Aylin Basom

Brought to you in partnership with the Journal of Business Logistics   Companies are investing heavily in safety technology. Trucking fleets now rely on cameras, collision warnings, lane alerts, adaptive cruise control, and automated braking to reduce crashes and protect drivers. That investment assumes a straightforward outcome. More technology should lead to safer behavior. It does not always work that way. Research in the Journal of Business Logistics shows that the same technologies designed to improve safety can also undermine it. The difference comes down to how drivers experience the tools and how managers use them. The problem is not the system. It is the interaction around it.   How safety technology fails in practice The study points to two common patterns that show up across fleets. The first is avoidance. Some drivers ignore or disable alerts. They cover inward-facing cameras or override automated features. This behavior shows up when the system feels intrusive or disconnected from real driving conditions. Frequent warnings and false alarms create frustration. Experienced drivers, in particular, may feel the technology challenges their judgment rather than supports it. When that happens, drivers do not adapt to the system. They route around it. The second pattern is…

At MODEX 2026 in Atlanta, Scott Luton sat down with Christine Barnhart, Head of Industry Engagement & Alliances at Miebach. She is known by many across industry as “The Supply Chain Whisperer.” Their conversation covered everything from AI and supply chain maturity to workforce evolution and the importance of practical execution. Through it all, Barnhart offered a grounded perspective shaped by years of operational leadership and transformation work. And if there’s one central takeaway from the discussion, it’s this: the companies that succeed won’t be the ones chasing hype. But they WILL be the ones building resilient, executable supply chains.   There Is No “Normal” Anymore Supply chain leaders have spent years navigating disruption, but Barnhart believes the industry has finally reached an important realization. “People have finally come to this conclusion that there is no such thing as normal anymore,” she explains. That mindset shift is changing how organizations think about planning, investment, and agility. Network design exercises that once happened every three to five years are now being revisited continuously. Companies are investing in tools that shorten decision cycles and improve responsiveness in near real time. The old approach that focused on “design once, optimize later” – –…