project44 Founder Jett McCandless Wins First FreightTech Vanguard Award at F3

Jett McCandless, founder and CEO of project44 and LSP44, received the inaugural FreightTech Vanguard Award at FreightWaves' F3: Future of Freight Festival dinner on Monday, recognizing founders for long-term industry impact rather than current market influence. FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller presented the award, saying McCandless "represented the best example" of the vision and relentlessness that drive freight innovation. The F3 event in Chattanooga, Tennessee, also featured the FreightTech 25 ranking of influential freight technology companies, drawn from the FreightTech 100 announced in late September. McCandless founded project44 in 2014 to provide real-time shipment and supply chain visibility. In July, the company split into project44, serving enterprise shippers, and LSP44, which supplies AI agents and APIs to freight brokers, forwarders and third-party logistics providers. McCandless said project44's network now covers 286,000 carriers across 194 countries and territories and handles more than 700 million synchronized events daily. He said the company's next chapter centers on AI agents attuned to freight-specific needs.