In this Unboxing Logistics episode, Lori sits down with Chris Caplice, executive director at MIT Center for Transportation Logistics and chief scientist at DAT Freight and Analytics, to discuss the state of freight in 2026.

Chris begins by laying out the two big forces shaping the freight market—supply and demand—and noting, “Because supply and demand are constantly shifting in this very volatile market, you're going to see prices going up and prices going down on a regular-ish basis.”

He explains that while demand is holding fairly steady, the same can’t be said for supply. “A lot of the regulations that have come recently … [are ] increasing the cost of being a carrier. … It's increasing the barrier of entry, so it's constricting the supply of carriers.”

The result? “We are going to see a tightening of the market throughout 2026.”

According to Chris, one of the biggest mistakes shippers make is using contract rates for every lane. Simply put, “It just doesn't make sense for certain lanes that are sporadic, low volume, things like that.”

He warns that often, financial leaders prefer the perceived security of contracts, but contracting for everything actually “creates more problems than it fixes.”

Fortunately, there’s a simple rule of thumb to know whether you’re balancing spot and contract pricing correctly. Chris says, “Thirty percent of your lanes will [probably] handle [about] 80% of your volume. But … 70% [of your lanes] will handle [about] 20%. So those ones, you don't want to put contract rates on.”

In other words, “The vast majority of your volume will go under contract. The vast majority of your lanes will probably be spot.”

Chris acknowledges that saving money is a huge consideration when it comes to shipping. But he cautions logistics leaders to consider other factors, such as carrier availability and reliability.

“There's so much excess capacity out there. It's tighter now. So little things can have big ripple effects. So I think the big concern now is not saving every dime. It's more about, okay, will my carriers be there when the market gets tighter, or if my demand shifts, or if the fuel price increases?”

• Connect with Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-caplice-1839/
• Visit the DAT Freight and Analytics website: https://www.dat.com/
• Visit the MIT Center for Transportation Logistics website: https://ctl.mit.edu/

Carrier changes are picking up speed—and starting to impact both costs and service expectations across the industry.

In this episode, Tim Ranagan and Lori Boyer from EasyPost break down recent updates from USPS, FedEx, and Amazon. Their conversation focuses on rising surcharges, faster delivery options, and the growing role of Amazon Shipping.

USPS is introducing its first-ever fuel surcharge, signaling a shift in how the carrier handles cost volatility.

Lori explains that while the change is framed as temporary, it reflects broader pressure across the industry as fuel prices and geopolitical factors continue to fluctuate.

She says, “I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more surcharges. … We're at the point where [carriers are] really struggling with costs. So we are seeing more of those costs being carried over to shippers in general.”

FedEx’s new same-day service with two-hour delivery windows shows how major carriers are pushing toward faster fulfillment.

These options are exciting, but they’re also expensive, and Lori reassures smaller businesses that they don’t necessarily need to offer customers same-day services. While buyers care a lot about reliability, she notes, they’re “not necessarily pushing speed as much as we sometimes think.”

Amazon is continuing to invest heavily in its logistics network, including a $4 billion push to expand rural delivery and reach more underserved areas.

At the same time, Amazon Shipping is gaining traction as a carrier option within multi-carrier strategies.

Lori explains that many businesses are testing it and seeing strong results, adding that “the data shows that Amazon Shipping is becoming a really big player in the carrier industry.” With tools like Luma AI that compare carrier performance across cost, speed, and reliability, more shippers are shifting volume based on what actually performs best.

• Connect with Lori on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loribboyer/
• Connect with Tim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-ranagan-mba-2717bb125/
• Visit EasyPost’s website: https://www.easypost.com/

In this episode, Tyler Diestel, senior product manager at EasyPost, joins Lori to discuss EasyPost’s latest shipping AI tool: Luma AI Advisor. Tyler explains what Luma AI Advisor is, how it works, and the impact it can make for SMB and enterprise shippers alike.

Luma AI Advisor is an LLM, or large language model. Like tools such as ChatGPT or Claude, Luma AI can process natural-language questions and generate human-like responses. But unlike generic chatbots, Luma AI was built for one purpose: to streamline parcel shipping.

Tyler says, “We have this amazing product suite called Luma AI. It … gives our shippers insights into a treasure trove of data. The problem is that a lot of times we provide too much data, and it overwhelms our shippers. … So with Luma AI Advisor, instead of having to sift through the various dashboards, [users] can just chat with this nice little chatbot to find their answers directly.”

He also explains why it’s much more effective than ChatGPT or Claude: “Those are answering high-level questions. This LLM has all your shipping data, so it knows exactly what you have done and what you can do to reach your goals.”

According to Tyler, Luma AI is trained on data from two sources: your own shipping operations and EasyPost’s billions of historic shipments. This makes it incredibly accurate when it comes to finding cost- and time-saving opportunities.

“This LLM is trained on your data, but it also takes advantage of our AI models that produce our time-in-transit predictions. … By using our AI-generated predictions, you are leveraging the billions of shipments that we've seen.”

Tyler shares a few examples of questions that Luma AI can answer:

1. How much do I actually save by adding Amazon to my carrier mix?
2. What carrier has the highest on-time percentage?
3. What carrier do I spend the most on?

He’s also excited for future updates, which will allow Luma to help with even more shipping tasks, such as explaining how to enable a new carrier or recommending the best carrier for shipping HAZMAT.

1. Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tdiestel/
2. Learn more about Luma AI: https://www.easypost.com/products/luma-ai/