Logistics at a Crossroads Vol: 14 📦 Too Fast, Too Fragile

In logistics, we plan months in advance. But what happens when policy shifts faster than we can build infrastructure?

This week, a coalition of small businesses — including a wine distributor, a cycling apparel company, and a plumbing supply brand — filed a lawsuit against the White House, challenging the use of emergency powers to impose tariffs. Their claim? Trade deficits aren’t national emergencies. And sudden tariffs aren’t policy — they’re panic.

For those of us in the trenches of supply chain planning, this isn’t just a legal story — it’s an operational nightmare.

Freight doesn’t pivot overnight. We’re already rerouting around China. Now the “safe” alternates — Vietnam, Mexico, India — are under new scrutiny. And U.S. reshoring? Still stuck behind workforce gaps, zoning delays, and infrastructure catch-up.

One executive said it best:

“Supply chains require long-term planning that is nearly impossible in the current environment.”

Meanwhile, planners are juggling:

• Sourcing shifts mid-quarter

• Rate volatility with no trendline

• Contingency plans layered on top of contingency plans

We can’t keep absorbing shocks while pretending we’re agile. Logistics isn’t built for chaos — it’s built for calculated movement.

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🛑 What Needs to Change

✔ Trade policy must be stable, even when it’s tough
✔ Reshoring requires funding, not just slogans
✔ Emergency powers must be questioned when they create more harm than help

This isn’t about left or right. It’s about whether businesses — and the logistics professionals behind them — can keep planning in good faith when the rules keep changing.

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📣 Volume 14 asks one big question:
How many more pivots can we absorb before something breaks?

We’ll hold the thread in Volume 15.
But today, we’re naming the chaos.

🔗 Listen to the full episode: [Insert link]
🎧 “Holding the Line: A Logistics at a Crossroads Podcast”
📍 Freight. Feelings. No filter.