March 17, 2026 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Join NMFTA on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at 1:00 pm ET for LTL by the Numbers: Exclusive Benchmarking Insights to Help Leaders Navigate What’s Next. This no-charge webinar continues our quarterly webinar series designed to help close a long-recognized gap in the broader supply chain: meaningful, practical less-than-truckload (LTL) performance data and insight.
Description
While we’ll highlight key findings from NMFTA’s LTL Benchmarking Group Programs’ Q4 2025 results, the true focus of this session is on real-world leadership perspectives—what’s working, what’s changing, and how successful carriers are preparing for the year ahead.
This 60-minute session will not be a presentation, but a practical, unscripted discussion touching on core issues defining the industry’s trajectory, including:
- The economic and business climate: how carriers are balancing soft demand, cost pressures, and the drive for efficiency.
- NMFC updates and the shift toward density-based classification—and what it means for pricing, planning, and operations.
- Technology adoption: which tools and innovations, from automation to AI, are actually delivering measurable results.
- People development and leadership: how the industry can cultivate the next generation of talent.
With two respected leaders whose organizations continue to demonstrate strength and resilience, this conversation will offer grounded insight the industry can act on—not theory, not headlines, but real guidance from those navigating the challenges and opportunities firsthand.
Meet Your Speakers
Chris Henry is president of KSM Transport Advisors, LLC (KSMTA) and KSMTA Canada. Chris has spent his entire 20+ year career serving the trucking industry, helping carriers and transportation companies identify and target areas for potential improvement in order to increase profitability. He is well-known as the co-founder and former leader of StakUp, the developer of an online motor carrier benchmarking platform which quickly became the trucking industry’s largest source of carrier financial and operational benchmark data. Chris was instrumental in establishing StakUp’s joint venture with the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) to develop their TCA Profitability Program (TPP) benchmarking tool, which compares and contrasts trucking companies’ financial and operational performance.
While with TCA, Chris served as a facilitator for several TCA Best Practice Groups and helped grow carrier participation in its TPP by 300%. When StakUp was acquired by FreightWaves in 2019, Chris became its vice president of carrier profitability. Most recently, Chris served as vice president of customer experience and recognition programs for CarriersEdge, a leading provider of online training in the North American trucking industry and creators of the Best Fleets to Drive For recognition program which is produced in partnership with TCA. During Chris’ time with CarriersEdge, this recognition program achieved record growth over successive years.
Clete Cordero is the Vice President of Pricing and Traffic for Southeastern Freight Lines. Clete holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee in Transportation Logistics. He was the top graduating senior from the business school in 1996 and played rugby for the university. He and his wife, Carie, have three children. Clete enjoys being on the lake with family, working with the youth at his church, and coaching and playing sports. He serves as a Directional Elder for Radius Church in Lexington, SC, board chairman of the NMFTA, and a board member for Providence Home in Columbia, SC.
Richard Ellis has over 30 years of experience in pricing and logistics, currently serving as Vice President of Pricing at Estes Express Lines since July 2017. Prior to this role, Richard held the position of Director of National Accounts Pricing at the same company. Richard’s career began at Averitt Express, where responsibilities included working as a Pricing Analyst from March 1987 to September 1994. Richard holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Transportation/Logistics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, earned in 1983.
