This entire blog started because of my inbox. Specifically: PR emails.

If you work in or around logistics media, you know exactly the ones I mean. The subject line “AI Powered”. The whole email is full of AI this and AI that. And yet somehow, after reading the email three or four times, I still can’t tell what the product actually does.

Is it AI?
Is it automation?
Is it a well-organized workflow with a buzzword glued on top?

Because honestly, how can every new tech and platform be AI?

The more pitches I saw, the more obvious the real issue became: as an industry, we’ve blurred the line between what’s simply a fast, reliable automated process and what is actually intelligent technology capable of learning, adapting, or predicting. And that distinction matters, not just for accuracy, but for budgets, expectations, and whether a team ends up with the right tool for the right job. So let’s talk about it properly, without the jargon-y nonsense.

There’s a specific kind of person who ends up in logistics: the “don’t worry, I’ll handle it” type.
Every industry has them, but logistics seems to attract them in bulk. Maybe it’s the constant problem-solving, maybe it’s the adrenaline of fixing things minutes before they break, or maybe it’s just the culture we all grew up in, where being busy meant you were important. And it shows,  logistics workers actually rank #1 for burnout risk of any industry, with 20% over-utilized, 15% at risk, and the longest average workday at 9 hours and 10 minutes.

But somewhere along the way, “handling it” quietly turns into “carrying the entire company on your back.” And most people don’t realize the cost of that until they’re already paying it.

The funny thing is, doing everything yourself feels efficient. It feels responsible. It feels faster at the moment — just answer the email, just update the file, just follow up on the truck, just redo the spreadsheet because the formatting is a disaster and you’re the only one who knows how it should look.

But the truth is this: every time you jump in to do it yourself, you reinforce a system where you are the system. And that’s where the real trouble starts.

In the last post, we looked at how the grind culture, that has taken root in the trucking industry, affects people on a personal level, in this 2nd part of a 3 part series we will look at the trucking industry’s culture and how grind and hustle came about, why it sucks and a possible way forward.

Welcome to the world of “grind culture” in the transportation industry, where the hustle is glorified, Red Bull is a food group, and personal sacrifice is worn like a badge of honour. In the transportation industry, there are so many posts on social media about people who are “working” 14-hour days, 7 days a week. People are giving up sleep and rest, all in the name of the grind. This grind can cause adverse effects in three key areas: personally, culturally, and the business overall. In this 3 part series, we will explore all three, starting with the personal effects. Let’s delve into what the grind looks like and how it affects individuals on a personal level.