The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.

With 2024 just a few days away, I’m looking forward to what the new year has in store. At the same time, it allows us all to reflect on 2023. But most of all, it’s a way to give thanks to an industry that has provided so much insight, collaboration, networking and passion.

Here are a few of my observations looking back at 2023 and my predictions for 2024.

2023 was another year full of challenges, disruptions, some endings, as well as new beginnings.

Personally, I began a new journey in August when I started my own advisory company. But as an industry, we observed some larger companies, which had received a lot of private equity backing, go out of business. We even saw some large logistics providers going bankrupt. But at the same time, we also identified a lot of new startups gaining traction and becoming more visible in that same complex and challenging market.

In hindsight, 2023 was a reset year in many ways. Rates hit rock-bottom and it forced companies to focus on survival. With that came a hunger to change the way things were done. In some cases, that meant letting go of people. In others, that meant more adoption of technology. And for some, it was a combination of both. We will continue to see this appetite increasing in 2024, which will have a positive impact on the further adoption of logistics technology.

As an industry, we came together, which was witnessed not just at the networking at some of the larger events like Manifest or FreightWaves’ F3: Future of Freight Festival. Behind-the-scenes, there was a lot more communication going on between established players partnering for survival, as well as startups collaborating to gain insight to become more efficient in order to grow their enterprises.

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