AI is Raising the Floor in Freight with VP of Technology, Nick Beukema

In this episode of Inside Freight, Fifth Wheel Freight’s VP of Technology, Nick Beukema, shares his perspective on how AI is widening the gap between average and great brokerages. Not necessarily through bigger budgets, but through better implementation, creativity, and operational agility.

We also dive into the future of freight technology, including cheaper SaaS tools, AI voice, workflow automation, self-driving trucks, and the mindset shift professionals need to stay relevant as AI becomes more embedded in daily work.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And this is what I love about the freight industry is anyone can Do you think we are already seeing or we are going to see a significantly widening gap between the average brokerages and the great brokerages because of AI? Like do you think we're kind of already seeing that a little bit, like seeing the folks who aren't, you know, maybe they're not financially able to adapt some AI solutions or they're just choosing not to? Um, do you feel like we're seeing them fall behind quickly, especially in this current market?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I think it's starting to make its way now. But I think something else has kind of always been the limiter on brokerages in general. But like I'd say this is more of just like a global company thing. Yeah, yeah. Is your operational ability and ability to implement changes quickly and and and efficiently is still going to be the bottleneck. I think like implementing AI tools isn't like horribly expensive. Right. And I think we're going to start to see the death of a lot of the big SaaS vendors that used to be the limiter of like, oh, if you don't have, you know, this tool or that.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Because they're 50k a year or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

100%. Yep. The the barrier to entry is so high that you do need that like OpEx budget to be able to afford it. Software is going to become cheaper than it ever has. And because of AI, because of the ability for companies to spin up competition, I think the free market is really going to change that. And and and honestly, I think it's good. I think it's good to kind of like allow these like one to five to ten person brokerages and up be able to compete because it keeps us all sharp, right? Yeah. It's the free market, it's what it's designed to do. Yeah. Is kind of like let people participate, keep competition high. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

It's what makes it kind of fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

A hundred percent. Like we all we all love some good competition. So I think the the thing still remains that a company is going to be limited by their ability to implement these tools. Yeah. I think that it's going to be the limiter. I think the other limiter is going to be their creativity and their ideas.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Ability to take risks, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yep. Because the the the floor has been raised on the tooling that is a lot like that we're we all have available to us now. So I think the thing that's going to separate it the most is that operational ability change management. Yeah. And and like with that, I think that it inherently requires an immense amount of trust between all of the people in the organization and the people who are um implementing that, whether that group is in or out of the organization.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah. Yeah. No, that makes sense. Such a good point about SaaS Tech because I think that's something as someone who's vetting that kind of tech from time to time. I mean, I was just vetting two products in the same space last week that, you know, one is tens of thousands per year, annual two-year, three-year agreements only. And then the other is month to month at a fifteenth of the price. And it's hard to find a major amount of differences between the two. So it's, you know, you look at that, that second one I vetted, and I was like, wow, they're, you know, they're doing things the right way. They're figuring out how they don't have too much overhead so they can charge that little so that companies can quickly adapt that technology and companies of any size can utilize it.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, no, definitely. And you're seeing this left and right where there are a lot of Salesforce competitors getting sprung up, right? And and it's uh a lot of the big companies themselves are starting to ditch their multi-million, multi-billion dollar contracts for proprietary tech. It's just easier to build, it's it's easier than it ever has been. Yeah. Um, all all of the big systems also have an incredible amount of integrations. So like to be able to hook into these aren't as proprietary as they used to be. You used to have to pay to play in that instance, but now because companies are forcing the big SaaS vendors to integrate in one way or another, I think it starts to erode the the inherent kind of moat that they all have. So I think we're seeing it already. Now there's probably some pain in that too, because people are realizing, like, oh, I didn't realize that that app did that thing, right? Like to be able to operate in that, like slashing the apps out and whatnot, like you need to have like a very acute knowledge of what was happening in order to replace it well. Because I imagine there's been a lot of really poorly implemented new tech too, because of that same kind of paradigm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Yeah, absolutely. Um, what is exciting you most about AI and tech developments in this industry specifically right now?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

The general area that I'm most excited about is again kind of removing non-human work. And I think we all are guilty of this like missing an email or kind of like coordinating schedules or like taking meeting notes and like all of this stuff. So I think like the thing that I'm most excited about in general is all of our lives becoming more humans. Like I just I that that excites me uh the most.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Let's have more time to be humans.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Now, how society, because I think that will inherently happen, how society treats that is the other side that I'm curious about of like, well, we'll have more time in our days. Will we just scroll to deck with that time? Right, yeah. Will we choose to become more human or will we choose to become less? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah, probably a mix.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Probably a mix. So I don't know. That's the kind of tech, and I know you asked about like freight in general.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

But it's applicable.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah, yeah. I think I think it's applicable to all of our lives. This is like, hey, I don't really want to be keeping notes in this meeting, you know, and and like kind of bringing that back home to the the general hub of of knowledge of of what we're working on here and all that.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Right. Instead of taking notes, I can be really paying attention to what you're saying and how you're saying it and why you're saying it and have a real human interaction about the topic at hand. Yes. Versus just trying to remember the words you said and get them typed in time.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yes. And how I might interpret those words later, right? It's like you gotta think of those layers, and it's like, okay, you can remove all of that. That's awesome. So yeah, I'm excited for that. I'm excited for voice, uh like AI voice to get to that point where it is enough to do, like I had mentioned earlier, the jobs that we don't necessarily like no party wants to be involved in. Yeah. So like I'm excited for that. I think like in a way, the way that I see it is that like the a voice agent can become in English can become the new integration, the new API, if you will, um, between systems that don't already that don't already integrate. I think like that's a fascinating uh possibility to me. Held in hand with like we need to be sure of what we're using it for. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

I think to an extent we're we're there, like we're very close, but I am very excited to see it applied well in the right places. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

What piece of tech or automation is just highly fascinating to you right now?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

I'd have to say self-drive for sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

We're talking like Waymo's and stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah, yeah. Well, Waymo's, yes. Um, you know, Teslas early to the to the market to um Waymo's. So I I have a Tesla, I have it drive me, not in the winter usually, but I have it drive me to work. Usually I have it, I tried it the other day, it was good. It was good. I was very surprised. So I have it drive me to work every day. Like I like I have it fully like end-to-end. It drives me, I am, you know, paying attention at present, you know, I'm ready to intervene anytime, but those interventions come less and less as the years go on.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

You're a very trusting human being.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah, uh naive, maybe, yeah, yeah. The the thing that I'm super interested in is when that tech makes it to uh semi-trucks, I think is going to be like fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

I think some people are in this spot where they think, like, oh, like we need to protect this as much as possible. Yeah. And like to an extent, I don't think the like semi-truck driver will ever really be automated out of the solution.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

But I think it will probably still be there.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Well, so I think kind of two things. So I think they'll always still need to be there if they because of like loading and unloading and just the complexities of like what a flatbed actually needs, yeah, tarping, uh, you know, and just like you could standardize all of these trucks to an extent, but like there's a lot of still cases like crazy over-dimensional loads that are still this like they need a human to load it, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah, they need all that specific detail from the broker, the ship, or whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

But the other thing that I'm just so fascinated to see is like, so I think like long haul drives will start to turn into uh trains to an extent on the highway. So like these are kind of like easier to automate, right? Like they're long hauls that you're a couple of veers on different interstates, but you know, that like the long haul to be like.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

The like east coast to west coast, straight across.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Yep, I think we'll start to have um an element of like virtual trains. The thing is, though, is that like these trucks are going to be incredibly expensive at first, at least.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

And I think similarly to how like self-driving cars are expensive right now.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

So I think they'll remain expensive. And I and this is what I love about the freight industry is anyone can participate. Yeah. And anyone can go and buy a truck. Yeah. And anyone can provided they have the funds. Well, you'd be surprised. You can get a pretty dang good loan.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Oh, you're talking about you're talking about a non-self-driving truck.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, okay. So we're talking about self-driving trucks, anyone could buy one. That's kind of the point, is like, yeah, so there's going to be some.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Anyone can go buy a regular semi-truck.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Anyone can compete with those self-driving trucks and probably will see their rate they can offer be reflected in that, right? Yeah. They can probably like a non-self-driving truck's going to be cheaper. Yeah. You still, you know, you have gas and you have insurance, and don't get me wrong, it's expensive, but like you can run at a lower operating expense and still like undercut these. The freight industry is is incredibly like hustle driven. Yeah. It is incredibly, you know, strap up your bootstraps and and go and do what you need to do to get it done. Yep. And I do think that like nature will come out as that happens. We'll see. Self-driving trucks are probably really far out of the way. Yeah. But like that's the thing that interests me. It is fascinating. Yeah. Because they say, like, I might get this stat wrong, but I think it's over 70% of employed people in the United States are in transportation. In one way or another. In some capacity. In transporting. Like, so like actually, like We're not talking the brokerage folks sitting around. Right, no, no, no. I'm saying like the the actual transportation themselves. Yeah. Now that spans to a lot of delivery drivers, Ubers, Ubers, you know, post office, things like that. It is a huge industry. There's going to be, you know, litigation on protecting that. There's going to be just like the liability question is still really fuzzy, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Like so, I think it just spans out into a liability if something happens with if that truck crashes into some family car or something.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Like so, like I think we're starting to see some more ethics conversations around like, so as a software developer, if I'm writing automation code, am I responsible for the decisions that it makes? Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Like if it's if you're instructing it to make decisions.

unknown 10:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Because inherently we kind of are. You know, it might be some of some level of abstraction behind like learning, but still, like who is at fault when something bad happens in a in an accident, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yeah. I don't even know the answer to that question as it relates to like Waymo. I assume Waymo as an organization.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

So most companies are footing the liability bill, if you will, to just get them out there. You know, because like, okay, look, like we want it out there, we will benefit from it, we will take liability for anything that happens.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Yep. And I know the the accident percentages, yeah, I had to look it up before the first time I wrote in a Waymo. The accident percentages are extremely low, especially compared to human drivers, which is, I mean, when you really think about it, oh yeah, this probably is.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, you're looking at like 10 times safer.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

At minimum. Yeah. Yeah. It's wild. Then there's other elements of manufacturers. There is a car manufacturer that for a while they were claiming that their approach on self-driving, they will always prioritize the driver. So like you're gonna have some interesting like things come out of that as well, right? Like um, it's a luxury brand. And so like it might, you know, align with their, you know, clientele.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, it's like, yeah, I don't know though.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

I mean, we all want to be protected, right? Like, I don't want to go into a car that says, oh, we're always gonna prioritize the person outside of the car, like if you crash. But um, but like there's gonna be a lot of interesting philosophical things that kind of come out of what when this becomes mainstream, right? Yeah. So yeah, I so the tech and the movement and the ethical like nature of all of it is kind of what fascinates me.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Obviously, the potential of self-driving semi-trucks is you know all possible. It's just something I haven't even really thought about. So that's kind of crazy to think on. Thanks for listening to Inside Freight by Fifth Wheel Freight, where we break down the logistics topics that matter to brokers, shippers, and carriers. FWF is a third party logistics provider headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, specializing in truckload, LTL, drayage, rail, over dimensional, and expedited freight across the US and Canada. To learn more, visit FWF.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.