August 9, 2023 • 42 mins
Established in 2014, EASE was founded on a highly responsive and personalized customer service model. What started as a simple brokerage has evolved to become a highly awarded, full-service logistics, asset, and integrated solution provider. As of 2023, EASE has grown to around 300 employees and occupies three locations in Dublin with warehouses in East Liberty and Marysville. Every year, EASE proudly accomplishes new milestones and continues to make a difference in the logistics industry and our communities.
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Columbus and Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How did they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome does CEOs You Should Know aniHeartMedia Columbus podcast. Welcome back to
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another episode of CEOs You Should Know. This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast on
your host Boxer. Every week wedive into different industries and whether it's banking
or it could be the world ofsports other businesses. But today we're talking
about logistics. And we've seen alot with the logistics industry, especially with
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the supply shortages during the pandemic.And I'm really excited to have with as
someone who I think has a prettygood story. He is the founder and
CEO of these Logistics Peter Cortola Jr. Who is with us. Peter,
thanks for joining us, Thank youfor having me. It's great to be
here. We're gonna get into yourlife story. How does one get into
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logistics? But I was fascinated tosee that you actually started this company with
back in twenty fourteen. Was itin your dad's Was it garage basement?
How did that start? Yeah's EA'swas back in twenty We started back in
twenty fourteen. It was in theback of my dad's office. I don't
even know what the room before thebathroom. I would call like the waiting
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room of the bathroom. So talkabout motivation to get out of that place.
Yeah, right right, But that'swhere we started. And I think
that kind of communication, that openness, approximity to our team members really like
we've stuck with it all the waynow too. We have around two hundred
and ninety five employees. Wow,that's incredible. You you grew really really
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fast. Yeah, it's been controlled, but it's been it's been a good
journey. Yeah. Peter Cortola iswith us. He's the CEO and founder
of EA's Logistics. Uh what didyour dad or maybe he's still doing it,
but what was his business? Uh? So, my dad actually is
a tired Columbus police officer and thenhe also was in the did real estate.
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So he brings to the table obviouslya lot of experience, but also
a little bit of make sure you'refollowing the rules. I was gonna say,
Peter, speaking of following the rules, what was life growing up with
your dad as a police officer?Be home by nine, I'd tell you
that much. And he typically knewabout speeding tickets before I could tell him.
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Was so I feel a sense ofthere was pressure having your dada,
just like anybody who feels when thepolice walk into their house. That's true.
Well, we appreciate his service,obviously to our community. So where
did you grow up? By theway, so I grew up predominantly for
the most part, in Dublin.What the high school, graduated from Dublin
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Jerome, Yeah, and then didan old college tour but ended up back
here at Ohio State and graduating fromOhiose State. Yeah, congratulate. What
did you graduate it? What wasyour major? We were predominant criminology actually
so okay, not too much logisticsand transportation direct background, but I did
take a couple of courses, butcriminology was my main focus originally going to
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be a police officer. Yeah.Yeah, Somewhere along the line, Peter,
you decided to go a different route. When did that happen? When
I got out of when I graduatedfrom Ohio State, twenty eleven. Looking
at that current environment at that time, sure, logistics and transportation seemed to
be a hot market just from aglobal environment as well. And yeah,
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I was always intrigued by it,and the opportunities in the industry seemed plentiful,
so kind of dove into it atthat time. Peter, what if
I can ask what intrigued you?Because I know, like in my industry,
some people think it's, oh,it's to interview the celebrities, and
really I could care less about thecelebrities. It's more of the connection with
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people, how mused and how differentthings topics connect people together. I love
that connection. I love people.But what was it for you with logistics?
Very similar? I was. Iwas very intrigued on how connected a
lot most everything in our life is. And when you look around the room,
the water bottles, the desk,these microphones, everything, how to
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place and how to get here atsome point, yeah, right, And
like the connectivity of multiple supply chainsspainning the globe to come together to build
one microphone, or to build onecar, to put a banana in a
market, right, I think itwould always really intrigue me how things got
places. But then you also alwaysrealize when you talk about measuring opportunity from
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that regard, there's a lot ofopportunity out there in logistics, right.
Absolutely, So when you started scratchingthe surface, Peter, of this industry
that you know your background, it'smore chrominology, You're more interested at the
time, and and you know,law, what, how did you learn
more about it? Did you goto work somewhere for a store? Yeah,
I went. I went and workfor another logistics company here. Well,
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they're based in Dallas now, butworked here locally, so I got
experience there. And to be honestwith that, I didn't really know much
about the third party logistics space,right. I knew about global logistics and
supply chain, but from a thirdparty logistics there was definitely a learning curve
there, and it's it's a veryimportant part of our supply chain from a
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global standpoint, is third party logisticscompanies right there. A lot of times
they are the managers and facilitators thatare moving all of our goods, that
give food distributors, food distributors,car manufacturers, you know, the tools
and products they need to deliver thegoods. Yeah, Peter Cortola is with
us from these logistics. He's thisweek's gassed on CEOs. You should know
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the founder and CEO of Ease Logisticsthat was founded back in twenty fourteen.
Hey, I'm and I hope youdon't mind. I'm a pretty curious guy,
so I'm going to ask you questionslike this throughout the podcast, but
teach us about third party logistics.So what's the difference between third party and
others? I always tell third partylogistics gives me no excuse for a truck
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being late. Right. Third partylogistics allows us to not only use our
own trucks and warehouses, but alsotap into other four higher fleets and use
a national network of trucking companies orwarehouses to be able to manage and facilitate
the movement of our customers goods.Right. So, Peter, and if
I'm getting you right, Let's saythere's a client that comes to you and
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internally you're looking around at what youhave and maybe you don't quite have what
they can use, but you canmake a phone call and make it happen.
Correct, So that get exactly That'sit. It's either we take the
assessment and look at where you know, where is the transportation or logistics needed
from a regional or global standpoint,and we can't do it ourselves directly,
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right that. Indirectly, we'll takeone of our great career partners or warehouse
partners and facilitate and manage that toget the job done. It sounds like
there's a lot of especially in thisthis we're all connected now, it's the
globe is connected, the world isreally connected. All of us are.
So there's a lot of partnerships.It sounds like that goes on with especially
your logistics. Oh yeah, partnerships, partnerships, relationships like anything make the
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world go round and transportation it movesus forward. Right At any given time,
Ease manages over twenty thousand career relationshipsfrom a global standpoint, right yea
warehouse and distribution relationships in the couplehundreds. So just managing that network also
is you know, a full timejob, so to speak. And we
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have great teams at EASE Logistics thathelp us manage those relationships to give us
the capabilities. Peter, what waswhat was your first who was your first
client? What was your first job? First client at EASE or eddies eddies?
Yeah? Sorry, oh yeah,stands food Fateville, Arkansas at South
Bend, Indiana. I remember,how did they find you? I found
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them and we've been all right.And I remember we did the first shipment
for them on my birthday June tenthand twenty fourteen, right, uh,
lots a couple hundred bucks, andthe whole grand scheme of building up to
those the year prior to moving tofirst low and talk about anti comatic,
right, But it's that was thepoint that started at all right, And
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it was actually at that moment whichdeveloped one of our core principles was standing
behind one percent of our commitments,right, And that's something that to this
day, along with the two minuteresponse time, that has been a differentiator
for us in our market. Andit's was simple, as you know,
things that from the outside looking inmakes sense. You know, effective communication
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and accountability bring success, right,But when you write it on paper and
live by it every day and makeit a core principle, it really starts
to separate you, Peter, whatare the profit margins like in your industry,
especially third party logistics versus you knowsome industries are razor thin, and
especially coming out of a supply chainissue. What's it like for you.
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So on the mark you know,a great or well not great, I
would say typically where we shoot theoperated between the eight to ten percent.
So it's you know, they're notlarge, it's enough to keep you know,
it's enough to make it worth toget in the industry. But it
also it's it's still at that levelwhere you have to constantly have your your
finger on the poah. Right,there's there's no easy layups. I would
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say, well, because I'm justthinking when you first started Ease Logistics and
you got your first client that youwere you were just talking about how do
you do that ProForma? How doyou put together and figure out what everything
is going to cost? You didyou did you study from other logistical companies
or yep? I mean you gotto get an understanding of what's your daily
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run rate? You know, what'sit constant to keep the lights on and
be able to hold the credentials andthe insurance and have the technology to be
able to stand behind your commitments.Right, So you gotta take that consideration.
But uh, and this is notbusiness advice that I'm standing behind to
anybody but myself is. But yougotta be you gotta have a little risk.
I'd be a little crazy sometimes andyou gotta know, you gotta you
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gotta know these things. But inmy opinion, you gotta pick and choose
when to let them lead or whento let them be there. But have
to, you know, take arisk. Yeah, you know. And
I can tell you for the firstcouple of months, if not the first
couple of years, it was awareands awareness of what it was costing us.
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But being profitable was not in thetop three. It was survival,
right, building the infrastructure and standingbehind commitments right, and the and the
whole thought process was if we standbehind our commitments and we follow through that
quote unquote, money will come andtalk about a risky business plan when you
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have only a year and a trulyin the in the industry and no money.
So from that standpoint, a littlebit of hell, Mary, but
worked worked out for us. Youknow, a different business, Peter,
But your story reminds me a lotof what Jeff Bezos said about the early
days of Amazon. He told alot of his investors, hey, don't
expect to get any kind of profitfor five years, and they wouldn't been
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Adazona that what do you mean fiveyears you're you're selling us books. What
of course, now we know Amazonis gotten their hands into everything. Did
so you had a few years underyour belt and then came the pandemic.
How did that affect you? So? I mean the pandemic, as we
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all know, brought supply trade andtransportation and everybody had an opinion. Now
my mom's call me. She's like, these trucks they're always late. It's
like, that's first time we've talkedabout truck. Did you have to educate
your mom? Yeah? Actually fora little bit, you is educating me.
You know, it's like, youknow why the trucks really? You
know, it's like I got it, but I actually, you know,
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COVID was obviously devastating from a national, global perspective, and there's no there's
no joking around about that. Ifthere's a silver lining in the industry was
it did elevate the attention of theweaknesses from a global supply chain that existed,
right, And I think it reallymade some of the largest producers in
the world. And you know,directly we've been part of some of these
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talks for you know, Fortune fivehundred companies to really take a double look
at logistics and supply chain and realizethese are significant partners in our business.
These are not just line items thatit can say, we need to get
this budget down right, right,and a strong supply chain. I think
we all realized over the pandemic,what kind of companies have strong supply chains
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and what kind of companies have supplychains that are constantly looking for the cheapest
bottom dollar, right. And it'sthose companies that were still able to produce
during COVID and SUMS that were havinginventory issues, right. And I think
what it did from that was reallyelevate the attention of the importance of having
a strong global supply chain and usall being better connected and all better communicating,
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right, and seeing the bottlenecks thatexists that are are limiting getting products
of certain areas right. And it'sunfortunate. It takes a situation like that,
you know, medicine not getting there, but the reality it is for
something that big, that's the catalystthat it took to get attention. And
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now the communication about supply chain,well, we're talking to these large producers
or these auto manufacturers. The narrativehas changed now it's before is what's the
cheapest you can do it for now, it's how can you help me do
it better? Right? What kindof you know? How can we get
more strategic? How can we getbetter visibility? Right? I would say
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the best customers in our in oureyes, and I would, in my
opinion, the best manufacturers and producersout there are our customers that understand the
attention of a great partner in logistics, knowing that price will price reduction will
come through a great partner through efficiency. Right, But that's something that is
built through US solid network and routingand all that. So COVID definitely changed
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the game when you look at overthe grand scheme of the logistics industry,
this is definitely a focal point thatwill continue to be written about as a
as a huge paradigm shift in ourindustry about elevating the attention to it.
Peter, do you think logistic companiesit was all kind of what you said.
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It was a wake up call forthem. So it was it ended
up being maybe a survival of thefittest moving forward. I definitely too.
Yes. I mean again, I'mall for competition, but in our industry,
nobody likes seeing anybody else fail.Right, You know it's there's no
there's no ego big enough to cheerfor somebody else's failure. Right, I'm
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all for a fair competition, butit definitely did challenge and for business owners
in the industry, it definitely shinedelevated attention to having your your thumb on
the cash flow and and having reservesto be able to operate right and knowing
that there are easy ways to handlesituations like that, letting people go all
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that, but there's hard ways keepingthe people and and internally developing them.
So when things do turn back on, we're stronger and we hit the ground
running and actually ease was we tookthe second route. So during COVID,
although revenues and margins dropped almost eightypercent, we continued. We retained all
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of our employees and actually continued allof our new higher classes during that and
in June of twenty twenty when kindof things that we're turning back on.
For the next fourteen months following that, every month was a new revenue record
from that. Wow, what's betweentwenty twenty and twenty twenty two our business
grew over fo Wow, that's incredible. So just like when we started there
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was risk of knowing the cost right, And I remember talking with our leadership
team or in coved and just saying, no matter how bad it gets,
don't tell me until it gets thatbad. But until then, don't bring
it up again. We're not lettinganybody go. We're moving for it,
right, you know, Peter,if there's one thing as a as a
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guy from the outside learned, andI know I'm immediate, so I had
the chance to do a little morereading on this one. It's unbelievable how
supply chain wise, you know,all the connections there, the amount of
people and groups that you have todepend on, from the shipyard workers to
cargo ships, to the trucks totruck drivers. By the way, that
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was another issue, the lack ofthe shortage of truck drivers. How has
that been for you? Did youhave any of those issues? Yeah?
I mean when you look at youraverage product that's you use on a daily
basis post production, so before afterit's made a minimum or on average during
transportation, items are touched eight times, So you got to think about how
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many different companies go to do that. Shortages. Shortages in the industry are
a very specific topic, right Ashortage in the industry suggests that we have
there is a surplus of inventory outthere and we don't have enough trucks to
do it. Right. Yeah,I've sat for a while. There's shortage.
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There's no shortage of drivers. There'sjust a shortage of cheap drivers,
right, because the capacities out there, Right, it's just who wants to
pay for it. And the realityis is because of COVID, right,
there was this attention to suppliging.It brought a lot of capacity the in
right, and the barriers of entryand transportation trucks are expensive, but getting
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the commercial certifications are really there's notmany hurdles. Rights. You can start
a trucking company for about three fourhundred bucks just to get the FMC as
sacredentials, right, not buying thetruck obviously. So you have this increase
of capacity come in, right.That's following a up and down supply chain.
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So there's and when supply chains havethis variance of moving away from the
projected GDP, right, you getinefficiencies. Inefficiencies mean a truck was supposed
to leave at one, but sinceproductions behind the leaves at four, so
we have to expedite it, sorates go up, right, So inefficiencies
and transportation mean that we're not stickingto dedicate it or normal rates. We're
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paying more because it's unplanned. Right. So you have an entire environment after
COVID that anytime inventory came in,customers were doing whatever they could get it
out right. So there was thisalmost assumption that look at how much transportation
these trucking companies are getting, right, six dollars a mile, seven dollars
a mile because in the moment,everything was having to be expedited right right,
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large manufacturers weren't able to keep theirnormal routing and honor these trucks that
ran every day at the same timefor lower rates because supply wasn't there,
right, But when inventory came in, you gotta get it out right,
So all the rates were going upup up right. So typically on you
know, on a national average rateper mile for transportation over the road was
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about two forty five a mile,right during COVID had shot up to three
fifteen. I mean that isn't inour industry. That is a wild wild
that's a big one. Right.So to answer your question, I'm sorry,
no, no, no, you'regood. Those kind of reasons where
you see people flooding the market fromsaying we got to get into the transportations,
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right, brings all this capacity in, right, and then once the
supply chains kind of level out asthey're doing right based on GDP population right,
then as you have these all thesetrucks, but as supply chain,
that's leveling out, right, notthat the economy is doing this or that.
(20:21):
And that's what we're here to talkabout as a globally. When you
look over you know, GDP,all this stuff, population growth, there's
a we're on a straight lineup,We're not straight line, but yeah,
So Peter, can I ask whatare what are you gauging? Are you
gauging the GDP just out of curiositywith your business? What are you looking
at? So there's gonna be otherindustry people that hear this, and everybody
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this is one of these things.It's like, I don't know how to
make an example in your world,but it's like what are the best interview
questions? So it's everybody has theirown way of looking like what are these
indicators that show you are a goodreflection? Right? You know, My
opinion is when we start to seetier two supplies. So when we start
seeing more flatbeds on the road rightand carrying steel, that means manufacturers are
(21:08):
now reinvesting in to one die,right, They're not running to one dies
to the maximum amount of stamps.That means they're buying new ones. Right.
And when you see houses being builtor right, because the construction side
of moving wood and all these thatthat means people are spending money. Right.
So typically we like to see ona tier two, tier three,
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are people buying new to one diesas big steel, as heavy as heavy
metals. Are they being moved right? Typically a flatbed market if you ever
want to say, if you wantto jump in and say, what's a
good indicator of where the market's goingto be in six months is you could
ask yourself, how are flatbeds doingright now? Wow? Never thought about
that, Because when you start seeingcompanies reinvest in the infrastructure of their supply
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chain, that means they're gearing upto produce at a high level. Again,
right, when supply chains are down, that means we're run to one
dies. We're running machines to thevery last stamp because we don't know the
uncertainty, right yeah, yeah,And then when you see houses or developments
being built. You know, peopleare buying homes, right you know,
uh, companies are buying wood,and they're buying door handles, and they're
(22:14):
buying refrigerators and they're buying lambing itright, So then you know this the
companies are making refrigerators and electronics behindthat. So you start to see this
unraveling, right Yeah. And thenalthough I know banks don't love this,
typically when people buy houses, theyalso like to buy cars, yes,
right right, also not a businessrecommendation, but and then just like my
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same example about the refrigerator, youcan reverse engineer when people are starting to
buy cars everything that comes together tomake a car, right, and you
start seeing those supplies yes, right, right. So typically it's when I
see more flatbeds on the road andI you can read and notice the communities
around you being built, right,that's typically to me are good indicators of
(23:03):
a healthy marker coming back? Yeah, can I throw in one more?
Two? And the auto industry,I would imagine two because you're using steel
and that's probably another huge right Yeah. Yeah, it's uh, it's steel,
it's it's rubber, it's plastic.We obviously all all of a sudden.
Again, just like my mom andbeing the expert in transportation after COVID,
(23:26):
all of us also are all expertsand microchips now, yeah, yeah,
right, right right, And whatyou know, to put in perspective,
I think it's like, on average, a normal quote unquote normal combustion
car these days have like two thousandmicrochips. I was thinking, like,
there's one microchip and we wake up, we plug it in, and it's
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like, you know, same ironMan's thing in the middle of the car
comes to life, you know whatI mean, there's like two thousand in
every car, and for electric carsthere's like six or seven thousand. That's
right, So there's another supply chain. So like we're catching up with microchips
just for combustion cars at a xx amount of microchips per combustion car,
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while the supply chain and the industryof automnufacturing is transitioning into batteries that are
going to per car almost triple theamount of microchips we need, right right
right. But then you see greatthings happen, like Intel coming to Columbus
and the attention of developing microchips domesticallythat is here to you know, address
those problems, right, And that'sthat's kind of one of those full circle
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things to say, like from outsidelooking in, how has COVID shaped supply
chain? Uh? Intel coming here? Now? Intel coming to Columbus has
been in the works, I'm youknow well before right, right, right,
But the attention it got and thereason and everybody's understanding of why this
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this building or this manufacturing plant needsto exist, right, the narrative for
the most part, we all understoodit. Right. Yeah, you would
have told the average person five yearsago a microchip coming is coming in,
right, even if probably wouldn't evencare, But you wouldn't have either too
many questions. Now when you hearit, you're like, that makes sense?
(25:14):
Were microchips? Yeah, No,you're absolutely right. Peter Cortola Junior
is with us from Ease Logistics.He was the founder back in twenty fourteen
CEO and he's this week's guest onCEO. As you should know, with
the developments like Intel and all theseother companies that are coming, does that
excite you as a owner of alogistics company. Do you are a lot
(25:37):
of your clients based in Central highor are they all over the country,
Peter, it does excite me.I would say for the most part,
we we service customers globally, right, Okay, for the most part,
though our customers are headquarters somewhere domestically, Okay. I would say probably sixty
percent or seventy percent of our customershave a have a presence here in Ohio.
(26:00):
Now, Ohio, I'm stoked forOhio. You know, Intel's a
great reflection, but it's not justIntel Ease and a lot of the companies
here that's growing. Ohio has somany great attributes about it that really take
a step back and look at that. Will I think we'll be a leader
in GDP in the upcoming future.You know where we are in geographically,
(26:23):
the infrastructure, the amount of waterthat we have access to, the talent
here, and honestly the climate too. You know. I know we give
Ohio lot of flak for weather becausewe go through all the seasons every day.
Yeah, which super cool. Butwhen you're looking at infrastructure and looking
(26:45):
at the ability to to bring anindustry in that can operate twenty four seven,
it's really not that harsh. Right. We're not dealing with extreme heat.
We're not dealing with extreme cold agood point. We have fluid amount
of water to be able to cooldown big systems. Right, So there's
a lot of components that make Ohio. When you start asking these questions of
why shouldn't industry exist somewhere, ninetimes out of ten, Ohio it's at
(27:10):
the top of the list because ofthose things. Yeah, I'm super stoke
for Ohio coming up. Peter,by the way, where is your is
your headquarters in Dublin two? Andit's okay, that's what I thought.
I thought. I saw that justadding curiosity when when you founded the company,
what did you start with one truck? I mean, what were some
of the startups you you definitely hadto have. Yeah, so it was
(27:32):
a prayer. There was a prayerI dout and just you know, close
your eyes and swing. When itstarted, it was just myself, right
I now obviously my girlfriend at thetime now wife, Elizabeth, was a
huge supporter. After we got throughthe fact that I wasn't applying for jobs
and I was just saying, I'mgonna start a company that have minimal direct
(27:56):
experience in so after we got throughthat, I had I had a great
support team in regards to a familymy Elizabeth and my firstborn son, Peter
Joseph at the time six months.But I could tell you he was rooting
for me. But it was justme and a computer, right yea,
(28:18):
a desk in my dad's office andthe toilet right behind us. So it
was there wasn't much, you knowit was. It wasn't until year four
or year three that we got ourfirst straight truck. And now today Ease
has over four hundred trucks and trailers, over a half a million square feet
of warehouse and distribution space, andwe're breaking around on a new distribution center
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here out in Marysville here in thenext month. Congratulations. When I think
about and I don't want to callthem toys, I mean, obviously they're
a part. They're a part ofyour company. Is it? Is it
just eighteen wheelers? What? What? What kind of tools do you have?
So we got everything from the sprintervans that you see of you know
what we all see come up intoour driveway delivering packages to the big eighteen
(29:03):
wheelers. We got straight trucks,we got power units. We have the
first two autonomous platooning trucks in NorthAmerica. Wait, what does that mean?
Peters. That's a good question.I also recently found out autonomous platooning
means this in a platooning environment,lets you semis obviously. For this example,
(29:26):
the second the while while on thehighway, the second truck will go
in front of the lead truck,right, Both trucks have trailers on them
all right, and get about twoseconds behind. So when you're looking at
it from outside, it looks likean evil and evil stunt. And then
the second truck will go fully autonomousand follow the first truck, so in
(29:47):
full deployment while they're driving. Thesecond driver could technically in full deployment.
Again, a lot of safety regulationsto get through, and not saying that
we're there yet, but we arethe pioneers with Bosch and TRC and wow
atmosphere where the second truck gets togo fully autonomous and the driver could technically
(30:07):
take a dot reset. Right.That's a good point because one thing I
wanted to bring up earlier is youknow, you're talking about all the logistical
stuff with your drivers and having toexpedite things. You're also having to follow
rules from the dot and is itit's not paper logs anymore. It's all
digital right, right, Yeah,so that's that was from the MAP twenty
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one. So that was put intothat was an amendment or down amend.
That was a bill put in byObama, the MAP twenty one, which
really did good for the industry interms of safety and can be impact.
Right. I know there there's varyingopinions out there, but at the end
of the day, what that didwas elevate the ability to report and have
(30:52):
a clear understanding of safety from froma driver perspective. And Peter, do
you do you think since then thingsare a lot safer. Drivers are safer,
that the roads are safer. Ithink that I do. I really
do, because drivers are commercial driversgo through extensive training and before their home,
you know, eighty thousand pounds throughmountains, they've had a lot of
(31:17):
experience. But you know, accidentsfor the majority of the time, there's
a human error that exists, right, And when you when you go back
to human errors, when you havea commercial driver on the road at all
times, their expectations are higher thanjust civilians on the road. Right,
if someone cuts you off, that'snot a good excuse for you to get
(31:38):
in an accident because you're a commercialdriver right. So to be able to
have that those expectations, you haveto make sure the drivers are aware,
the drivers are healthy, right,they're getting rest. E LDS allow us
to make sure that drivers are stoppedwhen they're supposed to. Right from a
trucking company standpoint, it does itlimit the amount of our miles we can
(32:00):
get a week, yes, butit does it from a safety perspective,
right, Yeah, you can runfive thousand a week or you can do
seventy, but put people at riskisn't worth it? Answers now? Right,
So e LDS has elevated the safetyand the reporting of that lets companies
(32:21):
make business decisions based on it,right, doesn't look it makes you introduce
safety as an assessment point and makesit more easy to utilize safety as an
assessment point when taking on new business, which before I don't want to say
it wasn't. But having all thedata in the connectivity now to knowing the
driver's logs in real time, let'sus really assess can we take on that
(32:42):
route, can we apply that driveror do we need to go to one
of our care partners and use them. Peter, nowadays, with all of
your trucks, when they're out,can you track them all with technology?
Now you know exactly where they're at. Oh yeah, so we're we're pretty
crazy about visibility and tracking at EaseLogistics. Uh. I would say we've
said a couple of records and wona couple awards about our expectations for tracking.
(33:07):
And it's uh, it's cool tosee too though. You know,
at any given time, we canpull up and see where every shipment it's
moving, where all our trailers are, what trailers have cargo on them,
what don't who's using our trailers?So it's uh, that is something that
he's has a lot of pride in, is our tracking invisibility. Yeah,
I was, I was curious aboutthat. So you don't mind if a
driver is stopping to get something toequick, but they better get back in
(33:29):
the road real quick too. Yep, yep, as long as it's under
five minute. Now I'm kidding.Stop. No, we love that,
yeah, what I mean. Andit's always like caring from the drivers about
the best places to eat. Youknow, if you ever want to know,
if you're going somewhere, what's agood place to stop and eat?
A truck drivers typically have a wealthof information age. I agreed, agreed,
(33:50):
My uh my dad hauled up drainagetiles, so I would go on
with them for some of the runs. And I know exactly what you're talking
about. Ye how as we startto wrap up here, Peter, you
intrigued me about the autonomous trucks.I didn't know that your company was testing
this. How close are we tohaving that become a reality? I mean,
(34:14):
we got we got rub around theroad right. Yesterday the trucks did
their first revenue generating full service deliveryactually to the Cleveland Brown Stadium, which
was awesome. So in the grandscamp and the grand scheme of where we
are, you know, I wouldsay we're fourth quarter right? Wow,
but fourth quarter right? Both teamshave all their timeouts right, and it's
(34:38):
tied game kind of deal, youknow what I mean. So there's still
a lot to be done. There'sstill a lot of regulation going through.
Since we are the first company outthere for revenue generating for this kind of
technology, we had to work withour Highland, our insurance partner, and
we had to write the policy becausethey didn't have one. Right, you
(34:58):
should see an underwriters face when wetell them we have to write a policy.
It's priceless, I'll tell you.So it's you're writing, you're writing
policy, you're capturing information that's goingto build legislation and law about it.
Right, We had to go andtalk to all the state highway police and
saying, when you see our trucksplatuning, it's gonna look like we're reckless
(35:19):
driving because we're two seconds behind,right, So how do we overcome getting
pulled over? Right? So theycame back and said, here, put
these purple lights on and one ofthe technologies on, turn them on and
we'll send a broadcast out. Solocal police force and state highway know that
you guys are in an active environmentof trying to technology and not to pull
you over. Right. But it'sgoose. When you get a technology like
(35:43):
this, you get you get here'sall these things you can't do, and
here's like the one or two thingsyou can do, right, Yeah,
and then the test is how dowe keep adding things we can do to
it? Peter, Peter, justone more thing, because I'm so fascinated
by this, the platoony, theautont of his trucks. How does it
work? Are they are these truckstalking to each other. Are they Yeah,
(36:06):
And it's like think about it aslike uh, magnets and way,
but they're talking to each other.Okay, But it's very smart technology because
you have to take into account differentcargo in each truck is one movie,
what's not right, and that secondtruck has to follow the first truck.
So the first driver has to moveout of abruptly turn that second truck has
(36:30):
to follow right, but also hasto take into account the different weight in
the back and everything right. Andmy opinion, this type of technology is
going to be the single biggest impactin our industry. From we're talking about
how's autonomous going to help our industry, and it's not to put drivers out
of work. Drivers are going tobe a drivers are staying right. We're
(36:52):
elevating drivers to to have them beable to also become account managers. Maybe
why they're platooning right, yeah,to help with it or right. So
this is going to elevate. Butfrom a standpoint of how this is going
to impact us right now, ifI want to send a truck from Ohio
to Florida, right, if Iwant to get it there the next day,
(37:14):
either have to put two drivers inthe truck right. That's really the
only way legally Now I can sendtwo full truck loads and they don't stop
and go to Ohio to Florida inone day, right without having to take
a dot because they're they'll be ableto do it while they're driving. That's
a game changer. Can the driversoverride yes, the technology right, and
(37:37):
just to be clear, the technologieswe're still, like I said, far
away from full deployment. Right,the drivers at all times can override right
and right now, when the secondtruck is platooning while we're in this beta
environment, the second drivers hands onthe wheel just like you're driving. There's
no getting out of this. There'sno right right, no, no taking
(37:58):
an app okay, okay, Itake the knaps. But the second driver
is I'm assuming white knuckle right,holding on and because again you have drivers
that are very experience and you're breakingone of their fundamental habits right to get
two seconds behind another vehicle on theroad, right. So that was a
(38:21):
big hurdle too. It's getting ourmost seasoned drivers that have great driving records
and say, hey, everything thatyou know, go ahead and delete that.
I need you to tailgate this truck. Yeah, but chance your question.
The technology and it's it's very verysmart. It takes into account there's
over two thousand centers. It takesinto account. Wow, precipitation, win,
(38:42):
cargo movement, h so many differentthings every millisecond, right, constantly
going back and forth to the driver, to the cargo shift, is the
road, the road temperature, allthese things right, and assessing the situation
to make sure, hey, thisis the right environment for us to be
doing us. Wow, that thatis that's mind blowing to me. Peters
(39:02):
will wrap it up here, butwhat is the future of third party logistics
really the future of ease logistics?So ease EASE will be and is on
the way to being a pillar inthe industry. Right, we've set a
standard of customer service. We obsessover communication, we obsess over accountability.
Right, we're pioneers and we're innovators. EASE will be a pillar in the
(39:27):
industry that Locally, I think we'vedone a great job and being part of
the community that has been so greatto us has been a huge part of
our success. And the goal willbe and we will get there as EASE
will continue to do that, butat a national level, right, to
have that brand at a national level, but still have that hometown hometown pride.
(39:47):
From an industry perspective, you know, uh, populations growing, demands
growing. We're all getting smarter andregarding to understanding what the downfalls of having
this cornucopia of offerings, and Ithink we've all kind of adjusted to saying,
hey, if I can't get thisnerf gun in twenty four hours,
(40:10):
everything's gonna be okay, right.Uh, well, at least for adults.
I know my sons are still havinga hard time having away forty eight
hours. How old are your kids? By the way, I got three,
So Peter, Joseph is nine yearsold, Benjamin is five, and
William is two. Yeah, yougot your hands full. You're just like,
(40:30):
man, it's yeah, it's fullcourt press. Yeah for sure.
But I would tell you trucks arevery popular in our house right now.
So it's like I'm still cool,You're still it's still the cool dad.
That's still great. Hey, beforeyou go, some of your clients,
can you name some of them locally? Uh? We got some let's say
we we have some big auto manufacturersthat are local. Okay, right,
(40:53):
we got some food and beverage company, some fast food companies that are you
know, headquarters here. We gotsome deli meat producers here. Yeah,
you know, I think that's bigvariety. And yeah, yeah, a
big, big variety of different clients. That's great. Peter Cortole, the
(41:15):
junior who is the founder and CEOof ease Logistics. He is this week's
guest on CEOs. You should know. I I know I've learned a lot.
If I don't know if you're hiring, but uh, if for those
that want to learn more about easeLogistics your website, where do they go?
Yeah, He's is always looking forgreat talent and people that are you
know, wanting to work hard anduh create an opportunity and make an impact.
(41:38):
So our website, ease logistics dotcom is a great resource for us
to for anybody to go see withthe open positions also to learn. We
also operate twenty four seven right andwe have a two minute response times so
I saw that. Yeah, oryou could just call in and just start
talking and asking us about ease Logistics, and we're always happy to sure about
(42:00):
eas logistics but also give information aboutthe industry. You know, anybody that's
ever looking to learn about the industryor come learn about EES Logistics. We
were open to bringing anybody into tooshadow and see what's going on in the
industry. And I think, likeyou said, a great A great first
step is going to our website EASlogistics dot com. All right, Peter
Gartola, junior founder of EA's Logistics, also the CEO. I really appreciate
(42:23):
your time. Thanks for being thisweek's guest on CEOs you Should Know.
Thank you very much. Been great. CEOs you Should Know is hosted and
produced by Brandon Boxer, a productionof Ihartmedia Columbus
Columbus and Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How did they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome does CEOs You Should Know aniHeartMedia Columbus podcast. Welcome back to
(00:20):
another episode of CEOs You Should Know. This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast on
your host Boxer. Every week wedive into different industries and whether it's banking
or it could be the world ofsports other businesses. But today we're talking
about logistics. And we've seen alot with the logistics industry, especially with
(00:42):
the supply shortages during the pandemic.And I'm really excited to have with as
someone who I think has a prettygood story. He is the founder and
CEO of these Logistics Peter Cortola Jr. Who is with us. Peter,
thanks for joining us, Thank youfor having me. It's great to be
here. We're gonna get into yourlife story. How does one get into
(01:02):
logistics? But I was fascinated tosee that you actually started this company with
back in twenty fourteen. Was itin your dad's Was it garage basement?
How did that start? Yeah's EA'swas back in twenty We started back in
twenty fourteen. It was in theback of my dad's office. I don't
even know what the room before thebathroom. I would call like the waiting
(01:22):
room of the bathroom. So talkabout motivation to get out of that place.
Yeah, right right, But that'swhere we started. And I think
that kind of communication, that openness, approximity to our team members really like
we've stuck with it all the waynow too. We have around two hundred
and ninety five employees. Wow,that's incredible. You you grew really really
(01:44):
fast. Yeah, it's been controlled, but it's been it's been a good
journey. Yeah. Peter Cortola iswith us. He's the CEO and founder
of EA's Logistics. Uh what didyour dad or maybe he's still doing it,
but what was his business? Uh? So, my dad actually is
a tired Columbus police officer and thenhe also was in the did real estate.
(02:05):
So he brings to the table obviouslya lot of experience, but also
a little bit of make sure you'refollowing the rules. I was gonna say,
Peter, speaking of following the rules, what was life growing up with
your dad as a police officer?Be home by nine, I'd tell you
that much. And he typically knewabout speeding tickets before I could tell him.
(02:27):
Was so I feel a sense ofthere was pressure having your dada,
just like anybody who feels when thepolice walk into their house. That's true.
Well, we appreciate his service,obviously to our community. So where
did you grow up? By theway, so I grew up predominantly for
the most part, in Dublin.What the high school, graduated from Dublin
(02:49):
Jerome, Yeah, and then didan old college tour but ended up back
here at Ohio State and graduating fromOhiose State. Yeah, congratulate. What
did you graduate it? What wasyour major? We were predominant criminology actually
so okay, not too much logisticsand transportation direct background, but I did
take a couple of courses, butcriminology was my main focus originally going to
(03:13):
be a police officer. Yeah.Yeah, Somewhere along the line, Peter,
you decided to go a different route. When did that happen? When
I got out of when I graduatedfrom Ohio State, twenty eleven. Looking
at that current environment at that time, sure, logistics and transportation seemed to
be a hot market just from aglobal environment as well. And yeah,
(03:37):
I was always intrigued by it,and the opportunities in the industry seemed plentiful,
so kind of dove into it atthat time. Peter, what if
I can ask what intrigued you?Because I know, like in my industry,
some people think it's, oh,it's to interview the celebrities, and
really I could care less about thecelebrities. It's more of the connection with
(03:58):
people, how mused and how differentthings topics connect people together. I love
that connection. I love people.But what was it for you with logistics?
Very similar? I was. Iwas very intrigued on how connected a
lot most everything in our life is. And when you look around the room,
the water bottles, the desk,these microphones, everything, how to
(04:19):
place and how to get here atsome point, yeah, right, And
like the connectivity of multiple supply chainsspainning the globe to come together to build
one microphone, or to build onecar, to put a banana in a
market, right, I think itwould always really intrigue me how things got
places. But then you also alwaysrealize when you talk about measuring opportunity from
(04:42):
that regard, there's a lot ofopportunity out there in logistics, right.
Absolutely, So when you started scratchingthe surface, Peter, of this industry
that you know your background, it'smore chrominology, You're more interested at the
time, and and you know,law, what, how did you learn
more about it? Did you goto work somewhere for a store? Yeah,
I went. I went and workfor another logistics company here. Well,
(05:05):
they're based in Dallas now, butworked here locally, so I got
experience there. And to be honestwith that, I didn't really know much
about the third party logistics space,right. I knew about global logistics and
supply chain, but from a thirdparty logistics there was definitely a learning curve
there, and it's it's a veryimportant part of our supply chain from a
(05:27):
global standpoint, is third party logisticscompanies right there. A lot of times
they are the managers and facilitators thatare moving all of our goods, that
give food distributors, food distributors,car manufacturers, you know, the tools
and products they need to deliver thegoods. Yeah, Peter Cortola is with
us from these logistics. He's thisweek's gassed on CEOs. You should know
(05:48):
the founder and CEO of Ease Logisticsthat was founded back in twenty fourteen.
Hey, I'm and I hope youdon't mind. I'm a pretty curious guy,
so I'm going to ask you questionslike this throughout the podcast, but
teach us about third party logistics.So what's the difference between third party and
others? I always tell third partylogistics gives me no excuse for a truck
(06:11):
being late. Right. Third partylogistics allows us to not only use our
own trucks and warehouses, but alsotap into other four higher fleets and use
a national network of trucking companies orwarehouses to be able to manage and facilitate
the movement of our customers goods.Right. So, Peter, and if
I'm getting you right, Let's saythere's a client that comes to you and
(06:34):
internally you're looking around at what youhave and maybe you don't quite have what
they can use, but you canmake a phone call and make it happen.
Correct, So that get exactly That'sit. It's either we take the
assessment and look at where you know, where is the transportation or logistics needed
from a regional or global standpoint,and we can't do it ourselves directly,
(06:58):
right that. Indirectly, we'll takeone of our great career partners or warehouse
partners and facilitate and manage that toget the job done. It sounds like
there's a lot of especially in thisthis we're all connected now, it's the
globe is connected, the world isreally connected. All of us are.
So there's a lot of partnerships.It sounds like that goes on with especially
your logistics. Oh yeah, partnerships, partnerships, relationships like anything make the
(07:24):
world go round and transportation it movesus forward. Right At any given time,
Ease manages over twenty thousand career relationshipsfrom a global standpoint, right yea
warehouse and distribution relationships in the couplehundreds. So just managing that network also
is you know, a full timejob, so to speak. And we
(07:45):
have great teams at EASE Logistics thathelp us manage those relationships to give us
the capabilities. Peter, what waswhat was your first who was your first
client? What was your first job? First client at EASE or eddies eddies?
Yeah? Sorry, oh yeah,stands food Fateville, Arkansas at South
Bend, Indiana. I remember,how did they find you? I found
(08:05):
them and we've been all right.And I remember we did the first shipment
for them on my birthday June tenthand twenty fourteen, right, uh,
lots a couple hundred bucks, andthe whole grand scheme of building up to
those the year prior to moving tofirst low and talk about anti comatic,
right, But it's that was thepoint that started at all right, And
(08:26):
it was actually at that moment whichdeveloped one of our core principles was standing
behind one percent of our commitments,right, And that's something that to this
day, along with the two minuteresponse time, that has been a differentiator
for us in our market. Andit's was simple, as you know,
things that from the outside looking inmakes sense. You know, effective communication
(08:48):
and accountability bring success, right,But when you write it on paper and
live by it every day and makeit a core principle, it really starts
to separate you, Peter, whatare the profit margins like in your industry,
especially third party logistics versus you knowsome industries are razor thin, and
especially coming out of a supply chainissue. What's it like for you.
(09:11):
So on the mark you know,a great or well not great, I
would say typically where we shoot theoperated between the eight to ten percent.
So it's you know, they're notlarge, it's enough to keep you know,
it's enough to make it worth toget in the industry. But it
also it's it's still at that levelwhere you have to constantly have your your
finger on the poah. Right,there's there's no easy layups. I would
(09:33):
say, well, because I'm justthinking when you first started Ease Logistics and
you got your first client that youwere you were just talking about how do
you do that ProForma? How doyou put together and figure out what everything
is going to cost? You didyou did you study from other logistical companies
or yep? I mean you gotto get an understanding of what's your daily
(09:54):
run rate? You know, what'sit constant to keep the lights on and
be able to hold the credentials andthe insurance and have the technology to be
able to stand behind your commitments.Right, So you gotta take that consideration.
But uh, and this is notbusiness advice that I'm standing behind to
anybody but myself is. But yougotta be you gotta have a little risk.
I'd be a little crazy sometimes andyou gotta know, you gotta you
(10:16):
gotta know these things. But inmy opinion, you gotta pick and choose
when to let them lead or whento let them be there. But have
to, you know, take arisk. Yeah, you know. And
I can tell you for the firstcouple of months, if not the first
couple of years, it was awareands awareness of what it was costing us.
(10:37):
But being profitable was not in thetop three. It was survival,
right, building the infrastructure and standingbehind commitments right, and the and the
whole thought process was if we standbehind our commitments and we follow through that
quote unquote, money will come andtalk about a risky business plan when you
(10:58):
have only a year and a trulyin the in the industry and no money.
So from that standpoint, a littlebit of hell, Mary, but
worked worked out for us. Youknow, a different business, Peter,
But your story reminds me a lotof what Jeff Bezos said about the early
days of Amazon. He told alot of his investors, hey, don't
expect to get any kind of profitfor five years, and they wouldn't been
(11:22):
Adazona that what do you mean fiveyears you're you're selling us books. What
of course, now we know Amazonis gotten their hands into everything. Did
so you had a few years underyour belt and then came the pandemic.
How did that affect you? So? I mean the pandemic, as we
(11:43):
all know, brought supply trade andtransportation and everybody had an opinion. Now
my mom's call me. She's like, these trucks they're always late. It's
like, that's first time we've talkedabout truck. Did you have to educate
your mom? Yeah? Actually fora little bit, you is educating me.
You know, it's like, youknow why the trucks really? You
know, it's like I got it, but I actually, you know,
(12:07):
COVID was obviously devastating from a national, global perspective, and there's no there's
no joking around about that. Ifthere's a silver lining in the industry was
it did elevate the attention of theweaknesses from a global supply chain that existed,
right, And I think it reallymade some of the largest producers in
the world. And you know,directly we've been part of some of these
(12:30):
talks for you know, Fortune fivehundred companies to really take a double look
at logistics and supply chain and realizethese are significant partners in our business.
These are not just line items thatit can say, we need to get
this budget down right, right,and a strong supply chain. I think
we all realized over the pandemic,what kind of companies have strong supply chains
(12:52):
and what kind of companies have supplychains that are constantly looking for the cheapest
bottom dollar, right. And it'sthose companies that were still able to produce
during COVID and SUMS that were havinginventory issues, right. And I think
what it did from that was reallyelevate the attention of the importance of having
a strong global supply chain and usall being better connected and all better communicating,
(13:16):
right, and seeing the bottlenecks thatexists that are are limiting getting products
of certain areas right. And it'sunfortunate. It takes a situation like that,
you know, medicine not getting there, but the reality it is for
something that big, that's the catalystthat it took to get attention. And
(13:37):
now the communication about supply chain,well, we're talking to these large producers
or these auto manufacturers. The narrativehas changed now it's before is what's the
cheapest you can do it for now, it's how can you help me do
it better? Right? What kindof you know? How can we get
more strategic? How can we getbetter visibility? Right? I would say
(14:01):
the best customers in our in oureyes, and I would, in my
opinion, the best manufacturers and producersout there are our customers that understand the
attention of a great partner in logistics, knowing that price will price reduction will
come through a great partner through efficiency. Right, But that's something that is
built through US solid network and routingand all that. So COVID definitely changed
(14:24):
the game when you look at overthe grand scheme of the logistics industry,
this is definitely a focal point thatwill continue to be written about as a
as a huge paradigm shift in ourindustry about elevating the attention to it.
Peter, do you think logistic companiesit was all kind of what you said.
(14:46):
It was a wake up call forthem. So it was it ended
up being maybe a survival of thefittest moving forward. I definitely too.
Yes. I mean again, I'mall for competition, but in our industry,
nobody likes seeing anybody else fail.Right, You know it's there's no
there's no ego big enough to cheerfor somebody else's failure. Right, I'm
(15:07):
all for a fair competition, butit definitely did challenge and for business owners
in the industry, it definitely shinedelevated attention to having your your thumb on
the cash flow and and having reservesto be able to operate right and knowing
that there are easy ways to handlesituations like that, letting people go all
(15:28):
that, but there's hard ways keepingthe people and and internally developing them.
So when things do turn back on, we're stronger and we hit the ground
running and actually ease was we tookthe second route. So during COVID,
although revenues and margins dropped almost eightypercent, we continued. We retained all
(15:48):
of our employees and actually continued allof our new higher classes during that and
in June of twenty twenty when kindof things that we're turning back on.
For the next fourteen months following that, every month was a new revenue record
from that. Wow, what's betweentwenty twenty and twenty twenty two our business
grew over fo Wow, that's incredible. So just like when we started there
(16:12):
was risk of knowing the cost right, And I remember talking with our leadership
team or in coved and just saying, no matter how bad it gets,
don't tell me until it gets thatbad. But until then, don't bring
it up again. We're not lettinganybody go. We're moving for it,
right, you know, Peter,if there's one thing as a as a
(16:33):
guy from the outside learned, andI know I'm immediate, so I had
the chance to do a little morereading on this one. It's unbelievable how
supply chain wise, you know,all the connections there, the amount of
people and groups that you have todepend on, from the shipyard workers to
cargo ships, to the trucks totruck drivers. By the way, that
(16:56):
was another issue, the lack ofthe shortage of truck drivers. How has
that been for you? Did youhave any of those issues? Yeah?
I mean when you look at youraverage product that's you use on a daily
basis post production, so before afterit's made a minimum or on average during
transportation, items are touched eight times, So you got to think about how
(17:18):
many different companies go to do that. Shortages. Shortages in the industry are
a very specific topic, right Ashortage in the industry suggests that we have
there is a surplus of inventory outthere and we don't have enough trucks to
do it. Right. Yeah,I've sat for a while. There's shortage.
(17:41):
There's no shortage of drivers. There'sjust a shortage of cheap drivers,
right, because the capacities out there, Right, it's just who wants to
pay for it. And the realityis is because of COVID, right,
there was this attention to suppliging.It brought a lot of capacity the in
right, and the barriers of entryand transportation trucks are expensive, but getting
(18:04):
the commercial certifications are really there's notmany hurdles. Rights. You can start
a trucking company for about three fourhundred bucks just to get the FMC as
sacredentials, right, not buying thetruck obviously. So you have this increase
of capacity come in, right.That's following a up and down supply chain.
(18:25):
So there's and when supply chains havethis variance of moving away from the
projected GDP, right, you getinefficiencies. Inefficiencies mean a truck was supposed
to leave at one, but sinceproductions behind the leaves at four, so
we have to expedite it, sorates go up, right, So inefficiencies
and transportation mean that we're not stickingto dedicate it or normal rates. We're
(18:47):
paying more because it's unplanned. Right. So you have an entire environment after
COVID that anytime inventory came in,customers were doing whatever they could get it
out right. So there was thisalmost assumption that look at how much transportation
these trucking companies are getting, right, six dollars a mile, seven dollars
a mile because in the moment,everything was having to be expedited right right,
(19:12):
large manufacturers weren't able to keep theirnormal routing and honor these trucks that
ran every day at the same timefor lower rates because supply wasn't there,
right, But when inventory came in, you gotta get it out right,
So all the rates were going upup up right. So typically on you
know, on a national average rateper mile for transportation over the road was
(19:37):
about two forty five a mile,right during COVID had shot up to three
fifteen. I mean that isn't inour industry. That is a wild wild
that's a big one. Right.So to answer your question, I'm sorry,
no, no, no, you'regood. Those kind of reasons where
you see people flooding the market fromsaying we got to get into the transportations,
(20:00):
right, brings all this capacity in, right, and then once the
supply chains kind of level out asthey're doing right based on GDP population right,
then as you have these all thesetrucks, but as supply chain,
that's leveling out, right, notthat the economy is doing this or that.
(20:21):
And that's what we're here to talkabout as a globally. When you
look over you know, GDP,all this stuff, population growth, there's
a we're on a straight lineup,We're not straight line, but yeah,
So Peter, can I ask whatare what are you gauging? Are you
gauging the GDP just out of curiositywith your business? What are you looking
at? So there's gonna be otherindustry people that hear this, and everybody
(20:45):
this is one of these things.It's like, I don't know how to
make an example in your world,but it's like what are the best interview
questions? So it's everybody has theirown way of looking like what are these
indicators that show you are a goodreflection? Right? You know, My
opinion is when we start to seetier two supplies. So when we start
seeing more flatbeds on the road rightand carrying steel, that means manufacturers are
(21:08):
now reinvesting in to one die,right, They're not running to one dies
to the maximum amount of stamps.That means they're buying new ones. Right.
And when you see houses being builtor right, because the construction side
of moving wood and all these thatthat means people are spending money. Right.
So typically we like to see ona tier two, tier three,
(21:30):
are people buying new to one diesas big steel, as heavy as heavy
metals. Are they being moved right? Typically a flatbed market if you ever
want to say, if you wantto jump in and say, what's a
good indicator of where the market's goingto be in six months is you could
ask yourself, how are flatbeds doingright now? Wow? Never thought about
that, Because when you start seeingcompanies reinvest in the infrastructure of their supply
(21:53):
chain, that means they're gearing upto produce at a high level. Again,
right, when supply chains are down, that means we're run to one
dies. We're running machines to thevery last stamp because we don't know the
uncertainty, right yeah, yeah,And then when you see houses or developments
being built. You know, peopleare buying homes, right you know,
uh, companies are buying wood,and they're buying door handles, and they're
(22:14):
buying refrigerators and they're buying lambing itright, So then you know this the
companies are making refrigerators and electronics behindthat. So you start to see this
unraveling, right Yeah. And thenalthough I know banks don't love this,
typically when people buy houses, theyalso like to buy cars, yes,
right right, also not a businessrecommendation, but and then just like my
(22:41):
same example about the refrigerator, youcan reverse engineer when people are starting to
buy cars everything that comes together tomake a car, right, and you
start seeing those supplies yes, right, right. So typically it's when I
see more flatbeds on the road andI you can read and notice the communities
around you being built, right,that's typically to me are good indicators of
(23:03):
a healthy marker coming back? Yeah, can I throw in one more?
Two? And the auto industry,I would imagine two because you're using steel
and that's probably another huge right Yeah. Yeah, it's uh, it's steel,
it's it's rubber, it's plastic.We obviously all all of a sudden.
Again, just like my mom andbeing the expert in transportation after COVID,
(23:26):
all of us also are all expertsand microchips now, yeah, yeah,
right, right right, And whatyou know, to put in perspective,
I think it's like, on average, a normal quote unquote normal combustion
car these days have like two thousandmicrochips. I was thinking, like,
there's one microchip and we wake up, we plug it in, and it's
(23:47):
like, you know, same ironMan's thing in the middle of the car
comes to life, you know whatI mean, there's like two thousand in
every car, and for electric carsthere's like six or seven thousand. That's
right, So there's another supply chain. So like we're catching up with microchips
just for combustion cars at a xx amount of microchips per combustion car,
(24:10):
while the supply chain and the industryof automnufacturing is transitioning into batteries that are
going to per car almost triple theamount of microchips we need, right right
right. But then you see greatthings happen, like Intel coming to Columbus
and the attention of developing microchips domesticallythat is here to you know, address
those problems, right, And that'sthat's kind of one of those full circle
(24:33):
things to say, like from outsidelooking in, how has COVID shaped supply
chain? Uh? Intel coming here? Now? Intel coming to Columbus has
been in the works, I'm youknow well before right, right, right,
But the attention it got and thereason and everybody's understanding of why this
(24:53):
this building or this manufacturing plant needsto exist, right, the narrative for
the most part, we all understoodit. Right. Yeah, you would
have told the average person five yearsago a microchip coming is coming in,
right, even if probably wouldn't evencare, But you wouldn't have either too
many questions. Now when you hearit, you're like, that makes sense?
(25:14):
Were microchips? Yeah, No,you're absolutely right. Peter Cortola Junior
is with us from Ease Logistics.He was the founder back in twenty fourteen
CEO and he's this week's guest onCEO. As you should know, with
the developments like Intel and all theseother companies that are coming, does that
excite you as a owner of alogistics company. Do you are a lot
(25:37):
of your clients based in Central highor are they all over the country,
Peter, it does excite me.I would say for the most part,
we we service customers globally, right, Okay, for the most part,
though our customers are headquarters somewhere domestically, Okay. I would say probably sixty
percent or seventy percent of our customershave a have a presence here in Ohio.
(26:00):
Now, Ohio, I'm stoked forOhio. You know, Intel's a
great reflection, but it's not justIntel Ease and a lot of the companies
here that's growing. Ohio has somany great attributes about it that really take
a step back and look at that. Will I think we'll be a leader
in GDP in the upcoming future.You know where we are in geographically,
(26:23):
the infrastructure, the amount of waterthat we have access to, the talent
here, and honestly the climate too. You know. I know we give
Ohio lot of flak for weather becausewe go through all the seasons every day.
Yeah, which super cool. Butwhen you're looking at infrastructure and looking
(26:45):
at the ability to to bring anindustry in that can operate twenty four seven,
it's really not that harsh. Right. We're not dealing with extreme heat.
We're not dealing with extreme cold agood point. We have fluid amount
of water to be able to cooldown big systems. Right, So there's
a lot of components that make Ohio. When you start asking these questions of
why shouldn't industry exist somewhere, ninetimes out of ten, Ohio it's at
(27:10):
the top of the list because ofthose things. Yeah, I'm super stoke
for Ohio coming up. Peter,by the way, where is your is
your headquarters in Dublin two? Andit's okay, that's what I thought.
I thought. I saw that justadding curiosity when when you founded the company,
what did you start with one truck? I mean, what were some
of the startups you you definitely hadto have. Yeah, so it was
(27:32):
a prayer. There was a prayerI dout and just you know, close
your eyes and swing. When itstarted, it was just myself, right
I now obviously my girlfriend at thetime now wife, Elizabeth, was a
huge supporter. After we got throughthe fact that I wasn't applying for jobs
and I was just saying, I'mgonna start a company that have minimal direct
(27:56):
experience in so after we got throughthat, I had I had a great
support team in regards to a familymy Elizabeth and my firstborn son, Peter
Joseph at the time six months.But I could tell you he was rooting
for me. But it was justme and a computer, right yea,
(28:18):
a desk in my dad's office andthe toilet right behind us. So it
was there wasn't much, you knowit was. It wasn't until year four
or year three that we got ourfirst straight truck. And now today Ease
has over four hundred trucks and trailers, over a half a million square feet
of warehouse and distribution space, andwe're breaking around on a new distribution center
(28:40):
here out in Marysville here in thenext month. Congratulations. When I think
about and I don't want to callthem toys, I mean, obviously they're
a part. They're a part ofyour company. Is it? Is it
just eighteen wheelers? What? What? What kind of tools do you have?
So we got everything from the sprintervans that you see of you know
what we all see come up intoour driveway delivering packages to the big eighteen
(29:03):
wheelers. We got straight trucks,we got power units. We have the
first two autonomous platooning trucks in NorthAmerica. Wait, what does that mean?
Peters. That's a good question.I also recently found out autonomous platooning
means this in a platooning environment,lets you semis obviously. For this example,
(29:26):
the second the while while on thehighway, the second truck will go
in front of the lead truck,right, Both trucks have trailers on them
all right, and get about twoseconds behind. So when you're looking at
it from outside, it looks likean evil and evil stunt. And then
the second truck will go fully autonomousand follow the first truck, so in
(29:47):
full deployment while they're driving. Thesecond driver could technically in full deployment.
Again, a lot of safety regulationsto get through, and not saying that
we're there yet, but we arethe pioneers with Bosch and TRC and wow
atmosphere where the second truck gets togo fully autonomous and the driver could technically
(30:07):
take a dot reset. Right.That's a good point because one thing I
wanted to bring up earlier is youknow, you're talking about all the logistical
stuff with your drivers and having toexpedite things. You're also having to follow
rules from the dot and is itit's not paper logs anymore. It's all
digital right, right, Yeah,so that's that was from the MAP twenty
(30:30):
one. So that was put intothat was an amendment or down amend.
That was a bill put in byObama, the MAP twenty one, which
really did good for the industry interms of safety and can be impact.
Right. I know there there's varyingopinions out there, but at the end
of the day, what that didwas elevate the ability to report and have
(30:52):
a clear understanding of safety from froma driver perspective. And Peter, do
you do you think since then thingsare a lot safer. Drivers are safer,
that the roads are safer. Ithink that I do. I really
do, because drivers are commercial driversgo through extensive training and before their home,
you know, eighty thousand pounds throughmountains, they've had a lot of
(31:17):
experience. But you know, accidentsfor the majority of the time, there's
a human error that exists, right, And when you when you go back
to human errors, when you havea commercial driver on the road at all
times, their expectations are higher thanjust civilians on the road. Right,
if someone cuts you off, that'snot a good excuse for you to get
(31:38):
in an accident because you're a commercialdriver right. So to be able to
have that those expectations, you haveto make sure the drivers are aware,
the drivers are healthy, right,they're getting rest. E LDS allow us
to make sure that drivers are stoppedwhen they're supposed to. Right from a
trucking company standpoint, it does itlimit the amount of our miles we can
(32:00):
get a week, yes, butit does it from a safety perspective,
right, Yeah, you can runfive thousand a week or you can do
seventy, but put people at riskisn't worth it? Answers now? Right,
So e LDS has elevated the safetyand the reporting of that lets companies
(32:21):
make business decisions based on it,right, doesn't look it makes you introduce
safety as an assessment point and makesit more easy to utilize safety as an
assessment point when taking on new business, which before I don't want to say
it wasn't. But having all thedata in the connectivity now to knowing the
driver's logs in real time, let'sus really assess can we take on that
(32:42):
route, can we apply that driveror do we need to go to one
of our care partners and use them. Peter, nowadays, with all of
your trucks, when they're out,can you track them all with technology?
Now you know exactly where they're at. Oh yeah, so we're we're pretty
crazy about visibility and tracking at EaseLogistics. Uh. I would say we've
said a couple of records and wona couple awards about our expectations for tracking.
(33:07):
And it's uh, it's cool tosee too though. You know,
at any given time, we canpull up and see where every shipment it's
moving, where all our trailers are, what trailers have cargo on them,
what don't who's using our trailers?So it's uh, that is something that
he's has a lot of pride in, is our tracking invisibility. Yeah,
I was, I was curious aboutthat. So you don't mind if a
driver is stopping to get something toequick, but they better get back in
(33:29):
the road real quick too. Yep, yep, as long as it's under
five minute. Now I'm kidding.Stop. No, we love that,
yeah, what I mean. Andit's always like caring from the drivers about
the best places to eat. Youknow, if you ever want to know,
if you're going somewhere, what's agood place to stop and eat?
A truck drivers typically have a wealthof information age. I agreed, agreed,
(33:50):
My uh my dad hauled up drainagetiles, so I would go on
with them for some of the runs. And I know exactly what you're talking
about. Ye how as we startto wrap up here, Peter, you
intrigued me about the autonomous trucks.I didn't know that your company was testing
this. How close are we tohaving that become a reality? I mean,
(34:14):
we got we got rub around theroad right. Yesterday the trucks did
their first revenue generating full service deliveryactually to the Cleveland Brown Stadium, which
was awesome. So in the grandscamp and the grand scheme of where we
are, you know, I wouldsay we're fourth quarter right? Wow,
but fourth quarter right? Both teamshave all their timeouts right, and it's
(34:38):
tied game kind of deal, youknow what I mean. So there's still
a lot to be done. There'sstill a lot of regulation going through.
Since we are the first company outthere for revenue generating for this kind of
technology, we had to work withour Highland, our insurance partner, and
we had to write the policy becausethey didn't have one. Right, you
(34:58):
should see an underwriters face when wetell them we have to write a policy.
It's priceless, I'll tell you.So it's you're writing, you're writing
policy, you're capturing information that's goingto build legislation and law about it.
Right, We had to go andtalk to all the state highway police and
saying, when you see our trucksplatuning, it's gonna look like we're reckless
(35:19):
driving because we're two seconds behind,right, So how do we overcome getting
pulled over? Right? So theycame back and said, here, put
these purple lights on and one ofthe technologies on, turn them on and
we'll send a broadcast out. Solocal police force and state highway know that
you guys are in an active environmentof trying to technology and not to pull
you over. Right. But it'sgoose. When you get a technology like
(35:43):
this, you get you get here'sall these things you can't do, and
here's like the one or two thingsyou can do, right, Yeah,
and then the test is how dowe keep adding things we can do to
it? Peter, Peter, justone more thing, because I'm so fascinated
by this, the platoony, theautont of his trucks. How does it
work? Are they are these truckstalking to each other. Are they Yeah,
(36:06):
And it's like think about it aslike uh, magnets and way,
but they're talking to each other.Okay, But it's very smart technology because
you have to take into account differentcargo in each truck is one movie,
what's not right, and that secondtruck has to follow the first truck.
So the first driver has to moveout of abruptly turn that second truck has
(36:30):
to follow right, but also hasto take into account the different weight in
the back and everything right. Andmy opinion, this type of technology is
going to be the single biggest impactin our industry. From we're talking about
how's autonomous going to help our industry, and it's not to put drivers out
of work. Drivers are going tobe a drivers are staying right. We're
(36:52):
elevating drivers to to have them beable to also become account managers. Maybe
why they're platooning right, yeah,to help with it or right. So
this is going to elevate. Butfrom a standpoint of how this is going
to impact us right now, ifI want to send a truck from Ohio
to Florida, right, if Iwant to get it there the next day,
(37:14):
either have to put two drivers inthe truck right. That's really the
only way legally Now I can sendtwo full truck loads and they don't stop
and go to Ohio to Florida inone day, right without having to take
a dot because they're they'll be ableto do it while they're driving. That's
a game changer. Can the driversoverride yes, the technology right, and
(37:37):
just to be clear, the technologieswe're still, like I said, far
away from full deployment. Right,the drivers at all times can override right
and right now, when the secondtruck is platooning while we're in this beta
environment, the second drivers hands onthe wheel just like you're driving. There's
no getting out of this. There'sno right right, no, no taking
(37:58):
an app okay, okay, Itake the knaps. But the second driver
is I'm assuming white knuckle right,holding on and because again you have drivers
that are very experience and you're breakingone of their fundamental habits right to get
two seconds behind another vehicle on theroad, right. So that was a
(38:21):
big hurdle too. It's getting ourmost seasoned drivers that have great driving records
and say, hey, everything thatyou know, go ahead and delete that.
I need you to tailgate this truck. Yeah, but chance your question.
The technology and it's it's very verysmart. It takes into account there's
over two thousand centers. It takesinto account. Wow, precipitation, win,
(38:42):
cargo movement, h so many differentthings every millisecond, right, constantly
going back and forth to the driver, to the cargo shift, is the
road, the road temperature, allthese things right, and assessing the situation
to make sure, hey, thisis the right environment for us to be
doing us. Wow, that thatis that's mind blowing to me. Peters
(39:02):
will wrap it up here, butwhat is the future of third party logistics
really the future of ease logistics?So ease EASE will be and is on
the way to being a pillar inthe industry. Right, we've set a
standard of customer service. We obsessover communication, we obsess over accountability.
Right, we're pioneers and we're innovators. EASE will be a pillar in the
(39:27):
industry that Locally, I think we'vedone a great job and being part of
the community that has been so greatto us has been a huge part of
our success. And the goal willbe and we will get there as EASE
will continue to do that, butat a national level, right, to
have that brand at a national level, but still have that hometown hometown pride.
(39:47):
From an industry perspective, you know, uh, populations growing, demands
growing. We're all getting smarter andregarding to understanding what the downfalls of having
this cornucopia of offerings, and Ithink we've all kind of adjusted to saying,
hey, if I can't get thisnerf gun in twenty four hours,
(40:10):
everything's gonna be okay, right.Uh, well, at least for adults.
I know my sons are still havinga hard time having away forty eight
hours. How old are your kids? By the way, I got three,
So Peter, Joseph is nine yearsold, Benjamin is five, and
William is two. Yeah, yougot your hands full. You're just like,
(40:30):
man, it's yeah, it's fullcourt press. Yeah for sure.
But I would tell you trucks arevery popular in our house right now.
So it's like I'm still cool,You're still it's still the cool dad.
That's still great. Hey, beforeyou go, some of your clients,
can you name some of them locally? Uh? We got some let's say
we we have some big auto manufacturersthat are local. Okay, right,
(40:53):
we got some food and beverage company, some fast food companies that are you
know, headquarters here. We gotsome deli meat producers here. Yeah,
you know, I think that's bigvariety. And yeah, yeah, a
big, big variety of different clients. That's great. Peter Cortole, the
(41:15):
junior who is the founder and CEOof ease Logistics. He is this week's
guest on CEOs. You should know. I I know I've learned a lot.
If I don't know if you're hiring, but uh, if for those
that want to learn more about easeLogistics your website, where do they go?
Yeah, He's is always looking forgreat talent and people that are you
know, wanting to work hard anduh create an opportunity and make an impact.
(41:38):
So our website, ease logistics dotcom is a great resource for us
to for anybody to go see withthe open positions also to learn. We
also operate twenty four seven right andwe have a two minute response times so
I saw that. Yeah, oryou could just call in and just start
talking and asking us about ease Logistics, and we're always happy to sure about
(42:00):
eas logistics but also give information aboutthe industry. You know, anybody that's
ever looking to learn about the industryor come learn about EES Logistics. We
were open to bringing anybody into tooshadow and see what's going on in the
industry. And I think, likeyou said, a great A great first
step is going to our website EASlogistics dot com. All right, Peter
Gartola, junior founder of EA's Logistics, also the CEO. I really appreciate
(42:23):
your time. Thanks for being thisweek's guest on CEOs you Should Know.
Thank you very much. Been great. CEOs you Should Know is hosted and
produced by Brandon Boxer, a productionof Ihartmedia Columbus
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