Peak season is the clearest test of an organization’s logistics and fleet operations model. Volumes surge, schedules tighten, and small cracks in the system grow fast. The fleets that pass that test don’t rely on last‑minute heroics. They win because their culture, incentives, and daily habits are built for the hardest weeks of the year.

In Motive’s Peak Season Playbook webinar, Mike Burton, president of MedLog USA, and Matt Lacy, vice president of transport at Estes Forwarding Worldwide (EFW), shared how they prepare their teams peak season. Their lesson is simple: If you want safer, more reliable performance in peak season, start by reapproaching how you lead.

Success starts with ‘zero failures’

MedLog has two distinct peak seasons — fall imports that need to be delivered to warehouses, and domestic peak season — working with businesses like FedEx and UPS to help support the holiday surge. Yet Burton defines success in the simplest, most fundamental way: unwavering reliability.

“We start out by really focusing on making peak part of our annual goals and key objectives for the year,” Burton explained. “That’s always one of them — that we have to have a successful peak — and then we define that. And we define that as zero failures.”

At MedLog, that definition is the standard leaders plan against every day. Burton and his team:

  • Make “a successful peak” an explicit annual objective for the terminal.
  • Tie parts of their compensation to that outcome.
  • Set clear expectations that there are no vacations during peak.

The result is a network where staffing, training, and capacity planning are all measured against the worst weeks of the year, not the average ones.

That directly affects safety. When leaders plan aggressively for peak season, they’re less likely to ask drivers to “make up time” in bad weather or improvise workarounds that increase risk. A zero‑failure culture protects both people and performance.Fleets that pair this kind of culture‑first leadership with a unified, AI-powered operations platform can give safety, operations, and finance teams the visibility they need to protect both people and performance during peak season.

Accountability in peak season planning

MedLog’s culture of ownership is deeply rooted. Burton’s team meets with customers weeks before peak season starts, preparing for high volumes, weather exposure, and real capacity. If the plan looks like it won’t work, they recognize it early — and design alternatives, from brokering freight to creating extra capacity.

That transparency reinforces accountability at the terminal level. Staff and frontline employees are expected to surface constraints. When the busy season hits, there are fewer surprises, fewer last‑minute scrambles, and fewer unsafe decisions under pressure.

Certainty under pressure: EFW’s communication culture

Where MedLog centers on zero‑failure accountability, EFW focuses on how managers respond when conditions change. For Lacy, that starts with eliminating guesswork.

“One thing we say often is, ‘Let’s not guess in pressure situations,’” Lacy said. “Make sure we’re communicating clearly and accurately, so we don’t waste time when it comes to decision making.”

During peak season, guessing is a big liability — for safety as much as on‑time performance. EFW trains managers to:

  • Anticipate weather and demand swings weeks in advance.
  • Keep drivers, dispatch, and customers aligned on what’s happening.
  • Escalate quickly when conditions change instead of quietly “figuring it out” alone.

The result is faster, better decisions that keep freight moving without forcing drivers into risky situations.

“We rely on our teams to make those judgment calls,” Lacy added. “That goes back to the training, the communication, and ultimately the planning that goes into it.”Watch the full conversation.
This article only scratches the surface of how MedLog and EFW lead through peak. To hear Mike Burton and Matt Lacy walk through their playbooks in detail, watch the full webinar now. Share it with your teams as you design your own culture‑first model for the next peak season.