August 13, 2025 • 29 mins
What if you could quote thousands of lanes in minutes, respond to shippers in under two, and still have time to grow your customer base? Let’s welcome Tabi Connect’s Dan Hellmann back to the show to explain how quoting automation, RFP modules, and lightning-fast rate delivery are changing the game for freight brokers and carriers!
We discuss why speed is your biggest competitive advantage in today’s market, how data-driven sales build trust with shippers, and why honest onboarding beats over-promising every time.
Dan covers more topics to help you automate smarter, execute flawlessly, and deliver more value than the competition, so keep tuning in!
About Dan Hellmann
With a career spanning 19 years in the transportation and logistics industry, Dan Hellmann is a dynamic and results-driven leader. Currently serving as the Chief Sales Officer at Tabi Connect, he has been at the forefront of the company's success for the past 3.5 years. In this role, Dan leads sales, marketing, account management, and customer success, driving the company's growth and ensuring client satisfaction.
Dan is deeply involved in industry associations, serving as a Board Member for the Logistics and Transportation Association of North America (LTNA), an active member of the Young Executive Committee for the Transportation Intermediaries Association, and serves as a Board Member for the Denver Transportation Club.
A true veteran in the brokerage field, Dan Hellmann has accumulated invaluable experience in sales leadership, P&L management, and strategy. His journey includes successfully starting up a brokerage for a former customer, steering it to an impressive $50 million in revenue.
Dan brings a wealth of knowledge and practical insights to industry events. His passion for innovation, strategic thinking, and commitment to excellence make him a compelling voice in the world of transportation and logistics.
Connect with Dan
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-hellmann-ctb/
- Email: DanH@tabiconnect.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Came back with a bank window down yelling now money anything 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 moving fast hey Let them all cross if they hate then let them hate them Make a bigger boss hey.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
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.
(00:46):
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, 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 Wednesday, everybody.
I got a very special guest for you guys.
(01:07):
I'm going to bring him up in just a second.
But I do have just a quick announcement there.
We dropped a Freight Coach newsletter this morning.
It only drops once a week and I will not automatically sign you up for it if I have your email address because I don't want to spam your inbox at the end of the day, you guys.
If you want to get in on it though, we just talk about transportation on there.
I need you to go to my website, the FreightCoach.com.
(01:28):
i should probably put that up there for you guys.
Yeah, the FreightCoach.com.
it'll auto prompt you to register for it again.
It just drops once a week.
But today's guest, you guys, we're going to be talking about quoting, automating it and everything, getting rates back faster to your customers.
Because this is the second question that I get outside of how do I find shippers?
The second question is how do I bid shippers?
(01:48):
And we're going to talk about that and kind of tie that all together.
So I have my good friend Dan Hellman back on the show.
Dan, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Thanks for having me.
I'm actually signing up for your newsletter right now.
I didn't know you had one, man.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I, you know, I only mentioned it on the show.
Dan.
And I like, I, again, I practice what I preach.
I don't just auto sign people up for it because I kind of get annoyed every time that happens to me, so.
And especially if I don't want it.
And I, I just think that, you know, at the end of the day, I just enjoy earning people's downloads and, you know, subscriptions and all that stuff.
(02:21):
It's the same strategy that we followed on the podcast and that's been working out quite all right for us.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
It's a beauty.
Provide some value and bring them in.
Dude, I know the.
When you get auto sign up for newsletters, it just kills it.
I mean, it's just then all of a sudden it's become spam and I just delete them automatically.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.
And I like seeing 0 people unsubscribe to it.
Right?
So it's like my.
We use mailchimp for our newsletter and they send analytics all the time, right.
So I like seeing that the subscriptions keep going up and nobody is unsubscribing to the newsletter.
Right?
So to me, it's exactly how I like to see it out there.
(02:59):
And you know, again, man, I just want to add value to the industry.
Right.
Like, I don't want to partake in any of the stuff you see out there on social media these days.
Like, I'm just going to stick day.
The, the trajectory and the plan that we've been on for the last five years.
How do we just continue to create a conglomerate of value education for the transportation industry that like I say before every single show, man, people can apply this to their business.
(03:22):
They can earn more business, earn more money and all that.
That's just where I'm going to stay with it.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Beauty.
Love it, dude.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Absolutely, man.
So speaking of loving things, man, you guys got some new stuff that you're releasing out here to the public in regards to RFPs and everything, right?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah.
So we just released shoot three weeks ago about our RFP module for automating bid packages.
And so now that was kind of the one thing we felt like was missing within Tabby.
You know, to be like a rate management system, you got to have spot.
You got to have all rates and lanes in there.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And yeah, so we're pumped.
So we have three phases.
Phase one is now live.
It's part of our standard platform bid packages.
Apply some more advanced logic to it and kind of just speed up that whole process.
So now finish a 2000 lane bid in a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So what, you know, when it comes down to it, man, with RFPs, what's the thing that you think most people miss in like going out there and bidding on freight at that level?
Right?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I think the biggest things that, and I'm going back to like when I was a broker and remember like the doing RP is mind numbing as a, I feel like unless you got a system or a pricing team or something like that, it consists of all nighters and like two six packs of beer and yeah, blaring some music.
I mean it's just mind numbing.
(04:50):
The biggest thing I always ran into was the storing of them, the looking back at what works, what didn't work, kind of that feedback loop from previous bids you did and having it all sit on each individual broker's computer with 37 different versions and not bringing all the data together and having that analytics of feedback of what works, what doesn't.
(05:15):
And so it's like going back, going to each bid as if it's the first time you did it.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I think that, you know, dude, when it comes down to RFPs, we filled one out for our customer like two years ago and they just have not rebid anything.
They're like, hey, our rates are good, everything's good, there's no need.
But to me it's more of like I'm.
As we grow in, like our freight volume grows out there.
Dan, I'm really trying to like study our analytics on like what is our, what are we paying into certain regions out there?
(05:49):
Does the rate actually change?
Because like from my perspective, man, rates are not as volatile as people kind of like to paint out there, especially going into like specific regions and stuff like that.
And you know, to me it's like, how do I dial this in to where it's like I'm able to send a consistent price out to my customer 12 months out of the year.
(06:10):
Yes, there's going to be times where we lose a little bit of money on it or break even or our margin's smaller than others.
But like how do I deliver that consistency out there so where our customers know exactly what we're going to charge them.
And you know, for me it's like I also like to see our win rate, right?
Like what are we winning at?
How do we need to tailor it?
Are we really off by that much?
(06:31):
And then I also, you know, because again like going out there in the market and stuff like that, it's like how competitive are we to others?
And then most importantly, how fast are we in getting prices.
Because I still think to this day this is going to be more of spot market compared to rfp.
But like, the faster you can get a rate back to a customer, the higher the likelihood you're going to win that one.
(06:52):
I got, I have plenty of internal data to really back that up.
But to me it's like I want to study this stuff and then go out there and like paint that picture because I feel like with one customer, as long as the freight type and everything is very aligned, you can go and sell that out there to any of your prospects.
And that's where like the real value lies, where it's like you can paint that picture.
(07:15):
Because everybody likes to say we have trucks in the area as opposed to, hey, we have six flatbeds with four foot tarps, edge protectors in this area these days of the week.
These are the rates that we need going to these specific regions out there.
It doesn't matter if it's going to Logan, Utah, Provo, Utah, wherever.
This is the exact same price that we're going to charge you.
That to me is like where all the secret sauce really lies.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
You're, you're so spot on.
I mean the days of marketing and selling that you have 70,000 carriers under contract, that you service all lower 48, we can do it all, you know, what's your volume?
I can do it.
Those days are gone because every single broker can do that.
I mean that's, that you're seeing the same pitch over and over again, but coming with actual data and actual details that like you said, these trucks with this size tarps on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I'm currently doing 12 of them a day.
(08:11):
Right now I have capacity to take on four more loads a day for that.
Or you know, bring details into, you know, I can do five loads a day out of this location.
Because I'm saying trucks from here and here, like actually bringing some analytics and data to show that you, that it truly is a network and not give me a load.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
No, absolutely, man.
And this is stuff that drivers, owner ops and fleets, I mean especially the larger fleets, I would assume this is how they're out there selling their capacity.
But this is all completely transferable into if you own a, you know, you're an owner operator or you have five trucks in your fleet or whatever that looks like, that's how you go out there and really develop business.
And you know, again, I know somebody out there can say, oh, I never had to do that.
(08:54):
We just Got access to all their freight right away.
But like, literally every customer I've ever onboarded in the entirety of my career, you start with minimal freight at the beginning.
Like, your exposure to their overall outbound freight is minimal.
And for me it's like, dude, it took us two years of moving freight with somebody before they're like, hey, we want you to take on everything.
(09:18):
Like, you've proven it.
We had a shakeup with one of your competitors.
They're gone.
We want you to take on everything.
But here's the caveat.
They said, do you feel comfortable taking on everything?
And they wanted to know because, like, we've just been honest with them as we come.
And then as I'm developing business, Dan, with a customer, I'll let them know.
If they're like, hey, do you have a truck for this?
I'll be like, this is a new lane for us.
(09:39):
Let me work on it for a little bit.
And if we can't find a tangible option for them, I'm not rolling the dice.
Because the difference between the freight market today in developing business and pre Covid, like, you literally have one shot, man.
If you drop the ball early on with a customer and you haven't earned any trust, you're done.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah.
100.
Like I remember back when I was broker, it was a large cradle of grape shop I was working at.
And you know, you fail bids non stop.
And I remember one bid, I won a whole bunch of business.
And the first thing was in my mind was I screwed this up so bad because it's like that doesn't happen.
And lo and behold, I did screw it up.
(10:19):
Like my rates were way too low.
And so you have to the back pedal, try and navigate what to get back or don't, how to finagle all that.
Yeah, when you get a whole bunch right away, at least, especially back in the day, it's usually screwed something up.
Possibly now it's a little different because you, based on the company and what you're putting into it and the value add, all of that.
(10:41):
But if it's like there's not a relationship there and it's just a rate driven thing, you probably screw something up.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah.
And you know, Dan, we've both worked for larger shops back in the day, and I don't have the luxury of brand recognition out there when I'm developing business, nor do I have the luxury of falling back on the stability of a proven track record of said brand on how we might perform out there in the market.
Right.
So it's like we're out there and we're trying to build it right from the first time, you know, and it's impossible.
(11:11):
We mess up, we make our mistakes, we own our mistakes, but we're out there trying to set that tone right away, hey, here's how we operate.
This is how we're going to perform for you.
And it takes a long time to build something up.
And it takes you a second to lose it all when you go out there and you over promise and under deliver.
And it's the same thing like when markets fluctuate.
(11:32):
And I know there's a lot of people in this industry right now that have never seen a carrier market.
So they're like, oh, it's easy to cover freight.
What are you talking about?
This is the easiest job ever.
But when it comes down to it, man, and you are in a position to where you are just unknowingly bidding on freight for the sake of bidding on freight, and there is no coverage for it.
(11:53):
There is no capacity.
You put yourself in a very tough spot.
And then again, you might have a perfect track record with a customer for five years, but if you botch one shipment, you're done.
Like, you're done.
They're going to start looking at your competitors.
And that's all a guy like me, who has experience and some of the other killers that we both know in this industry, that's all we need.
(12:14):
I just need one shot.
You, if a customer gives me one shot, your days are numbered as a competitor.
That is the level of intensity, speed communication that I am going to bring every single time to them.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah.
And coming in like, especially when you talk about, like, you know, you don't have the brand recognition as much or you know, the marketing budget, all of that stuff, and that's where it's even more important is to come in with something that differentiates your experience, the level of trust.
You build the data, the coming in with details, not you got a load, I'll cover it kind of pitch.
(12:49):
Now what's struggling to struggle in the past is I think majority people listening out there would say like, yeah, you got to use data.
Yeah, you got to bring something different.
But it's like, how do you use it?
How do you capture it, how do you store it?
Because typically it's been so manual that it's just been virtually impossible.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah.
And dude, and that's the thing, right?
Like for me, you know, I'd mentioned in regards to spot market freight, that speed Kills.
Like, if you are not out there and you are not getting rates back to your customer, like, legitimately, within two to three minutes maximum, that load's already gone.
You know, and I have a lot of data internally that shows that.
(13:27):
Right?
Because like, we're on top of our stuff.
Like when I'm doing this show, my business partners watching our emails like a hawk, like, we are on everything.
And you know, to me it's like we.
We've had this happen where they'll send out a load.
Spot market.
There's four other providers on there.
I already have a rate to them within a minute and a half.
I don't reply all.
(13:48):
I'm one of those guys who notices that.
And I don't reply all.
But there's others who do reply all, dan.
And they're 20 minutes after the fact, I already have the tender.
And they're like, oh, we're working on this right now.
It's like, man, where's the urgency out there?
Like, with technology today, if you have the budget for it, there is no excuse that you cannot get a rate back to our.
(14:09):
Your customers within a minute.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, 100.
And I always love.
I remember back from being on the floor, I always love people that replied all, like, come on man, pay attention to details.
And then you get someone to be like, oh yeah, it's gonna be 1200 bucks.
Then someone replies all 1195.
And somebody replies all 1190.
It's like.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Dude, that's the thing, man, is it's like, it's not.
The price is right out there.
And you know, for.
For me, it's it.
If your strategy is just to go as cheap as possible for as long as possible, it's a losing strategy in business, you know, like, it's gonna be someone cheaper.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
There's.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, but what differentiates you at that point, right?
Dude, are you setting that tone early on with your customers that shows you are worth the additional money?
Because, I mean, I was just talking with Ken Adamo with dat.
He was on the show on Monday.
And you know, again, people don't make money if the freight's sitting right?
Like, if you quote your customer and you can't get it done.
(15:07):
I don't know a manufacturer or a shipper in the United States of America who loves their freight sitting on their docks and not on their customer shelves selling, right?
So it's like, to me, you can prove to them why you're worth 250, $300 more a shipment, and you can set that tone right away.
Like, that's got to be in your business development strategy when you're going out there and trying to build.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah.
And it's going to be part of the strategy, not just to your main contact, the transportation manager.
You got to work multi third different departments.
You got to educate the finance team.
Because a lot of times people on the finance side, they don't understand transportation.
They just think a truck shows up.
It's what it costs.
It's like Expedia and it picks it up and delivers.
(15:53):
That's all it is.
You know that educating them on what the true cost is of late deliveries, of claims of that and why you're worth the extra 100, 200 bucks.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I, I think that there's a false sense of, like, people put revenue customers, they put them on a pedestal in, I think, the wrong way at times in the assumption that they have it all figured out and that they're not actually looking for partners out there to keep them informed about what's going on.
And, you know, I've heard this time and time again throughout my career, and I'll summarize it like this.
(16:30):
We're a manufacturer, we're not a transportation company.
That, that's literally why we hire you, is so you can keep us up to date on things that are going on out there in the market.
And you know, again, it's like you just got to look at those little things like, because cost savings, you might quote more than everybody else, but those cost savings that you can deliver to them are by assessing their apps, their.
(16:51):
Their network as a whole, and being like, hey, you always ship out a partial on this day and this day.
Have you guys ever thought about holding this ship date by one day and then putting this as a one pick, two drop, full truckload?
It's going to save you on this and network optimization and stuff like that.
Like, you have to dissect that stuff.
Yes, that comes in time.
But at the end of the day, this is why they hire you.
(17:13):
They don't hire you just to provide them rates.
All right?
Because anybody can do that.
Anybody can find trucks out there.
It's like, are you really helping them improve their operations?
Because I view us in my company, Dan, we are a direct reflection of our customer to their customer.
All right?
We are the ones delivering to their customers every single time.
(17:35):
So if they have a negative effect on, like a viewpoint of my service, they might have a negative viewpoint on my customer, and then my customer is going to lose business from that.
Right?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
So.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So again, it's like that.
That's just the level of care and communication that we want to bring to the table every single time.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
A hundred percent.
A while back it might have been like six, nine months ago, I did like a webinar with John Rivers, a consultant in the industry and we're going to buy QBRs how to hold up and just like you know a lot of brokers who do QBRs are customers but they get so stagnant and boring and it's about me and not about them of where it's like all right, we deliver 98.7% on time.
(18:14):
So everybody else, these are your lanes.
What else do you have?
These are the claims the issues have.
We're going to fix it and not bringing like actual data insights on network optimization on round trip opportunities or educating them on their volumes and the rising cost per lane and all of those things that people assume shippers have access to and know they have no idea.
(18:36):
Most don't even the advanced companies.
I've met with a buddy of mine who is the head of financial analytics for extremely large shipper and he's like we just started tracking that like it's just they just never did before because it's never an important aspect for their finance team until covet hit and rates went through the roof.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
What's some of those things that when you guys are out there talking to your guys's customers like what are their customers looking for in regards to quoting in analytics and stuff like that?
When you're bringing that up man, like what is something that like there's that direct feedback like hey we're utilizing you, we're utilizing tabby, we're getting those rates back to them.
This is what our customers are starting to realize that they didn't know that they needed.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah.
So I think that's a big point, important point.
You said the customers didn't know they needed.
So I would say the customer, our customers, the brokers, they're shippers.
They're not asking for stuff because they have no idea they need it.
And not enough companies are educating them on it and show them they need it.
But where we help educate our customer base to educate their customers and how to leverage data and is on heavily on that network optimization how to open up opportunities on the quote level across their entire shipper network.
(19:52):
Because right now a lot of brokers look at load counts moved revenue of the load move which is important operational, you know, data points but that doesn't show growth opportunities just because you're moving 20 loads a week for a shipper doesn't mean there's another 20 loads a week there.
Or just because you're using one load a month doesn't mean there's a lot of growth there.
You find that on the quote level of opportunities touching.
(20:14):
And so it's edging a customer on what are their trends.
You can now forecast some trends and winner they can educate them on winter expensive times when I start coming up why are rates increasing on exact lanes on their high volume lanes?
And even if you can go even a step further if the shipper puts in their quote request like what's their cost per case cost per pallet.
(20:36):
A lot of shippers do not track that.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
It's like why is that?
Why do you think that we're.
It's almost 2026 at this point right?
Like why is there still such a lack of data and analytics out there or why is there so much apprehension like and I mean it's kind of an open ended question Dan but like I see it every time a new piece of freight tech comes to the market there's always the natur dissenters who are like oh this isn't going to work.
(21:07):
There's no need for this.
And it's like is it though or do you just not see how a tool like this could be utilized to benefit your operation?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
I think the dissenters industry they get too focused on these one offs.
Well I have one shipper that does this one load a week that's this and this is absurdly nuanced and doesn't fit the mold.
The tech coming to the market no matter what it could be a digital free matching platform, it could be you know carrier sourcing, could be rate automation.
It could be all these different things.
(21:38):
It's designed to take off the bulk not the extremely nuanced that is stuff still for the humans to do.
And like the really ugly stuff they get too focused on these one offs and was trying to look for it not to not to work.
And I think on the shipper side I mean I forget the exact number.
I forgot how many shippers are out there.
There's Some hundred and twenty 000 shippers in the US 1% are very advanced and analytically driven.
(22:07):
The rest generally speaking are the person around a transportation department was a lot of times you know they didn't go to supply chain management.
They might have worked the dock and moved up and so it's just not what they've experienced.
So Far now I think the shift we're starting to see is the younger generation getting more leadership that's been around a little more data, a little more tech and kind of embracing it more.
(22:30):
So I think that's what's kind of helped pushing it and driving it.
It's kind of like the changing the guards of leadership.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah, I, I think that from my perspective, Dan, all freight's the same when it's legal, regardless of the mode.
Like as soon as it gets over dimensional.
Yes.
That's where the nuance comes in at the end of the day.
But it's like whether you know and you could break it down like this.
Here's the perfect parallel, you guys, Refrigerated freight, there's like three classifications of it.
Fresh frozen, temperature controlled.
(22:55):
Right.
Same thing in the open deck is there's three classifications of it.
Essentially you got flatbed step.
That's the exact same trailer out there.
Tarps.
No tarps.
Edge protectors.
No edge protectors.
Straps or chains.
Like it's all plug and play out there.
So anybody who sits there and thinks that their book of business is some special snowflake is like completely missing the mark on how transferable all this stuff is, you know.
(23:21):
And you brought up digital freight matching there, Dan.
We are not that far off from that being a reality for like at least 50% of the drive in freight that's moved out there, like it is going to come to a point and you guys are going to see this.
Every load that's moved out there between Dallas and Chicago, that all falls into a category of between 40 and 42,000 pounds, always has 26 pallets.
(23:44):
First come, first serve.
That can be automated and it will be automated.
And then the tech savvy brokers and carriers out there are going to have rates and especially and it doesn't matter if that shipper moves that once in a month, once in a week, or a hundred times in a week, you're going to have an automated rating system in there that is going to spit them rates and there's going to be an interface where they're just going to say accept send.
(24:06):
And that is all going to be digitized, you guys.
It is happening in front of you.
And if you can't see that that is a major roadblock that you need to overcome because convoy Uber, all of those Uber, those early, I would call them pioneers of the digital freight matching space, they might have just been too early to the game, you guys.
Someone's going to perfect that Dial that in.
(24:26):
And they are going to clean house with.
With freight.
They really are.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
And that's.
That's what you're gonna see.
Like, it's never.
The human's never gonna be completely eliminated.
Like, I. I don't get.
The data is too messy.
There's too many hands in the mix.
But what you're going to see is like, the last figure I've kind of seen is like, all right, the average revenue per head for brokerage is anywhere between like one and a half million to two million bucks per head on average.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
You're gonna start seeing that grow to $8 million ahead just because of pure efficiency.
The transactional cost per load is gonna start declining rapidly.
And so it's just seeing, like, more people do a lot more and getting that easy stuff touchless and not having to deal with it and just managing those exceptions.
(25:11):
That's where the industry is.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
100, man.
And that is literally on our roadmap inside of my operation.
How do we increase our revenue head per our seat to that, like, max level?
Because I want to see, man, how much can we automate?
Because, like, I literally think 95 of my day can and should be automated.
As a freight broker, like, it literally should.
(25:34):
The 5% of my day that can never be automated is me cold calling me, trying to go out there and reach out to customers, earn more business.
Same thing when a carrier talks to, like, again, I don't want to do that.
I've heard some very compelling arguments on how you can do that, and I get that.
I just am going to choose to not do that because I want them to know that comfort level.
(25:54):
Right.
It's just like when you walk onto an airplane, it's on autopilot, man.
But I'm not stepping foot on that if there isn't two pilots in the cockpit.
All right?
And it's just at that comfort level.
And that's where I think that we're not at yet.
But I think that a lot of the companies out there and dude, and I just broke down an article about UPS yesterday and trying to get rid of all their drivers and all of their Teamsters members that are out there, man, because they're looking to increase automation to reduce their overhead.
(26:23):
And I think, like, there's a lot of companies out there that are going to do that.
I'm taking the stance, and I've said this for years now.
I am going to automate everything I can.
So when I need to hire people, I'm hiring the right five, not hiring 20 and hoping that five make it.
And then it's arming them with the right technology.
And again, here's the other caveat, guys.
My company will never have cap commissions, so I want to automate it to my people can make a fuckload of money out there.
(26:49):
Because I'm a capitalist, I want my people to make a lot of money too.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah.
And it's like having.
Having humans focus.
Focus on human tasks, but then also when you want to have that white glove service, the human interaction, it's.
It's not just having human do interactions for human purposes.
It's like bringing extra value.
Think about, like, your experience when you go to McDonald's versus Chick Fil A.
Both are having humans take your orders, but one's a lot more pleasant experience because of the training they put behind the people and all those extra little touches.
(27:21):
And so don't just have your people talk to carriers just to get the load and be done, but it's like, how do you elevate that experience?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yeah, dude, I. I look at it like this.
My.
My operation, we're a hospitality company that just happens to move truckloads, like, legitimately, man.
We're out there trying to add as much value as we possibly can out there to the market.
But like, all my guests, you guys, Dan has a day job, and he's got stuff to get today.
So, Dan, I appreciate you taking the time to chop it up with me.
How does anybody reach out to you guys to find out more about what you got going on?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Shoot me a message on LinkedIn or shoot me an email.
Danhabbyconnect.com Perfect.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Dan, thank you so much for the time today as always, if you guys got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show.
You guys.
And if you're feeling ambitious after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because if you see value, your network's gonna see value as well.
I appreciate you guys.
I love you guys, and we'll be talking to you soon.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Came back with a bank window down yelling out money, anything 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 moving fast hey let them all cross if they hate them let them hate them Make a bigger ball hey.
Came back with a bank window down yelling now money anything 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 moving fast hey Let them all cross if they hate then let them hate them Make a bigger boss hey.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
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.
(00:46):
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, 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 Wednesday, everybody.
I got a very special guest for you guys.
(01:07):
I'm going to bring him up in just a second.
But I do have just a quick announcement there.
We dropped a Freight Coach newsletter this morning.
It only drops once a week and I will not automatically sign you up for it if I have your email address because I don't want to spam your inbox at the end of the day, you guys.
If you want to get in on it though, we just talk about transportation on there.
I need you to go to my website, the FreightCoach.com.
(01:28):
i should probably put that up there for you guys.
Yeah, the FreightCoach.com.
it'll auto prompt you to register for it again.
It just drops once a week.
But today's guest, you guys, we're going to be talking about quoting, automating it and everything, getting rates back faster to your customers.
Because this is the second question that I get outside of how do I find shippers?
The second question is how do I bid shippers?
(01:48):
And we're going to talk about that and kind of tie that all together.
So I have my good friend Dan Hellman back on the show.
Dan, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Thanks for having me.
I'm actually signing up for your newsletter right now.
I didn't know you had one, man.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I, you know, I only mentioned it on the show.
Dan.
And I like, I, again, I practice what I preach.
I don't just auto sign people up for it because I kind of get annoyed every time that happens to me, so.
And especially if I don't want it.
And I, I just think that, you know, at the end of the day, I just enjoy earning people's downloads and, you know, subscriptions and all that stuff.
(02:21):
It's the same strategy that we followed on the podcast and that's been working out quite all right for us.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
It's a beauty.
Provide some value and bring them in.
Dude, I know the.
When you get auto sign up for newsletters, it just kills it.
I mean, it's just then all of a sudden it's become spam and I just delete them automatically.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.
And I like seeing 0 people unsubscribe to it.
Right?
So it's like my.
We use mailchimp for our newsletter and they send analytics all the time, right.
So I like seeing that the subscriptions keep going up and nobody is unsubscribing to the newsletter.
Right?
So to me, it's exactly how I like to see it out there.
(02:59):
And you know, again, man, I just want to add value to the industry.
Right.
Like, I don't want to partake in any of the stuff you see out there on social media these days.
Like, I'm just going to stick day.
The, the trajectory and the plan that we've been on for the last five years.
How do we just continue to create a conglomerate of value education for the transportation industry that like I say before every single show, man, people can apply this to their business.
(03:22):
They can earn more business, earn more money and all that.
That's just where I'm going to stay with it.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Beauty.
Love it, dude.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Absolutely, man.
So speaking of loving things, man, you guys got some new stuff that you're releasing out here to the public in regards to RFPs and everything, right?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah.
So we just released shoot three weeks ago about our RFP module for automating bid packages.
And so now that was kind of the one thing we felt like was missing within Tabby.
You know, to be like a rate management system, you got to have spot.
You got to have all rates and lanes in there.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And yeah, so we're pumped.
So we have three phases.
Phase one is now live.
It's part of our standard platform bid packages.
Apply some more advanced logic to it and kind of just speed up that whole process.
So now finish a 2000 lane bid in a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So what, you know, when it comes down to it, man, with RFPs, what's the thing that you think most people miss in like going out there and bidding on freight at that level?
Right?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I think the biggest things that, and I'm going back to like when I was a broker and remember like the doing RP is mind numbing as a, I feel like unless you got a system or a pricing team or something like that, it consists of all nighters and like two six packs of beer and yeah, blaring some music.
I mean it's just mind numbing.
(04:50):
The biggest thing I always ran into was the storing of them, the looking back at what works, what didn't work, kind of that feedback loop from previous bids you did and having it all sit on each individual broker's computer with 37 different versions and not bringing all the data together and having that analytics of feedback of what works, what doesn't.
(05:15):
And so it's like going back, going to each bid as if it's the first time you did it.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I think that, you know, dude, when it comes down to RFPs, we filled one out for our customer like two years ago and they just have not rebid anything.
They're like, hey, our rates are good, everything's good, there's no need.
But to me it's more of like I'm.
As we grow in, like our freight volume grows out there.
Dan, I'm really trying to like study our analytics on like what is our, what are we paying into certain regions out there?
(05:49):
Does the rate actually change?
Because like from my perspective, man, rates are not as volatile as people kind of like to paint out there, especially going into like specific regions and stuff like that.
And you know, to me it's like, how do I dial this in to where it's like I'm able to send a consistent price out to my customer 12 months out of the year.
(06:10):
Yes, there's going to be times where we lose a little bit of money on it or break even or our margin's smaller than others.
But like how do I deliver that consistency out there so where our customers know exactly what we're going to charge them.
And you know, for me it's like I also like to see our win rate, right?
Like what are we winning at?
How do we need to tailor it?
Are we really off by that much?
(06:31):
And then I also, you know, because again like going out there in the market and stuff like that, it's like how competitive are we to others?
And then most importantly, how fast are we in getting prices.
Because I still think to this day this is going to be more of spot market compared to rfp.
But like, the faster you can get a rate back to a customer, the higher the likelihood you're going to win that one.
(06:52):
I got, I have plenty of internal data to really back that up.
But to me it's like I want to study this stuff and then go out there and like paint that picture because I feel like with one customer, as long as the freight type and everything is very aligned, you can go and sell that out there to any of your prospects.
And that's where like the real value lies, where it's like you can paint that picture.
(07:15):
Because everybody likes to say we have trucks in the area as opposed to, hey, we have six flatbeds with four foot tarps, edge protectors in this area these days of the week.
These are the rates that we need going to these specific regions out there.
It doesn't matter if it's going to Logan, Utah, Provo, Utah, wherever.
This is the exact same price that we're going to charge you.
That to me is like where all the secret sauce really lies.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
You're, you're so spot on.
I mean the days of marketing and selling that you have 70,000 carriers under contract, that you service all lower 48, we can do it all, you know, what's your volume?
I can do it.
Those days are gone because every single broker can do that.
I mean that's, that you're seeing the same pitch over and over again, but coming with actual data and actual details that like you said, these trucks with this size tarps on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I'm currently doing 12 of them a day.
(08:11):
Right now I have capacity to take on four more loads a day for that.
Or you know, bring details into, you know, I can do five loads a day out of this location.
Because I'm saying trucks from here and here, like actually bringing some analytics and data to show that you, that it truly is a network and not give me a load.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
No, absolutely, man.
And this is stuff that drivers, owner ops and fleets, I mean especially the larger fleets, I would assume this is how they're out there selling their capacity.
But this is all completely transferable into if you own a, you know, you're an owner operator or you have five trucks in your fleet or whatever that looks like, that's how you go out there and really develop business.
And you know, again, I know somebody out there can say, oh, I never had to do that.
(08:54):
We just Got access to all their freight right away.
But like, literally every customer I've ever onboarded in the entirety of my career, you start with minimal freight at the beginning.
Like, your exposure to their overall outbound freight is minimal.
And for me it's like, dude, it took us two years of moving freight with somebody before they're like, hey, we want you to take on everything.
(09:18):
Like, you've proven it.
We had a shakeup with one of your competitors.
They're gone.
We want you to take on everything.
But here's the caveat.
They said, do you feel comfortable taking on everything?
And they wanted to know because, like, we've just been honest with them as we come.
And then as I'm developing business, Dan, with a customer, I'll let them know.
If they're like, hey, do you have a truck for this?
I'll be like, this is a new lane for us.
(09:39):
Let me work on it for a little bit.
And if we can't find a tangible option for them, I'm not rolling the dice.
Because the difference between the freight market today in developing business and pre Covid, like, you literally have one shot, man.
If you drop the ball early on with a customer and you haven't earned any trust, you're done.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah.
100.
Like I remember back when I was broker, it was a large cradle of grape shop I was working at.
And you know, you fail bids non stop.
And I remember one bid, I won a whole bunch of business.
And the first thing was in my mind was I screwed this up so bad because it's like that doesn't happen.
And lo and behold, I did screw it up.
(10:19):
Like my rates were way too low.
And so you have to the back pedal, try and navigate what to get back or don't, how to finagle all that.
Yeah, when you get a whole bunch right away, at least, especially back in the day, it's usually screwed something up.
Possibly now it's a little different because you, based on the company and what you're putting into it and the value add, all of that.
(10:41):
But if it's like there's not a relationship there and it's just a rate driven thing, you probably screw something up.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah.
And you know, Dan, we've both worked for larger shops back in the day, and I don't have the luxury of brand recognition out there when I'm developing business, nor do I have the luxury of falling back on the stability of a proven track record of said brand on how we might perform out there in the market.
Right.
So it's like we're out there and we're trying to build it right from the first time, you know, and it's impossible.
(11:11):
We mess up, we make our mistakes, we own our mistakes, but we're out there trying to set that tone right away, hey, here's how we operate.
This is how we're going to perform for you.
And it takes a long time to build something up.
And it takes you a second to lose it all when you go out there and you over promise and under deliver.
And it's the same thing like when markets fluctuate.
(11:32):
And I know there's a lot of people in this industry right now that have never seen a carrier market.
So they're like, oh, it's easy to cover freight.
What are you talking about?
This is the easiest job ever.
But when it comes down to it, man, and you are in a position to where you are just unknowingly bidding on freight for the sake of bidding on freight, and there is no coverage for it.
(11:53):
There is no capacity.
You put yourself in a very tough spot.
And then again, you might have a perfect track record with a customer for five years, but if you botch one shipment, you're done.
Like, you're done.
They're going to start looking at your competitors.
And that's all a guy like me, who has experience and some of the other killers that we both know in this industry, that's all we need.
(12:14):
I just need one shot.
You, if a customer gives me one shot, your days are numbered as a competitor.
That is the level of intensity, speed communication that I am going to bring every single time to them.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah.
And coming in like, especially when you talk about, like, you know, you don't have the brand recognition as much or you know, the marketing budget, all of that stuff, and that's where it's even more important is to come in with something that differentiates your experience, the level of trust.
You build the data, the coming in with details, not you got a load, I'll cover it kind of pitch.
(12:49):
Now what's struggling to struggle in the past is I think majority people listening out there would say like, yeah, you got to use data.
Yeah, you got to bring something different.
But it's like, how do you use it?
How do you capture it, how do you store it?
Because typically it's been so manual that it's just been virtually impossible.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah.
And dude, and that's the thing, right?
Like for me, you know, I'd mentioned in regards to spot market freight, that speed Kills.
Like, if you are not out there and you are not getting rates back to your customer, like, legitimately, within two to three minutes maximum, that load's already gone.
You know, and I have a lot of data internally that shows that.
(13:27):
Right?
Because like, we're on top of our stuff.
Like when I'm doing this show, my business partners watching our emails like a hawk, like, we are on everything.
And you know, to me it's like we.
We've had this happen where they'll send out a load.
Spot market.
There's four other providers on there.
I already have a rate to them within a minute and a half.
I don't reply all.
(13:48):
I'm one of those guys who notices that.
And I don't reply all.
But there's others who do reply all, dan.
And they're 20 minutes after the fact, I already have the tender.
And they're like, oh, we're working on this right now.
It's like, man, where's the urgency out there?
Like, with technology today, if you have the budget for it, there is no excuse that you cannot get a rate back to our.
(14:09):
Your customers within a minute.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, 100.
And I always love.
I remember back from being on the floor, I always love people that replied all, like, come on man, pay attention to details.
And then you get someone to be like, oh yeah, it's gonna be 1200 bucks.
Then someone replies all 1195.
And somebody replies all 1190.
It's like.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Dude, that's the thing, man, is it's like, it's not.
The price is right out there.
And you know, for.
For me, it's it.
If your strategy is just to go as cheap as possible for as long as possible, it's a losing strategy in business, you know, like, it's gonna be someone cheaper.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
There's.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, but what differentiates you at that point, right?
Dude, are you setting that tone early on with your customers that shows you are worth the additional money?
Because, I mean, I was just talking with Ken Adamo with dat.
He was on the show on Monday.
And you know, again, people don't make money if the freight's sitting right?
Like, if you quote your customer and you can't get it done.
(15:07):
I don't know a manufacturer or a shipper in the United States of America who loves their freight sitting on their docks and not on their customer shelves selling, right?
So it's like, to me, you can prove to them why you're worth 250, $300 more a shipment, and you can set that tone right away.
Like, that's got to be in your business development strategy when you're going out there and trying to build.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah.
And it's going to be part of the strategy, not just to your main contact, the transportation manager.
You got to work multi third different departments.
You got to educate the finance team.
Because a lot of times people on the finance side, they don't understand transportation.
They just think a truck shows up.
It's what it costs.
It's like Expedia and it picks it up and delivers.
(15:53):
That's all it is.
You know that educating them on what the true cost is of late deliveries, of claims of that and why you're worth the extra 100, 200 bucks.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I, I think that there's a false sense of, like, people put revenue customers, they put them on a pedestal in, I think, the wrong way at times in the assumption that they have it all figured out and that they're not actually looking for partners out there to keep them informed about what's going on.
And, you know, I've heard this time and time again throughout my career, and I'll summarize it like this.
(16:30):
We're a manufacturer, we're not a transportation company.
That, that's literally why we hire you, is so you can keep us up to date on things that are going on out there in the market.
And you know, again, it's like you just got to look at those little things like, because cost savings, you might quote more than everybody else, but those cost savings that you can deliver to them are by assessing their apps, their.
(16:51):
Their network as a whole, and being like, hey, you always ship out a partial on this day and this day.
Have you guys ever thought about holding this ship date by one day and then putting this as a one pick, two drop, full truckload?
It's going to save you on this and network optimization and stuff like that.
Like, you have to dissect that stuff.
Yes, that comes in time.
But at the end of the day, this is why they hire you.
(17:13):
They don't hire you just to provide them rates.
All right?
Because anybody can do that.
Anybody can find trucks out there.
It's like, are you really helping them improve their operations?
Because I view us in my company, Dan, we are a direct reflection of our customer to their customer.
All right?
We are the ones delivering to their customers every single time.
(17:35):
So if they have a negative effect on, like a viewpoint of my service, they might have a negative viewpoint on my customer, and then my customer is going to lose business from that.
Right?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
So.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So again, it's like that.
That's just the level of care and communication that we want to bring to the table every single time.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
A hundred percent.
A while back it might have been like six, nine months ago, I did like a webinar with John Rivers, a consultant in the industry and we're going to buy QBRs how to hold up and just like you know a lot of brokers who do QBRs are customers but they get so stagnant and boring and it's about me and not about them of where it's like all right, we deliver 98.7% on time.
(18:14):
So everybody else, these are your lanes.
What else do you have?
These are the claims the issues have.
We're going to fix it and not bringing like actual data insights on network optimization on round trip opportunities or educating them on their volumes and the rising cost per lane and all of those things that people assume shippers have access to and know they have no idea.
(18:36):
Most don't even the advanced companies.
I've met with a buddy of mine who is the head of financial analytics for extremely large shipper and he's like we just started tracking that like it's just they just never did before because it's never an important aspect for their finance team until covet hit and rates went through the roof.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
What's some of those things that when you guys are out there talking to your guys's customers like what are their customers looking for in regards to quoting in analytics and stuff like that?
When you're bringing that up man, like what is something that like there's that direct feedback like hey we're utilizing you, we're utilizing tabby, we're getting those rates back to them.
This is what our customers are starting to realize that they didn't know that they needed.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah.
So I think that's a big point, important point.
You said the customers didn't know they needed.
So I would say the customer, our customers, the brokers, they're shippers.
They're not asking for stuff because they have no idea they need it.
And not enough companies are educating them on it and show them they need it.
But where we help educate our customer base to educate their customers and how to leverage data and is on heavily on that network optimization how to open up opportunities on the quote level across their entire shipper network.
(19:52):
Because right now a lot of brokers look at load counts moved revenue of the load move which is important operational, you know, data points but that doesn't show growth opportunities just because you're moving 20 loads a week for a shipper doesn't mean there's another 20 loads a week there.
Or just because you're using one load a month doesn't mean there's a lot of growth there.
You find that on the quote level of opportunities touching.
(20:14):
And so it's edging a customer on what are their trends.
You can now forecast some trends and winner they can educate them on winter expensive times when I start coming up why are rates increasing on exact lanes on their high volume lanes?
And even if you can go even a step further if the shipper puts in their quote request like what's their cost per case cost per pallet.
(20:36):
A lot of shippers do not track that.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
It's like why is that?
Why do you think that we're.
It's almost 2026 at this point right?
Like why is there still such a lack of data and analytics out there or why is there so much apprehension like and I mean it's kind of an open ended question Dan but like I see it every time a new piece of freight tech comes to the market there's always the natur dissenters who are like oh this isn't going to work.
(21:07):
There's no need for this.
And it's like is it though or do you just not see how a tool like this could be utilized to benefit your operation?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
I think the dissenters industry they get too focused on these one offs.
Well I have one shipper that does this one load a week that's this and this is absurdly nuanced and doesn't fit the mold.
The tech coming to the market no matter what it could be a digital free matching platform, it could be you know carrier sourcing, could be rate automation.
It could be all these different things.
(21:38):
It's designed to take off the bulk not the extremely nuanced that is stuff still for the humans to do.
And like the really ugly stuff they get too focused on these one offs and was trying to look for it not to not to work.
And I think on the shipper side I mean I forget the exact number.
I forgot how many shippers are out there.
There's Some hundred and twenty 000 shippers in the US 1% are very advanced and analytically driven.
(22:07):
The rest generally speaking are the person around a transportation department was a lot of times you know they didn't go to supply chain management.
They might have worked the dock and moved up and so it's just not what they've experienced.
So Far now I think the shift we're starting to see is the younger generation getting more leadership that's been around a little more data, a little more tech and kind of embracing it more.
(22:30):
So I think that's what's kind of helped pushing it and driving it.
It's kind of like the changing the guards of leadership.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah, I, I think that from my perspective, Dan, all freight's the same when it's legal, regardless of the mode.
Like as soon as it gets over dimensional.
Yes.
That's where the nuance comes in at the end of the day.
But it's like whether you know and you could break it down like this.
Here's the perfect parallel, you guys, Refrigerated freight, there's like three classifications of it.
Fresh frozen, temperature controlled.
(22:55):
Right.
Same thing in the open deck is there's three classifications of it.
Essentially you got flatbed step.
That's the exact same trailer out there.
Tarps.
No tarps.
Edge protectors.
No edge protectors.
Straps or chains.
Like it's all plug and play out there.
So anybody who sits there and thinks that their book of business is some special snowflake is like completely missing the mark on how transferable all this stuff is, you know.
(23:21):
And you brought up digital freight matching there, Dan.
We are not that far off from that being a reality for like at least 50% of the drive in freight that's moved out there, like it is going to come to a point and you guys are going to see this.
Every load that's moved out there between Dallas and Chicago, that all falls into a category of between 40 and 42,000 pounds, always has 26 pallets.
(23:44):
First come, first serve.
That can be automated and it will be automated.
And then the tech savvy brokers and carriers out there are going to have rates and especially and it doesn't matter if that shipper moves that once in a month, once in a week, or a hundred times in a week, you're going to have an automated rating system in there that is going to spit them rates and there's going to be an interface where they're just going to say accept send.
(24:06):
And that is all going to be digitized, you guys.
It is happening in front of you.
And if you can't see that that is a major roadblock that you need to overcome because convoy Uber, all of those Uber, those early, I would call them pioneers of the digital freight matching space, they might have just been too early to the game, you guys.
Someone's going to perfect that Dial that in.
(24:26):
And they are going to clean house with.
With freight.
They really are.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
And that's.
That's what you're gonna see.
Like, it's never.
The human's never gonna be completely eliminated.
Like, I. I don't get.
The data is too messy.
There's too many hands in the mix.
But what you're going to see is like, the last figure I've kind of seen is like, all right, the average revenue per head for brokerage is anywhere between like one and a half million to two million bucks per head on average.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
You're gonna start seeing that grow to $8 million ahead just because of pure efficiency.
The transactional cost per load is gonna start declining rapidly.
And so it's just seeing, like, more people do a lot more and getting that easy stuff touchless and not having to deal with it and just managing those exceptions.
(25:11):
That's where the industry is.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
100, man.
And that is literally on our roadmap inside of my operation.
How do we increase our revenue head per our seat to that, like, max level?
Because I want to see, man, how much can we automate?
Because, like, I literally think 95 of my day can and should be automated.
As a freight broker, like, it literally should.
(25:34):
The 5% of my day that can never be automated is me cold calling me, trying to go out there and reach out to customers, earn more business.
Same thing when a carrier talks to, like, again, I don't want to do that.
I've heard some very compelling arguments on how you can do that, and I get that.
I just am going to choose to not do that because I want them to know that comfort level.
(25:54):
Right.
It's just like when you walk onto an airplane, it's on autopilot, man.
But I'm not stepping foot on that if there isn't two pilots in the cockpit.
All right?
And it's just at that comfort level.
And that's where I think that we're not at yet.
But I think that a lot of the companies out there and dude, and I just broke down an article about UPS yesterday and trying to get rid of all their drivers and all of their Teamsters members that are out there, man, because they're looking to increase automation to reduce their overhead.
(26:23):
And I think, like, there's a lot of companies out there that are going to do that.
I'm taking the stance, and I've said this for years now.
I am going to automate everything I can.
So when I need to hire people, I'm hiring the right five, not hiring 20 and hoping that five make it.
And then it's arming them with the right technology.
And again, here's the other caveat, guys.
My company will never have cap commissions, so I want to automate it to my people can make a fuckload of money out there.
(26:49):
Because I'm a capitalist, I want my people to make a lot of money too.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah.
And it's like having.
Having humans focus.
Focus on human tasks, but then also when you want to have that white glove service, the human interaction, it's.
It's not just having human do interactions for human purposes.
It's like bringing extra value.
Think about, like, your experience when you go to McDonald's versus Chick Fil A.
Both are having humans take your orders, but one's a lot more pleasant experience because of the training they put behind the people and all those extra little touches.
(27:21):
And so don't just have your people talk to carriers just to get the load and be done, but it's like, how do you elevate that experience?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yeah, dude, I. I look at it like this.
My.
My operation, we're a hospitality company that just happens to move truckloads, like, legitimately, man.
We're out there trying to add as much value as we possibly can out there to the market.
But like, all my guests, you guys, Dan has a day job, and he's got stuff to get today.
So, Dan, I appreciate you taking the time to chop it up with me.
How does anybody reach out to you guys to find out more about what you got going on?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Shoot me a message on LinkedIn or shoot me an email.
Danhabbyconnect.com Perfect.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Dan, thank you so much for the time today as always, if you guys got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show.
You guys.
And if you're feeling ambitious after this one, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because if you see value, your network's gonna see value as well.
I appreciate you guys.
I love you guys, and we'll be talking to you soon.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Came back with a bank window down yelling out money, anything 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 moving fast hey let them all cross if they hate them let them hate them Make a bigger ball hey.
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