August 19, 2025 • 39 mins
Mergers and acquisitions are reshaping the logistics tech landscape. In this episode of Freight Friends, Blythe and Grace Sharkey unpack what recent deals mean for the industry, how SEO strategies are shifting under AI pressure, and what freight markets could look like in the coming months. They also explore the ripple effects for carriers, shippers, and the tech companies caught in the middle.
Key takeaways:
- Tech consolidation is reshaping how freight companies compete and collaborate.
- SEO strategies in logistics are changing fast with AI and shifting consumer behavior.
- Carriers and shippers are feeling the pressure of an uncertain second half of 2025.
- Market moves today will set the tone for 2026 freight demand and technology adoption.
LINKS:
- Grace’s Linktree
- FreightGames.io
- "Flexport Tycoon"
- LinkedIn post on Instagram SEO
- Cloudflare fighting against the LLM bots
Feedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
You.
Blythe Milligan (00:05):
Let's get into our first segment, and that is
talking about all of thedifferent Mergers Acquisitions
that have been happening so farin 2025 rumors are there's more
on the way. It's not going to beslowing down. So Grace, you have
covered freight tech for years.
Obviously, you previously workwith freightwaves. Now you're
over at another freight techcompany with orderful. So give
(00:27):
us sort of the the high leveloverview of what the hell is
happening with all these mergersand acquisitions.
Grace Sharkey (00:36):
Yeah, you know, I think it's interesting. I think
companies are starting to usethis time period for these
really interesting strategicmergers, right, looking for
really areas that you want toimprove in your business, and
finding that company that youcan pick up and help accelerate
you to those goals. I mean,
Unknown (00:56):
before we started recording, we just talked about,
you know, convoy, once again,making money for another
company, and, well, at least forFlexport in this situation,
right? And how it was recentlysold to to d 80. And I think for
dat, you pick up convoy, and themore technological advancements
that come with it for them to, Ithink more modernize that their
freight tech stack that theyhave over there, bring on those
(01:18):
team members and continue toinnovate, you've seen a number
of brokers, logistics providers.
Freightways has covered a ton ofthese that have been buying
either assets, truckingcompanies or even offices in
different regions around thecountry. I mean, when you're
talking about a period of wherewe've seen broker margins at
their lowest, truckingcompanies, especially at their
(01:40):
lowest in terms of what they'rehoping to bring in. And then
honestly, tech companies, andtech companies who have
investors who want to see areturn somewhere, these type of
plays are going to happen morefrequently. So I'm excited to
see that, along with the heat ofthe summer, we've seen the heat
of good old acquisitions andmergers as well. And we're
(02:04):
starting to see a ramp up, Ithink of even investment too. I
think good ship just announced anice $25 million raise. Think
was it motive like had over $100million something like that a
week or so ago. So the money isback flowing. But I think what
we have seen from the mergerside is that a lot of I would
assume these board membersinvestors want to see a little
(02:27):
bit more of a strategy of wherethat return is going to come
from. And I think these areshowcasing, okay, these
opportune moments to to maybelet an asset go that's not
really helping you directly lookat something maybe like Flexport
and get handing that over tosomeone who could use that
technology. Well, especiallywith with Flexport, when they
(02:49):
bought convoy like it was almostlike, you know, nickels, nickels
on the dollar, of what they werepaying for. But then they
flipped it and sold it forhundreds of millions of dollars.
Yes, uh, rumored, but yes, yeah,something along those lines. And
I think maybe Peterson had beengiven a little bit more guidance
on that too, but yeah, exactlyright. And I'm sure they, they
(03:12):
learned a lot from thatacquisition too. Yeah, you know,
you you fix it, you turn thecompany around, and it becomes
something that's available outthere to sell. And I think
there's probably a lot oftechnology just within all the
integrations that we see betweentech companies, right? A lot of
I wouldn't be surprised if wesee maybe more of like these TMS
(03:34):
is picking up some of thesetechnologies in particular and
putting them into their freighttech stack permanently,
permanently.
I think there's, I mean,interesting enough. I I've heard
rumors, but, you know, we'll putthis out there. It's not that
crazy. I've heard rumors that,you know, highways looking to
raise money. But there's also,you know, some interesting
(03:55):
opportunities they're looking attoo. So I don't know, I think
it's, it's that strategy time. Ithink when you look back maybe
four or five years ago, and itreally got hot in this space,
people were getting all themoney in the world. Money was
free. That's not happening. Thefeds aren't moving on much these
days either, and there's notmuch clarity of when you know
(04:16):
interest rates will get better.
So let's do the most with whatwe have on board. And how can
we, you know, in Flex sportscase, right, flip this and make
some money as well. It almostsounds like because I believe
there's three more fed meetingsfor the rest of this year, and
we could potentially, I was justlistening to a podcast this
(04:36):
morning. Was talking about howwe could potentially see rate
cuts in all three of thosedifferent meetings, which would
be fantastic for the market,because then that does free up
some money. But from justlooking at some of these
different acquisitions, I mean,just in May, we had dat purchase
outgo, dat purchase convoy, um,project 61 just purchased off
(04:58):
shift. So that's Mark manera.
Is company for driver health.
And really, like, I think hismission is more like overall
supply chain health, and, youknow, not just for for truck
drivers, but also warehouseworkers and just any kind of
folks working within logistics.
So that was a cool one to seetriumph in back in May purchase
green screens. I think they'renow all, you know, part of the
(05:19):
the same umbrella companies. ButI think, which is kind of kind
of sucks at green screens brandlike it's going away. But I
understand these things happenduring purchase acquisitions,
but hopefully we'll still see,you know, maybe at future
conferences, they'll still wear,like, you know, the green
Hawaiian shirts at all thosedifferent events. And, you know,
they got their green shoes andall that. I just, I love that
(05:39):
branding that they did from fromthem, Descartes, purchase,
three, three GTM. Is that howyou pronounce it? Three. I see
GTM and I read, go to market,but three, just three gtms,
right? Or something like that.
Three gtms. Oh, that makessense, because I see GTM and I'm
like, go to market. Like, isthat a marketing company?
(06:02):
Sorry, marketing brain. There'sa couple of other ones here.
NFI, purchase, transfix,Nuvo, cargo. Purchase, merge,
transportation, stored.
Purchase, where to go. So a lotof these amounts are
undisclosed, so we don'tnecessarily know the specific
dollar amount. Then there was abunch of other ones that are
(06:22):
just on, you know, like, almostlike the big ship lines and
things like that. So those kindof companies have been making a
lot of purchasing, forward airpurchasing, Omni logistics, y
set global purchasing. E, toopen, I had, you know, in case
you're wondering, I had grok do,like, a deep research report of
all of the different mergers andacquisitions and logistics and
(06:44):
supply chain, but then it cameback with this report that only
had like 10 companies. And I'mlike, no, no, there's, there's a
lot more. There's triumph,there's green screens, there's
debt. And I, I almost like,bullied grock into doing a
completely new research report.
So it added all of thoseadditional ones. So we have a
lot of, like, tech focused andbrokerage deals, which is what
we I kind of just outlined. Butthen there's other major deals,
(07:07):
just by I mean, billions ofdollars, DSV purchase, DB,
schnick, is that how you saythat?
Yeah, for almost $16 billionthere are freight forwarding and
contract logistics giant,creating a top global provider
with enhanced networks. I wonderif it would be helpful to share
(07:28):
my screen here, but I kind ofoutline, you know, a lot of like
the the big ones like forwardair purchase Omnia logistics. I
know there's some others, likestuff going on with forward air
too. I don't know if that, ifsomebody else is trying to buy
forward air as well. It's thepoint is, is that there's a lot
of movement and shaking going onwithin this industry, and it
(07:49):
feels like some kind of capitalis starting to get a little bit
loosened up with theanticipation of rate cuts later
this year. It looks like a lotof these companies, especially D
80, you know, kind of putting,you know, a lot of like,
different chess pieces on theboard. Are there any, I guess,
maybe trends that you're kind ofseeing, or maybe, like
(08:11):
implications of of some of thesedeals and mergers going through.
Like, do you see moreconsolidation in the future? Or
do you, do you see this is kindof making room for more niche
players. I think just moreconsolidation. I think
hopefully, maybe because ofthat, the niche players
get a little bit more spotlightfrom investors, right? Knowing,
(08:35):
okay, there's a potential forreally good exit right in what
they're doing. So if you are,for example, I know I'm creating
some type of technology that'shelpful and oversized shipping,
right?
An investor might be more opento that investment, seeing that
there's more of an exit strategyfor that nuance type. And I
(08:56):
think that's really what you'velearned even from like the DB
one that you brought up as well.
A lot of this is like, how canwe work with partners? I think
that's one that's always why I'malways interested in a lot of
these, like partnernews releases. Because on the
(09:16):
surface it might just be like,Oh, here's like a PR instance,
but it's also a potential for inthe future, an acquisition in
that space too,I think, or even the movement of
something like transfix, right?
So transfix, you brought up theNFI stuff. Well, if you follow
(09:37):
transfixes pasthistory, you know, they, at one
point, they set aside and said,Hey, listen, I believe they
pushed off their brokerage unitand became tech only. Right?
Whenever I see a move like that,it's because likely they're
looking for a more strategicexit, right? I think another
one.
(10:00):
Could probably look at notsaying that they are doing
anything but ship Well, right?
They ended up pushing theirbrokerage off to cloud trucks,
which is great for cloud trucks,right? They need that piece
likely to fuel more loads to getto their carriers, to make their
business model work. I'm surethat's great for their
investors. On the other side.
(10:21):
Shipwell wants to do whatthey're good at, which is make
really great technology. Theydon't want to broker loads. And
so you get rid of that headache,and you focus on what you're
good at, which you see often inkind of like the TMS space, I
think a lot of companies realizewhen they first start, oh, we
kind of have to have this, like,behind the scenes, brokerage
arms to like, showcase thistechnology works, and then as it
(10:43):
grows and as the technology getsbetter, there's less of a reason
for it. So I I think going toback to like, what we might
potentially see. I definitelythink you're going to see more
of these strategic pickups, thethings that allow them to expand
into different regions inparticular. Wouldn't be
surprised if we see a little bitmore action in US logistics
(11:05):
picking up even more of likethese European countries in
particular, or just companiesthat are a little bit more
globally focused in logistics toopen up that category as well.
But yeah, it's, it's, that'swhat's fun about kind of
following companies and knowingwhat they're good at, what
they're not good at, and whatthat can mean for their future
(11:29):
as well. And triumph, right? Acouple of times. I mean, they've
that's one, if you read graphs,letters to investors that he
writes every earnings period, hebasically tells you exactly in
there what his their theirmotive is, and with a lot of
these acquisitions, is becausethey are realizing that, I think
(11:52):
the structure of how just theirfactoring service works, even
like withtheir hub, Tran and more of like
that, factoring service focusthey've done, I don't think it's
bringing as much value to thecompany as it could
what it's doing now with itsintelligence unit offering. Hey,
(12:13):
listen, we have all this dataflowing in. Why would we have
our customers outsource todifferent data companies with
all that's here, and we canexplore the same thing with
them, or, even more so do whatthey're doing, like with ch
Robinson and offering this likewhite labeled factoring service,
right? We have all everything inhouse to make that happen. So
(12:36):
that's listen to. I always liketo listen, at least for the
public companies that have totell you what their hope is for
the future, and that will kindof showcase to you what likely
they'll pick up, or what they'relooking to acquire over time. I
it's just, I can't imagine thatthese types of mergers are I'm
(12:56):
not even saying that or implyingthat it's going to be easy, but
I'm just thinking of, like, myown, like, sort of company data
needs and to integrate anothercompany, another sop, or
probably has tons of SOPs, maybethey have, like, you know, their
own data structure, andimporting that and integrating
(13:17):
that into, God, that's such aheavy lift. So
hey, thank you for touchingthat. Because you know what, it
is, a heavy headache, and that'swhy you need a top of the line
EDI provider. And here order,you opened up the pitch for me,
I'm going to swing at it here atorderful, we can help you with
(13:38):
that. I mean, that's actually alot of times too. We talk to
people pain points of mergersand acquisitions. Is, yeah, hey,
how is that data transferbetween companies? So go check
us out, orderful.com but listen,you hit on a customer pain
point. I wasn't going to letit go. We got bills to pay over
here. David, we're going to getthese shout outs mentioned as
(13:59):
much as possible, because, Imean to I just can't imagine
that headache. I mean, justlooking at my own data and try
it. Just trying to, like, forexample, right now, I'm trying
to build out, and I've had thison the back burner for years. I
want, like, a CEO marketingdashboard where I can take a
look at each of my differentbrands, and I can see what the
(14:20):
funnel looks like, and I cansee, you know, what's gathering
attention for the podcast, anddoes that, you know, transfer
into, you know, meetings bookedfor the products I'm
advertising, and some of themare my own products, some of
them are sponsor products. Andso, how do I prove value for the
content that we're creating, andthen try to have room for shows
(14:42):
like this, where it is, like,it's not, you know, strictly
business driven. This is a lotof fun for me to, you know, make
this show and host it with you,but I still need to pay the
bills with, like, other types ofcontent. And so just trying.
To do that simple thing. It'squote, unquote simple of pulling
(15:04):
in my x analytics, pulling in myLinkedIn analytics, pulling in
email marketing, pulling themall into the same place, is
incredibly difficult, becauseeverybody uses different data
structures, and companies willmeasure views and follows at a
different level. For example, aview on Facebook is three
(15:26):
seconds. A view on Instagram isthree seconds. You don't need to
have the audio on somebody couldjust be glancing or just stroll
a scroll a little too slow, andif they're on there for three
seconds, that counts as a viewon YouTube, it's 30 seconds. On
LinkedIn, I think it's 10seconds, but again, you don't
have to have the audio on. Andso it's like having these
(15:48):
different data points. And whodefines those data points is so
just different. And so I cannotimagine what that looks like,
integrating another company likeD, a T, for example, integrating
Alka, or, you know, gettinggreen screens data, which I'm
sure green screens does animpeccable job with, like their
data structure, but it could becompletely different than the
(16:10):
way that triumph does it. And sohonestly, it's like, hey, shout
out. If there's a convoy workerwho has survived
the transition from convoy toFlexport, from Flexport to t
he or she. If you're out thereand you survived, let us know we
will have you on the show,because war stories, all
(16:36):
right. Well, well, just to, justto round out, you know this part
of the conversation I mentionedearlier about that grok deep
research report that conductedand kind of edited a little bit,
but it talks about implicationsfor technology in these
industries, and it says these Mand A signal a tech driven
future with consolidationsenabling investments in AI,
(16:57):
automation and sustainability,drink, every time you hear or
see those words and anycompany's marketing, but they
have five key takeaways here. Soone of those is AI and digital
platform surge. So acquisitionslike wise tech, ETU open and
triumph green screens prioritizeAI for pricing. So they're
talking a little bit about onthe integrated side of things.
(17:19):
Could create smart ecosystemswith a blockchain for
visibility, another drink everytime you hear the word
visibility. Number two on thelist is supply chain, resilience
and efficiency. I'm not going toread through each of these
descriptions, but number three,sustainability and green tech.
Number four, human centricinnovations, which I thought was
(17:39):
an interesting one aroundproject 61 and off shift,
because it highlights HealthTech for drivers, using AI
coaching to combat shortages. Idon't know if that's right grok,
because there's technicallynever a truck driver shortage,
right? And then improve safetyvia wearables and telematics.
And then rounding out the listat number five is challenges. So
market concentration risk,antitrust issues, while over
(18:01):
reliance on tech exposescybersecurity vulnerabilities,
tariff uncertainties mayaccelerate localized AI
optimized chains. Job shiftstowards tech skills will require
training. Thank you, grok forthat. Added little note to that.
I don't know how I don't reallyget anything from the
implications of technology forthese industries in this
(18:23):
particular section, I think youactually explained it a lot
better that it sounds like froma high level view, and correct
me if I'm wrong, but that a lotof these bigger companies have
been sitting on a ton of cashfor about a year now. They're
waiting for the market to kindof shift things out. I think
budgets ran really dry duringlike the March to June
(18:44):
timeframe. But then, you know,these things are starting to
come out of the woodwork. Now,deals are starting to get
finalized. So maybe they've beenworking behind the scenes for a
while, setting up the chessboardin order to kind of dominate for
2026 and beyond. Is thereanything you would add on to
that. The one thing I would sayis maybe not so much, that I
(19:05):
wouldn't say so much thatthey're sitting on cash. I think
they're being strategic right onhow they're coming up with that,
whether it's, you know, the Ithink a lot of it, a lot of
times, when you see theseacquisitions, right, there's
some type of stipulation orgoals that you have to hit as
the acquired company in order toget the payouts Right. So
(19:26):
there's probably some just,like, really, I mean, there's
some really aggressive terms inthat, so that people can make
good money out of it. I thinkit's more so with the
positivity. I think we're atthat positive turn where it's
like, It can't get much worse,knowing that, okay, we're at the
bottom right. Like, if you'rebuying stock, you're gonna buy
(19:47):
at the bottom. You're gonna, youknow, sell when it's at the top.
And I think it's a little bit ofmore, that situation is okay.
Where can we be strategic withterms right now? Where, what can
we dilute in order?
To find, you know, maybe the theliquid to make some of these
acquisitions. I just think it's,there's enough proof that the
(20:08):
the market is turning. I've evengot, trust me, I get calls from
a lot of people nowadays that's,you know, how can we get into
it? And I think it's that, thatmoment has come, and the rest
is, we can figure out thetariffs, I mean, and even to be
honest with you, right, like ina worst case, we're probably at
a three years away from asolution. If this doesn't figure
(20:29):
out itself right with theelections and stuff, they know
that there's going to be apositive turn
around if you had to, notinvestment advice, but if you
had to buy stock in any of thesecompanies, not saying all of
them are publicly traded oranything. Who would you buy
stock in?
Hmm, you know what? Let me iso it's so it's funny that you
(20:53):
asked that. I think because youalso have to think about, well,
when's the return? Um, I thinkit's Roper, right, that that
owns d a t, that one could bepotentially a good one, but that
roperspackage involves a lot of things
outside of just d a t triumph.
(21:14):
I'm not sure they're going tosee that return very anytime
soon.
So there's a I'd like to see howthe next, like, year or so goes.
I think maybe there's sorrytriumph, because I love you as a
team. If I'm being honest, theremight like still be a
time for that to fall, I think,in all of this.
(21:34):
But I thinkfor oh, here's a perfect one.
It's probably too late, becausethe news is already out, but
siege Robinson has been upgradedby moody. That's one, if you
were to ask me this question,even yesterday, I probably would
have said yes to that, and thenmoody read my mind and then
published that right? So that'show that worked.
(21:54):
But I think that they, I knowtheir leadership that's focused
on technology, I think they'resorry employees at ch Robinson,
they're doing really good job atdoing more with not hiring more
people or firing people at thesame time. That's great
business. Again. That's thefunny thing about like public
companies is like theirshareholders are who they answer
(22:16):
to. So Sorry again, employees,but realize where you are in the
circle of life.
That's one I'm excited to seegrow probably even ups too,
right? As they get rid of someof their poor performers and
focus on others and maybe anUPS, I think is a perfect
example of how some of theseacquisitions could go wrong, and
(22:38):
then you're out there trying toflip them out at the same time,
right? So, yeah, I thinkprobably CH and ups are ones I
would, I would look at right nowand then go from there. But like
the Triumph one, I kind of wantto watch it a little bit,
because I think they've done alot of acquiring, and you're
right. Let's make suretechnology
(23:02):
and Trimble, actually, Trimble'sone, I think, has a really,
yeah, but Trimble is also beenlike the Trimble curse, right,
where it's acquired a lot ofstuff that's done absolutely
nothing for them, because, Ithink, of how they manage those
acquisitions and and they kindof kept them separate, but now
they're, I think, doing whatthey should have done to begin
with, which is like combiningall the technical and thought, I
(23:24):
think that leadership at Trimbleright now understands where they
need to improve better than theyhave. So that's one I'm excited
to watch grow too that Iprobably wouldn't have said a
couple years ago. I think someof these too it I was looking
at, you know, some of the othernotable deals in this research
report, and it's a lot of like,just buying different trucking
(23:46):
companies. So I think we haven'teven really touched on that
during this discussion, whereyou're essentially, you know,
buying assets, hopefully you'rebuying good drivers that are
included in that which, youknow, is a really
drive. There's no drivershortage, but there is a really
big problem with driverrecruitment. So getting good
drivers through the door andkeeping them at your company has
(24:08):
been the gold standard, in myopinion, for, you know, the last
decade. And so when I see like,you know, Schneider acquired
Cowen systems,AP, not that doesn't really
countUPS acquired freego Trans and
BPL, which is a German company,so that's like the cold chain
healthcare, but related, becausethat happened in January, but in
(24:29):
March. DHL, group, based inGermany, acquired cryo PDP,
which is a France based company,for 195 million but that's
another temperature controlledhealthcare logistics. So, you
know, especially with like, UPSversus DHL, very like similar
competitors there, but theinvestments into the healthcare
(24:50):
side of things, I think, isreally interesting. So for a lot
of like, the time sensitivefreight, temperature sensitive
freight.
Uh, there's usually a rushcharge, you know, around that.
And so you can deal with, like,a bunch of different, probably,
delivery mechanisms, whetherit's like a helicopter or a
drone or private air flights,you know, just for specific
(25:13):
health care related needs. Ithink that that's that's really
interesting. And then it waswriter systems acquired Cardinal
logistics back in February 2024so that's a little bit, you
know, a little almost a year anda half ago. But that's, you
know, just, I'm a little, Iguess, less bullish on, like
acquiring the trucking side ofthings, because just margins are
(25:36):
so tight and it's so tough. Butmaybe that's a future, like
asset play, where you're justbuying the assets for right now,
you're you're essentiallylooping in the really good
drivers and solving maybe arecruitment problem as well. And
like we kind of mentioned withthe freight tech companies, like
setting up the chess pieces onthe board. So then that way, you
know, assets, that story isprobably simple, which is,
(25:59):
they're not making shit.
Thanks for on the show. Yeah,yeah. I think YouTube realized
for after five minutes, they letyou go. So we've been on for
more than five minutes. We'regood
there. I mean, you're you'rejust buying assets at a discount
(26:21):
at this point right like,there's a couple of Michigan
companies I've heard ofrecently.
There's a big one right now,it's gonna piss me off that's
actually going through the samething. They're getting picked
up. I think they're financiallystruggling. So instead, you
know, a lot of these ownersprobably looking at, okay, maybe
(26:42):
it's time I retire. Let me sellthis thing off. And I assume
that a lot of these companiesare picking them up for the low
much like yellow, right? Like ithas been the toughest trucking
market, I think, that we've seenin decades. And so for a lot of
these companies that have beenaround for a long time, you
know, lawsuits, insurance. Ijust saw is
(27:02):
Carol fuller. Carol Fuller, thattrucking company. It's a Florida
based trucking company. They'vebeen around for like, 70 plus
years. There's actually, Ibelieve one of the owners is on
Tiktok, like, documenting, like,what's happening during her
company closure right now. It'sreally, I don't want to say
fascinating, because it's notfascinating for someone to lose
their family job that they'vehad for decades in the family. I
(27:26):
think that's incredibly tragicand heartbreaking, but it is a
peek behind the curtain of beingable to see what happens when.
And she credits in the video,she's like rising lawsuits. You
know, you got these billboardchasing law firms that want to
target, maliciously, targettrucking companies, and one
lawsuit can really, you know,put you out of business,
(27:49):
especially for a company, or notespecially but a company that's
been around for 70 plus years,like that. There's a whole lot
of turmoil, turmoil happening inthat realm. And if you don't
know how to run trucks. Youdon't keep them well maintained.
You don't know how to, you know,manage a proper safety
department and get ahead of alot of these things. And plus,
you know, recruit the bestdrivers and hope that they
(28:11):
perform well. It's a lot ofdifferent moving parts in the
trucking side of things. So Icould see where there's, you
know, going to be furtherconsolidation happening in the
next six months, I wouldprobably say there's gonna be
more consolidation on thetrucking side of things and
maybe any other segment andlogistics that you think it's a
fair statement. I totally agree.
I think you might see a littlebit of these. I mean, if I was a
(28:31):
broker right now looking forassets like this, would be the
time I'm kind of watching forthat. And you're 100% right. I
just found the one you'retalking about in Florida. And
actually, the story does kind ofremind me a little bit of what's
happening in the company up herein Michigan too. They've got,
you know, lawsuits fromaccidents going on, and it's on
(28:51):
top of the margin. I mean,imagine that's why I always tell
people, like, when they're like,I want to get into trucking. I'm
like, Do you know what theoperating ratio of a trucking
company is? Because it's notgreat and and so, yeah, I think
we'll probably see more of theseassets move around, a lot of
consolidation, which does suckfor the small guys, I think,
(29:15):
but could potentially be goodfor the small guys once the
market does turn around. Yeah. Imean, maybe it frees you up from
some cash, or maybe it gives yousome additional runway so you
can make it to a point whererates start to improve. But, you
know, I'm sure everybody hasheard this stat ad nauseum, but
you know, 90% of all the fleetsin the country are seven trucks
(29:36):
or less, and I think it'sactually that stat is a little
bit higher. So when you hearabout these big acquisitions,
just know that there's, youknow, a good portion of the
market is seven trucks or fewer,and they're running super tight
margins too. And so, you know, Iguess if you run a profitable
company, trucking company rightnow, like kudos to you,
(29:56):
hopefully you can kind of hangon until the market comes.
Rex, or if you're just tired, Ithink that's, you know, sort of
the that, like the tone I getfrom, like trucking subreddits
that Carol Fulmer post, peopleare just tired, and they're,
they're worn out, and they, youknow, another company comes
through and they want to offeryou a lot of money and you can
(30:19):
take a break. Like I'd listen ifthat was some of these folks,
you know, if I'm a Boomer and Iknow that I have Social
Security,I would have taken and run, you
know, I think it's a lot ofthat, though, I think it's this
older generation of like, okay,this isn't what it used to be.
I'm not making the amount ofmoney I was. I might not be
(30:40):
able. And there's nothing wrongwith not being able to
understand the difference of themarket today. And that's just
like again, circle of life. Sowhy not take this check now?
Retire responsibly. Pay all mydrivers. You know, get something
good. Make sure everyone goeshome happy. Make sure that they
have a good family. They'regoing to as well. A lot of these
(31:01):
companies, the drivers stay,they just go to the new company,
right? So I think that a lot ofis, you know, I mean, you get it
as close of a family unit, a lotof trucking companies are, I'm
sure a lot of this has to doalso with, alright, if I'm gonna
have to forcely exit thismarket, let me just make sure my
family is going into good hands,especially your your family's
(31:23):
going into good hands, and thatwhoever acquires you can also
pay the companies that you youknow, you still owe on the
books. That that was when thecompany I worked at closed down
that was the biggest gripe tome, is that, you know, there was
a specialized company that camein, like an accounting firm,
lawyer firm, a hybrid of thetwo, to try to save the company.
(31:44):
But then, after the fact, whatthey were doing, when all of you
know the the executives and theemployees are gone, there's
really only that's left is likethis one company that's
responsible for managing theaccounts payable and
receivables, and at one point,what they were doing is having
some of the accounting team likelie and say, No, send the check
(32:05):
here instead of sending it tothe carrier. And so these
carriers were not getting paid,and that's what caused a lot of,
like, the remaining accountingemployees to just quit, because
they, you know, just from like,a moral standpoint, it was
wrong, and it's but thiscompany, the one that was
brought in to help save thecompany, was the one that was
leeching off of these like Finalpayments, horrible company. I'm
(32:29):
not going to name them because Ifrankly, can't remember their
name off the top of my head, butI remember that I would, I would
never invite that into mycompany, and I hope that's not
happening, you know, across thethe name, fortunately, I'm sure
it probably is. But taking careof your drivers, taking care of
the bills that you owe, takingcare of like, especially like
smaller like contractors andthings like that, that should be
(32:51):
the utmost importance, becausethose people can't wait months
for, you know, litigation tofigure itself out. And so
hopefully, you know, there's apriority list of the companies
who can manage a little bit moreof a runway versus the people
who can't, and that's yourcarriers. That's your, you know,
sort of in the trenchesemployees. That tends to be the
people who get the shaft themost when a trucking company
(33:14):
faces like financial burden. Sothat's my little, I guess,
soapbox that I'll get off of,because it really has nothing to
do with the greater scope ofwhat we're talking about, which
is what's happening with all ofthese mergers and acquisitions,
what does kind of the futurekind of look like? And I think
what we're finding out is thatwe have hit rock bottom, but I
(33:35):
don't know that we're gonna getout of the bottom just quite
yet, like the ladder to get outis just slightly out of reach,
and so I think that that's to bedetermined. Yeah, I will say
they're not speaking of whereI'm at now, but the one of my
(33:57):
favorite things to do isrecently, is go to trucker
events. And the first thing theycome up to me, especially if
they know me in the Michiganarea, is,
you know, your boss, totally,Mark is coming back, you know.
So maybe, maybe that, that thatwill come to an end soon. That
would be nice for my social,yeah, the freight recession is
not over. Um, unfortunately, weall wish it was. I have a
(34:20):
teacher in the other room,Blythe, that says it is so
I saw the gravestone. Thegravestone said that the
recession was over. But it's notwe just, you know, come up with
new definitions as a country onwhat a recession is and what
isn't. All right.
(34:40):
All right. All right, that. Thatdoes it for any final words. Are
you ready to move on to the thenext thrilling topic, as we're
talking about data? And yeah,right, data?
All right, oh no, I will saythough. On that note, I think a
lot of what we're going to seethough is going to be.
(35:00):
Bringing it back to the data ofthings in this industry, and how
are these companies bringingreal results to their customers
with the data that they canleverage? So I will say, I think
that's going to continue to bepart of what we see in these
moves, for sure, at least on thetech side. Yeah, that's a great
way to close out this topic.
(35:26):
Thanks for tuning in to anotherepisode of everything is
logistics, where we talk allthings supply chain, for the
thinkers in freight, if youliked this episode, there's
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(35:47):
you're working in freightlogistics or supply chain
marketing, check out my company,digital dispatch. We help you
build smarter websites andmarketing systems that actually
drive results, not just vanitymetrics. Additionally, if you're
trying to find the right freighttech tools or partners without
getting buried in buzzwords.
Head on over to cargorex.iowhere we're building the largest
database of logistics servicesand solutions. All the links you
(36:09):
need are in the show notes. I'llcatch you in the next Episode
and go jags.
You.
(36:42):
You
You.
Blythe Milligan (00:05):
Let's get into our first segment, and that is
talking about all of thedifferent Mergers Acquisitions
that have been happening so farin 2025 rumors are there's more
on the way. It's not going to beslowing down. So Grace, you have
covered freight tech for years.
Obviously, you previously workwith freightwaves. Now you're
over at another freight techcompany with orderful. So give
(00:27):
us sort of the the high leveloverview of what the hell is
happening with all these mergersand acquisitions.
Grace Sharkey (00:36):
Yeah, you know, I think it's interesting. I think
companies are starting to usethis time period for these
really interesting strategicmergers, right, looking for
really areas that you want toimprove in your business, and
finding that company that youcan pick up and help accelerate
you to those goals. I mean,
Unknown (00:56):
before we started recording, we just talked about,
you know, convoy, once again,making money for another
company, and, well, at least forFlexport in this situation,
right? And how it was recentlysold to to d 80. And I think for
dat, you pick up convoy, and themore technological advancements
that come with it for them to, Ithink more modernize that their
freight tech stack that theyhave over there, bring on those
(01:18):
team members and continue toinnovate, you've seen a number
of brokers, logistics providers.
Freightways has covered a ton ofthese that have been buying
either assets, truckingcompanies or even offices in
different regions around thecountry. I mean, when you're
talking about a period of wherewe've seen broker margins at
their lowest, truckingcompanies, especially at their
(01:40):
lowest in terms of what they'rehoping to bring in. And then
honestly, tech companies, andtech companies who have
investors who want to see areturn somewhere, these type of
plays are going to happen morefrequently. So I'm excited to
see that, along with the heat ofthe summer, we've seen the heat
of good old acquisitions andmergers as well. And we're
(02:04):
starting to see a ramp up, Ithink of even investment too. I
think good ship just announced anice $25 million raise. Think
was it motive like had over $100million something like that a
week or so ago. So the money isback flowing. But I think what
we have seen from the mergerside is that a lot of I would
assume these board membersinvestors want to see a little
(02:27):
bit more of a strategy of wherethat return is going to come
from. And I think these areshowcasing, okay, these
opportune moments to to maybelet an asset go that's not
really helping you directly lookat something maybe like Flexport
and get handing that over tosomeone who could use that
technology. Well, especiallywith with Flexport, when they
(02:49):
bought convoy like it was almostlike, you know, nickels, nickels
on the dollar, of what they werepaying for. But then they
flipped it and sold it forhundreds of millions of dollars.
Yes, uh, rumored, but yes, yeah,something along those lines. And
I think maybe Peterson had beengiven a little bit more guidance
on that too, but yeah, exactlyright. And I'm sure they, they
(03:12):
learned a lot from thatacquisition too. Yeah, you know,
you you fix it, you turn thecompany around, and it becomes
something that's available outthere to sell. And I think
there's probably a lot oftechnology just within all the
integrations that we see betweentech companies, right? A lot of
I wouldn't be surprised if wesee maybe more of like these TMS
(03:34):
is picking up some of thesetechnologies in particular and
putting them into their freighttech stack permanently,
permanently.
I think there's, I mean,interesting enough. I I've heard
rumors, but, you know, we'll putthis out there. It's not that
crazy. I've heard rumors that,you know, highways looking to
raise money. But there's also,you know, some interesting
(03:55):
opportunities they're looking attoo. So I don't know, I think
it's, it's that strategy time. Ithink when you look back maybe
four or five years ago, and itreally got hot in this space,
people were getting all themoney in the world. Money was
free. That's not happening. Thefeds aren't moving on much these
days either, and there's notmuch clarity of when you know
(04:16):
interest rates will get better.
So let's do the most with whatwe have on board. And how can
we, you know, in Flex sportscase, right, flip this and make
some money as well. It almostsounds like because I believe
there's three more fed meetingsfor the rest of this year, and
we could potentially, I was justlistening to a podcast this
(04:36):
morning. Was talking about howwe could potentially see rate
cuts in all three of thosedifferent meetings, which would
be fantastic for the market,because then that does free up
some money. But from justlooking at some of these
different acquisitions, I mean,just in May, we had dat purchase
outgo, dat purchase convoy, um,project 61 just purchased off
(04:58):
shift. So that's Mark manera.
Is company for driver health.
And really, like, I think hismission is more like overall
supply chain health, and, youknow, not just for for truck
drivers, but also warehouseworkers and just any kind of
folks working within logistics.
So that was a cool one to seetriumph in back in May purchase
green screens. I think they'renow all, you know, part of the
(05:19):
the same umbrella companies. ButI think, which is kind of kind
of sucks at green screens brandlike it's going away. But I
understand these things happenduring purchase acquisitions,
but hopefully we'll still see,you know, maybe at future
conferences, they'll still wear,like, you know, the green
Hawaiian shirts at all thosedifferent events. And, you know,
they got their green shoes andall that. I just, I love that
(05:39):
branding that they did from fromthem, Descartes, purchase,
three, three GTM. Is that howyou pronounce it? Three. I see
GTM and I read, go to market,but three, just three gtms,
right? Or something like that.
Three gtms. Oh, that makessense, because I see GTM and I'm
like, go to market. Like, isthat a marketing company?
(06:02):
Sorry, marketing brain. There'sa couple of other ones here.
NFI, purchase, transfix,Nuvo, cargo. Purchase, merge,
transportation, stored.
Purchase, where to go. So a lotof these amounts are
undisclosed, so we don'tnecessarily know the specific
dollar amount. Then there was abunch of other ones that are
(06:22):
just on, you know, like, almostlike the big ship lines and
things like that. So those kindof companies have been making a
lot of purchasing, forward airpurchasing, Omni logistics, y
set global purchasing. E, toopen, I had, you know, in case
you're wondering, I had grok do,like, a deep research report of
all of the different mergers andacquisitions and logistics and
(06:44):
supply chain, but then it cameback with this report that only
had like 10 companies. And I'mlike, no, no, there's, there's a
lot more. There's triumph,there's green screens, there's
debt. And I, I almost like,bullied grock into doing a
completely new research report.
So it added all of thoseadditional ones. So we have a
lot of, like, tech focused andbrokerage deals, which is what
we I kind of just outlined. Butthen there's other major deals,
(07:07):
just by I mean, billions ofdollars, DSV purchase, DB,
schnick, is that how you saythat?
Yeah, for almost $16 billionthere are freight forwarding and
contract logistics giant,creating a top global provider
with enhanced networks. I wonderif it would be helpful to share
(07:28):
my screen here, but I kind ofoutline, you know, a lot of like
the the big ones like forwardair purchase Omnia logistics. I
know there's some others, likestuff going on with forward air
too. I don't know if that, ifsomebody else is trying to buy
forward air as well. It's thepoint is, is that there's a lot
of movement and shaking going onwithin this industry, and it
(07:49):
feels like some kind of capitalis starting to get a little bit
loosened up with theanticipation of rate cuts later
this year. It looks like a lotof these companies, especially D
80, you know, kind of putting,you know, a lot of like,
different chess pieces on theboard. Are there any, I guess,
maybe trends that you're kind ofseeing, or maybe, like
(08:11):
implications of of some of thesedeals and mergers going through.
Like, do you see moreconsolidation in the future? Or
do you, do you see this is kindof making room for more niche
players. I think just moreconsolidation. I think
hopefully, maybe because ofthat, the niche players
get a little bit more spotlightfrom investors, right? Knowing,
(08:35):
okay, there's a potential forreally good exit right in what
they're doing. So if you are,for example, I know I'm creating
some type of technology that'shelpful and oversized shipping,
right?
An investor might be more opento that investment, seeing that
there's more of an exit strategyfor that nuance type. And I
(08:56):
think that's really what you'velearned even from like the DB
one that you brought up as well.
A lot of this is like, how canwe work with partners? I think
that's one that's always why I'malways interested in a lot of
these, like partnernews releases. Because on the
(09:16):
surface it might just be like,Oh, here's like a PR instance,
but it's also a potential for inthe future, an acquisition in
that space too,I think, or even the movement of
something like transfix, right?
So transfix, you brought up theNFI stuff. Well, if you follow
(09:37):
transfixes pasthistory, you know, they, at one
point, they set aside and said,Hey, listen, I believe they
pushed off their brokerage unitand became tech only. Right?
Whenever I see a move like that,it's because likely they're
looking for a more strategicexit, right? I think another
one.
(10:00):
Could probably look at notsaying that they are doing
anything but ship Well, right?
They ended up pushing theirbrokerage off to cloud trucks,
which is great for cloud trucks,right? They need that piece
likely to fuel more loads to getto their carriers, to make their
business model work. I'm surethat's great for their
investors. On the other side.
(10:21):
Shipwell wants to do whatthey're good at, which is make
really great technology. Theydon't want to broker loads. And
so you get rid of that headache,and you focus on what you're
good at, which you see often inkind of like the TMS space, I
think a lot of companies realizewhen they first start, oh, we
kind of have to have this, like,behind the scenes, brokerage
arms to like, showcase thistechnology works, and then as it
(10:43):
grows and as the technology getsbetter, there's less of a reason
for it. So I I think going toback to like, what we might
potentially see. I definitelythink you're going to see more
of these strategic pickups, thethings that allow them to expand
into different regions inparticular. Wouldn't be
surprised if we see a little bitmore action in US logistics
(11:05):
picking up even more of likethese European countries in
particular, or just companiesthat are a little bit more
globally focused in logistics toopen up that category as well.
But yeah, it's, it's, that'swhat's fun about kind of
following companies and knowingwhat they're good at, what
they're not good at, and whatthat can mean for their future
(11:29):
as well. And triumph, right? Acouple of times. I mean, they've
that's one, if you read graphs,letters to investors that he
writes every earnings period, hebasically tells you exactly in
there what his their theirmotive is, and with a lot of
these acquisitions, is becausethey are realizing that, I think
(11:52):
the structure of how just theirfactoring service works, even
like withtheir hub, Tran and more of like
that, factoring service focusthey've done, I don't think it's
bringing as much value to thecompany as it could
what it's doing now with itsintelligence unit offering. Hey,
(12:13):
listen, we have all this dataflowing in. Why would we have
our customers outsource todifferent data companies with
all that's here, and we canexplore the same thing with
them, or, even more so do whatthey're doing, like with ch
Robinson and offering this likewhite labeled factoring service,
right? We have all everything inhouse to make that happen. So
(12:36):
that's listen to. I always liketo listen, at least for the
public companies that have totell you what their hope is for
the future, and that will kindof showcase to you what likely
they'll pick up, or what they'relooking to acquire over time. I
it's just, I can't imagine thatthese types of mergers are I'm
(12:56):
not even saying that or implyingthat it's going to be easy, but
I'm just thinking of, like, myown, like, sort of company data
needs and to integrate anothercompany, another sop, or
probably has tons of SOPs, maybethey have, like, you know, their
own data structure, andimporting that and integrating
(13:17):
that into, God, that's such aheavy lift. So
hey, thank you for touchingthat. Because you know what, it
is, a heavy headache, and that'swhy you need a top of the line
EDI provider. And here order,you opened up the pitch for me,
I'm going to swing at it here atorderful, we can help you with
(13:38):
that. I mean, that's actually alot of times too. We talk to
people pain points of mergersand acquisitions. Is, yeah, hey,
how is that data transferbetween companies? So go check
us out, orderful.com but listen,you hit on a customer pain
point. I wasn't going to letit go. We got bills to pay over
here. David, we're going to getthese shout outs mentioned as
(13:59):
much as possible, because, Imean to I just can't imagine
that headache. I mean, justlooking at my own data and try
it. Just trying to, like, forexample, right now, I'm trying
to build out, and I've had thison the back burner for years. I
want, like, a CEO marketingdashboard where I can take a
look at each of my differentbrands, and I can see what the
(14:20):
funnel looks like, and I cansee, you know, what's gathering
attention for the podcast, anddoes that, you know, transfer
into, you know, meetings bookedfor the products I'm
advertising, and some of themare my own products, some of
them are sponsor products. Andso, how do I prove value for the
content that we're creating, andthen try to have room for shows
(14:42):
like this, where it is, like,it's not, you know, strictly
business driven. This is a lotof fun for me to, you know, make
this show and host it with you,but I still need to pay the
bills with, like, other types ofcontent. And so just trying.
To do that simple thing. It'squote, unquote simple of pulling
(15:04):
in my x analytics, pulling in myLinkedIn analytics, pulling in
email marketing, pulling themall into the same place, is
incredibly difficult, becauseeverybody uses different data
structures, and companies willmeasure views and follows at a
different level. For example, aview on Facebook is three
(15:26):
seconds. A view on Instagram isthree seconds. You don't need to
have the audio on somebody couldjust be glancing or just stroll
a scroll a little too slow, andif they're on there for three
seconds, that counts as a viewon YouTube, it's 30 seconds. On
LinkedIn, I think it's 10seconds, but again, you don't
have to have the audio on. Andso it's like having these
(15:48):
different data points. And whodefines those data points is so
just different. And so I cannotimagine what that looks like,
integrating another company likeD, a T, for example, integrating
Alka, or, you know, gettinggreen screens data, which I'm
sure green screens does animpeccable job with, like their
data structure, but it could becompletely different than the
(16:10):
way that triumph does it. And sohonestly, it's like, hey, shout
out. If there's a convoy workerwho has survived
the transition from convoy toFlexport, from Flexport to t
he or she. If you're out thereand you survived, let us know we
will have you on the show,because war stories, all
(16:36):
right. Well, well, just to, justto round out, you know this part
of the conversation I mentionedearlier about that grok deep
research report that conductedand kind of edited a little bit,
but it talks about implicationsfor technology in these
industries, and it says these Mand A signal a tech driven
future with consolidationsenabling investments in AI,
(16:57):
automation and sustainability,drink, every time you hear or
see those words and anycompany's marketing, but they
have five key takeaways here. Soone of those is AI and digital
platform surge. So acquisitionslike wise tech, ETU open and
triumph green screens prioritizeAI for pricing. So they're
talking a little bit about onthe integrated side of things.
(17:19):
Could create smart ecosystemswith a blockchain for
visibility, another drink everytime you hear the word
visibility. Number two on thelist is supply chain, resilience
and efficiency. I'm not going toread through each of these
descriptions, but number three,sustainability and green tech.
Number four, human centricinnovations, which I thought was
(17:39):
an interesting one aroundproject 61 and off shift,
because it highlights HealthTech for drivers, using AI
coaching to combat shortages. Idon't know if that's right grok,
because there's technicallynever a truck driver shortage,
right? And then improve safetyvia wearables and telematics.
And then rounding out the listat number five is challenges. So
market concentration risk,antitrust issues, while over
(18:01):
reliance on tech exposescybersecurity vulnerabilities,
tariff uncertainties mayaccelerate localized AI
optimized chains. Job shiftstowards tech skills will require
training. Thank you, grok forthat. Added little note to that.
I don't know how I don't reallyget anything from the
implications of technology forthese industries in this
(18:23):
particular section, I think youactually explained it a lot
better that it sounds like froma high level view, and correct
me if I'm wrong, but that a lotof these bigger companies have
been sitting on a ton of cashfor about a year now. They're
waiting for the market to kindof shift things out. I think
budgets ran really dry duringlike the March to June
(18:44):
timeframe. But then, you know,these things are starting to
come out of the woodwork. Now,deals are starting to get
finalized. So maybe they've beenworking behind the scenes for a
while, setting up the chessboardin order to kind of dominate for
2026 and beyond. Is thereanything you would add on to
that. The one thing I would sayis maybe not so much, that I
(19:05):
wouldn't say so much thatthey're sitting on cash. I think
they're being strategic right onhow they're coming up with that,
whether it's, you know, the Ithink a lot of it, a lot of
times, when you see theseacquisitions, right, there's
some type of stipulation orgoals that you have to hit as
the acquired company in order toget the payouts Right. So
(19:26):
there's probably some just,like, really, I mean, there's
some really aggressive terms inthat, so that people can make
good money out of it. I thinkit's more so with the
positivity. I think we're atthat positive turn where it's
like, It can't get much worse,knowing that, okay, we're at the
bottom right. Like, if you'rebuying stock, you're gonna buy
(19:47):
at the bottom. You're gonna, youknow, sell when it's at the top.
And I think it's a little bit ofmore, that situation is okay.
Where can we be strategic withterms right now? Where, what can
we dilute in order?
To find, you know, maybe the theliquid to make some of these
acquisitions. I just think it's,there's enough proof that the
(20:08):
the market is turning. I've evengot, trust me, I get calls from
a lot of people nowadays that's,you know, how can we get into
it? And I think it's that, thatmoment has come, and the rest
is, we can figure out thetariffs, I mean, and even to be
honest with you, right, like ina worst case, we're probably at
a three years away from asolution. If this doesn't figure
(20:29):
out itself right with theelections and stuff, they know
that there's going to be apositive turn
around if you had to, notinvestment advice, but if you
had to buy stock in any of thesecompanies, not saying all of
them are publicly traded oranything. Who would you buy
stock in?
Hmm, you know what? Let me iso it's so it's funny that you
(20:53):
asked that. I think because youalso have to think about, well,
when's the return? Um, I thinkit's Roper, right, that that
owns d a t, that one could bepotentially a good one, but that
roperspackage involves a lot of things
outside of just d a t triumph.
(21:14):
I'm not sure they're going tosee that return very anytime
soon.
So there's a I'd like to see howthe next, like, year or so goes.
I think maybe there's sorrytriumph, because I love you as a
team. If I'm being honest, theremight like still be a
time for that to fall, I think,in all of this.
(21:34):
But I thinkfor oh, here's a perfect one.
It's probably too late, becausethe news is already out, but
siege Robinson has been upgradedby moody. That's one, if you
were to ask me this question,even yesterday, I probably would
have said yes to that, and thenmoody read my mind and then
published that right? So that'show that worked.
(21:54):
But I think that they, I knowtheir leadership that's focused
on technology, I think they'resorry employees at ch Robinson,
they're doing really good job atdoing more with not hiring more
people or firing people at thesame time. That's great
business. Again. That's thefunny thing about like public
companies is like theirshareholders are who they answer
(22:16):
to. So Sorry again, employees,but realize where you are in the
circle of life.
That's one I'm excited to seegrow probably even ups too,
right? As they get rid of someof their poor performers and
focus on others and maybe anUPS, I think is a perfect
example of how some of theseacquisitions could go wrong, and
(22:38):
then you're out there trying toflip them out at the same time,
right? So, yeah, I thinkprobably CH and ups are ones I
would, I would look at right nowand then go from there. But like
the Triumph one, I kind of wantto watch it a little bit,
because I think they've done alot of acquiring, and you're
right. Let's make suretechnology
(23:02):
and Trimble, actually, Trimble'sone, I think, has a really,
yeah, but Trimble is also beenlike the Trimble curse, right,
where it's acquired a lot ofstuff that's done absolutely
nothing for them, because, Ithink, of how they manage those
acquisitions and and they kindof kept them separate, but now
they're, I think, doing whatthey should have done to begin
with, which is like combiningall the technical and thought, I
(23:24):
think that leadership at Trimbleright now understands where they
need to improve better than theyhave. So that's one I'm excited
to watch grow too that Iprobably wouldn't have said a
couple years ago. I think someof these too it I was looking
at, you know, some of the othernotable deals in this research
report, and it's a lot of like,just buying different trucking
(23:46):
companies. So I think we haven'teven really touched on that
during this discussion, whereyou're essentially, you know,
buying assets, hopefully you'rebuying good drivers that are
included in that which, youknow, is a really
drive. There's no drivershortage, but there is a really
big problem with driverrecruitment. So getting good
drivers through the door andkeeping them at your company has
(24:08):
been the gold standard, in myopinion, for, you know, the last
decade. And so when I see like,you know, Schneider acquired
Cowen systems,AP, not that doesn't really
countUPS acquired freego Trans and
BPL, which is a German company,so that's like the cold chain
healthcare, but related, becausethat happened in January, but in
(24:29):
March. DHL, group, based inGermany, acquired cryo PDP,
which is a France based company,for 195 million but that's
another temperature controlledhealthcare logistics. So, you
know, especially with like, UPSversus DHL, very like similar
competitors there, but theinvestments into the healthcare
(24:50):
side of things, I think, isreally interesting. So for a lot
of like, the time sensitivefreight, temperature sensitive
freight.
Uh, there's usually a rushcharge, you know, around that.
And so you can deal with, like,a bunch of different, probably,
delivery mechanisms, whetherit's like a helicopter or a
drone or private air flights,you know, just for specific
(25:13):
health care related needs. Ithink that that's that's really
interesting. And then it waswriter systems acquired Cardinal
logistics back in February 2024so that's a little bit, you
know, a little almost a year anda half ago. But that's, you
know, just, I'm a little, Iguess, less bullish on, like
acquiring the trucking side ofthings, because just margins are
(25:36):
so tight and it's so tough. Butmaybe that's a future, like
asset play, where you're justbuying the assets for right now,
you're you're essentiallylooping in the really good
drivers and solving maybe arecruitment problem as well. And
like we kind of mentioned withthe freight tech companies, like
setting up the chess pieces onthe board. So then that way, you
know, assets, that story isprobably simple, which is,
(25:59):
they're not making shit.
Thanks for on the show. Yeah,yeah. I think YouTube realized
for after five minutes, they letyou go. So we've been on for
more than five minutes. We'regood
there. I mean, you're you'rejust buying assets at a discount
(26:21):
at this point right like,there's a couple of Michigan
companies I've heard ofrecently.
There's a big one right now,it's gonna piss me off that's
actually going through the samething. They're getting picked
up. I think they're financiallystruggling. So instead, you
know, a lot of these ownersprobably looking at, okay, maybe
(26:42):
it's time I retire. Let me sellthis thing off. And I assume
that a lot of these companiesare picking them up for the low
much like yellow, right? Like ithas been the toughest trucking
market, I think, that we've seenin decades. And so for a lot of
these companies that have beenaround for a long time, you
know, lawsuits, insurance. Ijust saw is
(27:02):
Carol fuller. Carol Fuller, thattrucking company. It's a Florida
based trucking company. They'vebeen around for like, 70 plus
years. There's actually, Ibelieve one of the owners is on
Tiktok, like, documenting, like,what's happening during her
company closure right now. It'sreally, I don't want to say
fascinating, because it's notfascinating for someone to lose
their family job that they'vehad for decades in the family. I
(27:26):
think that's incredibly tragicand heartbreaking, but it is a
peek behind the curtain of beingable to see what happens when.
And she credits in the video,she's like rising lawsuits. You
know, you got these billboardchasing law firms that want to
target, maliciously, targettrucking companies, and one
lawsuit can really, you know,put you out of business,
(27:49):
especially for a company, or notespecially but a company that's
been around for 70 plus years,like that. There's a whole lot
of turmoil, turmoil happening inthat realm. And if you don't
know how to run trucks. Youdon't keep them well maintained.
You don't know how to, you know,manage a proper safety
department and get ahead of alot of these things. And plus,
you know, recruit the bestdrivers and hope that they
(28:11):
perform well. It's a lot ofdifferent moving parts in the
trucking side of things. So Icould see where there's, you
know, going to be furtherconsolidation happening in the
next six months, I wouldprobably say there's gonna be
more consolidation on thetrucking side of things and
maybe any other segment andlogistics that you think it's a
fair statement. I totally agree.
I think you might see a littlebit of these. I mean, if I was a
(28:31):
broker right now looking forassets like this, would be the
time I'm kind of watching forthat. And you're 100% right. I
just found the one you'retalking about in Florida. And
actually, the story does kind ofremind me a little bit of what's
happening in the company up herein Michigan too. They've got,
you know, lawsuits fromaccidents going on, and it's on
(28:51):
top of the margin. I mean,imagine that's why I always tell
people, like, when they're like,I want to get into trucking. I'm
like, Do you know what theoperating ratio of a trucking
company is? Because it's notgreat and and so, yeah, I think
we'll probably see more of theseassets move around, a lot of
consolidation, which does suckfor the small guys, I think,
(29:15):
but could potentially be goodfor the small guys once the
market does turn around. Yeah. Imean, maybe it frees you up from
some cash, or maybe it gives yousome additional runway so you
can make it to a point whererates start to improve. But, you
know, I'm sure everybody hasheard this stat ad nauseum, but
you know, 90% of all the fleetsin the country are seven trucks
(29:36):
or less, and I think it'sactually that stat is a little
bit higher. So when you hearabout these big acquisitions,
just know that there's, youknow, a good portion of the
market is seven trucks or fewer,and they're running super tight
margins too. And so, you know, Iguess if you run a profitable
company, trucking company rightnow, like kudos to you,
(29:56):
hopefully you can kind of hangon until the market comes.
Rex, or if you're just tired, Ithink that's, you know, sort of
the that, like the tone I getfrom, like trucking subreddits
that Carol Fulmer post, peopleare just tired, and they're,
they're worn out, and they, youknow, another company comes
through and they want to offeryou a lot of money and you can
(30:19):
take a break. Like I'd listen ifthat was some of these folks,
you know, if I'm a Boomer and Iknow that I have Social
Security,I would have taken and run, you
know, I think it's a lot ofthat, though, I think it's this
older generation of like, okay,this isn't what it used to be.
I'm not making the amount ofmoney I was. I might not be
(30:40):
able. And there's nothing wrongwith not being able to
understand the difference of themarket today. And that's just
like again, circle of life. Sowhy not take this check now?
Retire responsibly. Pay all mydrivers. You know, get something
good. Make sure everyone goeshome happy. Make sure that they
have a good family. They'regoing to as well. A lot of these
(31:01):
companies, the drivers stay,they just go to the new company,
right? So I think that a lot ofis, you know, I mean, you get it
as close of a family unit, a lotof trucking companies are, I'm
sure a lot of this has to doalso with, alright, if I'm gonna
have to forcely exit thismarket, let me just make sure my
family is going into good hands,especially your your family's
(31:23):
going into good hands, and thatwhoever acquires you can also
pay the companies that you youknow, you still owe on the
books. That that was when thecompany I worked at closed down
that was the biggest gripe tome, is that, you know, there was
a specialized company that camein, like an accounting firm,
lawyer firm, a hybrid of thetwo, to try to save the company.
(31:44):
But then, after the fact, whatthey were doing, when all of you
know the the executives and theemployees are gone, there's
really only that's left is likethis one company that's
responsible for managing theaccounts payable and
receivables, and at one point,what they were doing is having
some of the accounting team likelie and say, No, send the check
(32:05):
here instead of sending it tothe carrier. And so these
carriers were not getting paid,and that's what caused a lot of,
like, the remaining accountingemployees to just quit, because
they, you know, just from like,a moral standpoint, it was
wrong, and it's but thiscompany, the one that was
brought in to help save thecompany, was the one that was
leeching off of these like Finalpayments, horrible company. I'm
(32:29):
not going to name them because Ifrankly, can't remember their
name off the top of my head, butI remember that I would, I would
never invite that into mycompany, and I hope that's not
happening, you know, across thethe name, fortunately, I'm sure
it probably is. But taking careof your drivers, taking care of
the bills that you owe, takingcare of like, especially like
smaller like contractors andthings like that, that should be
(32:51):
the utmost importance, becausethose people can't wait months
for, you know, litigation tofigure itself out. And so
hopefully, you know, there's apriority list of the companies
who can manage a little bit moreof a runway versus the people
who can't, and that's yourcarriers. That's your, you know,
sort of in the trenchesemployees. That tends to be the
people who get the shaft themost when a trucking company
(33:14):
faces like financial burden. Sothat's my little, I guess,
soapbox that I'll get off of,because it really has nothing to
do with the greater scope ofwhat we're talking about, which
is what's happening with all ofthese mergers and acquisitions,
what does kind of the futurekind of look like? And I think
what we're finding out is thatwe have hit rock bottom, but I
(33:35):
don't know that we're gonna getout of the bottom just quite
yet, like the ladder to get outis just slightly out of reach,
and so I think that that's to bedetermined. Yeah, I will say
they're not speaking of whereI'm at now, but the one of my
(33:57):
favorite things to do isrecently, is go to trucker
events. And the first thing theycome up to me, especially if
they know me in the Michiganarea, is,
you know, your boss, totally,Mark is coming back, you know.
So maybe, maybe that, that thatwill come to an end soon. That
would be nice for my social,yeah, the freight recession is
not over. Um, unfortunately, weall wish it was. I have a
(34:20):
teacher in the other room,Blythe, that says it is so
I saw the gravestone. Thegravestone said that the
recession was over. But it's notwe just, you know, come up with
new definitions as a country onwhat a recession is and what
isn't. All right.
(34:40):
All right. All right, that. Thatdoes it for any final words. Are
you ready to move on to the thenext thrilling topic, as we're
talking about data? And yeah,right, data?
All right, oh no, I will saythough. On that note, I think a
lot of what we're going to seethough is going to be.
(35:00):
Bringing it back to the data ofthings in this industry, and how
are these companies bringingreal results to their customers
with the data that they canleverage? So I will say, I think
that's going to continue to bepart of what we see in these
moves, for sure, at least on thetech side. Yeah, that's a great
way to close out this topic.
(35:26):
Thanks for tuning in to anotherepisode of everything is
logistics, where we talk allthings supply chain, for the
thinkers in freight, if youliked this episode, there's
plenty more where that camefrom. Be sure to follow or
subscribe on your favoritepodcast app so you never miss a
conversation. The show is alsoavailable in video format over
on YouTube, just by searchingeverything is logistics. And if
(35:47):
you're working in freightlogistics or supply chain
marketing, check out my company,digital dispatch. We help you
build smarter websites andmarketing systems that actually
drive results, not just vanitymetrics. Additionally, if you're
trying to find the right freighttech tools or partners without
getting buried in buzzwords.
Head on over to cargorex.iowhere we're building the largest
database of logistics servicesand solutions. All the links you
(36:09):
need are in the show notes. I'llcatch you in the next Episode
and go jags.
You.
(36:42):
You
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