A busy first day at the Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network’s (CVSN) 2025 Summit, filled with legislative updates, stirring award speeches and pillar discussions about CVSN’s core principles, continued Tuesday in Washington, D.C., with a business operations panel discussion Tuesday featuring distributors Bobby Rutherford of Freedom Truck & Trailer and Edward Neeley of Truck Supply Company, and supplier representative Harjeev Khanduja of Automann.
Topics addressed included workforce development, AI adoption, supply chain evolutions and, of course, tariffs.
In most areas, the panelists were overwhelmingly in sync.
None of the businesses have fully integrated AI solutions into their operations but all are testing out where the technology makes sense. Early efficiency gains were noted in marketing, inventory management and accounting analysis, though the panelists also shared data privacy and security concerns, and said they are being careful to only implement AI tools in areas where they are confident the security of their proprietary and customer information.
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Workforce was another area of panel cohesion. The trio all spoke about challenges they see in recruiting young talent and keeping new hires in their operations. Neeley and Khanduja noted one hiring trick that works in their operations is bringing young, committed associates to job fairs, interviews and other prospect-facing experiences to speak on behalf of the company to possible hires.
As for tariffs, distributors have definitely dealt with fewer challenges in managing their product offering in 2025.
Rutherford said his company pulled ahead some purchasing early in the year to avoid tariff pricing but has dialed that back in recent months as pricing changes haven’t been as frequent of volatile as feared. He said some customers have complained when prices shift but most are resigned to that inevitability.
Neeley agreed with the latter. He said Truck Supply has had no procurement challenges this year and has, for the most part, kept inventory levels steady despite pricing changes. Customer demand is soft but not non-existent, and having product in stock regardless of its acquisition price is better than having nothing at all.
“If a customer comes to you for 5 cent eggs and you don’t have any it doesn’t matter if the guy down the street is $10,” Neeley said.
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Suppliers haven’t had the same experience. Automann began preparing for the tariffs before they were implemented, Khanduja says, and has been proactive all year in managing its sourcing and supply chain to reduce the impact of tariffs on distributor partners and end users.
He says Automann’s commitment to carrying a lot of inventory helped early in the year — it had product available at pre-tariff prices — but adds the company hasn’t altered its inventory levels much since either. Echoing Neeley, Khanduja says product demand is down but fairly stable, and when things pick up Automann will immediately be ready to manage more orders.
