Transportation transitions: executive moves at Workhorse, Echo, Southeastern. New leaders join Workhorse, Echo Global Logistics, and Southeastern Freight Lines as the companies strengthen finance, legal, and operations teams. July 17, 2026 Key takeaways. * Workhorse named Jody Davis as its CFO to support growth, capital strategy, and electric truck production. * Southeastern Freight Lines promoted Tom Henrici to lead its Raleigh LTL service center. * Echo Global Logistics appointed Ritu Vig chief legal officer to support governance and growth. Workhorse names Jody Davis as CFO to support electric truck growth plans. Workhorse recently appointed Jody Davis as CFO, replacing retiring CFO Bob Ginnan. Davis brings finance leadership experience across manufacturing, energy storage, aerospace, and technology companies, including capital formation and production scaling. "Jody is a company-builder who has deep and direct experience in numerous areas that are critical to Workhorse at this stage in our journey," Scott Griffith, CEO of Workhorse, stated. "His experience raising later-stage growth capital, combined with experience developing relationships with analysts and investors, will be a strong addition to the Workhorse leadership team. We believe he's the right CFO for where we are and where we're going." Sponsored recommendations. Southeastern Freight Lines appoints new LTL service center manager in Raleigh. Southeastern Freight Lines has named Tom Henrici service center manager in Raleigh, North Carolina. Henrici brings 15 years of experience with Southeastern, including roles in freight handling, supervision, and service center management. "Tom has a natural ability to build meaningful relationships with our associates while creating a positive, lively work environment that makes people excited to come to work," Matt Bowen, regional VP of operations at Southeastern Freight Lines, stated. "His outstanding track record, combined with his dedication to serving our people and customers, positions him well to lead our Raleigh service center." Prior to this position, Henrici was service center manager in Fort Myers, Florida, but he will relocate to Raleigh to lead the operation there. Echo Global Logistics names Ritu Vig chief legal officer amid company growth. Echo Global Logistics recently announced that Ritu Vig has joined its leadership team as chief legal officer, bringing more than 20 years of experience as a legal adviser. Prior to Echo, Vig served as chief legal officer and corporate secretary at SP Plus Corporation, where she led enterprise legal strategy, board advisory work, and governance matters. "I'm excited to be a part of Echo, especially at such a time of high growth for the company," Vig said. "As the business continues to thrive, I look forward to working closely with the leadership team to ensure our strategy and governance align with company values." July 16, 2026 This piece was created with the help of generative AI tools and edited by its content team for clarity and accuracy. Voice your opinion! Become a member of the community! Take advantage of its EXCLUSIVE benefits. Create your account to start your free membership. Join Today!

Survival of the biggest. The freight recovery is here, and it's picking favorites. | PRESENTED BY | / | / | Happy friday. J.B. Hunt posted one of its best quarters in years, and its own executives say they know where the extra business is coming from. Plus: * Two Huge Brokerage Brands Just Got Retired * Is Echo About to Un-Private Itself? * Trump's "New" CDL Fix Is 15 Years Old | J.B. Hunt's brokerage division just posted its first profit in ___ quarters. | | * 7 * 10 * 14 |. What's cookin' in freight. Two Huge Brokerage Brands Just Got Retired. ArcBest is cutting about 2% of its workforce and closing 10 of its roughly 240 ABF Freight terminals, folding those locations into nearby service centers. MoLo Solutions, its truckload brokerage brand, and Panther Premium Logistics, its expedite arm, are both being retired and absorbed under the ArcBest name. The move includes $76.5 million in impairment charges tied to the two brands, offset by $40 million in expected annualized savings. CEO Seth Runser said the restructuring "improves efficiency, strengthens profitability." The terminal closures still need sign-off from the Teamsters under the National Master Freight Agreement. Is Echo About to Un-Private Itself? TJC-backed Echo Global Logistics is weighing a sale or IPO later this year, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The $5.4 billion logistics giant would be a contender for the biggest supply chain IPO of the year. Echo declined to confirm or deny interest, with Executive Vice President of Marketing Christopher Clemmensen saying, "Our policy is to not comment on industry rumors." TJC took Echo private in 2021 for $1.3 billion - the valuation on the table has more than quadrupled since then. Echo also raised $930 million in debt financing this June to fund future acquisitions, following its acquisition of ITS Logistics earlier this year. Trump's "New" CDL Fix Is 15 Years Old. At a Carlisle, Pennsylvania, event this week, President Trump said, "any American who's driven a heavy truck for our military will automatically be eligible" for a CDL, framing it as a fix he was about to deliver. It isn't new, though. The Military Skills Test Waiver Program has done exactly that since 2011, and FMCSA says more than 40,000 veterans have already used it. OOIDA's Lewie Pugh, who got his CDL through the military in 1994, 17 years before the program existed, argues military driving and real-world trucking aren't the same skill set. PRESENTED BY bitfreighter. Bitfreighter automates the entire life of your loads. Quote it, accept it, track it, invoice it, all without lifting a finger. Powered by the industry's most advanced rules engine and thousands of ready-to-use shipper connections, with fixed-rate, unlimited transactions and a dedicated solutions team behind you. J.B. Hunt just showed its hand. J.B. Hunt's stock closed Thursday up 6.9% from the day before, after a quarter that blew past what Wall Street expected. Net earnings came in at $181 million, or $1.91 per diluted share, up from $128.6 million, or $1.31 per share, a year ago, a 41% jump. Total revenue rose 19% to $3.5 billion, beating a $3.26 billion consensus estimate. CFO Brad Delco reported the company removed more than $135 million in structural costs over the past year through process simplification, asset utilization, and automation. CEO Shelley Simpson told investors on the call: "We spent the last four years preparing for it." Bigger is winning right now. J.B. Hunt's intermodal segment set a quarterly record of 578,000 loads, a 10% volume increase, and its first double-digit growth quarter in more than a decade. Segment revenue rose 22% to $1.75 billion, while operating income surged 58% to $150.9 million. Executives pointed to a sudden capacity shift following May's CVSA Roadcheck inspections, combined with driver shortages and rising carrier operating costs, as shippers increasingly consolidate with larger, asset-backed providers. The Montgomery effect, quantified. The brokerage business turned an operating profit for the first time in 14 quarters, reporting operating income of $1.7 million compared to a loss of $3.6 million a year ago. Revenue jumped 49.3% to $388 million, up from $260 million, on an 18.5% increase in load volume and a 25.9% increase in revenue per load. COO Nick Hobbs told analysts on the call: "We've seen more carriers come to our platform, likely migrating from smaller brokers." He added that the Montgomery decision "increased focus on carrier selection and broker responsibility" industry-wide. Not every bet paid off. Not every segment moved in the same direction. Dedicated Contract Services grew revenue 9% to $921 million on a 9% gain in weekly truck productivity and roughly 96% customer retention. Truckload revenue jumped 35% to $240 million but swung to a $1.3 million operating loss, as the unit paid more for outside capacity to keep up with demand. Final Mile revenue fell 6% to $198 million as the company intentionally shed lower-quality business, a move only a company with room to spare can make. That same capacity squeeze cuts the other way in intermodal. SONAR has intermodal pegged at 30% cheaper than truckload right now, roughly double the 10-15% savings gap that normally triggers a shipper's switch to rail. J.B. Hunt's intermodal bid season opens every October, when management said it plans to raise contractual rates to close that gap. That pricing power sits atop the carrier migration Hobbs pointed to earlier - carriers leaving smaller brokers for J.B. Hunt's platform. Rates going up and carriers moving to bigger platforms are both signs of the same shift: freight consolidating toward fewer, larger, better-capitalized providers, leaving smaller brokers to compete for what's left over. PRESENTED BY trackflo. On May 14, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that brokers can be sued directly for negligent hiring. Vetting is only half the fight. Once a load is booked, every call, email, text, and stop update becomes part of the record a court will want. TrackFlo catches it all automatically, from booking through delivery. No manual logging, no digging through someone's individual messages. Post-Montgomery, "we think we called them" won't cut it. A timestamped record will. Around the freight web. Uncle Sam Says Hold My Beer. The Department of Defense's logistics, maintenance, and sustainment spending is estimated at $250 billion a year; more than double what UPS ($88.7B), FedEx ($94.7B), or DHL Group ($96.9B) individually bring in. Canadian Wildfire Smoke Disrupts Freight. Wildfire smoke drifting from Canada pushed air quality to hazardous levels across parts of the Midwest, forcing some warehouses and shippers in Ohio to cancel loads as Chicago briefly recorded some of the worst air quality in the world. Diesel Crossed $5 Again. Diesel is back above $5 a gallon nationally, driven by a fresh flare-up between the US and Iran and a Russian ban on diesel exports. It's the fourth time diesel has crossed $5 this year. Final Destination, in Reverse. A Florida Highway Patrol trooper cited a truck driver after a sudden stop on I-75 near Apollo Beach sent a lumber load crashing forward through the cab. No injuries were reported, and the driver got a load securement ticket. 75 CDL Schools Get a Federal Visit. The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday it's partnering with DOT to investigate roughly 75 CDL training schools suspected of fraud, including improper certifications and falsified training records. Half of Owner-Ops Say They Never Got Paid. A survey of more than 500 owner-operators found that half reported being stiffed by a broker on the entire payment for an entire load, and another 30% on a partial load. 93% said the $75,000 federal broker bond isn't enough to cover claims when a broker goes bust. The freight magazine. From $17/month. 30-day money-back guarantee. If it's not for you, FreightCaviar'll refund you right away, and you still keep both Winter and Spring editions. Subscribe | here. Freight humor. The freight caviar podcast. CEO and Owner of Best Express Inc., Salvador Munoz, joined Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski on the FreightCaviar podcast to discuss why Juárez is becoming a high-tech manufacturing hub, how cross-border trucking actually operates, why rising diesel costs have become a business killer, why the driver shortage is not just about finding drivers, and more. Get the next one in your inbox. Free, 3x a week, the brief 15,000+ freight pros read.