June 6, 2025 • 33 mins
Want to learn more about refrigerated freight for the food and beverage industry? Listen to this week’s last guest, Michael Cherney, the co-founder and CEO of Cooler Logistics!
Michael shares his shift from the financial services sector to founding Cooler Logistics, their company’s strategic focus on small to mid-sized customers, innovative operational approaches using technology, and the importance of customer retention and consistent pricing strategies!
About Michael Cherney
Michael Cherney is a proven leader in the logistics industry with 16 years of experience. He holds a master's degree in Global Supply Chain Management and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification. Known for his exceptional leadership, Michael, a first time CEO, leads a diverse team of experienced logistics professionals aiming to provide an exceptional experience to their carrier and customer partners alike. With an ideal customer profile of SMBs in the F&B vertical, his subject matter expertise in shipping fresh and frozen products shines.
Connect with Michael
- Website: https://www.coolerlogistics.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcherney/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Came back with a bank window down yelling now money every day hey oh Got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when I'm getting to the back hey Got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when the lane moves fast hey Let them all cross if they hate then let them made them make a bigger balls hey.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What is up, ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is the Freight Coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation, coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am Pacific, 10:30 Central, to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I do say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I.
(00:54):
I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve, so you can take that information, apply it, utilize it, and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Friday, everybody. I'm going to jump right into this one, but I have been reminded I have to say this at the beginning of the show as well. If you get value in what you hear here today, which I know you will, and you're not subscribed, subscribe to the show, you guys. And if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because that's how we get out there in front of more people. And if you saw value, chances are your network's going to see value as well.
(01:28):
All right, we're going to dive right in, you guys. I love speaking to brokers out there who go out and start their own thing and then also work inside of a niche and really are doing the right thing out there in the market. And none other than my guest today embodies a lot of that. So I have Mr. Michael Cherney on the show with cooler logistics. Michael, thank you so much for taking the time to join me.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Chris, it is a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
No, man, I. Dude, I'm looking forward to this, man. Like, we literally Met all of 7 minutes ago for the first time speaking, and I can already tell this is going to be an action packed episode, man. So, dude, how'd you get your start in freight? Like, what brought you into all of this?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Look, you know, I was actually my first job out of College was financial services and I got in right in October of 2007. So right before that recession. And I grinded. But I got connected to Robbie Nathan from Load delivered logistics in 2009 and was the sevent person hired to Low Deliver Logistics. And I was there for 15 years and I wore every hat that there possibly was. I led their expansion west and opened up their LA office, created a product, a joint venture with a produce company, and then built their managed trans product. And about two and a half years ago, decided to, with my business partner, John Michael on, start something fresh. And here we are, Logistics, dude.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So why, when it comes down to it, man, I mean, what is it about the niche that you guys are really operating in? Or, you know, maybe let's back that up before you even answer that, man. What was it about going out on your own that was so enticing? Right? Because like I, I talk about this, the idea sounds so cool when you're getting a salary, you know what I mean? Like, it sounds so great to like put everything on the line and go out there. What was that big thing for you, man? Was it just like. I'll let you answer that. But what was that big thing for you that was like, dude, I got to go out there and try?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah. So it actually was driven by my co founder, John Michael. He was a big part. He was the money behind Load Delivered and a big part of Load Delivered. And when Load Delivered was acquired by Capstone in 2018, he had already kind of planned. He's like, I want to do this again and give an opportunity to pay back the leadership team or people that help Load Deliver get to that point of acquisition. So here we are, we got an entire leadership team that John Michelin put together that came from the Load Delivered like pedigree. So the core focus of that was to build a team that had been at Parload Delivered. He wanted to give them an opportunity to do something fresh.
(04:08):
Everyone on leadership has equity in our business and we thought that thesis was if you have people with skin in the game, we're going to be able to get there faster. Especially with the combined experience that we have on top of that. Logistics, sorry, cold logistics. Right. We feel the specialized nature of fresh frozen food allows for greater revenue, more just in time type of stuff. Companies are looking to get that product off the shot, off their docks because there's a clock and we feel like that's kind of where our specialty lies.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, no, I, you know, I see, I think a lot of people fall victim to the hey, it's a trillion dollar industry. We got to offer everything, we got to do everything. And like, and I truly get that mentality. But everything you're describing there is why I don't do cold chain logistics. You know, like I, I did it early on in my career, right. Like if it push came to shove, yes, I, I could make it work because for like for the first seven, eight years, man, that's all I did was food and bev, dry and reefer. But I, you know, we do open deck and heavy haul, right. Like 95 of my freight is flatbed, step deck. You name it. We go job site, crane load, crane offload. All of that stuff we do that day in and day out.
(05:24):
And I don't know how anybody could kind of do what we do, you know what I mean? Because dude, there's just a lot of moving parts that come along with it. And if you're off one thing, dude, and like, and when it comes down to like over dimensional freight is, it's the same with refrigerated freight. If you're off by 2 to 3 degrees, your entire load is spoiled. Just like if you're off by one or two inches and it's a permitted load, you're done. Like you might be sitting for a week before they can get that stuff repermitted. In some states.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
I hadn't thought about it, but there's a lot of parallels between the two verticals. Absolutely. And honestly our specialty at load delivered was this refrigerated freight. So that was all the experience that our leadership team had. And there was no point in recruit reinventing the wheel. Let's hone in on where our expertise is. These subject matter experts. Our ideal customer profile are the small and mid sized customers within the food and beverage space. And that's retail manufacturing, distribution. It could be raw materials, packaging, anything really that touches that money. Because that's where we're experts.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah. And, and that's, you know, again, and I've talked about this on the show in the past, man, there are some bleed overs. Yes, we do run some dry band freight. We do have some expedited sprinter van work that we have incorporated into our operation. But it's not like our core competency when we're out there selling a lot of that vertical stays inside of our existing customers. Like very rarely am I going to go out there and be like hey, we can do sprinter van work to a prospect. It's more we have our core competency this is what we like to execute upon day in and day out. And then if an existing customer comes and says, hey, we need this or I know a guy who needs that's a different style of sale out there.
(07:05):
And from what I've seen, and I'd love to get your opinion on this now like because from my perspective, because we started cold 0 customers January 2023. Like we had no revenue, we had nothing. And we've built up slow and steady. I'm very happy with the growth that we've had, but I noticed a lot of the feedback from our prospects came from when were like very direct about why we're calling. This is who we are, this is what we do. Have you seen that difference? Say pre Covid and post Covid when you're out there developing business where pre Covid to me, you used to have a couple of decent conversations with somebody and they would give you a prove it shipment, right? Like hey, we've talked enough, are you actually who you say you are? Now? None of that is even happening, right?
(07:51):
Like you might get onboarded, but it might be two to three years before you even move your first shipment for that.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It has been an uphill battle. We definitely, we also started with zero. Our start date was September 2023, so shortly after you kicked off yours. But we've been fortunate. One of our differentiating factors is that we focus on the relationships on all sides of it. We want to avoid being transactional with our employees. We don't want fly, we're not, we don't want to be a fly by night employer. We want people that want to be here for the long haul. We invest in their development professionally and personally. We also don't post loads. So 85% of our freight is booked on relationship carriers that we booked three or more times.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Now obviously there are some loads like we have to book a load with a carrier that we've never worked with before. But because of the nature of our ideal customer profile and the freight that they have, it's really critical that we're using relationship carriers that have proven success with us and they know what we expect. They're willing to do the macro point, they give us driver contact, they know what our customers expect and that way they can provide great service. So with that we've been able to have spectacular startups. 2025 every month has been our best month and we beat the previous month for so like January beat December, February beat January and so on and so forth. And last month was our best month too. So we're really excited about what we're doing here at Cooler.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
What drives that from a capacity standpoint? Right. Because like I've met people like there's two schools of thought in the industry and it's the ones who say they give a about carriers and the ones who actually give a about carriers and do what you're describing right there. And we're not that high with it. We're, we're, we really have our core carriers that we reach out to first before we go out to the load board. But we do need to post freight at times and especially when we're in with a customer and we're developing new lanes where our existing carriers are like, dude, we just don't run there otherwise. Yeah, we take it. What drives that and how are you putting that out there when you guys are like, you know, speaking to your customers or prospecting new business when you.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Say what drives that equal what drives our sourcing power?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, like no, no. What made you guys commit to that way of sourcing carriers? Because again there's people who say they do it and people who actually do it.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
You know, I appreciate you asking where I came from and where a lot of others came from. In terms of the leadership team, posting freight became the only way to cover freight. It was a crutch and you'd see a tough load on the board. Carrier reps were just like, just post it. They weren't willing to do the hard stuff to develop their own internal network and in turn develop the company's carrier network. They didn't know power lanes, they didn't know where carriers were getting empty and where they were looking to go. There was no knowledge, there was no skill. And so when we started Pooler, were committed to never posting a load because I wanted our carrier team to have the right habits, to have a strong carrier network.
(10:56):
And our belief is by doing that we'll have greater service, greater rates and be able to grow our business because of the service we provide to our customers.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I think it's going to be like, because like that's our strategy with it here. And you know, in having a founder led organization, we're going to make sure that this happens for like my goal long term is obviously the people who I train to replicate and duplicate myself, it's going to be ingrained into them that this is the way that we operate and this is the way that we do things out there. Because my thing Is, man, is. Is. We're about to embark in a market where a lot of the loudest voices in the industry have either forgotten exists or have never operated inside of. And that is when you have to do what you're describing right there. You have to make outbound calls to cover freight. It's not post. Get 150 phone calls, push the rate down as low as possible.
(11:52):
Chest bump, bang on a gong. Do whatever the hell that these guys do out there in the industry works now, it's not always going to be that way. Right. I, I could be completely wrong. Capacity could stay elevated for the next 30 years. I don't know. It's a crapshoot at this point. All the data that you see out there, man, just throw that out the window. You never know at this point. But I look at it is what you're describing. There is a skill. It is a carrier sales rep at the end of the day. Nick Dangles, I don't know if you're familiar with him, he talks about this a lot.
(12:22):
And, and I'm from the same school of thought there where it's like, man, I want to find those guys who are specific days of the week in specific areas and they have a why behind? Like, hey man, that load out of Arizona going to Colorado, I want that. And here's why, right? Like we're here, we have this customer that delivers all the time. We got to get back to Colorado to get that freight to come back in and just do that close capacity loop that's out there. And it's going to come a point in time where if you've never had to make an outbound call for a load, you're going to struggle. I don't know when that's going to happen. And the appetite for failure from customers is going to be very low.
(13:00):
And from a competitive standpoint, I'm salivating for that to happen like I truly am. I don't want to see anybody lose or fail. But from a competitor, I'm looking to stomp on people's throats coming up here because I've had to operate in that market for a very long time.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Yeah, it's interesting. There's been a couple facets to it. You talked about the skills that a carrier rep gains and just receive, like posting and answer the phone. It doesn't give you any skill. I mentioned our desire to invest in our people and professional development. They need to have skills that if they ever wanted to leave cooler or freight that they have Transferable skills and they've learned something. Posting freight and just answering cold calls doesn't teach anybody anything. Right. On top of that, when we engage with carriers and they find out that we don't post loads, they're more interested in creating a relationship with us and they give us more information with regards to what they're looking for and what they're not looking for. The customers also love that we don't do that. But then the next question is, how are you sourcing capacity?
(13:59):
So that's something we're prepared to answer for. And then on the other side of it is with all the freight fraud and theft, we are limiting our exposure to that. Especially with the nature of our freight. It's super critical that we avoid as much risk as possible.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, no, dude, I'm right there with you. Right? I think I've said that exact statement about 8,000 times in the last couple of years. The only way to actually fight fraud is by continuing to use the repeated carriers that are already set up and vetted that you have a trusted relationship with. Right. And again, I'm not here to knock on any company or anything, but the data is the data. Fraud and theft continues to rise. So therefore a lot of the tools that are at your disposal right now, either you're not using them or they're not actually weeding out this stuff. Because again, you can go to the FMCSA database and put all that information in there and pull all that information.
(14:51):
But unless you're having an actual conversation with somebody on the phone, like, because to me, Michael, I can tell in about three seconds if the person I'm talking to is full of shit or not on the other end of the phone. And again, that just comes from actual experience out there. And you know, for me, furthermore, man, when you're trying to build long term partnerships, whether it's with a shipper or with a carrier, man, the shippers love seeing the same trucking companies show up, especially when they're brokered and they're working with a broker and they're seeing that same logo showing up time and time again. They love that stuff, they eat that stuff up. I don't know why it's not more applied across the industry.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
It's definitely appreciated. And don't get me wrong, this is definitely the path of most resistance. It is not easy, right? As you said, our guys are making and girls are making a lot of phone calls to cover freight. And we say like for any new lane, any new market that we haven't seen before it takes about 10 loads for us to have fully developed carrier network and we'll grind it out. We might take some losses early on, we won't fail. But by the 10th load, we have a very robust carrier network developed on that lane. And it just takes time. And what's cool about when we started, I'm sure you experienced this when it was a relatively slower market. Barrier of entry to land, new business was kind of high, and it still is.
(16:10):
We were able to use that time to really hone in on the necessary skills to be a successful carrier rep and business development rep. Let me ask.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You this, because this is, I mean, I know the answer to this, but this is one thing I see all the time. Carriers don't want to hear from you unless you have freight for them or unless you can give something to them. What is your experience with that?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
That's not wrong. Early days, we had to offer freight that we thought we would get that wasn't an actual load. And we had to get a little crafty and just let them know that we're working on this business. I didn't, you know, one of our core values is integrity.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And we didn't want to be liars. We don't lie. Right. We're always going to do the right thing. We're always going to be forthcoming, transparent. So we had to kind of hone, you know, own that we didn't. But were curious. This is the lane we're going after. And some carriers were like, I got trucks to cover, I don't want to talk about it. But then we would call them back that afternoon and they'd be more willing to have that conversation. Yeah, like anything in sales, you just got to be a little relentless and you can't stop.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, I, I'm right there with you, man. I feel like the right carriers are appreciative of that. And I feel like, you know, in a market like right now, the more you're reaching out to them, the more that they're going to want to work with you and you know, in the future because like, dude, that's just one thing that we do is we really drive that home. Right. Like, we send out our load list to our preferred carriers all the time. Hey, we got this truck or we got this load available this day, this location. Here's what it is, this is what it pays. We put all the low details out there and we try and develop that as much as possible. Because again, man, I want to use those same trucks on Everything.
(17:42):
And what I found is as we've been able to, you call it cross pollinate, I'm losing. I went to public school, so I don't know the best way to describe this, but we're starting to use them on multiple customers now, right? Because like we built that up to where, hey, we know where their capacity is. We're able to pre book them with multiple customers of ours in multiple spots of the country. And that's just what we want, right? Like I don't want to have to go out there and source new capacity as much as I possibly can. I want to use those trusted drivers.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
The less we can get from transactional relationship on the carrier side, the better your service is going to be. And if you can do that trend, avoid that transactional nature on the driver level as well. Now you're really doing something special with all you're looking at your holistic load board and you can get a driver on three different loads for three different customers. You're doing the right thing. And you could do that without technology. With technology. But now that driver appreciates the service that we're providing, the experience that they get with cooler or with you and they're willing to take it if we have a load, they might take it at a lower rate than another broker that they don't know about.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I agree, man. So I mean, speaking of technology, what are you guys looking at here with, from your standpoint, there's a lot of stuff that's at your disposal right now. What is it that you guys are using inside of your business? And there's, is there anything out there where you guys are strategically looking to invest because you can, hey, there's, there could be some potential serious ROI coming from this.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
So like you, or at least with the sponsors, we are using two of your sponsors right now. Revinova is our tms. Green Screens is our rating engine. You know, I'm really interested in finding the right application for AI to create operational leverage and make the revenue per se, you know, 2x3x what it normally, what is industry standard, you know, especially in this time where margins are compressed. If our revenue and our top line goes up, we can't let our operation costs go up as well. So I have to find a way to solve operational bottlenecks and operational workloads by way of AI. I think that any relationship driving activity needs to be human to human, customer facing, dispatcher facing.
(19:50):
But I think AI for us, especially since we're not getting inundated with inbound calls because we're not posting, but maybe driver tracking can be done through AI. So I'm looking at different platforms for that load building, appointment scheduling, pod collections. How can we leverage certain AI platforms or automation platforms to accomplish those tasks in an efficient way that's cost effective and allows my EBITDA to increase?
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, and that's exactly how we're approaching this, right? Like I look at it is as you'd be a fool to not explore AI to help pack a larger punch out there from an operational standpoint, right? Because like, I know, man, like, dude, me as one person, I could do like 20 to 25 loads day, I think with AI, man. Like, how high can I get, dude? Can I get to 100 in a day with AI if I got somebody behind the scenes who's building, doing all that stuff for me and I can just go out there and execute? I don't know, man. 100 might be a hot. But like, I'm not, like I'm, I think I can do it, right? And I feel like with where we are in the market with technology, man, like you have to look at that.
(20:54):
How can you be faster? How can you become more accurate out there? And you know, again, like, I'm just, I bootstrap my companies, right? I have no investors, I got nothing. It's dollar in, dollar out. So I'm like, how, as the old rap lyric used to go, how do I make a dollar out of 15 cents? You know, like, that's literally how I'm approaching this. And I feel like implementing the right technology does that.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Well, I think it's important too. In it, the tech is used to empower our people to do more. Right. It's a force multiplier. It's not a force replacer. So no one's going to lose their job because of technology. What is going to probably shift is how we train our people to engage with technology so that they understand how to maximize the technology's value and allow them to do more. But there is the right equation somewhere. And you think you have to be very intentional with the tech that you bring on, understand the value you're trying to bring in, the ROI you want to get. But it, there is answer out there and I don't think it's a one size fits all for everybody.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you, right? And you know, like with us in, in utilizing Revenova, right? Because I like, I use Revenova day in and day out inside of my business. And from like the features that are inside of there. Because, you know, not everybody has EDI customers and API customers, right? And you know that if you're operating in a spot market opportunity, you know, for me personally, do like their load clone feature saves so much time out there, especially if it's the same shipper and everything, that you can go out there and clone as many details as possible. That helps us expedite our load building process that comes along with it and then just inside of it from an operational thing. For me, it's just like the flow of building the loads is all there in the way. It's.
(22:33):
To me, I just, I love it from that perspective because it's just so easy to use. And when it comes down to it, man, I'm like a caveman when it comes to technology, right? Like, I know how to restart my computer, but for me it's like that helps us pack a larger punch out there and operate at a higher level, right? Because again, I'm out. Time is the only thing I can't get back in a day. So how do I do more with less? And then right now, dude, even like with pricing as well, some of the stuff out there, like, dude, it is hyper competitive out there, right? Anybody who says that it's not as full of it and it is having that right rate that you can identify for the long term to hold as long as possible at that level, right?
(23:13):
Because for us, we want to keep our rates as similar as possible throughout the entire year. I don't believe increasing my rates because a market shift happened or anything like that. Like, I'll eat that cost if I'm off on my price, dude, it's on me. It's on my shoulders. It's not my customer's fault.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, I think accountability and pricing is really important. You know, you give you make a commitment to a customer, you stand by that commitment. If you misprice it, that's not the customer's problem, you know, and honestly, they don't really want to hear it. Get the load picked up, you know, be it. Be a person of your word. When you say you're gonna do something, do it. I appreciate that approach that you have, Chris. We have a very similar approach. And pricing is a nuanced art, you know that you're never, you're not sure if you're gonna be right. And just because green screen says one thing doesn't mean you're actually gonna buy at that price. And depending on where your room is and how developed your network is on that lane, your price is going to fluctuate.
(24:08):
And you know, right now we're at about 20% win rate with all of our spot business, which I think is a pretty good number in this current market. And our margin is very healthy. So we got contract freight, we got spot freight, we got a nice mix. And the spot freight does help us come up even though spot rates are down.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, it's. Dude, it is. Pricing is an art. Right. And I want a lot of people to understand though, like you need to look at like rolling 12 month data, you need to look at a lot of this stuff because from my perspective, it doesn't change as much as people like to make you think it changes. Because again, are there spikes throughout the year? Absolutely it is. But again, it's not your customer. Like nobody complains when you're making a couple hundred bucks on a load. Right. So if, and I use this analogy often, if you're good enough to make a thousand dollars on a load, you better be good enough to lose a thousand dollars on a load as well. Because like there's going to be times capacity is going to tighten up for whatever reason, weather, event, holiday, it doesn't matter.
(25:10):
You got to keep that same rate out there. Because again, if you're not, if you're like that spot market broker who's just like trying to raise your rates at all times, I don't. All right. My pricing strategy is keep the exact same rate on the same lanes as long as I possibly can. Because the way that this market will shift next, that for some reason nobody talks about, and it's probably because a lot of these guys were spouting off on the industry, don't actually move freight. The customer will not raise the rate, but the carrier will. Okay. And you will be compressed in that moment. And that's going to be a very tough sell to go to your customer and say, hey, I need more money when all your competitors are not raising their rates.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Well, that practice that you just explained, you know, customers remember that type of stuff. Yeah, right. And they also appreciate that type of stuff. So, you know, everything we do now is going to be remembered in a year from now and two years from now and how we treat our customers, it's going to be the differentiator whether we grow with that customer or we can track.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah. No, and that's the truth, man. And that's like one thing that I never respected until I was self Employed was, I need revenue 12 months out of the year. All right? No customer is replaceable from the sense of like, oh, I'll just go find somebody else. You know what I mean? Like, it's so hard to get somebody's business and then keep their business year in and year out. I don't know if enough people put enough focus on customer retention because a lot of the growth most people are looking for is already inside of their active book of business. If you have established customers that you're working with right now, chances are you're not getting 30, 40, 50% of their freight. So a lot of that growth is already there. So, like, just this mentality of like, oh, I'll just go find more business.
(26:55):
I don't know, man. Like, I would rather keep and work with the same people time and time again and grow that way than have to constantly shuffle through new providers.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
It's great that you bring that up. I agree. I think that customer retention is often forgotten about and there's such a great focus on new business acquisition. You know, we're at about 75% customer retention, which I think is healthy. It's going to happen. But going back to what you said about keeping your rate level, if you raise your rate and you don't have a compelling enough reason, there are 20 other brokers and knocking at the door of your customer. And if you don't do something that's worthy of that price adjustment, you're going to get booted.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you, man. I don't know if enough people put enough emphasis on how competitive it is out there and how many people are actually calling your customers at any given day. Because on any given day, I'm at least touching 50 of your guys's customers. All right? And that's the truth. Because I'm out there for to grow. I'm out there to scale. And I'm not sitting on the sidelines and sitting on my hands idly waiting for things to change, man. Like, I, I don't have, like, I have been self employed since the literal pandemic started. All right? I don't know what it's like to do anything other than to put myself out there unapologetically every single day and hope to get consistent revenue inside of my companies, and I'm very fortunate to have that.
(28:21):
But I know how hard I've had to work to get there, and I'm not willing to throw that away because of a loss on a shipment or something like that.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Right. I mean, you, it's, it sounds like you've burned the boats. There's no other option but going forward. Right. There's nowhere else to go. Right.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I'm unemployable at this point, Michael. Like, I, I couldn't. Like, I literally talked to my wife about this. I'm like, nothing scares me more outside of going to jail. Nothing scares me more in life than having to go work for somebody else at this point. It does terrify.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You said that you got a family. I mean, you also have to have a strong.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Why?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It's not just like clocking in, clocking out. You have to have a driving motivation that you remember. Like when you're having some crappy days, you can look at something and remember exactly why you're doing what you're doing. This business, especially when you're a founder and you run a business. It's nothing easy about this. This. There are tough days, but it's still on us to keep that positive attitude. And when we go see our team, we're. We're same person we are when things are way up and things are way down. You know, it's our success is dependent on how we act in that situation.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh, dude, I'm right there with you, man. I, I look at it as they're like, what pain? What would pain me more? Looking my kid in the eye, telling him, hey, buddy, you can't do the stuff you like to do this week because dad was too afraid to pick up the phone or some complete stranger who hates their life anyways, that's going to hang up on me, right? Because, like, if you just look at statistics, you guys. And then another thing, that's why, like, from a content strategy, I try and put this stuff out there a lot. They're not thinking about you. Okay. Just because they hang up on you. Like, I had a dude hang up on me this morning. Do you think he remembers I exist? Absolutely not, man. He's already thinking about after work beers probably at this point. Oh, man.
(30:10):
Dude. Michael, I appreciate your time and this flew by. Thank you for taking the time to sit here and talk about your guys's journey out there. How does anybody reach out to you guys? Are you guys hiring? How can anybody find you guys right now?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
We are not hiring, but we're always looking for new business, obviously. But www.coolerlogistics.com you can also find me on LinkedIn. I'm always available and interested in having conversations about freight, about just being a professional or anything personal, I'm available and I really appreciate you having me on Chris. It was, it was a pleasure. Longtime listener, glad to be part of this and I'll continue to listen as we go on but I really do appreciate you and the conversations you have around freight. It's great.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Thank you, man. I appreciate that, Michael. And that will be it for today though, ladies and gentlemen. If you got value in what you heard subscribe to the show. You guys are feeling really ambitious which you should be ranked the show as well because if you saw value that's how your network's going to see value. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys and we'll be talking to you soon.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Came back with a bank hey the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when I'm get to the back a got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when the lane moving fast a Let them all cross if they hate and let them hate them make a bigger boss a.
Came back with a bank window down yelling now money every day hey oh Got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when I'm getting to the back hey Got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when the lane moves fast hey Let them all cross if they hate then let them made them make a bigger balls hey.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What is up, ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is the Freight Coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation, coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am Pacific, 10:30 Central, to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I do say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I.
(00:54):
I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve, so you can take that information, apply it, utilize it, and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Friday, everybody. I'm going to jump right into this one, but I have been reminded I have to say this at the beginning of the show as well. If you get value in what you hear here today, which I know you will, and you're not subscribed, subscribe to the show, you guys. And if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because that's how we get out there in front of more people. And if you saw value, chances are your network's going to see value as well.
(01:28):
All right, we're going to dive right in, you guys. I love speaking to brokers out there who go out and start their own thing and then also work inside of a niche and really are doing the right thing out there in the market. And none other than my guest today embodies a lot of that. So I have Mr. Michael Cherney on the show with cooler logistics. Michael, thank you so much for taking the time to join me.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Chris, it is a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
No, man, I. Dude, I'm looking forward to this, man. Like, we literally Met all of 7 minutes ago for the first time speaking, and I can already tell this is going to be an action packed episode, man. So, dude, how'd you get your start in freight? Like, what brought you into all of this?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Look, you know, I was actually my first job out of College was financial services and I got in right in October of 2007. So right before that recession. And I grinded. But I got connected to Robbie Nathan from Load delivered logistics in 2009 and was the sevent person hired to Low Deliver Logistics. And I was there for 15 years and I wore every hat that there possibly was. I led their expansion west and opened up their LA office, created a product, a joint venture with a produce company, and then built their managed trans product. And about two and a half years ago, decided to, with my business partner, John Michael on, start something fresh. And here we are, Logistics, dude.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So why, when it comes down to it, man, I mean, what is it about the niche that you guys are really operating in? Or, you know, maybe let's back that up before you even answer that, man. What was it about going out on your own that was so enticing? Right? Because like I, I talk about this, the idea sounds so cool when you're getting a salary, you know what I mean? Like, it sounds so great to like put everything on the line and go out there. What was that big thing for you, man? Was it just like. I'll let you answer that. But what was that big thing for you that was like, dude, I got to go out there and try?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah. So it actually was driven by my co founder, John Michael. He was a big part. He was the money behind Load Delivered and a big part of Load Delivered. And when Load Delivered was acquired by Capstone in 2018, he had already kind of planned. He's like, I want to do this again and give an opportunity to pay back the leadership team or people that help Load Deliver get to that point of acquisition. So here we are, we got an entire leadership team that John Michelin put together that came from the Load Delivered like pedigree. So the core focus of that was to build a team that had been at Parload Delivered. He wanted to give them an opportunity to do something fresh.
(04:08):
Everyone on leadership has equity in our business and we thought that thesis was if you have people with skin in the game, we're going to be able to get there faster. Especially with the combined experience that we have on top of that. Logistics, sorry, cold logistics. Right. We feel the specialized nature of fresh frozen food allows for greater revenue, more just in time type of stuff. Companies are looking to get that product off the shot, off their docks because there's a clock and we feel like that's kind of where our specialty lies.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, no, I, you know, I see, I think a lot of people fall victim to the hey, it's a trillion dollar industry. We got to offer everything, we got to do everything. And like, and I truly get that mentality. But everything you're describing there is why I don't do cold chain logistics. You know, like I, I did it early on in my career, right. Like if it push came to shove, yes, I, I could make it work because for like for the first seven, eight years, man, that's all I did was food and bev, dry and reefer. But I, you know, we do open deck and heavy haul, right. Like 95 of my freight is flatbed, step deck. You name it. We go job site, crane load, crane offload. All of that stuff we do that day in and day out.
(05:24):
And I don't know how anybody could kind of do what we do, you know what I mean? Because dude, there's just a lot of moving parts that come along with it. And if you're off one thing, dude, and like, and when it comes down to like over dimensional freight is, it's the same with refrigerated freight. If you're off by 2 to 3 degrees, your entire load is spoiled. Just like if you're off by one or two inches and it's a permitted load, you're done. Like you might be sitting for a week before they can get that stuff repermitted. In some states.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
I hadn't thought about it, but there's a lot of parallels between the two verticals. Absolutely. And honestly our specialty at load delivered was this refrigerated freight. So that was all the experience that our leadership team had. And there was no point in recruit reinventing the wheel. Let's hone in on where our expertise is. These subject matter experts. Our ideal customer profile are the small and mid sized customers within the food and beverage space. And that's retail manufacturing, distribution. It could be raw materials, packaging, anything really that touches that money. Because that's where we're experts.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah. And, and that's, you know, again, and I've talked about this on the show in the past, man, there are some bleed overs. Yes, we do run some dry band freight. We do have some expedited sprinter van work that we have incorporated into our operation. But it's not like our core competency when we're out there selling a lot of that vertical stays inside of our existing customers. Like very rarely am I going to go out there and be like hey, we can do sprinter van work to a prospect. It's more we have our core competency this is what we like to execute upon day in and day out. And then if an existing customer comes and says, hey, we need this or I know a guy who needs that's a different style of sale out there.
(07:05):
And from what I've seen, and I'd love to get your opinion on this now like because from my perspective, because we started cold 0 customers January 2023. Like we had no revenue, we had nothing. And we've built up slow and steady. I'm very happy with the growth that we've had, but I noticed a lot of the feedback from our prospects came from when were like very direct about why we're calling. This is who we are, this is what we do. Have you seen that difference? Say pre Covid and post Covid when you're out there developing business where pre Covid to me, you used to have a couple of decent conversations with somebody and they would give you a prove it shipment, right? Like hey, we've talked enough, are you actually who you say you are? Now? None of that is even happening, right?
(07:51):
Like you might get onboarded, but it might be two to three years before you even move your first shipment for that.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It has been an uphill battle. We definitely, we also started with zero. Our start date was September 2023, so shortly after you kicked off yours. But we've been fortunate. One of our differentiating factors is that we focus on the relationships on all sides of it. We want to avoid being transactional with our employees. We don't want fly, we're not, we don't want to be a fly by night employer. We want people that want to be here for the long haul. We invest in their development professionally and personally. We also don't post loads. So 85% of our freight is booked on relationship carriers that we booked three or more times.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Now obviously there are some loads like we have to book a load with a carrier that we've never worked with before. But because of the nature of our ideal customer profile and the freight that they have, it's really critical that we're using relationship carriers that have proven success with us and they know what we expect. They're willing to do the macro point, they give us driver contact, they know what our customers expect and that way they can provide great service. So with that we've been able to have spectacular startups. 2025 every month has been our best month and we beat the previous month for so like January beat December, February beat January and so on and so forth. And last month was our best month too. So we're really excited about what we're doing here at Cooler.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
What drives that from a capacity standpoint? Right. Because like I've met people like there's two schools of thought in the industry and it's the ones who say they give a about carriers and the ones who actually give a about carriers and do what you're describing right there. And we're not that high with it. We're, we're, we really have our core carriers that we reach out to first before we go out to the load board. But we do need to post freight at times and especially when we're in with a customer and we're developing new lanes where our existing carriers are like, dude, we just don't run there otherwise. Yeah, we take it. What drives that and how are you putting that out there when you guys are like, you know, speaking to your customers or prospecting new business when you.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Say what drives that equal what drives our sourcing power?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, like no, no. What made you guys commit to that way of sourcing carriers? Because again there's people who say they do it and people who actually do it.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
You know, I appreciate you asking where I came from and where a lot of others came from. In terms of the leadership team, posting freight became the only way to cover freight. It was a crutch and you'd see a tough load on the board. Carrier reps were just like, just post it. They weren't willing to do the hard stuff to develop their own internal network and in turn develop the company's carrier network. They didn't know power lanes, they didn't know where carriers were getting empty and where they were looking to go. There was no knowledge, there was no skill. And so when we started Pooler, were committed to never posting a load because I wanted our carrier team to have the right habits, to have a strong carrier network.
(10:56):
And our belief is by doing that we'll have greater service, greater rates and be able to grow our business because of the service we provide to our customers.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I think it's going to be like, because like that's our strategy with it here. And you know, in having a founder led organization, we're going to make sure that this happens for like my goal long term is obviously the people who I train to replicate and duplicate myself, it's going to be ingrained into them that this is the way that we operate and this is the way that we do things out there. Because my thing Is, man, is. Is. We're about to embark in a market where a lot of the loudest voices in the industry have either forgotten exists or have never operated inside of. And that is when you have to do what you're describing right there. You have to make outbound calls to cover freight. It's not post. Get 150 phone calls, push the rate down as low as possible.
(11:52):
Chest bump, bang on a gong. Do whatever the hell that these guys do out there in the industry works now, it's not always going to be that way. Right. I, I could be completely wrong. Capacity could stay elevated for the next 30 years. I don't know. It's a crapshoot at this point. All the data that you see out there, man, just throw that out the window. You never know at this point. But I look at it is what you're describing. There is a skill. It is a carrier sales rep at the end of the day. Nick Dangles, I don't know if you're familiar with him, he talks about this a lot.
(12:22):
And, and I'm from the same school of thought there where it's like, man, I want to find those guys who are specific days of the week in specific areas and they have a why behind? Like, hey man, that load out of Arizona going to Colorado, I want that. And here's why, right? Like we're here, we have this customer that delivers all the time. We got to get back to Colorado to get that freight to come back in and just do that close capacity loop that's out there. And it's going to come a point in time where if you've never had to make an outbound call for a load, you're going to struggle. I don't know when that's going to happen. And the appetite for failure from customers is going to be very low.
(13:00):
And from a competitive standpoint, I'm salivating for that to happen like I truly am. I don't want to see anybody lose or fail. But from a competitor, I'm looking to stomp on people's throats coming up here because I've had to operate in that market for a very long time.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Yeah, it's interesting. There's been a couple facets to it. You talked about the skills that a carrier rep gains and just receive, like posting and answer the phone. It doesn't give you any skill. I mentioned our desire to invest in our people and professional development. They need to have skills that if they ever wanted to leave cooler or freight that they have Transferable skills and they've learned something. Posting freight and just answering cold calls doesn't teach anybody anything. Right. On top of that, when we engage with carriers and they find out that we don't post loads, they're more interested in creating a relationship with us and they give us more information with regards to what they're looking for and what they're not looking for. The customers also love that we don't do that. But then the next question is, how are you sourcing capacity?
(13:59):
So that's something we're prepared to answer for. And then on the other side of it is with all the freight fraud and theft, we are limiting our exposure to that. Especially with the nature of our freight. It's super critical that we avoid as much risk as possible.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, no, dude, I'm right there with you. Right? I think I've said that exact statement about 8,000 times in the last couple of years. The only way to actually fight fraud is by continuing to use the repeated carriers that are already set up and vetted that you have a trusted relationship with. Right. And again, I'm not here to knock on any company or anything, but the data is the data. Fraud and theft continues to rise. So therefore a lot of the tools that are at your disposal right now, either you're not using them or they're not actually weeding out this stuff. Because again, you can go to the FMCSA database and put all that information in there and pull all that information.
(14:51):
But unless you're having an actual conversation with somebody on the phone, like, because to me, Michael, I can tell in about three seconds if the person I'm talking to is full of shit or not on the other end of the phone. And again, that just comes from actual experience out there. And you know, for me, furthermore, man, when you're trying to build long term partnerships, whether it's with a shipper or with a carrier, man, the shippers love seeing the same trucking companies show up, especially when they're brokered and they're working with a broker and they're seeing that same logo showing up time and time again. They love that stuff, they eat that stuff up. I don't know why it's not more applied across the industry.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
It's definitely appreciated. And don't get me wrong, this is definitely the path of most resistance. It is not easy, right? As you said, our guys are making and girls are making a lot of phone calls to cover freight. And we say like for any new lane, any new market that we haven't seen before it takes about 10 loads for us to have fully developed carrier network and we'll grind it out. We might take some losses early on, we won't fail. But by the 10th load, we have a very robust carrier network developed on that lane. And it just takes time. And what's cool about when we started, I'm sure you experienced this when it was a relatively slower market. Barrier of entry to land, new business was kind of high, and it still is.
(16:10):
We were able to use that time to really hone in on the necessary skills to be a successful carrier rep and business development rep. Let me ask.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You this, because this is, I mean, I know the answer to this, but this is one thing I see all the time. Carriers don't want to hear from you unless you have freight for them or unless you can give something to them. What is your experience with that?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
That's not wrong. Early days, we had to offer freight that we thought we would get that wasn't an actual load. And we had to get a little crafty and just let them know that we're working on this business. I didn't, you know, one of our core values is integrity.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And we didn't want to be liars. We don't lie. Right. We're always going to do the right thing. We're always going to be forthcoming, transparent. So we had to kind of hone, you know, own that we didn't. But were curious. This is the lane we're going after. And some carriers were like, I got trucks to cover, I don't want to talk about it. But then we would call them back that afternoon and they'd be more willing to have that conversation. Yeah, like anything in sales, you just got to be a little relentless and you can't stop.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, I, I'm right there with you, man. I feel like the right carriers are appreciative of that. And I feel like, you know, in a market like right now, the more you're reaching out to them, the more that they're going to want to work with you and you know, in the future because like, dude, that's just one thing that we do is we really drive that home. Right. Like, we send out our load list to our preferred carriers all the time. Hey, we got this truck or we got this load available this day, this location. Here's what it is, this is what it pays. We put all the low details out there and we try and develop that as much as possible. Because again, man, I want to use those same trucks on Everything.
(17:42):
And what I found is as we've been able to, you call it cross pollinate, I'm losing. I went to public school, so I don't know the best way to describe this, but we're starting to use them on multiple customers now, right? Because like we built that up to where, hey, we know where their capacity is. We're able to pre book them with multiple customers of ours in multiple spots of the country. And that's just what we want, right? Like I don't want to have to go out there and source new capacity as much as I possibly can. I want to use those trusted drivers.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
The less we can get from transactional relationship on the carrier side, the better your service is going to be. And if you can do that trend, avoid that transactional nature on the driver level as well. Now you're really doing something special with all you're looking at your holistic load board and you can get a driver on three different loads for three different customers. You're doing the right thing. And you could do that without technology. With technology. But now that driver appreciates the service that we're providing, the experience that they get with cooler or with you and they're willing to take it if we have a load, they might take it at a lower rate than another broker that they don't know about.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I agree, man. So I mean, speaking of technology, what are you guys looking at here with, from your standpoint, there's a lot of stuff that's at your disposal right now. What is it that you guys are using inside of your business? And there's, is there anything out there where you guys are strategically looking to invest because you can, hey, there's, there could be some potential serious ROI coming from this.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
So like you, or at least with the sponsors, we are using two of your sponsors right now. Revinova is our tms. Green Screens is our rating engine. You know, I'm really interested in finding the right application for AI to create operational leverage and make the revenue per se, you know, 2x3x what it normally, what is industry standard, you know, especially in this time where margins are compressed. If our revenue and our top line goes up, we can't let our operation costs go up as well. So I have to find a way to solve operational bottlenecks and operational workloads by way of AI. I think that any relationship driving activity needs to be human to human, customer facing, dispatcher facing.
(19:50):
But I think AI for us, especially since we're not getting inundated with inbound calls because we're not posting, but maybe driver tracking can be done through AI. So I'm looking at different platforms for that load building, appointment scheduling, pod collections. How can we leverage certain AI platforms or automation platforms to accomplish those tasks in an efficient way that's cost effective and allows my EBITDA to increase?
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, and that's exactly how we're approaching this, right? Like I look at it is as you'd be a fool to not explore AI to help pack a larger punch out there from an operational standpoint, right? Because like, I know, man, like, dude, me as one person, I could do like 20 to 25 loads day, I think with AI, man. Like, how high can I get, dude? Can I get to 100 in a day with AI if I got somebody behind the scenes who's building, doing all that stuff for me and I can just go out there and execute? I don't know, man. 100 might be a hot. But like, I'm not, like I'm, I think I can do it, right? And I feel like with where we are in the market with technology, man, like you have to look at that.
(20:54):
How can you be faster? How can you become more accurate out there? And you know, again, like, I'm just, I bootstrap my companies, right? I have no investors, I got nothing. It's dollar in, dollar out. So I'm like, how, as the old rap lyric used to go, how do I make a dollar out of 15 cents? You know, like, that's literally how I'm approaching this. And I feel like implementing the right technology does that.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Well, I think it's important too. In it, the tech is used to empower our people to do more. Right. It's a force multiplier. It's not a force replacer. So no one's going to lose their job because of technology. What is going to probably shift is how we train our people to engage with technology so that they understand how to maximize the technology's value and allow them to do more. But there is the right equation somewhere. And you think you have to be very intentional with the tech that you bring on, understand the value you're trying to bring in, the ROI you want to get. But it, there is answer out there and I don't think it's a one size fits all for everybody.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you, right? And you know, like with us in, in utilizing Revenova, right? Because I like, I use Revenova day in and day out inside of my business. And from like the features that are inside of there. Because, you know, not everybody has EDI customers and API customers, right? And you know that if you're operating in a spot market opportunity, you know, for me personally, do like their load clone feature saves so much time out there, especially if it's the same shipper and everything, that you can go out there and clone as many details as possible. That helps us expedite our load building process that comes along with it and then just inside of it from an operational thing. For me, it's just like the flow of building the loads is all there in the way. It's.
(22:33):
To me, I just, I love it from that perspective because it's just so easy to use. And when it comes down to it, man, I'm like a caveman when it comes to technology, right? Like, I know how to restart my computer, but for me it's like that helps us pack a larger punch out there and operate at a higher level, right? Because again, I'm out. Time is the only thing I can't get back in a day. So how do I do more with less? And then right now, dude, even like with pricing as well, some of the stuff out there, like, dude, it is hyper competitive out there, right? Anybody who says that it's not as full of it and it is having that right rate that you can identify for the long term to hold as long as possible at that level, right?
(23:13):
Because for us, we want to keep our rates as similar as possible throughout the entire year. I don't believe increasing my rates because a market shift happened or anything like that. Like, I'll eat that cost if I'm off on my price, dude, it's on me. It's on my shoulders. It's not my customer's fault.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, I think accountability and pricing is really important. You know, you give you make a commitment to a customer, you stand by that commitment. If you misprice it, that's not the customer's problem, you know, and honestly, they don't really want to hear it. Get the load picked up, you know, be it. Be a person of your word. When you say you're gonna do something, do it. I appreciate that approach that you have, Chris. We have a very similar approach. And pricing is a nuanced art, you know that you're never, you're not sure if you're gonna be right. And just because green screen says one thing doesn't mean you're actually gonna buy at that price. And depending on where your room is and how developed your network is on that lane, your price is going to fluctuate.
(24:08):
And you know, right now we're at about 20% win rate with all of our spot business, which I think is a pretty good number in this current market. And our margin is very healthy. So we got contract freight, we got spot freight, we got a nice mix. And the spot freight does help us come up even though spot rates are down.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, it's. Dude, it is. Pricing is an art. Right. And I want a lot of people to understand though, like you need to look at like rolling 12 month data, you need to look at a lot of this stuff because from my perspective, it doesn't change as much as people like to make you think it changes. Because again, are there spikes throughout the year? Absolutely it is. But again, it's not your customer. Like nobody complains when you're making a couple hundred bucks on a load. Right. So if, and I use this analogy often, if you're good enough to make a thousand dollars on a load, you better be good enough to lose a thousand dollars on a load as well. Because like there's going to be times capacity is going to tighten up for whatever reason, weather, event, holiday, it doesn't matter.
(25:10):
You got to keep that same rate out there. Because again, if you're not, if you're like that spot market broker who's just like trying to raise your rates at all times, I don't. All right. My pricing strategy is keep the exact same rate on the same lanes as long as I possibly can. Because the way that this market will shift next, that for some reason nobody talks about, and it's probably because a lot of these guys were spouting off on the industry, don't actually move freight. The customer will not raise the rate, but the carrier will. Okay. And you will be compressed in that moment. And that's going to be a very tough sell to go to your customer and say, hey, I need more money when all your competitors are not raising their rates.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Well, that practice that you just explained, you know, customers remember that type of stuff. Yeah, right. And they also appreciate that type of stuff. So, you know, everything we do now is going to be remembered in a year from now and two years from now and how we treat our customers, it's going to be the differentiator whether we grow with that customer or we can track.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah. No, and that's the truth, man. And that's like one thing that I never respected until I was self Employed was, I need revenue 12 months out of the year. All right? No customer is replaceable from the sense of like, oh, I'll just go find somebody else. You know what I mean? Like, it's so hard to get somebody's business and then keep their business year in and year out. I don't know if enough people put enough focus on customer retention because a lot of the growth most people are looking for is already inside of their active book of business. If you have established customers that you're working with right now, chances are you're not getting 30, 40, 50% of their freight. So a lot of that growth is already there. So, like, just this mentality of like, oh, I'll just go find more business.
(26:55):
I don't know, man. Like, I would rather keep and work with the same people time and time again and grow that way than have to constantly shuffle through new providers.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
It's great that you bring that up. I agree. I think that customer retention is often forgotten about and there's such a great focus on new business acquisition. You know, we're at about 75% customer retention, which I think is healthy. It's going to happen. But going back to what you said about keeping your rate level, if you raise your rate and you don't have a compelling enough reason, there are 20 other brokers and knocking at the door of your customer. And if you don't do something that's worthy of that price adjustment, you're going to get booted.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you, man. I don't know if enough people put enough emphasis on how competitive it is out there and how many people are actually calling your customers at any given day. Because on any given day, I'm at least touching 50 of your guys's customers. All right? And that's the truth. Because I'm out there for to grow. I'm out there to scale. And I'm not sitting on the sidelines and sitting on my hands idly waiting for things to change, man. Like, I, I don't have, like, I have been self employed since the literal pandemic started. All right? I don't know what it's like to do anything other than to put myself out there unapologetically every single day and hope to get consistent revenue inside of my companies, and I'm very fortunate to have that.
(28:21):
But I know how hard I've had to work to get there, and I'm not willing to throw that away because of a loss on a shipment or something like that.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Right. I mean, you, it's, it sounds like you've burned the boats. There's no other option but going forward. Right. There's nowhere else to go. Right.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I'm unemployable at this point, Michael. Like, I, I couldn't. Like, I literally talked to my wife about this. I'm like, nothing scares me more outside of going to jail. Nothing scares me more in life than having to go work for somebody else at this point. It does terrify.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You said that you got a family. I mean, you also have to have a strong.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Why?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It's not just like clocking in, clocking out. You have to have a driving motivation that you remember. Like when you're having some crappy days, you can look at something and remember exactly why you're doing what you're doing. This business, especially when you're a founder and you run a business. It's nothing easy about this. This. There are tough days, but it's still on us to keep that positive attitude. And when we go see our team, we're. We're same person we are when things are way up and things are way down. You know, it's our success is dependent on how we act in that situation.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh, dude, I'm right there with you, man. I, I look at it as they're like, what pain? What would pain me more? Looking my kid in the eye, telling him, hey, buddy, you can't do the stuff you like to do this week because dad was too afraid to pick up the phone or some complete stranger who hates their life anyways, that's going to hang up on me, right? Because, like, if you just look at statistics, you guys. And then another thing, that's why, like, from a content strategy, I try and put this stuff out there a lot. They're not thinking about you. Okay. Just because they hang up on you. Like, I had a dude hang up on me this morning. Do you think he remembers I exist? Absolutely not, man. He's already thinking about after work beers probably at this point. Oh, man.
(30:10):
Dude. Michael, I appreciate your time and this flew by. Thank you for taking the time to sit here and talk about your guys's journey out there. How does anybody reach out to you guys? Are you guys hiring? How can anybody find you guys right now?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
We are not hiring, but we're always looking for new business, obviously. But www.coolerlogistics.com you can also find me on LinkedIn. I'm always available and interested in having conversations about freight, about just being a professional or anything personal, I'm available and I really appreciate you having me on Chris. It was, it was a pleasure. Longtime listener, glad to be part of this and I'll continue to listen as we go on but I really do appreciate you and the conversations you have around freight. It's great.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Thank you, man. I appreciate that, Michael. And that will be it for today though, ladies and gentlemen. If you got value in what you heard subscribe to the show. You guys are feeling really ambitious which you should be ranked the show as well because if you saw value that's how your network's going to see value. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys and we'll be talking to you soon.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Came back with a bank hey the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when I'm get to the back a got the foot on the gas pedal to the metal when the lane moving fast a Let them all cross if they hate and let them hate them make a bigger boss a.
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