Paving the way for women in transportation: interview with Brie Carere
FedEx's Brie Carere is using her passion for global logistics to inspire other women to pursue careers in the fast-changing, technology-driven, opportunity-filled industry.
Victoria Kickham started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for DC Velocity.
It's no easy task working your way to the top of one of the world's largest transportation and logistics companies, but Brie Carere has done it. Along the way, Carere, who is the executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx Corp., has channeled her passion for the industry into a passion for creating leadership and mentorship opportunities for other women—and spreading the word about where a career in transportation and logistics can take you.
Carere joined FedEx in 2001 as a marketing specialist and has since held a variety of marketing, customer experience, and strategy posts across the company's U.S. and Canadian operations. She founded a Women in Leadership community at FedEx during her time in Canada and is now a leader in the company's U.S. Women in Leadership network, which supports and encourages women at all levels of the organization. She emphasizes the diverse career opportunities available in logistics, pointing to the growing role technology is playing in the industry and the resulting need for talented scientists, engineers, and digital marketers, to name a few.
Carere's logistics career has taken her around the world, and technology has played a key role in it as well. Those forces came together earlier this year, landing her on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" to introduce FedEx's SameDay Bot, a driverless delivery vehicle that can travel along sidewalks to deliver packages to the consumer's front door. FedEx will be testing the bot in select markets this summer; the firm's hometown of Memphis is one of them.
Carere recently spoke to DC Velocity Senior Editor Victoria Kickham, sharing her insights on the importance of attracting more women to careers in logistics.
Q: Why should women be interested in the logistics field? What does it have to offer?
A: Global transportation and logistics is a $550 billion market—and our industry is growing and changing at an exhilarating pace. As our industry expands, so do the number of opportunities for women to have a dynamic and rewarding career. And I'm not just talking about the hugely important role our female pilots and drivers play; this industry calls for data scientists, engineers, digital marketers, training specialists, and more—meaning there's room for just about every interest and skill set.
Despite this reality, we still have a significant opportunity to sell our industry to women. Here's what I'm talking about: A few years ago, during my time at FedEx Canada, we commissioned a study that asked roughly 1,000 Canadian women about a career in management in a transportation company. We learned that only 11 percent would consider a leadership position in the industry—and over half of the group stated outright that transportation was not for them and they would never think of it as a viable career option. We asked what their impressions of the transportation industry were, and 59 percent said they didn't know much about it. Looking at my own incredible experience at FedEx, those statistics really blew my mind!
In order to effect change, we have to share our experiences with those who could benefit from our insights. We must passionately convey the opportunities that careers in our industry provide. For me, the ability to help connect the world in ways that enable a brighter future is truly gratifying, as is the ability to interact with so many different teams—and even other businesses—all across the world.
Q: What is FedEx doing differently from other companies to promote women executives?
A: At FedEx, we are passionate about mentoring women at every stage of their careers. We have an active Women in Leadership community, and I'm delighted to be involved. As part of that, senior officers, myself included, often facilitate candid discussions where we can share our own experiences—and mistakes!—with the goal of helping other women further their careers. I've had so many tremendous female role models during my 17 years at the company, and I'm glad to be able to share my insights.
Externally, FedEx actively supports organizations like the International Aviation Womens Association (IAWA) and Women in Aviation International (WAI), both [of which] highlight the role of women in the traditionally male-dominated fields of logistics and aviation. In fact, we are very proud that our own Bobbi Wells, vice president of safety and airworthiness at FedEx Express, is the current IAWA president-elect.
Q: Looking beyond the C-suite, what can companies do to attract more women to the industry in general?
A: To attract more women to the logistics industry, it's important that we continue to build awareness of the types of careers that are available and let women know that we value their interests and talents. Many of our FedEx women visit high schools and colleges, speak to women's organizations, and share their insights during summits regarding careers in logistics and transportation. We also have tuition programs designed to encourage female students to pursue careers in aviation, and, as I mentioned, we are strong supporters of [IAWA] and [WAI].
As a company that delivers more than 15 million packages daily to customers in more than 220 countries and territories, we know that talent is our most valuable resource and [that] great ideas come from diverse team members throughout our organization.
Q: Technology continues to change the logistics landscape. How does this affect the industry's ability to attract talent?
A: We are always working toward new solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers, and all of that relies heavily on technology. We are on the cutting edge of all of the latest technologies—including AI, IoT, robotics, and blockchain—which makes FedEx an exciting place for technologists to work. Additionally, we have been consistently ranked as one of the best places to work in IT, which helps to attract and retain some of the best technology talent in the industry and beyond.
Q: Speaking of technology, your Feb. 27 appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" helped shine a light on how robotics, in particular, is changing the delivery process. Could you describe the SameDay Bot you unveiled on the show and the role you expect robotics to play in delivery over the next few years?
A: That was such a fun experience! FedEx is constantly innovating to meet the changing needs of our customers and increasing demands of e-commerce—and what a great way to showcase that innovation.
Local fulfillment is a growing market. There's already a massive opportunity there, and it's only going to accelerate. The SameDay Bot will help address many of the challenges associated with this increase in last-mile delivery. We believe that the majority of FedEx same-day point-to-point deliveries will be made using the FedEx SameDay Bot—that's what it's designed for, and it's the most efficient way to do it. Logistics through autonomous devices can reduce the number of vehicles on the road and ease traffic congestion. Instead of using a full-sized vehicle, the smaller FedEx bot can be used to deliver small payloads such as pizzas and other on-demand merchandise—this is good for the environment and for our company.
In terms of timing, we will begin testing later this summer and move as quickly as is reasonable to broader testing and commercial launch while continuing to meet safety, customer, and regulatory needs ... We see the use of robotics and automation as an opportunity to improve the productivity of our team members and experts within our system, to make their jobs more comfortable and efficient, and above all, to increase safety.
Q: Finally, what one piece of advice would you give to a young woman considering a career in logistics?
A: Please don't let preconceptions stand between you and a tremendous career! I'm so glad I didn't. My career in global logistics has landed me in amazing places that I never would have predicted, including Thailand, India, Belgium, Germany, China—and just [recently], on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"!
The way that shippers and carriers classify loads of less than truckload (LTL) freight to determine delivery rates is set to change in 2025 for the first time in decades, introducing a new approach that is designed to support more standardized practices.
But the transition may take some time. Businesses throughout the logistics sector will be affected by the transition, since the NMFC is a critical tool for setting prices that is used daily by transportation providers, trucking fleets, third party logistics providers (3PLs), and freight brokers.
For example, the current system creates 18 classes of freight that are identified by numbers from 50 to 500, according to a blog post by Nolan Transportation Group (NTG). Lower classed freight costs less to ship, ranging from basic goods that fit on a standard shrink-wrapped 4X4 pallet (class 50) up to highly valuable or delicate items such as bags of gold dust or boxes of ping pong balls (class 500).
In the future, that system will be streamlined by four new features, NMFTA said:
standardized density scale for LTL freight with no handling, stowability, and liability issues,
unique identifiers for freight with special handling, stowability, or liability needs,
condensed and modernized commodity listings, and
improved usability of the ClassIT classification tool.
The new changes look to simplify the classification by grouping similar articles together and assigning most classes based solely on density – the most measurable of the four characteristics, he said. Exceptions will be handled separately, adding one or more of the three remaining characteristics in cases where density alone is not adequate to determine an accurate class.
When the updates roll out in 2025, many shippers will see shifts in the LTL prices they pay to move loads, because the way their freight is classified – and subsequently billed – might change. To cope with those changes, he said it’s important for shippers to review their pricing agreements and be prepared for these adjustments, while carriers should prepare to manage customer relationships through the transition.
“This shift is a big deal for the LTL industry, and it’s going to require a lot of work upfront,” Davis said. “But ultimately, simplifying the classification system should help reduce friction between shippers and carriers. We want to make the process as straightforward as possible, eliminate unnecessary disputes, and make the system more intuitive for everyone. It’s a change that’s long overdue, and while there might be challenges in the short term, I believe it will benefit the industry in the long run.
Business leaders in the manufacturing and transportation sectors will increasingly turn to technology in 2025 to adapt to developments in a tricky economic environment, according to a report from Forrester.
That approach is needed because companies in asset-intensive industries like manufacturing and transportation quickly feel the pain when energy prices rise, raw materials are harder to access, or borrowing money for capital projects becomes more expensive, according to researcher Paul Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.
And all of those conditions arose in 2024, forcing leaders to focus even more than usual on managing costs and improving efficiency. Forrester’s latest forecast doesn’t anticipate any dramatic improvement in the global macroeconomic situation in 2025, but it does anticipate several ways that companies will adapt.
For 2025, Forrester predicts that:
over 25% of big last-mile service and delivery fleets in Europe will be electric. Across the continent, parcel delivery firms, utility companies, and local governments operating large fleets of small vans over relatively short distances see electrification as an opportunity to manage costs while lowering carbon emissions.
less than 5% of the robots entering factories and warehouses will walk. While industry coverage often focuses on two-legged robots, Forrester says the compelling use cases for those legs are less common — or obvious — than supporters suggest. The report says that those robots have a wow factor, but they may not have the best form factor for addressing industry’s dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks.
carmakers will make significant cuts to their digital divisions, admitting defeat after the industry invested billions of dollars in recent years to build the capability to design the connected and digital features installed in modern vehicles. Instead, the future of mobility will be underpinned by ecosystems of various technology providers, not necessarily reliant on the same large automaker that made the car itself.
This story first appeared in the September/October issue of Supply Chain Xchange, a journal of thought leadership for the supply chain management profession and a sister publication to AGiLE Business Media & Events’' DC Velocity.
For the trucking industry, operational costs have become the most urgent issue of 2024, even more so than issues around driver shortages and driver retention. That’s because while demand has dropped and rates have plummeted, costs have risen significantly since 2022.
As reported by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), every cost element has increased over the past two years, including diesel prices, insurance premiums, driver rates, and trailer and truck payments. Operating costs increased beyond $2.00 per mile for the first time ever in 2022. This trend continued in 2023, with the total marginal cost of operating a truck rising to $2.27 per mile, marking a new record-high cost. At the same time, the average spot rate for a dry van was $2.02 per mile, meaning that trucking companies would lose $0.25 per mile to haul a dry van load at spot rates.
These high costs have placed a significant burden on the operations of trucking companies, challenging their financial sustainability over the last two years. As a result, 2023 saw approximately 8,000 brokers and 88,000 trucking companies cease operations, including some marquee names, such as Yellow Corp. and Convoy, and decades-long businesses, such as Matheson Trucking and Arnold Transportation Services.
More so than ever before, trucking companies need to get better at efficiently using their assets and reducing operational costs. So, what is a trucking company to do? Technology is the answer! Given the nature of the problem, technology-led innovation will be critical to ensure companies can balance rising costs through efficient operations.
One technology that could be the answer to many of the trucking industry’s issues is the concept of digital twins. A digital twin is a virtual model of a real system and simulates the physical state and behavior of the real system. As the physical system changes state, the digital twin keeps up with the real-world changes and provides predictive and decision-making capabilities built on top of the digital model.
DHL, in a 2023 white paper, suggests that—due to the maturation of technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced software engineering paradigms, and virtual reality—digital twins have “come of age” and are now viable across multiple sectors, including transportation. We agree with this assessment and believe that digital twins are essential to radically improving the processes of fleet planning and dispatch.
THE NEED TO AUTOMATE
Outside of attaining procurement efficiencies, trucking companies can achieve lower costs by focusing on critical operational levers such as minimizing deadheads, reducing driver dwell time, and maximizing driver and asset utilization.
However, manual methods of planning and dispatch cannot optimally balance these levers to achieve efficiency and cost control. Even when planners work very hard and owners strive to improve processes, optimizing fleet planning is not a problem humans can solve routinely. Planning is a computationally intensive activity. To achieve fleet-level efficiencies, the planner has to consider all possible truck-to-load combinations in real time and solve for many operational constraints such as drivers’ hours of service, customer windows, and driver home time, to name just a few. These computations become even more complex when you add in the dynamic nature of real-world conditions such as trucks getting stuck in traffic or breaking down or orders getting delayed. This is not a task humans do best! For these sorts of tasks, technology has the upper hand.
When a company creates a digital twin of its trucking network, it has a real-time model that factors in truck locations, drivers’ hours of service, and loads being executed and planned. Planners can then use this digital model to assess possible decisions and select ones that increase asset utilization, improve customer and driver satisfaction, and lower costs.
For example, a digital twin of the network can offer significant insights and analysis on the state of the network, including exceptions such as delayed pickups and deliveries, unassigned loads, and trucks needing assignments. Backed by AI that takes business rules into account, digital twins can allow companies to optimize their fleet performance by finding the most efficient load assignments and dynamically adjusting in real time to changes in traffic patterns and weather, customer delays, truck issues, and so on.
With a digital twin, carriers can optimize the matching of assets, drivers, and freight. Typically, an investment in this innovative technology results in a 20%+ increase in productive miles per truck, while also improving driver pay and significantly decreasing driver churn. Drivers get paid by the miles they run, so when they run more, they are able to make more money, resulting in less need to chase the next job in search of better pay.
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
Digital twins also combat deadheading, another source of driver dissatisfaction and cost inefficiencies. On average, over-the-road drivers spend 17%–20% of road miles driving empty. Using a digital twin, a company can search across several freight sources to find a load that perfectly matches the deadhead leg without impacting downstream commitments. These additional revenue miles will help drivers to maximize their earnings on the road and carriers to maximize their asset utilization and profitability.
The traditional manual dispatch planning model is becoming increasingly outdated—each planner and fleet manager tasked with overseeing 30 to 40 vehicles. Carriers try to manage this problem by dividing the fleet into manageable chunks, which results in cross-fleet inefficiencies. Such a system isn’t scalable. A digital twin acts as an equalizer for small and mid-sized fleets. It enables carriers to expand by venturing beyond the fixed routes and network they were forced to run out of fear of additional logistical complexity.
A digital twin can also give an organization the transparency and visibility it needs to find and fix inefficiencies. A successful carrier will leverage the technology to learn from the hitches in its operations. While this visibility is beneficial in its own right, it also provides the first step toward a seamless, digitized operation. “Digital revolution” is a buzzword frequently heard at transportation conferences. Yet not too many organizations are dedicated to digitizing their operations past the visibility stage. The end goal should be using decision-support systems to automate key elements of the system, thus freeing up planners from their daily rote tasks to focus on problems that only humans can solve.
Finally incorporating a digital twin can also help trucking companies work toward the broader trend of creating greener supply chains. Because they have lower deadhead and dwell times, trucking companies that have adopted a digital twin can be more attractive to shippers that are looking for more efficient operations that meet their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.
THE FUTURE IS HERE
It is important to note that the benefits described here are not dreams for the future; digital twin technology is already here. In fact, choosing a digital twin can seem daunting because there are already a spectrum of options out there. First and foremost, an organization must ensure that the digital twin it selects aligns with both the goals and the scope of its operation.
Additionally, the ideal digital twin should:
Operate in near real time. A digital twin should be able to refresh as often as the network changes.
Be able to factor in specific customer delivery requirements as well as asset- and operator-specific constraints.
Be computationally efficient and comprehensive as it considers thousands of permutations in milliseconds. The digital twin should be able to reoptimize an entire fleet’s schedule of multi-day routes on the fly.
Before implementing a digital twin, carriers need to make sure that they have robust data management processes in place. Electronic logging devices (ELDs), customers’ tenders, billing, shipments, and so on are already inundating carriers with a glut of data. However, the manual nature of operations in many carriers leads to poor data quality. Carriers will need to invest in data management approaches to improve data quality to support the generation and use of high-fidelity digital twins. Otherwise, the digital twin will not be representative of reality and companies will run into an issue of “garbage in, garbage out.”
REINVENTION AND TRANSFORMATION
While data management is critical, change management through the ranks of dispatch operations is often a harder task. In fact, the largest roadblock carriers face when undergoing a digital transformation is the lack of willingness to change, not the technology itself. Many carriers cling to outmoded planning methods. Planners, used to operating based on well-worn business rules and tribal knowledge, could be wary of the technology and resistant to change. They may need to be assured that, while it is true that every trucking network is uniquely complex, digital twins can be set up to model the intricacies of their specific dispatch operations and drive value to the network. A significant amount of time and resources will need to be expended on change management. Otherwise even though trucking companies may invest in cutting-edge technology, they won't be able to fully capitalize on the added value it can provide.
As the truckload industry works through the current freight cycle, it is important to realize that change is inevitable. Carriers will need to reinvent their operations and invest in technologies to ride through the busts and booms of future freight cycles. Recent global events point to the many ways that wrenches can be thrown into global transportation networks, and the fact that such volatility is here to stay. Digital twins can provide companies with the visibility to navigate such changes. But above all, an operation that uses the digital twin to drive decisions can make customers and drivers happy, and help the carriers keep their heads above water during times such as now.
Regular online readers of DC Velocity and Supply Chain Xchange have probably noticed something new during the past few weeks. Our team has been working for months to produce shiny new websites that allow you to find the supply chain news and stories you need more easily.
It is always good for a media brand to undergo a refresh every once in a while. We certainly are not alone in retooling our websites; most of you likely go through that rather complex process every few years. But this was more than just your average refresh. We did it to take advantage of the most recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI).
Most of the AI work will take place behind the scenes. We will not, for instance, use AI to generate our stories. Those will still be written by our award-winning editorial team (I realize I’m biased, but I believe them to be the best in the business). Instead, we will be applying AI to things like graphics, search functions, and prioritizing relevant stories to make it easier for you to find the information you need along with related content.
We have also redesigned the websites’ layouts to make it quick and easy to find articles on specific topics. For example, content on DC Velocity’s new site is divided into five categories: material handling, robotics, transportation, technology, and supply chain services. We also offer a robust video section, including case histories, webcasts, and executive interviews, plus our weekly podcasts.
Over on the Supply Chain Xchange site, we have organized articles into categories that align with the traditional five phases of supply chain management: plan, procure, produce, move, and store. Plus, we added a “tech” category just to round it off. You can also find links to our videos, newsletters, podcasts, webcasts, blogs, and much more on the site.
Our mobile-app users will also notice some enhancements. An increasing number of you are receiving your daily supply chain news on your phones and tablets, so we have revamped our sites for optimal performance on those devices. For instance, you’ll find that related stories will appear right after the article you’re reading in case you want to delve further into the topic.
However you view us, you will find snappier headlines, more graphics and illustrations, and sites that are easier to navigate.
I would personally like to thank our management, IT department, and editors for their work in making this transition a reality. In our more than 20 years as a media company, this is our largest expansion into digital yet.
We hope you enjoy the experience.
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In this chart, the red and green bars represent Trucking Conditions Index for 2024. The blue line represents the Trucking Conditions Index for 2023. The index shows that while business conditions for trucking companies improved in August of 2024 versus July of 2024, they are still overall negative.
FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index improved in August to -1.39 from the reading of -5.59 in July. The Bloomington, Indiana-based firm forecasts that its TCI readings will remain mostly negative-to-neutral through the beginning of 2025.
“Trucking is en route to more favorable conditions next year, but the road remains bumpy as both freight volume and capacity utilization are still soft, keeping rates weak. Our forecasts continue to show the truck freight market starting to favor carriers modestly before the second quarter of next year,” Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, said in a release.
The TCI tracks the changes representing five major conditions in the U.S. truck market: freight volumes, freight rates, fleet capacity, fuel prices, and financing costs. Combined into a single index, a positive score represents good, optimistic conditions, and a negative score shows the opposite.