Above the Fold: Supply Chain Logistics News (July 11, 2025)

By Adrian Gonzalez

R.E.M. is one of my favorite bands (Depeche Mode tops the list, but R.E.M. is in close competition for the #2 slot with INXS).

My wife, on the other hand, absolutely hates R.E.M. She can’t stand Michael Stipe’s voice (“it’s so whiny”), the hard-to-decipher lyrics, and just about everything else about the band.

This morning I woke up and my Garmin watch said “Not enough REM,” which is true, I haven’t been listening to enough R.E.M. lately. I texted this photo to my wife and warned her that I will be playing R.E.M. in all the rooms of the house today to correct this deficiency.

She didn’t find it funny.

So, I’m just going to stand in the place where I live, think about direction, and wonder why I haven’t before.

And while I do that, here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:

It’s Back to the Tariff Wars

After spending some time dealing with Iran and the Middle East, President Trump is focused once again on tariffs — and it seems like he’s making up for lost time.

On Wednesday, “President Trump sent tariff letters to many countries informing them of their new reciprocal tariff rates, which will take effect on August 1.” Among the lucky recipients of these letters were Japan (25% tariffs), Korea (25%), South Africa (30%), and Thailand (36%).

Trump also announced a new 50% tariff on U.S. copper imports and a 50% duty on goods from Brazil, both to start on August 1 too.

And he didn’t forget about our friends up north. Late yesterday, as reported by CNN, President Trump “threatened a 35% tariff on goods imported from Canada, a dramatic escalation in an on-again, off-again trade war with America’s northern neighbor and one of its most important trading partners. And, in a separate NBC News interview, he suggested blanket tariffs on other US trading partners will jump, as well.”

What else is there left to say? There is no sense in analyzing the implications of all these changes because, as we’ve seen throughout the past 6 months, the moment you finish the analysis, these tariffs will be increased, reduced, eliminated, or who knows what else.

If he hadn’t said it already, and he were alive today, this whole tariff mess would have inspired Edward R. Murrow to sign off this week with his now-famous remark: “Good night, and good luck.”

The War Against Freight Fraud Continues

According to the “State of Fraud in the Industry” report published by TIA in April 2025, “From September 1, 2024 through February 28, 2025, there were 1,611 fraud reports filed across seven key categories — an increase of 65% compared to the prior eight-month reporting period [emphasis mine] included in our previous report.”

“Unlawful brokering scams continue to top the list of threats, cited as the most common fraud type by 34% of respondents,” according to the report. “Spoofing followed at 22%, with identity theft close behind at 20%. Other tactics like phishing (6%), fictitious pickups (8%), and impersonation via inbound phone calls (6%) show that the threat landscape remains varied and sophisticated.”

Looks like thieves continue to have the upper hand here, which is why we continue to see technology companies offering solutions to address this growing problem.

This week, for example, Descartes (a Talking Logistics sponsor) announced the release of Descartes MacroPoint™ FraudGuard 2.0, “the latest advancement in freight fraud technology designed to help shippers, freight brokers, and third-party logistics providers (3PL) safeguard their business against increasingly sophisticated fraud and cargo theft schemes.”

Here are some key features as highlighted in the press release:

Carrier and Driver Lookup Tool: Outside of real-time alerting, users can quickly access historical performance and risk profile information using Department of Transportation (DOT) numbers or driver phone numbers, including number of loads being actively tracked, volumes and prior fraud indicators. This empowers better decision-making during load planning and carrier selection.

Carrier Insights: Custom alerts flag newly added or suspicious carriers and drivers, drivers potentially hiding identities using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones, and carriers accepting excessive loads or those with historical data spoofing attempts, which allows users to block high-risk carriers before load details are communicated to the carrier/driver.

In-Transit Risk Monitoring: To automate detection, enable real-time risk alerts and facilitate a faster response to potential theft or tampering, the solution continuously monitors shipments (even prior to pickup) for suspicious activities, such as GPS and IP location spoofing, route deviations, improbable travel patterns and unusual vehicle stops.

Back in April 2024 when we surveyed members of our Indago supply chain research community, a little over half the respondents (52%) characterized their processes/efforts to prevent freight fraud as either “Good” (48%) or “Excellent” (4%). But at the other end of the spectrum, 22% characterized them as “Poor” (15%) or “Very Poor” (7%). As one supply chain executive commented, “We haven’t even begun to think about mitigating freight fraud, which could introduce substantial risk as we scale.”

Simply put, if you’re in that 22% and haven’t even begun to think about mitigating freight fraud, what are you waiting for?

For more insights and advice on freight fraud, check out the following posts we’ve published:

And with that, have a meaningful weekend!

Song of the Week: “Stand” by R.E.M.