Trucks, Drones, Robots: Why Logistics Storytelling Will Always Be Deeply Human

“Take a look around your room. There’s a ‘mysterious story of stuff’ being told all around us every single day.” 

That’s what LaunchSquad Account Director Josh Tamarro said to me a few weeks ago when we started talking about the idea of a logistics-centric blog post for our 25th Anniversary content series. I wasn’t fully convinced going into the Zoom meeting that the topic could carry an entire standalone piece. (I was obviously wrong.) 

What Josh stated so cinematically in two sentences is true: “Logistics” is a misleadingly concise term for what is in actuality a sprawling, deeply complex, and multilayered system. From the first walkable trade routes to autonomous, single-day drone delivery, the machine of logistics has been in constant motion (and evolution) for thousands of years. 

For the past quarter century of that, LaunchSquad has been helping clients at all layers of the logistics cycle refine, tell, and amplify their stories. Josh and I recently sat down to chat logistics again with two more of LaunchSquad’s resident logistics experts, Senior VP Rachel Shepheard and VP Matt Fleischl. 

We went deep on what it means to tell meaningful stories in logistics today — from the ever-shifting media landscape, to the need to keep human stories centered amidst AI’s rise, to the fact that once the veil is pulled back on the “invisible world” of logistics, you can never unsee it.  

Emily Busse: We touch pretty much every part of the logistics lifecycle with current and past clients at this point. But what was the journey to get here? How did we develop this expertise?

Rachel: Our first supply chain experiences were on the consumer side with companies like [clothing brand] American Giant, probably. Perhaps there were a few other clients at or before that time, but American Giant is really what ignited a lot of passion in the company led by [one of LaunchSquad’s founders] Jesse Odell around the power of supply chains. That drove a lot of enthusiasm for some smaller supply chain technology companies we worked with 7 or 8 years ago. What we unlocked with American Giant cracked the lid on this fascinating industry that we then realized has all these tentacles. There's this rich vein to tap for storytelling, and it touches every single person. 

Another important moment in getting to where we are now is when we launched Otto, the self-driving truck that achieved a Guinness World record with the first commercial and fully autonomous run. They were soon after acquired by Uber, and that set off the work we’ve done with Uber Freight for years, which has really been a cornerstone of our logistics experience.

Emily: Josh, you were the one who initially described it to me as working with ‘all layers’ of the logistics stack. How would you define that?

Josh: We’ve had the opportunity to work with companies across the full logistics stack — from Uber Freight and Optoro to Waabi, Zipline, and Apptronik. These clients touch every part of the journey, from the moment a product is manufactured to the second it lands on someone’s doorstep. That’s everything from demand planning and inventory optimization to warehouse automation, middle-mile transport, and last-mile delivery. We’ve had this unique window into the end-to-end supply chain, and tech is driving innovation in every corner of it.

Emily: It almost sounds like we sort of worked “backward” — first getting excited about the way consumer brands made transparent, opinionated decisions about materials, manufacturing, and supply chains, and now we’re working with the foundational tech and systems behind that.

Rachel: Well, I may have created a false myth here. I think it's two things. One is we found a story source we love, chased it down, and found an array of rich opportunities. And two, there’s been a ton of market innovation in the past 10-15 years — with a ton of capital going into supply chain technologies. Agencies obviously tend to follow that arc of innovation. But I do think we're really well suited for logistics and supply chain storytelling because of how much we love complex stories that are far-reaching and can be unpacked in all different kinds of ways. It’s a match made in heaven, really.

Josh: Yeah even a decade ago most things in logistics were still very manual, outdated, relationship-driven. But technology is infused into every single stage of that journey. There’s a proliferation of data, and so many companies are coming in trying to one-up each other and get creative in optimizing every stage. The opportunity is endless. There’s a blank canvas; AI is the next big frontier.

Matt: My journey in logistics began when I started working with Zipline. I was like, “Oh, this is cool. We do drones!” And yes, we do drones, but it’s so much more than that. For example, we told a story about cold storage — specifically, the amount of time that you have from a product leaving the refrigerator to being shot off to a remote hospital via drone to drop off to an injection being administered. It was an eye-opener. There's so much more that goes into these delivery systems than just the delivery mechanisms themselves. You pull the onion back over and over again, and the supply chain has a gazillion layers to it.

Emily: What are some of the moments that put supply chains and logistics stories front and center from a mainstream media perspective?

Josh: It’s this invisible world that I used to completely take for granted. I’d walk into a store, and the shelves would be stocked, or I’d order something from Amazon, and it would just show up. Like a lot of people, I didn’t think twice — until something went wrong, like the toilet paper shortages in 2020. That was a wake-up call for how fragile and interconnected these systems are. When supply chains break down, it gets weird fast.

Matt: Yes, like the Ever Given ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal, right? We've had a lot of those moments in logistics over the past 4 or 5 years, which is also why it's been interesting to work in this space. Millions of people were watching a ship trying to turn its bow three degrees so it could get out of this canal.

Josh: One thing that’s shifted in the last few years is that supply chain issues are more often front-page news. We've seen firsthand how it became a top priority for leadership at some of our client companies. What used to be left to operations teams is now a major focus at the C-suite level. COVID really accelerated that shift, and Amazon raised the bar on speed and customer expectations; this created a ripple effect where every piece of the supply chain is now being scrutinized and optimized.

Emily: It does feel  like an industry where there are a lot of competing forces of increased consumer expectation, pressure to keep costs down, innovate, and also reduce negative environmental impacts. How do you help clients navigate that? 

Matt: A lot of our frontier technology clients want to be everything. But focus is so important when it comes to storytelling, particularly for logistics. Focus on a few core things you do really well. If you're going to talk about sustainability, you need to have legitimacy. It needs to genuinely be a core tenant of your company rather than sort of a bolt-on. And I think that goes for AI, too.  It can end up being a net negative if you're doing it as an afterthought.

Josh: Exactly. The stories that stand out most are the ones where companies own and excel in a specific part of the supply chain. Waabi is leading the charge on autonomous trucking. Netstock is helping thousands of SMBs make smarter inventory decisions. Optoro is transforming reverse logistics and returns. Each one is focused on doing something really well — and together, they form this larger story about a more optimized, intelligent, and resilient supply chain.

Emily: Let's talk more about AI. Obviously, it’s been the core tech story—and an incredibly noisy one—across verticals. How has it been taking shape within the logistics space so far, and what have you learned?

Matt: A lot of the AI clients and startups we’ve seen are sort of building the product and then finding the fit after. Like, “We’re gonna build this cool model, and someone will buy it.” Logistics is more that they know the product fit, and now they just have to build it. Waabi (autonomous trucking technology) is a good example. The market is right for self-driving and autonomous vehicles because, for one, trucking demand has never been higher. And two, the number of human truck drivers is decreasing year over year. There's an existing imbalance. And so we’re seeing more of the case in logistics where there is already pent-up demand for the AI models coming out.

Josh: We were recently on a briefing with TechCrunch about a new AI capability Uber Freight launched. The reporter immediately flagged how primed the logistics space feels for meaningful AI adoption. One of the points we discussed was that it’s taken years — even decades — to lay the digital and operational groundwork to get to this point. But now we’re starting to see AI make a real impact on things like freight planning, routing, and decision-making. The potential is huge, but it’s also rooted in a lot of foundational work that had to happen first.

Matt: There's also a flip side for us as communicators. Logistics is an older industry and, in some ways, is opposed to a lot of this technology or slower to adopt. It's our job as communicators and consultants to help our clients navigate that and remember that while there is a clear business case, many of the end users are partially opposed to it. 

Josh: That's an important point. You have to be super mindful in this industry that there are so many people working in it, handling diverse parts of it, and each of those roles is incredibly important. You do have to be mindful of how technology is going to change the dynamics of how the industry works.

Rachel: That human factor will remain important because even with all the productivity and automation and efficiencies AI can bring, logistics is still so complicated. The expertise of humans and people who have learned the systems, the regulations, and the customs is critical. That balance will keep shifting, of course, but the “expertise plus AI” model will likely prove out in logistics for a long time to come. 

Emily: I'm also curious about the media landscape. Newsroom staff and budgets have shrunk so much. But at the same time, there is a larger, more diverse set of channels outside of traditional media to leverage. How has this shift translated to the logistics world and has it impacted our work? 

Rachel: Reporters’ beats always tend to reflect the moment. When I started in logistics, for example, there were dozens of transportation reporters because Uber was the biggest company at the time. And then during COVID, we saw more logistics beats pop up.  And now, it's often a technology and economics reporter that we’re targeting. Reporters are flexible experts. Logistics trades do hold their own, though, and have built really strong communities. They’re very valuable for us to work with and remain really great partners.

Josh: I agree — COVID put logistics and supply chains on the map in a big way. And right now, we’re seeing that trend continue with things like tariffs, trade policy, and geopolitical shifts. Suddenly, supply chain challenges are leading the news cycle. That means reporters who may not have covered logistics before are now trying to make sense of what’s happening, what it means for consumers, and how companies are preparing. That gives our clients a real opportunity to be educators and translators — to share insights, data, and context that help bring clarity to complex global issues.

Matt: Traditional newsrooms are shrinking, but there are a lot more opportunities in the non-traditional channels. I also think the upward mobility of an individual journalist is probably the highest it's ever been. Maybe they start on one beat for a few years, and then they go off and do their own thing where they become the de facto voice. Cailley LaPara at Bloomberg is a good example of this in logistics. She was a healthcare reporter, moved onto the transportation and logistics beat at Bloomberg, and she's now one of their core people—if not their core person—on that front. Or, look at [journalist] Ashlee Vance; obviously, he’s had quite a long, successful career—but now he’s gone and spun off his own entire production company and media entity. I think we're gonna see a lot more people do that.

Emily: Given the factors we just talked about — the noise of AI, the changing media landscape — what are the new best practices that have emerged in this space?

Rachel: Particularly now, companies can get lost in their technology story in logistics and forget that it’s a human story. It's gotten easier for companies to lose sight of the fact that it's not just the people who are buying the toilet paper, it's the truck drivers who have spent their entire lives crisscrossing America to deliver things. And it's the small communities that rely on supply chains for everything. Everyone can tell a big, sprawling story, but make sure it stays relevant and connected to humanity. If we’re looking at the day-to-day of a transportation planner, sure, it's great if everything happens with the magic of AI, but what does that mean for them as a person, and who else does it impact? 

Emily: Has your experience working in different parts and levels of the logistics space impacted anything in your own day-to-day lives?

Matt: The founder of Zipline used to say that when they rolled out drone delivery in Bentonville with Walmart, the customers were so amazed by a package being dropped at a very specific point in their backyard the first time. And then the second time, they were less wowed, and then by the third it’s like, “Oh yeah, this is just the way of life.” Most of us are probably Amazon Prime customers;  I think we all take for granted the magic that is single-day delivery. I never really thought about it until I started working in this space and understood how complex it is to get from me clicking a button to batteries being delivered to my doorstep by 8 pm. 

Josh: Whenever I’m driving and pass an 18-wheeler, I find myself wondering, “Is that a dedicated lane? What kind of freight is that?” Or, five years ago, I’d check a tracking link once or twice and leave it at that. Now I’m watching how a package moves from facility to facility across states and wondering what systems are powering it. I’ve developed a much deeper appreciation for how it all works — and when something gets delayed, I’m a lot more patient. I know there’s probably a complex issue behind the scenes, not just a missed scan.

Rachel: I think I really have a zoomed-out appreciation for human ingenuity. This is a system built over thousands of years that humans created, evolved, and innovated on. That is the foundation of the world we live in today. And it's all just driven by human ideas. I never previously appreciated logistics’ connection to our own human history. The incredibleness of same-day delivery is connected to the more than 1,000-year-long journey. It's one of the pinnacles of human achievement, really.