What I Learned at IANA Expo 2026: Cargo Crime, Rail and Autonomous Freight

The first things first is that on that flight, Because my experience with intermodal is very much a high-level experience, and I would still say my knowledge base of intermodal is still very much a high level, I wanted to get some extra insight on how we kind of arrived to where we're at today and what is next for intermodal.

That's actually a big theme of the IANA Expo this year.

is talking about the next era of intermodal.

For a lot of folks who may not be aware, Anne Reinke, who was previously head of leadership over at TIA, Transportation Intermediaries Association, she came over to IANA, and we talked to her on the podcast a little over a year ago.

and preparation for her first IANA Expo.

And she was, I think, a few months on the job.

And so for this year, this is her first real year with the experience under her belt.

And now she's able to bring a larger vision to life of where she sees these kinds of events.

Because this is an event where folks from all of the major rail lines or rail, hopefully I'm saying that right, But all of the major rail programs, they're coming.

So Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, among other, Norfolk Southern, of course.

So all of those people from those different historic railroads are all here.

They're all at meetings and parties and events.

know the expo floor of course and then all of the educational sessions that took place they have a big main room and then they have a bunch of you know mini sessions that are on the expo floor to kind of drive that traffic to the expo floor but in preparation for this i realized i i really knew nothing about kind of the history of trains and so i found all of these history channel documentaries that talked about the evolutions of trains there's even an entire series that goes through.

I didn't make it through the whole series.

I did watch at least two or three episodes from the History Channel series and made a couple notes.

So if you like, you know, a little bit of train history, I promise you we'll get into more IANA stuff in here in just a second.

But I took some notes while I was on the plane watching.

And so a couple of my notes, my first note is airbrake.

So apparently the airbrake is one of the most pivotal innovations, not just in trains, but in all industries anywhere.

because of the way that it helped trains in order to brake safely and effectively.

And the way that engineering took place, it's considered still to this day as a modern marble.

So I thought that that was interesting.

Another interesting part is also the reefer car.

That was another major innovation for for rail lines is that they used to just have an iced out reefer or a reefer cart part of the train.

And forgive me if I am not pronouncing these phrases right, but you figure that the train car, I guess it's probably the, not cart, but car, the train car, it used to be nothing but ice that kept that freight cold.

The first things first is that on that flight, Because my experience with intermodal is very much a high-level experience, and I would still say my knowledge base of intermodal is still very much a high level, I wanted to get some extra insight on how we kind of arrived to where we're at today and what is next for intermodal.

That's actually a big theme of the IANA Expo this year.

is talking about the next era of intermodal.

For a lot of folks who may not be aware, Anne Reinke, who was previously head of leadership over at TIA, Transportation Intermediaries Association, she came over to IANA, and we talked to her on the podcast a little over a year ago.

and preparation for her first IANA Expo.

And she was, I think, a few months on the job.

And so for this year, this is her first real year with the experience under her belt.

And now she's able to bring a larger vision to life of where she sees these kinds of events.

Because this is an event where folks from all of the major rail lines or rail, hopefully I'm saying that right, But all of the major rail programs, they're coming.

So Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, among other, Norfolk Southern, of course.

So all of those people from those different historic railroads are all here.

They're all at meetings and parties and events.

know the expo floor of course and then all of the educational sessions that took place they have a big main room and then they have a bunch of you know mini sessions that are on the expo floor to kind of drive that traffic to the expo floor but in preparation for this i realized i i really knew nothing about kind of the history of trains and so i found all of these history channel documentaries that talked about the evolutions of trains there's even an entire series that goes through.

I didn't make it through the whole series.

I did watch at least two or three episodes from the History Channel series and made a couple notes.

So if you like, you know, a little bit of train history, I promise you we'll get into more IANA stuff in here in just a second.

But I took some notes while I was on the plane watching.

And so a couple of my notes, my first note is airbrake.

So apparently the airbrake is one of the most pivotal innovations, not just in trains, but in all industries anywhere.

because of the way that it helped trains in order to brake safely and effectively.

And the way that engineering took place, it's considered still to this day as a modern marble.

So I thought that that was interesting.

Another interesting part is also the reefer car.

That was another major innovation for for rail lines is that they used to just have an iced out reefer or a reefer cart part of the train.

And forgive me if I am not pronouncing these phrases right, but you figure that the train car, I guess it's probably the, not cart, but car, the train car, it used to be nothing but ice that kept that freight cold.