In the current climate, inaction is not just a missed opportunity; it is a costly decision that directly impacts your bottom line.
By Rod Andrews, Category Manager, Logistics, CoreTrust
The freight market is approaching a significant turning point. After a prolonged downturn that has lasted 13 consecutive quarters, the period of historically low transportation costs is ending. While spot rates have been low, a market-wide repricing is on the horizon. Industry analysts predict a major shift in the second half of 2026, where tighter carrier capacity and normalized demand will drive rates significantly higher.
For procurement and finance leaders, a passive "wait-and-see" approach carries substantial risk. Delaying logistics optimization by even one year could mean losing up to 25% of potential savings as the market recovers. In the current climate, inaction is not just a missed opportunity; it is a costly decision that directly impacts your bottom line.
Navigating LTL Carrier Concentration and Clean Intelligence
This market pressure is intensified by the "LTL Constriction." Today, the top 25 less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers command over 90% of the market. This concentration gives them unprecedented pricing power and weakens the negotiating position of shippers. In response, leading organizations are abandoning outdated, manual procurement processes. They are adopting transparency standards that use real-time tracking, open pricing, and AI-driven intelligence to protect their margins.
Unlocking LTL Value Without Disruption
CoreTrust members managing fragmented LTL networks face a common problem: optimization typically requires time, resources, and operational disruption. Redwood changes that equation. Through data-driven analysis, Redwood identifies value savings opportunities in your existing LTL spend—without requiring intense system changes, or infrastructure overhauls.
What sets CoreTrust members apart? It’s the strength of collective negotiating power and our core ethos “Strength in Numbers”. Through our logistics partnerships, CoreTrust members access benefits that would be unavailable to organizations operating independently:
Accelerated Execution. While industry-standard LTL optimization analysis takes 10–15 days, CoreTrust members complete analysis in just 3 days, which is inherently built into our Redwood Logistics partnership.
Zero Integration Risk. For CoreTrust members, optimization happens without operational disruption, system overhauls, or hidden costs. You capture available savings faster and with complete confidence in execution.
This is Strength in Numbers in action, which is collective advantage CoreTrust members enjoy across every category, including logistics.
Strategic Clarity Before Execution
Before diving into implementation, CoreTrust members receive a complimentary workflow mapping exercise. This provides clear visibility into your current transportation operations, identifies optimization priority zones, and sets the roadmap for your 30–60 day execution window. You move from uncertainty to a concrete action plan.
Two Optimization Paths for CoreTrust Members
Redwood LTL Optimization: For CoreTrust members focused on reducing less-than-truckload costs, while streamlining operations. Data harnessing reveals hidden costs, service mismatches, and carrier inefficiencies. Plug-and-play implementation means no system integration and no process redesign. Results in 30–60 days. Ideal if LTL represents a meaningful portion of your freight expenditure.
GEODIS Managed Transportation: For companies with complex, multi-location networks requiring comprehensive redesign. This covers warehousing optimization, truckload consolidation, dock scheduling, and full supply chain orchestration—a lift-and-shift approach for organizations ready to transform their entire logistics footprint. Larger investment, deeper integration, broader impact across FTL, warehousing, and cross-dock operations.
CoreTrust members access both paths. Choose based on your operational scope: Redwood for immediate EBITDA lift through strategic LTL portfolio optimization—capturing savings and carrier relationship clarity, or GEODIS for comprehensive network restructuring across warehousing, FTL, and retail cross-dock operations.
Protecting Margins When External Pressures Mount
Tariffs, carrier consolidation, and rising capacity costs are headwinds you cannot control. But freight optimization is a lever you can pull. Redwood quickly surfaces overcharges and rate inefficiencies, allowing you to mitigate external cost variances. GEODIS redesigns full networks to eliminate dwell, consolidate shipments, and reduce sole carrier dependency. For CoreTrust members, both approaches are available without lengthy vendor selection or RFP cycles. The benefit: faster execution, lower risk, and proven methodologies.
How CoreTrust Members Get Started
If your primary challenge is LTL spend fragmentation, Redwood's fast-track approach delivers results without operational complexity. If your logistics network requires a fundamental redesign—warehouse positioning, truckload optimization, managed transportation—GEODIS handles the full transformation. Either way, CoreTrust members avoid vendor procurement delays and access pre-negotiated economics both partners have locked in.
The path forward begins with understanding your unique logistics profile. A conversation with the CoreTrust team will clarify what percentage of your spend is LTL versus FTL, warehousing, and cross-docking operations. From there, the right optimization strategy becomes clear—whether that's EBITDA lift through Redwood's LTL focus or foundational network transformation with GEODIS. The CoreTrust team can assess your specific needs, map your opportunity, and recommend the approach that delivers the greatest impact for your operation.
Freight Optimization as Competitive Advantage
Cost control is crucial in a tight margin environment. Redwood members reduce LTL costs effortlessly, while GEODIS boosts efficiency by internally restructuring a company’s supply chain. CoreTrust members get both benefits with quick access and reduced risk—no need for in-house expertise or complicated vendor management.
The opportunity in the market is narrowing: tariffs will apply until July and rate hikes are expected to speed up in the second half of 2026. CoreTrust members who act now will have an advantage over those who delay.
CoreTrust Logistics Solutions: Your Path to Clarity
At CoreTrust, we guide our members beyond reactive freight management. Strategic clarity comes first—before any implementation, CoreTrust members receive a complimentary workflow mapping exercise. This process provides clear visibility into your current transportation operations, identifies priority zones for optimization, and lays out a concrete roadmap for your 30–60 day execution window.
We help you build a proactive and resilient supply chain with solutions focused on:
Clean Intelligence: We help you transform fragmented raw lane data into structured, real-time performance dashboards. These actionable insights are crucial for auditable procurement, disciplined sourcing, and ultimately, stronger exit multiples.
Predictive Visibility: By leveraging CoreTrust’s trusted logistics suppliers, we shift your operations from after-the-fact tracking to proactive exception management. This allows your team to identify and resolve potential disruptions before they affect service levels or profitability.
Immediate EBITDA Impact: Our initial Logistics Landscape Assessments provides strategic clarity on your freight operations, revealing optimization opportunities across rate structure, carrier mix, and network efficiency that inform both immediate actions and long-term logistics strategy. CoreTrust Logistics Suppliers help propel CoreTrust members EBITDA by optimizing network design, aligning rates, and streamlining logistics services.
The Impact of Tariffs on Landed Cost Pressure
Adding another layer of complexity to freight market trends are new trade-driven cost increases. A temporary 10% surcharge on most goods imported into the United States took effect on February 24, 2026. This measure is set to continue through late July 2026. Public statements suggest the tariff could climb to 15%, though 10% is the current confirmed rate.
While some goods are exempt, many manufacturers and distributors are now facing a direct, non-recoverable increase in landed cost. This tariff exposure can quickly erode annual freight savings if transportation networks are not actively managed. Effective logistics optimization has become one of the few levers your organization can pull to combat these external cost pressures.
Companies with disciplined rate strategies and clear visibility into total transportation spend are better equipped to stabilize margins. Those relying on static contracts will struggle. In this environment, logistics optimization is more than a cost-cutting measure—it's a critical margin-protection strategy.
Strategic Synergy: A Dual-Engine Logistics Approach
To help members protect margins and prepare for the next market cycle, CoreTrust utilizes a dual-engine logistics strategy, offering two distinct optimization paths tailored to your organizational needs:
Redwood LTL Optimization: This solution is ideal for CoreTrust members aiming to cut less-than-truckload costs. Redwood provides data-driven shipping insights that help pinpoint cost drivers, inefficiencies in service, and carrier-related issues. Additionally, CoreTrust members receive lane data analysis results in just 3 days instead of the standard 10–15 days, all as a complimentary exclusive benefit as CoreTrust member. As a leader in the 4PL and Logistics as a Service (LaaS) space, Redwood leverages its proprietary Redwood Connect technology to enable seamless ERP and TMS integration, thereby improving logistics efficiency without requiring significant system modifications. Redwood Connect integrates with your logistics system, delivering LTL cost savings in 30–60 days by optimizing shipments through a pre-negotiated carrier network and advanced data analysis, while keeping your team in control and fully transparent.
GEODIS Managed Transportation: Designed for organizations with complex, multi-location networks that require a comprehensive logistics overhaul. This lift-and-shift model covers warehousing optimization, truckload consolidation, dock scheduling, and end-to-end supply chain orchestration. GEODIS enables full network redesign, ideal for companies ready to transform their logistics footprint, achieve deeper integration.
CoreTrust members can enhance logistics by working with Redwood or GEODIS. Suppliers connect directly with carriers, reducing risk and boosting EBITDA, without extra internal resources. Partnering with CoreTrust streamlines logistics and ensures reliable service providers.
Comprehensive Managed Transportation
This model is ideal for organizations looking for complete, end-to-end supply chain management. CoreTrust logistics solutions in this area include:
Advanced warehouse and cross-dock optimization.
Reduction of hidden accessorial costs like detention and dwell with retail cross dock programs.
Full TMS oversight across complex, multi-node networks.
Tech-Enabled Optimization
This agile method suits companies seeking adaptability without needing a full infrastructure overhaul. Its main advantages are:
Enhanced LTL optimization to balance carrier pricing power
Easy integration with your current ERP or TMS system.
Reliable scalability, ideal for private-equity portfolios, helping to boost ROI and EBITA.
By matching the execution model to your operations, you achieve both cost control and strategic flexibility. This makes it one of the top strategies for improving EBITDA today.
February Logistics Guidance: Secure Your Advantage Now
As we progress through Q1 2026, the strategy is clear: lock in your advantages while market conditions still favor shippers. The convergence of freight market recovery, carrier consolidation, and rising external costs means today’s pricing environment will not last.
Managing margins amid challenges like tariffs and capacity limits is essential. CoreTrust delivers practical solutions, and Redwood Logistics uncovers overcharges in your LTL spend for easy cost recovery with Redwood Connect. CoreTrust members enjoy exclusive supplier benefits and cost savings. GEODIS offers network redesigns, shipment consolidation, and reduced carrier reliance all delivered efficiently with pre-negotiated rates, eliminating archaic RFP cycles.
Redwood’s rapid LTL network optimization and GEODIS’s comprehensive transformation through CoreTrust help you achieve strategic control of freight in an unpredictable market, with CoreTrust continuing as your advocate for navigating procurement.
Organizations that act now can:
Lock in better rates before capacity shrinks.
Improve service reliability and simplify logistics procurement.
Develop a logistics strategy that supports future growth.
Logistics, handled strategically, becomes a valuable EBITDA driver instead of a risk. Contact CoreTrust to see how our logistics solutions can help your organization prepare for what's next.
Rod Andrews is the Category Manager for Logistics at CoreTrust, where he leads strategic sourcing and category development for the logistics sector. With over 13 years of specialized experience at industry leaders including Amazon, AWS, and HPE, Rod provides CoreTrust members with expert insights into complex supply chain integrations and enterprise logistics solutions. Based in the Nashville area, he leverages his extensive market knowledge to help procurement leaders navigate volatility and unlock sustainable enterprise value.