Ship Happens. We talk about it.
Recent Posts
What Is the Jones Act Even Protecting Anymore?
Last week, the US Administration extended the Jones Act waiver another 90 days. And it barely seems to have registered. And even in logistics, the industry that should care most, the reaction was kind of just a collective shrug.
Which is strange, because this is one of the messiest, most-nuanced shipping stories of the year, and the reason it's messy has almost nothing to do with the waiver itself. It has to do with about a hundred years of decision-making that got us here.
Gorgeous Girls In Supply Chain: Krystina Booker
Welcome to our series celebrating the incredible women in Supply Chain and Logistics! In a traditionally male-dominated field, it's important to shine a light on the inspiring women who are making a significant impact. Through a mix of insightful and fun questions, we’ll explore their journeys, challenges, and successes. While we acknowledge the contributions of everyone in this industry, this series aims to elevate the voices and stories of women who often get missed. Next up: Krystina Booker
Ghost Ships, Real Consequences
There's a whole shadow world operating underneath legitimate global shipping, and it's bigger than most people realize.
The dark fleet (also called the shadow fleet) is a loose network of oil tankers that move sanctioned crude around the world, specifically designed to get around Western trade restrictions. It's not a coordinated cartel with a headquarters somewhere. It's more like a swarm, hundreds of vessels operating under a shared logic: move oil that isn't supposed to move, and don't get caught. Or the IMO definition is vessels engaging in illegal operations to circumvent sanctions, evade safety/environmental regulations, or bypass insurance costs, typically using deceptive tactics
Procedure Exhaustion Is Real (And It's Probably Your Fault)
There's a scene in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where our heroes land on a planet run by the Vogons, a species so obsessed with bureaucracy that nothing gets done without the right form, stamped in triplicate, submitted to the right department, possibly recited as poetry. It's supposed to be a joke, but every time I rewatch it, I think this is just a Tuesday working in supply chain.
We've all worked with a company like this. Maybe you're working at one right now. Maybe, and I say this with kindness, you're running one.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: most bloated workflows weren't designed. They were accumulated. No one is sitting down and building a 14-step purchase order approval process on purpose. Out of control SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure) grow one CYA (cover your ass) step at a time. Someone got burned on a shipment in 2018, so we added a checkbox. Someone else got yelled at by a customer in 2021, so we added an approval. A rogue invoice slipped through in 2023, so now finance signs off too. Five years later, booking a shipment takes longer than driving the truck to the delivery.
This is procedure exhaustion, and it's quietly killing your team's ability to actually do their jobs.
Gorgeous Girls In Supply Chain: Benita Lee
Welcome to our series celebrating the incredible women in Supply Chain and Logistics! In a traditionally male-dominated field, it's important to shine a light on the inspiring women who are making a significant impact. Through a mix of insightful and fun questions, we’ll explore their journeys, challenges, and successes. While we acknowledge the contributions of everyone in this industry, this series aims to elevate the voices and stories of women who often get missed. Next up: Benita Lee
Constant Tech Upgrades Aren't Free…Even When They Are
You spent weeks learning a new TMS. Watched the tutorials, fumbled through the onboarding, bothered your rep twice, and then finally, you figured it out. You actually got it. You built the workflow, you knew where everything lived, and for about four months you feel like you have your operations in order and working how you want it.
Then an update comes along with a new interface. Now, half your shortcuts are gone. There's a "smart" feature that replaced the one you actually understood, and apparently there's a whole new AI layer you're supposed to be using now.
Welcome to tech churn. Population: everyone, but nobody's talking about it.
Panic-Ordering Is Not a Supply Chain Strategy
Most SMBs don't have a demand planning problem. They have a "winging it" problem dressed up as one. You already know your patterns; busy seasons, slow months, which supplier always runs late. You just haven't written any of it down, and that gap is costing you more than you think.
Here's the thing nobody tells SMBs: demand planning isn't a corporate concept that requires a six-figure software subscription and a dedicated analyst. It's just predicting what you'll need before you need it, and building a simple system so that you stop getting caught off guard.
You're already doing it. You're just doing it without a process, and that gap is likely costing you money and time.
Gorgeous Girls In Supply Chain: Tamie Stuttle
Welcome to our series celebrating the incredible women in Supply Chain and Logistics! In a traditionally male-dominated field, it's important to shine a light on the inspiring women who are making a significant impact. Through a mix of insightful and fun questions, we’ll explore their journeys, challenges, and successes. While we acknowledge the contributions of everyone in this industry, this series aims to elevate the voices and stories of women who often get missed. Next up: Tamie Stuttle
Perception Doesn't Wait for the Truth to Catch Up
There's a genuine crisis on North American highways that most people outside of trucking don't think about: drivers can't find safe, legal places to park.
With roughly 3.5 million commercial trucks on the road and fewer than 700,000 official parking spaces, drivers are routinely resting on highway shoulders, exit ramps, and questionable lots just to get their federally mandated break. It's a safety issue, a driver wellbeing issue, and a systemic failure nobody's meaningfully fixed in decades.
Truck Parking Club saw this issue and decided to tackle it. So they built an app, the Airbnb of truck parking, connecting private landowners who had unused space with drivers who desperately needed it. Add supply to a supply-starved market. It's a genuinely smart idea, and it truly worked. They added over 1,700 new spots in 2024 alone that didn't previously exist in any form.
But then things got complicated.
Being Coachable Almost Broke Me
I spent part of my early career at C.H. Robinson, and I had a mentor there. On paper, it looked like exactly what a young woman in logistics should want, someone senior, experienced, and willing to invest time in me.
The problem? They coached everything that made me special right out of me.
Not cruelly, probably not even on purpose. But it happened slowly. I was told to dampen my empathy, to harden up, to move and speak and lead more like the people already at the top, who were mostly men. And because I was young and I didn't really know who I was yet, I took the feedback. I was being coachable. I was doing the right thing.
Except I wasn't. I was just compliant.
Gorgeous Girls In Supply Chain: Taylor Pawelka
Welcome to our series celebrating the incredible women in Supply Chain and Logistics! In a traditionally male-dominated field, it's important to shine a light on the inspiring women who are making a significant impact. Through a mix of insightful and fun questions, we’ll explore their journeys, challenges, and successes. While we acknowledge the contributions of everyone in this industry, this series aims to elevate the voices and stories of women who often get missed. Next up: Taylor Pawelka
Zone Skipping Isn't Just for Enterprise
If you've ever shipped a package across the country and quietly winced at the cost, zone skipping might be the strategy you didn't know you were missing. And no, you don't need to be an enterprise shipper to use it.
Most parcel carriers price shipments based on two things: density and distance. That distance is typically measured in zones, a numbering system that reflects how far a package travels from its origin point. The further it goes, the higher the zone number, and the more expensive the shipment. Basically, Zone 2 is practically your neighbour. Zone 8 is across the continent. Every zone in between has your shipping bill increasing.
3PL, 4PL, Fulfilment Partner, Freight Broker — What's the Difference and Which One Do You Actually Need?
A supply chain professional or sales person throws one of these terms at you and you nod along like you know exactly what they mean. Then you go home and google it and you’re still unsure. No judgement, half the industry uses them interchangeably and they're definitely not the same thing.
If you're an SMB shipper trying to figure out how to grow without your logistics completely unravelling, this is the breakdown you need. Let's go through each model, what it actually does, where it overlaps with the others, and, most importantly, which one fits where you are right now and how to know to switch to another.
Gorgeous Girls In Supply Chain: Valerie Carlson
Welcome to our series celebrating the incredible women in Supply Chain and Logistics! In a traditionally male-dominated field, it's important to shine a light on the inspiring women who are making a significant impact. Through a mix of insightful and fun questions, we’ll explore their journeys, challenges, and successes. While we acknowledge the contributions of everyone in this industry, this series aims to elevate the voices and stories of women who often get missed. Next up: Valerie Carlson
Female AI Presenters and the Optics of Representation in Logistics Media
FreightWaves has introduced a female AI-generated on-camera presenter into its content lineup. At the same time, visible female human representation on camera at FreightWaves appears limited. Those are observable facts.
And when a media outlet introduces a synthetic female presenter in an environment where real female on-camera representation is sparse, it creates a big optics issue, whether intentional or not.
From Buzzwords to Operational Reality: What Manifest Really Felt Like
I’ve been thinking about how to describe Manifest this year, and the only way I can really put it is this: it felt less AI centric and more operational clarity.
Last year the energy was heavily AI-driven, predictive, generative, self-operating, autonomous. And that made sense. AI was still relatively new in logistics, and there was a real sense of curiosity around what it could become. There was excitement in the room. But many of those conversations were still conceptual. The vision was big, but the operational substance wasn’t quite fully formed yet.
AI was still there this year. Of course it was. And some companies are absolutely building toward workforce reduction. That’s real, and pretending it isn’t would be naive. But the dominant tone in the conversations I was having wasn’t “we’re replacing people.” It was much more grounded. It was about removing friction, increasing access and simplifying workflows.
Consultant or Clarity? What Your Supply Chain Really Needs
Not every supply chain issue requires a logistics consultant. But not every problem can be solved by Googling “why are my freight costs so high?” at 11:47 p.m on a Sunday night.
For small and mid-sized businesses, knowing the difference can save serious money. I’ve seen companies spend tens of thousands on consulting when what they really needed was education and resources. I’ve also seen companies try to “figure it out internally” while quietly bleeding cash for years.
The question isn’t whether consultants are good or bad. The question is: what kind of problem are you actually dealing with?
Gorgeous Girls In Supply Chain: Danielle Spinelli
Welcome to our series celebrating the incredible women in Supply Chain and Logistics! In a traditionally male-dominated field, it's important to shine a light on the inspiring women who are making a significant impact. Through a mix of insightful and fun questions, we’ll explore their journeys, challenges, and successes. While we acknowledge the contributions of everyone in this industry, this series aims to elevate the voices and stories of women who often get missed. Next up: Danielle Spinelli
The Boring Fixes That Actually Reduce E-Commerce Returns
E-commerce returns are unavoidable. Regardless of if you sell on Amazon, Shopify, marketplaces, or your own website, some percentage of orders will come back. Online shopping has removed the ability for customers to touch, test, or try-on products before buying, and nothing can completely fix that.
What can be fixed is how often customers feel disappointed once their order arrives. Most e-commerce returns don’t happen because customers are malicious or trying to game the system. Most of the time, returns happen because the product that arrived didn’t match what the customer expected, simple as that. That gap between expectation and reality is why most returns happen.
Reducing e-commerce returns doesn’t need to involve fighting customers or tightening return policies. It’s about managing expectations before checkout. Below are eight simple, but boring ways to reduce return rates by closing that gap.
Les Soldes Explained: France’s Regulated Retail Sales
I’ve been quietly gatekeeping this, but if you’re in France in January or July, it’s impossible to miss. Every shop window, from luxury boutiques to high-street chains, is plastered with the same word in bold letters: SOLDES.
To anyone visiting from outside France, it looks like a normal sale season. It’s not.
Les Soldes are a legally regulated national retail event, with fixed dates and strict rules. This is not just a marketing moment. It’s a very specific system.
So… what is Les Soldes?
In France, retailers are only allowed to run official Soldes twice a year:
Winter Soldes (January–February)
Summer Soldes (June–July)
These dates are set nationally. Retailers do not choose them, extend them, or move them around. When the window opens, it opens for everyone. When it closes, it closes for everyone.