Plus: A historic rail merger is officially on the books, a deadly Charlotte crash reignites underride guard concerns, South Korea angles to sidestep U.S. tariffs with a shipbuilding deal, and more in today's newsletter.
Union Pacific’s $85 billion Norfolk Southern merger and Hub Group’s $51.8 million Marten Intermodal deal signal major shifts in U.S. freight, raising questions on competition, costs, and capacity.
Six people died in a Charlotte underride crash, highlighting the severe dangers of cars sliding under tractor trailers.
Mindy Long’s Transport Topics editorial highlights how AI, automation, and data science are transforming freight brokerage.
Note: This is an editorial review of Mindy Long’s analysis on Transport Topics
In a recent editorial for Transport Topics, freight journalist Mindy Long argued that automation, AI, and advanced data tools are redefining how freight brokers operate and only those who adapt will thrive.
According to Long, the fundamentals of brokerage, matching freight with capacity, remain, but technology is accelerating every step of the process.
“Technology in brokerage is and will remain an accelerator,” said Ryan Schreiber of Metafora, noting that the right tools can allow brokers to “pay more to carriers, charge shippers less, or all of the above.”
Long highlighted how freight pricing, once driven largely by instinct, is moving toward data-driven systems. AVRL CEO Chadd Olesen explained that brokers are “becoming more advanced so they can attract as much yield as possible off the market,” while Transfix CEO Jonathan Salama predicted that brokers without intentional tech strategies “simply won’t last.”
AI also promises to overhaul decision-making. As Flock Freight’s Lu Saenz put it, with predictive analytics, brokerage is starting to resemble “quant trading in a hedge fund.” Similarly, Magnus Technologies CEO Matt Cartwright stressed that “data will no longer be something brokers collect. It will be the core operating fabric of their business.”
Mindy also pointed out the productivity gains from automating unstructured data, such as phone calls and emails. Tom McLeod of McLeod Software called this shift “a huge productivity gain,” while CloneOps.ai’s Brian Work described the rise of AI-powered virtual agents as a “once-in-a-lifetime revolution in technological capability.”
From Long's perspective, the broker of the future will be leaner, smarter, and more data-driven. Soft skills such as critical thinking and process improvement will matter more than the traditional “book the load fast” approach.
As Dan Cicerchi of Descartes summed it up: “The industry-leading brokerages are surgical about where they leverage technology and how it enables and augments their existing people.”
Source: Transport Topics
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