Trent Charlton

Innovator, problem solver, and creative thinker. Changing supply chain....For the better.

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

XPO's LTL revenue rose 17% to $1.47B, only 9% excluding fuel with diesel up 48%. The number I watch is daily shipments, up 6%. XPO is winning freight, not just pricing it. https://t.co/DSa0kWqefO

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

Nike, CMA CGM and Gemadept put an electric barge on the Ho Chi Minh City to Cai Mep run. It replaces trucks on that leg, can move 50,000+ TEU a year and recharges in about 4 hours. Inland water is underused capacity. https://t.co/8tq8AMFYTO

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

HP, Asus and Acer are moving some PC production from Vietnam and Thailand back to China. CPU, memory and storage are now 68% of a $900 laptop's parts cost, up from 45%. Component cost just beat China+1. https://t.co/FuKPUD5RSz

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

DoorDash agreed to buy Instacart for about $17B, at least 75% in cash. Closing is late 2027 at the earliest, pending antitrust review. Grocers have a long runway to decide whose platform runs their last mile. https://t.co/lWfRi1ryQ6

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

FedEx is sitting on $2.7B in tariff refunds that belong to its customers, up from $749M in May. If you paid IEEPA duties through FedEx, check the refund portal. Opting in to data sharing gets you paid first. https://t.co/hdEewR2PYF

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

Particle says its new model finishes coding tasks with about 45% fewer tokens at near-identical accuracy. Their numbers, not verified yet. In freight, the cheapest load is the one with no empty miles. Same rule for AI. https://t.co/9NFoJf2BMX

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

An Anthropic hiring manager dropped the coding interview because Claude beats candidates at it. Freight has always worked this way. Hunger learns a lane faster than tenure does. https://t.co/N3BC0FPLbR

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

Scan Global is buying OIA Global, $780M in revenue and 1,200 people, its biggest deal ever. Forwarder M&A is picking up as the cycle turns. Who's next? https://t.co/YALsq7jfSQ

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

CPKC grew volume 6% and core EPS 16%, but fuel expense jumped from $296M to $475M. Grain and intermodal carried the quarter, fuel took the margin. https://t.co/heTEVYnCnC

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

Kenco: 43% of shoppers plan to spend more this peak, up from 20% last year, and 73% call free shipping standard. Somebody has to absorb that freight cost. https://t.co/8fpHojD6JU

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

C.H. Robinson beat on Q3 and still fell 11% in a day. Claims drove SG&A up 29.7%. After Montgomery, broker liability is a real P&L line. Is your carrier vetting priced in? https://t.co/bIJEsqSc0y

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

Bedrock Robotics raised $600M at a $4.1B valuation for excavators with nobody in the cab, already doing paid work on live sites. It takes 5+ years to make a good operator. Trucking has the same problem with drivers. https://t.co/QGHg9ALfku

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

Carrier owns the truck, pays per mile for the driver. That is the autonomy model I would bet on. Kodiak signed DTL Transport for 75 driverless trucks from 2028 on I-10 Dallas to El Paso and I-20 Dallas to Atlanta, lanes where hours of service bite first. https://t.co/iy8K7049Nx

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

@PaulKelly_1 Agreed. The forwarders I've seen win pick two or three lanes or verticals and own them. Chasing every RFQ just teaches you how to lose on price.

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

@NoldeaReally $2.7B owed to customers is a reminder that anyone who paid duties on a shipper's behalf is now in the refund business. Worth reading your terms on who keeps what.

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

@MarketWatch A lot of shippers built 2027 budgets assuming refunds would soften tariff costs. If those dry up, transportation spend is the first line that gets squeezed.

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

@sanjeevSab17827 Operators like that are why automation is a skill multiplier, not a replacement. It's also a reminder to measure the load against the door before it ever gets there.

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

@kearney @SAP Operations got a seat at the table in 2020 and a lot of companies gave it back once rates dropped. The ones that kept it handled this year's tariff swings far better.

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

@Briefingcom Camera mirrors make sense on a truck with no driver, since remote assist and inspectors both need the view. Curious whether it speeds up roadside inspections.

[Trent Charlton @freightgod]

@allday_stocks A 500-truck commitment from a carrier is the signal that matters. Which lanes, and how many hub-to-hub miles a day does it take to make the math work?