The commercial vehicle market has always been more cyclical than the passenger vehicle sector, but according to Tony Stinsa, head of inbound and outbound logistics at International Motors, the latest downturn has been amongst the deepest the industry has seen in decades.
Speaking on the Red Sofa at Finished Vehicle Logistics North America in California, Stinsa explained how International is using the current market conditions to prepare for what it expects will eventually become another sharp recovery in truck production volumes.
“We do tend to have much larger swings than the automotive industry,” said Stinsa. “What we’ve seen in the last year is the lowest trough that we’ve seen in a couple of decades.”
Rather than simply reacting to lower volumes, International has been using the slowdown to analyse where previous production and logistics ramps created constraints and operational bottlenecks.
“We’ve tried to use the time of the trough to get prepared for the eventual spike because we know it’s coming,” he said.
Preparing for the next demand spike
A major focus for International has been understanding how quickly logistics capacity can realistically be rebuilt once demand rebounds.
Stinsa said the company has spent the last nine to 12 months reviewing the operational lessons from previous volume increases, particularly around labour availability and lead times.
“What we’ve done is examined prior ramps and figured out where we’ve had problems,” he said. “We’ve looked at lead times for various constraints.”
One of the biggest challenges, he explained, lies in rebuilding specialised labour capacity after a prolonged downturn: “One of the things we require on the outbound side is skilled labour for mechanics and for drivers,” said Stinsa. “In that trough, a lot of that labour has gone away.”
He noted that International is now holding weekly planning meetings focused on when to begin reactivating capacity and recruiting labour ahead of future production increases.
Tariffs and fuel prices remain key cost pressures
Alongside market volatility, Stinsa pointed to tariffs and fuel costs as the most immediate financial pressures affecting International’s logistics operations.
"The biggest lever right now, and it's been something that's been topical for the last year or so, is tariffs, and Section 232 tariffs have been a particular difficulty for us," he said.
International has been developing mitigation strategies around cross-border flows and customs processes, including adding an inbond process for units passing through the US.
Fuel price inflation is also reshaping transport decisions across the network. “Diesel fuel is about $5.50 per gallon, up from the high-$3 range,” Stinsa said. “That’s a significant spike.”
To manage rising fuel costs, International has increased its focus on carrier compliance with fuel purchasing programmes designed to secure discounted fuel pricing.
“The carriers have to adopt a part of our fuel programme which allows us to get discounts as they fill up around the country,” he explained. “That’s one thing that we really have to watch compliance on because when they’re non-compliant, it drives higher costs.”
The company is also revisiting transport mode optimisation, particularly the balance between single-vehicle and decked transport configurations. “We’re working to optimise all of those items because the impact of fuel drives bigger changes between the modes,” said Stinsa.
A shift towards rail
One of the most significant strategic shifts discussed by Stinsa was International’s growing interest in rail transport. Historically, rail has not played much of a role in the company’s finished vehicle network, but Stinsa shared that has begun to change over the last six months.
“On a long-term basis we’re looking at rail,” he said. “That’s really a nascent topic for us. It’s something that has been on our board of things to work on for years and we’re just now in the past six months making some really good progress on that one.”
While cost reduction is part of the equation, Stinsa stressed that rail is increasingly being evaluated as a resilience strategy as well. “I think it’ll drive savings,” he said. “And we’re also looking at it as a resilience play to have an alternate relief valve for the volume as well.”
Electric truck logistics still evolving
Stinsa also reflected on how changing regulations are reshaping the outlook for electric commercial vehicles, particularly in medium- and heavy-duty trucking.
“The regulatory landscape has changed significantly for medium and heavy trucks,” he said, adding that relaxed regulations for 2027 have reduced some of the urgency around adoption.
However, he pointed to electric school buses as one segment continuing to grow quickly, creating ongoing transport challenges around the use of costly lowboy trailers. “I know everybody is working with the carriers, trying to look at different options to optimise both how do you do the lowboy and how you get away from that very costly alternative,” he said.
Stinsa added that solutions developed for school bus logistics could eventually influence transport strategies for heavier electric trucks as adoption grows.
AI becomes a partner selection priority
Artificial intelligence was another key theme in the discussion, particularly the use of agentic AI across dispatch, tendering and vehicle planning operations.
“One of our focuses, since we rely so heavily on logistics partners, is to see what those partners are doing and ensure that they’re on a path towards AI adoption,” said Stinsa.
He pointed to growing use of AI in carrier dispatch and communication, as well as finished vehicle load optimisation, including “the decking and pairing of vehicles”.
Most significantly, Stinsa said AI capability is now becoming part of International’s formal partner evaluation process. “We want to make sure we don’t get stuck with a technical laggard that’s in our business,” he said.
