The state of the freight economy, rise of artificial intelligence (AI), and accelerating levels of fraud across the trucking industry topped the agenda at SMC3 JumpStart26, an annual supply chain education event held in Atlanta earlier this week.
JumpStart brings together professionals from across the less-than-truckload (LTL) industry for three days of networking, presentations, and panel discussions on the issues affecting the industry. More than 500 people turned out for the event, which was held at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly, January 26-28.
The freight economy continues to be marked by uncertainty, despite some bright spots on the broader economic horizon, according to economist Keith Prather of Armada Corporate Intelligence, who gave an economic update on the first day of the conference. Prather cited consumer spending on services rather than goods, tariff volatility, and an unhealthy housing market as persistent drags on the freight economy. Bright spots include anticipated tax refunds that may boost consumer spending on goods later this year, a slowly improving residential construction market that could help spur freight movement, and strong GPD growth heading into 2026.
Touting AI
AI dominated much of the discussion over the three days, with LTL freight carriers, third-party logistics services (3PL) providers, and technology companies detailing how the technology can be used to improve operations within companies and across the industry. Speakers included Mark Albrecht, vice president of artificial intelligence and enterprise strategy at 3PL C.H. Robinson.
Albrecht’s talk coincided with the company’s launch of AI agents aimed at combatting missed LTL pickups. Two new AI agents are tracking down missed pickups and using advanced reasoning to determine how to keep freight moving, according to a January 26 company announcement. C.H. Robinson said it has automated 95% of checks on missed LTL pickups, saving more than 350 hours of manual work per day, helping shippers’ freight move up to a day faster, and reducing unnecessary return trips to pick up missed freight by 42%. The tools are part of a fleet of more than 30 AI agents C.H. Robinson has developed in house to streamline LTL processes.
Cracking down on fraud
The conference also featured an interview with Derek Barrs, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Barrs addressed the widespread fraud affecting the trucking industry, discussing how FMCSA is working with states and other federal agencies to combat safety problems arising from several issues, including the issuing of non-domiciled commercial drivers licenses (CDLs), English-language proficiency enforcement, and entry-level driver training programs.
Barrs said FMCSA is working with states to ensure the enforcement of existing English-language proficiency regulations and that “thousands and thousands” of drivers have been placed out of service as a result. FMCSA is also working with states to review their processes for issuing non-domiciled CDLs, which may be granted to non-citizens living in the United States. Much of the problem centers around states issuing licenses to non-citizens for periods of time that exceed their legal status to work in the country. Barrs said most states have stopped issuing non-domiciled CDLs while those processes are being reviewed but said much work remains to fix breakdowns in the system.
Barrs said FMCSA is focused on rooting out bad actors in driver training as well, noting that the agency has removed 6,800 listings from its training provider registry to date and that investigations of driver training schools continue.
Show organizers cited a strong turnout for the event despite being affected by winter storm Fern, which resulted in thousands of flight cancellations nationwide and widespread power outages in the Southeast. The crowd of more than 500 attendees was down from an expected group of more than 700 registrants.
SMC3 will hold its annual Connections event this coming June in Palm Beach, Fla.
