In our popular podcast series, cargo.one Founder & Co-CEO Moritz Claussen hosts candid chats with visionary leaders from the logistics world, uncovering their formative experiences and most valuable advice. Subscribe today!
cargo.one:one continues with a leading light of the forwarding world — Brandon Fried, Executive Director of The Airforwarders Association. For more than 40 years, Brandon has represented the industry at government level, championing initiatives and new standards, bringing together stakeholders, and advocating for awareness and understanding of air freight.
Brandon's path into logistics started the way many great careers do — by accident. As a child, he was an aviation geek. He would ride his bike to the airport, collect airline schedules from and sit outside, tracking which flight was about to land overhead: "I was a true aviation geek."
After studying public policy at Syracuse University, decided against becoming a lawyer. He instead moved to Los Angeles to join a freight forwarder as a sales rep: "I learned the business and I found that the better I got in operations, the more effective I was in sales. I could talk to people and not only did I sound authoritative, I was because I had just worked something similar the night before."
Learning by doing
Brandon continued to learn the realities of air forwarding from the ground up – he swept warehouse floors, ran sales calls, worked operations shifts, and built a forwarding business from the ground up.
He would spend 25 years at Adcom Worldwide, becoming its Chief Operating Officer. Brandon entered The Airforwarders Association as a volunteer Board member and answered the call to become Executive Director – a role he assumed would last one or two years, not 20 years. Today, he's the voice that translates the operational realities of forwarding into the world of Capitol Hill: "It's one thing to learn about it conceptually — it's another thing to have felt it.”
Enjoy the full length episode, here:
Brandon learned early not to underestimate the people on the other side of the table in Government. "That staffer is Ivy League educated, highly intelligent, quick learner, and they will know more about that area than you will know," he explains. "I learned over time that I better have my ducks in order and I better have a convincing case."
The big tent and hard fights
The most transformative moments of Brandon's career came in the wake of September 11th, 2001. As chairman of The Airforwarders Association, Brandon faced the calls to remove cargo from passenger flights entirely. Freight wasn't screened on the physical level at the time and relied on the known shipper program. His mission was clear: "We had to convince Congress that we were safe."
Brandon was at the table when the TSA wrote the new security rules. He saw forwarders who were not strict enough about security get forced out of the business, and importantly learned that security isn't just a U.S. challenge. "You have got to be on the same page as the guy overseas. You can't have varying standards”.
“Inconsistent standards are the biggest challenge we have today…The bad guys look for the loopholes. And when your standards vary, they find those loopholes. The bad guys win.” Brandon Fried
Today, Brandon's battles are different but no less urgent. The AfA succeeds by learning from many different perspectives: "This is a big tent and in the tent you invite as many different viewpoints as possible." Airport congestion is high on the AfA's agenda. Truck delays at freight terminals continue to plague the industry, and after the AfA produced a whitepaper, Congress responded with a Government Accountability Office study and published a study that affirmed every one of the AFA's assertions.
"These airports were developed 50 or 60 years ago. You didn't have the congestion that you have today”, Brandon explains. “With IATA forecasting 4% growth per annum, these airports are not ready for it." Brandon’s mission: to get Congress to designate funding specifically for cargo infrastructure — and not for shiny new handrails in the passenger terminal.
AI and the evolving forwarder
Brandon is evangelical about the transformational impacts of digitalization, and the wide potential for AI in forwarding: "Your customers are demanding it because they want transparency. They want ease of use. They don't want to be on the phone with you for an hour just to arrange a shipment. He points to the value that AI can deliver to operational areas: “Rate quoting, booking, threat assessment, regulatory compliance…understanding who the customer is in reality, that's beyond what they present themselves as."
In the face of trade uncertainty, including tariffs, and shifting supply chains, the forwarder's role has evolved: "The freight forwarder has become an advisor now more than ever before. Amid all this trade uncertainty, customers come to their freight forwarders and say, how can we adjust our supply chain to mitigate this tariff risk?"
“We keep things moving. We keep economies going and we save lives. But the problem is that we don't get high enough in the tree to shout about it.” Brandon Fried
Brandon remains passionate about raising awareness and championing for the strongest possible frameworks for air logistics. He is set to continue advocating, and speaking out to explain the biggest policy opportunities and pitfalls. After 40 years in the industry, Brandon is just as ambitious for the industry. And he's still the guy who looks up when a plane flies overhead.
Want to know who Brandon nominates to join an upcoming episode of cargo.one:one? Tune into Episode 18 now to find out! 🤩
cargo.one:one features many more exciting guests in the series. If you enjoyed this episode, stay tuned to our blog or subscribe using your favorite podcast platform including Spotify, Apple podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Castbox and more.
