In the latest episode of More Than a Broker, Spot Co-Founder, Andrew Elsener, sits down with two of Spot’s industry veterans and Senior National Account Directors, Theo Mascari and Alex Buening, to break down today’s unpredictable freight environment.
Market Update.
In logistics, data is abundant but converting it into actionable foresight is where the real challenge lies. In this episode of More Than a Broker, Spot Co-Founder, Andrew Elsner, spoke with Jonathan Starks, CEO of FTR Transportation Intelligence, to make sense of current market cycles, regulatory headwinds, and what lies ahead for freight capacity.
Here are the key takeaways from their conversation.
The freight market continues its shift toward carrier favorability as shrinking capacity (not surging freight volumes) drives tighter conditions across North America. AI infrastructure investments are fueling growth in specialized freight, while higher operating costs and fewer available trucks are pushing spot rates to their highest levels in years.
Here’s what shippers should be watching heading into the second half of 2026.
Today Spot is pleased to announce it has been included on Selling Power’s 60 Best Companies to Sell For 2026 list.
Spot Co-Founder, Andrew Elsener, shared, “For the eighth year in a row, Spot has been recognized as a top sales organization, and our team is stronger than ever. This continued recognition from Selling Power highlights how baked-in excellence is to The Spot Experience. As we grow, we will keep pushing to elevate our team and the unmatched service we provide.”
Selling Power publisher and founder Gerhard Gschwandtner weighed in on this year’s list: “In the tumultuous business environment of 2025, the 60 Best Companies to Sell For have demonstrated remarkable success and growth by elevating their sales teams to new heights. These companies have invested in comprehensive training programs, cutting-edge tools, and supportive work environments that empower their sales professionals to excel. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration, they have set a high standard in the competitive world of sales.”
Selling Power’s research team utilizes a comprehensive proprietary application process where they gather data across five key areas:
Company Overview, Compensation and Benefits, Hiring, Sales Training & Sales Enablement, Commitment to fostering Diversity and Inclusion, and AI incorporation into improving sales processes and supporting sales teams.
More than 200 companies were analyzed in each of the categories above to determine the final list. The methodology is the product of years of research that Selling Power continues to revise and refine. The companies included range a size from small to enterprise.
You can view the full list of the 60 Best Companies to Sell For in 2026 here.
Spot, a leading third-party logistics provider in North America, is proud to be named to the 2026 Armstrong & Associates’ Top 100 Domestic Transportation Management 3PLs List.
The annual list is grouped and ranked by a company’s gross revenue from the previous year. You can find the list here.
Armstrong & Associates, Inc. (A&A) was established in 1980 to meet the needs of a newly deregulated domestic transportation market. Since then, through its leading 3PL market research and history of helping companies outsource logistics functions, A&A has become an internationally recognized essential information resource for 3PL market research and consulting.
Armstrong & Associates estimates that the U.S. Third-Party Logistics (3PL)/Contract Logistics market reached $323.4 billion in 2025, up 5.0% year-over-year.
Being named to this list positions Spot as a leader in the domestic transportation management market, the largest segment of the U.S. 3PL market.
For decades, the logistics industry operated on a relatively straightforward legal assumption: if a freight broker checked that a motor carrier was authorized to haul by the federal government, they had done their due diligence.
But following the Supreme Court’s Montgomery decision, that “Wild West” era of simple rate confirmations and hands-off onboarding is over.
In a recent episode of the More Than a Broker podcast, Spot Co-Founder, Andrew Elsener, sat down with transportation attorney, Nathaniel Saylor, to discuss the Montgomery decision, and how to survive the “coulda, woulda, shoulda” of modern negligent selection lawsuits.
Market Update.
The freight market is becoming increasingly bifurcated. Consumer demand is showing signs of fatigue under the weight of persistent inflation and high borrowing costs, while industrial freight tied to AI infrastructure, power generation, and semiconductor investment continues to accelerate. Meanwhile, regulatory enforcement, rising operating costs, and tightening capacity are pushing pricing power back toward carriers.
Here’s what matters now.
In business, success is often measured by metrics such as on-time delivery percentages, load counts, and capacity margins.
We move freight from point A to point B, managing the daily complexities of the supply chain. But every so often, an event occurs that strips away the transactional nature of business, revealing the true core of what we do.
For Alex Buening, a Senior National Account Director at Spot, and his team, that moment arrived when Hurricane Helene tore through Asheville, North Carolina.
When the Lines Go Dark
When a natural disaster strikes, a logistics professional’s natural instinct is often to check the status of freight and facilities. But when Buening reached out to a long-time customer contact in Asheville on the morning of the storm, the priority quickly shifted from tracking shipments to ensuring human safety.
The initial phone calls lasted only two or three minutes before cell towers failed, dropping the connection entirely. By that afternoon, the lines went completely dark.
“Helplessness would be a word that comes to mind,” Buening recalls, reflecting on the time spent waiting for updates, unsure of the safety of people his team had worked alongside for years.
More Than Just a Customer
When contact was finally re-established, the news was bittersweet. While the facility’s team members were safe, the devastation on the ground was severe. Some had lost their homes and vehicles; others had lost loved ones. Basic necessities like clean water and food were scarce, and the local infrastructure was in chaos.
In times of crisis, it becomes clear which business partnerships are purely transactional and which are built on something deeper.
“This team in particular to me and to our team, they’re more than just a customer to us,” Buening stated. “We’ve forged some pretty strong personal relationships with these folks.”
Faced with a partner in crisis, the question wasn’t, “When will the plant reopen?” It was “How can we help?”
Logistics in Action: Driving the Extra Mile
True logistics expertise isn’t just about managing routine routes; it’s about solving critical problems on the fly under intense pressure.
Buening immediately connected with team members in the nearby Spot Charlotte office. The response was instantaneous. The Charlotte team leaped into action, bypassing red tape to coordinate an immediate relief effort:
- They rented a cargo van that the team could drive to deliver the much-needed aid.
- The team went to a local big-box wholesale store, packing the vehicle to the ceiling with water, food, and emergency supplies.
- With major highways blocked and infrastructure compromised, the team manually navigated closed roads, snaking their way through the wreckage to reach the Asheville plant.
The Most Rewarding Delivery
The supply chain is the backbone of the economy, but at its best, it is a lifeline. Shortly after the delivery, Buening received an email from the customer—a message he considers the most rewarding of his professional career.
In logistics, thousands of loads are dispatched and delivered every single day. Most are forgotten as soon as the invoice is cleared. But when a team uses its logistics expertise, agility, and resources to support the people behind the business, it leaves a lasting impact.
We deliver a lot of freight. But it’s the deliveries driven by genuine partnership and empathy that remind us why we do this work.
There are many issues impacting the trucking landscape that it’s hard to keep up.
In a recent episode of the More Than a Broker podcast, host Andrew Elsener sat down with Jason Miller, a leading supply chain professor and logistics economist to discuss those issues.
What ensued wasn’t just a standard market update; it was a masterclass in the invisible mechanics fracturing today’s supply chains.
If you haven’t listened to the full episode, here is a high-level look at who Jason Miller is, and the critical market realities you are likely misjudging right now, and why listening to the full discussion is non-negotiable for anyone defending a transportation budget to the C-suite.
Market Update.
With Spot moving thousands of truckloads every day, we have a front-row seat to the security challenges facing modern supply chains. Recently, our Co-Founder, Andrew Elsener, sat down with Dan Ronan on SiriusXM’s “On the Move” to discuss one of the fastest-growing threats to our industry: highly sophisticated, tech-driven cargo theft.
If you missed the live broadcast, here is a high-level overview of Elsener’s insights on how cargo crime has evolved and how Spot is leveraging technology to protect our shippers.
The New Face of Cargo Theft
Forget the movie clichés of thieves with bolt cutters at truck stops. Today’s cargo crime is digital, organized, and often orchestrated by criminal rings operating entirely outside the United States.
Elsener highlighted the sophisticated tactics dominating the industry today:
- Identity Theft & Chameleon Carriers: Fraudsters buy legitimate Motor Carrier (MC) numbers, build fake websites, and pose as trusted operators to infiltrate digital freight portals.
- AI-Generated Forgeries: Criminals are actively using artificial intelligence to forge Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) and Bills of Lading (BOL).
- Advanced Tampering: From using specialized magnets to remove trailer doors without breaking security seals, to deploying “blind shipment” schemes that trick unsuspecting drivers, thieves are completely bypassing traditional security measures.
“The levels they’ll go to steal are amazing,” Elsener shared. “This theft epidemic has escalated at a level I’ve never seen before. It really is the Wild West.”
Top Targeted Commodities & Hotspots
Rings heavily prioritize high-volume consumer goods that can be quickly liquidated in underground markets. Packaged foods, specialized beverages, energy drinks, and consumer electronics are high-risk items. Geographically, these operations are often heavily concentrated in massive port and distribution hubs across states like California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois.
Defending the Supply Chain: The Spot Strategy
Elsener outlined a sample of some of the rigorous, multilayered compliance and technology protocols we use to keep our network secure:
- Strict Carrier Vetting: We look deeply into historical carrier data, using multiple tools to track ownership changes and contact info, and other information to confirm they are who they say they are, and will deliver our customers shipments safely, and on time.
- Portal & System Controls: We implement DNS and IP address tracking to verify login locations, backed by strict Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
- AI-Driven Compliance: We are actively integrating AI to run automated watermark checks on CDLs and cross-reference paperwork before freight ever leaves the dock.
Want to learn more about how Spot safeguards your supply chain? Connect with our team today to discuss our security protocols. And be sure to download our cargo theft white paper below.
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