Category Archives: Investing

Revolutionizing Trucking Operations: Aifleet’s AI Insights

Posted on July 17, 2025 by | Leave a comment

Trucking is a big business with a great many operational challenges. Trucking firms and fleets deal with them every single day and there’s a lot of associated administrative overhead.

So it seems strange to me that startups have not tried to address these operational problems using AI.

This article presents some of what aifleet, a trucking firm with around 200 vehicles, is using to make trucking a better place to work.

Aifleet CEO El Khoury seems to me to be very farsighted, especially in the current state of innovation in trucking.

The new money flowing to AI in logistics seems to be going to applications relating to brokering. It is not going to routing and scheduling.

But it’s routing and scheduling where big efficiency gains can be made. It’s also where the lifestyle of truckers can be improved, an area many big carriers ignore. I think there would be easy pickings for AI-enhanced scheduling and routing practices. aifleet thinks the same.

John Kingston Friday, July 11, 2025

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/at-a-conference-of-mostly-green-investors-alfleet-pushes-marriage-of-ai-and-trucking

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Posted in Investing, Logistics, Strategy, Trucking

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A “radically simplified” solution for SAF

Posted on June 1, 2025 by | Leave a comment

I don’t usually write about air, but in this case I have two connections.

First, Aether Fuels is a new Chicago-based concern with an innovative approach to the Fischer-Tropsch process for making fuel from waste. When I was in Chicago, I participated in some of the planning for the South Chicago airport, which sparked my interest in airport development. If you’ve flown through O’Hare, you have some idea of how jammed-up air transport is in Chicago, and why new venues are needed, especially for freight.

Second, I’m interested in new technologies for sustainable fuels. What caught my eye here is the point at the end. The process can also be used to produce sustainable marine fuel! That really caught my eye.

The company is called Aether; they are well-funded by big corporate names. The article discusses a bit about the process, which is being developed now. A pilot plant is in the offing, maybe in the next couple of years.

One of the advantages of their process is its ability to use carbon-capture output as a feedstock. One of the big problems of carbon capture technologies is what to do with the output. Bury it? Crazy and costly! Another use for CO2 would be useful.

The article mentions that while the company’s goal is SAF fuel for airplanes now, the process could also make fuel for maritime transport. That’s a huge market, with a present-day need. There’s a risk that air carriers might have to compete for sustainable fuels with the maritime transport industry.

We can use all the sustainable fuels production we can get. It’s nice to see a startup that’s not “AI” or software, that can acquire funds to move a worthwhile effort ahead.

Dirk Singer Jun 01, 2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/simpliflying/p/how-aether-fuels-saf-conor-madigan

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Posted in Air, Investing, Logistics, Supply Chains, Sustainability

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BNSF plans $1.5B Southern California facility for intermodal, transloading

Posted on October 4, 2022 by | 1 comment

This has been a winning strategy in the past for BNSF and other Class I rails. I am reminded of the Centerpoint facility near Chicago, which provides BNSF a transfer point in the Midwest. But Centerpoint was developed with money from investors, CalPERS being the largest. BNSF hopes to be the prime developer in Barstow, CA.

In case you don’t know where that is, Barstow is in the middle of the Mojave desert, 132 miles from the Port of LA (about 2 hr 27min as I look at Google Maps). It is right on I-15, the main route the movie stars take to go to Las Vegas from LA. Parts of it around San Bernardino are already traffic jams at many hours. However, the BNSF vision is that containers from the port will move by train, reducing traffic on I-15 and other LA freeways.

The Alameda Corridor already moves containers inland a good 20 miles. It’s a double-stack double-track route. BNSF will ensure good rail service from the Barstow yards to the ports.

Transloading and distribution warehouses will be built near Barstow on the BNSF complex. I believe BNSF sees this as a good real estate play as well as a plan to improve container rail service.

I am wondering if the plans for Barstow include customs processing. If so, that would be good for both imports and exports, because they would not have to wait for customs on the ports. That would aid in reducing port congestion.

Joanna Marsh Monday, October 3, 2022

BNSF plans $1.5B Southern California facility for intermodal, transloading – FreightWaves

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Posted in Investing, Logistics, Rail, Supply Chains

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