October 31, 2023 • 46 mins
This episode features an interview with Taryn Reeves, the head of the AP department at SPI Logistics. She provides an insightful look into the inner workings of freight accounting, detailing how her team processes invoices and resolves common issues that arise. Listeners will gain valuable perspective on building strong relationships between brokers/agents and accounting to ensure smooth operations.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Blythe Brumleve (00:05):
Welcome into another episode of everything is
logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SPIlogistics and I am your host,
Blythe Brumleve.
We've got a special guest foryou today, a person from SPI
logistics.
You know we do these regularrecurring series where we
interview someone went fromwithin the company or a freight
agent to get their perspectiveon how the inner workings of the
(00:28):
freight agent world looks like.
And today we've got the head ofthe AP department, Taryn Reeves
, on the show.
So, Taryn, welcome to the show.
Taryn Reeves (00:36):
Well, thanks for having me.
I look forward to ourconversation, absolutely Now.
Blythe Brumleve (00:41):
You know for I was reading through there was
like a news story recently thattalked about how there's like
the shortage of accountingprofessionals and that you know
the industry is, you know, goingto be facing some productivity
issues and things like that.
I'm curious as to if there's ashortage now, how did you
originally find yourself working, you know, in accounting at a
(01:03):
trucking firm or, you know,essentially, a freight company?
Taryn Reeves (01:05):
Well, I actually did a like short term contract
work for them back in 2008.
I was leaving to go toSoutheast Asia and I knew James
from when we were younger and hesaid hey, I need someone to
fill in.
Can you come for a couple ofmonths to get some extra money?
Like, oh, okay, sure.
(01:26):
So I was here way back when andthen I was actually working in
automotive apprenticeship, I wasdoing marketing for them, and
then the government decided tobring that all in house and so
once again I said to, james waslike hey, if you need anyone to
cover vacation for the summer,let me know.
I had just had my seconddaughter.
And he he was like oh, I needyou tomorrow.
(01:48):
Oh, okay, not that answer I waskind of expecting.
So I had one day training andthen I covered a two week
vacation and then they asked meto stay a month, and then three
months, and then they're likeOkay, what's it going to take to
keep you?
Blythe Brumleve (02:05):
So so I guess, what does your, your day to day
role look like?
So?
Taryn Reeves (02:09):
we do all of the paperwork processing.
Well, I say paperwork, but wedo all the document processing
for the whole firm.
So anytime a carrier moves aload, we validate every single
invoice, every single proof ofdelivery with whatever the
agents put into the system toconfirm that the numbers match
the delivery, shipper PO numbers, amounts, all of that match,
(02:33):
before we actually pay them.
Blythe Brumleve (02:36):
And so I would imagine that's a lot of like
manual.
Is that like a lot of manualentry, or are you?
You know one of the, you knowthe part of the teams that are
really starting to adopt?
You know a lot of this newtechnology coming into the mix,
or is it still something thatyou need to?
You know manually verify?
Taryn Reeves (02:51):
So back in the day I would have a piece of paper
on my desk with all thedocuments.
I would verify it to the screen, I would initial the bottom, I
would put in all the information.
Then it would get processed atthe end of the week.
So thankfully, we gone througha couple different systems and
we have one now that we use oneemail address.
(03:12):
Every single invoice and proofof delivery goes into that.
So we receive anywhere, I wouldsay, between 350 and 400 a day.
And then, because they're allin one system, I have a team
that goes through and we justlook at all of them one at a
time.
But it's a smart system so itreads the invoice number and the
amounts and it kind ofgenerally reads the information.
(03:32):
So we just do a little bit ofverification.
As soon as we hit save on that,all the information transfers
into our DMS system, our TMSsystem Revenova.
Blythe Brumleve (03:43):
Oh, wow.
So then I would imagine thatthat's such a breath of fresh
air for a lot of yourresponsibilities and almost like
a little bit of maybe it helpsease the worry of maybe getting
something wrong.
Taryn Reeves (03:55):
And I would say there would have been no way the
growth that we've had wouldhave happened if we still were
in any of our old system.
There's not a chance we wouldhave been able to cover what we
do now, and plus we had, we usedto have a specific person that
we had hired for filing alone.
So you would do it all.
(04:15):
You would put it in a bin, shewould come in, she would take it
all to the back warehouse andthen file it all away, and so
you have to keep originaldocuments for I think it used to
be 10 years.
So we just had a warehouse fulland then eventually they
stopped sending them in,emailing them in, but we didn't
have a system.
So we'd still print them out,scan them in, load them in and
move forward.
(04:36):
So, thankfully, the system wehave we got, I would say, just
before COVID happened and we allgot sent home, and without the
systems that we had in place itwouldn't have happened, it
wouldn't have run smooth at all.
Blythe Brumleve (04:51):
That's interesting.
You say that because I rememberwhen I worked for an
asset-based 3PL and we switchedTMS providers and the TMS
provider that we switched to didnot have a strong accounting
portion of it, and I don't knowthat a lot of folks realize how
important until you're alreadyin it, until you've already like
your upshits Greek essentiallyhow important the accounting
(05:15):
features and functionalitywithin a TMS it really matters.
Is that still a safe assumption?
Oh, 100%.
Taryn Reeves (05:24):
And I would say that the one that we moved to I
wouldn't say necessarily had allthe accounting side that we
need, but between James and ourIT support team we have one
gentleman that came in and anyquestions we had we could throw
in there.
And you know those like ITgurus that could just get in the
system and look at all thenumbers and they could figure it
(05:46):
all out.
He kind of grew root the systemfor us so that everything could
talk to each other as we gotnew, different document
management systems and yeah, itwas a real blessing.
Blythe Brumleve (05:56):
That's amazing because we've done a bunch of
these interviews with SPIfreight agents and then a couple
from within the leadership team, and one of them was with Eze
Borralta, who is he's the headof IT for SPI, and that has been
one of our more popularepisodes from all of like the
SPI interview series.
And I think it's because of whatyou said.
(06:18):
Like, you know, when people arereally curious about how you
can make these different toolsand technologies sort of talk to
each other in order to becauseyou're bringing in freight
agents that have their own techstack, that have their own
things of what they're dealingwith and maybe their own
processes, so maybe that's areally good segue to start to
talk about.
You know, when, I guess, afreight agent is shopping for a
(06:39):
new opportunity, at what pointis your department brought into
the mix?
Are you regularly meeting withthem or you know, maybe having
those conversations you knowaround financial data and you
know things that they need toknow before they join SPI, or is
that more of like the higherlevel executives that are
talking about those differentthings?
Taryn Reeves (07:00):
So it's usually, once they've confirmed that they
want to work with SPI, theystart getting trained within our
system and then, once they gettheir training within Revenova,
initially from our clientsupport team, they get sent over
to myself to talk to them alittle bit how the AP side of
things works.
Because, in all honesty, weknow why an invoice is being
(07:22):
held.
We can see the three differentsystems.
So if they're getting phonecalls and they're like hey, I
haven't been paid, it's beenthree weeks, blah, blah, blah,
your team sucks.
Then they phone us and they'relike hey, they're like hey, I
just heard you guys suck.
I'm like Whoa, whoa, let's backup here for a second.
And then I start looking.
I'm like, oh, they just didn'tsend in their or didn't update
their wallet, or they justdidn't send in a blank and we
(07:45):
just needed the notice ofassignment.
So when I first train them all,I tell them, as soon as they
get a phone call, send them tous, give them either transfer
them to us or get them to sendus an email, because we can see
exactly where it's at.
And it's usually not that wedon't want to pay them or
there's an issue, it's usuallyjust something small that if
they haven't received thatpayment it's usually something
(08:07):
like they don't have their ACHinformation in there correctly,
or they have a factoring companyin the system but they didn't
put it on their invoice, orsomething small that we can
solve within a quick email or aquick phone conversation with
that carrier direct.
Blythe Brumleve (08:22):
What other things are you?
Are you training the agents onduring their onboarding process?
Taryn Reeves (08:27):
I train them in all the different email
addresses that where thecarriers can send them.
I talk to them about our fastpay program because we do offer
a quick pay and I've heard asI've been talking to them that
it's one of the best in thefreight industry, which is
pretty nice to know.
We offer a same day 2% quickpay.
The only thing is we can'toffer that to a first time use.
(08:48):
Our network won't let usoverride it if it's a first time
carrier, so they do have tohave moved a load with us in the
system for that.
So as I train them about thequick pay process and a lot of
them, if there's like a blindshipment or the documents are
always going to say thewarehouse on them but they're
actually giving them to headoffice or vice versa, then we
(09:11):
won't process them in that ifthat information doesn't match.
So I always talk to them like,if it is blind, make sure you
note it on the rate confirmation.
If it's going to always go to awarehouse but you're always
going to note head office, justgive us a heads up.
We can make an exception,process those without bugging
you, because ideally we want tobe able to process everything
after they've put it into thesystem, after they've done their
(09:32):
part.
They got their customer happy,they got their carrier happy.
Let me do the rest.
So that's kind of where we sit.
So I don't want to have to goback and forth.
But obviously agents all movedifferent kinds of freight.
So whether you're movingsomething to grocery stores or
to empty sites and you'rebuilding something, it's going
to look very different on theproof of delivery.
We get so kind of as thatrelationship gets rolling with
(09:55):
our new agents, if there'sanything that comes up that
we're being held on or we'regoing to them a lot, I just have
another conversation with themand say can we get confirmation?
We can do this moving forwardor update that moving forward,
and then we don't have to goback to them every time.
Blythe Brumleve (10:10):
How long does that sort of onboarding training
process take?
It sounds like it might berelatively quick.
Taryn Reeves (10:16):
It is, and I think it depends on every different
agent, because some I don't wantto say old dogs, new tricks,
but some old dogs, new tricks.
It's hard to teach and so thereare a lot of little things to
learn within the TMS system thatwe use.
But because we're so open, wehave a huge team of client care
(10:37):
that is a phone call away at alltimes.
We have a really knowledgeableAR and AP team, so I would say
they should be up to it.
As they're getting all theircustomers into it.
They should be up and rollingwithin the week.
Blythe Brumleve (10:54):
Are you in freight sales with a book of
business looking for a new home?
Or perhaps you're a freightagent in need of a better
partnership?
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
our podcast interview seriescalled the freight agent
trenches, sponsored by SPIlogistics.
Now I can tell you all day thatSPI is one of the most
successful logistics firms inNorth America, who helps their
(11:15):
agents with back officeoperations such as admin,
finance, it and sales.
But I would much rather youhear it directly from SPI's
freight agents themselves.
And what better way to do thatthan by listening to the
experienced freight agents telltheir stories behind the how and
the why they joined SPI?
Hit the freight agent link inour show notes to listen to
(11:36):
these conversations or, ifyou're ready to make the jump,
visit SPI3PLcom.
And then what I would imaginefor a lot of these freight
agents is so it's not just theconversation that they're having
to figure out what kind ofprogram is right for them
payables, all of the detailsthat come under your umbrella
(11:57):
but also, from their customersand their carrier perspective,
what does that setup processlook like for them?
Taryn Reeves (12:04):
Well, for the carriers, we just started using
a new onboarding so theyactually have to go in on their
own and they have to fill outall the information and then
once again that's become amanual process too.
So our system will eitheraccept it or deny that carrier
in general and then our carriersetup team will do a little bit
more digging to help them out,to kind of get them rolling
through that.
For customer setup, it's veryspecific per agent.
(12:27):
So if they have a customer theywant to set up, they'll go to
our AR team.
They'll find out.
If it's, they'll enter them asa prospect.
Then they'll have a talk abouthow many loads they move.
If there's any other agentsbecause we never want stealing
going on within like SPI, we'resuch a big family and such a big
team.
We would never want that to.
Like hinder.
We've had, unfortunately, acouple agents pass away and
(12:49):
we've had other agents that havejust like gracefully taken them
in, not taken the cut, giventhat payment directly to their
wives of the person that passed,just because they're like we're
just here to help.
It's just hard to hit home.
So, yeah, it depends on thedifferent customer they're
(13:10):
hiring.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, how it rolls smoothly.
But yeah, it's just lovely.
Blythe Brumleve (13:15):
Typically it sounds like it's pretty simple
setup because I would imaginefor a lot of customers they just
don't want any kind ofdisruption right now.
They look for any kind of maybereason, but it sounds like
maybe they have a really greatrelationship with a lot of your
agents and then that just makesthe process of moving from maybe
another Freight Agent Programto SBI a lot more smoother.
Is that a safe assumption?
Taryn Reeves (13:36):
And I've heard that a few times and then, as
I'm training some of the Freightagents, they'll say things like
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we didthat on our old firm.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I knowwhat you're saying with that.
And so they get kind of cuteand like oh, we know that I had
one that called me after we hadhad our initial talk and he was
like I'm just calling you, Ithink he called it to fill your
(13:58):
tank.
Or there was a saying that heused I'm not American, so it was
a very American saying that heused and he literally just
gushed about how lovely it wasand how comfortable he felt
knowing that he's coming hereand he said now I have this
Peppy cheerleader and AP that'sgoing to help out all my
carriers and I've become like aselling feature for him to use.
(14:19):
And, yeah, it's just, it's justnice to hear.
Blythe Brumleve (14:23):
Yeah, because I mean that kind of hints back to
it to we were talking before westarted recording that you
picked that you and obviously onthis interview so far, very
like bubbly personality, great,you know, interview so far
that's.
I don't think that's typical oflike normal logistic or
logistics like accountingdepartments, at least ones that
I've worked with.
You have a couple, of course,that are, you know, very cheery,
(14:45):
but the rest of them are just,you know, sort of just in the
computer and just focused ondata.
Taryn Reeves (14:49):
Yeah, it's really true, but I think that that's
why I've kind of landed so well,because I deal with truck
drivers all day.
So I can't really like take aphone call and be like your
paperwork doesn't match.
I can never do this again.
I really have to be like thatsucks.
30 days.
Let's get you your money, andthen they're like oh, you
actually want to help me?
Like literally my only job isto pay you.
(15:11):
That's what I do.
Blythe Brumleve (15:14):
I mean, yeah, that sounds like a great opera.
I mean it doesn't sound likeyou're dealing with a lot of
folks that are on the angry side, maybe per se.
Oh well, let's talk about someof maybe those ongoing, I guess,
sort of relationships that youhave to manage with your agents
and, you know, maybe with someof their customers and carriers.
(15:36):
How do you what are some ofthose common problems that maybe
pop up across a lot ofdifferent ages, maybe not just
one or two?
Taryn Reeves (15:44):
I would say for processing side of things.
Unfortunately, if there's asignature that is in a carrier
or a shipper location and theycome back and say that's the
receiver, if an auditor lookslike that, they're a little more
black and white and roboticthan I am.
So, yes, I want to believe you,but if they look at that, our
(16:05):
customer doesn't pay us becausethere was no signature on it.
I have to go back to these poorcarriers and be like oh, thanks
for driving for two weeksstraight, but your signature's
in the wrong spot.
And I think that that'sprobably one of the hardest
parts of my job is that I don'twant to not hold your money
because you didn't sign it right.
But if my customer is not goingto approve it, then you need to
(16:27):
figure it out on your end.
So whenever I talk to thosecarriers it can get a little bit
heated, but our patrons are net30 days.
So typically our customers'patrons are the same, so it's
usually as soon as they getapproval we can release payment
right away, because then theauditor will be like oh,
customer's fine with it, you'reokay to pay it, we're okay to
(16:48):
move forward.
So I always suggest get yourshipper to sign it when you
leave.
Always sign it on your own, andthen the receiver has no choice
but to sign it either anywhereon the page or in the right spot
.
Blythe Brumleve (17:01):
Oh, interesting .
So what would happen in asituation like that?
You just does the carrier justhave to drive back to that
customer and get the rightsignature, or does you know
additional approval processhappen?
So?
Taryn Reeves (17:12):
it completely depends on the situation.
Some of our customers we canemail almost right away and just
say, hey, you received thisfreight.
I have documentation of this.
I'll go to my AR department.
They'll come back and say, ohyeah, they said that this is
going to be fine and then we canprocess it per normal.
Otherwise we call it a holduntil customer approves and
(17:33):
we'll send it to them.
We'll invoice them with thepaperwork we have and, like I
said, typically they pay uswithin those 30 days, so we can
release payment before thecarrier even is notified of it.
And sometimes our agents willbe like oh, no, no, no, that
carrier, that customer is one ofmy best friends, just go for it
.
Or oh, that customer, he's beenwith me for 35 years, just pay
for it, right?
I don't know why all of myagent mimics are always like old
(17:55):
guy sounding.
Not all of them are.
Lots of them are beautifulfemales.
Blythe Brumleve (18:02):
Let's talk about maybe.
What are some of the ongoingquestions that that not, maybe
not necessarily problems ormaybe some ongoing things that
freight agents are coming to youwith as far as, like you know,
maybe getting paid a little bitfaster or you know, some
discrepancy on, you know, a bill.
What kind of questions are theyregularly coming to you that
(18:22):
they need answers for?
Taryn Reeves (18:24):
I would say for additional billing is probably
the number one reason.
Why are we communicate back andforth with our agents?
Because sometimes there's alumper when they pick up or they
deliver, and the carrier willcall them and then just be like,
oh hey, I just got here, I needa lumper.
And they're like, yeah, yeah,yeah, go for it, I'll pay you,
and then they'll forget.
They won't be at their computer, they won't put it in.
(18:45):
I get an invoice now and beinginvoiced in additional $250.
And so then we have to go backto the agent to talk to them
about that.
I would say that's probably thenumber one is like either
waiting charges because a lot ofthe times they are just on the
phone, and then they're like,hey, I've been waiting here for
three hours and it was only onlysupposed to take an hour, and
our agents will be like oh yeah,no problem, I'll pay you the
(19:07):
extra $100 for waiting.
I really appreciate you.
They forget to email, theyforget to add the system,
whatever the case may be, andthen we get that additional
billing.
So I would say that those areusually the number ones.
And or vice versa, they talk toa carrier and they said like,
hey, you were four hours late.
My customer is going to deductthis.
I need to deduct you.
(19:28):
They'll deduct it in the systembut the carrier tried to pull
one over and send us theoriginal rate confirmation with
the original invoice.
So I would say mostly it'samount differences, not
necessarily paperwork issues, ifthat makes sense.
Blythe Brumleve (19:44):
It does.
It does definitely.
Now, before we started havingthis conversation, I went to
Twitter, slash X to ask, becauseI have a lot of freight brokers
and agents that follow me onsocial media, and so I asked
freight brokers what are somecommon things that you would
want to know to do your jobbetter from the accounting team?
(20:06):
And I got a couple differentresponses.
One was very friendly andgenuine approach to want to work
with the AP team, because Ithink that there's from my
experience working at a 3PL,there were some times when you
had some shadier actors withinthe company that were trying to
pull one over on the accountingteam and the accounting team
just stood up for themselves andsaid, no, we're not going to do
(20:28):
that this way here.
So from this question from Mike,he has the very friendly and
genuine approach of wanting towork consistently and develop a
great relationship with the APteam.
And he says oddly enough, I'vebeen engaged with our accounting
team around payables aspect andbest practices, so this episode
is going to be a timely listenfor him.
(20:48):
He goes on to say that a lot ofthe best practices he's worked
with them on is average days topay and quick pay process were
the ones we touched on.
Also talking through documentmanagement workflow internally,
because that's been anopportunity for us, from the
carrier side of things to theaccounting team, to build a
customer.
Is that a good example of howmaybe a freight broker or a
(21:10):
freight agent can work well withthe accounting team?
Taryn Reeves (21:13):
For sure.
And our pay terms, like I said,are net 30 days from the date we
receive a valid invoice andproof of delivery, which we're
pretty much on point if you pullany of our reports to be at
that mark.
It kind of comes into an issuewith any of those quick pay
questions only because some ofthe carriers want to take the
(21:34):
load because they'll get quickpaid.
But obviously that's a servicethat we offer and we can't offer
that on a first load moved.
So it kind of becomes a littlebit of an issue.
So for those ones, there is away around it.
We request them, mail theoriginals to head office and as
soon as we have that originalbill of lading in head office my
(21:54):
system will let me override itso I can still pay them that
exact same day.
And so because the pay termsare 1% for five days as well
usually it takes about five daysto get there, get here, so I'll
deduct it for the 1%, give itsame day pay term when I got it,
but it'll be the five-daypercentage deduction because
(22:16):
then it helps them out, helps usout and we can still offer that
service.
Blythe Brumleve (22:21):
And it sounds like, if I'm reading between the
lines here, it sounds likeyou're genuinely trying to get
people paid as soon as possible,but you still have to cover
your own basis and cover yourown tracks.
Taryn Reeves (22:33):
And it's very unfortunate that when, since
double brokered loads have kindof come into play a little bit
more recently Mark Funk is oneof our directors and he was
talking to me about back therewas a little bit of a drop in
the economy back in 2008.
And he said back then doublebrokered loads really kicked
(22:54):
into high gear and he kind ofsaw the same thing within this
year again and I my heart breaks.
You know, because you talk tothis, I always think they're mom
paws that are getting rippedoff.
They probably aren't, but youget a call from this mom paw
that moved this load.
They can't find their money andI'm digging around for
paperwork.
But somebody else has invoicedme and so now we're trying to
(23:15):
figure this out with this cutelittle mom paw company, whereas
like it's someone that's tryingto scam us.
So it's like my heart breaksand it's like I want to give you
your money.
I know you did the work, I knowyour husband's on the road and
I'm trying to deal, deal withthis right, and so, yeah, those
ones are a little bit trickier.
Blythe Brumleve (23:30):
So how do you, how do you navigate towards it?
To figure out, you know who islegitimate, and then who isn't.
Taryn Reeves (23:37):
So with the new inflammation of the uploading
for carrier process that we have, it's really starting to
streamline.
They have a lot of kind of hoopsthey have to go through in
order to become an legitimatecarrier.
If we always look for thecarrier name that's on a bill of
lading, and so sometimes thoseare correct, sometimes they're
incorrect, sometimes they'reshipper air, so you kind of have
(23:59):
to kind of a gray area, but itneeds to be pretty black and
white, and then when in doubt wealways request the original,
because legally you have to paywhoever has the original bill of
lading.
So if it ever gets to that pointwhere we're super doubtful and
we have no idea who moved thisload, I've received three calls
from three different carriers orthree different factoring
(24:19):
companies, because a factoringcompany they've hired to handle
all of their receivables and soif they're sending a rate
confirmation and a bill oflading to a factoring company,
they call us for theverification.
Like, oh, I have a differentcarrier in my system.
Then the question starts comingup, and so sometimes I'll get a
call from two differentfactoring companies that same
load that both have paperworkfor it, and that's when we've
(24:42):
kind of gotten a red flag.
So we have little pre alertsthat we can put in our document
management system.
We get Mark Funkin involved andhe's been so beneficial and
takes I say he has a really,really hard backbone because
he's just like has to deal withall of that and so anytime I'm
feeling some kind of way, I'lljust call him and be like okay,
my heart's breaking.
Blythe Brumleve (25:01):
What are you doing with?
Taryn Reeves (25:02):
this and he'll really, he's really amazing.
Blythe Brumleve (25:06):
Well, I feel like I really want to ask Mark
Funk this next question, becausethe next response that I got on
Twitter was a little bit morecolorful when asking how to work
better with the accounting team, because, and I quote, he says
I look in the mirror and I askedthat department why in the hell
they waited so long to get theinvoices out.
The reply from the accountingdepartment is always you know,
(25:28):
shut the f up and stay in yourdamn lane.
So obviously a response likethat.
He's dealt with somefrustrations from other
accounting departments, notyours.
Taryn Reeves (25:38):
Clearly I couldn't imagine anyone in our head
office talking to any of ouragents like that ever.
So.
So he's talking about theaccounting department for
invoicing his customer.
So that's a little bit on theother side, because that's an
accounts receivable side ofthings.
(25:59):
So for accounts payable, ifeverything's not matching, we
technically can't invoice yourcustomer because they're not
going to pay it if it didn'tdeliver to the right location,
it didn't have the right pickupor purchase order number they
didn't have like.
So there's kind of stipulationswhere we can't invoice the
customer if the amount doesn'tmatch and we invoice the
(26:21):
customer without the lumber andwe go back to them like, hey,
psps, another 250 bucks, they'renot gonna be like oh, okay,
sure, I would love to.
They're gonna be like Well, Ipaid my original invoice, you
can wait on that.
And so some of those amountdifferences get the hold off for
invoicing the customer as well.
So there is a lot more to itthan just invoice your customer.
(26:41):
But we do try, like we are sameday to 24 hour data entry.
Just because of our fast payprogram we need to get through
pretty much all 400, 350invoices daily and so because of
that all of our customers getinvoiced at the same time, as
soon as we've validated thatproof of delivery, that gets
(27:02):
sent out to the customer.
Thank the good Lord, that's allautomatic in the system to
nowadays, and so I would sayit's a lot more streamlined that
, hopefully, what this gentlemanthat messaged you is dealing
with.
Blythe Brumleve (27:16):
Yeah, it looks like there's a little bit of
heat behind this littlespiciness behind that response.
But I you know you hadmentioned that the fast pay
program you know a couple times.
I think you also said it's oneof the best in the nation.
Can you tell us a little bitmore details about that?
Taryn Reeves (27:31):
I was training one of the agents last week and so
they maybe it was two weeks agoand they always talk to us about
whether or not, or whether ornot we offer fast pay, and so I
told him our fast pay terms.
He's like, oh, that's the bestthere is out there.
I'm like, oh well, thanks.
And so we recommend, if theyare requesting it, to send it to
(27:53):
a different email address,because then it kind of doesn't
get lost in the mass of the 350,800 invoices over the couple
days that we receive them, andthen we can review it right away
, look at it, let them know ifwe need anything.
Let them know that they have toupdate, because sometimes they
don't even have their ACHinformation or EFT and Canada
information in the system.
So if they're looking for aquick pay and we're sending them
(28:15):
a check, they're going to waitbecause they all go from Texas,
but they're going to end upwaiting, however, many days in
the mail for that check to getthere.
So there's a couple things thatwe double check with them just
to make sure same day mean sameday, because that's kind of a
big deal.
Blythe Brumleve (28:30):
And so you know , as you know, you're evolving
these, you know training thesenew agents that come on and
you're continuing thatrelationship with them.
What do you wish that they knewabout your job?
To make your job easier?
Taryn Reeves (28:47):
Good question.
Blythe Brumleve (28:51):
Because if you make the accounting team happy,
everybody else is happy.
Taryn Reeves (28:54):
I think that what I always train them on is just
give us a heads up.
Because if you have 10 trucksgoing into a warehouse and it's
going to be first come, firstserve bases, but you've put load
a, bcd and then carrier a picksup load C, but that's not what
it says in my system.
(29:15):
It's going to get stopped andwe're gonna have to have a lot
of back forth on all 10 of thoseloads.
So if they just gave us a headsup that says hey, I have 10
loads moving out of here, firstcome, first serve bases,
whatever PO number gets pickedup there, you can just put it
into the system.
As long as we get all 10, we'regood to go.
That simple email.
We put a pre alert on 10different loads and as those
(29:37):
came in we would be able toupdate for invoicing all of
their customers and we would allrun smoothly.
So because obviously it's up tothe carrier whenever they feel
like invoicing us, right.
So if they end of the monththey decide like, oh, I'll bring
in my accounting to come andinvoice all of these now, then
it might take a whole month forus to get a couple of those.
But if we already receivedeight of them, we could have
(29:59):
processed eight of them insteadof waiting for all 10 and those
last two at the end of the month.
And then it kind of keepseverything rolling smooth.
Blythe Brumleve (30:06):
Yeah, so communication sounds like is
very key, as with a lot of otheraspects in life.
Now, you know we've talked alot about you know that of
existing freight agents that areshopping new programs, that are
on-boarding with you guys andcontinue with that relationship.
But what about for maybe, somepotential like freight brokers
that are looking to maybe makethe leap in the future?
(30:27):
How, what are some bestpractices that they should be
looking at with how they'remanaging their finances, they're
their payables, things likethat, to set them up for success
?
Taryn Reeves (30:37):
Um, I think that as long as they hour they are
managing their finances andtheir payables, they're gonna be
on a pretty good term.
Because if they come with nobit, no book of business, they
come not knowing where theystand on any end already.
Then they're gonna come in andnot know if they're succeeding
or failing at SPI.
And so I think if they come inalready knowing a little bit
(31:00):
about their own business, thenthey'll be able to see that
having the back office supportat hot head office is actually
going to let them focus on theircustomer growth.
Because that's pretty much thepoint the more Agents get to
focus on their customers and weget to kind of handle the
day-to-day, then they're goingto just be able to grow bigger
and bigger right and that's kindof what they're in business for
(31:22):
for themselves and to growtheir business and so they don't
want to handle the day-to-dayInvoicing and PO numbers and
data entry part of it.
And so I think if they come intoour business already knowing
where they're sitting and orfailing succeeding, they'll see
that we can help them succeed ina lot of different ways.
Blythe Brumleve (31:39):
That's very well said and you know, as we
round out this sort of sectionof questions before we get to,
you know, the final segment ofthe relatable eight questions,
anything that you think that Ididn't ask, that you think is
important for you know Currentfreight agents, potential
freight agents, to know aboutworking with the accounting team
.
Taryn Reeves (31:57):
I Would say if you're coming in as a freight
brokerage that moves LTL loads,just tread lightly, because LTL
is a lot and has a lot of hiddenfees in it, so the final
charges that you're gonna haveare always going to be different
.
So always audit your billingbefore you complete a load in
(32:18):
your system, because if you'reauditing it first and then
complete it, then there's notgoing to be any surprises for
you.
Blythe Brumleve (32:24):
Oh, Great, great little added insight there
.
That that was awesome.
So thank you for that.
And you know, as just mentionedthe relatable eight, this is a
section of the interview thatthe audience has come to really
know and love.
Over the last few months, we'vebeen asking this set of
questions, you know, to justsort of I it's kind of breaking
(32:44):
the ice, but not really becauseit's towards the end of the
conversation.
So, but with all that said,let's get to the first one.
How do you think aboutmarketing when it comes to you
and your company?
Because I imagine you knowappearing on, you know, a
podcast like this, is definitelya form of marketing.
So how do you think about that,that sort of process?
Is this your first podcastinterview?
(33:05):
Have you done others in thepast?
Taryn Reeves (33:07):
This is actually my first podcast interview and I
think that Marketing obviouslycomes with a little bit of
challenges of its own, becausethe bigger you grow, the more
you get known, the more kind ofI don't want to say scammers
come out, but the more that theyget that, scammers come out.
And so when we were just kindof like happy, go, lucky little
(33:30):
family and head off as justdoing our work, right, it kind
of changed the dynamic as well,because the bigger you get, the
more corporate you get, the morelittle, less family that the
whole head office starts to feellike and but I obviously I
think it's great our marketingteam is doing fantastic.
They sent us out fun yeti cupsduring COVID.
(33:50):
Mine's all like obviouslywashed off now.
But I find even having somethinglike that is so fun, because
when you're out and about peoplelike, oh, spi I work for, and
then they start talking to youabout all sorts of things, or
even with my kids when we'redriving You'll see a truck go by
.
They're like, oh, do you paythem?
Do you pay them like?
Oh, no, not them.
Oh, I pay them every day.
Blythe Brumleve (34:11):
Oh, that's so awesome, that that's great.
I yeah kudos to the marketingteam over at SPI because they're
they're doing fantastic things,and and also kudos to you for
this being your first Podcastinterview.
I imagine it's not going to beyour last.
Oh you've been fantastic so far.
Oh, then we have the nextquestion what's your favorite
(34:32):
social media platform and why?
Taryn Reeves (34:35):
Okay, I'm pretty lame when it comes to social
media, but I would say Facebookis still probably the one I use
the most, but mostly becausethat's where I get all the
invites to anything that's goingon in my friend group from,
because everybody posts on there.
My husband's really intoInstagram, which I also think is
kind of fun and but I wouldn'tsay that I'm really on it, but
(34:58):
so I guess it would be Facebookprofessionally LinkedIn, but I
only go on there because peopleconnect with me.
I'm like yep, yep, yep, youlook like a connection to.
Blythe Brumleve (35:08):
I love that.
All right, next one what isyour favorite sass tool that you
use every day and can't livewithout?
Taryn Reeves (35:14):
Oh, definitely.
Well, it used to be called hubtrends, but now they call it
triumph pay audit, and that'sthe document management system I
was talking about.
There is absolutely Zero chancethe growth that we've had in
our company would have happenedwithout having a platform like
that to manage our documents.
Blythe Brumleve (35:29):
Oh, that's awesome.
Hell yeah, I'm clipping thatout just to you know, to send it
over to the trial.
So if you're hearing that andyou're listening, go send Terrin
some swag, all right now.
Next one what is your favoritefreight business that isn't your
(35:50):
own?
Taryn Reeves (35:51):
Well, I kind of have a soft spot in my heart for
CND logistics.
The owner there has named Danaand he was actually a coach on a
Canadian junior football teamand I used to cheerlead for them
and my husband came and startedplaying for them and that's how
we met.
So I kind of a soft spot forCND.
Blythe Brumleve (36:11):
That's a great one.
Awesome, this is.
This has been my favoriteanswer so far for this section.
Okay, what's one task in yourcurrent job that you can't stand
doing?
Taryn Reeves (36:20):
Oh, definitely telling carriers that the
signature is in the wrong spot.
I think that it breaks my heartevery time because I know you
did the job, I know you gotthere, I know you left, and then
I have to say PS, they signedit wrong.
Like you're tired, you droveall day or all weaker for two
weeks or crossing borders orwhatever the case may be, and
(36:41):
you know this annoying chickenAP that's like oh the numbers,
the signature is wrong.
Bye, and I think that that'sprobably my number one pet peeve
.
Blythe Brumleve (36:51):
Mmm, that, yeah , that's got to be a tough one
to deal with on you know, aregular basis to have to tell
folks who already have enough ontheir plate that you know
there's a little caveat andthat's gonna delay in them
getting paid.
So, yeah, I wouldn't like thatone either.
Okay, so next one if you didn'thave to worry about money, what
would you want to do for therest of your life?
Taryn Reeves (37:10):
That was a good one.
I liked it.
I kind of started thinkingthrough this after I read that.
Actually because I really likeserving my family, like I just
think that it's pretty awesometo be like All about the kids
and all about my husband andkind of being a personal chef.
And there's not very muchTradition in my family because
(37:31):
my mom was adopted, my husband'sdad was adopted, so it kind of
lost a lot of like thetraditions being passed down.
So I think that if I didn'thave to work, I would probably
travel to a lot of little likeremote little towns throughout
the world and Kind of work withall those I say, little grandmas
but that's kind of sexist alittle grandmas or grandpas that
are cooking and like baking allday and I would like to learn
(37:52):
how they like use their spicesor picked them or dried them and
I would like to learn all thoselike little tips and tricks for
cooking from like, yeah, thoselittle remote towns throughout
the world.
Blythe Brumleve (38:02):
I love that because that was one of the
first things I know.
You know, say what you willabout TikTok, but my feed,
especially during COVID and likeduring lockdowns I never got so
much inspiration from thatplatform than watching, like
these grandmothers in, likeLebanon, like cook over this
open fire pit.
I'm like you know a stove thatlooks like it's you know, a
hundred years old.
(38:22):
It was just amazing.
Taryn Reeves (38:23):
Have you ever seen those little places?
They're like rolling their owngnocchi, like they're just like
do it with that little forkthing and the special, and all
of a sudden they have this hugebin.
You're like, how you try and itturns into like, oh, this
twisty ravioli.
Blythe Brumleve (38:37):
You're like what just happened.
I tried to make wontons theother day and it was a disaster,
so I this is very recent for meI spent about six hours trying
to do this and ultimately I justemptied them all out and
decided to do a stir fry.
Taryn Reeves (38:51):
Were you trying to close up the wonton fully?
Yes, because if there's anysort of oils or any of the food
that hits the outside of that,you're hooped from the beginning
.
Blythe Brumleve (39:02):
It was a disaster and I probably maybe
should have contacted you.
I wanted to get these tipsahead of time and I've wasted a
lot of time.
Before I knew it was 11 pm atnight and I was like I have to
go to bed and you haven't eaten.
That's why we had the stir fry.
All right, we got a couple more.
What is something you believein that most people don't?
Taryn Reeves (39:25):
I think so.
Obviously I don't know if noone else believes in it, but we
all were obviously given apurpose in this world.
There is a problem in the worldthat only one person is able to
solve, and I think that there'sa difference between being on
your path for whatever thatproblem is to solve versus being
(39:46):
in your, your like divinepurpose versus your divine
assignment, because obviously,my purpose isn't necessarily
data entry out of freightbrokerage, but I think that my
assignment is doing this andbeing able to raise my family
and learn how to make montons.
But so I think that havingknowing that difference and
(40:10):
knowing that, just becauseyou're not living quote, unquote
your dream at the momentdoesn't mean you're not in the
right spot and you're not doingthe right assignment you're
supposed to be in right now.
Blythe Brumleve (40:21):
Love that Definitely.
Life is a pathway and you haveto partake in all of the
journeys of the pathway.
So last one what is yourfavorite supply chain or
logistics fact?
Taryn Reeves (40:33):
Well, this one was kind of funny because I was
talking to one of our agentsthat's been with us a long time.
He used to even work in headoffice as well, in the operation
section in the back and we werejust chatting about I was
watching a show calledridiculousness I don't know if
you've ever seen it.
So I was watching that and itkept on having all of these
(40:54):
trucks running into the bottomof overpasses and it was like a
little segment Rob Dyrdek didand I was laughing so hard.
I'm like, so I was talking tohim.
I'm like these truck drivers areso ridiculous, I don't know
where they're hiring them.
And he says to me he's like youknow, taryn, there's always the
height on the overpass, butwhere they measure that height
(41:14):
might be the wrong spot.
So they measured it in themiddle of the overpass, but your
truck is driving to the rightof it.
You may think that you had theclearance, but then you run into
it because it's on the righthand side and it's a little bit
lower on the outside.
I'm like, oh, they're not alljust silly, it was just a
mistake.
So I think that that was kindof a fun fact of the logistics
(41:38):
industry that I never put tooand too together on.
Blythe Brumleve (41:41):
Yeah, I've never heard that either, because
I have the same reaction.
I see that and I'm like well,why didn't you know that?
Like, why didn't the brokertell you that this overpass
existed and your truck wouldn'tbe able to go under this bridge?
And so I immediately, like,want to point the blame at
everyone.
But really we should, I guess,be pointing the blame at the
engineer, or?
Taryn Reeves (41:58):
the construction, or whoever is the person.
Maybe is it the city plannerthat puts that height on it,
like maybe there should beinside and outside on all of
them.
I don't know what the case.
I don't know who's in charge ofthat, but whoever it is, if
you're listening, you should adda double one.
Blythe Brumleve (42:14):
It's also very, I think, severely underfunded.
I know, in the States at least,like our infrastructure for
inspecting bridges and dams.
It's all very underfunded.
So I'm sure there's a lot offolks out there that wish maybe
they could change a lot of thosethings.
But you probably don't realizesome of those issues are a thing
until someone unfortunatelycrashes into it.
Taryn Reeves (42:35):
Could you imagine what these truck drivers did
before Google Maps came intoplay?
Right, Like I just picture,because obviously it gives you
best route.
But imagine back in the day youwere following one of those
maps that came out from the roofand then you followed one
thinking you could go there, butit came to something where you
had to try to turn around orback down this windy rural road
(42:55):
or something.
I just, yeah, there's been somuch Like what do you call?
What are you?
Blythe Brumleve (42:59):
going to do.
Yeah, you probably have noservice anyways, and you
probably didn't even have aphone when you were using some
of these giant Rand McNally mapbooks that my dad still swears
by.
Taryn Reeves (43:10):
So he'll use those .
I love your dad now.
Blythe Brumleve (43:14):
So he'll use both Right.
All right, Teret.
Well, this was a fantasticinterview, fantastic answers to
these questions, I guess.
My last remaining one is ifanybody who's interested in
becoming a freight agent for SBI, where should they go to for
more information?
I'm sure we'll have a link inthe show notes for them.
But any last remarks that youwant to leave the audience with?
Taryn Reeves (43:38):
Well, obviously, just go to our website and you
can go from there.
There's a spot on there foragents that are looking to get
involved carriers, if you'relooking for information, or
customers, if you're trying tofigure out to find an agent,
because there's some customersthat might be interested and not
realize and they could save alot of money using a 3PL versus
just shipping on their own.
So I would highly recommendjust going to the website and
(44:01):
feeling it out and everybody atour office is super helpful and
you could call.
You'll be able to get a hold ofsomebody that'll talk you
through it.
Blythe Brumleve (44:08):
Absolutely Now for just you know, talking to
the audience for a second.
If you love the energy thatthat Taryn had on this interview
which I, you know, obviouslydid then you should know that
the rest of the FBI team hasvery much the same sort of just
positive energy.
That's why I like working withthem so much.
So.
So, taryn, thank you again forcoming on the show.
Really enjoyed thisconversation.
Taryn Reeves (44:28):
Thank you, and it was a pleasure meeting you as
well.
Officially, absolutely, yes,officially, right, okay, have a
wonderful afternoon.
Thank you, you too.
Bye.
Blythe Brumleve (44:40):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
everything is logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over at everythingis logisticscom.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let y'all know
about another company I operate, and that's digital dispatch,
(45:01):
where we help you build a betterwebsite.
Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
website or refreshing a currentone off to a co-worker's child,
a neighbor down the street or astranger around the world,
where you probably spend moretime explaining the freight
industry than it takes toactually build the dang website.
Well, that doesn't happen atdigital dispatch.
(45:22):
We've been building onlinesince 2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI, automation andother website tactics that help
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Our new website builds start aslow as $1,500, along with
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ongoing website management,maintenance and updates starting
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You can watch a quick explainervideo over on digitaldispatchio
.
Just check out the pricing pageonce you arrive and you can see
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(46:07):
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Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags.
Welcome into another episode of everything is
logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SPIlogistics and I am your host,
Blythe Brumleve.
We've got a special guest foryou today, a person from SPI
logistics.
You know we do these regularrecurring series where we
interview someone went fromwithin the company or a freight
agent to get their perspectiveon how the inner workings of the
(00:28):
freight agent world looks like.
And today we've got the head ofthe AP department, Taryn Reeves
, on the show.
So, Taryn, welcome to the show.
Taryn Reeves (00:36):
Well, thanks for having me.
I look forward to ourconversation, absolutely Now.
Blythe Brumleve (00:41):
You know for I was reading through there was
like a news story recently thattalked about how there's like
the shortage of accountingprofessionals and that you know
the industry is, you know, goingto be facing some productivity
issues and things like that.
I'm curious as to if there's ashortage now, how did you
originally find yourself working, you know, in accounting at a
(01:03):
trucking firm or, you know,essentially, a freight company?
Taryn Reeves (01:05):
Well, I actually did a like short term contract
work for them back in 2008.
I was leaving to go toSoutheast Asia and I knew James
from when we were younger and hesaid hey, I need someone to
fill in.
Can you come for a couple ofmonths to get some extra money?
Like, oh, okay, sure.
(01:26):
So I was here way back when andthen I was actually working in
automotive apprenticeship, I wasdoing marketing for them, and
then the government decided tobring that all in house and so
once again I said to, james waslike hey, if you need anyone to
cover vacation for the summer,let me know.
I had just had my seconddaughter.
And he he was like oh, I needyou tomorrow.
(01:48):
Oh, okay, not that answer I waskind of expecting.
So I had one day training andthen I covered a two week
vacation and then they asked meto stay a month, and then three
months, and then they're likeOkay, what's it going to take to
keep you?
Blythe Brumleve (02:05):
So so I guess, what does your, your day to day
role look like?
So?
Taryn Reeves (02:09):
we do all of the paperwork processing.
Well, I say paperwork, but wedo all the document processing
for the whole firm.
So anytime a carrier moves aload, we validate every single
invoice, every single proof ofdelivery with whatever the
agents put into the system toconfirm that the numbers match
the delivery, shipper PO numbers, amounts, all of that match,
(02:33):
before we actually pay them.
Blythe Brumleve (02:36):
And so I would imagine that's a lot of like
manual.
Is that like a lot of manualentry, or are you?
You know one of the, you knowthe part of the teams that are
really starting to adopt?
You know a lot of this newtechnology coming into the mix,
or is it still something thatyou need to?
You know manually verify?
Taryn Reeves (02:51):
So back in the day I would have a piece of paper
on my desk with all thedocuments.
I would verify it to the screen, I would initial the bottom, I
would put in all the information.
Then it would get processed atthe end of the week.
So thankfully, we gone througha couple different systems and
we have one now that we use oneemail address.
(03:12):
Every single invoice and proofof delivery goes into that.
So we receive anywhere, I wouldsay, between 350 and 400 a day.
And then, because they're allin one system, I have a team
that goes through and we justlook at all of them one at a
time.
But it's a smart system so itreads the invoice number and the
amounts and it kind ofgenerally reads the information.
(03:32):
So we just do a little bit ofverification.
As soon as we hit save on that,all the information transfers
into our DMS system, our TMSsystem Revenova.
Blythe Brumleve (03:43):
Oh, wow.
So then I would imagine thatthat's such a breath of fresh
air for a lot of yourresponsibilities and almost like
a little bit of maybe it helpsease the worry of maybe getting
something wrong.
Taryn Reeves (03:55):
And I would say there would have been no way the
growth that we've had wouldhave happened if we still were
in any of our old system.
There's not a chance we wouldhave been able to cover what we
do now, and plus we had, we usedto have a specific person that
we had hired for filing alone.
So you would do it all.
(04:15):
You would put it in a bin, shewould come in, she would take it
all to the back warehouse andthen file it all away, and so
you have to keep originaldocuments for I think it used to
be 10 years.
So we just had a warehouse fulland then eventually they
stopped sending them in,emailing them in, but we didn't
have a system.
So we'd still print them out,scan them in, load them in and
move forward.
(04:36):
So, thankfully, the system wehave we got, I would say, just
before COVID happened and we allgot sent home, and without the
systems that we had in place itwouldn't have happened, it
wouldn't have run smooth at all.
Blythe Brumleve (04:51):
That's interesting.
You say that because I rememberwhen I worked for an
asset-based 3PL and we switchedTMS providers and the TMS
provider that we switched to didnot have a strong accounting
portion of it, and I don't knowthat a lot of folks realize how
important until you're alreadyin it, until you've already like
your upshits Greek essentiallyhow important the accounting
(05:15):
features and functionalitywithin a TMS it really matters.
Is that still a safe assumption?
Oh, 100%.
Taryn Reeves (05:24):
And I would say that the one that we moved to I
wouldn't say necessarily had allthe accounting side that we
need, but between James and ourIT support team we have one
gentleman that came in and anyquestions we had we could throw
in there.
And you know those like ITgurus that could just get in the
system and look at all thenumbers and they could figure it
(05:46):
all out.
He kind of grew root the systemfor us so that everything could
talk to each other as we gotnew, different document
management systems and yeah, itwas a real blessing.
Blythe Brumleve (05:56):
That's amazing because we've done a bunch of
these interviews with SPIfreight agents and then a couple
from within the leadership team, and one of them was with Eze
Borralta, who is he's the headof IT for SPI, and that has been
one of our more popularepisodes from all of like the
SPI interview series.
And I think it's because of whatyou said.
(06:18):
Like, you know, when people arereally curious about how you
can make these different toolsand technologies sort of talk to
each other in order to becauseyou're bringing in freight
agents that have their own techstack, that have their own
things of what they're dealingwith and maybe their own
processes, so maybe that's areally good segue to start to
talk about.
You know, when, I guess, afreight agent is shopping for a
(06:39):
new opportunity, at what pointis your department brought into
the mix?
Are you regularly meeting withthem or you know, maybe having
those conversations you knowaround financial data and you
know things that they need toknow before they join SPI, or is
that more of like the higherlevel executives that are
talking about those differentthings?
Taryn Reeves (07:00):
So it's usually, once they've confirmed that they
want to work with SPI, theystart getting trained within our
system and then, once they gettheir training within Revenova,
initially from our clientsupport team, they get sent over
to myself to talk to them alittle bit how the AP side of
things works.
Because, in all honesty, weknow why an invoice is being
(07:22):
held.
We can see the three differentsystems.
So if they're getting phonecalls and they're like hey, I
haven't been paid, it's beenthree weeks, blah, blah, blah,
your team sucks.
Then they phone us and they'relike hey, they're like hey, I
just heard you guys suck.
I'm like Whoa, whoa, let's backup here for a second.
And then I start looking.
I'm like, oh, they just didn'tsend in their or didn't update
their wallet, or they justdidn't send in a blank and we
(07:45):
just needed the notice ofassignment.
So when I first train them all,I tell them, as soon as they
get a phone call, send them tous, give them either transfer
them to us or get them to sendus an email, because we can see
exactly where it's at.
And it's usually not that wedon't want to pay them or
there's an issue, it's usuallyjust something small that if
they haven't received thatpayment it's usually something
(08:07):
like they don't have their ACHinformation in there correctly,
or they have a factoring companyin the system but they didn't
put it on their invoice, orsomething small that we can
solve within a quick email or aquick phone conversation with
that carrier direct.
Blythe Brumleve (08:22):
What other things are you?
Are you training the agents onduring their onboarding process?
Taryn Reeves (08:27):
I train them in all the different email
addresses that where thecarriers can send them.
I talk to them about our fastpay program because we do offer
a quick pay and I've heard asI've been talking to them that
it's one of the best in thefreight industry, which is
pretty nice to know.
We offer a same day 2% quickpay.
The only thing is we can'toffer that to a first time use.
(08:48):
Our network won't let usoverride it if it's a first time
carrier, so they do have tohave moved a load with us in the
system for that.
So as I train them about thequick pay process and a lot of
them, if there's like a blindshipment or the documents are
always going to say thewarehouse on them but they're
actually giving them to headoffice or vice versa, then we
(09:11):
won't process them in that ifthat information doesn't match.
So I always talk to them like,if it is blind, make sure you
note it on the rate confirmation.
If it's going to always go to awarehouse but you're always
going to note head office, justgive us a heads up.
We can make an exception,process those without bugging
you, because ideally we want tobe able to process everything
after they've put it into thesystem, after they've done their
(09:32):
part.
They got their customer happy,they got their carrier happy.
Let me do the rest.
So that's kind of where we sit.
So I don't want to have to goback and forth.
But obviously agents all movedifferent kinds of freight.
So whether you're movingsomething to grocery stores or
to empty sites and you'rebuilding something, it's going
to look very different on theproof of delivery.
We get so kind of as thatrelationship gets rolling with
(09:55):
our new agents, if there'sanything that comes up that
we're being held on or we'regoing to them a lot, I just have
another conversation with themand say can we get confirmation?
We can do this moving forwardor update that moving forward,
and then we don't have to goback to them every time.
Blythe Brumleve (10:10):
How long does that sort of onboarding training
process take?
It sounds like it might berelatively quick.
Taryn Reeves (10:16):
It is, and I think it depends on every different
agent, because some I don't wantto say old dogs, new tricks,
but some old dogs, new tricks.
It's hard to teach and so thereare a lot of little things to
learn within the TMS system thatwe use.
But because we're so open, wehave a huge team of client care
(10:37):
that is a phone call away at alltimes.
We have a really knowledgeableAR and AP team, so I would say
they should be up to it.
As they're getting all theircustomers into it.
They should be up and rollingwithin the week.
Blythe Brumleve (10:54):
Are you in freight sales with a book of
business looking for a new home?
Or perhaps you're a freightagent in need of a better
partnership?
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
our podcast interview seriescalled the freight agent
trenches, sponsored by SPIlogistics.
Now I can tell you all day thatSPI is one of the most
successful logistics firms inNorth America, who helps their
(11:15):
agents with back officeoperations such as admin,
finance, it and sales.
But I would much rather youhear it directly from SPI's
freight agents themselves.
And what better way to do thatthan by listening to the
experienced freight agents telltheir stories behind the how and
the why they joined SPI?
Hit the freight agent link inour show notes to listen to
(11:36):
these conversations or, ifyou're ready to make the jump,
visit SPI3PLcom.
And then what I would imaginefor a lot of these freight
agents is so it's not just theconversation that they're having
to figure out what kind ofprogram is right for them
payables, all of the detailsthat come under your umbrella
(11:57):
but also, from their customersand their carrier perspective,
what does that setup processlook like for them?
Taryn Reeves (12:04):
Well, for the carriers, we just started using
a new onboarding so theyactually have to go in on their
own and they have to fill outall the information and then
once again that's become amanual process too.
So our system will eitheraccept it or deny that carrier
in general and then our carriersetup team will do a little bit
more digging to help them out,to kind of get them rolling
through that.
For customer setup, it's veryspecific per agent.
(12:27):
So if they have a customer theywant to set up, they'll go to
our AR team.
They'll find out.
If it's, they'll enter them asa prospect.
Then they'll have a talk abouthow many loads they move.
If there's any other agentsbecause we never want stealing
going on within like SPI, we'resuch a big family and such a big
team.
We would never want that to.
Like hinder.
We've had, unfortunately, acouple agents pass away and
(12:49):
we've had other agents that havejust like gracefully taken them
in, not taken the cut, giventhat payment directly to their
wives of the person that passed,just because they're like we're
just here to help.
It's just hard to hit home.
So, yeah, it depends on thedifferent customer they're
(13:10):
hiring.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, how it rolls smoothly.
But yeah, it's just lovely.
Blythe Brumleve (13:15):
Typically it sounds like it's pretty simple
setup because I would imaginefor a lot of customers they just
don't want any kind ofdisruption right now.
They look for any kind of maybereason, but it sounds like
maybe they have a really greatrelationship with a lot of your
agents and then that just makesthe process of moving from maybe
another Freight Agent Programto SBI a lot more smoother.
Is that a safe assumption?
Taryn Reeves (13:36):
And I've heard that a few times and then, as
I'm training some of the Freightagents, they'll say things like
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we didthat on our old firm.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I knowwhat you're saying with that.
And so they get kind of cuteand like oh, we know that I had
one that called me after we hadhad our initial talk and he was
like I'm just calling you, Ithink he called it to fill your
(13:58):
tank.
Or there was a saying that heused I'm not American, so it was
a very American saying that heused and he literally just
gushed about how lovely it wasand how comfortable he felt
knowing that he's coming hereand he said now I have this
Peppy cheerleader and AP that'sgoing to help out all my
carriers and I've become like aselling feature for him to use.
(14:19):
And, yeah, it's just, it's justnice to hear.
Blythe Brumleve (14:23):
Yeah, because I mean that kind of hints back to
it to we were talking before westarted recording that you
picked that you and obviously onthis interview so far, very
like bubbly personality, great,you know, interview so far
that's.
I don't think that's typical oflike normal logistic or
logistics like accountingdepartments, at least ones that
I've worked with.
You have a couple, of course,that are, you know, very cheery,
(14:45):
but the rest of them are just,you know, sort of just in the
computer and just focused ondata.
Taryn Reeves (14:49):
Yeah, it's really true, but I think that that's
why I've kind of landed so well,because I deal with truck
drivers all day.
So I can't really like take aphone call and be like your
paperwork doesn't match.
I can never do this again.
I really have to be like thatsucks.
30 days.
Let's get you your money, andthen they're like oh, you
actually want to help me?
Like literally my only job isto pay you.
(15:11):
That's what I do.
Blythe Brumleve (15:14):
I mean, yeah, that sounds like a great opera.
I mean it doesn't sound likeyou're dealing with a lot of
folks that are on the angry side, maybe per se.
Oh well, let's talk about someof maybe those ongoing, I guess,
sort of relationships that youhave to manage with your agents
and, you know, maybe with someof their customers and carriers.
(15:36):
How do you what are some ofthose common problems that maybe
pop up across a lot ofdifferent ages, maybe not just
one or two?
Taryn Reeves (15:44):
I would say for processing side of things.
Unfortunately, if there's asignature that is in a carrier
or a shipper location and theycome back and say that's the
receiver, if an auditor lookslike that, they're a little more
black and white and roboticthan I am.
So, yes, I want to believe you,but if they look at that, our
(16:05):
customer doesn't pay us becausethere was no signature on it.
I have to go back to these poorcarriers and be like oh, thanks
for driving for two weeksstraight, but your signature's
in the wrong spot.
And I think that that'sprobably one of the hardest
parts of my job is that I don'twant to not hold your money
because you didn't sign it right.
But if my customer is not goingto approve it, then you need to
(16:27):
figure it out on your end.
So whenever I talk to thosecarriers it can get a little bit
heated, but our patrons are net30 days.
So typically our customers'patrons are the same, so it's
usually as soon as they getapproval we can release payment
right away, because then theauditor will be like oh,
customer's fine with it, you'reokay to pay it, we're okay to
(16:48):
move forward.
So I always suggest get yourshipper to sign it when you
leave.
Always sign it on your own, andthen the receiver has no choice
but to sign it either anywhereon the page or in the right spot
.
Blythe Brumleve (17:01):
Oh, interesting .
So what would happen in asituation like that?
You just does the carrier justhave to drive back to that
customer and get the rightsignature, or does you know
additional approval processhappen?
So?
Taryn Reeves (17:12):
it completely depends on the situation.
Some of our customers we canemail almost right away and just
say, hey, you received thisfreight.
I have documentation of this.
I'll go to my AR department.
They'll come back and say, ohyeah, they said that this is
going to be fine and then we canprocess it per normal.
Otherwise we call it a holduntil customer approves and
(17:33):
we'll send it to them.
We'll invoice them with thepaperwork we have and, like I
said, typically they pay uswithin those 30 days, so we can
release payment before thecarrier even is notified of it.
And sometimes our agents willbe like oh, no, no, no, that
carrier, that customer is one ofmy best friends, just go for it
.
Or oh, that customer, he's beenwith me for 35 years, just pay
for it, right?
I don't know why all of myagent mimics are always like old
(17:55):
guy sounding.
Not all of them are.
Lots of them are beautifulfemales.
Blythe Brumleve (18:02):
Let's talk about maybe.
What are some of the ongoingquestions that that not, maybe
not necessarily problems ormaybe some ongoing things that
freight agents are coming to youwith as far as, like you know,
maybe getting paid a little bitfaster or you know, some
discrepancy on, you know, a bill.
What kind of questions are theyregularly coming to you that
(18:22):
they need answers for?
Taryn Reeves (18:24):
I would say for additional billing is probably
the number one reason.
Why are we communicate back andforth with our agents?
Because sometimes there's alumper when they pick up or they
deliver, and the carrier willcall them and then just be like,
oh hey, I just got here, I needa lumper.
And they're like, yeah, yeah,yeah, go for it, I'll pay you,
and then they'll forget.
They won't be at their computer, they won't put it in.
(18:45):
I get an invoice now and beinginvoiced in additional $250.
And so then we have to go backto the agent to talk to them
about that.
I would say that's probably thenumber one is like either
waiting charges because a lot ofthe times they are just on the
phone, and then they're like,hey, I've been waiting here for
three hours and it was only onlysupposed to take an hour, and
our agents will be like oh yeah,no problem, I'll pay you the
(19:07):
extra $100 for waiting.
I really appreciate you.
They forget to email, theyforget to add the system,
whatever the case may be, andthen we get that additional
billing.
So I would say that those areusually the number ones.
And or vice versa, they talk toa carrier and they said like,
hey, you were four hours late.
My customer is going to deductthis.
I need to deduct you.
(19:28):
They'll deduct it in the systembut the carrier tried to pull
one over and send us theoriginal rate confirmation with
the original invoice.
So I would say mostly it'samount differences, not
necessarily paperwork issues, ifthat makes sense.
Blythe Brumleve (19:44):
It does.
It does definitely.
Now, before we started havingthis conversation, I went to
Twitter, slash X to ask, becauseI have a lot of freight brokers
and agents that follow me onsocial media, and so I asked
freight brokers what are somecommon things that you would
want to know to do your jobbetter from the accounting team?
(20:06):
And I got a couple differentresponses.
One was very friendly andgenuine approach to want to work
with the AP team, because Ithink that there's from my
experience working at a 3PL,there were some times when you
had some shadier actors withinthe company that were trying to
pull one over on the accountingteam and the accounting team
just stood up for themselves andsaid, no, we're not going to do
(20:28):
that this way here.
So from this question from Mike,he has the very friendly and
genuine approach of wanting towork consistently and develop a
great relationship with the APteam.
And he says oddly enough, I'vebeen engaged with our accounting
team around payables aspect andbest practices, so this episode
is going to be a timely listenfor him.
(20:48):
He goes on to say that a lot ofthe best practices he's worked
with them on is average days topay and quick pay process were
the ones we touched on.
Also talking through documentmanagement workflow internally,
because that's been anopportunity for us, from the
carrier side of things to theaccounting team, to build a
customer.
Is that a good example of howmaybe a freight broker or a
(21:10):
freight agent can work well withthe accounting team?
Taryn Reeves (21:13):
For sure.
And our pay terms, like I said,are net 30 days from the date we
receive a valid invoice andproof of delivery, which we're
pretty much on point if you pullany of our reports to be at
that mark.
It kind of comes into an issuewith any of those quick pay
questions only because some ofthe carriers want to take the
(21:34):
load because they'll get quickpaid.
But obviously that's a servicethat we offer and we can't offer
that on a first load moved.
So it kind of becomes a littlebit of an issue.
So for those ones, there is away around it.
We request them, mail theoriginals to head office and as
soon as we have that originalbill of lading in head office my
(21:54):
system will let me override itso I can still pay them that
exact same day.
And so because the pay termsare 1% for five days as well
usually it takes about five daysto get there, get here, so I'll
deduct it for the 1%, give itsame day pay term when I got it,
but it'll be the five-daypercentage deduction because
(22:16):
then it helps them out, helps usout and we can still offer that
service.
Blythe Brumleve (22:21):
And it sounds like, if I'm reading between the
lines here, it sounds likeyou're genuinely trying to get
people paid as soon as possible,but you still have to cover
your own basis and cover yourown tracks.
Taryn Reeves (22:33):
And it's very unfortunate that when, since
double brokered loads have kindof come into play a little bit
more recently Mark Funk is oneof our directors and he was
talking to me about back therewas a little bit of a drop in
the economy back in 2008.
And he said back then doublebrokered loads really kicked
(22:54):
into high gear and he kind ofsaw the same thing within this
year again and I my heart breaks.
You know, because you talk tothis, I always think they're mom
paws that are getting rippedoff.
They probably aren't, but youget a call from this mom paw
that moved this load.
They can't find their money andI'm digging around for
paperwork.
But somebody else has invoicedme and so now we're trying to
(23:15):
figure this out with this cutelittle mom paw company, whereas
like it's someone that's tryingto scam us.
So it's like my heart breaksand it's like I want to give you
your money.
I know you did the work, I knowyour husband's on the road and
I'm trying to deal, deal withthis right, and so, yeah, those
ones are a little bit trickier.
Blythe Brumleve (23:30):
So how do you, how do you navigate towards it?
To figure out, you know who islegitimate, and then who isn't.
Taryn Reeves (23:37):
So with the new inflammation of the uploading
for carrier process that we have, it's really starting to
streamline.
They have a lot of kind of hoopsthey have to go through in
order to become an legitimatecarrier.
If we always look for thecarrier name that's on a bill of
lading, and so sometimes thoseare correct, sometimes they're
incorrect, sometimes they'reshipper air, so you kind of have
(23:59):
to kind of a gray area, but itneeds to be pretty black and
white, and then when in doubt wealways request the original,
because legally you have to paywhoever has the original bill of
lading.
So if it ever gets to that pointwhere we're super doubtful and
we have no idea who moved thisload, I've received three calls
from three different carriers orthree different factoring
(24:19):
companies, because a factoringcompany they've hired to handle
all of their receivables and soif they're sending a rate
confirmation and a bill oflading to a factoring company,
they call us for theverification.
Like, oh, I have a differentcarrier in my system.
Then the question starts comingup, and so sometimes I'll get a
call from two differentfactoring companies that same
load that both have paperworkfor it, and that's when we've
(24:42):
kind of gotten a red flag.
So we have little pre alertsthat we can put in our document
management system.
We get Mark Funkin involved andhe's been so beneficial and
takes I say he has a really,really hard backbone because
he's just like has to deal withall of that and so anytime I'm
feeling some kind of way, I'lljust call him and be like okay,
my heart's breaking.
Blythe Brumleve (25:01):
What are you doing with?
Taryn Reeves (25:02):
this and he'll really, he's really amazing.
Blythe Brumleve (25:06):
Well, I feel like I really want to ask Mark
Funk this next question, becausethe next response that I got on
Twitter was a little bit morecolorful when asking how to work
better with the accounting team, because, and I quote, he says
I look in the mirror and I askedthat department why in the hell
they waited so long to get theinvoices out.
The reply from the accountingdepartment is always you know,
(25:28):
shut the f up and stay in yourdamn lane.
So obviously a response likethat.
He's dealt with somefrustrations from other
accounting departments, notyours.
Taryn Reeves (25:38):
Clearly I couldn't imagine anyone in our head
office talking to any of ouragents like that ever.
So.
So he's talking about theaccounting department for
invoicing his customer.
So that's a little bit on theother side, because that's an
accounts receivable side ofthings.
(25:59):
So for accounts payable, ifeverything's not matching, we
technically can't invoice yourcustomer because they're not
going to pay it if it didn'tdeliver to the right location,
it didn't have the right pickupor purchase order number they
didn't have like.
So there's kind of stipulationswhere we can't invoice the
customer if the amount doesn'tmatch and we invoice the
(26:21):
customer without the lumber andwe go back to them like, hey,
psps, another 250 bucks, they'renot gonna be like oh, okay,
sure, I would love to.
They're gonna be like Well, Ipaid my original invoice, you
can wait on that.
And so some of those amountdifferences get the hold off for
invoicing the customer as well.
So there is a lot more to itthan just invoice your customer.
(26:41):
But we do try, like we are sameday to 24 hour data entry.
Just because of our fast payprogram we need to get through
pretty much all 400, 350invoices daily and so because of
that all of our customers getinvoiced at the same time, as
soon as we've validated thatproof of delivery, that gets
(27:02):
sent out to the customer.
Thank the good Lord, that's allautomatic in the system to
nowadays, and so I would sayit's a lot more streamlined that
, hopefully, what this gentlemanthat messaged you is dealing
with.
Blythe Brumleve (27:16):
Yeah, it looks like there's a little bit of
heat behind this littlespiciness behind that response.
But I you know you hadmentioned that the fast pay
program you know a couple times.
I think you also said it's oneof the best in the nation.
Can you tell us a little bitmore details about that?
Taryn Reeves (27:31):
I was training one of the agents last week and so
they maybe it was two weeks agoand they always talk to us about
whether or not, or whether ornot we offer fast pay, and so I
told him our fast pay terms.
He's like, oh, that's the bestthere is out there.
I'm like, oh well, thanks.
And so we recommend, if theyare requesting it, to send it to
(27:53):
a different email address,because then it kind of doesn't
get lost in the mass of the 350,800 invoices over the couple
days that we receive them, andthen we can review it right away
, look at it, let them know ifwe need anything.
Let them know that they have toupdate, because sometimes they
don't even have their ACHinformation or EFT and Canada
information in the system.
So if they're looking for aquick pay and we're sending them
(28:15):
a check, they're going to waitbecause they all go from Texas,
but they're going to end upwaiting, however, many days in
the mail for that check to getthere.
So there's a couple things thatwe double check with them just
to make sure same day mean sameday, because that's kind of a
big deal.
Blythe Brumleve (28:30):
And so you know , as you know, you're evolving
these, you know training thesenew agents that come on and
you're continuing thatrelationship with them.
What do you wish that they knewabout your job?
To make your job easier?
Taryn Reeves (28:47):
Good question.
Blythe Brumleve (28:51):
Because if you make the accounting team happy,
everybody else is happy.
Taryn Reeves (28:54):
I think that what I always train them on is just
give us a heads up.
Because if you have 10 trucksgoing into a warehouse and it's
going to be first come, firstserve bases, but you've put load
a, bcd and then carrier a picksup load C, but that's not what
it says in my system.
(29:15):
It's going to get stopped andwe're gonna have to have a lot
of back forth on all 10 of thoseloads.
So if they just gave us a headsup that says hey, I have 10
loads moving out of here, firstcome, first serve bases,
whatever PO number gets pickedup there, you can just put it
into the system.
As long as we get all 10, we'regood to go.
That simple email.
We put a pre alert on 10different loads and as those
(29:37):
came in we would be able toupdate for invoicing all of
their customers and we would allrun smoothly.
So because obviously it's up tothe carrier whenever they feel
like invoicing us, right.
So if they end of the monththey decide like, oh, I'll bring
in my accounting to come andinvoice all of these now, then
it might take a whole month forus to get a couple of those.
But if we already receivedeight of them, we could have
(29:59):
processed eight of them insteadof waiting for all 10 and those
last two at the end of the month.
And then it kind of keepseverything rolling smooth.
Blythe Brumleve (30:06):
Yeah, so communication sounds like is
very key, as with a lot of otheraspects in life.
Now, you know we've talked alot about you know that of
existing freight agents that areshopping new programs, that are
on-boarding with you guys andcontinue with that relationship.
But what about for maybe, somepotential like freight brokers
that are looking to maybe makethe leap in the future?
(30:27):
How, what are some bestpractices that they should be
looking at with how they'remanaging their finances, they're
their payables, things likethat, to set them up for success
?
Taryn Reeves (30:37):
Um, I think that as long as they hour they are
managing their finances andtheir payables, they're gonna be
on a pretty good term.
Because if they come with nobit, no book of business, they
come not knowing where theystand on any end already.
Then they're gonna come in andnot know if they're succeeding
or failing at SPI.
And so I think if they come inalready knowing a little bit
(31:00):
about their own business, thenthey'll be able to see that
having the back office supportat hot head office is actually
going to let them focus on theircustomer growth.
Because that's pretty much thepoint the more Agents get to
focus on their customers and weget to kind of handle the
day-to-day, then they're goingto just be able to grow bigger
and bigger right and that's kindof what they're in business for
(31:22):
for themselves and to growtheir business and so they don't
want to handle the day-to-dayInvoicing and PO numbers and
data entry part of it.
And so I think if they come intoour business already knowing
where they're sitting and orfailing succeeding, they'll see
that we can help them succeed ina lot of different ways.
Blythe Brumleve (31:39):
That's very well said and you know, as we
round out this sort of sectionof questions before we get to,
you know, the final segment ofthe relatable eight questions,
anything that you think that Ididn't ask, that you think is
important for you know Currentfreight agents, potential
freight agents, to know aboutworking with the accounting team
.
Taryn Reeves (31:57):
I Would say if you're coming in as a freight
brokerage that moves LTL loads,just tread lightly, because LTL
is a lot and has a lot of hiddenfees in it, so the final
charges that you're gonna haveare always going to be different
.
So always audit your billingbefore you complete a load in
(32:18):
your system, because if you'reauditing it first and then
complete it, then there's notgoing to be any surprises for
you.
Blythe Brumleve (32:24):
Oh, Great, great little added insight there
.
That that was awesome.
So thank you for that.
And you know, as just mentionedthe relatable eight, this is a
section of the interview thatthe audience has come to really
know and love.
Over the last few months, we'vebeen asking this set of
questions, you know, to justsort of I it's kind of breaking
(32:44):
the ice, but not really becauseit's towards the end of the
conversation.
So, but with all that said,let's get to the first one.
How do you think aboutmarketing when it comes to you
and your company?
Because I imagine you knowappearing on, you know, a
podcast like this, is definitelya form of marketing.
So how do you think about that,that sort of process?
Is this your first podcastinterview?
(33:05):
Have you done others in thepast?
Taryn Reeves (33:07):
This is actually my first podcast interview and I
think that Marketing obviouslycomes with a little bit of
challenges of its own, becausethe bigger you grow, the more
you get known, the more kind ofI don't want to say scammers
come out, but the more that theyget that, scammers come out.
And so when we were just kindof like happy, go, lucky little
(33:30):
family and head off as justdoing our work, right, it kind
of changed the dynamic as well,because the bigger you get, the
more corporate you get, the morelittle, less family that the
whole head office starts to feellike and but I obviously I
think it's great our marketingteam is doing fantastic.
They sent us out fun yeti cupsduring COVID.
(33:50):
Mine's all like obviouslywashed off now.
But I find even having somethinglike that is so fun, because
when you're out and about peoplelike, oh, spi I work for, and
then they start talking to youabout all sorts of things, or
even with my kids when we'redriving You'll see a truck go by
.
They're like, oh, do you paythem?
Do you pay them like?
Oh, no, not them.
Oh, I pay them every day.
Blythe Brumleve (34:11):
Oh, that's so awesome, that that's great.
I yeah kudos to the marketingteam over at SPI because they're
they're doing fantastic things,and and also kudos to you for
this being your first Podcastinterview.
I imagine it's not going to beyour last.
Oh you've been fantastic so far.
Oh, then we have the nextquestion what's your favorite
(34:32):
social media platform and why?
Taryn Reeves (34:35):
Okay, I'm pretty lame when it comes to social
media, but I would say Facebookis still probably the one I use
the most, but mostly becausethat's where I get all the
invites to anything that's goingon in my friend group from,
because everybody posts on there.
My husband's really intoInstagram, which I also think is
kind of fun and but I wouldn'tsay that I'm really on it, but
(34:58):
so I guess it would be Facebookprofessionally LinkedIn, but I
only go on there because peopleconnect with me.
I'm like yep, yep, yep, youlook like a connection to.
Blythe Brumleve (35:08):
I love that.
All right, next one what isyour favorite sass tool that you
use every day and can't livewithout?
Taryn Reeves (35:14):
Oh, definitely.
Well, it used to be called hubtrends, but now they call it
triumph pay audit, and that'sthe document management system I
was talking about.
There is absolutely Zero chancethe growth that we've had in
our company would have happenedwithout having a platform like
that to manage our documents.
Blythe Brumleve (35:29):
Oh, that's awesome.
Hell yeah, I'm clipping thatout just to you know, to send it
over to the trial.
So if you're hearing that andyou're listening, go send Terrin
some swag, all right now.
Next one what is your favoritefreight business that isn't your
(35:50):
own?
Taryn Reeves (35:51):
Well, I kind of have a soft spot in my heart for
CND logistics.
The owner there has named Danaand he was actually a coach on a
Canadian junior football teamand I used to cheerlead for them
and my husband came and startedplaying for them and that's how
we met.
So I kind of a soft spot forCND.
Blythe Brumleve (36:11):
That's a great one.
Awesome, this is.
This has been my favoriteanswer so far for this section.
Okay, what's one task in yourcurrent job that you can't stand
doing?
Taryn Reeves (36:20):
Oh, definitely telling carriers that the
signature is in the wrong spot.
I think that it breaks my heartevery time because I know you
did the job, I know you gotthere, I know you left, and then
I have to say PS, they signedit wrong.
Like you're tired, you droveall day or all weaker for two
weeks or crossing borders orwhatever the case may be, and
(36:41):
you know this annoying chickenAP that's like oh the numbers,
the signature is wrong.
Bye, and I think that that'sprobably my number one pet peeve
.
Blythe Brumleve (36:51):
Mmm, that, yeah , that's got to be a tough one
to deal with on you know, aregular basis to have to tell
folks who already have enough ontheir plate that you know
there's a little caveat andthat's gonna delay in them
getting paid.
So, yeah, I wouldn't like thatone either.
Okay, so next one if you didn'thave to worry about money, what
would you want to do for therest of your life?
Taryn Reeves (37:10):
That was a good one.
I liked it.
I kind of started thinkingthrough this after I read that.
Actually because I really likeserving my family, like I just
think that it's pretty awesometo be like All about the kids
and all about my husband andkind of being a personal chef.
And there's not very muchTradition in my family because
(37:31):
my mom was adopted, my husband'sdad was adopted, so it kind of
lost a lot of like thetraditions being passed down.
So I think that if I didn'thave to work, I would probably
travel to a lot of little likeremote little towns throughout
the world and Kind of work withall those I say, little grandmas
but that's kind of sexist alittle grandmas or grandpas that
are cooking and like baking allday and I would like to learn
(37:52):
how they like use their spicesor picked them or dried them and
I would like to learn all thoselike little tips and tricks for
cooking from like, yeah, thoselittle remote towns throughout
the world.
Blythe Brumleve (38:02):
I love that because that was one of the
first things I know.
You know, say what you willabout TikTok, but my feed,
especially during COVID and likeduring lockdowns I never got so
much inspiration from thatplatform than watching, like
these grandmothers in, likeLebanon, like cook over this
open fire pit.
I'm like you know a stove thatlooks like it's you know, a
hundred years old.
(38:22):
It was just amazing.
Taryn Reeves (38:23):
Have you ever seen those little places?
They're like rolling their owngnocchi, like they're just like
do it with that little forkthing and the special, and all
of a sudden they have this hugebin.
You're like, how you try and itturns into like, oh, this
twisty ravioli.
Blythe Brumleve (38:37):
You're like what just happened.
I tried to make wontons theother day and it was a disaster,
so I this is very recent for meI spent about six hours trying
to do this and ultimately I justemptied them all out and
decided to do a stir fry.
Taryn Reeves (38:51):
Were you trying to close up the wonton fully?
Yes, because if there's anysort of oils or any of the food
that hits the outside of that,you're hooped from the beginning
.
Blythe Brumleve (39:02):
It was a disaster and I probably maybe
should have contacted you.
I wanted to get these tipsahead of time and I've wasted a
lot of time.
Before I knew it was 11 pm atnight and I was like I have to
go to bed and you haven't eaten.
That's why we had the stir fry.
All right, we got a couple more.
What is something you believein that most people don't?
Taryn Reeves (39:25):
I think so.
Obviously I don't know if noone else believes in it, but we
all were obviously given apurpose in this world.
There is a problem in the worldthat only one person is able to
solve, and I think that there'sa difference between being on
your path for whatever thatproblem is to solve versus being
(39:46):
in your, your like divinepurpose versus your divine
assignment, because obviously,my purpose isn't necessarily
data entry out of freightbrokerage, but I think that my
assignment is doing this andbeing able to raise my family
and learn how to make montons.
But so I think that havingknowing that difference and
(40:10):
knowing that, just becauseyou're not living quote, unquote
your dream at the momentdoesn't mean you're not in the
right spot and you're not doingthe right assignment you're
supposed to be in right now.
Blythe Brumleve (40:21):
Love that Definitely.
Life is a pathway and you haveto partake in all of the
journeys of the pathway.
So last one what is yourfavorite supply chain or
logistics fact?
Taryn Reeves (40:33):
Well, this one was kind of funny because I was
talking to one of our agentsthat's been with us a long time.
He used to even work in headoffice as well, in the operation
section in the back and we werejust chatting about I was
watching a show calledridiculousness I don't know if
you've ever seen it.
So I was watching that and itkept on having all of these
(40:54):
trucks running into the bottomof overpasses and it was like a
little segment Rob Dyrdek didand I was laughing so hard.
I'm like, so I was talking tohim.
I'm like these truck drivers areso ridiculous, I don't know
where they're hiring them.
And he says to me he's like youknow, taryn, there's always the
height on the overpass, butwhere they measure that height
(41:14):
might be the wrong spot.
So they measured it in themiddle of the overpass, but your
truck is driving to the rightof it.
You may think that you had theclearance, but then you run into
it because it's on the righthand side and it's a little bit
lower on the outside.
I'm like, oh, they're not alljust silly, it was just a
mistake.
So I think that that was kindof a fun fact of the logistics
(41:38):
industry that I never put tooand too together on.
Blythe Brumleve (41:41):
Yeah, I've never heard that either, because
I have the same reaction.
I see that and I'm like well,why didn't you know that?
Like, why didn't the brokertell you that this overpass
existed and your truck wouldn'tbe able to go under this bridge?
And so I immediately, like,want to point the blame at
everyone.
But really we should, I guess,be pointing the blame at the
engineer, or?
Taryn Reeves (41:58):
the construction, or whoever is the person.
Maybe is it the city plannerthat puts that height on it,
like maybe there should beinside and outside on all of
them.
I don't know what the case.
I don't know who's in charge ofthat, but whoever it is, if
you're listening, you should adda double one.
Blythe Brumleve (42:14):
It's also very, I think, severely underfunded.
I know, in the States at least,like our infrastructure for
inspecting bridges and dams.
It's all very underfunded.
So I'm sure there's a lot offolks out there that wish maybe
they could change a lot of thosethings.
But you probably don't realizesome of those issues are a thing
until someone unfortunatelycrashes into it.
Taryn Reeves (42:35):
Could you imagine what these truck drivers did
before Google Maps came intoplay?
Right, Like I just picture,because obviously it gives you
best route.
But imagine back in the day youwere following one of those
maps that came out from the roofand then you followed one
thinking you could go there, butit came to something where you
had to try to turn around orback down this windy rural road
(42:55):
or something.
I just, yeah, there's been somuch Like what do you call?
What are you?
Blythe Brumleve (42:59):
going to do.
Yeah, you probably have noservice anyways, and you
probably didn't even have aphone when you were using some
of these giant Rand McNally mapbooks that my dad still swears
by.
Taryn Reeves (43:10):
So he'll use those .
I love your dad now.
Blythe Brumleve (43:14):
So he'll use both Right.
All right, Teret.
Well, this was a fantasticinterview, fantastic answers to
these questions, I guess.
My last remaining one is ifanybody who's interested in
becoming a freight agent for SBI, where should they go to for
more information?
I'm sure we'll have a link inthe show notes for them.
But any last remarks that youwant to leave the audience with?
Taryn Reeves (43:38):
Well, obviously, just go to our website and you
can go from there.
There's a spot on there foragents that are looking to get
involved carriers, if you'relooking for information, or
customers, if you're trying tofigure out to find an agent,
because there's some customersthat might be interested and not
realize and they could save alot of money using a 3PL versus
just shipping on their own.
So I would highly recommendjust going to the website and
(44:01):
feeling it out and everybody atour office is super helpful and
you could call.
You'll be able to get a hold ofsomebody that'll talk you
through it.
Blythe Brumleve (44:08):
Absolutely Now for just you know, talking to
the audience for a second.
If you love the energy thatthat Taryn had on this interview
which I, you know, obviouslydid then you should know that
the rest of the FBI team hasvery much the same sort of just
positive energy.
That's why I like working withthem so much.
So.
So, taryn, thank you again forcoming on the show.
Really enjoyed thisconversation.
Taryn Reeves (44:28):
Thank you, and it was a pleasure meeting you as
well.
Officially, absolutely, yes,officially, right, okay, have a
wonderful afternoon.
Thank you, you too.
Bye.
Blythe Brumleve (44:40):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
everything is logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over at everythingis logisticscom.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let y'all know
about another company I operate, and that's digital dispatch,
(45:01):
where we help you build a betterwebsite.
Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
website or refreshing a currentone off to a co-worker's child,
a neighbor down the street or astranger around the world,
where you probably spend moretime explaining the freight
industry than it takes toactually build the dang website.
Well, that doesn't happen atdigital dispatch.
(45:22):
We've been building onlinesince 2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI, automation andother website tactics that help
your company to be a centralplace to pull in all of your
social media posts, recruit newemployees and give potential
customers a glimpse into how youoperate your business.
Our new website builds start aslow as $1,500, along with
(45:44):
ongoing website management,maintenance and updates starting
at $90 a month, plus some bonus, freight marketing and sales
content similar to what you hearon the podcast.
You can watch a quick explainervideo over on digitaldispatchio
.
Just check out the pricing pageonce you arrive and you can see
how we can build your digitalecosystem on a strong foundation
(46:07):
.
Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags.
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