This Week In Logistics

CartonCloud
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This Week in Logistics is your 10–20 minute weekly intelligence briefing for 3PLs, warehouse and transport leaders. Hosted by CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen, each episode cuts through the headlines to explain what happened, why it matters, and what operators should do next. No noise. No fluff. Just practical insights to help you run a smarter, more resilient operation.

  1. 5d ago

    TWIL: CartonCloud Logistics Index Deep Dive — The Capacity-to-Confidence Gap, Rate Review Scheduling, and AI Adoption

    The 2026 CartonCloud Logistics Index just landed, and the operators closest to full capacity are coming out as the most confident in the industry. Welcome back to This Week in Logistics! This is a special deep-dive episode where CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen and CartonCloud Account Executive Javier Hernandez unpack CartonCloud's own research: the 2026 CartonCloud Logistics Index (CCLI).  The CCLI is our pulse check on sentiment across the warehouse and transport industry, now in its tenth wave. This year's index was researched independently by Insights Exchange,,surveying 393 warehouse and transport operators across North America, Australia, and New Zealand.  In this episode, we dig into what the CCLI results means for 3PLs and transport operators planning the next twelve months.  Why the operators running closest to full capacity are the most confident in the industry right now, and what that could mean if you're sitting with space capacityWhy operators with a some form of a rate review approach in place are more optimistic about the next six months than those who are simply absorbing rising costs, and what that structure actually looks like in practiceWhat's shifting in customer expectations and why real-time tracking, faster turnaround and better system integrations are becoming just as important to offer as a competitive rateWhat it takes to move from AI trialist to adopter, and why that shift is where the real payoff startsThree quick checks from the operator playbook to run against your own business, so you know exactly where you sit across the industry If you run a 3PL, transport operation, or warehouse, this episode will help you see where you actually sit, and what's within reach: From wondering if your confidence is just you → to seeing where you sit against an industry-wide pattern you can act onFrom reacting to rising costs → to running your next rate review on your terms, with the timing planned outFrom "we're looking into AI" → to a clear next step for moving from trial to trust

  2. Oct 13

    When the System Says Forty and the Shelf Says Twelve — Closing the Inventory-to-Warehouse Gap, With Special Guest Gaubrielle Pritchard, Director of Product and Customer Marketing, Cin7

    Gaubrielle Pritchard, Director of Product and Customer Marketing at Cin7, joins CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen to unpack why inventory and warehouse systems drift apart, and what it actually costs operators once they stop agreeing. Welcome back to This Week in Logistics! In this special guest episode, CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen sits down with Gaubrielle Pritchard, who's spent over a decade working across e-commerce, inventory management and fulfilment, to discuss why inventory and warehouse systems drift apart, and what it takes to close that gap. This episode unpacks where inventory truth actually starts to drift, the four growth triggers that quietly break fulfillment, and what real visibility requires once stock leaves your own four walls. In this episode we cover: Where inventory truth starts to drift, and why the warehouse gets blamed for a problem that usually lives in the handoff between systemsThe real, uninvoiced cost of the workarounds: recounts, buffer stock, and the phone call explaining a short orderThe four categories that quietly break fulfilment as a business grows: adding people, adding selling channels, reaching customers geographically, and rising costsWhat actually makes a 3PL relationship work, and what breaks it: visibility, data, and knowing the velocity of what you're sendingWhy AI needs data integrity before it needs speed, and what Cin7's Denver Summit revealed about where operators sit on the real-time, zero-stockout expectation curveIf you're running inventory and fulfillment on separate systems, this episode is a straight look at what changes: From counting a shelf to catch a problem → to tracking the sync that actually caused it From treating a 3PL as a cost → to treating it as a visibility partner From chasing AI because it's new → to building on data integrity first Learn more about CartonCloud's x Cin7's partnership here; https://cin7.partnerpage.io/integrations/cartoncloud.

  3. Sep 23

    TWIL: A Cost Rule Peak — Canada's Tariffs Go Live, FedEx Guarantees Your Duties, and Peak Season Surcharges Land

    Canada's tariffs are live, FedEx is now guaranteeing duties and taxes at checkout, and peak season surcharges are landing three different ways — with one of them invisible on the invoice. CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen is joined by CartonCloud Account Executive Javier Hernandez to unpack what it means for logistics operators in Q4. Welcome back to This Week in Logistics! In this episode, Shaun and Javier catch up on three weeks of trade and carrier moves since the Season 2 premiere. Canada's response against US tariffs took effect September 8, a fourth round of US-Mexico trade talks opened in Washington still deadlocked on automotive content rules and steel tariffs, FedEx launched a new tool that guarantees duties and taxes at checkout, and UPS, FedEx, and USPS are all locking in peak season surcharges in different ways. This isn't a normal demand peak. It's a cost rule peak, and the rules are still being written while it happens. This episode unpacks what that means for 3PLs and transport operators heading into Q4. In this episode we cover: Why Canada's tariffs going live September 8 (dollar-for-dollar on roughly $27.6 billion of US goods, steel and aluminium doubled to 50%) mean trade compliance is now a standing watchWhat a stalled fourth round of US-Mexico trade talks mean for anyone building a multi-year sourcing planWhy FedEx's new Global Trade Navigator, and its $99-a-month guarantee on duties and taxes at checkout, pulls the trade decision upstream to the point of saleHow UPS, FedEx, and USPS are locking in peak season surcharges three different ways, and why the USPS increase won't show up as its own line itemUber Eats' new drone delivery partnership with Zipline, and what faster delivery windows mean for B2B fulfillment expectationsThree things to check this week: your Q4 shipping cost model, your landed cost accuracy, and which SKUs are exposed on both the Canada and Mexico sidesIf you run a 3PL, transport operation, or warehouse, this episode will help you cut through the noise: From reconciling invoices against last year's line items → to comparing the underlying rate card, month on month From assuming this week's number holds into next month → to naming what's moving and updating it out loud From reacting to a surprise on the invoice → to telling customers what's changing before they have to ask Whatever's moving this quarter doesn't wait for you to notice it. Check it, price it, and tell your customers before they have to ask.

  4. Sep 8

    TWIL: Multiple Warehouses, Multiple States, One Standard — How HD Warehousing Does It, With Special Guest Chad Hildebrandt, Owner & COO

    HD Warehousing runs hazmat storage, food grade, e-commerce fulfillment, and large-scale pallet operations across multiple states — and Chad Hildebrandt, Owner & COO, joins Shaun Hagen to explain what actually holds it all to one standard. Welcome back to This Week in Logistics! In this special guest episode, CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen sits down with Chad Hildebrandt, who co-founded HD Warehousing along with his business partner Jen out of a 72,000 square foot facility in Idaho Falls. Two years on, HD Warehousing now operates multiple warehouses across different states, including a large-scale site in Denton, Texas, each shaped by the customers and product types it serves. In just two years, HD Warehousing has scaled across different operations, states, and customers, and kept every site running to the same standard. This episode unpacks what "local agility" actually looks like when it has to hold up at scale. In this episode we cover: Why Chad and Jen chose an underserved regional market in eastern Idaho over competing head-on in an established 3PL hub, and how that first, slow five months turned into word-of-mouth growthWhat "being an extension of your client" actually means in practice, from a dedicated SOP per client to the high standard of service set from day oneWhy HD Warehousing treats other warehouse operators as a network rather than competitors, referring clients elsewhere when they're not the right fit, and how that's built their reputationChad's honest take on AI and automated forklifts: why the right technology fit matters more than the newest technology, especially when scaling multiple sites at onceWhat Chad would tell another 3PL operator weighing up a second site, or a fifthIf you run a multi-site 3PL, this episode is a straight look at what changes: From running one warehouse well → to holding one standard across several, across state lines From treating each new site as a one-off → to building a repeatable way of standing them up From choosing technology because it's new → to choosing it because it fits the operation you actually run

  5. Aug 28

    TWIL: Season 2 Returns — US-Canada Tariffs, Oil Volatility, and Panama Canal Cuts All at Once

    Season two opens with three cost drivers hitting at once — oil volatility, a US-Canada tariff war, and Panama Canal transit cuts — and Shaun Hagen is joined by new co-host CartonCloud Account Executive, Javier Hernandez. Welcome back to This Week in Logistics! In this special news episode, CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen and Javier Hernandez catch up on what actually happened while the show was off air since mid-June. Brent crude spiked past $140 a barrel in July before settling into a new range, US-Canada trade talks collapsed on Friday with fifty percent tariffs live by Saturday, and the Panama Canal is cutting daily vessel transits for only the second time in its 110-year history. The headline number gets the attention. The more useful question is what your pricing and planning look like across the range, not just the number of the week. This episode unpacks what these three shifts mean for 3PLs and transport operators coming back from the break. In this special catch-up episode we cover: Why Brent crude's July spike past $140 a barrel is a reminder that the working range matters more than a single number, and why oil is back around $92 with the risk premium still on the tableWhat US-Canada tariffs going live overnight mean for landed costs — fifty percent on around $20 billion of Canadian goods, with Canada's retaliation landing September 8thWhy Panama Canal transit cuts mean your Asia to US East Coast and Gulf freight is about to cost more, and why the window to lock in rates closes mid-SeptemberThe Uber Freight breach, and why it's a good reason to ask your own vendors what's protecting the systems your freight runs throughFedEx's robots now loading trailers by themselves at full production scale, and what it shows about where automation is strongestThree things to do this week: re-quote anything moving through the US and Canada, lock in Panama Canal carrier rates before the September surcharge hits, and ask your freight tech vendor what's protecting your dataIf you run a 3PL, transport operation, or warehouse, this episode will help you cut through the noise: From reacting to last week's number → to planning and pricing against a range From assuming the quiet season brings relief → to treating this as the new normal From waiting for the invoice → to locking in vendor and carrier answers now Nothing about the fundamentals changed over the break. Control what you can control, and don't let anyone rush you into a plan built on last week's numbers.

  6. Jun 25

    TWIL: Employing People with Disabilities in Logistics: Hone's Approach to Running a High-Performance 3PL with Special Guest Sharon Prasad, Operations Manager

    Purpose. People. Proof. A social enterprise running 200 supported employees across multiple sites. A candle brand built from scratch by the people making it. And a 3PL winning large contracts — not because of charity, but because of results. This is the season one finale of This Week in Logistics, and it is a different kind of episode. CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen sits down with Sharon, Operations Manager at Hone — formerly Hoxton Industries — a Southwest Sydney social enterprise that has been delivering supported employment since 1969. What started as a bike repair program has grown into a multi-service operation running destruction, packaging, point of sale, return and earn, and 3PL — plus Lumiere, a candle and home fragrance brand made entirely by Hone's people from start to finish. The conversation goes beyond logistics. It is about what happens when you build an operation around purpose first — and how that discipline produces better outcomes. Sharon makes a case that most operators will not have heard before: that running a workforce with additional support needs forces the kind of clarity, structure, and communication that most operations only aspire to. The businesses that struggle, she says, are the ones where nobody really knows what the processes are. Hone does not have that luxury. And it turns out it delivers better results. At the same time, she is direct about the parts that do not make the brochure. Funding is inconsistent. Cost structures are genuinely complex. Running a commercial business while advocating for workers who deserve the opportunity is a constant balancing act. It is not always clean. But it is always worth it. The question most logistics operators ask is how to do more with less. The more useful one might be whether the operation is actually built around the people doing the work. This episode covers: How Hone grew from a local bike repair program into a multi-service 3PL with its own consumer brand — and why growth has always followed purpose, not the other way aroundWhy structure and clarity are not optional when your workforce has additional support needs — and why that standard makes Hone a better operator across the boardHow Hone wins and retains major clients like Vision Australia and Medtronic — on time delivery, accurate orders, and radical honesty when things go wrongWhat meaningful employment actually looks like for the 200 people working across Hone's sites — and why the confidence that comes from doing a job well cannot be engineered through a KPI systemWhere Lumiere came from, what it represents for Hone's people, and why it changes how the community sees the business entirelyWhy partnering with a social enterprise is a commercial decision, not a charitable one — and what operators get in return: reliability, commitment, and people who genuinely want to be thereWhat Sharon would tell any logistics operator thinking about employing people with disabilities or partnering with a social enterprise: start with an open mind and leave the assumptions at the doorThe best operators are clear about what they stand for, know their people, and do not wait for the market to calm down before they get disciplined.

  7. Jun 18

    TWIL: The Breakthrough Arrived — But the Network's Flexibility Hasn't Come Back With It

    US and Iran reach a framework deal. Brent drops 4%. The Strait of Hormuz is set to reopen Friday. Here's why you should not relax yet. This Week in Logistics, the breakthrough most operators have been waiting for since February finally arrived — a 14-point MOU, a signing ceremony scheduled in Geneva, and Brent crude at $83 instead of $101. But the deal isn't signed yet. Lebanon is still a variable. Mine clearance takes 30 days. And hundreds of tankers sitting in safe ports can't redeploy overnight. On the same day the Iran news landed, two of the most disruptive ideas in freight each took a major step forward. Amazon expanded its LTL service from inbound-only to full door-to-door delivery to third-party warehouses, DCs, and retail stores — six weeks after launching Amazon Supply Chain Services. The question most operators are asking is when things will normalise. The more useful one is: is your operation ready for the competitive landscape that's being assembled right now? This episode unpacks what the Iran framework deal, Amazon's LTL expansion, and Einride's IPO mean for mid-market 3PLs and transport operators today. This week we cover: Why the Iran framework deal is the most significant logistics signal since February — and the specific reasons operators should not unwind their fuel disciplines on the announcementHow to update your Brent crude planning range from $85–$105 to $75–$95 with downside protection, and what two-directional pricing looks like in practiceWhat Amazon expanding its LTL service to all destinations in just six weeks means for mid-market 3PLs — and how to sharpen your "why use us" answer before your customers start askingWhy Einride going public changes the autonomous freight timeline from venture-backed pilot to publicly traded company with hundreds of millions in capital — and what that means for operators paying attention to where their customers are pushing on cost and reliabilityWhat the Jones Act repeal campaign means for US coastal shipping economics, and which routes — Gulf to East Coast, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Alaska — are most exposed if permanent repeal goes throughWhy C.H. Robinson's June update matters: the bottleneck has moved inland, ports are workable, and the flexibility is shrinking inside the network even when the headline numbers look stableFour items on the structural watchlist for the next 90 days: the Geneva signing, Einride's stock performance, the Jones Act repeal campaign in Congress, and the Australian fuel excise expiry on 1 JulyIf you run a 3PL, transport operation, or warehouse, this episode will help you cut through the noise and focus on what actually matters: The breakthrough arrived. The network's flexibility hasn't come back with it. Keep the disciplines, plan for both outcomes, and keep your eyes on what's changing underneath.

  8. Jun 11

    TWIL: The Structural Pieces Are Clicking Into Place: FedEx Freight, Humanoid Robots, + What Oil Settling Actually Means

    FedEx Freight goes independent. A humanoid robot sorts a quarter of a million packages without a failure. And oil finally gives us a credible path to relief. Let's dive in. This Week in Logistics, we're covering two weeks of structural shifts that have been building in the background for months — and this fortnight, all three became reality. FedEx Freight completed its separation from FedEx Corporation on 1 June and began trading on the NYSE under ticker FDXF. The largest LTL carrier in North America — 26,000 service centre doors, its own board, its own salesforce, and its own technology roadmap — is now competing purely on freight merit for the first time in 25 years. Figure AI ran a warehouse endurance test that was supposed to last eight hours. It ran for 200. Three robots — Bob, Frank, and Gary — sorted 249,560 packages at near-human speed, with zero hardware failures and no human remote control. And on oil: Brent moved from $93 to $101 to $94–97 in a single fortnight on ceasefire-then-strike cycles. The EIA now forecasts $106 for May–June, dropping to $89 by Q4 if the Strait of Hormuz starts reopening — the first credible government signal of eventual relief. The question most operators are asking is when things will normalize. The more useful one is: is your operation ready for the competitive landscape that's being assembled right now? This episode unpacks what these three structural shifts mean for mid-market 3PLs and transport operators today. This week we cover: Why FedEx Freight going independent is a direct competitive signal to every transport business touching LTL freight — and what their focus on technology simplification and mid-market customers actually means for youWhat Figure AI's 200-hour robot test tells us about the pace of warehouse automation — and why the operators with the cleanest processes will be the first to benefitWhy oil settling into a volatile but narrowing range is progress — and why it's still not a reason to unwind your fuel disciplinesWhat the EIA's Q4 forecast of $89 Brent actually depends on, and why modelling against a range of $85–$105 is still the right callWhy Australia's RTCCO has moved from emergency regulation to operating reality — and what non-compliance looks like seven weeks inWhy Canada's PM making port logistics a public priority matters for operators running freight through Canadian corridorsThe difference between theoretical capacity and effective capacity — and why C.H. Robinson's June update is the clearest example of why that distinction matters right nowThree practical actions for the next seven days: pay attention to the structural shifts, model your fuel exposure for the range, and focus on execution qualityIf you run a 3PL, transport operation, or warehouse, this episode will help you cut through the noise and focus on what actually matters: From watching structural shifts → to understanding where they create pressure and opportunity for your specific operationFrom running a temporary surcharge model → to building pricing that adjusts in both directionsFrom planning to a single fuel price → to modelling across the range your business actually needs to survive The pieces are clicking into place. The question is whether your operation is keeping pace.

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About

This Week in Logistics is your 10–20 minute weekly intelligence briefing for 3PLs, warehouse and transport leaders. Hosted by CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen, each episode cuts through the headlines to explain what happened, why it matters, and what operators should do next. No noise. No fluff. Just practical insights to help you run a smarter, more resilient operation.

Information

  • Creator
    CartonCloud
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © CartonCloud
  • Show Website
    This Week In Logistics