Freight Friends: Previewing F3, Logistics Girlie, Cargo Crime Uptick, and Logistics of Tinned Fish

Episode Transcript
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Blythe Brumleve (00:05):
Welcome in to another episode of everything is
logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in a parade.
I am your host, Blythe Brumleve.
We are proudly presented by SPILogistics, the best freight
agent program in the country,once again joined by Grace
Sharkey for another edition offreight friends.
And for those of us who arethose of you who are new here,

(00:26):
we typically go through a coupledifferent top stories.
Grace joins us once a month inorder to cover those top stories
and then we get into some cargocrimes.
We get into our favoritehouseholds or businesses going
on and freight right now, andthen we also talk a little bit
about our favorite logistics ofAKA source porch story.
So we'll save that one for theend.

(00:46):
But, grace, how you doing.

Grace Sharkey (00:50):
You know I'm doing good, I am getting excited
for F3.
We have that next week.
So when I say I get, I'mgetting excited for it, I'm
cramming a bunch of two weeks ofwork into one week.
So that's fun.
No, I'm really.
It's going to be really cool,it's.
If anyone's been to the eventin the past, I think it's going
to be twice the event that we'veseen before, which is, yeah,

(01:14):
exactly Like I mean, we have thepuppies are in town again.
So, thank goodness for you,we've got puppies back here
right now at Chanuga.
I think there's going to besome really cool events between
like three and six more thanwe've had in the past.
Of course, we've got somereally great musical guests
lined up too, and just some ofthe companies I've seen that are

(01:37):
coming this year I think arenew.
A lot of new companies from thepast year.
A lot of shippers as well We'llhear from.
So, yeah, really gettingexcited for it and I'm just
happy to see everyone in oneplace as well.

Yeah for sure.
So I think, you know, for alittle bit of like historical
context of the first freightwaves conference, I think that
ever happened was 2018, maybe2019.
I know I went to their firstone and then that's when I was
blown away.
I was like wow, this it feelslike something for millennials,

(02:11):
it feels like something for,like, the younger generation.
I've been to freightconferences before, but this was
the first one that I was likewow, like it really like wowed
me, for lack of a better phrase.
And then now to see it, youknow, being housed.
This is the second year becausethey took a, you know, a COVID
break during, I think, 2020 and2021.
And then 2022 was the first one.

(02:32):
Back to big conferences, Ithink in Arkansas and then
Chattanooga, and then Clevelandand then now back in Chattanooga
.
But this time I think it'sgoing to be, like you said, even
better, even bigger, becausethey're shutting down entire
blocks.
So I saw Craig's tweet theother day that mentioned he was

(02:54):
like you know, with certainconferences it's just a
convention center and the hotelthat people are normally like
congregating at, but with thisone, they're shutting down the
entire blocks of downtownChattanooga, I believe.
And so, basically everyone thatyou walk around is going to be
involved in freight somehow, sothe networking capabilities are

(03:17):
going to be, you know, just offthe charts.
I'm curious, though what doesthe week look like for you?
You know, working for freightwaves.
You got the nice freight wavessweater on for folks who can't
see.
So what does the week look likefor you working for freight?
Because it's different than atraditional conference that you
go to, where you have a littlebit more freedom, I would

(03:37):
imagine.

Yeah, there is a level of.
So I'll be actually workingregistration first thing in the
morning, so, as everyone'schecking in, you'll see me there
.
I then throughout, I believefirst day I have one fireside
chat at the freight waves TVstage.
So that's the stage that's outin the hallway for everyone.
And then I have a course indoing the radio show both days,

(04:02):
the first two days as well, andthat'll be at the freight waves
TV stage too.
I already the fun thing aboutthis event is people will go on
stage and they'll present newtechnologies and things of that
nature.
So there's I already have someplanned writing time to likely
cover a lot of that stuff.

(04:22):
There's some.
Clearly our editorial staffwould bring a small group of us
and we cover a lot of the chatsas well.
So there's some work I'll bedoing there too.
But a lot of this time for me iskind of meeting up with
everyone.
I like to go through the booth,see what technology people are
showcasing and anything new,kind of get a gist of who's

(04:46):
doing what.
Like I said, there's a lot ofnewer companies that are coming
to this year, so I'm excited toshake hands.
I spend a lot of this time kindof meeting the marketing people
as well, and meeting people atthe booths and introducing
myself, and I will say too, likeI do, I would say last year

(05:07):
left with a couple of scoops.
Wouldn't be surprised if Ileave with a couple of scoops.
You know you get peopleeveryone in one spot and you'd
be surprised how often peoplecome up to me with gossip or
things of that nature.
So it's, it's really, it is no,it is kind of fascinating, like

(05:27):
this happened in Cleveland,probably the most it ever
happened.
You know, whenever thisindustry gets a little bit
tighter and more risk, you couldsay, involved with it, people
come out of the woodworks withdifferent stories and things
like that.
So yeah, that's, it goes byfast.
I'll say that that's the onething that I love about the

(05:50):
conference part is like I haveto make sure I have to like
there's a couple of speakers Ido want to see, so I need to
like be smart about making sureI'm there.
But I mean, you get it.
It's one of those conferenceswhere you and I barely walked
down the hallway without beinggrabbed for something I was
about to.

My first question was going to be like
how do you, how are you going tomanage that, knowing that you
have to pay attention to thesetalks, but also you want to be
friendly to the people you'retalking to, but you're still.
You know you're there to workas well.
So how do you?
Do you have any tips of likemaybe you could give?
Me, other folks that you cancut the conversation off and get

(06:32):
to work but.
I know.

I will say one aspect that, like really is
helpful and it was not as easyin Cleveland, but easy if it's
the same type of, it's the samevenue, so I got to be able to do
it.
There's like a back hallwaythat I could use to get me to
the other side of the otherhallway.
So there's probably going to bea lot of that happening, which
is fun, because then I getlisten, I'm like I like you'll

(06:58):
see me do this too.
I really like to thank staff atthese events.
Like I think sometimes peopleforget, like about all the work.
So I'll walk this like backhallway and like I see all the
chefs and stuff and I'm likethank you so much, because I'm
like what are you doing backhere?
I'm like escaping, trying toget to the other side of the
hallway in five minutes.

(07:19):
So there is a back hall.
Always try to find a backhallway is one and then the
other is like yeah, just likekind of being.
I think people get it.
You know, like hey, I need toget over there right now or
anything.
Use it like as an opportunity,like at other conferences.
Right, if you're here about topresent, like hey, I need to go

(07:40):
present this thing, but comewith us, come see what I'm
talking about, like, come enjoy,enjoy this.
So that's, it's a lot of thatin the new brain.
And maybe hiding behind, maybetall Shriver, he's so tall, I'll
just walk behind him.
No one will see me.
So yeah, that's that's I willsay too, I'll probably wear a

(08:04):
heel in the after party, but Iam bringing a flat for the
conference.

So that's bringing any boots.
It is Tennessee.

You know, I do have my sparkly Beyonce boots.

Bring them, because I have sparkly boots too
.

Okay, I will.
They're just so heavy.
I get so nervous.
I'm over.
Where am I?
Oh, what if I did?
I should wear my sparkly boots.
Okay, okay, cool, cool, I'llwear, I'm gonna wear.

They're so ridiculous.

They're so ridiculous.
Yeah no, I'll wear, I'll bringthem, We'll figure out how to
get them there.

So if you're listening, you're hearing us
outfit plan live on the showright now and seeing our
excitement of just coordinatingoutfits.
I love coordinating outfits.

I know I got like two.
You know me, I got like two newshirts and stuff like that, so
I'm pumped.
Yeah, I've got it all figuredout.
Now it's not in the suitcaseyet.
It's everything's in a cornerof my bedroom, but it's well,
it'll make its way there.

Yeah, I just ordered like 200 new everything
is logistics pins.
So if you listen to the show,find me, come see me, I'll give
you a free pin anytime.
That's kind of like my low keymarketing strategy is like
anytime someone tells me theylove the pod, I immediately pull
out a pin and give it to thembecause I don't know, it's like
you know just little things tomake people happy and remember

(09:28):
the show.
And y'all know I love pinsbecause I'm a Disney fanatic and
all that, all that jazz.
What about the event itself?
Are you looking forward toanything in particular outside
of TI, because I think both ofus are definitely looking
forward to that?
What about any particular talksor you know any parties?
What are you looking forward tothe most?

I think.
So there are definitely acouple of things that the course
of TI parts can be really fun.
I've been listening to like TISpotify Playlist nonstop for the
past week.
The first one I'm really pumpedfor is we got Brad Jacobs as
our keynote speaker, so that'slisten first off.
He's writing a book that'scoming out and I'm actually

(10:11):
getting an advanced copy of it,so we can probably talk about it
even like a month before itcomes out.
I should be getting a copy inDecember called it's called how
to Make a Few Billion Dollars,which is like cool, so cool,
what a cool thing to do,casually Awesome.
Can we hear you the book aboutthat?

(10:31):
So I've seen some of his talkssince then, kind of discussing
the book.
So if it's anything like that,I think people will leave with a
really interesting leadershiptips and just on how he builds a
team, how he evaluatescompanies, how he runs meetings

(10:53):
there was a really good talkabout I'll send it to you too so
you can see it but about justhow he like how they pre-plan
meetings, how they prepare allthis really cool stuff.

So I would love to see that, because I think
meetings are just such a gianttime suck and waste of time, and
it bugs me to no end whenpeople are just like, no, we
just need to have a meeting andhash this out, and I'm like, no,
you need to hash it out in yourhead first.
Yeah, come to the meeting withspecific goals so you're not
wasting everybody else's timewith your brainstorming on a

(11:25):
call.
I cannot stand it.
I think we waste so much timeduring the day on pointless
meetings.
So that's my little mini rant.
Sorry, carry on.

No, and I'll send you the video where he talks
about it, because if that's yourcritique, like you're going to
just absolutely love how he runsmeetings because it's very
almost more work in advance tothe meeting so that once you're
at the meeting, like we'rediscussing how to get stuff done
.
So, yeah, I think that'll begreat.
I'm really excited actuallylike set a personal meeting to

(11:57):
like meet him.
I think he's like one of thecoolest people in this industry
and I mean any.
He's like what a camera thatthe folklore guy's name or what
everything he touches just turnsto gold.
So King.
Midas, king Midas, yeah, exactlyRight.
So, um, yeah, I'm pumped tomeet him and to listen to him

(12:20):
speak.
So that's like I said, if I amrunning past you it's likely
because I'm going to go watchBrad Jacobs talk.
So that's, that's going to be afun one.
I will say another one I'mpumped for that.
I just recently heard about.
So when we were at CSCMP I wastalking to oh, what's his first

(12:45):
name?
Now it's going to be SpencerFrazier from JB Hunt and he is
doing a chat with BNSF and itsounds like they're going to be
really discussing intermodal andreally what JB Hunt and BNSF's
long-term goals are and how theysee the industry changing.
And if you know, I'm trying tolike broaden my education a

(13:08):
little bit more in spaces Idon't know, and intermodal is
one of them.
And over the last year, I mean,they've had their own issues,
right with labor.
I think what's fascinatingabout Intermodal in particular
is that all of them are publiclytraded companies.
They all have insane operatingratios.

(13:29):
So like we talk about what theaverage trucking companies
operating ratio is like in 90percentile, 90 percent ish area,
right, so for everyone outthere might not get that stuff,
like For every dollar they make,they spend 90 cents, you know.
So it's like your very smallmargins where Intermodal is like

(13:51):
they're like the 60s, hmm, andyou see all these issues so like
remember like they had allthese issues with pain, drivers
more and giving vacation time.
So you sit here and it's likenow you have to operate and in a
public space where you'reworking to, of course, have a
better outcome for yourshareholders, but now you also

(14:14):
have to invest in safety.
No pressures on them with allthe derailments that we've seen,
all derailments happen, but ofcourse, with Ohio derailment and
some of them are like toxicones.
There We've had I think it wasCSX had just recently had an
issue with trainees gettingkilled Just from the safety of
railroads, and I think peoplejust don't really truly

(14:36):
understand it as a Mode in thisindustry, let alone the safety
behind it.
One of my good friends I'm notgonna say who the person is, I
hope they're listening though,because they know how they are
her husband actually works in inthe railroads and it's just
fascinating hearing the storiesand and we're over here just

(14:56):
like focused on drivers andstuff like that.
And it's like so when I say wereally myself, and so I'm
excited to kind of hear them outand hear more about that space,
and from two really greatcompanies in the space as well,
and two companies that haveincredible assets in the space.
So Talk about, you know,containers and things of that
nature.
Jv Hunt is one to listen to andSpence was just seeing very,

(15:20):
very enthusiastic about the chat, so that one I'm excited to see
maybe learn more about too.
Last one, I'll say and sorry toto Use this as a time to, of
course, talk about freightwaystoo, but I we have some solar
updates coming out and some thatI think people are really,

(15:40):
really, really, really gonnalike, and so they're gonna be
announcing that stuff during F3.
I'm not gonna give too muchdetail more on it, but I can say
, if you've used so not in anyway, shape or form, the
announcements that we're gonnamake are, I think, mmm 100% of
our customers are gonna be very,very happy about, and those who

(16:01):
haven't Maybe bought sonar yetor we're even looked at sonar
are gonna be really interestedin too.
So now those are, I think, thebiggest areas that I'm also
dying my hair blue, so likethat's gonna be super fun and
the dye all came in a freightwayfavorite.
Yeah, we're gonna do a littlethis.
Listen, this is gonna look, soI've done this before, so I'm

(16:23):
not nervous about it all.
A little like aqua marini more.

That looks a little teal, looks a little
jaguar's teal.

Yes, it is very jagged teal it's and that's
gonna be kind of near the bottom.
So when I like curl it, youknow it's dimensional and then
this will be like more of thetop.
I'll probably separate a littlebit of the bang to like.
Do like two strands of this.

So you got your own hair.

Oh, yes, yes, Okay, I own hair.
Yes, I have done it before.
Honestly, I need to cut it too,so I'm probably gonna cut my
trim up some bangs a little bit.
How this works in my house is Ialways underestimate the time
it takes me to do this, so thatFriday, after I got the radio

(17:06):
show, I'll probably eat dinner,be lazy for like two hours, then
around 10 o'clock at night,I'll start doing this, and I
always start with gloves, then Iimmediately take them off and
just start getting in there withmy hands and my little brush,
and Then I'll sit around andit'll be like three o'clock in
the morning and then I'll washit and then I'll go to sleep and

(17:29):
then I'll leave it on for thatlong.
Well, I might take me about anhour and a half an hour.
It's to like get it in thereand like get every piece of hair
done, like that's the biggestthings.
You don't want to like missanything.
And then I usually keep it in.
I like to keep it, honestly,for like close to two hours,
just to make sure it's likethere and in, stuck in there,

(17:52):
and then I'll wash it, wash itout, and my favorite part is
I'll wake up in the morning andI'm like, oh god, like, yeah,
you ever like, yeah, you everlike get a extreme haircut or
like something like that.
You just forgot you did it.
Or like you got your facepainted.
And then you look in the mirrorand you're like that's every
morning, I do this, I'll.

(18:12):
I'll wake up oh geez, that'sright, like your hair's blue now
.

So yeah, and I think it's important to kind of
make the distinction of, like,the prep work that is involved
With, like, men who go toconferences and women who go to
conferences.
Totally different, your nails,your outfits your hair is you
got to plan your hair wash daysbecause you got a plan Out all

(18:40):
day and your hair still kind oflook good from morning to night
and that's very, verytime-consuming, very challenging
and very expensive.

Yeah, thank you for saying it's like I have to
Mine.
You survived me.
I need to get some dry shampoo,yeah, but yeah, you know that
the hair washing schedule islike a whole thing and I think
that's what takes me so long todo it.
It's like people are real.
I have very thick, long hair,so like it takes a lot of time
for me to color this and it'llstay probably for a good yeah,

(19:16):
oh, yeah, no, yes, that's, it'svery long, so Like I'll use
almost of this dye, yeah, yeah,how long do you keep the dye in?
It'll start to slowly like fadeout, so, like probably around
Thanksgiving, it'll be more oflike a kind of a cool teal than
like anything else but perfectfor a Jag season.

(19:37):
Yes, Well, yeah, you know whatI'm not no to, I'm screwed I.
So you know, uh, uh-huh, we'velost.
I've lost my boy to an Achillessurgery For the rest of the
season.
So my fantasy team was justguys.
Can I swear on the show, butthey're fucked.

(19:59):
The Vikings are screwed.
Oh man, it's not good.

It's like Justin Jefferson went down
earlier this season.
He was my number one pick in my.
I am either in Next to last orlast place in both my leagues.
I'm like this is how is thispossible to have three or four
people on?
I are already and I'm justscrewed, it's.
It's a sad story to tell andunfortunately you did mention

(20:26):
the parties.
Um, Ti is the big one for me.
There's a couple of othermusical performances too that
I'm not exactly Sure they arebut I've heard drivers and Kenny
we shepherd.

It's like a pretty good Artist as well.
I haven't really listened toanything, but I've heard that
he's great.
I mean a DJ.
I Think DJ can't screw it up.
I hope, yeah, like We'll seewhat happens.
But you know it's, that venueis so cool and yes, and I've, if

(21:00):
there's anything, I told myselfI'm gonna yeah, I remember last
year like not eating food, soI'm just gonna like make sure
that happens more.

It's almost like a wedding where you have to
force yourself Okay, we'regonna eat because we've been
running around all day Likethat's not good for our health.
And don't end up like me whereyou leave a conference and
you're sick and you just keepgoing.
Yes, I got the most sick I'veever been After going to CSCMP
and then immediately going on abachelorette party and after an

(21:28):
Epcot trip with you.
So, yeah, if you heard the lastrecording, if my voice sounded
strange, it was me poweringthrough, not being able to blow
my nose for two hours and justDisgusting sickness for a week.
Nobody wants to hear about that, though what I do.
So a couple of other things theblock party vibe I wanted to

(21:48):
cover that.
Adam Wingfield I think this isfor his first time speaking at a
freight waves conference longoverdue.
Glad it's finally happeningbecause he's literally one of
the smartest people in all,afraid, and he's helping small
carriers to dominate in 2024.
You know we'll get into alittle bit of you know, like
freight fraud and cargo crimes alittle bit later on, but you
know a couple of those talks arecentered around that, which is

(22:10):
great.
We're at a 10-year high forcargo theft right now and then
try and pay.
They got a little barbecuegoing on in Tennessee, so I'm
I'm excited to get some goodbarbecue.
Chris Voss and then also Idon't want to butcher his name,
but the scientists who's alwayson, like National Geographic and
Discovery Channel and all thatI'm not gonna try it the Michi

(22:34):
Kukaku, is that how you say hisname?

Yeah, it's Japanese.
You know me, girl.
Oh, there you go.
Nice, I might have said it'sfirst is first name.
Might have another syllable inthere, but I think I got.
Cocky was his last name.

Yeah, cocky was his last name, mishio Maybe his
first name.

Michio yeah, it's a.

MI CHI.

Oh yes, yep, Michio, okay, oh yes.

New York Times bestselling author.
The God equation, the quest forthe theory of everything.
Yeah, that's theoreticalphysicists, professor and
futurist.
So that's gonna be reallyexciting conversation.
Then Chris Voss is like thefamous like FBI negotiator
Teaching you like sales tips, sothat those are a few of like
the must attend Ones that Idefinitely want to hit up.
I think that about covers it asfar as, like the preview, I was

(23:22):
gonna have this show becentered around the Sort of
freight tech and what we think.
Like you know, the 2023 told uskind of hints into 2024, but I,
with everything you just saidabout you know the stories that
are gonna be coming out.
I think that'll make for a greatepisode for next time to be
able to talk about all of thecool companies you know we saw
at f3.
And the cool thing about f3 isbecause I mean typically a

(23:42):
little late to conferences, likeI don't like getting there at
like seven in the morning likesome freaks Um, I get there, you
know, like nine, 30, 10, um,but you can.
The best thing about freightwaves conferences is that you
can just pull up the livestreaming app and I can watch
everything while I'm gettingready and then feel like I
haven't missed anything.
So, unlike other conferenceswhere you can't really do that,

(24:05):
this one you can, which isawesome, that's a good point.
Yeah, it's gonna be a good one.

Are you in freight sales with a book of
business, looking for a new home?

Or perhaps you're a freight agent in the
company You're not going to beable to go home, or perhaps
you're a freight agent in needof a better partnership.
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
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trenches, sponsored by spilogistics.
Now I can tell you all day thatspi is one of the most
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(24:36):
agents with back officeoperations, such as admin,
finance it and sales.
But I would much rather youhear it directly from spi's
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And what better way to do thatthan by listening to the
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the why they joined spi?
Hit the freight agent link inour show notes to listen to

(24:58):
these conversations or, ifyou're ready to make the jump,
visit spi3plcom next topiclogistics girly.
Yeah, I forgot, that was ahamlet.
So I I want to hear all about.
This is a new initiative tosort of set the stage for you.
New initiative, um, for youit's a sub stack, it's a

(25:19):
linkedin page, also a twitteraccount, um.
So so tell us a little bitabout sort of the, the goal
around logistics girly, the, theconcept of it.
You know what, what do you,what do you want people to know
about it?

Yeah.
So I guess, like right now it'sit's gonna evolve into
something, and for me it's justkind of like an outlet for me to
kind of share the cool, uh,more female driven stories, I
think, in this industry and justhighlight a lot of what women
are doing in this industry.
I guess the way I'm treating itright now is maybe kind of like
, um, and I'm really working onmore blogs coming out and and

(25:55):
working with actually others inthe industry there's, uh, I'm
really passionate about gettingespecially those in the lgbt, qi
plus groups like writing theirexperiences.
Like I just don't want, I don'twant this to just be, I don't
want this to be involved aroundme.
But, um, I, you know somethingthat we're talking about and

(26:16):
listen, I, I love how do I, howdo I say this?
Uh, I love the movement thatwe're seeing and and right right
now, of of kind of comingtogether as community, laughing
at ourselves and and and comingup with solutions to really hard
problems.
And I don't know, I never, Ialways speak the truth anyway.

(26:37):
So my truth is that sometimes,though with that is, it's also
grown a tad bit more freightbro-y at the same time, and
there's nothing wrong with thatI think that we all laugh at the
freight bro and we all knowwe've worked in offices et
cetera, but with that energy islike it's almost ignoring more

(27:04):
of the female experience in thisindustry, like for an else.
Gonna be a quick example thelike tobacco jokes, right, like,
that stuff is funny.
It is funny that a lot ofpeople in our space like to you
know, dip right, yeah, dip rightLike, and Zen is a little bit
different than dip, but still.
But also it's the grossestthing in the world, like I can't

(27:26):
tell you how frustrated I wouldbe in an office, especially you
know like, where you just havemen spitting in bottles all day
and it's just she's a lot ofmasculine energy, a lot of
testosterone, a lot of likewhich is not bad.
No, it's not bad.
But also women don't like that,you know, and it's, and I'm

(27:49):
just like it's gross, it isstupid gross, it's stupid gross
and it honestly, I wouldn't besurprised if we did a study in a
female-driven logistics company, compared to a man, how that's
probably not even allowed on thefloor and it's just.
You know, for me it's just likeyou should have to go outside

(28:13):
with cigarette smoke and listen.
I smoke cigarettes for a longtime.
I gave them up about four yearsago and it was the hardest
thing ever.
I understand the tobaccoaddiction but, like when we
start making fun of it, whatyou're saying is like everyone
has to agree that this is funnyand everyone has to feel like
this is appropriate to be in anoffice.
And I know that's not true andI think it's tough for women to

(28:34):
see.
Sometimes offices make ruleslike that, but also like, okay,
if men get to and I understandsome women chew too but if they
get to do that in office, thencan we get tampons.
You know, like, for me it'slike that equality aspect, right
, like I wouldn't bet against-.

I wouldn't bet against Not to.
It is something but FreightBrokerage's attended.
Like hand these things out,like hand out the tins to the
guys on the floor.

Well, they'll just let the bottles sit there
all day long and let them do itall day long, which is gross.
I mean, if you're spending, nota hundred percent of it's going
in the bottle at the end of theday.
You know, it's just like it'snot something that I would say a
lot of women want to be around.
And you know what, there'sprobably a lot of guys that
don't like it either, to behonest with you too.
So, anyways, back to Logistics,girlie.

(29:27):
So I'm like I'm seeing thisstart to come even more into
fruition and this kind of liketestosterone driven culture.

That's very testosterone heavy.

Yes, and I just wanted to create a space that
women can go and make thosejokes too, or make a joke that's
like, that's disgusting, youknow, like and not have a bunch
of people jumping on them sayingthat, oh, here we go, the
women's rights type of stuff.
So, and not to say that that'shappened in all the experiences

(30:00):
with certain groups, but it hashappened to me on Twitter before
.
I mean, there's times whereeven some posting some of the
individuals or thought topics onthe radio, people will push
back again.
So I wanted to create a safespace where it's like almost
like a Buzzfeed or somethinglike that, where women can go
and see on LinkedIn or onTwitter, more female focused

(30:26):
content and what's interesting.
And I just wanna help itimprove in the algorithms.
I want people to see it morewhen they're going through their
timelines, and that's Iunderstand.
In order for that to happen,like there needs to be the
engagement behind it.
So I just wanna create kind ofthis space that like push that

(30:47):
same energy out there and youknow what's interesting like is
like I've noticed doing it thatI guess I wanted to kind of make
it funny at first and I startedlike looking and I think
there's some blog post and kindof opinion articles that I could
write that could make it kindof clever and funny, but it's

(31:08):
really hard to find femalefocused content that's not
cynical, like which I'm likekind of interested in and find
fascinating.
Like a lot of the stuff thatI'm able to share, retweet et
cetera, I'm noticing is likevery uplifting and that's like I

(31:29):
think that goes back to kind ofthat like the energy that I
want to put out there.
It's like no, like what are wedoing to move this industry
forward and how are women a partof that conversation and what
are we doing out there?
That's really getting stuffdone and I'm just finding
incredible people across theglobe who've been contributing
to logistics that would havenever made your timeline through

(31:54):
the some of the Broly stuff.

So I just that's kind of like where it
started is like let's make somespace for women and, yeah, shine
a light on other stories too,Because it does it especially
just in my experience working at.
You know two different freightbrokerages.
It's very.
The men outnumber the womenlike nine to one.

(32:17):
So it's very, and I don't knowif there's ever been any kind of
study on this, but I think I'vemaybe known three or four
female freight brokers and twodifferent companies, and these
were, you know, we had over ahundred employees at each
company.
Most of the women that workedthere were working in accounting
.
I was the executive assistantand also the marketing person,

(32:41):
but typically you'll find a lotof women in marketing as well,
and I wonder why that is.
I wonder why that happens.
So I would love if, like anyassociations, are out there any
companies that are doing thiskind of research.
I would love to know what theratio of women working in this
industry.
You know who's working in sales, who's working at?

(33:03):
You know we met Carly Gunby,who works at Transfix, and she's
a sales leader at her company.
So I wonder how many other likeCarly Gunby's are out there that
you know their stories could betold as well.
So it's just it's not to likebash the freight bro mentality,
because I think it's a lot offun, but it's also like the more

(33:25):
stories I see around that islike well, what other stories
aren't being told?
And I think that that's a goodplace to find yourself in,
especially with logistics girlie.
Is, you know, being able totell some of those other stories
that aren't being told?
Because you know, we've said ita million times on the show
there are so many stories thatcould be told within your own

(33:45):
company that you know, look forthose opportunities to tell
those stories and you know, Ithink that when you think of it
from that lens of like logisticsgirlie, you could think of it
from the lens of what kind ofwomen's centric, focused stories
within my own company maybecould be told, you know, through
this platform.

Yeah, and I do want to touch on something too,
because I don't want it.
It came from a spot of bringingmore female focused stories to
the limelight.
But the reason I call it likelogistics girlie is because I
think even on, like in socialmedia, we use like the term
girlie like I'm a Taylor Swift,girlie like boys will say that

(34:24):
too.
It's kind of like the you'relike a stan or like a fan of a
certain thing, and a part ofthis is like I want men to feel
like they're a part of it tooand that they are, you know,
passionate about other types ofstories in this space as well.

(34:45):
But I also and something I justreally want to make sure I can
focus on is I know that there isa lot.
I know there's a lot of gay,lesbian again, lgbtqia plus
people in this industry who maynot feel like they have a space
to open up about what theirlives are like in this industry

(35:07):
as a whole, and that's somethingthat, as even just writing in a
space, has been really hard forme to find, and I think it's
hard to find those individualsbecause they don't have a space
to go to, to feel safe as welland tell their stories and I

(35:27):
just if myself, as just astraight white woman, doesn't
always feel comfortable in somespaces in this industry I cannot
even imagine some of thesituations that those groups
have felt and what they felt inmeetings or even being a part of
just like health insurancetalks or family talks, right,

(35:51):
adopting children or looking atgrowing your family and having
to, or even just transitioning,like in this industry.
And how do you find the perfecttire?
Who's willing to have abathroom available for you?
You know like, and that's I'mpassionate about that kind of

(36:12):
stuff.
Outside of just logistics.
It's something that I meanhonestly, like what I went to
school was just kind of helpthese groups in particular, and
so I want to be able if I alwayssaid, if I ever had like a
platform, that I would do mybest to open it up to other
people, and that's kind of likewhere a lot of this energy is,

(36:33):
too is like not just gettingmore women out there, but like
how many you know lesbianleaders are there out there in
this space and what are theydoing?
And investors even like openingthat stuff up so that maybe
they're what if there's like areally great freight tech guru
out there who just doesn't feellike she has or he has anywhere

(36:57):
to go.
They have anywhere to go to getfinancing for this great idea
they have and our industry ishurting because of that.
So there's a lot of places thatI kind of want to take it, but
that's where it's at right nowand you know, it'd be cool at
some point to like make merch onit and like have people like
kind of in this logistics girlyspace.

(37:18):
My goal at Manifest actually isto like make pins as well and
hand those out.
So yeah, I'm excited about itand I'm just we'll see where it
goes for now.
But I will say the even theLinkedIn page I was going
through analytics, like I'mstarting to get engagement, like
20% engagement over therealready, with some of just the

(37:39):
posting that we had.
I'm trying to do like a sleighof the day, like every day of
just someone in the space doingsomething really cool.
So I'm getting there.
I do a lot of stuff outside ofit and I want to make sure
Freight Waves and when my workcomes first.
But this is kind of like myside hobby until we'll see where
it goes.

And I think that that's so important for a
lot of creators who have you.
If you're lucky enough to be ina position where you have a
full-time gig, to have thatother outlet that you can do
whatever the hell you want to dowith.
It doesn't matter.
Whatever media company I'veever worked for, I've always
made sure to have that otheroutlet just so I can post

(38:17):
whatever the hell I want.
Where I'm EIC, I'meditor-in-chief over there and
these are the editorialdecisions that we're gonna make
for my platform, versus whenyou're getting a check from
someone else where obviously youhave to cater to what those
needs are.
So kudos to you for the launchand the initiative getting it
going.
It's not easy to balancesomething like that in addition

(38:38):
to a full-time job, but Iimagine you'll probably see
you've already seen a little bitof success already and so that
just going to continue tosnowball and continue to build.
So kudos to you, thank you.

Yeah, and if you see anything we're sharing on
LinkedIn or Twitter, just shareit.
Like I said, for me it's aboutgetting that content in
timelines that haven't seen itbefore, and I think that's
really the first step is justgetting this whole other piece
of our industry out there.

Yeah, I'm making a note to myself right
now to include those sociallinks to LogisticsGurly in the
show notes, just to make sureand make it easy for you folks
to follow along with thoseinitiatives.
So I guess it's time to move onto the next topic, and that is
favorite ideas or hustles infreight.

(39:28):
So I have one that justhappened from a conversation
from yesterday.
But do you want to go first?
You want me to take it first.

Let's see, I just talked for a while.
Let's you take it.
Let's go there, All right, allright.

I want to talk about yard management solutions,
which sounds like, oh, maybelike initially like snooze fest,
but I so, while you know, aswe're on, you know the
conference talk I was at CSCMP.
You know you're walking aroundthe expo floor and you're kind
of deciding what booths to go upand talk to and which ones you
kind of will, and just you know,just keep on walking, don't

(40:02):
make eye contact.
So then there was one thatreally caught my eye because he
had these big LCD screens thatwere surrounding their booths.
So they had one of the biggerbooths and this is yard
management solutions, not justYMS technology, but their actual
name, which I think isbrilliant from like an SEO
perspective.
Your name is actually like yardmanagement solutions.

(40:25):
So I talked with Colin and Sevefrom the yard management
solutions team yesterday.
That pod is coming out soon,but there are also Colin I was
already following him on Twitteralready before even connecting
the dots, so it was a greatinterview.
He was wearing his PleaseAdvise hat, so he's part of that
crew, you know as well and theyreally broke down like sort of

(40:47):
the importance of a yardmanagement solution.
So, at you know CSCMP, theyhave these big screens and you
can.
The way it kind of looks islike an eagle eye view of your
entire yard.
So where the trucks are parked,where you want them to move,
you can literally take hold yourfinger on a container and drag
and drop it to another dock justsimply by the touch of a button

(41:08):
.
When you do that, it notifiesthe driver, it notifies the dock
worker, it notifies everyonethat's involved with that
shipment that that dockplacement or that truck
placement has been moved, whichstreamlines a lot of.
Because what Colin wasexplaining is that for the
overwhelming majority ofwarehouses in this country,
essentially how they're trackinginventory, how they're tracking

(41:29):
their trucks, is they walk outinto the yard first thing in the
morning and they just writedown the different trucks that
are in the yard.
Very, you can imagine, that'svery time consuming.
Obviously that information isupdated throughout the day.
So there's a lot ofinefficiencies when you have to
stop what you're doing, gooutside and count how many
trucks are in the yard and countwhat inventory is on that truck

(41:49):
and you know, just keeping tabsso you can unload those trucks
in an efficient way.
I was a little confused at firstbecause I just assumed that a
YMS technology would already beincorporated into any sort of
WMS, a warehouse managementsoftware platform.
But it's not the case that, orit's the case that, with a lot
of software and freight, thatthe software does one thing

(42:12):
really well and then they try toadd in components and the add
in components just aren't asgood as something that is
dedicated to it.
So, talking with that team overthere at the YMS technology,
they were talking about thingsthat increase efficiency, such
as having, like, say, you haveall of these trucks that are

(42:33):
ready to get unloaded in themorning.
Well, which one are you gonnaprioritize first?
Which one makes the most sensefirst?
So they were giving examples of, like a reefer load.
If a reefer the temperatureinside of the truck, if the
temperature is getting a littlebit too hot or the freight
inside of the truck is in dangerto spoil, then what you can do

(42:55):
is that it would upload and itwould update all of your systems
to let you know that, hey, thisfreight is about to reach a
spoilage level temperatures.
You need to unload it quick andyou need to get it into a space
that's dedicated for thatreefer shipment.
So instead of that freightgetting spoiled because you're
inefficiently tracking thosekinds of things throughout the
day that software can alert youto that specific problem.

(43:20):
Or another problem was like atone of the warehouses where they
get a lot of manufacturingfacilities, where they get a lot
of tire shipments or differentsources of materials that they
need to make their goods.
Well, if you're unloading onedock with a bunch of tires on it
and you have four othershipments that are scattered all
throughout the yard, you mightwanna prioritize all of those

(43:42):
truck tire shipments to come inthrough that same dock so all of
the workers can get all of thatfreight off that's all the same
and get it to the same areainstead of splitting those teams
up and creating thoseadditional inefficiencies.
There was another example thatthey had too was at a steel
manufacturer and they had twodifferent shipments.
One was for actual steel thatis ready to be used and then the

(44:04):
other was sort of scrap steel,and with the scrap steel
shipment they loaded it in thewrong truck, but they were able
to find out about it ahead oftime, before that the good steel
that's ready to be used went tothe wrong place.
That you know a high valuablesteel versus scrap steel.
They would have lost a lot ofmoney on that shipment.

(44:26):
So using the YMS software orusing just YMS software in
general can help you increasethose efficiencies and you know
they can integrate into any kindof WMS or TMS.
But I thought that that wasreally really fascinating is
like that's one area that youcan increase productivity.
You can increase yourefficiency, save money, prevent

(44:48):
fraud all of these things thatwe talk about you know on a
regular basis.
I didn't know how important aYMS solution is, but now I do.
So stay tuned for that episode.
It was really really greatconversation and just hearing
the different perspectives onhow the growth of this
particular part of software infreight has grown.

Yeah, I think we're going to see even more
investment in that piece too,because you know what, a couple
years ago, visibility was a bigthing, like where's my shipment,
where's it now?
But there's a very, it's verydifficult to you lose that
visibility within the yard.
Right, like I know?
Okay, they checked in.
But like what does that mean?
Right, like how, how soon arethey going to be unloaded?

(45:30):
There's a company that recentlyjust got a really nice chunk of
a chunk of investment terminalindustries.
I want to say it's called, yes,terminal industries, and
they're using computer visionfor kind of the same thing, like
, basically, their cameras will,as a truck pulls in.
They don't really even need tocheck in, they just they're able

(45:53):
to pull the vid number and thelicense plate number from the
truck, know what it's there for,what it has on it.
As that carrier, you know itgoes to its dock, they have
visuals on that and, which ishelpful, because it's like we
talked about detention being abig issue.
I mean we're talking about thatup yeah, like, let's get to a
point where You're not sittinghere.

(46:16):
You're like, yeah, you probablyunderstand this.
Like, especially when thecarrier side like so many times
you deliver somewhere and let'ssay the driver is 15 minutes
late, and they're like, well,you're going to sit here for six
hours that like there's no wayyou're telling me in the next
six hours that there's no openspot.
Some places there might be, butI guarantee that there's

(46:39):
someone else who probably willbe late or something where you
can slide them into that.
And that's the same thing.
That's like where the importanceof that that type of software
goes.
Because if I can, if I can tagthat up with visibility software
and say, okay, you're 15minutes late, let me look at the
rest of my analytics showcasethat, okay, truck number 10 is

(47:01):
supposed to be delivering to usin an hour, is behind.
Well then, I know I can probablyslip you into that appointment
and then work on putting himsomewhere else or her somewhere
else as well.
So I think that's when we talkabout a lot of the issues for
drivers in particular where it'sgoing to get really interesting
.
Plus, you're able to with theright yard management system.

(47:22):
That's more into like dropshipments right where you have
the trailers just sitting thereand you load them up and
carriers coming in now andthat's the best way to get rid
of tension is driver just comesin, locks up the trailer and
keeps it moving and does kind ofthe power only situation or
drops another trailer and takesthis one instead.
So, yeah, I think, happy thatyou're fine at space.

(47:47):
Interesting because I thinkthat's where we'll see a lot
more investment over the nextcouple years as well.

Yeah, I'm super glad you brought up the fact of
, like driver detention or justwasting drivers time and because
anytime they're sitting they'renot getting paid.
And so one of the bigger issueor one of the bigger complaints
that I see on Twitter, I see ondiscord, is, all you know,
drivers talking about gettingtheir time back and making their
time much more efficient sothey are making more money, so

(48:14):
they can stay out on the roadand so you don't lose a lot of
those really good veterandrivers and so you just don't
keep filling up the pipelinewith inexperienced, you know
drivers and trainers and tryingto inexperienced trainers trying
to teach the new drivers andthey just wash out very quickly
because of the way that they'retreated.
And then you have the veterandrivers who are having their

(48:36):
time wasted as well.
And so if you can havedifferent solution like don't
just like, don't just check inthe freight and think it's done
If you can optimize and you canmake your, your processes more
efficient within the yard andhow you manage that freight, it
can make the rest of the processmuch run much more efficiently,
much more smoothly.
And then you have a situationwhere drivers want to come to

(48:58):
your facility, they want todeliver to your facility and
you're not one of these.
You know shippers ormanufacturers getting shamed on
social media.

Yeah, and it's like I'm tired of this like
whole situation of like oh yeah,just write your like in and out
times on your paper, likethere's got to, we have to have
receipts.
You know like, and this is the,this is what's going to get us
to a point where we have thereceipts.
There's no like oh well, it'sas a broker, right, like tricky,
you didn't write it on your P OD, so you didn't write it.

(49:32):
You weren't, you didn't havedetention.
It's like shut up there.

Yeah, I care, the damn drivers.

Yeah, and this is going to be an easy way to look
into it and showcase hey, youwere late, hey, you weren't late
.
There's no, it's a third partytype of answer, you know.
So, yeah, I love it and I thinkthere's a lot of problems to
solve from a like just abusiness perspective.

you save a ton of money when you're not paying
detention.
So I think Michelin, which isone of the the YMS clients that
they were talking about in theinterview they saved I don't
want to say millions, but I knowit was at least hundreds of
thousands of dollars atdifferent facilities just
because they're using thistechnology.
And so it pays for itself inless than a year.

(50:18):
If you can decrease detention,if you can decrease these kinds
of payments, you make drivershappier, you make your team more
efficient.
So in tough times tougheconomic times, like you need to
be more efficient, you need tobe more productive, and this
sounds like you know a reallygood way to make that happen.
Okay, so, so what's your, youryour favorite idea?

(50:38):
Or hustle going on and freight.

So this goes into areas that I'm trying to learn
more about as well, and we're sowe're going to go a little bit
more globally, and there'sbasically the hustle is creating
better systems for regulatorybodies.
So the company in particularI've covered a numerous times is
a company called cargo X, andwhat they do is they help with

(51:04):
document scanning, creatingelectric or electric electronic
BOLs for companies, but they'vebeen actually focused more on
these big governmental groups.
So I first learned about themwhen they started working with
Egypt A couple of years ago.

(51:24):
Yeah, so and this is where Ithink this kind of stuff gets
fascinating so Egypt has this2025 vision and their goal is to
basically prepare their customsfor a more e commerce, more

(51:45):
trade type of environment, andin order to do that, they are
going to have to invest intechnology to make themselves
faster.
So basically, I think I'mlooking up the year right now.
I want to say it was in 2021when they first started, but
basically, cargo X came in andstarted working with Egypt to
create this system called and orNAVSA, so the national single

(52:12):
window for foreign tradefacilitation.
Now it's working with Egyptsystem called MTS, and it's
owned 80% by Egypt, but they'reusing the blockchain technology
of cargo X and their cuts ortheir documentation capabilities

(52:32):
to basically make customsfaster.
So this went into effect inOctober of last year and sorry,
egypt 2030 vision that's whatit's for and basically they went
from to do to do to do.
They integrated over 26 cargoclearance related government

(52:56):
systems, so before, when you'regoing through Egypt, you had to
go through 26 different cargoclearance systems.
They reduce the number ofdocuments needed from 18 to six,
so all of those 26 systems arenow under that one national
single window and you only needsix different documents in order
to actually facilitate tradethrough in and out of the

(53:19):
country, which I think is reallycool.
Like just think about it.
Like the again, these are notjust problems that small
businesses are having, but theseare big governmental problems
too, and fun facts like learningabout this stuff.
Egypt is the only country in theMiddle East and North Africa to
avoid any type of economicrecession, so that that's their

(53:43):
like goal is.
They want to focus on that,continue to be a good trades
partner, basically, and it lookslike sense.
They've started using it.
It's been used by over 32,000importers, 20,000 exporters,
2200 brokers, 300 shippingagencies, over 74,000 foreign

(54:04):
exporters, handling about 12,000trade transactions a day, which
just sounds like some reallyincredible data at the end of
the day, if you think about it.
Right like this thing islearning even more and more
every single day.
Now, the reason this came backinto my mind a couple weeks ago
is that they actually justannounced to cargo X as well

(54:26):
that they're now working withUganda's government to do the
same exact thing.
So, yeah, and that's what Ithink is like really interesting
is, like you know, a lot, a lotof countries around the world
have nowhere near as even thesmall technologies that we have
here today in the US, and so Ithink it's just interesting to

(54:48):
see, like who's out therefacilitating these transactions,
who's out there building thesepartnerships and oh, I got an
update when asking them aboutthe Ghana situation on the Egypt
one but after the past year ofall this happening, they've been

(55:08):
able to, in Egypt, bring importcompliance costs from $600 down
to 165 and release times oncargo from 29 days to under nine
.
So, and that's just gonnaimprove, right, as the system
gets smarter and smarter, and Ijust think that that kind of
stuff is really cool to like seewho's behind some of like our

(55:30):
big regulatory bodies orgovernments that's actually
getting this stuff done, becauseyou know we can, we can invent,
especially on a global scale,like all of like the blockchain
or or documentation type oftechnologies that we want, but
if the government's actually notusing them, it becomes even

(55:51):
harder to integrate a largerscale.
So that's like what I think isjust interesting is like, okay,
who's focused on this?
And there's there's a lot ofthese type of initiatives.
I know Singapore is like a bigone that they're focused on.
So, yeah, I like learning aboutthese kind of these areas a
little bit more.
I've talked about this too.
Like sometimes the globalaspect of supply chain can get

(56:13):
just like so complicated thatit's like overwhelming.
So for me it's like these smalluse cases like kind of helped
me understand the bigger pictureof it all too and to actually
see some really.
I mean we're we're talkingabout especially something like
Egypt or Uganda.
Like we can easily go and buyanything off of a team who today

(56:37):
just know that we'll get itdelivered in a certain amount of
days.
Like we're talking aboutdifferent economic groups who,
if this doesn't happen, won't beable to ever ship something to
themselves in two days, letalone a week, you know.
So it's it's the fairness andthe equality aspect of it to
that kind of find fascinating.

And I just you know, for, for folks who may not
be aware, like that, the billof lading and the fact that we
haven't evolved into anelectronic bill or it's taken
this long to evolve into, youknow, electronic bill of lading
is so fascinating to me becausethere's clear evidences.
It just from a historicalconcept that you know, I just
Google this, but there are clearevidences of the use of a

(57:19):
document similar to a bill oflading in Roman times.
Yeah, the purposes of thisdiscussion and maybe said that
the modern bill of lading wasborn in the 11th century, which
marked the rise of the greatcommercial cities of the
Mediterranean.
This comes from the Yale Schoolof Law when it's talking about
a bill of lading.
And so what?
Cargo X beautiful website, bythe way, I love a good freight

(57:41):
website and that one is reallyone of the best I've ever seen.
But the electronic bill oflading concept is just, it's so
intricate because I just did aninterview earlier this week for
Spire Global.
They they do an interview, do apodcast for them called
maritime means, and one of ourrecent interviews that we did is
from Pauline with Doc flow, andDoc flow helps maritime freight

(58:06):
forwarders and they help them.
You know, with freightforwarders it's very different
than like a freight brokerrelationship some of the same
capabilities between those tworoles, but a freight forward or
you will likely have thatrelationship with someone for 10
years.
So she specializes in buildingin a logistics enablement
solution.
I think it's the firstlogistics enablement solution.

(58:29):
One of the things that she saidwas that just the clearing
customs, you making sure thatthe bill of lading is is
properly filled out and signedthat so much of our industry,
especially in other countries,is just done through paper and
fax machines and that's going tobe a reality for a long time.
And so for a lot of forwardersthey spend so much time just

(58:51):
using whiteout on PDFs that havebeen scanned you know a million
times and trying to fill it outwhere you have the small box of
information of where you canput some of these.
You know the cargo is and youknow different you know cargo
information and so she wassaying that for a lot of these
companies, especially all overthe world, it's very challenging

(59:11):
for them for the languagebarrier to from all of the
customs rules for each of youknow these countries and just
making sure that you'refollowing all the rules so your
shipments don't get held up.
And so it sounds like cargo Xis also helping with the
electronic bill of lading, whichwould, I think, complement you
know, dock flow immensely forwhat you know she was talking

(59:32):
about, with a lot of thepersistent issues that that go
on within this industry, mostlybecause it looks like cargo X is
powered by blockchain, whichyou know there's a record of
transaction that'selectronically seen.
All parties can see it, youknow it's less likely, you know,
to fall victim to fraud.
You know, as I just mentioned,like the whiteout part of bill
of ladings, like that.

(59:53):
So that's super fascinating andbeautiful website to, by the
way, so cool.

Yeah, yeah, they're really, really
interesting and I think againit's it's like these fascinating
use cases out there, andespecially blockchain.
The biggest critique is likethe it will take this massive
option in order to really workso we can get governments on
board.
I think that'll that'll helpwith that too.

Blythe Brumleve (01:00:17):
Yeah for sure, great find, Okay.
So I think that you know thatkind of segues nicely into the
next story that I wanted to talkabout in this article was was
tweeted out by one of ourfavorite founders in freight,
and that's Ryan Peterson offlexport.
I know there's a lot of dramawe talk about.
There's a lot of drama around.

Grace Sharkey (01:00:38):
Yeah, even more now Say hi yeah.

Since the convoy news quickly, do you, do
you want to recap that for foreverybody of what's what, the
high level view of what's goingon with convoy and flexport?

Yeah, we'll stick high level because it's Geez so
.
No, it's not, it's just so and Iwill say Okay.
So long story short, flex portit was rumored for a while that
they were for, I guess, a week.

(01:01:11):
They were interested in buyingconvoy.
For those that might know theyare and do you know, brought
this up actually and what thetruck to.
He has actually a lot of, spenta lot of time and more of the
Customs freight forwarding roleand, and he said even some of
the toughest part of freightforwarding is, once you get it

(01:01:32):
here is getting it on a domestictruck and following through
that side of the transaction andBecause it's quite different
than everything that you do,just like you're saying, on the
freight forwarding side.
So there's an opportunity rightfor for Peterson and flex for
to purchase Convoy's technologyand apply that to their

(01:01:54):
brokerage unit, their domesticunit that I believe Bill Draegar
from Ubers freight right isleading and it's still leading
today.
He's wasn't one of those cutfrom a lot of Pearson's cutting,
but so then it came outyesterday that there was an
internal email sent out sayingthat that transaction is going

(01:02:14):
through and we don't know whatthe purchase number, what the
actual cost is.
I'm sure Probably figure thatout.
I will say.
I'm hoping to figure that out.
I did.
I'll tell you this, I'll putI'll put my whole life on it
that it's not $3.6 billion, butthey are looking to integrate
that to their system.

(01:02:35):
It sounds like bringing inmultiple people from Convoy as
well, including Dan Lewis, andas part of probably a leadership
role in that, in that spot.
The one thing I will say aboutthis real quick too, is that
they are purchasing just itstechnology.
They are not purchasing thecompany convoy.

(01:02:58):
So in this situation it's notgonna be like a Situation where
you see convoy powered by flexboard or something like that.
It like, for instance, transplace I believe technically is
goes by trans place still, butthey're owned by uber freight
right, and so it's not gonna bethat.
It's just they're purchasingthe tech, the behind-the-scenes

(01:03:21):
stuff.
They're not taking the name.
They also are not taking itsliabilities, and, which is
interesting to me because, justas this market is tough and
we're talking about Capacity,leaving the market, I'm and this
is again just something I'minterested in and I have not got
answers on yet but looking intolike, does that mean is there

(01:03:43):
carriers out there that arestill not being paid like?
And that's, I think, my concernis it's like okay, are we gonna
see then a bankruptcy filingfrom convoy?
We're likely carriers will getpaid like what's happening with
convoy as an entity next,because again they're just
purchasing their tech, whichmeans that asset is now gone

(01:04:05):
right and they're only and fromthe numbers I've heard nowhere
again near billions.
So I have heard from driversthat in the last couple days of
convoy they did get quick paid,so I'm hoping that everyone gets
.
That's good.
I'm and that's something I'dlike to really try to
investigate into talking to evenRachel about a little bit.
But that's one thing and thatwe won't see like a convoy

(01:04:28):
within Flexport.
It will just be flex forpurchasing and applying that
technology to their tech suite.

Yeah, that that's super interesting because
convoy just I'm I'm gonnaisolate this point separate from
everything else.
Convoy just has such a coolname.
They have cool branding.
Yeah, I, I'd love their brand,the branding itself, like the
logo, the graphics they, youknow, I think that they had had
at one point at least in threein-house graphic designers and

(01:04:56):
you can tell that with a lot oftheir marketing, so that I mean,
I would hope that the convoybrand will live on to see
another day.
But I think that you hit thenail on the head that you have
to get these small carriers paid, medium-sized carriers paid.
Even going, you know, 60 days,90 days, is tough for small
businesses.
You know they need that cashand they need it quickly.

(01:05:18):
So my only worry is that ifsome of this stuff, you know,
does have to go througharbitration or go through, you
know, bankruptcy rulings and allthat is going to make it
tougher for these small carriersto get their money and get it
quickly, because there are thesmall carriers are always paid
last and they're the ones thatshould be paid first and I, you
know that.

(01:05:38):
That's one thing that you know.
It's unfortunate about thissituation.
I hope gets solved quickly, butI guess kudos to to the
Flexport team for you knowbuying the technology on.
You know Penny's on the dollar,apparently for what they were.

That's the thing for me.
So the the big part I will sayabout this is they have already
been using convoy.
So I'm interested.
I Would love to kind of knowthe numbers because I'm
wondering if, when convoy shutdown, if that hurt them in the
domestic side, and and exactlywhat they did a pain for for it,

(01:06:16):
because Flexport has beenintegrated into convoy for some
time to help with that domesticshipping.
So what's cool is it's notgoing to take too much
integration in regards to likeprocesses and Customers or
customers are likely alreadybeen using it.
They might see more of theconvoy interface now, like the
user interface, but a lot itsounds like they they when I

(01:06:39):
remember actually writing aboutthis forever ago but they,
they've been integrated into thesystem and been using them for
the domestic source.
So that's that's.
It seems interesting to me.
I'd love to know what's a dataplay just more of.
We can't cover it ourselves.
We'll use you guys to do that,okay.
So I'm just interested likeokay, maybe they were like a

(01:07:03):
strong partner for flexport andFor flexports, like we got to
purchase this or else you knowwe're we're falling behind so
very good point.
Yeah, I mean, and I think wefind that out probably by, like,
the number that it sells for.
But that's something Rachel putin there that I actually kind
of forgot about, even though Ithink I wrote about it forever.

(01:07:25):
It was a while ago, um.
But so that's the other parttoo.
It's like I wonder if it's,it's almost a purchase that they
kind of needed to make, which,would you know, be helpful in
the price?
I think I'm convoy side, butwe'll see if we can get a number
out of them.

Yeah, for sure, and I think, what with flexport
, I the main criticism that thatI saw from, and it's like, oh
well, you, you laid all thesepeople off and then you're gonna
you have all this money now togo and, you know, buy out convoy
.
And so I, you know that thatcould be the re you're, at your
point, making that they probablyneed this software In order to
keep themselves in survival modeand, you know, during a down

(01:08:03):
market, which is everybody isexperiencing right now.
So maybe that's thejustification behind it, because
that was one of the biggercriticisms that I did see yeah,
so we'll figure it out.

Let's see if we can find the price out on it and
we'll go from there.
But yeah, it's a, it's aninteresting one, and I I just
said, well, we'll see whathappened.
I'm making a joke the other day, like the team that comes on,
like I wonder how long they'llstick.
You know it's a.
There's a lot from the energyof cost cutting that Peterson

(01:08:34):
seemed to be on about threeweeks ago, and then you're gonna
, you know, purchase this andthen Clearly they I know that
they had some, some cash on thehand.
There wasn't anything thatcrazy, but I don't know,
peterson, this just seemed alittle bit all over the place
for me recently, and Not in abad way, but just in a strange

(01:08:55):
way.
So again, you know it turns out.

It's.
I mean, maybe he's tried tofind different ways to save
money and and also spend thatmoney and so, obviously, with
the cost cutting and withdifferent investments to keep
the you know, there there's it,guess, their solution moving
forward.
There was also another costcutting initiative and that was
an article titled the greattrain robbery.
This comes from Flex Sports, vpof global physical security,

(01:09:22):
but everything that basicallyCargo theft is at an all-time
high, 10 year high as it is, andFrom talking to, I had an
interview that that postedearlier this week with Taryn,
who works over in accountsPayable yeah, accounts payable
with SPI logistics, and she saidthat she has been trained from

(01:09:44):
some of their internal Teamsthat have been around for a
while that typically in economicdownturns you see rises in
cargo theft, and so thishappened in like 2008, 2009, and
so it would really sort of youknow, pair well or not pair well
, but that data tracks with whatwe're seeing right now with
cargo theft being at a 10 yearhigh.

(01:10:05):
So I thought that this articlefrom Flexport was really
interesting that talked aboutthe different Stages of train
robberies and how they occur.
Most of us had heard, you know,about a lot of the trains
Getting robbed out.
In Port of Long Beach, the Portof LA, you just sort of saw
these sort of like dystopiantrain tracks with like boxes and

(01:10:26):
packaging materials just throwneverywhere.
But it turns out like the spikesin the cargo theft and this is
I'm reading from flex portsarticle right now Says a spikes
in cargo theft, along withsuccessful efforts to curb the
trend, have hit the news cycleseveral times over the last
couple of years.
Known simply as shopping thethieves board trains while

(01:10:46):
they're passing through built-uppopulated areas that have yet
to pick up speed.
So these trains that are movingfrom the port to different
warehouses and facilities theygo very slow.
But so with with flexport, whatthey've done to try to solve
this.
It says by inputting data onrecent thefts, rail schedules,
police movements, etc.
Flexport can now trackconnections between rail lines,

(01:11:07):
criminal gangs, carriers andmore, which I think just leads
to just sort of like the overall, like what are you doing to
combat this?
Because from the research thatthat I was in, shout out to
commercial carrier carrierjournal, who had a two-part
Series on their YouTube channel,is really really good talking
about cargo theft.
They posted it like a few weeksago.

(01:11:29):
It was really really insightful.
But they said that there's twokinds of stolen freight.
They're strategic, which islike the bad guys sort of trick
you into giving you there thefreight, and then there's
there's also straight, juststraight theft.
So the what's going on at therail lines is just straight
theft because it's the freightis, though it's.
They're moving so slow that thefreight is just sitting there.

(01:11:51):
The thieves will see the trainscoming through.
They don't really have an ideaof what kind of freight is on
those different containers thatare moving through, and so
they're basically just likehopping on, cutting open the the
doors and then just goinginside and just opening up boxes
.
That's why you see thatmaterial just sort of thrown out
everywhere.
But there's also where thestrategic freight now it's

(01:12:16):
becoming more of like a highimpact, like high-scale, like
just thievery, where you knowthey're, they're trying to.
There was one situation that hetalked about in particular that
if there is a high value load,like, say, you know, electronics
that hits a load board, whatwill happen is that these
Networks of thieves willessentially flood your location

(01:12:39):
with phone calls.
They'll try to get, as they'lltry to get as many people within
their network, within theircrime ring, to just flood your
phones.
So then that one of them hasaccess to that load and they
will sometimes pay a cheaperrate in Order to or offer you
that the cheapest amountpossible to move that freight,
and a lot of brokers they'regonna say yes to that because

(01:13:00):
they're trying to you know, movefor us, you know, as much
possible or trying to make theirmargins as much as possible.
So they'll just go ahead andaccept it and so what?
They'll watch that freight movefrom place to place and then
they will Strike when the ironis hot.
You know that typically whathappens is that you know drivers
will, unless you are routingproperly.

(01:13:23):
So say, for example, if you'regonna be, if you're a driver and
you're gonna be hauling a loadof flat-screen TVs, what they're
now doing to try to combat, youknow, just, a truck just
sitting or sitting overnight, isthey want the driver to have
their full hours available, theywant them fully rested, they
want them fully fueled up so assoon as that freight hits their
truck they can drive as long aspossible because they're getting

(01:13:45):
hit at truck stops.
They're getting hit at reststops.
Thieves are just straight up,just cutting open the back of
the truck but they're trackingit.
So it's really like strategicFevery that the driver is a lot
of times unaware of what's goingon.
So shout out to commercialcarrier journal because I
learned a ton about you knowjust how you can prevent it,

(01:14:06):
sort of.
They also talked a lot aboutthe golden rule of a stealing
freight Is that you don't stealwhat you can't sell and.
The cool.
I guess the interest is a coolthing.
The interesting thing aboutthis kind of freight is Is that
food and beverage has been thetop commodity that has been

(01:14:28):
stolen for the last 10 years upuntil 2020.
It was the top freight that wasstolen because once you steal
it, it's consumed and there'salso no serial number on.
You know a bottle of liquor oryou know seafood shipments.
You know things like high value,like steaks and seafood, things
like that.
Like it's consumed, that, soit's gone.
So once food and beverage istaken, it's, it's, it's just

(01:14:52):
considered a loss, whereas, likea TV, has a serial number on it
so you can easily track thatback to, you know, a stolen
shipment.
So I thought that that wasreally interesting.
In, food and Bev is the numberone commodity stolen, and that
was the case from 2009 up until2020 and then in 2020, while
we're all at home.

(01:15:13):
Remember that golden rule.
So that theft evolved into homegoods and then it evolved into
electronics because everyone isworking from home, the you know
kids are learning from home.
But now in this year, it's backto food and Bev as the number
one commodity stolen.
So he you know he goes on totalk about different prevention

(01:15:34):
tips.
So focus on your I loved thisapproach.
Focus on your processes.
Before you buy any tech ortools, there are these different
locks that exist.
That is there, I forget.
What they're called is like aspecific kind of hard locks on
the doors and Landing locks onthe truck itself to prevent the
truck from even moving.

(01:15:55):
So it says to focus on yourprocesses.
First, have cameras at entrydocks, entry points and at the
docks don't let anyone in theyard unless they're allowed to
be there.
Kind of going back to yardmanagement solutions, but that
you know thieves will just driveinto a yard and just take a
look around and just see whatkind of freight's being Unloaded

(01:16:16):
and just sort of watch things.
So if you have those differentcheckpoints of when thieves
arrive and or not thieves arrive, but all of your trucks like no
one should be allowed into youryard unless they're supposed to
be there, simple things likefocusing on that, that part of
the process, before you investin technology and like different
locking, security cameras,things like that Checking

(01:16:36):
paperwork when drivers leave tomake sure it all matches up,
because that's another scamthat's been going on is that you
know they'll get the paperworkand then the driver is
unassuming when they getdifferent kinds of paperwork, so
they don't have any idea.
Cross-talking is also anotherhigh point of where, you know
cargo theft can happen as well,and I what I love about this is

(01:16:59):
they also you know it preach thepower of education.
You know, empower your driversto be that next line of defense
and make them aware, becausedrivers, you know that they
don't want to.
You know, they know whenthey're hauling dangerous
freight, but they also don'tlose that dangerous, that high
value freight as well.
So empowering them to be restedup, field up, so when they do

(01:17:20):
leave they can drive as long asthey can, securing rear, rear
doors while the driver issleeping, staying overnight only
at secure lots because truckstops are also highly targeted.
And then there really is anassociation for everything but
TAPA, which is anotherassociation I've never heard of

(01:17:41):
until after this.
You know video series, top, topus, top us, and it's for
Transported asset protectionAssociation.
Apparently they have a recordamount of people that are going
to be attending their conferencein coming up in December in
Boca Raton.
So I thought that I never knewthat there was, but it makes a

(01:18:03):
lot of sense that there is.
And then they said alsoEducation.
So cargo net is a cargo theftprevention company.
So they said to use them aswell, but make sure you get your
processes in order.
And then conferences like TAPA,companies like cargo net also
overhaul.
All of these companies helpwith prevention tips, monitoring

(01:18:26):
, things like that.
So I I thought that that wasjust a really fun like sort of
deep dive into, I guess, thecriminal world of Moving freight
, which unfortunately happensmore.
You know, as the as the economyis not seeing you know such,
you know good times.
So I thank you for listening tomy cargo crime rant and and

(01:18:47):
speech.

Well, you know it's a.
I actually said this at TIA too.
It's like, don't put me infront of an audience.
I Kind of called out becauseyou know that's a room full of
brokers and so, like, this is aperfect opportunity for me to be
kind of honest.
And you know, when it comes tocargo theft, yes, there's like
there's clearly highway.
There's a lot of like carriershare programs carrier 401 one

(01:19:12):
that you can use to kind of likeGuide you into the direction of
like whether or not thiscarrier is risk for cargo theft,
etc.
Cargo nets a great one to youright using and reporting to
that over time.
My biggest fear, especially whenwe see that number gets so big
yes, I do agree, it's like a lotof it has to do with recession.

(01:19:33):
There are people that arestruggling right now and are, of
course, stealing more, but whatpercent of those are?
I'd love to know what thatnumber looks like if we take out
what was almost self-induced byour own industry.
So what I mean by that is howmuch of that is from your

(01:19:54):
carrier rep, knowing thatthey're incentivized off big
rips saying to themselves youknow what this guy's known for
putting it on a train, fuck it.
I want this $500 rip.
I'm gonna put them on itBecause I see that stuff happen
in these brokers all the timeand there are compliance steps

(01:20:16):
and I think there's a lot ofdigital players that have steps
to avoid even a rough makingthat decision, like they can't
even be on this.
But like how often are weoverriding that function?
How often are our reps usinghighway, seeing that they're at
risk and still giving the loadto those carriers?
Right?
And that's like my biggest fearis in an environment we've

(01:20:36):
talked about, especially atfreight waves, where brokers are
having a rough time.
I can guarantee your sales repshaven't seen the commission
checks that they saw two yearsago.
And because you onlyincentivize them off of their
rips, which is dumb to beginwith, and people aren't doing
that anymore, so consider notdoing it either they're actually

(01:20:57):
like doing this on purpose andknowing that at the end of the
day, like it's gonna be aninsurance claim.
Possibly there's differentsteps that's gonna avoid them
truly being in trouble.
For I mean, I've seen C-levelexecutives like just let even

(01:21:17):
some shipments gladly go withoutinsurance coverage.
So it's like how worse could itget?
So that's my biggest critique islike I hope that our industry
is not just like hearing thisnews and being like, yeah, cargo
theft is like at its worst.
Like, what steps do you have incompliance that's making sure

(01:21:40):
this isn't happening?
And when Joe Schmo comes up toyou and it's a rough day in your
brokerage and you're nothitting your goal and Joe Schmo
says, hey, listen, this carrieris kind of shady, but he's gonna
do it for a really good price,can I just put him on it?
How often are you saying no tothat?
And how are you saying no tothat?
Are you saying work on it, seewhat else you can put on it?

(01:22:00):
Are you saying no, that's nothow we operate, and so that's
like a big thing.
I just like to challenge ourindustry is like are you being
very serious?
And how you're implementingways to stop cargo fraud?
And also I think that this isnot gonna go away.
I think this is gonna becomejust a bigger issue over time.

(01:22:21):
We're not seeing the economyflip anytime soon, and so for me
, it's like there's gonna be apoint where a shipper is gonna
ask you what steps are youtaking?
And if you aren't taking thosesteps, I mean the insurance
isn't gonna pay for it, it'sgonna come from your company.
We just saw we lost a broker theother day right, clarissa just

(01:22:44):
wrote about it for what theyreally got hit with and I think
it was a $700,000 claim that putthem already back in the rear
and then they couldn't get outof that situation so they ended
up having to file bankruptcy.
And I appreciate the way thatthe owner kind of talk through

(01:23:05):
that situation, but I also wannaknow more detail about how that
happened, because to say like,oh we're cost are too high in
this industry, no one can playand be a part of this.
I'd love to know how thatinsurance claim got put together
.
Like, how did that end upfalling apart?
Because that is a big claim.
Someone did something wrong,and the fact that you ate it

(01:23:27):
tells me you did something wrong, because I don't know any
broker who I would.
If a shipper made me eat a$700,000 claim to keep them as a
customer in this industry, I'mgonna buy you now you can go
anywhere else.
Like again, bad customers, butI can guarantee if you ate that
$700,000 claim, you didsomething wrong.
So that's just kind of where Iam when it comes to what are we

(01:23:52):
really doing, and I think thatwill become a value at some
point in time in the next somany months.
Maybe it takes a couple ofyears, but shippers will wanna
know that It'll no longer be.
Hey, I've got a cheap truck inthe area.
It's like great, is your cheaptruck gonna steal my shit?
Like, and what are you doing toavoid that?
Because I've been dealing withthis left and right and the more

(01:24:14):
that you get into expensivefreight especially and you
touched on this and I love thisexpensive freight that can be
easily offloaded, like I'm notused to when we steal, I'd have
drivers all the time be like ifyou don't pay us an extra 50
bucks for detention, we're gonnatake this off our truck.
I'm like, yeah, okay, where areyou gonna go find an overhead
crane in New Jersey and pay forthat to take this off your truck

(01:24:35):
?
And then where are you sitting?
Like, how are you moving?
You know what I mean.
Like there's some freightthat's like, yeah, buddy, it's
gonna cost you more than thefreight itself to steal this
load.
But when you're dealing withproduce and small packages,
boxes, a lot of the freight inthis industry we talked about
like almonds, right, like orpistachios, like those things

(01:25:01):
are expensive.
The truck lords pistachios.
I'll gladly steal that truck ifI can, like.
That is like that's like,depending on what country you're
from, generational wealth rightthere.
So it's just be smart about itand I hope that that's like part
of the training in providers.
Out there is like not this,like come to us in situations.

(01:25:25):
No, these are our standards.
We stick to them.

Everyone else can say goodbye, and I would
imagine that a lot of shipperswould value that approach and
use it as a market.
We would talk about how do youmarket yourself, how do you
differentiate yourself.
This is one of those ways youcan use these reports of
skyrocketing cargo theft and saythis is how we're gonna prevent
that.
And guess what, during bidseason, I would imagine that a

(01:25:51):
lot of companies, a lot ofshippers, are gonna be looking
at those different kinds ofcriteria versus just somebody
who is just gonna be bottom ofthe barrel cheap.
So having some of theseinitiatives set up in advance, I
think, will definitely help fora lot of brokers out there
trying to find an edge.
Otherwise, you're gonna end upin a situation like this

(01:26:13):
situation that's happeningcurrently over at TQL.
I love this.
Duneur had this great tweetthat was and if you're just
listening you're not watching adriver pulled up.
He spray painted the side ofhis truck says TQL, pay me my
$8,000.
And then on the side it says Idon't run for charity.

(01:26:34):
So he parks this truck rightoutside of TQL headquarters and
basically trying to get the restof his money and instead of
calling, instead of beingignored, he took a very creative
approach to park his truck infront of it and ended up getting
his money or not all of hismoney, but he got $5,700.
Is basically what Matt Dahl hada live stream with this guy

(01:26:58):
earlier and he said that theycaved and paid him the driver,
$5,700.
So shouting in different wayskind of works.

Yeah, and I think I might have said you the other
one too.
It sounds like this is like aplay this dude does.
It's like, apparently, like hewill gladly spray paint anyone
on the side of his truck thatowes him money and go like I
don't know if this is the firsttime he's done it or if he's
gonna keep doing it as he goesforward, but it sounds like,

(01:27:28):
yeah, when I spray anything onmy trailers, I don't take it
down until I get paid, and allmy trucks will only run local.
That's the best part only runlocal.
So it's like this dude's likewe're only taking Cincinnati
loads until you pay us up.
We just drive around this.
Honestly, gabriel, if that'syou, I don't hate it.

It's so crazy I don't hate it either.
Get your money.

It's so good.
It's so good Because you knowthat he pulled up and everyone
starts saying like, oh my God,is that my?

driver, oh shit .

Yeah, like I mean , it's like, oh my God, who is
this dude?
And he ended up getting.
He didn't get the full amount,but he did get what he, I guess,
deserved.
And when we see more of this?
You know, I've neverexperienced this.
To be honest with you, I'venever had a driver show up for a

(01:28:18):
check.
I will say I have visited acustomer once to ask where a
check was going, which lawyerssaid was not illegal, and just
to like spray paint your truck.
So so awesome.
Like, imagine just sittingoutside the stadium, like TQL

(01:28:41):
stadium, like that, Like so, andthen you drive.
Honestly, I understand thelocal part, but like, even if
you were to drive likenationally, like if I'm a driver
and I see that in someone'struck, I'm probably thinking
twice when I take a TQL.

Very, true, the truck space, the lack of
advertising on truck space, isreally interesting.
Well, I was tasked with thiswhen I worked as an executive
assistant, where they wanted meto find ways to monetize the
sides of the trucks because itwas just pretty much just free
billboards driving down thehighway.

(01:29:16):
I mentioned that to MatthewLeffler recently and he's like
ah, he's like I would kind ofargue against that because
advertising can have a differentapproach where you know if you
get, if that truck gets into anaccident or a car around you
gets into that, it gets into anaccident and they could blame
your truck for distracting them.
So I mean, at least like thismethod of spray painting the

(01:29:38):
side of your truck like it worksand if you, especially if
you're saying but it works in avariety of ways to get paid.

Lawyers ruin everything Except for Edgar
Allen poem poems.
I think that's what we'velearned.
Matthew Leffler, like I wasjust trying to put a cool ad on
my truck and you're telling me Ionce knew like that guy's a
murderer.
Like that is some lawyer adviceruining everything.

All right.
Well, let's switch gears alittle bit to the last segment
of today's show.
We've already been going anhour and a half.
Yeah, these shows.
I guess we just got a bucketfor two hours each time.
I don't know how we cut it downbecause there's so much cool
stuff to talk about.
So the next one is or the finalsegment is a source to porch
the logistics of.
We each get to choose ourfavorite story of the month, and

(01:30:28):
you have one, so I'll go aheadand let you kick this one off
and present it for us.

Yeah.
So this is a story aboutCanada's largest supply chain
loss of all time, and it's tiedin with our favorite target.
So about seven years ago,target was announcing its first
stores in Canada.
However, behind the scenes, itwas an absolute disaster.
The goods were just coming intodistribution centers faster
than they expected.

(01:30:54):
Of course, a ton of issues withbarcodes, computer systems not
matching up, shipments justpiling up, and at some point,
target actually had to fly someof their supply chain people in
the United States up to Canadain order to try to figure out
some of these long-termsolutions, which didn't last

(01:31:14):
long, because they aren't inCanada today.
Now, from what we've heard, itsounds like their contractor at
the time was not the best andwasn't that's what I'm
explaining this well-versed inthe logistics of Canada in
particular.
Now, so to launch in Canada.

(01:31:37):
It was called Project Bacon,which is like, so interesting to
me I don't know how to argue.
I guess, oh, I guess, like,yeah, like the ham of Canadian
bacon.
Maybe that's it, and so it wassupposed to be.
Of course, they decided theywanted to open up stores coast
to coast, and more often thannone when companies do this in

(01:31:57):
Canada, when US companies andretailers move to Canada.
They open one store at a timeand it slowly progressed.
But Target was like no, we'reTarget, we're gonna just kick
butt here and we're gonna openup all across.
Now their distribution in theUnited States at the time was
just a best well oil machine ofall time, no issues at all.
But in Canada they're using acompany called 11 Points

(01:32:21):
Logistics to manage three largewarehouses at the time.
So they're located near Quebecborder, outside of Toronto and
also near Calgary, so againacross all of Canada, about 1.5
million square feet.
And as they arrived there wasjust a ton of discrepancies with
what was in the boxes.

(01:32:42):
Computer records were reallydelayed and, for example, a lot
of their boxes they would say 24shirts were in there, but
there'd only be 10.
And so just a lot of supplychain problems went with it.
It looks like one of thebiggest issues they had in their
warehouses at the time was likethe biggest Christmas item for

(01:33:05):
them was these Barbie SUVs, soyou're like you know the toddler
SUVs that you can take two kidsin.
Well, they had ordered just waytoo many, apparently, like the
order sheet was wrong, so theyhad just like literally so much
space in their warehouse wasjust covered in Barbie SUVs that
weren't selling at the levelthat they had accidentally

(01:33:26):
ordered.
And at the end of it, all thisended up costing Target about
$941 million before interest intaxes at the time.
And other retailers like HomeDepot and Walmart apparently
have tried to do this too openin Canada and just don't realize
or understand the local marketsor just supply chain within

(01:33:48):
Canada as well, which is kind ofinteresting because I've talked
to I remember talking to likeUber Freight at one point, like
when are you guys going to openup in Canada?
And they're like it's a lotmore difficult than you think.
It is routing and, of course,pricing et cetera.
So we're like slowly going tomove into that.
And I think this kind ofshowcased it I mean especially
someone as big as Target who Ithink even today has really

(01:34:12):
interesting supply chain and howthey use their stores now for
warehousing and how they deliverfrom home to see that, yeah,
it's the largest supply chainloss of all time in Canada 941.
I have read other reports toothat said it was closer to like
$1.6 billion.
So yeah, just trying to expandyour supply chain, don't do it

(01:34:39):
all at once, don't order onaccident, one of, like, the
largest things that can't bebroken down into pieces,
including Barbie SUVs, and theyhaven't been back since it
sounds like.
So yeah, be careful of Canada.
It's harder than you think.
You think that'll be like aMexico problem, you know, just
like trying to expand intoMexico, but I guess it's a.

(01:35:00):
Canada has always been an issuefor US retailers and if you
think about it, how?

many of those.
How long during the year canlittle kids use those SUVs?
It's not exactly.
There's a lot of snow on theground.
Maybe, like for your problem,all the time.

Yeah, Well it took you a little bit of a
splitting To give you a littlebit update too, because when I
was doing this I was like, well,what other big like supply
chain loss has had there been?
One of the other ones I foundpretty interesting was where is
it to do Apple?

(01:35:38):
They actually lost a billiondollars from unfulfilled orders
back with their launching theirpower book laptops.
Because they didn't.
There was some other HP thatwas coming out at the same time
and their provider just couldn'tkeep up with, like the chips
and everything.
So this stuff happens quitefrequently and I just think it's

(01:36:03):
interesting how these likeproblems.
It's always like weirdsituations that lead to these
huge problems.

The ripple effect.
They call it a supply chain fora reason.

Yeah, right, exactly.
So, yeah, some fun losses.
I'm gonna be covering some ofthem throughout the rest of the
holiday season because I thinkthey're interesting on the radio
, so you can check that out too.

Yes, I definitely co-signed that
because I had no idea that thatwould even be a problem.
I would just assume that youcould just sell those things off
eventually.
But you're right if the morereal estate you're taking up
inside of a warehouse and thatmeans less turnover, there's
less things that could be comingin and making more money, it's
just taking up a lot of spaceand unfortunate.

(01:36:47):
So I guess that's a really goodone, especially from the fact
of just thinking of it from theoverall supply chain and just
trying to get a grasp on whatsome of these big retailers are
doing, and I think a lot ofother companies could learn from
that as well.

Okay, Yours is interesting, so I'm excited to
hear this one.

I needed to take a sip before I started on
this journey, because mine thistime is the logistics of Tend
Fish and canned tuna.
So I have eaten.
Do you eat canned tuna at all,or Tend Fish?
Oh, yeah, yeah, you do.

Is that true?
That's true.
That's strange.
I just said I have a cat, youknow, so it's like tuna.
There's nothing like seeing acat when you open up a can of
tuna.
Yeah, tuna, like you never hada tuna for sandwich.

I have it all the time.
I did it I thought I was maybelike the strange one who did
that all the time.
I have literally at least threeor four.
It's almost like orange juicein my house, like if I run low
on tuna I'm going out that dayand like getting an entire new
order.
So I always I keep that thingstrapped on me.

Or chicken too, because I make a mean bubble of
chicken dip and canned chickenis like perfect for those
recipes.

Smart, yeah, really smart.
So I grew up eating canned tunamy whole life, so I thought I
was one of the weird ones thatstill like keeps it in their
house and I eat it at least twoor three times a month.
It's just a really quick, likegood protein, affordable thing
that you can keep in your in thecabinet.
You don't have to worry aboutit spoiling.
So I'm a big fan of CNBC videoson YouTube.

(01:38:31):
They make these greatbreakdowns that are sometimes as
short as five minutes andsometimes as long as 30 minutes
to an hour, but they reallycover with a lot of the things
that they talk about thelogistics side of it.
So I wanted to share this quicklittle video about that popped
up on my timeline this weekabout canned tuna and how I

(01:38:52):
guess millennials have kind offallen out of love with it.
So let me play this quick clip.
Hopefully we can hear someaudio from it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:04):
Can tuna has been a staple in American pantries for
years, and for good reason.
It's cheap and loaded withprotein.
The process of how it gets intoAmerican homes looks something
like this Thai Union and othersimilar entities primarily
gather tuna from global fishingfleets in tuna rich zones.
Fishing vessels spend days oreven weeks catching fish before
returning to ports.
Some even prolong their time atsea using trans shipment, a

(01:39:27):
process of where they offloadtheir catch to a carrier ship
resupply and head back home formore.
Once caught, the tuna isprepped for rockers and nets in
Thailand, so with frozen, andfrom there it's transported to
places like Lyons, georgia.
The tuna shipped from Thailandis then thought at Chicken of
the Seas canning facility toabout 38 degrees.
It's then unwrapped from itsplastic casing, cut to size for

(01:39:49):
cans filled with brine, oil orwater, then pressure cooked in
its retort process, where about18,000 cans are cooked at a time
.
Once the tuna is done cooking,it's then ready for shipping.
But there are other ways toprepare.

Yeah, so that's a quick clip from as soon as that
starts playing.
I should smell it through the.
You smell the tuna through thecomputer.

Grace is holding her cat up to watch the
video about tuna, in case you'relistening to the podcast
version of this but they talkabout the logistics of it, the
transportation behind it, and soI thought that that was super
interesting.
But what's more interesting isthat obviously, catching tuna,
catching any kind of fish, issusceptible to a lot of the

(01:40:33):
rising costs, inflation that wesee.
There's rising vessel costs,fuel costs, and then there's
also the trouble, specificallywhen it comes to tuna, of
migratory patterns.
So the tuna migratory patternsare changing and so, if you
think about rising costs andvessels rising costs and fuel
and then trying to find the damnfish, there's a lot of money
being wasted on a product thatis traditionally thought of as

(01:40:57):
very affordable.
So Thai Union, which was thecompany that they were just
featuring, is one of the largestseafood buyers in the world, so
they're the owners of Chickenon the Sea, also Red Lobster
Group, so they operate on a 3%margin, which is crazy to think
about.
I mean that just speaks to theamount of costs that are

(01:41:19):
involved, which I know your catsounds like she's very upset by
this as well.
She's just very upset.
But then there's another article, because, with a lot of these
stories.
It leads me into these rabbitholes, because what originally
sort of back it up just a littlebit.
My TikTok for you page has justbeen flooded with a tend to

(01:41:42):
fish talk and it ends with nextweek'sブレー君.
In addition to Cantuna, tendFish is also making a gigantic
comeback because, basically, youcan keep it for a lot of the
same reasons as Cantuna you cankeep it in it's shelf stable,
you can keep it in your cabinetsfor a while and it's affordable
and also very like thesustainable approach.

(01:42:05):
I'll get into more of that injust a second, but recently
Forbes had an article that saidsince the start of the pandemic,
tend to seafood sales have beenon the rise, especially with
the abundance of TikTok recipesand tend to seafood boards.
The segment has and continuesto grow, with the global canned
seafood market expected to reacha little $50 billion in sales

(01:42:28):
by 2030, expanding at a compoundannual growth rate of close to
6%, so 5.9%.
Then there's also somesustainability questions,
specifically around tuna inparticular and just seafood as a
whole, which has led to thistrend of tend to fish.
And this little bit courtesy ofMorning Brew.

(01:42:50):
So I'm going to share thislittle because I love their
their graphics that they sharedfor this article.

Love this.

And they talk about sales of canned seafood
shot up by 10% in the US in 2022.
The primary driver has beenTikTok and while because TikTok
creators are creating it very anaesthetic way.
But I love this line that sayswhile some users claim, the
trend is giving great depression, yeah, that's literally what I

(01:43:19):
was going to say.

It's because we're so poor that we're just
can't hear.
I mean, I love that aspect ofit Giving great depression.
It's giving poor.
Your tuna fish obsession isgiving poor.

Then they go on to say the hashtag of tend to
fish dinners had now has 20million views that that hashtag,
this article, was written backin January.
So I went and looked last nightto see how much has grown.
That hashtag now has 110million views of tend to fish.
So to you're probably wonderinghow do you make, like, how do

(01:44:00):
you make like this kind of stuff, I guess aesthetic, like?
How do you make tend to fishaesthetic?
Well, I got a good recap for youis this one creator who went to
Spain recently and he spent.
It was a challenge that he goesto every country and he tries
to find, I guess, just differentthings to try in that country

(01:44:21):
for 30 days straight.
Spain is one of the top placeswhere it comes from, where a lot
of tend fish comes from, so I'mgoing to switch to this talk
really quick.

I love the expression of tend fish.

It's just, it sounds gross, but it sounds more
like the word tend.
All right, let me play thisquick video of all the different
ways that you can use tend fish.

Speaker 5 (01:44:50):
Because I love all of them and I just didn't think it
was fair.
Tough list.
Starting at number five, we gotthe baby eels with fries and
fried eggs.

Oh, my God.

Speaker 5 (01:45:00):
Coming up at number four is the sardines with the
olive and tomato salad.
Oh, I'm still dreaming aboutthat.
Number three we got the classicSpanish snack, the bean chos,
which is octopus, and all ofskewers.
I could not do a list withoutthe bar quimets.
I mean, I know I didn't do theactual tend fish myself, but

(01:45:20):
this was an experience of alifetime.
You have to go.
Number one spot uni on toast,the most simplest we've ever
done.
But man uni in a tin.
I'm still thinking about what.
The 30 day challenge.

So yeah, so that is the growth of sort of
the tend fish market Because,going back to the sustainability
issue, there's a coupledifferent web sites that I found
.
That one is called, like, thetend fish market.
They have a all cart optionsthat you can order these
different tend fish from, or 10seafood I guess that is what I
should call it.
They also have subscriptionboxes and they said that from

(01:46:03):
tend fish market they said thecanneries we work with subscribe
to sustainable fishingpractices such as pole inline
fishing, which reduces by catchand does not damage the sea bed.
So they specifically go afterfishermen who are using a line
and a pole and not like thesegiant you know, just
conglomerates of you know thesevessels, like red lobster group

(01:46:27):
and things like that.
There's another company toocalled Wild Planet and they use
the same methods.
It's very focused on sustainablefishing and just trying to make
sure that you are eating, ifyou love seafood, if you want to
find little ways to become moresustainable, things like that.
This was another great exampleof just trying to be more

(01:46:49):
responsible with yourconsumption.
I mean, obviously you know Ipreach that companies as a whole
are responsible forsustainability options, because
overwhelming majority of carbonemissions are by like 90% of
carbon emissions are by like thetop 10% of all companies.
So but if you want to come upwith better ways to make your, I

(01:47:10):
guess you know just a littlelittle sustainability tricks at
a time.
So I thought that that was areally just like fun deep dive.
So shout out to Wild Planet,shout out to the tend fish
market.
I have since ordered a bunch ofseafood from them, so I'm
excited to give it a try.
I'm a I'm a star kissed girlyat heart and so I'm excited to

(01:47:33):
give other areas of differentseafood a try, especially like
the octopus.
I've even seen with a lot ofthe tend fish that they will
just put it right in pasta andcook the pasta in the same oil
that the tend fish was in, so itmakes her like super quick
dinners and just spruce it up alittle bit with your own stuff,
of course.

Tuna helper yeah, which is good, like sometimes
tuna helper hits if you make itright to the tuna salad.

Like pasta, like love it yes and so you know
, being a Floridian, I love myseafood.
I'm a little bit of a seafoodsnob, as I say this after
talking about tend fish.

Yeah, I kind of like my seafood.
I'm a snob about it.
I get it in a can.

Well, I would say that about fresh seafood I
definitely like.
When I go to Landlock States Ican tell oh yeah, stuff is like
you know, just not as fresh,which I'm spoiled.
I know to live here, you know,right next to the best shrimp in
the world.
I will say that thatJacksonville Mayport Fisheries
has the best shrimp in the worldand I'll fight anybody on that

(01:48:42):
topic.
But I am looking for more waysto be sustainable with my
seafood consumption.
And this just the TikTokaesthetic, just made it look a
little dreamy.

I'm not going to lie, I'm giving four Blake.

I have been influenced by giving great
depression.
Yeah.

I'm just trying to be sustainable over here, so
we're going to stick to the canstuff.
No, that's really cool.
Especially, yeah, I feel like Ineed to maybe expand my my tend
fish thoughts because, yeah,I'm just tuna pretty much over
here.
I'm not going to be able toyeah.

I'm going to be able to get my chicken,
sometimes for a dip, butinteresting.
So I'll let you know how my myorder goes.

Yes, little, but a little bit more expensive,
where, like a wild planet, forexample, is like six or $7 a tin
, which I'm used to paying thatfor like a four pack of star.
Yeah, Let me know how good ittastes, because that's about
that's about the best way to getyour chicken.

Well, I think that's a.
That's a really fun place to toend this, this edition of
freight friends we talked to.
There's a lot of, you know,drama and crazy stuff going on
in the world just in general.
Obviously, in freight we talkeda lot about with it.
You know, cargo crimes, butthere are some bright spots.
There are some cool thingshappening in the world, you know
, with sustainability options,trying to avoid cargo crimes,

(01:50:13):
and you know all the Barbie SUVsout there.
And then, of course, we havefreight waves at F3 coming up
next week.
So there's a lot of good stuffgoing on within the industry.
There are bright spots outthere.
So hopefully we'll have anothershow for you after F3 and you
know we'll be able to shine alight on on more of those
important initiatives, includingthings like logistics, girly.

Amen, sister Amen .

And I will.
I'll link to all of that in theshow notes, including your link
tree.
But, grace again, thank you forcoming on the show, another jam
packed episode that we willschedule this out live to all of
the different, you know videoplatforms and podcast, of course
too, to get you ready for F3.
But until then, we'll see youreal soon.

(01:50:56):
Go Jags, I guess, go Vikings,vikings.

I guess.
See where our new quarterbackis.
I'm a Jags fan now, baby?
Yes, no, I'm not.
I'm a Lions fan.
Let's go, lions.
We're going back.
I'm finally on bandwagon.

All good things .
I'm sure the Lions will takeall the band fat bandwagon fans
that they will take it as wellas Jagwars too.
It is a very cat heavy episodetoday, yeah, so shout out to the
cat teams and then shout out toGrace's kitty too I love it All
right, we'll see you all realsoon.

(01:51:36):
I hope you enjoyed this episodeof everything is logistics, a
podcast for the thinkers infreight, telling the stories
behind how your favorite stuffand people get from point A to B
.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over ateverythingislegisticscom.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let you all
know about another company Ioperate and that's digital

(01:51:57):
dispatch, where we help youbuild a better website.
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.

(01:52:17):
Well, that doesn't happen atdigital dispatch.
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

(01:52:39):
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

(01:53:03):
.
Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon inGo Jags.

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