The Dealer-Service Summit formally launched Veterans in Logistics at its 2026 occasion in Kansas Metropolis. It named John Tozer because the initiative’s first chairman to steer efforts connecting, supporting and advancing navy veterans in freight and transportation.
Tozer, a naval aviator who spent 13 years flying helicopters in theaters worldwide, brings intensive operational and management expertise. His navy honors embody Squadron Pilot of the Yr, Wing Tactician of the Yr, and Tactical Improvement and Analysis Officer of the Yr.
“John represents precisely what Veterans in Logistics is all about,” stated Dan Lindsey, founding father of the Dealer-Service Summit. “His service to our nation, his management expertise and his affect on the freight business make him the perfect individual to assist information this initiative as we proceed constructing alternatives for veterans all through transportation.”
From naval aviation to freight know-how
Tozer’s navy profession included abroad deployments throughout the Baltic area, the Center East and the South China Sea. Past flying, he held management roles and earned recognition for tactical growth.
After leaving the Navy, Tozer co-founded Newtrul, a digital freight-matching market centered on zero-touch transactions within the over-the-road spot market. He served as the corporate’s chief working officer. Newtrul was later acquired by Freeway. Right this moment, Tozer leads the Capability Enterprise Unit at Freeway, overseeing the Trusted Freight Change platform that connects pre-vetted carriers with certified brokers.
The transition hole
The challenges veterans face when leaving service run deeper than many civilians understand, Tozer stated. He described mentoring friends who acquired inaccurate steering about their market worth and transferable expertise.
“You’ll have some of us that can say, ‘Properly, you’re value this within the non-public sector. That is the kind of job it’s best to do and that is the pay it’s best to obtain.’ And that’s coming from of us who’ve completely no thought,” Tozer stated. “So you’ve both this underinflated or overinflated quantity, relying on who you’re speaking to.”
Navy personnel typically develop specialised vocabularies stuffed with acronyms, and generally profanity, that change into second nature however are incomprehensible to civilian employers.
“I can have a full dialog with any person within the navy utilizing simply acronyms, and no one else can perceive it,” Tozer stated.
Know-how helps shut the hole. What as soon as took months with a transition help counselor can now occur in hours utilizing synthetic intelligence and enormous language fashions, Tozer stated.
“You’ll be able to primarily give it: ‘These are the MOS’s. That is the converse. That is an instance of a CV.’ Throw all of it into an LLM and have it naturalize that for the particular function, and match an MOS to a task in logistics,” Tozer stated. “It’s going to hallucinate somewhat bit. However when you’ve the parents which have truly finished it earlier than, you may break that down and get a extremely good, actually fast and actually correct product. Moreover, navy tradition and the logistics tradition are wildly related, which provides me confidence within the potential to supply worth to each these underserved communities”
Constructing a two-sided market
Veterans in Logistics is designed as a two-sided market. Sponsors — together with shippers, brokers, carriers and logistics firms — sit on one facet looking for veteran expertise. Veterans looking for significant placements sit on the opposite.
“It’s not simply to put them in one thing in order that they begin creating wealth. It’s to put them in one thing that makes them really feel comfy, as a result of it’s extremely uncomfortable getting positioned ready that you don’t have any enterprise being in — for either side,” Tozer stated.
The initiative plans to host job gala’s and networking occasions. It’s filling 5 chair positions to information the group. Tozer has begun networking with former commanding officers who now run base transition packages, making a direct pipeline to succeed in service members earlier than they separate.
For Tozer, the mission is each private {and professional}.
“God, I want I had this, man. And I do know lots of people want they’d it too,” Tozer stated. “That’s what we’re for the following six months as we construct out the pipelines and the sponsorships and the group.”
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