other topics, at this week’s SMC³ Jump Start conference in Atlanta.

One of the key takeaways from Barr’s observations was the pressure that the FMCSA, and the trucking sector, by extension, currently faces in making sure it delivers on safety, for things like non-domiciled CDLs and entry-level driver training, and others.

Schneider National’s shares sink on weak Q4, 2026 outlook

Freight Waves Todd Maiden January 29, 2026

Management said heightened regulatory enforcement on the driver pool is having an impact. It said “the most irrational capacity is what’s exiting” and that some of its shippers are inquiring about mini bids as shrinking capacity is becoming a risk. Schneider has set spot rate exposure at historical highs in its network business as it prepares for a material rate inflection.

Link: Schneider Investor Relations Fourth Quarter 2025

Gatik hits driverless trucking milestone with multi-year deal

Axios Joann Muller January 29, 2026

Autonomous trucking startup Gatik signed a deal with a major consumer-goods company that will double its contracted revenue to $600 million over five years, Bloomberg reported this week.

Related: Supply Chain 24/7 Gatik Says Its Driverless Freight Trucks Have Reached Commercial Scale

Trucking M&A outlook: Economy, technology and uncertainty may shape opportunistic deals

Trucking Dive Larry Avila January 29, 2026

Analysts predict regional carriers and LTL operators would make up the bulk of dealmaking.

FMCSA defends foreign driver restrictions despite multi-state backlash

Freight Waves John Gallagher January 29, 2026

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is formally moving to extend a controversial information collection mandate for three years even as the underlying rule remains frozen by a federal court.

Link: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers Licenses

SHIPPERS / 3PLs

C.H. Robinson seeing muted freight market to start 2026

Journal of Commerce Michael Angell January 29, 2026 $Subscription Based

C.H. Robinson sees no near-term catalyst for US freight demand, with air and ocean rates likely remaining close to current levels and recent spikes in truck rates largely driven by winter weather. The truck brokerage and global forwarder, though, said its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives continue to help it serve customers faster and gain market share.

Link: C.H. Robinson Q4 2025 Earnings Presentation

Stock soaring, job numbers dropping: what’s next for C.H. Robinson?

Freight Waves John Kingston January 29, 2026

At another point during the earnings call, Bozeman said productivity had risen by a double digit percentage at NAST for all of 2025, with a high single-digit productivity gain for Global Forwarding.

AI, Cost Discipline Lift C.H. Robinson in Tough Q4

Transport Topics Connor D. Wolf  January 29, 2026

C.H. Robinson Worldwide used cost discipline and leveraged technology like artificial intelligence to gain market share despite fourth-quarter obstacles

Caterpillar Earnings Boosted by AI Data Center Power Demand

Transport Topics/Bloomberg News January 29, 2026

Caterpillar Inc. got an earnings boost from selling power generation equipment to AI data centers in its fourth quarter, helping drive quarterly results that topped Wall Street’s expectations.

Link: Caterpillar Fourth Quarter and Full Year Investor Presentation

TECHNOLOGY

AI is Reshaping Trucking in 2026, from the Back Office to the Shop

Heavy Duty Trucking Deborah Lockridge January 29, 2026

“In the 21st century, we’re used to technology advancing at a rapid pace,” DAT Freight & Analytics said in its 2026 Freight Focus report. “But every so often, tech makes a giant leap forward, and 2025 was one of those years.

“We’ve seen it in the explosion of AI, the momentum in automated vehicles, and technologies specifically designed to do more and do it faster. Link: DAT Freight & Analytics DAT Freight Focus: Truckload Freight Trends and Market Outlook for 2026

Transportation and logistics providers see 2026 as critical year for technology to transform business processes

DC Velocity Gary Frantz January 29, 2026

The difference between now and the pretenders of the past? McLeod and others believe that AI is the real thing and, as it continues to develop and mature, will be incorporated deeper into every transportation and logistics planning, execution, and supply chain process, fundamentally changing and forcing a reinvention of how shippers and logistics service providers operate and manage the supply chain function.

Amazon in Talks to Commit $50 Billion to OpenAI

Transport Topics/Bloomberg News Rachel Metz and Matt Day January 29, 2026

An Amazon investment on that scale would tighten the relationship between OpenAI and the e-commerce giant, which is a longtime backer of OpenAI rival Anthropic. It would also mark the latest example of a circular financing deal between a leading AI startup and a supplier of chips and cloud computing.

SUSTAINABILITY / SAFETY / SECURITY

NACFE Releases First Run on Less – Messy Middle Report

NACFE January 28, 2026

The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) has released its first report from Run on Less – Messy Middle, How NACFE Helped Bring Clarity to the Messy Middle.

The report provides a blueprint of the various elements that make up the Run including how and why the NACFE team decided to focus on the long-haul sector of the trucking industry and how the 13 fleets were selected.

Companies face fragmented climate risk disclosure landscape in 2026

ESG Dive Lamar Johnson January 29, 2026

After the U.S. and European Union signaled an end to a growing regulatory consensus in 2025, businesses are bracing for a more complex environment this year.

Fueling the future: How BNSF boosts fuel efficiency, lowers emissions while moving America’s freight

BNSF Rail Talk Stephen Manning January 29, 2026

A train can move a ton of freight 500 miles on only one gallon of diesel fuel. BNSF consumed 1.15 gallons of diesel for every 1,000 gross ton miles (GTMs) moved in 2024. That’s a 13% improvement over the past 20 years, and a 28% improvement since the first full year of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe merger in 1996.

BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY

How to Use Generative AI for Pricing

MIT Sloan Management Review Maxime C. Cohen January 29, 2026 $Subscription Based

Large language models make sophisticated pricing capabilities, but effective recommendations depend on well-crafted prompts and understanding the tools’ limitations.

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