{
  "id": 16743811,
  "title": "Spartan’s operators went from AI skeptics to agent builders",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/27/spartans-operators-went-from-ai-skeptics-to-agent-builders",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-27T11:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "FreightWaves",
    "slug": "freightwaves",
    "url": "https://www.freightwaves.com/news/spartan-carrier-alvys-foundry-ai-agents"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "When Spartan Carrier Group's founder and CEO, Carlos M. Llanes Jr., started studying artificial intelligence two years ago, his team dismissed it as nonsense. Today, Spartan's vice president of operations, Kendrick Dawson, is learning to create AI agents for his company. Spartan, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, has grown from zero trucks to around 150 in just five years, specializing in just-in-time automotive freight for Toyota as its largest customer. The company aims to continue expanding without hiring more staff. The first AI agent Spartan has developed generates hourly customer reports, a task previously completed manually by dispatchers. A second agent is in the works for driver payroll, currently undergoing testing. Alvys, a company that launched Foundry in August to enable carriers to build AI agents within its transportation management system, named Spartan as an early adopter. When Dawson joined Spartan from Ryder in 2021, he was among the skeptics regarding Llanes' AI claims. However, two years later, Spartan has embraced the technology. Dawson, one of the doubters, now champions the AI agents, emphasizing that they allow Spartan to double its volume without adding dispatchers. Spartan currently runs a 24/7 operation with four dispatchers, each covering different shifts and weekend coverage. Dawson's criteria for adopting new tools is whether Spartan can handle double the volume without hiring additional dispatchers. The first AI agent Spartan built provides automated hourly customer reports, a task previously completed manually by dispatchers, which took seven to 10 minutes on average. This agent has already proven its value, freeing up 17% of a dispatcher's day. Spartan's next project is a driver payroll agent, which Dawson estimates could cut payroll time in half. The company currently employs about 150 trucks, 400 trailers, and 170 drivers, with 12 motor carriers in North America running directly for Toyota, including Spartan's operations in San Antonio and Blue Springs, Mississippi, and Mazda Toyota Manufacturing in Huntsville, Alabama.",
  "summary": "Spartan Carrier Group built its first AI agent for hourly customer reports in a week and a half. Its VP of operations, who calls himself no coder, wants dispatchers building the next ones. The post Spartan’s operators went from AI skeptics to agent builders appeared first on FreightWaves .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}