The 2027 FreightTech Awards nominations will open this fall ahead of FreightWaves' Future of Freight Festival (F3) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now in its ninth year, the awards program is widely regarded as the premier recognition honoring the most disruptive technology companies and forward-thinking transportation providers in North American freight, according to FreightWaves.
The Road to the FreightTech 25
The evaluation process is designed to elevate true innovation. Companies may nominate themselves or be nominated by others. A single nomination qualifies a company for consideration, but the total number of unique nominators is shared with the evaluation team, per FreightWaves. FreightWaves' internal research team, market analysts, and journalists then vet nominations to select a curated list of the 100 most innovative companies. That list is sent to an independent, external panel of roughly 80 judges—comprising industry CEOs, academics, investors, and logistics executives—who rank their top 25 choices using a traditional points-tally system supervised and audited by accounting firm Henderson, Hutcherson & McCullough. The resulting FreightTech 25 represents the vanguard of logistics engineering, artificial intelligence, and hardware design.
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nominations (self or third-party) opened by FreightWaves |
| 2 | Internal research team vets nominations to 100 companies |
| 3 | Independent panel of ~80 judges ranks top 25 |
| 4 | Results audited by Henderson, Hutcherson & McCullough |
2026 FreightTech Awards Recap
The 2026 FreightTech Awards highlighted a massive shift toward automation, fraud prevention, and strategic consolidation, FreightWaves reported.
- Highway secured the #1 spot for its second consecutive year, focusing on combating carrier identity fraud.
- DAT Freight and Analytics ranked #10 after a busy year of technological transformation propelled by its acquisitions of Convoy, Trucker Tools, and Outgo.
- C.H. Robinson returned to the list for the first time in five years at #13, largely thanks to rapid, widespread deployment of agentic AI across its Navisphere platform.
- Repowr, a trailer management platform, debuted in the FreightTech 25 at #12 under new CEO Chris Hines.
- Transflo made its first official appearance on the final top 25 list after launching high-impact AI carrier workflows.
These companies joined historic winners like Amazon, FedEx, and J.B. Hunt in driving the transportation economy forward.
How to Nominate for 2027
FreightWaves invites nominations for both the FreightTech 100 and FreightTech 25. Nominations will open soon, with further details to be announced via the FreightWaves newsletter. The awards will culminate at the F3: Future of Freight Festival in Chattanooga, featuring industry-defining keynotes, technology demos, and the inaugural F3 Awards Dinner. Interested companies should keep an eye out for updates to ensure their achievements are seen by the industry's premier decision-makers.
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