Tall Ships in New York: When the World Came Together

Tall ships arrived in New York Harbor for America’s 250th, bringing a shared maritime tradition into full view. I loved seeing that gathering alongside the commemorative designs appearing on trucks and trains across the country.Grace Sharkey and I look at the fleet wraps and the ships that made this celebration so memorable. We also talk about why the effort behind these displays deserves more attention. This Freight Friends conversation was recorded July 9, 2026, during the anniversary celebrations.In this segment:• Mack’s commemorative truck and patriotic rail designs• The Liberty Bell connection behind Norfolk Southern’s locomotive• Tall ships from around the world gathering in New York HarborListen to the full Freight Friends conversation:https://everythingislogistics.com/freight-friends-edi-fees-ai-hype-vs-reality-and-totos-ceramics-that-secretly-power-chip-manufacturing/Links mentioned:Sail4th 250 event details: https://sail4th.org/news/with-30-days-to-go-new-york-harbor-gets-ready-for-a-historic-maritime-spectacle-for-the-nations-250thMack’s America 250 tribute truck: https://www.macktrucks.com/mack-news/2026/mack-trucks-debuts-limited-edition-america-tribute-truck-and-patriotic-truck-builder-backgroundNorfolk Southern’s anniversary locomotives: https://www.norfolksouthern.com/en/newsroom/story-yard/norfolk-southern-unveils-americas-250th-locomotive-series-----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

Everyone in freight has the same marketing tools now. Same AI writing assistants, same ability to produce a clean chart in ninety seconds, same well-formatted blog post. RJ Finnegan, Brand Manager at SPI Logistics, told me that once that happened, the stack stopped being anyone's advantage.So he bought a DSLR camera. What he wanted on it was the new hire sharing a joke with one of SPI's senior client care managers, execs on trips, people actually speaking in a room. SPI had not been posting that kind of thing before, and his bet is that a generator can copy your polish but cannot manufacture a Tuesday afternoon in your office.This is RJ's second time on the show after our TMSA Elevate recap, and he chairs TMSA's Recognition Committee. We get into the one filter he runs every idea through, what he watches instead of vanity metrics, why he thinks perfectly optimized blog content became the baseline rather than the advantage, and why SPI posts less for its agents rather than more.Links: RJ Finnegan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjfinneganRJ's first appearance, 5 Things We Learned at TMSA Elevate 2025: https://everythingislogistics.com/5-things-we-learned-at-tmsa-elevate-2025/Watch this episode on YouTube -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

Before Everything is Logistics, I spent years covering the Jacksonville Jaguars for a local station. Football has always been more than a game to me. It is one of the clearest examples of how much work happens before the public sees the finished product.In this replay, I trace the city effort that brought the Jaguars to Jacksonville, then step inside the operations behind game day. Food and field prep, broadcast timing, sideline technology, international travel, and hundreds of people working from a plan the crowd will never see.I also follow championship merchandise from the stadium to fans, then to its next destination when a team does not win. It is a football episode, but the logistics are the part I have always loved. -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

Note: this is technically a segment from a recent Freight Friends episode so if you already listened to that convo, thank you. But if you'd like to listen for the first time or listen again, also thank you.Back in May, I started a new content initiative on CargoRex where I'm interviewing companies/leaders to get their collective take and there's no bigger collective right now than the discussion around AI. I shared all 8 of their voices on CargoRex's AI Use Cases in Logistics Guide and I also shared my personal take in the AI that Ships episode right here on EiL. But this one features my good friend Grace Sharkey who is as tech savvy in logistics as they come. She brings the buyer perspective and where AI goes rouge. We talked all about this plus her company Orderful's recent raise while somehow making EDI sound interesting. Give it a watch/listen here in the podcast player or if YouTube is your jam, head on other there. Connect with Grace on LinkedinGrace’s work at Orderful‘The Two Clocks’ article Grace mentionedOrderful’s Every Man Jack case studyCargoRex AI Use Cases in Logistics GuideSolo EiL episode with Blythe’s opinion on AI in Logistics -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

Sri Lanka's logistics story is visible almost everywhere you look. Colombo sorts containers for the region. Hambantota is building an automotive transshipment business. Tea and cinnamon turn mountain geography into a first-mile challenge, while apparel compresses production timelines into something you can watch happen in a single day. In this solo episode, I'm nerding out on the logistics I noticed during a trip through the country. The episode also looks inside Jetwing Yala, where solar power, biomass cooling, desalination, wastewater treatment and biogas make hotel operations part of the supply-chain story.Links: Jetwing YalaCeylon Artisanal Tea AssociationWatch this episode on YouTubeNote: sorry for the added text in the video version. I spent 25 hours editing this damn thing only to "add a little to the beginning" right before uploading that ended up displaying the rest of a track from an entire other episode. Whoops. If this bothers your OCD like me, hit the YouTube link above to watch the new upload that's free of these rookie mistakes! -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

Choosing the right freight agency can make or break your business. So when a post on Linkedin went semi-viral about the top freight agent programs in the country, your girl had to share what she's learned from years of interviewing freight agents and the execs that run these programs. Check out our full episode library on how to choose a freight agent program in 2026 and beyondThe LinkedIn post that started the conversationWatch this episode on YouTube -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

Most EDI contracts never get shopped, and legacy providers price like they know it. Grace Sharkey walks through what that actually looks like on an invoice: a few thousand a month for the service, then a separate managed fee to make sure the service does not break. Orderful just raised $35 million to go after that second line item.We also cover what eight freight tech vendors are really building with AI, why nobody has this figured out yet, and how a Japanese toilet maker ended up inside the AI chip supply chain.In this episode:Why eight freight tech vendors are all pointing AI at boring, repetitive workflows instead of agent demosThe question every buyer now asks before a purchase: did you try building this yourself firstWhat Grace learned building her own lead follow-up droid, including the data mistake that broke itWhy hourly billing breaks down when execution gets cheap and judgment becomes the productHow legacy EDI pricing works: per transaction fees, managed service fees, and chargebacksInside Orderful's $35 million round and the product built to attack the managed services lineThe Every Man Jack migration: 57 trading partners in six monthsHow a Japanese toilet maker became a critical supplier in AI chip manufacturingSeven shipping containers lost when an Antarctic ice shelf calved into the seaSri Lanka's tea and cinnamon trade, and why most of its port activity is transshipmentTime Stamps: 02:33 Presented by SPI Logistics04:52 The CargoRex AI use cases guide, and what eight vendors are actually building51:40 Orderful raises $35 million, and how EDI pricing really works01:16:04 Hidden supply chain: a Japanese toilet maker inside the AI chip trade01:50:49 Favorite freight marketing: 250th anniversary fleet wraps and tall ships02:03:30 Source to Porch: containers lost off an Antarctic ice shelf, then Sri LankaLinks and resources:Connect with Grace on LinkedinGrace’s work at OrderfulCargoRex AI Use Cases in Logistics GuideSolo EiL episode with Blythe’s opinion on AI in Logistics‘The Two Clocks’ article Grace mentionedOrderful’s Every Man Jack case studyJapan’s ceramic companies critical in AI supply chainMack Trucks’ America250 DesignDOT Grand Canyon RailBNSF America250 WrapNorfolk Southern’s Liberty Bell wrapTall Ships tour for America250Tall Ships in a storm that looks like the oil paintingsAntarctica station where containers floated awayCATA - Ceylon Artisanal Tea AssociationDonate to Sisters of Sri Lanka via Maersk’s Head of Trade and Customs, Janet Labuda, by sending a check to Janet’s address at: 6060 Trotters Point Ln. Gainesville, VA 20155 Watch this episode on YouTube -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

In this episode of Everything is Logistics, Blythe talks with Tapan Chadhar, CEO of Hey Bubba, about how voice AI is being built specifically for fleets, truckers, and carriers.Hey Bubba acts as an AI brain for trucking companies. It sits on top of TMS, email, phone calls, telematics, load boards, and driver communication tools to help fleets book freight, negotiate loads, talk to brokers, update drivers, and manage daily operations.They cover:Why Hey Bubba was built specifically for fleets and owner-operatorsHow voice AI changes the way drivers interact with trucking technologyWhy email is still the operating system for many small carriersHow Bubba can help search load boards, call brokers, and negotiate freightHow driver workflows can move from screens and typing to voice conversationsWhy access to clean operational data matters for larger fleetsHow carriers should think about AI adoption without overcomplicating itThis conversation is part of the CargoRex AI Use Cases in Logistics guide, featuring real examples of how logistics companies are using AI across freight, warehousing, procurement, visibility, and operations.Read the full guide here:https://cargorex.io/research/ai-use-cases-in-logistics/LINKS:Hey Bubba:https://baba.aiCargoRex AI Use Cases in Logistics Guide:https://cargorex.io/research/ai-use-cases-in-logistics/ -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

In this episode of Everything is Logistics, Blythe talks with Sarit Tamir, CEO and co-founder of Seeteria, about how computer vision is helping warehouse teams find lost time inside their operations.SeeTeria is a software-only company that connects to existing CCTV cameras inside warehouses, distribution centers, fulfillment centers, and 3PL facilities. The platform watches floor activity, detects operational friction, and sends real-time alerts to teams before small problems turn into bigger delays.They cover:Why warehouse teams still miss what happens between system scansHow existing CCTV cameras can become an operational visibility toolWhat dock queues, idle doors, dwell time, staging congestion, and near-misses revealWhy the “messy middle” of warehouse operations adds up quicklyHow real-time alerts help floor teams act fasterHow managers can use shift summaries to find recurring patternsWhy the goal is to support warehouse workers, not replace themThis conversation is part of the CargoRex AI Use Cases in Logistics guide, featuring real examples of how logistics companies are using AI across freight, warehousing, procurement, visibility, and operations.Read the full guide here:https://cargorex.io/research/ai-use-cases-in-logistics/LINKS:SeeTeria:https://seeteria.comCargoRex AI Use Cases in Logistics Guide:https://cargorex.io/research/ai-use-cases-in-logistics/ -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers. 

In this episode of Everything is Logistics, Blythe talks with Tom Curee, President at Qued, about why freight appointment scheduling is still one of the most stubborn problems in logistics.Qued focuses on appointment scheduling for brokers, carriers, and shippers. The platform connects into existing TMS workflows so users can automate scheduling, manage exceptions, and build trust through visibility instead of forcing teams into another portal.They cover:Why appointment scheduling creates so much back-and-forth for logistics teamsHow many times a single appointment usually gets touchedWhy user trust matters when automating freight workflowsHow Qued uses audit logs to show every step of the scheduling processWhy the best appointment is not always the appointment a team thinks it wantsHow natural language rules help Qued scale complex scheduling logicWhy logistics companies should prioritize tech that improves the customer experienceThis conversation is part of the CargoRex AI Use Cases in Logistics guide, featuring real examples of how logistics companies are using AI across freight, warehousing, procurement, visibility, and operations.Read the full guide here:https://cargorex.io/research/ai-use-cases-in-logistics/LINKS:Qued:https://qued.comCargoRex AI Use Cases in Logistics Guide:https://cargorex.io/research/ai-use-cases-in-logistics/ -----------------------------------------THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!SPI Logistics has been a Day 1 supporter of this podcast which is why we're proud to promote them in every episode. During that time, we've gotten to know the team and their agents to confidently say they are the best home for freight agents in North America for 40 years and counting. Listen to past episodes to hear why.CargoRex is the search engine for the logistics industry—connecting LSPs with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.Digital Dispatch maximizes and manages your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers.