Katie Date from Manifest joins the ThinkFreight Podcast to break down what to expect at Manifest 2026 in Las Vegas. They cover what’s new this year at the Venetian, including expanded expo space, more activations, and a dedicated Cold Chain Pavilion with curated sessions and featured companies.

Katie also shares how Manifest is shaping its agenda around what’s happening in the industry right now, where AI is showing up in meaningful ways, and how attendees can get the most value by using the app early, building a plan, and prioritizing high-quality conversations over trying to do everything.

Grab your tickets now!

Tyler Harper thought he was signing up for a “big box brokerage” job after ASU. Instead, freight turned into a decade-long obsession, a crash course in carrier sales, and eventually the push that forced him and his co-founders to start Pinnacle Logistics Group, debt-free, on short notice, and with a single book of business.

In this episode, Tyler breaks down the origin story behind Pinnacle, including the moment that changed everything, why the team intentionally leans into “ugly freight” like Mexico, drayage, consolidation, and multi-stop truckload, and how they’ve built a company that’s basically the opposite of the standard brokerage model: roughly 30 people on the team and only 2 sales reps.

The conversation really gets interesting when Tyler explains why LTL is still one of the most underserved modes in freight, how rebuilds, reweighs, and reclasses quietly eat shipper budgets, and how Pinnacle built LTL Flow, a free pre-shipment tool designed to remove human error before the load ever gets booked. Think photos, measurements, documentation, and a dimensioning workflow that cuts down disputes and surprises.

We also talk leadership, how Tyler’s role has shifted from “I’ll do everything myself” to building a culture where speed is king, response time is tracked like a KPI, and offshore teams are treated like a true extension of the company, not a separate branch.

What if you knew a shipper was actively searching for capacity before they ever reached out?

In this episode, I’m joined by Kevin Hill, longtime freight media voice and now part of the team at CarrierSource, to talk about one of the most powerful tools in freight prospecting today: shipper intent data.

We break down how CarrierSource tracks shipper behavior across thousands of lane and equipment type searches, how sales teams are using that intel to target better, and why this kind of visibility flips the old “spray and pray” approach on its head.

Kevin also walks us through how carrier sales reps are using the platform daily to find, vet, and build relationships with high-performing carriers — all based on real reviews and data, not just FMCSA basics.

This episode is a playbook for using smarter data to close more freight.

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📍 Thanks to our incredible sponsors:

⚫️ Rose Rocket and TMS.ai are transforming the freight industry with seamless transportation management solutions. Improve your operations, streamline communication, and gain real-time visibility—all in one powerful platform. Try RoseRocket and TMS.ai today!

⚫️ Salesdash CRM is built specifically for freight brokers & 3PLs. Organize your sales outreach, notes, follow-ups, and lane profiles for your shippers and carriers. All for an affordable price. Try Salesdash free for 14 days with no credit card required.

Rich Krul didn’t plan on ending up in logistics. He didn’t plan on launching his own brokerage. And he definitely didn’t plan on starting a company right before a freight recession. But that’s how the best stories start.

In this episode, I sit down with Rich Krul, co-founder and CEO of Hoplite Logistics, to unpack his freight journey — from growing up in Michigan and chasing sales leads in LA, to leading 250+ reps at Coyote, launching a carrier sales rebuild at Traffic Tech, and eventually starting Hoplite alongside his co-founder Brian.

Rich’s story is packed with freight lessons, leadership missteps, underdog grit, and hard-won wisdom on building teams, betting on yourself, and keeping service at the center — especially when you’re small.

______________________________________________

📍 Thanks to our incredible sponsors:

⚫️ Rose Rocket and TMS.ai are transforming the freight industry with seamless transportation management solutions. Improve your operations, streamline communication, and gain real-time visibility—all in one powerful platform. Try RoseRocket and TMS.ai today!

⚫️ Salesdash CRM is built specifically for freight brokers & 3PLs. Organize your sales outreach, notes, follow-ups, and lane profiles for your shippers and carriers. All for an affordable price. Try Salesdash free for 14 days with no credit card required.

Everyone in freight is racing to slap “AI” on their product, brokers, carriers, TMSs, even startups that launched six weeks ago. But are any of these tools actually helping you operate better?

In this episode of ThinkFreight, I sit down with Jamyang "Jam" Tenzin from Rose Rocket to cut through the noise and talk about what AI in freight is really doing, and not doing.

We unpack the reality that most AI in logistics is still in the proof-of-concept phase, flashy demos and generic agents that look great in pitch decks, but can’t survive the real complexity of daily dispatch, order entry, or customer response time. But there’s a bright side: very specific, boring problems are already being solved, and solved well.

______________________________________________

📍 Thanks to our incredible sponsors:

⚫️ Rose Rocket and TMS.ai are transforming the freight industry with seamless transportation management solutions. Improve your operations, streamline communication, and gain real-time visibility—all in one powerful platform. Try RoseRocket and TMS.ai today!

What happens when your first brokerage hits $10M… and then collapses?

In this raw and real conversation, Tyson Lawrence, founder of Diablo Freight Ventures, walks us through his 20+ year freight journey — from CH Robinson hustle to drayage grit in East Oakland, and through the gut-wrenching experience of losing his first company and going through personal bankruptcy after a fallout with his largest customer.

But instead of quitting, Tyson doubled down — building a second brokerage, this time with a smarter playbook: focused LTL entry, lean processes, and customer fit over customer size. That business scaled to $25M and was ultimately acquired.

Today, he runs Diablo Freight Ventures, a freight investment and coaching platform, and he’s helping the next wave of founders avoid the mistakes he had to learn the hard way.

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📍 Thanks to our incredible sponsors:

⚫️ Rose Rocket and TMS.ai are transforming the freight industry with seamless transportation management solutions. Improve your operations, streamline communication, and gain real-time visibility—all in one powerful platform. Try RoseRocket and TMS.ai today!

⚫️ Salesdash CRM is built specifically for freight brokers & 3PLs. Organize your sales outreach, notes, follow-ups, and lane profiles for your shippers and carriers. All for an affordable price. Try Salesdash free for 14 days with no credit card required.

Most truckers didn’t sign up for this job to spend hours haggling with brokers or chasing paperwork. They want to drive, make money, and get home, without the constant back-office grind.

That’s where Hey Bubba AI comes in. It’s a multilingual voice assistant that books loads, negotiates rates, and handles the admin work so drivers can focus on what they actually enjoy: driving and earning.

On this episode of ThinkFreight, I sat down with Tapan Chaudhari, the founder of Bubba AI, to dig into how AI is changing the game for owner-operators and small fleets. We talk about why so much trucking tech feels disconnected from drivers, how Bubba is different, and where AI could take the industry over the next five years.

If you’ve been skeptical about AI in trucking, or you’re just curious how tech can make life on the road easier (without replacing drivers), this one’s worth a listen.

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📍 Thanks to our incredible sponsors:

⚫️ Rose Rocket and TMS.ai are transforming the freight industry with seamless transportation management solutions. Improve your operations, streamline communication, and gain real-time visibility—all in one powerful platform. Try RoseRocket and TMS.ai today!

⚫️ Salesdash CRM is built specifically for freight brokers & 3PLs. Organize your sales outreach, notes, follow-ups, and lane profiles for your shippers and carriers. All for an affordable price. Try Salesdash free for 14 days with no credit card required.

A couple weeks ago, we sat down in Cincinnati with Chris White from First Star Logistics for a fun and insightful episode. Chris walks us through his journey from being recruited out of a bar by TQL to now leading brokerage sales and training at First Star.

We dive into what makes First Star’s W2-to-agent model unique, how they train new brokers fast, and why Cincinnati is one of the most overlooked freight hubs in the country. Chris also shares advice for brokers navigating today’s tough market, the importance of vetting carriers, and how curiosity beats a sales pitch.

Plus, we swap cold call horror stories and talk smoked wings and city vibes—this one’s got a bit of everything.