Freight Cost Pressures Are Structural, Not Cyclical, Industry Leaders Conclude at SemiCab’s Inaugural Freight Network Forum

Senior analysts from DAT Freight & Analytics and Bernstein Research joined SemiCab Holdings CEO Ajesh Kapoor to examine the forces reshaping U.S. freight economics.

Fort Lauderdale, FL, May 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Algorhythm Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIME), a leading provider of AI-powered logistics solutions, today announced a recap of SemiCab’s Inaugural Freight Network Forum. Freight cost pressures hitting US shippers and carriers are structural, not cyclical, according to industry leaders who convened last week for the inaugural session of SemiCab’s Freight Network Forum. The May 7 discussion, “The New Cost Reality: Why Transportation Economics Are Breaking,” brought together analysts and operators from DAT Freight & Analytics, Bernstein Research, and SemiCab to examine the forces reshaping US freight economics — and what current playbooks miss.

The Panel

Dean Croke, Principal Analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, has spent three decades tracking freight market signals, pricing dynamics, and capacity flows.

David Vernon, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Bernstein Research, has covered airfreight and surface transportation since 2010 and previously held operating roles at DHL Express and NOL.

Ajesh Kapoor, Founder and CEO of SemiCab, builds freight networks on the premise that optimization cannot stop at the enterprise boundary.

The session was moderated by Jonathan Miller, Vice President of Sales at SemiCab.

Key Insights

The cost pressures hitting US freight are structural, not cyclical.

The panel agreed: Dalilah’s Law, which is advancing through the House, the FMCSA non-domiciled CDL rule that took effect March 16, diesel at record highs, and widening spot exposure are compounding pressures, not isolated events. The traditional responses — rate resets, carrier consolidation, deferred investment — were built for cyclical volatility, not for what the market is now facing.

A little-discussed regulatory development could create the first legitimate driver shortage in US freight history.

Dean Croke flagged an emerging risk most operators are not yet pricing in: the push by large carriers to mandate hair follicle drug testing as part of CDL qualification. Hair follicle testing detects five times more positive marijuana results than standard urine testing. Combined with Dalilah’s Law and the FMCSA CDL rule, this could narrow the qualified driver pool in a way that makes current capacity constraints look manageable by comparison.

The inefficiency in freight does not live inside enterprises. It lives between them.

Ajesh Kapoor shared data from SemiCab’s network operations showing that when freight is planned across enterprises rather than within them, empty miles drop from an industry average of 28–43% to below 10%. The tools most teams rely on — TMS platforms, routing guides, annual RFP cycles — optimize within company boundaries. They do not address the coordination gap between companies, which is where the structural imbalance actually lives.

The freight technology stack was not built to work the way a driver thinks.

Dean Croke noted that average driving time logged across ELD data sits at 6.5 hours out of a possible 11. The gap is not a driver performance problem — it is a system design problem. Drivers plan in multi-load networks: A to B to C to D, home by Saturday. Brokers think one load at a time. Until technology reflects how carriers actually build their networks, efficiency gains will stay incremental.

What the Panelists Said

“Freight costs don’t exist in isolation. They are a signal of how well or how poorly networks are coordinating at scale. What’s breaking right now isn’t just pricing — it’s the underlying assumption that fragmented planning can absorb external shocks. It can’t.”

— Ajesh Kapoor, Founder and CEO, SemiCab

“A lot of these cost pressures are not cyclical. They are a structural buildup of distortions that have accumulated over years. Insurance, compliance, nuclear verdicts — none of that is going away in the next five to ten years.”

— David Vernon, Managing Director and Senior Analyst, Bernstein Research

“The industry is going through a transformational change in who can drive a truck and under what conditions. If hair follicle testing gets pushed through, we could be looking at a legitimate driver shortage for the first time. Not manufactured. Legitimate.”

— Dean Croke, Principal Analyst, DAT Freight & Analytics

About the Freight Network Forum

The Freight Network Forum is a SemiCab series designed to make transparent, substantive conversations on freight economics accessible to a broader industry audience. Sessions bring together practitioners, analysts, and operators to examine the structural forces shaping freight networks. All sessions are free and open to the industry.

The recording of Session 1 is available here.

About Algorhythm Holdings

Algorhythm Holdings, Inc. is a leading AI technology company focused on the growth and development of SemiCab, an emerging leader in the global logistics and distribution industry. Since 2020, SemiCab has enabled major retailers, brands and transportation providers to address common supply-chain problems globally. Its AI-enabled, cloud-based Collaborative Transportation Platform achieves the scalability required to predict and optimize millions of loads and hundreds of thousands of trucks. SemiCab uses real-time data from API-based load tendering and pre-built integrations with TMS and ELD partners to orchestrate collaboration across manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and their carriers. SemiCab uses AI/ML predictions and advanced predictive optimization models to enable fully loaded round trips. With SemiCab’s AI platform, shippers pay less and carriers make more without having to change a thing. For additional information, please go to: http://www.semicab.com

Investor Relations Contact

Brendan Hopkins
407-645-5295
investors@algoholdings.com
www.algoholdings.com

Media Contact

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Algorhythm@fischtankpr.com

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