Chris Mennona

Special Guest Blog Post from Amazon Freight   For supply chains across the globe, goods in motion are promises in motion. When a palletised shipment is delayed or goes dark, the impact is felt not just in transport teams, but in customer service, inventory planning, and broader network performance. In a conversation, economist Dr. Rebecca Harding and Chris Roe, Managing Director of Amazon Freight, explored how technology and collaboration are changing the way freight networks operate. While their primary focus was freight, their insights map directly onto the resilience challenges supply chain leaders face every day.   Old pressures, new data In a study supported by Amazon Freight, every shipper surveyed agreed that technology is crucial to the freight industry’s resilience. While this isn’t a surprise, it’s an important reminder of the role that technology plays. Roe shared a key example where Amazon Freight connected a customer’s system to its own system. Visibility on the end-to-end movement went from essentially zero to a high level of coverage. Instead of discovering problems only when a shipment failed to arrive, the customer could now see disruptions as they emerged and act earlier. For supply chain teams, that move from partial, delayed information…

At MODEX 2026 in Atlanta, Scott Luton reconnected with James Malley, Co-Founder and CEO of Paccurate, for a conversation that blended humor, operational insight, and a fresh perspective on where warehouse technology is headed. While the discussion included everything from Disney World to hot dog bun conspiracies, the core message was serious: supply chain organizations are entering a new phase where control, visibility, and operational simplicity matter more than flashy technology demos.   MODEX 2026: Less Hype, More Optimization After nearly a decade of attending MODEX events, Malley sees a clear shift in this year’s show floor dynamic. “I notice in some years at MODEX, there will be all kinds of wild technology that’s kind of futuristic. And in other years, the vibe seems to focus more on the maturation of technology in very established categories,” he explains. “This year is more of the latter.” In other words, the industry appears to be moving from experimentation toward optimization. Rather than chasing the next shiny object, many supply chain leaders are focusing on getting more value from the systems and automation they already have in place. Deeper analytics, better visibility, and operational refinement are becoming bigger priorities than headline-grabbing robotics demonstrations.…