Autonomous Trucks Are Already Running Freight in Texas

In this episode of Everything is Logistics, Blythe talks with Nick Boston, VP of Sales at GoodShip, about how shippers are using AI to better understand freight spend, carrier performance, and transportation procurement.GoodShip helps shippers manage freight orchestration and procurement in one platform. Their AI assistant, Lainey, helps users ask questions about their transportation network, prepare for carrier meetings, plan scenarios, and surface insights without waiting on another spreadsheet pull.They cover:Why many large shippers still manage freight procurement with spreadsheetsHow GoodShip brings transportation spend, service, contracts, and carrier data into one systemWhat Lainey does inside the GoodShip platformHow shippers use AI for insights, scenario planning, and meeting prepWhy carrier scorecards are still hard for many teams to manageHow brokers and carriers are starting to use GoodShip for RFP pricingWhy GoodShip includes unlimited use of Lainey in its annual subscriptionThis 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:GoodShip:https://goodship.ioCargoRex 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 Tete Xiao, VP of Engineering and AI at Bot Auto, about how autonomous trucking is being used in real freight operations.Bot Auto operates fully driverless trucks in Texas, with current lanes between Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Instead of selling software, the company works as a transportation-as-a-service provider, moving trailers for customers using autonomous tractors.They cover:Why Texas and the southern freight corridor make sense for autonomous truckingHow Bot Auto handles drop-and-hook freight with fully driverless trucksWhy night driving is one of the clearest use cases for autonomous freightHow autonomous trucks can operate without driver hours-of-service limitsWhy Bot Auto uses LiDAR, cameras, and other sensors instead of betting on one systemThe difference between replacing drivers and filling lanes that are hard to staffHow the company thinks about safety, lane expansion, and commercial viabilityThis 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:Bot Auto: https://bot.autoCargoRex 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. 

The pod may have been a little off-schedule over the last month but that’s for good reason because I’m trying out a new editorial approach to the show and its taken  more legwork to get to a point where I feel comfortable hitting publish. In May, I scheduled interviews with 8 different companies building AI solutions in logistics. The plan is upload each of those ~30 minute conversations that focus specifically on their product, who it’s for and what to expect. Basically an approach of “here’s everything I would ask if I was trying to understand and eventually/maybe purchase this software.” We also had some written submissions that I included in a written guide along with companies making moves but I personally didn’t interview them for this topic .Because I want CargoRex to be a brand that is successful independent of me being the “voice” of it, I still, and likely will always  want to give my opinion and that home is naturally here. However I think the process needs to be refined where interviews go on one channel and editorial evolves in more narrative/topic based shows that include those interviews where it makes the most sense. I’ll still share those interviews here but I think it’s important that I drop an episode like this ahead of that to set the tone of how I’m thinking about X topic in logistics. During this new interview process and after learning the real work going into these different AI solutions, I put together a working theory on how the humanoids are already here. How?My theory is most of the public is waiting for the big ~societal crash into AI agents taking over everything~ that’s turned into fear mongering. Companies simply over-hired, were run inefficiently, and the free money dried up. Businesses had to grow up, cut costs, and get lean. They blame “AI” but in reality, these companies just had bad processes and failed attempts to adopt AI solutions gave them a chance to blame a boogeyman.When you move past the noise and dig a little deeper you can see logistics is doing what it always does: improving that source to porch journey second by second. These solutions aren’t promising the world on a silver platter, but they are committed to creating solutions for specific use cases that requires a human’s expertise that is powered by information + insight to be creative with their problem solving. You can listen to the full interviews over on the CargoRex YouTube channel (links below) along with our in-depth Cargorex.io guide with all the companies interviewed, quoted, and featured.I’m really proud to hit publish on this new editorial direction and I hope you’ll find value in it. In this episode:How autonomous trucks are filling routes drivers don’t want, not replacing driversThe 3-hour report that now takes 15 seconds, and what analysts do with that timeWhy AI is the new boogeyman when bad data and worse processes are the real problemThe trust layer: audit logs, human-in-the-loop phases with defined endpoints, and why demos aren’t deploymentsWhat nobody talks about: AI burnout, and what happens when every minute of your day becomes the hard stuffBuild vs. buy: $1.2 million in savings came from solving the right problems, not building everything from scratchToken management as an operational cost, and the Uber cautionary taleWatch this episode on YouTubeFind the full AI Use Cases in Logistics Guide over on the CargoRex website——————————————————Full Interviews available on the new CargoRex YouTube Channel: 1. Sarit Tamir — Founder & CEO, Seeteria "What Happens on Your Floor Between the Scans" Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IiHVk8eOw0wLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarittamir/ Site: https://seeteria.com2. Michelle McBride — Head of Product, Envoy AI "The Orchestration Layer Brokerages Have Been Missing" Watch: https://youtu.be/YGe5EZLoDYELinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleposadas/ Site: https://tryenvoy.ai3. Tapan Chaudhari — Founder & CEO, Hey Bubba "Voice AI That Books Freight for Truckers 24/7" Watch: https://youtu.be/XeBVteEJDlwLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctapan/ Site: https://bubba.ai4. Shawn McCarrick — CEO, Sifted "Why Big Savings Mean You Already Spent the Money" Watch: https://youtu.be/ZH6-40BxstgLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-mccarrick-04719765/ Site: https://sifted.com5. Jett Chitanand — President, EPG Americas "AI That Cuts 13 Minutes Off Every Warehouse Delivery" Watch: https://youtu.be/_Q8aM16gn24LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jett-chitanand/ Site: https://epg.com6. Tom Curee — President, Qued "The One Thing You Actually Control on a Shipment" Watch: https://youtu.be/ymtR9BRvxekLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomcuree/ Site: https://qued.com7. Tete Xiao — VP of Engineering and AI, Bot Auto "Driverless Trucks Are Already Hauling Freight in Texas" Watch: https://youtu.be/yWXQq_Fa9c0LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tete-xiao-ba2103120/ Site: https://bot.auto8. Nick Boston — VP of Sales, GoodShip "The Report That Took 3 Hours Now Takes 15 Seconds" Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/grzIjsDC1rsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickboston/ Site: https://goodship.io -----------------------------------------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. 

LLM search is only about 1% of the total search market. Google still controls roughly 88%. So why do so many marketer's content strategy sound like it was written by someone in a panic about AI overviews? This week we're resurfacing a conversation with Grace Sharkey of Orderful to reset what SEO actually looks like for logistics in 2026, with a new intro reacting to Google's recent guidance on what does and does not matter.Included in this conversation is a fresh take on what Google just clarified, including what they're saying about llms.txt files, FAQ pages, and schema. Then we roll into the conversation where Grace asks the questions and Blythe walks through Google Search Console, long-tail keywords, the FAQ-page rebuild, and why your recorded sales calls are the most underused content gold mine in your stack.In this episode:Why Google Search Console beats Ahrefs and SEMrush for figuring out what to fix firstHow to sort your queries for the fastest click-through-rate winsThe long-tail paragraph queries LLMs are actually answeringWhy the FAQ page is the easiest piece of SEO work you can ship this quarterWhat Google just said about llms.txt files (spoiler: you do not need one)How to turn recorded sales and onboarding calls into a content engineWhy YouTube case studies beat gated PDF whitepapers for shippersThe "how did you hear about us" form field every high-intent page should haveWatch this episode on YouTubeLinks and resources:Grace Sharkey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-sharkey-31940765/Orderful: https://www.orderful.comGoogle Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-consoleAdam Robinson's Air Cover newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/air-cover-7450924377958912000/ SEO expert Gaetanao DiNardi: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7368964829673390084/More logistics marketing and sales content over on Everything is 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. 

Most conversations about nearshoring assume you're moving away from Chinese manufacturing. Kerim Kfuri, president and CEO of The Atlas Network, has a harder truth: a lot of "nearshoring" is just Chinese foreign direct investment building factories in Vietnam and Mexico. The geography changes. The supply chain dependencies don't necessarily change with it.In this episode, recorded live on the expo floor at the Logistics World Summit in Mexico City, Kerim breaks down what 20 years of building end-to-end supply chains for small and mid-sized businesses has taught him — and what most operators still get wrong.In this episode:How The Atlas Network manages the full supply chain lifecycle for SMBs, from product idea to inventory management, across a network of 2,000 vetted factoriesWhy "nearshoring" in Vietnam and Mexico often means Chinese-owned factories with Chinese standardization — and why that matters for your tariff and sourcing strategyThe US manufacturing reality: why technology (not policy) is the actual leveler, and why we can't snap our fingers and rebuild a workforce we stopped training decades agoKerim's keynote framework from Logistics World: people, process, and innovation — and why "people" is the most undervalued of the threeWhat Kerim (MIT degree in AI and Strategy) says you actually give up when you hand too much to AI: creativity, human factor, and the interpersonal relationships that drive real businessThe signal-versus-noise framework for entrepreneurs: how to identify the three things that must get done today and stop letting everything else winWhy the most common thing Atlas Network hears from new clients is: "I wish we knew about you sooner"A bonus live interview with the founder of Logistics World Summit, who walked up mid-recording on the expo floorWatch this episode on YoutubeLinks & Resources:The Atlas NetworkKerim's book and speaking websiteBlythe's Logistics World + Mexico City Recap -----------------------------------------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. 

Robert Kowton left a decade at Coca-Cola, walked into freight brokering in 2008 with zero customers, and built a reputation around two things most brokers avoid: LTL and US-Canada cross-border freight. In this conversation, he breaks down exactly why those shipments trip people up and what it takes to get them right.In this episode, you'll learn:Why LTL freight pricing works like a la carte dining, where every carrier action from inside delivery to lift gates is a separate feeThe cross-border documentation mistakes that route your freight to a bonded warehouse in 2026How Robert's "quote to execute" method means he never quotes a load without a carrier plan already in placeWhy he went broad on commodities instead of niching down, and how that protected him through every market downturnThe cold calling approach that still works: research the commodity, trace the supply chain, follow up on the day you said you wouldReal advice for people thinking about becoming a freight agent with no experienceWatch this episode on YouTubeLinks and Resources:Robert Kowton on LinkedInCDN Freight Broker on YouTubeSPI Logistics Freight Agent Program: https://success.spi3pl.com/SPI Logistics Freight Agent Podcast Series: https://digitaldispatch.io/freight-agent-guide/Robert's fav business tools:Nozbe: https://nozbe.com/File Center: https://www.filecenter.com/Evernote: https://evernote.com/RingCentral: https://www.ringcentral.com/ -----------------------------------------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. 

CMPC moves pulp, lumber, plywood, and industrial and consumer packaging from 16 manufacturing sites across South America into North America. Roughly 10,000 TEUs and 300,000 tons of breakbulk annually, touching every Incoterm. Charlie sat down to break down what it actually feels like to run that supply chain through live tariff uncertainty, legacy system inertia, and a Manifest conference floor full of vendors asking for 25 minutes to understand how he procures freight.This conversation was originally recorded on March 11th 2026Connect with Charlie and CMPCCharlie's LinkedInCMPC WebsiteCMPC LinkedInWatch this episode on YouTubeOther episodes mentioned: Charlie's visibility panel at Manifest, which Blythe moderatedEiL's Shipper POV series Happy Robot Series B Raise and their founder Pablo Falafox on EiL -----------------------------------------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 US logistics pros in the US talk about Mexico from a very surface-level approach. But most have never been on the ground to take in and appreciate the nuance that exists with our number one trading partner.I just got back from 8 days in Mexico City: four doing some hosting on the main stage at The Logistics World Summit and Expo, four wandering the Roma Norte neighborhood with my husband Badr. What I saw on the conference floor and in the streets gave me a different read on this industry's relationship with Mexico than any analyst report has and this episode talks about it all.Inside:The 26,583-person conference and 650+ booths most US freight pros have never heard ofWhy the driver shortage myth is spreading south of the border, and the pay arbitrage making it worseCargo crime realities: a transport vehicle is stolen every 38 minutes, 86% involving violenceThe USMCA July 1, 2026 deadline and why the rules of origin fight mattersHow the National Museum of Anthropology was built in 19 months with a 168-ton monolith moved 29 milesSupply chain anthropology, cacao as currency, and what ancient Mesoamerica still teaches modern freightWatch this episode on YouTubeResources:Everything is Logistics: https://everythingislogistics.comCargoRex: https://cargorex.ioInstagram: https://instagram.com/blythebrum -----------------------------------------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. 

A 3PL moving 5,000 containers a year can bleed about $120,000 in avoidable detention and demurrage. Tyler Hughes says the fix is not another pretty dashboard. It is cleaner data, better reconciliation, and fewer blind spots when the container hits drayage.In this episodeWhy ocean visibility still breaks even when everyone says they have dataHow Vizion cleans carrier, vessel, terminal, rail, and truck events into something usableWhy standards matter less than the ugly backend work of mapping bad source dataThe real cost of dirty ETA data, including avoidable detention and demurrageWhat Tyler sees in the 2026 container trade outlook, from China to Southeast AsiaWhy drayage is still the biggest black box in end-to-end visibilityHow predictive ETA helps teams move from reactive updates to proactive planningWatch the episode on YouTubeLinksLearn more about Vizion: https://www.vizionapi.com/Follow Tyler Hughes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerlh/ -----------------------------------------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 warehouse operators have no idea what's actually happening on their floor right now. Not a rough estimate. No idea. The WMS says one thing. Ground truth is something else entirely. And the workers running the operation walk 12 to 15 miles a day on concrete trying to close that gap.In this episode, Blythe talks with Sankalp Arora, CEO and Co-Founder of Gather AI, live at Manifest 2026. Gather AI uses drones and cameras on forklifts to give warehouse operators real-time inventory visibility with no power drops, no new infrastructure, and a facility map completed in one to two weeks. Average customer payback: 4.5 months.In this episode:How drones and forklift cameras work together to turn a warehouse into real-time inventory intelligence -- no power drops ($15,000 each to install), no Wi-Fi constraintsWhy half of every warehouse's total cost is people and equipment traveling, and what that means for where automation investment actually pays offThe "Amazon Go store" analogy: what a fully instrumented warehouse looks like in practiceWhy the average warehouse worker walks 12 to 15 miles a day on concrete -- and why fixing that is as much a retention play as a productivity oneWhat the software stack looks like on a day-to-day basis and why workers end up living in Gather AI's dashboard instead of the legacy WMSThe 3-step buying framework for operators who've been burned by big capex automation projects beforeWhat Gather AI's $40M Series B is funding and what end-to-end warehouse orchestration looks like in practiceWatch this episode on YouTubeLinks and resources:• Gather AI website: gather.ai• Email Sankalp directly: [email protected]• Gather AI on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/gather-space-ai• Everything is Logistics: everythingislogistics.com• Freight tech vendor research: cargorex.io -----------------------------------------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.