Ian Jefferies | State of the Rail Industry 2025

01/27/25 • 43 min

This week’s guest is Ian Jefferies, President and CEO, Association of American Railroads.

Ian has been with the AAR for over 10 years taking over as President in 2019. Ian was last on the Freightvine in February 2023 and obviously a lot has happened since then. In the conversation, Ian talks about the long term effect of the 2022 Railroad Labor Dispute, how the rail industry is currently evolving, and where it is heading over the long-term. He discusses the challenges of adopting new technologies that improve both safety and efficiency in a highly unionized and regulated industry and finishes up discussing cybersecurity noting the critical role that railroads play in the national infrastructure.

This week’s guest is Ian Jefferies, President and CEO, Association of American Railroads.

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Andrew Petrisin | Unlocking FLOW: Freight Logistics Optimization Works

This week’s guest is Andrew Petrisin, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multimodal Freight in the U.S. Department of Transportation and the creator of the USDOT’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works or FLOW. FLOW is a public private partnership whereby different players in the global supply chain share previously unshared commercial data to better understand changes in international freight flows. These data are securely anonymized and harmonized within the platform and the results are available for the members to use in their analysis. Created and launched by Andrew just over three years ago during the depths of the massive containership backlogs in West Coast ports, FLOW is now a well-established source of freight flow data as well as a consortium of almost 100 supply chain partners ranging from port operators, ocean carriers, trucking companies, railroads, freight brokers as well as manufacturers, retailers, and distributors. In our conversation we discuss the importance of being a neutral trusted party and how trust is earned (hint - consistency over time), how different companies are using FLOW both strategically and tactically, and the challenges of getting so many private sector organizations (to include competitors) to contribute detailed data.

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Matt McLelland | A Common Sense Approach to Sustainable Trucking

This week’s guest is Matt McLelland, VP of Sustainability and Innovation at Covenant Logistics Group.

In our conversation today we discuss the connection between sustainability and innovation, the potential impact of emerging technologies, and the paroles of overly prescriptive regulations. We also talk about the pros and cons for alternative fuels. Matt makes a strong case for having regulations that encourage innovation in a variety of different energy platforms, rather than dictating a single one. All shippers, carries, and brokers can learn from this conversation.