Veterans in Logistics names John Tozer as Chairman

After leaving the Navy, Tozer co-founded Newtrul, a digital freight-matching marketplace focused on zero-touch transactions in the over-the-road spot market. He served as the company’s chief operating officer. Newtrul was later acquired by Highway. Today, Tozer leads the Capacity Business Unit at Highway, overseeing the Trusted Freight Exchange platform that connects pre-vetted carriers with qualified brokers.

The transition gap

The challenges veterans face when leaving service run deeper than many civilians realize, Tozer said. He described mentoring peers who received inaccurate guidance about their market value and transferable skills.

“You’ll have some folks that will say, ‘Well, you’re worth this in the private sector. This is the type of job you should do and this is the pay you should receive.’ And that’s coming from folks who have absolutely no idea,” Tozer said. “So you have either this underinflated or overinflated number, depending on who you’re talking to.”

Military personnel often develop specialized vocabularies full of acronyms, and sometimes profanity, that become second nature but are incomprehensible to civilian employers.

“I can have a full conversation with somebody in the military using just acronyms, and nobody else can understand it,” Tozer said.

Technology is helping close the gap. What once took months with a transition assistance counselor can now happen in hours using artificial intelligence and large language models, Tozer said.

“You can essentially give it: ‘These are the MOS’s. This is the speak. This is an example of a CV.’ Throw it all into an LLM and have it naturalize that for the specific role, and match an MOS to a role in logistics,” Tozer said. “It’s going to hallucinate a little bit. But when you have the folks that have actually done it before, you can break that down and get a really good, really quick and really accurate product. Additionally, military culture and the logistics culture are wildly similar, which gives me confidence in the ability to provide value to both these underserved communities”

Building a two-sided marketplace

Veterans in Logistics is designed as a two-sided marketplace. Sponsors — including shippers, brokers, carriers and logistics companies — sit on one side seeking veteran talent. Veterans seeking meaningful placements sit on the other.

“It’s not just to place them in something so that they start making money. It’s to place them in something that makes them feel comfortable, because it’s incredibly uncomfortable getting placed in a position that you have no business being in — for both sides,” Tozer said.

The initiative plans to host job fairs and networking events. It is filling five chair positions to guide the organization. Tozer has begun networking with former commanding officers who now run base transition programs, creating a direct pipeline to reach service members before they separate.

For Tozer, the mission is both personal and professional.

“God, I wish I had this, man. And I know a lot of people wish they had it too,” Tozer said. “That’s what we’re looking at for the next six months as we build out the pipelines and the sponsorships and the community.”