A new industry survey published by logistics technology firm Deep Current argues that freight operations teams are still stuck in “reactive mode” — not because they lack digital tools, but because day-to-day work has become a high-volume stream of approvals, checks and fixes spread across too many disconnected systems.
The company’s study, released in Bremen on 23 February 2026, says 83% of respondents feel they operate more reactively than proactively. Deep Current frames this as a symptom of “decision density”: a workload made up of constant operational judgement calls that automation has not meaningfully reduced.
According to the findings, the sheer number of decisions being made each day is striking. The survey reports that nearly three-quarters make 50+ operational decisions daily, half make 100+, and almost one in five exceed 200 — covering tasks such as routing approvals, rate selection, documentation validation, compliance checks and exception handling, all of which can determine whether a shipment runs smoothly or turns into delays and disputes.
When “automation” still means 25,000 judgement calls a year
Deep Current suggests that at these levels a typical operations leader could make more than 25,000 shipment-related decisions annually, and it claims the pressure is rising rather than falling: 43% said their daily decision volume has increased over five years, even as digital tools and automation platforms have spread. Respondents linked this to growing compliance complexity, higher customer expectations, multi-system workflows and more frequent exception handling.
For hauliers, even though the survey is not carrier-only, the implied knock-on effects are familiar. Time-pressured decision-making at forwarders and logistics intermediaries can show up downstream as late confirmations, last-minute changes, repeat requests for the same information, and longer resolution loops when something does not match — especially around references, documents and compliance.
Five systems a day, and paperwork still checked by hand
Deep Current points to system fragmentation as a key driver of strain. In the survey, more than two thirds said they use five or more systems daily to manage shipment workflows, while fragmented data across systems was also cited as a major challenge. The release highlights manual documentation checks as a central pressure point — suggesting that even “digital” workflows can still rely heavily on humans reconciling mismatched or incomplete information.
This is where the press material comes closest to issues that directly affect road freight execution. Documentation mismatches and slow validation are not just admin friction; they can translate into vehicles waiting for release, extra calls to drivers, rework in transport offices, and billing disputes over who pays for errors and delays.
Deep Current says more than half reported a financial impact in the past 12 months due to manual operational errors, and a majority admitted making decisions they later reconsidered because of workload or time pressure. The company links those self-reported impacts to problems such as documentation mismatches, incorrect data entry, compliance delays and rate discrepancies.
Despite the hype around AI in logistics, the survey also suggests that AI in core decision workflows remains uncommon. Only around one in five respondents said they use AI-driven tools for documentation validation or decision support, a figure the release presents as evidence that operational decision-making is still largely human-driven rather than automated end-to-end.
Deep Current’s chief executive, Tamim Fannoush, argues that the industry has become richer in data without reducing the burden of human judgement. He says that if leaders are making more decisions than ever despite more systems, it suggests digital transformation must shift from task automation to reducing “decision density”.
Deep Current says it surveyed 600 freight decision-makers across multiple regions between September 2025 and January 2026. Respondents included senior operations and compliance roles from freight intermediaries such as forwarders, NVOCCs, customs brokers and third-party logistics providers, with data gathered via online questionnaires, polls and qualitative inputs.
