Q&A

How small fleets can start using AI today

Augment co-founder Harish Abbott on where AI helps most

(Image courtesy Harish Abbott)

If you run a small or midsize trucking fleet, you’ve probably noticed that most new technology seems built for the big players. Tools designed for a 2,000-truck operation don’t always make sense when you’re managing 20 trucks and wearing multiple hats.

That’s starting to change, says Harish Abbott, co-founder and CEO of Augment, an AI productivity platform for logistics. Here, he shares practical ways smaller fleets can start using more technology today and where AI could make the biggest difference in day-to-day operations.

—Interview by Shefali Kapadia, edited by Bianca Prieto

Where do you think the biggest inefficiencies lie in logistics, especially from the viewpoint of trucking companies?

The first is coordination overhead. Every load requires carriers, brokers, customers, terminals, drivers and systems to stay in sync in real time. But most of that coordination still happens through email, phone calls, texts and yes, a lot of WhatsApp. The second is inconsistent operating data. Appointment rules, detention, accessorials, routing preferences, customer-specific requirements—a lot of that still lives in inboxes and in people’s heads, not in systems. That creates constant friction.

The result is wasted time, missed revenue, service failures and margin leakage. But it also wears people down. Too many talented operators spend their day chasing updates instead of solving meaningful problems. When you multiply that across millions of loads, it adds up to a huge amount of waste in a supply chain that the whole economy depends on.

Do you think small motor carriers are embracing technology enough?

Adoption is uneven, and I don’t think that’s because carriers are resistant. Most fleets understand the pressure they’re under and know they need better tools. The real issue is that a lot of technology has not matched how carriers actually operate. Many solutions have required a big implementation effort, new workflows, more logins and internal IT support that smaller fleets simply do not have.

That is starting to change. The most promising technology now works inside the systems and channels teams already use, instead of forcing a whole new way of working. But there is no one-size-fits-all answer. What makes sense for a 20-truck fleet is different from what makes sense for a 2,000-truck fleet.

What's one step a carrier can take to start adopting new technology, even with tight budgets and limited resources?

Pick one painful, repetitive workflow nobody likes doing and document how your best person handles it today. That could be appointment scheduling, dispatching, collecting documents, updating customers or handling exceptions. Write down what they check, what they send, what systems they look at and when they escalate. That exercise matters because it forces clarity on what good actually looks like in your business. A lot of companies want better technology before they have a clear process. In reality, a clear process is the starting point.

You do not need a huge budget to begin. You need one defined problem, one documented workflow and a clear idea of what success looks like. Start there, prove value and build from there.

How can trucking execs, particularly at small fleets, assess ROI and make the case for new technology?

A simple place to start is human TMS touches. Every time someone has to open the TMS to update a load, enter a status, fix a discrepancy or send an update, that is time spent. It is also a cognitive load and another chance for something to get missed. If technology can materially reduce those touches, that is a real efficiency gain. But the bigger ROI is what your team does with that time. When dispatchers and operators are not buried in repetitive updates, they can actually manage by exception, solve issues earlier, and spend more time on customers and drivers.

That shows up in productivity, service quality, loaded miles, fleet-per-driver-manager ratios and ultimately operating ratio. My advice is simple: pick one workflow, measure the touches for a week and ask what a 50% reduction would mean for both efficiency and service.

In trucking, where is AI having the most impact?

The biggest impact right now is in workflow execution. AI is starting to take real ownership of work like order entry, dispatching, appointment scheduling, status updates, customer service and document handling. Humans are pulled into the loop when their judgment is needed. That is a much bigger shift than the earlier wave of point tools that mostly generated alerts, dashboards or extra noise.

What I would emphasize to trucking executives is: this change is moving faster than most people think. Generative AI reached mass adoption at a pace we really have not seen before. This is not something the industry can afford to watch from the sidelines for three years.

The companies leaning in now are learning faster, building better operating discipline and improving service along the way. That advantage compounds. And once that gap opens up, it will not be easy to close.