Hwy Haul's 'Miles' AI Aims to Rescue Struggling Freight Brokers from Margin Crunch

The freight brokerage industry, long squeezed by razor-thin margins, is facing a wave of closures. Data from CarrierOK indicates nearly 8,000 brokerages shuttered in 2023 alone, a trend that has persisted into this year. In this high-stakes environment, San Jose-based trucking technology company Hwy Haul is launching its "Miles" platform—an autonomous AI agent system designed to automate the entire freight lifecycle from booking to delivery tracking.

Developed over several months, Miles functions as a suite of digital teammates capable of handling communications via voice, email, or text. The core promise is radical efficiency: Hwy Haul CEO Aman (last name withheld) claims the platform can reduce the 20-25 manual "touches" typically required per load, reclaiming up to 80% of human time spent on logistics coordination. For a firm moving 100 loads daily, this translates to over 75 hours saved each day.

Early adopter Lipman Family Farms, a Florida produce shipper, reports significant gains after 18 months on Hwy Haul's system and early access to Miles. General Manager Ryan Focke noted a 30-40% reduction in manual tasks across booking and coordination, saving hundreds of hours weekly. Financially, per-load margins improved through better rate execution and fewer carrier fall-offs, while non-compliant carrier interactions dropped by 20-30%.

The platform's launch coincides with a painful market correction. The pandemic-fueled shipping boom attracted a flood of new entrants, creating a volatile, price-driven market. "It was a shipper's market. Carriers had to accept low-margin deals just to keep trucks moving," Aman explained, noting that this unsustainable dynamic fueled the recent bankruptcy wave. Miles aims to provide a lifeline by enabling existing teams to manage 1.3 to 1.5 times more volume without adding staff.

While not a direct consumer play, Aman argues that systemic efficiencies—like reducing spoilage for refrigerated goods through faster, more reliable coordination—could eventually lower costs for end buyers. Miles is offered via a subscription model, with pricing based on the type and number of AI agents used monthly.

Industry Voices:

"This is the toolset we've been waiting for," says Marcus Chen, a logistics veteran at a mid-sized brokerage in Chicago. "If the 80% time-savings claim holds true, it allows our planners to focus on relationship-building and complex problem-solving instead of administrative firefighting."

Sarah Elwood, an independent freight broker in Atlanta, is cautiously optimistic: "The Lipman case study is compelling, but integration is always the devil in the details. For smaller outfits, the subscription cost needs to justify itself very quickly in this market."

A more skeptical take comes from David R. Miller, a former carrier operations manager turned industry blogger: "Yet another 'AI salvation' narrative. This doesn't address the core issue of chronic underpricing and market oversaturation. Automating a broken process just gets you to bankruptcy faster. It's a tech band-aid on a hemorrhage."

Priya Sharma, a supply chain analyst at a retail consortium, sees broader implications: "The real potential is in the data aggregation and predictive capabilities. If Miles can optimize lane pricing and carrier reliability at scale, it could stabilize margins across networks, not just for individual brokers."

This article is based on originally reported material and has been expanded with additional context and analysis.

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