Adam Wingfield speaks as an independent industry analyst. His views represent his own analysis of publicly available market data and are not the views or opinions of Amazon. All forward-looking statements about market conditions are his projections based on current data, not guarantees.
Amazon brought Adam Wingfield to RelayCon 2026 to help carriers develop a personal readiness score: your honest read on whether your next business move makes you stronger or just louder. Here’s how the industry expert said trucking companies can grow from a place of strength.
“The mistake isn’t wanting growth. The mistake is confusing opportunity with readiness. Are you running profitably, or are you surviving? Is the truck you have working, or are you hoping the next one fixes it?”
Opportunity vs. readiness
How does your operation feel right now, genuinely?
“The carriers who came out of past freight cycles in the worst shape weren’t the ones who refused to grow,” said Wingfield. “They were the ones who grew before their operation could support it.”
- Opportunity: This is shared by all carriers. It’s timing. You don’t control it, and you can’t manufacture it.
- Readiness: Yours alone. Your numbers, your systems, your bandwidth. The only half of this equation you actually own.
Growth through equipment
This is the number Wingfield says most carriers skip: what that next truck actually costs in 2026—$160K–$200K for a New Class B truck, with elevated finance rates and insurance. “These are fixed costs,” he reminded carriers. “The costs don’t care whether you had a good week. The math has to work on an average month, not on your best one.”
Knowing this, Wingfield shared the questions he says to answer honestly before you sign on a new truck.
- Where is the freight coming from for that truck? “Not ‘the load board will have something. That’s a hope, not a plan. A committed, consistent lane you can name before you sign. Add a truck to a dependency and you’ve built a bigger dependency. Add it to committed volume and you’ve built a business.”
- Can you cover the break-in period without panic? “Every new truck costs money before it makes money. Maintenance items, routing that isn’t dialed in, a driver still learning the lanes. If your plan needs perfect revenue from day one, it’s fragile. The carriers who scale assume something goes wrong and fund for it.”
- Do you have the bandwidth or are you the bottleneck? “Two trucks isn’t one truck twice. It’s dispatch, compliance, driver management, and maintenance across two units at once. Most carriers don’t hit a truck limit. They hit an owner limit.” Wingfield recommends that you, “Replace yourself in at least one role before you add a truck.”
- Is this growth demand or industry mood? “If a lane you already run well has room for another truck, if consistent, committed volume is pulling you forward—that’s demand. If the reason is just ‘rates look good right now’—that’s mood. One survives an industry shift. The other doesn’t.”
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“Timing isn’t about waiting for perfect conditions. It’s about being ready when the opportunity shows up.”
Growth without equipment
Here are the moves Wingfield says can help you get more from the trucks you already run.
- Commit your capacity. Don’t live on the board. “You can grow what each truck earns without adding a truck. The move is committed, consistent volume—freight you can count on before the week starts—instead of living load-to-load on the board.”
- Position early to build a service record by the time volume is fully running. “The first 6–18 months for new lanes, load types, facilities get served by whoever showed up and asked. Wait, and you’re one of everybody, competing on price for freight someone else already earned.”
- Growth should reduce risk over time. The right expansion 1) offers more diversified freight and less reliance on one lane, 2) offers more consistent revenue across the month, and 3) makes you stronger in a bad month. The wrong expansion means 1) More fixed cost and pressure to fill trucks, 2) More exposure to a single industry condition, and 3) Only works in a good month.
Name the ONE move you can realistically pursue—and put a date on it.
- A committed lane or consistent run you could lock in: Relay offers short-term contracts to book weeks-months of steady roundtrip loads in advance.
- A new load type: Relay’s adding thousands of new load opportunities in reefer, box truck, intermodal, hostling and shuttling, and more.
- A way to turn inconsistent miles into committed volume this month: Relay’s Post A Truck feature automatically books spot loads that match your business criteria, while auctions allow you to bid on consistent one-way contracts.
Need help choosing? See how to find Amazon Relay’s fit for your trucking business.
Relay has the tools & loads to help achieve your goals
Wingfield’s guidance can help you build your readiness—your number, your weakest link, your one move. Relay can offer the committed, consistent freight volume he says can help you’re your business from a place of strength. Apply to haul with Amazon Relay and take the first step toward a more predictable, rewarding business.
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Rates and volume shown are based on recent averages and may vary. Live rates are provided at the time of booking.
Disclaimer: Amazon does not tender loads through any third-party load boards. Any Amazon loads posted on third-party load boards will only be tendered directly to approved and onboarded carriers via the Relay web portal or Relay mobile app. If you are interested in hauling loads for Amazon, sign up and book directly on relay.amazon.com. For more about our efforts against fraud and cargo theft, see our trustworthy transportation page.
