In this episode of FreightWaves Today, hosts Craig Fuller and Julie Van de Kamp break down critical news across the freight and logistics landscape, from financial health and quarterly earnings to regulatory shifts, market indices, and tariffs. James Gellert, Executive Chairman of Rapid Ratings, joins to discuss financial health across middle-market and private companies. He highlights cash-conversion cycle pressures, rising leverage, PE hold extensions, and how high-interest environments affect supply chain counterparty risk. Jay Edlin, CEO of Wove, stops by the studio to share how their AI-powered ingestion engine helps customs brokers and shippers navigate HTS updates and Section 301 tariff changes in real time. Trains Magazine Editor Bill Stephens breaks down North American rail traffic data. Excluding coal, carload growth remains strong alongside intermodal gains, pointing to continued industrial economy momentum. CEO Geoff Anderman discusses STG Logistics emerging from bankruptcy with a restructured balance sheet, the current state of drayage and intermodal demand, and ongoing modal conversion opportunities. ⁠Follow the FreightWaves Today Podcast⁠ ⁠Other FreightWaves Shows⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FreightWaves Today | August 5

FreightCasts

What a great show today. We have James Gellert, the Executive Chairman of Rapid Ratings. We have Jay Edlin from Wove, the co-founder and CEO, who will be with us in studio talking tariffs. We get to talk the AAR numbers with Bill Stevens. The Rail Report will be out any minute now today. And we also have Jeff Anderman, the CEO of STG Logistics, to talk about their emergence from Chapter 11.

So overall, really a great show in store for you all and some really interesting news to talk about as well. You know, Julie, it is earnings season and just, I think, contrast of two mid-size, large, I mean, they're large, they're mega truckload carriers, but in our world, they're a bit smaller than some of the other companies. One is Pam. Billions, not billions, yeah.

Pam had a 110 OR, 114 on their truckload operations. And then Heartland, you know, we didn't talk about last week, is back to profitability. Consistently, up until the last couple of years, one of the most profitable brands out there now is back to a 90 OR. Yeah, it's great. So like they were historically known to have an amazing operating ratio, right? One of the most profitable carriers, Heartland, that is what I'm talking about.

But then certainly struggled after some acquisitions. Q4 2024 popped back fairly close to profitability at a 99.6, but then huge improvement to be back in that low 90s. Yeah, for sure. This quarter. So we're going to get into it. Let's get to the headlines. We kick things off with a brutal reality check from the truckload sector, where one carrier's struggle to escape the red is stretching into its second year.

FreightWaves Today | August 5

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

FreightWaves Today | August 5

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.