UWL | Duncan Wright on Kev Talks Podcast

What Wins in Global Logistics, Now and Next

On Kev Talks: Real World Global Logistics, UWL President and World Group Co-CEO Duncan Wright distilled three decades of experience into a practical roadmap for shippers and service providers. His core message: relationships, flexibility, and real execution outperform buzzwords.

Formed by Operators, Shaped by Mentors

Wright’s early years at Sea-Land and Horizon Lines fused technical discipline with entrepreneurial culture. It was transparent, fast, and demanding. People learned by doing, sometimes by failing, and always by owning outcomes. That period also grounded a lasting truth: logistics is a people business. The best leaders stay close to customers, partners, and teams.

What Shippers Face Today

Shippers continue to navigate tariff shifts, compliance ambiguity, geopolitical shocks, and operational volatility. Wright sees a clear split in responses. Some remain locked on lowest rate. Others pursue trusted partnerships that blend cost control with guaranteed capacity and service. The winners are building flexibility and relationship equity that pays off when the market snaps.

Tech Helps, People Win

Visibility platforms, TMS backbones, driver tools, and accessible data are table stakes. Predictive analytics and AI show promise, yet consistent cases that truly remove manual work in ocean forwarding are rare. Wright’s caution is not anti-tech. It is pro-judgment. Do not let automation dilute critical thinking or flatten the authentic voice in customer communications. Tools should amplify people, not replace human problem-solving.

A 10-Year Playbook

Wright offers three rules for resilient supply chains that perform when stress hits.

1. Protect critical thinking and human connection.
   Do not outsource decision-making to AI. Encourage teams to analyze, decide, and communicate in their own words. Logistics is dynamic and messy. Prioritization and “who gets the last slot” are human calls built on trust, history, and context.
2. Engineer flexibility into the network.
   Assume disruption. Containerized trade will keep growing while infrastructure and carrier concentration add pressure. Spread risk across origins and destinations. Avoid single-gateway dependence. Even smaller shippers can adopt a four-corners approach to U.S. entry points.
3. Stop treating contingency as paper. Operate it.
   When disruption lands, everyone rushes to the same backup. The only way to stay ahead is to load-balance now. Stand up secondary ports, partners, EDI connections, and routings before you “need” them. Use them in steady state so they are warm, tested, and ready to scale with a switch.

Culture, Mentors, and the Long Game

Mentors taught Wright never to break relationships. Address tough issues directly. Celebrate people when they move roles or companies. Keep junior talent customer-facing so they learn real constraints and tradeoffs. He urges newcomers to give the craft three years — time to “earn a degree in freight” — and urges veterans to make the work visible and meaningful. Logistics may not be flashy, but it moves the world.

A Truth Worth Repeating

Globalization is not retreating. It is rerouting. Trade lanes beyond the United States are vibrant and growing. In that reality, pride of purpose matters. The industry thrives when operators bring humility, curiosity, and partnership.

Bottom line: Build trusted relationships, diversify gateways, and run backups as business as usual. Let technology assist. Let people lead. That is how to navigate the next 90 days and the next decade.

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