I work with a number of larger agent based freight brokerages as a first and final mile carrier. Many of these brokerages have instituted "Advanced" AI systems. On a recent load I kept getting emails from dipatch@loadtap asking for status, basically once an hour. I many times don't respond or just delete these but I knew how important this load was to the agent I am working with so each time I sent a short response. first email I responded "driver in transit to site" hour later I responded "driver picked up" hour after I wrote "driver in route back to our warehouse" Hour later me typing again "shipment in our warehouse" Came into work this morning to an email from the agent: CAN I GET THE STATUS OF MY PICKUP? Did this even get picked up? I forwarded her my emailed responses with the AI system from yesterday. She said I'm sorry I didn't know you were getting these but I don't get that info. Can you just work with me? Then make your system stop emailing me every hour!!!!! What good is this AI system? Maybe I should pay money and setup an AI system that responds to their AI system that way 2 different companies are paying for AI systems that talk to each other but us humans are still in the dark. The only thing "Advanced" here is the pocketbook of the AI company when the humans still have to do the same work, send emails and make phone calls, we were doing before we put in the AI systems!! How stupid can we get? .... don't answer that!!!! lol

We pack items for shipping around the world. Many countries have packing/waste disposal taxes to be paid on the front end. Japan for example has taxes and fees on packaging disposal based on weight that occurs during the import and is based on weight and materials. Wood crates compared to foam packing peanuts have different rates based on their weight properties. Many of our clients who ship to Japan for example ask us to “protect” their item but to use “minimal” packaging due to the high cost of the tax on disposal there. Years ago I opened a group of stores throughout all the provinces of Canada. These stores were all receiving a specific custom red carpeting that was made here in the US. Although this carpeting was new and we were installing it into all the stores for use. A disposal fee/tax was charged on the import! Now in most cases there is a duty drawback program based on if you re export these materials for disposal but this carpet was to be used for over a decade but the trash tax disposal fee still gets paid on the front end. 2025 marks the start of these “up front” garbage/waste/disposal fees/taxes in many countries. The countries that have had these fees for years, the taxes are being rapidly increased especially in hard to dispose of items (big and bulky) like large rolled carpeting or items that require specialized disposition like solar panels. Watch out for the “trash tax” starting to impact the cost/price you pay for freight goods distributed around the world! Packaging Trash Disposal is becoming a big money business.

My dear FreightSkool friends, what conferences do you plan to attend? We will have presence at: SMC3 - an LTL conference Manifest Food Shippers TCA - Truckload Carriers Association NPTC - National Private Truck Conference Probably an FW event or two and some others. Where will I see you?