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TRUCKING

Morgan Stanley sees supply-side ‘spark’ for trucking in 2026

Freight Waves Todd Maiden December 8, 2025

The investment firm noted on Monday that the past three trucking upcycles started with a supply-side catalyst. It pointed to precursors to the 2014 (polar vortex), 2018 (electronic-logging-device mandate) and 2020 (Covid and the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse) recoveries, which were quickly supported by positive inflections in demand.

Detmar Logistics to Start Autonomous Ops With Aurora in '26

Transport Topics Keiron Greenhalgh December 8, 2025

The route involves a combination of traversing Interstate 20 as well as local and private roads.

When shipments begin between Detmar’s facility in Midland, Texas, and Capital Sand’s mining site in Monahans, Texas, the trucks will operate with a human in the cab.

Trucking drivers' connection to Wreaths Across America

Fleet Owner Jeremy Wolfe December 8, 2025

Wreaths Across America is one of the trucking industry’s largest charitable events. While the official Wreaths Across America Day falls on December 13 this year, industry efforts span several weeks.

One significant event for participants is the weekend just before the big day: the beginning of the Escort to Arlington National Cemetery

SHIPPERS / 3PLs

Retailers see container import hangover for 2026

Freight Waves Stuart Chirls December 8, 2025

November volumes not yet reported are estimated at 1.91 million TEUs, off 11.6% y/y, while December is forecast at 1.86 million TEUs, a decrease of 12.7%.

That would make November and December the slowest months of this year following the July peak of 2.39 million TEUs. December also would be the slowest month since 1.83 million TEUs in June 2023.

Link: National Retail Federation Declining Import Cargo Volume Expected to Continue in 2026

INDUSTRY

Diverging demand for e-commerce drives muted start to air cargo peak season

Journal of Commerce Greg Knowler December 8, 2025 $Subscription Based

The US’ scrapping of duty-free access for low-value goods through the “de minimis” exemption is having a dramatic impact on e-commerce exports from China at both ends of the demand scale, according to rate benchmarking platform Xeneta.

Link: Xeneta Volumes Up 5% in November, but Air Cargo’s E-Commerce ‘Growth Engine’ Is Slowing Down

Global container volume growth slows on US, EU declines

Journal of Commerce Mark Szakonyi December 8, 2025 $Subscription Based

Global container volume growth in October fell to its slowest pace since February as increased trade in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America was offset by falling US and European imports, according to new data from Container Trades Statistics (CTS).

Related: Transport Topics China Trade Surplus Booms to $1T Despite US Export Drop-Off

TECHNOLOGY

Sam Altman’s Sprint to Correct OpenAI’s Direction and Fend Off Google

The Wall Street Journal Sam Schechner et al. December 8, 2025 $Subscription Based

When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made the dramatic call for a “code red” last week to beat back a rising threat from Google, he put a notable priority at the top of his list of fixes.

The world’s most valuable startup should pause its side projects like its Sora video generator for eight weeks and focus on improving ChatGPT, its popular chatbot that kicked off the AI boom.

The state of enterprise AI

OpenAI December 8, 2025

Adoption is accelerating and deepening

The picture that emerges is clear: enterprise AI adoption is accelerating not just in breadth, but in depth. It is reshaping how people work, how teams collaborate, and how organizations build and deliver products.

Over the past year weekly messages in ChatGPT Enterprise increased roughly 8×, and the average worker is sending 30% more messages.

Average reasoning token consumption per organization has increased by approximately 320× in the past 12 months, suggesting that more intelligent models are being systematically integrated into expanding products and services.

Claude Code is coming to Slack, and that’s a bigger deal than it sounds

TechCrunch Rebecca Bellan December 8, 2025

Anthropic is launching Claude Code in Slack, allowing developers to delegate coding tasks directly from chat threads. The beta feature, available Monday as a research preview, builds on Anthropic’s existing Slack integration by adding full workflow automation. The rollout signals that the next frontier in coding assistants isn’t the model; it’s the workflow.

The State of AI: A vision of the world in 2030

MIT Technology Review Will Douglas Heaven and Tim Bradshaw December 8, 2025 $Subscription Based

Advances at the cutting edge may come thick and fast, but change across the wider economy, and society as a whole, moves at human speed. Widespread adoption of new technologies can be slow; acceptance slower. AI will be no different

SUSTAINABILITY / SAFETY / SECURITY

Renewable Diesel Gains Momentum With Sean Diehl’s Data-Driven Project

Heavy Duty Trucking Deborah Lockridge December 8, 2025

The big question for a trucking fleet that wants to offer customers more sustainable shipping solutions is, “How can we do that in a way that’s still profitable?”

At A. Duie Pyle, it involved renewable diesel and reams of data to develop its new CleanJourney Renewable Diesel program. And it’s the data part of that where 2025 HDT Emerging Leader Sean Diehl comes in.

Commentary: the trucking industry needs better crash data

Freight Waves John Paul Hampstead December 8, 2025

At its core, the CSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) ranks carriers monthly in seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASIC): Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Driver Fitness, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance, and the once-public Crash Indicator. More on that in a minute.

Data flows almost entirely from roadside inspections conducted by state and local officers.

BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY

AI investment boom rescues U.S. economy from “extraordinary macroeconomic uncertainty”

DC Velocity December 8, 2025

Cushman & Wakefield report finds that AI-driven investment accounted for more than half of all GDP growth in 2025.

Link: Cushman & Wakefield United States Outlook 2026

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