Navigating Shipper Challenges | EP 13
Welcome to the Veritas Vantage Podcast!
In today’s episode, your hosts Brian Hastings and Justin Maines discuss the importance of trust, effective communication, and the ability to solve problems quickly when selecting a carrier network, especially in a market flooded with options. They highlight real-world challenges faced by shippers, such as last-minute carrier disappearances and the pressure of delivering hot shipments on time. By sharing stories and experiences, the podcast underscores the critical role of reliability, credibility, and value addition in building long-lasting partnerships between shippers, carriers, and brokers.
Get ready for discussions on Logistics and Leadership!
The Logistics & Leadership Podcast, powered by Veritas Logistics, redefines logistics and personal growth. Hosted by industry veterans and supply chain leaders Brian Hastings and Justin Maines, it shares their journey from humble beginnings to a $50 million company. Discover invaluable lessons in logistics, mental toughness, and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit. The show delves into personal and professional development, routine, and the power of betting on oneself. From inspiring stories to practical insights, this podcast is a must for aspiring entrepreneurs, logistics professionals, and anyone seeking to push limits and achieve success.
Timestamps:
(00:37) - The Realities of Shipping Challenges
(01:27) - The Importance of Communication and Trust in Shipping
(03:17) - Navigating the Logistics Industry: Insights and Strategies
(07:18) - Building Trust and Value in Shipper-Broker Relationships
(09:31) - Solving Problems and Adding Value for Shippers
(12:24) - The Essence of True Partnership in Logistics
(14:05) - Closing Thoughts and Call to Action
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Watch the pod on: YouTube
Transcript
Let's put ourselves in the shipper perspective, right when you're selecting like a carrier network and I'm sure like especially this day and age with, you know, it being a looser market, you're getting hundreds of calls per day.
Speaker A:What are they looking for?
Speaker B:Welcome back to the Veritas Vantage podcast.
Speaker B:Thanks for joining us today for another episode.
Speaker B:Today we want to give you a peek behind the curtain.
Speaker B:If you're listening, you likely are on our side of the industry working with a lot of shippers and carriers, but we work with a lot of top shippers in the industry and we hear firsthand some of the challenges, headaches, difficulties that they're dealing with on a daily, weekly basis.
Speaker B:So Brian, what can we share with them?
Speaker B:What experience do we have here?
Speaker A:Yeah, so picture this.
Speaker A:It's 5:30 in the morning on a Friday.
Speaker A:Your bosses is texting you, emailing you.
Speaker A:You know, you have a shipment going out.
Speaker A:It's one of your, you know, it's a hot shipment.
Speaker A:It is, you know, one of your biggest clients that you have a ton of, you know, shelf space into.
Speaker A:The carrier is mia.
Speaker A:The broker is not returning calls, texts, emails, what do you do?
Speaker A:How does that feel?
Speaker B:Heard that story before too many times.
Speaker B:But, and that's it, you know, that's the nature of the beast.
Speaker B:It's extremely common.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, I think it's very important from the shippers to have those types of partners that are going to communicate up front because it does happen constantly.
Speaker B:Especially if you're a high volume shipper, you're going to run into that.
Speaker B:But I think if I'm in those shoes, I'm picking up the phone or sending out some emails, hot shipment price is going to go up, but hopefully one of your partners can bail you out and save the day.
Speaker B:But you know, if you don't have the right, the right people in place, you may be stuck shipping that on Monday.
Speaker A:If you were a shipper, how, what are some things that you would value in the relationship with a broker?
Speaker A:Is it, is it purely price driven?
Speaker A:Is it communication?
Speaker A:Like what is it man?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So you know, there's a lot of buzzwords that you hear that get thrown out constantly.
Speaker B:But I think off the bat it's gotta be trust.
Speaker B:You know, if the information that you're getting from your carrier partners or your brokers, if you don't trust the information they're giving you, it makes it very difficult for you to do your job.
Speaker B:From a shipper standpoint, you're wearing so many hats depending on the size of your company, where you need to be.
Speaker B:Okay, is this where it needs to be?
Speaker B:Do I trust that person?
Speaker B:Is this accurate information?
Speaker B:Do I feel comfortable enough passing that information along, or am I questioning that and digging in like, okay, getting anxiety?
Speaker B:Is this really what's going on?
Speaker B:You know, am I going to be stuck with this on Friday at 5:30?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Well, I think, you know, even like you said, like multiple hats, to me what that screams is stressful.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So if I'm, if I'm a shipper and I'm wearing multiple hats and I have to be, you know, part, you know, fractional coo, logistics manager, you know, handling that, to me, that's stressful.
Speaker A:Do you see that a lot or do you see that with your shipping partners?
Speaker A:Or how's that?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:And I think to give some insight into what we're dealing with and some of the clients that we work with or shippers that we work with, I'm sure some of our listeners aren't necessarily involved in the industry the way we are, but we work with shippers from all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
Speaker B:And depending on the size of the company, that will tell you the responsibilities of the transportation manager or VP of logistics.
Speaker B:Hell, a lot of times it's operations.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker B:Their titles, operations.
Speaker B:But they're wearing 10 different hats.
Speaker B:So, you know, in terms of responsibilities, it just depends.
Speaker B:But if you're a smaller company, you may be, you know, managing five different areas of the business.
Speaker B:If, if you're, you know, at Target or, you know, US Foods or Amazon, you may have a specific role, you might be managing people.
Speaker B:But, but it all varies with that.
Speaker A:Like, okay, let's put ourselves in the, in the shipper perspective.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:What are some other things when you're selecting like a carrier network?
Speaker A:And I'm sure, like, especially this day and age with, you know, it being a looser market, you're getting hundreds of calls per day.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:What, like, what are some things that stick out, you know, for those brokers that are trying to get into a shipper?
Speaker A:Like, you know, we just talked about it a few minutes ago for the listeners, but like, let's dig a little bit deeper.
Speaker A:Like what are they looking for?
Speaker A:Trust, you mentioned, you know, pricing is always out there.
Speaker A:What are, what are other things?
Speaker A:If you were, you know, in that shipper's role?
Speaker A:What's important?
Speaker B:Yeah, this, this is what I would look for.
Speaker B:Does this company have credibility off the bat?
Speaker B:There's so many, you know, brokerages three pls years out there where you don't know how to decipher who's actually worth a shit.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And who's just calling from their basement hoping that they land a shipment or two.
Speaker B:So, yeah, you know, one, you know, do we have a need?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Is this, is this person calling me credible?
Speaker B:Do they actually have a personality or they send me template after template and just blasting to a hundred other shippers, you know, because that's, that's the difficulty.
Speaker B:You know, you can see an email or hear someone on the phone and immediately know that person's in their basement.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I would love.
Speaker A:I mean, I would love to handle some of these calls.
Speaker A:Cause I feel like I'd have some fun with a couple of people calling in or emailing in.
Speaker A:But yeah, it's.
Speaker B:No, no.
Speaker B:Sometimes you'll catch yourself where you'll be on a phone call and it's like, oh, God.
Speaker B:Like everybody else.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, that's a thing.
Speaker A:Hundreds.
Speaker B:But also, you know, have they done their homework?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:If they're calling me and I'm moving, let's just say energy drinks.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:Are.
Speaker B:Are they just give me some generic sales pitch off the bat when they know nothing about me?
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:You know, when, when, you know, they're calling and it's tailored and I can tell they've done a little bit of legwork or, you know, they know a little bit about my company and they're, they're tailoring their, their approach to something specific that I actually need.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Then.
Speaker B:Then I'm going to, I'm going to be more likely to listen to what exactly they're saying.
Speaker B:And so in that, in that time frame, that person realistically has.
Speaker B:I'd say what, eight to 15 seconds.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:Before I'm on to the next thing and I'm hanging up or deleting that email.
Speaker B:So it's a very short timeframe.
Speaker B:But if they can do what I'm looking for and catch my attention when that eight to 15 seconds, then I'm more inclined to listen.
Speaker A:Agreed.
Speaker A:And I think even in our industry, I think it is challenging from the shipper's perspective.
Speaker A:They're getting all these phone calls.
Speaker A:They still have to.
Speaker A:They're wearing the multiple hats.
Speaker A:They're dealing with stressful situations.
Speaker A:They're working nights, they're working weekends.
Speaker A:They're making sure that they have to report to whoever that is.
Speaker A:If they're reporting to an operation side, it's like I'm reporting to the coo, making sure that this stuff is running Smoothly, you know, I always think, you know, I want, you know, as a broker, we want to make that logistics manager look good.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:To their CEO or coo.
Speaker A:Do you think?
Speaker A:I mean, with that, like, what are some kind of horror stories that you've heard from the shipper side?
Speaker A:Like trusting a new broker.
Speaker A:Oh man, I brought this carrier broker in and they burned me.
Speaker A:Like, what are some stories that you've heard?
Speaker B:Well, one, I think, I think the industry as a whole needs better excuses.
Speaker A:Agreed.
Speaker B:Or more excuses.
Speaker B:Because you know, the shippers, they're not dumb.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:If they're moving any type of volume.
Speaker A:Especially if they've been around for a while.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:They've been in the game for a little bit.
Speaker A:They know.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:And there's so many providers out there.
Speaker B:They all say the same things, especially the excuses.
Speaker B:Their truck broke down.
Speaker A:Flat tire.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:They got flat tires.
Speaker B:They're held up at their previous stop, they ran out of hours.
Speaker B:You know, it's all the same stuff.
Speaker B:So when you hear that over and over, the reputation of brokerages, if those are the people that you're bringing on and working with, then you know your opinion of them is going to be tainted because that's, that's, that is common in the industry.
Speaker B:But there are a lot of great providers out there and at the end of the day, for me, if I'm a shipper.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'm asking, is this person bringing value?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And are they going to make my life easier?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I think with that, like you mentioned it early, but the trust factor like that is number one.
Speaker A:I feel like that's where a lot of people, you know, fall short.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like from the broker, carrier side and even looking at it from the shipper's perspective.
Speaker A:So I mean, you said another thing there real quick.
Speaker A:The value.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Bringing real value to a shipper.
Speaker A:Like what is that, is that you mentioned, you know, having a pretty well versed script or you know, who you're calling prior.
Speaker A:To.
Speaker A:What are some other ways that, you know, shippers can see value from a carrier or service provider.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You, you mentioned this earlier, but you know, how do we make them look like a superstar?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But also how can we make their lives easier?
Speaker B:Usually if you're making their lives easier.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You're making them look like a superstar.
Speaker B:You ask, what else can you do?
Speaker B:We talk about trust a lot.
Speaker B:I think trust, it can be easier.
Speaker B:It can be extremely difficult to establish.
Speaker B:But you know, in terms of tactical approaches that you can take to build that quickly and be consistent with the service that you're providing is one making their life easier by dropping updates in their inbox, let's say, depending on volume.
Speaker B:Again, if you're running one or two shipments or 10 or 50 or 200, whatever it may be, bringing them updates, having those dropped in their inbox, or shooting them a text or a phone call, whatever it may be, so they can forward those on to the powers that be.
Speaker B:But also issues.
Speaker B:You know, this is an industry that is consumed with issues.
Speaker B:If you do not know how to problem solve and fix issues, you're not going to last.
Speaker B:You will not be in the industry very well.
Speaker A:When you say issues, what do you mean?
Speaker A:Like issues?
Speaker B:Like there's numerous issues.
Speaker B:But, you know, talking about trucks breaking down, having to repower a trailer that that's broken down, or you know, has product on the trailer that needs to get delivered to the receiver as soon as possible, how are you approaching that?
Speaker B:You know, are you asking around or are you just throwing it back on the client's plate and say, like, here's the issue, I don't have an answer.
Speaker B:You know, good luck fixing this.
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, there's a lot of scheduling conflicts or delays.
Speaker B:There's rush shipments that need white glove service and over communication.
Speaker B:So there's, there's a lot of things and I just threw out a few.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's a lot of things.
Speaker B:The biggest thing is, and this is cliche, but instead of bringing issues to your client, be proactive, have a solution already in place.
Speaker B:You know, here's the issue, they're going to be delayed an hour, but here's the solution and here's how we got it resolved.
Speaker B:I mean, communicated with the shipper, you know, it's smoothed out, we're going to be good to go.
Speaker A:People always say, man, the people that make the most money solve the most problems.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So especially in our industry.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So, no, I think that's great.
Speaker A:I mean, there's a ton of information there.
Speaker A:I think a lot of times I always view it like this, where if I'm a shipper and I'm looking for a carrier or a service provider, we mention it a handful of times, but how do they make my life easier?
Speaker A:And also my job is on the line.
Speaker A:It's my responsibility.
Speaker A:If I work for this, we'll call it like a food manufacturer, we'll call it frozen food company and we process frozen chicken and I need to get that product into Costco, Walmart, Kroger.
Speaker A:Well, now if it's not on time, I'M getting my ass chewed out.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I don't want that.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So like, okay, how do I trust these service providers to make sure that we're delivering on time and then even having that communication along the way, you.
Speaker B:Know, we've talked a lot about value and making your clients look like rock stars to their supervisors.
Speaker B:What are a few things outside of just making sure, you know, the transactional things that we do, but make sure things get from point A to point B.
Speaker B:What are some other things you can do besides that to add additional value to your clients?
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, just from all the conversations that we have on a daily basis from clients and, you know, shippers that we, that we deal with, it's about being that true partner.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Where you know, there's sometimes where it's, you're going to have to take it on the chin and you're going to have to maybe put some, you know, money out of your pocket on the line for the partnership.
Speaker A:I think that's part of the true partnership that our industry needs.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And that's exactly if I'm a shipper.
Speaker A:That's what I want.
Speaker A:I want a true partner that I know that if I send over 10 loads, two in a week, they're going to take care of every single one.
Speaker A:They're not going to come back and try to renegotiate on every single shipment.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I think those are things that we can do to bring real value.
Speaker A:And when you talk about a true partnership and the trust side of it, you have to do it every single day.
Speaker A:This is not an industry where you just sign them up for service and then you set it and forget it.
Speaker A:It's not an industry like that.
Speaker A:You have to service the client every single day.
Speaker A:You have to bring your morals, your ethics to the table every single day.
Speaker A:I mean, we always say it, but you have to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.
Speaker A:Especially in this industry when there's so much gray area and so many challenges that are out there, you have to do that to build long term partnerships.
Speaker B:I hear you.
Speaker B:And you know a lot of great stuff.
Speaker B:At the end of the day, I think most providers view this industry as getting something from point A to point B.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a lot more than that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think when you can do these things that we're discussing consistently and you know, you're putting your clients best interests in the forefront.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:The rest handles itself.
Speaker A:Agreed.
Speaker B:If you're a shipper, would love to get your thoughts on best practices or what you look for in a partner.
Speaker B:Please feel free to drop those in the notes or shoot us a message.
Speaker B:We'd love to share those for upcoming episodes.
Speaker B:We are looking to have a few of our partners on to hear it firsthand from their perspective.
Speaker B:Any questions you have for them, let us know.
Speaker B:We'd love to ask them.
Speaker B:For you, price is always going to be important, but when your service is far and above the competitions and you're not that much higher right Shippers, and this is anyone in general, you need to think of the consequences for paying a lower cost and getting a shittier service.
