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Hey, hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, Scott Luton and Greg White with you here on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today's live stream. Greg. How you doing today?
I'm doing quite well, Scott. I'm trying to figure out if that is too broski. You know, is this <laugh>?
Hey, we'll pose. We'll get feedback from our global audience. Yes, smartest audience in global supply chain, but today, Greg,
On last Mile Excellence and given the cost of the last Mile, as well as how important it's to con, uh, customer experience and expectations, execution has to be at least excellent in this modern era. Is that right, Greg?
Depending on where you get your numbers from, 53% of freight cost is in the last mile. Can you believe that?
Think about that one. Mile
Cost. I mean, when you think about where stuff comes from, right? Seven, eight, 9,000 miles away, the last mile is what costs you the most. That's crazy.
As excellent perspective of you're good
Do that math folks, stay tuned as we gain the perspective from a trio of business leaders with tons of experience in Final MO success. And folks get ready. We wanna hear from y'all as well. So drop your chats and your observations in the comments section, the cheap seats, and we'd love to bring that in. Big thanks Greg. We should thank our sponsor for today's session. Big thanks to the team on the move over at Freight for sponsoring today's session. Learn more about this innovative last mile delivery technology company@freight.com. And that's F R A Y t.com. I think I got that right, Greg, right?
Y'all check it out. And hey, if you stick around at the end of today's session, we've got a great offer from the team at Freight, so, so stay tuned. Alright, Greg, we got to get to work. Are you ready?
I'm excited, let's go. Alright, we love these guys. I
Do too. We've had a great,
They're doing it right, they're getting it done, right? So great folks to learn from.
Yeah, you're gonna hear from folks that have been there and done that and are here to offer some great best practices and perspective with you. So I wanna welcome in our featured guest today. We've got three of them. Michael Campisi, chief Marketing and Experience Officer with Sporting Worldwide, A K A E F W. We have John Conte, vice President of Supply Chain with Find It Parts and backed by pop demand Bart Munk, a well-known industry thought leader and advisor. Hey, good morning, good afternoon, evening everybody. How we doing Bart? How you doing?
Doing wonderful. How are you this morning, Scott?
Wonderful. Welcome back John. Great to see you. How you doing?
I'm doing well. Great to see you.
All right quick. we can't have any other sports discussion, but good luck to your Phillies doing great work. And <laugh> Michael, go to see you. <laugh> Michael, good to see you. How you doing?
Good to be here. Great, thanks Scott.
So Greg, we've got an outstanding panel. Before we get into the conversation, what you think, I'm gonna ask about their professional, a little bit about their professional journey. How's that sound, Greg? Yeah, let's find out why we ought to be
Listening to these guys. Ah,
Even better question. So Bart, uh, I'll start with you. Welcome back. As I mentioned, really enjoyed our webinar session a few weeks back. Got a lot of good feedback around that. You've worked for a variety of major international companies, as most folks should know in numerous sectors. More recently, spent eight years as VP of research at Gartner and also served as chief industry officer at Project 44. What was one of, out of, when you look back and think about your background, what's one industry sector that's been amongst your favorite places to work in bart?
Yeah, you are right. It's hard to think back that I've been now in supply chain for over 30 years, right? Mm-hmm. It makes me sound really, really old. Um, but it gave me a lot of different perspectives. So the question is a good one. I would say I love every single job that I've done. And I've gone from operations both on the asset based trucking side. I've been on the the shippers side, I've been on the research side, I've been on the technology side, and now as an advisor. But I would say probably in for today's discussion, I would probably say the C P G industry. So my 10 years with PepsiCo.
And the reason is because of the past pace, right? We were talking about, you know, C P G or consumer products. We're talking about consumers here in the last mile, or any last mile really, and how that's changed. So over the 10 years I was there, it changed quite a bit. We used a lot of different technologies, very advanced PepsiCo, great, great company. But for example, just to figure that out and compare it to today, when I left PepsiCo in 2014, our last mile would be like sending a box of chips to a bar or driving products to seven 11. Nowadays for pretty much any manufacturer, everyone sells directly to the consumer, right? Just like Nike's, you used to buy 'em in a retailer or a foot locker. Now you can buy 'em through nike.com. Same with PepsiCo. So imagine how that puts a pressure on all these companies to figure out the last month. Yes. And do it
Well, Bart, good stuff there. Great level setting on the front end. Michael, I'm gonna switch gears and give you a chance to share a little bit about your background. You've spent 30 years in the logistics industry about 25 years at Estes alone, where you've held a variety of leadership roles. And hey man, we've done our homework, Michael, we're, we're tracking y'all getting some market intel, Greg, by the way, folks, Greg White does not not miss anything. So we've got the best market intel. Now we understand you specialize Michael, in complex organizational change, which probably everyone here can relate to, a lot of our listeners can relate to. So I wanna ask you, and this may not be a fair question, but just in a nutshell, what's one overlooked simple tip when it comes to managing change as business leaders?
Yeah, it's a good question. I think organizational change in general, people don't like change, right? I mean, they say they like change. And so you say, well, you actually have to do something different. And it's like, oh, you mean I have to change something? I thought you were gonna change everything. It was all just gonna be better. Well, so in general, I'll say two things. One is really important on the front end to make sure everybody understands the why behind what you're doing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? Ultimately leadership in organizational change makes a decision and says, all right, here's where we're going. And you can't make the mistake of just going out there to the troops and saying, here's where we're going without really making a connection with each, each one of them individually. So they, everybody understands here's why we're doing it and here's what things are gonna look like on the other side. Mm-hmm. And you gotta have the stomach for it and you gotta make sure everybody's willing to kind, not just decide we're gonna do something new and we're gonna change, but we've gotta let go of some of the old structures. Right? Right. You gotta bring up that old cement so you can lay some new, some new stuff. And
I like that Michael, and I like what you're implying there, back to connecting with the troops individually. That with 'em, what's in it for me? We've gotta answer that question almost individually these days. Uh, alright. And finally, and Greg, I'm gonna get you to comment on our esteem panel here once we get John's response. 'cause John, you lead supply chain at Find It Parts, which we understand the largest source for heavy duty truck and trailer parts. So I wanna ask you this, what is one favorite aspect for you in your role as clearly your team is helping keep the critical backbone of our supply chains rolling forward? What's your favorite part, John?
I think my favorite part is logistics and supply chain technology and how fast it's evolving and all these new products, uh, coming to the market is getting a lot of super smart people around me, on my team to figure out how do we use this stuff, right? Like, you know, let's dig into the data. Let's figure out if this company works for us, and how do we help to get products delivered quicker or at a lower cost. And to your point, if that truck's down, the final model is the whole part that matters to that end user, whether it's a, a fleet owner, an owner operator, a shop, right? They want that part to get that vehicle back on the road and generating revenue. Hmm. So I, that's my favorite part is looking at all this great technology that's out there, all these new partners and trying to figure out how we can fit into what they're giving to the market so we can take advantage of it.
Thank you, John. Appreciate it. And thank you Bart, John, and Michael for sharing just a little bit of y'all's perspective and how you look at the, what your, your worldview is like almost on the front end. Greg, when you think about the panel we have here and kind of where they come from and their journeys, what's one thought thought that comes to your mind before we move forward? Well, clearly they passed Muster
<laugh>. Not only have they been there and done it, as you said Scott, they are being there and doing it now.
Mm-hmm. Right. For advising companies and Michael and John Dewe the doing right now, which is critical. And I think that is, that's what we try to bring people here is practitioners who are doing the doing. So we can all learn more that's right from that. So, you know what I'm gonna say next? <laugh>, no <laugh>, listen up. Greg says, all right, Greg, I can't agree with you more. So welcome in everybody. Alright, so now I wanna shift gears over to the topic while we're all here, right? Why folks are here to tune in and listen to our conversation and hopefully contribute in it last mile. So for starters, I wanna start with John here. For starters how John, in the interview, how do last mile delivery services enable greater customer satisfaction and really overall customer experience in the last mile? What are some of your initial thoughts there, John?
Yeah, I mean, for, for me it's really about the flexibility that comes into it. So in the past, using traditional carriers for example, it was very rigid. They take a product, they try that final mile delivery, they try to deliver it, and you're not home at one o'clock mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So what do they say? We're gonna try again tomorrow at one o'clock, right? Where you're probably not gonna be home again. So it just makes it for a really poor experience where now with the more, uh, flexibility and the, and the new carriers that exist in the marketplace that can do this final mile delivery, you can connect directly with the driver in some instances and let them know as a customer, Hey, I'm not gonna be home at one o'clock, but please leave the package on the side door or in the garage, or things like that. So it's really all about flexibility,
John. I love that. And also what you mentioned there, not just flexibility for customers, but flexibility for drivers, which is really important. Yeah. Michael, your thoughts in terms of customer satisfaction and customer experience and how last mile delivery services help enable that?
Yeah, for us as a logistics provider and you know, really a non-asset based logistics provider, we're as good as our, as the network we manage, we have thousands of providers that sort of make up the, the quilt of what we do. This being able to use, uh, a service like this and technology like this, it, it's another tool. Remember my grandfather, when, when he didn't have a tool to, to fix something in the house, he would literally build one, right? And this is a situation where the market has actually, uh, created another tool for, for folks like us to be able to just the complexities of, of reverse logistics and hey, logistics, look at that. I'm in a hotel with fire alarms. You never know what's gonna happen. You gotta be able to improvise.
That's right. That's right.
My goal is safe though, everyone, we not worry <laugh>.
So folks, hey, live programming in 2023, we roll with the punches there. They're doing fire alarms and several of the hotels our, our panels are in. But Michael, as you were saying, and, and really I loved your comment there about your grandfather if's not a tool out there. You build it, you're, uh, finish your thought if you would. Oh, we're still may be waiting on the, the fire alarm announcement.
I know Scott for a second there. I thought he was on a loading dock. 'cause that's what it sounds like. It's really noisy.
Hey, going to the gemba Bart. Going to the gemba, huh? Yeah, let's keep driving here and we'll come back maybe to Michael once, once we get the fire alarm complete. Bart, when you think about, uh, these last mile delivery services and how they impact customer experience, you name it, your thoughts, Bart?
Yeah, Scott, we live in a different world, right? I mean, live Mile has become so complex. Uh, again, I I alluded to a little bit to that earlier, but if you look at it, how many different ways do we have to go to the customer, right? And by the way, for some of us that still think Last Mile is only ordering something on Amazon and then getting it to your front door, last mile is a lot of different things. It's business to business, uh, sometimes with fairly large and heavy last mile products, and it can be all the way down to inside of your house. So a lot more different ways of of getting to your customers and different customers, but also in a lot of different channels that we created. Ulu doesn't remember the incredible invention of Bo and PAC during Covid, right? We probably thought, what the heck have they done now?
Well, what is that thing, right? You buy a line, you pick up in the store, you buy a line, you pick up curbside, what else are they gonna invent? So more channels means more complexity. And so people need different options to go and execute that last mile. So think of it, perspective of capacity. We need more capacity, we build more volumes. So for people that only use a couple of services, they need to expand their service. And that's what we've seen happening. People using more carriers, they use different methods because now we have gig workers. So it's not just a big UPS's and FedEx, we have a lot more options. And by the way, we mentioned consumers have different expectations as well as our customers. And I would claim to say that the customer experience equals delivery experience. The delivery of the product, no matter how good the product is or how cheap your product, if it doesn't get delivered there on time, in full, no damage, doesn't really matter. That's why it's so important to have these great services.
Alright, well said. Michael, you're back with us. I think fire alarm is done. Your final thought there.
Yeah, I thanks for bearing with me. Uh, you know, we listen, we gotta, uh, remain nimble in, in logistics, right? That's right. So, no, I, I think that additional k kind of along the lines of what Bart's saying, I mean that, that additional tool, it it gives us, whether it's a market that we don't have great coverage in or whether it's, uh, it's a particular type of pickup or delivery, the ability to, to leverage a, a solution like this, it gives us that capability and, and ultimately just is able to, uh, satisfy a customer need. Sometimes it's something very granular where we have to make a particular pickup on a return or at a, in a place that's hard to get to. So yeah, the flexibility's key.
Wonderful. Thank you for that, Michael. All right. So Greg, you heard three perspectives there in terms of how Final Mile really drives, uh, customer experience amongst other things. And I saw you in particular, really nodding your head and agreeing with Bart when he said customer experience equals delivery experience. Your thoughts here, Greg, based on how Bart, John and Michael answered our first question?
Yeah, well, I was thinking of our very first statistic, which is it's 53% of, of your logistics cost, but it is 100% of your customer experience, right? It doesn't matter what promises you've made, how great your marketing is, how strong your brand identity is, if you can't get it in our hands and all those hands out there the way that we want it, when we want it, where we want it, right in the condition that we want it. I think we, I bet virtually everyone here just had a delivery experience flash through their mind as I described that, right? And that's what makes this aspect of it so important up until the point that a product gets delivered or it gets prepared to be delivered to a, an individual or an individual business. It's in a protective car often and it's taken out of that protective car and then it's delivered to that person. So there's a lot of risks there. And I think one of the things you have to identify is not just the flexibility, but also the risk that you're embracing whenever you deliver the last mile.
Hmm. Well said Greg. and we, yes, we did all have a certain delivery flash through our minds, just as you suggested that I wanna keep driving here. So bar, we got a lot of good stuff to get into, folks. Stay tuned. We're gonna talk more, uh, in a moment, especially from that retail perspective and how these third party, last mile platforms can really help. Bart, let's talk about fleet augmentation. The benefits of using fleet augmentation provided by third party delivery solutions. Beyond the obvious, beyond the speed of delivery, what are the benefits you see there, Bart?
Yeah, well, we saw historically, right? Is that companies use, I would say a very small group of carriers. And even within those carriers, very few services. So again, what we explained before, it's a lot more important, become a lot more complex. So you need to have more, uh, options. The other part is, if you look and we're right in the middle of the, the holiday peak, right? It started about over a week ago. So if you look u p s and FedEx, they announced their peak surcharges, right? They have, you know, more capacity, so they're not gonna have all the capacity for you that you need. And by the way, we see also service levels degrading. So when you want to have the highest service level, you want to get all the capacity for all that stuff that you're selling, especially if you're selling more maybe in this peak season, and you want to do that at a fair cost, you gotta spread your beds, right?
If you're just gonna stick with a couple of options, you're not gonna have the capacity. You're gonna pay way, pay way too much, and you're not gonna get the service level that you promised to the customer. So it's all a question of having options. And I think that's really where have these new platforms that are providing, that are connecting, by the way, it's not a single company, it's an ecosystem. We all work together. It's some of the technology companies working together with these on demand platforms that work together with other systems. And then together you can provide a much better experience both for the people that are trying to fulfill on the promise. Because remember, supply chain, we don't always make the promise. We're responsible for delivering on the promise of getting it there online. And that's really where the value of these new services are coming.
Love that. And as Bart suggests, I'm Michael, I'm coming you next, but as Bart suggested at the roulette table, Greg, don't put all your betts on red. 19. We gotta spread it out amongst the red and the black and <laugh>, maybe different segments, who knows? And lose all your money like I've done at the roulette table too often. That's why I stay outta those casinos. Hey, <laugh>. Michael, talk about the benefits of using Fleet augmentation beyond what Bart has shared.
Well, I think similar to what Bart said and what we talked about earlier, that that flexibility being able to, if you've got that fleet being able to extend it, I mean, you we're seeing, there's some interesting models out there in the market these days where you've got, you've kind of got virtual networks. I always like the, the example of anybody who's familiar with Mr. Beast, right? Mr. Beast is this internet sensation who's created a burger franchise. And there is no, there are no locations. If you go online and you look for the Mr. Beast Burgers Burger, you're gonna find a thousand Mr. Beast locations around the country. And the reality is he's just using, he's a virtual business that's cooking up burgers in the kitchens of other restaurants. And so I do think that you see examples of it all over the place in networks and a fleet is just a network where there's a digital extension, you know, an augmentation of a network or in some cases like that, in that example, it's truly a pure virtual network. Phone call service providers do this. And so I just think that ultimately what it means is, as a customer, from a customer experience perspective, whether you are the company who's delivering this or you're the actual customer, it, it just enhances the customer experience providing the quality is there, it's managed well, the connectivity is there. It's, you know, anytime you have more options and more, more flexibility and solutions for the customer, it's always a good thing.
Okay. good stuff. I, Mr. Beast, that is new on me. I'm gonna look that up. Oh man. Fascinating Model. I brilliant YouTube
subscribers or something crazy like that. Yeah, that's great. Okay, thanks.
Scott is also the nickname we use for Mike, by the way. <laugh>
All right. Bar inside baseball there. Thank you very much. All right, so John, what, anything else? And, and, and all this is gonna, there are some strong common themes in the majority of our discussion here today, but anything else else you'd like to add, John, before I circle back to Greg and get his final thought here? When, when it comes to the benefits of fleet augmentation as provided by Freight and other companies?
Yeah, uh, for sure. So from the shipper perspective, I think an older model was we want our own fleet and our own drivers because we can control more, right? We can control the experience. If something doesn't deliver on time, we could put it on our own vehicle and, and get it there. But I, I feel, and I've seen over time, business rules become more complex, right? Your customers want more and then it becomes really hard for that fleet manager or operations manager with his assets to make everything happen, right? Customers get promised early delivery times and dedicated pickup times and things like that. So again, it goes back to the flexibility where, and risk avoidance, right? you rem you move away from your own fleet. You work with a company like Freight or other organizations and you have essentially a, a virtual and endless driver pool, right? Capacity becomes a lot more expanded. And you don't have to worry about things like if you're delivering in your own vehicle to say a dealership to drop off a part, you're not hitting a brand new Tesla in the parking lot with your own fleet and then dealing with all of the things that come with that, right?
So the augmentation part of it, as a shipper, I, I love and I rally behind that all the time because it just removes cost and risk and makes the experience better for your customer.
Mm-hmm. Love that. John, Greg, before I come to you, Hey John, my dad, way back in the day, 30, 40 years ago, ran his own shop where he worked on all kinds of trucks and I bet, and as I remember going to the auto parts store with him time and time again, ordering stuff, waiting on stuff, he would've loved to have a find It parts there on hand. It would've made his life so much easier.
All right, so Greg, we've talked a lot about the benefits here, your thoughts here before we move on to especially that retail perspective, Greg, your thoughts?
Yeah. Transparency is one that comes to mind. Did you know there's an entire industry built around auditing your u p s bill because it is utterly indiscernible. So there are entire companies that you pay money to to tell you what you should have paid to U P S because you can't do it yourself. And when you have more competition like this, not only do they provide the transparency to what you will pay in advance, not after the fact, which is much, which is very often the case these days, but also what you should pay right in advance and did pay as a confirmation of that estimate or possibly even fixed price. So I think that transparency is so critical because how many times have we heard horror stories, talking to John Haber Scott, about a company that thought they were gonna spend $57 to ship a product and they spent $457 'cause it was a certain dimension and that sort of thing. And it was impossible to discern the freight rules when they shipped it or they changed or something like that. And they wound up spending more on freight than they received an income for the product. So yes, it's those kind of things that, that we need to have and that solutions like this can bring, well, s said Greg, and that's a bad surprise. I think that kind of surprise will turn all of us into
Mr. Beast, Dr. Beast, you name it, right? Uh, <laugh>. Alright, so let's, l.
et's lemme Hamburg out at somebody.
<laugh>, right? Dead go. Alright, we're gonna shift over and focus more in on the retail industry in particular. So we've got, I've got a long list of things I want to get y'all to speak to most of y'all to speak to in terms of how last mile delivery solutions impact this list of things. I wanna start, Michael, I'll start with you. help When it comes to, we think about how last mile delivery solutions can help retailers rapidly scale their delivery capacity, and as, as I think one of y'all mentioned earlier, provide that presence in a key market. Michael, your thoughts?
Well, I mean, retailers solve that last mile problem a number of ways. And depending on the retailer, they're, they have different models or a mix of models in play today. So, you know, if they're relying on one or a few logistics providers to kind of manage all that, it only gives their logistics providers another tool, an additional outlet, more flexibility. So I think that helps augment those fleets of those logistics providers. Ultimately, those carriers, if they are, some of them are in the stage of development where they're going store to store to door and they're leveraging their brick and mortar for that final mile and they're sourcing these solutions directly and it gives them the ability to do that in a more, just in an easier way with visibility with the tools that they can source.
This, this population of folks who are willing to do this kind of work. The technology is, is better and it's evolving very quickly. And it, it just gives them wherever it seems like, wherever they are in, in the model they're using, if it's pure, you know, store to door or if it's they're leveraging a, a managed logistics provider in, in either case, plugging these kinds of folks in, is it helps enhance the customer experience form. Ultimately it's customer experience play.
Yeah, I like that, Michael, and on front end of your answer, what I heard is it, it greatly increases the art of the possible and it brings all sorts of more options and flexibility to the table. John, what would you add to that when it comes to rapidly scaling retailers delivery capacity and any key markets it brings into play?
Yeah, I think to, you know, rapidly scale, it, it really comes down to what's available in the markets where you're trying to deliver final mile. Because the one thing is we're talking about basically hub and spoke models here, right? So you really can't ship coast to coast in this final mile play where you give it to a gig worker and they take it, you know, door to door. So it's really figuring out your hub and spoke models in my opinion. And then who are the technology providers you're gonna partner with to make those transactions happen? A lot of times it's really easy from a shipper's perspective to get the rates and negotiate the pricing and have all of that, but then it comes to that operational, how do you actually transact on this, right? And, and generate the connections between the carriers and your customers and that sort of thing. So it's, it, in my opinion, it's really about just knowing your markets what's available. And sometimes situations like that might not fit every market, right? If there's a low demand in a certain region, it might not be worth the work to make it happen in that part of the country. When you have other parts of the country where you could have more repetitive business.
Hmm. Bart, what would you add?
Yeah, so I, I would say if you look at last mile delivery solutions, we kinda see different categories there, right? So you have companies that focus at it more from a, I would say a partial optimization perspective. Companies like a ship really look at how do you optimize all of that and how do you create better capabilities? Then you have companies that would define a more last mile delivery management systems, right? There you have companies like Bring or One Rail FarEye and what they're really focused on is being able to fulfill and plan for the last mile. And that could be, or even with your own private fleet and doing things like route optimization, how do you take, do technology to do it in the most efficient way to reduce costs, by the way, also take some miles, uh, out of there, right? We all want to be sustainable and do it as well as possible, but it's also doing it in a way that the consumer wants to do it right? Amazon, Amazon's created that kind of expectation. You want everything right now and everything for free.
Not always good for every consumer, especially the ones, the younger ones that may be more sustainability minded. How do we use technology to really focus on, hey, let me provide you the carbon footprint of every slot that I have available for this week, and then have you make that decision which one you wanna do. And then obviously on the back end of it you need to have the last mile delivery services, right? Platforms like freight who then can go and execute that and give you a lot of different options to say, hey can use a specific carrier, but it could be like a really high qualified, selected, uh, driver. And then it gives you the option to, to create relationships with those companies that, to be honest, before you never even had access to, right? So in that, in that environment, it really gives you new technologies, a lot of different options. And the thing is, all of those providers all work together in harmony. They are an ecosystem of solutions rather than these best of breed individual solutions. Now you can look at it from a real last mile end-to-end, which again, last mile is just, just, just one thing. It's not just one solution. It's a lot of different things that have to play together within transportation. And then remember, Scott also still has to link back to the warehouse where we now have all that automated picking with all the robots that goes lightning fast. and those two have to work together as well.
That's right. And, and we're gonna touch, you touched on a lot there. We're gonna touch more on route optimization next, so stay tuned there. Greg, before I come to you folks, we've talked all about freight, freight sponsoring Today's live stream, let's say, if we can, big thanks Amanda and Katherine behind the scenes helping to make, Uh, today's production happen. Let's go ahead and drop the link, uh, to Freight F r a y t Freight.com there in the chat and make it easy for folks to connect and learn more. Alright, Greg, when it comes again, what Michael and Bart and John are saying, rapidly scaling that capacity delivery capacity, key markets and a whole lot more, your quick thought
Key markets are on new markets and new markets often have fluctuations in demand. I'm thinking of a particular retail product which I'm associated, but we don't have distribution in 25 states in the US right? Mm-hmm. And we're trying to sort of usurp the traditional distribution model and go direct B two B, right? So it's a non-alcoholic beverage, right? It's the free spirits thing, Scott. So we're trying to go direct to the bars because bars are begging for non-alcoholic options because so many millennials and Gen Zs, blah, blah, blah. Hmm. But the problem is, without distribution it's really hard to do it. And obviously a company that's $10 million or so in revenue doesn't make sense to have your own trucks or routes or distribution centers or any of those things. And you don't know whether a market's gonna hit yet. So what, when you are dealing with the fluctuations in demand from either slow moving products, which is a lot of what John deals with, and I can empathize, dude, I was in the automotive gade, so I get it. This thing only fits one thing, right? Sometimes or if you're dealing with product where you can't yet, you haven't establish a pattern of demand, right? Or even if there's going to be a substantial amount of demand, the on demand nature of something like this, of a marketplace like freight allows you to say, okay, we've got enough de demand to ship to this market now let's do it. Let's find a carrier now, right? And, and you may not ship for another week or month or two months, whatever, right? So I think that opens up new doors to so many of these new retailers and direct to consumer brands and all that sort of thing that they never had options for before. Yeah,
Well said there, Greg. Alright, John Bart mentioned route optimization earlier in his response. I, I wanna get you to speak to that for a second. That route optimization for retailers and how last mile delivery solutions really play there.
Yeah, that's probably one of the biggest keys to success with your final mile plan, right? Is being able to have your routes optimized really for, for different reasons, right? So take products like automotive, whether you're talking hard components or um, tires or whatever it might be, you're gonna have different endpoints of delivery in a business. You're gonna have the B two C style deliveries, which are a lot easier to make happen, right? But then you have a lot of B two B, right? So either way you're gonna have, you might have tires that get delivered to the second floor of an apartment complex, right? So that route optimization is gonna be very different and very dynamic almost every day. You might have your milk runs, which are your standard customers that always order from you, but then you're gonna have customers that are finding you through Google and and things like that. And it could be a one and done, but they may live on opposite end of the town or in an obscure area. So really being able to have the routes sufficient as possible every day helps with your cost upfront because you're gonna be able to know if there's any sort of accessorials and things like that within your quote. And the more efficient it becomes, the better pricing you can just get as a, from a shipper's perspective is one of the things that I've seen over the years.
Yeah, good stuff there. John. Bart I'll get you to weigh in directly on route optimization and then we're gonna open it back up to the greater cost and time efficiency gains. Bart, speak one one more time about route optimization. What are, what the possibilities are there?
Yeah, I'd say as, as both the volume of shipments has gone up and then, like I said, there's, there's a lot of different ways to deliver it. And it can be a box truck has to be a van. Uh, some people might say I want electric versus regular. We see more and more around the world more regulations around what vehicles are allowed in cities and what are not. So a lot of these requirements are getting larger and larger. So you have to have smarter systems that can handle, and I'd say traditionally route optimization used to be something that was more these, what I would call static heuristics. You would program 'em and you go live with it. And then 10 years later we'd still do the same thing. Now, we also get from mobile devices, from sensors on vehicles, we get this live information back that allows us in real time to update that and say, Hey, I know I was just five minutes late here, let me update that so I know what the expected time arrival is for my next delivery. Where if needed,
I can contact my customer or I know, hey, it looks like I'm gonna be late 'cause I was late for the previous one. But really that difference doesn't make a difference. I don't have to go and send an exception, but I have the intelligence around it. The same thing would go, you use that realtime data to make the next time you optimize that route to make it smarter because you know, oh wow, on a Friday I now know that this is happening or I see these patterns, or I see a pattern when I park in front of that store to deliver or in that yard when I go and deliver maybe a larger product. It's all about how do you make optimization much more smarter and much more real time that allow these retailers to have a lot more agility.
Yes. And with that added agility amongst other benefits we've tackled thus far a while, that rolls right up into cost and time efficiencies for retailers. And Michael, I'm gonna bring you, I'm gonna get all four of y'all to address this one. All right. We've, we've touched on some of these, but Michael, when you think of cost and time efficiencies, especially for retailers that last mile delivery solutions can bring to the table your thoughts?
Well, I think Bart had mentioned the Amazon effect, right? We talk about it all over the place. It's I want it now and I want it free. And the challenge with delivering that, it depends on the kind of business you're in, but certainly if you're in the tire business, right? The challenge with delivering that is the cost of that delivery just doesn't, doesn't work that way, right? That those, the economies to pull that off can be very difficult. And if you have a, you know, nice small package type of thing and you can rely on, uh, U p s, FedEx, those big networks and, and it's very predictable, that might work really well. But a lot of the, the bigger and bulkier stuff that now everybody's buying online that doesn't quite fit neatly into that box, that can be delivered by a parcel carrier, that can be the, the cost associated with creating that solution can be very challenging. It's like, how do you pull it off? L t l carriers struggle with it. So I think these sorts of solutions help figure that out, right? The gig workers, the gig economy can pull it off with a little lower cost, still provide the visibility and the information needed to Bart's point to run that flexibility, that customer experience associated with. It's still good because you've got the visibility, you can see when they're gonna be there, you can see when they were there, you get the confirmation of delivery and it's at a more cost effective, uh, price point. So I would say that that's part of it.
Good. Good, good. Alright. John, what would you add to that good stuff there from Michael? What would you add, John? Yeah,
I would say in your stack of providers and business rules to what Michael was just talking about, it's almost like you need like a middle layer, right? So you could have a product, and we see this a lot with automotive, right? It's very lightweight, but it's long.
Right? So you're gonna get hit really hard if you ship it FedEx or u p s, right? But then l t l shipping also doesn't make sense based on the price point. So think of like an accessory for a vehicle where it might be a hundred dollars, $200 item. It might not make sense to spend 2 5300 to ship it l t l, but you know, if you ship it through the parcel network, your accessorials are gonna beat you up. So, you know, that's when I feel like those gig economy companies is that middle ground of it's gonna be a little bit more expensive than what I would've paid FedEx or u p s, but a lot less cheaper than what L t L would be. This would be a good solution to, to leverage one of these companies. And the caveat to that is really do you have the product in the right place closest to the customer to be able to take advantage of that? You know, that's inventory placement is, is a really big deal to utilize final mile providers.
Okay. Outstanding. All right. Inventory placement probably more on that in a second. Alright. Cost and time efficiencies, especially for retailers. Your quick thoughts?
Yeah, I would say I, I think, uh, John alluded to it, it's not always the cheapest cost, right? It's how do I serve my customer best? Because if you have customer satisfaction, you're gonna make your money. So in some cases it's like, well, my customer doesn't need it in two days, so why have I hardcoded everything two day parcel, right? So there's a lot of companies who still do that rather than saying, this customer wants it in five days. Uh, so I use within the carry the five day service versus two day versus next day. A lot of companies don't take advantage of that intelligence, but in some cases you might go like, yeah, I know this is the cheapest, but I want that special care, that special service maybe even use a platform like freight where I can indicate a specific driver because I know the guy knows the customer really well, or that lady comes there twice a week and we know, uh, that they like her, so let's let her deliver that product. So it's becoming, it's given you the tools to look at cost, but also really look at how can I influence the customer satisfaction? Because you have to ask yourself what is the, the, the positive cost of spending more and creating good customer satisfaction. Hmm. And what is really that true cost of bad customer satisfaction? We all know that if you lose a customer, the cost of gaining a a new customer is far higher than if you can keep an existing customer and keep them happy.
Hmm. Well said Bart. Timeless truth there, whether you like it or not, Greg weigh in here. We're talking when we heard Michael and Bart and John all talk about these, uh, costs and time efficiencies, your thoughts.
Well, I think the ability to specialize is what's really key for cost and time efficiency here. As John talked about it when you said light, but long, I thought of those old chrome strips that people used to put on their 67 impalas that kept you from getting door dangs. I I think of that exact thing, 22 feet long but weighs about four ounces, right? Something like that. So yeah, I think the ability to specialize for things like that gets it delivered on time and at a reasonable cost. And you know, to the point that both Michael and Bart have made, to a certain extent, I think consumers are a lot more flexible. Now, I, I am frequently presented with, would you like it today, tomorrow for 2 99 the next day with your regular weekly shipment from poop or a couple days longer where everything comes in one box and you get a discount. Even. I think that we, consumers, one of the great awakenings of the great toilet paper shortage of 2020 is that now consumers are aware of how supply chain works and why it costs to get it here faster when it's something really unique. So I think consumers that enlightenment is something that the companies can use to give their consumers options and the consumers, whether they be businesses or end consumers that get it
Right. That's right. All right, so for the sake of time, I wanna get John and Bart, we've talked about fleet augmentation and fleets in general here today. I wanna get y'all both to briefly weigh in on the, the value of avoiding capital investments and fleet maintenance. And hey, can we just stop for a second and say, hey, big thanks to all the main maintainers out there that go under recognized and keep fleets globally moving forward. So big shout out there, John. Talk about the value of avoiding capital investments in, uh, fleet maintenance, your thoughts.
That's a tough one because we enjoy that capital at find a parts and fleet maintenance, right? But what I will say is I think, you know, to avoid extra expenses, right? Would be to utilize data and analytics that come off of the vehicles. Preventive maintenance is huge, right? So if you can stay on top of preventive maintenance mm-hmm. It will avoid those costly repairs where you have to replace a whole powertrain, right? And your vehicle's down for days. So my take on that is, is going to be avoid the bigger costs in that space, but stay on top of fleet maintenance, right? Um, you know, now if you're augmenting your fleet, obviously you're gonna have less assets and then your fleet maintenance will go down and from find a parts perspective, that's well and good because those vehicles that are out there delivering could be our customers, right? Right. And, and they're the people that we can help keep their vehicles on the road. So yeah, there's mixed emotions to that question from my side. <laugh>,
Well John, as you were kind of responding there, folks, if you ever have taken your car in for a tuneup or something and you wait for a little while and then the folks invite you in and they start off the conversation with, Hey, would you please have a seat <laugh>, there's not gonna be much good news that follows there, but hey Bart, speak to, you know, again, avoiding these capital investments and, and all these main maintenance activities that can bite you, your thoughts part.
Yeah. Along if, if it goes back to efficiency as well, right? So again, when we have better information, we can do things more preventatively, right? Mm-hmm. So we can capture the information instead of just saying, Hey, we need to do maintenance at a certain interval. First of all, we can lower the miles. So you have to do, let's say something every 50,000 miles. Well, your miles are gonna go further. Uh, but secondly, to be able to do it in a preventive way based on intelligence solutions. Why? Because when you take a sales delivery fleet or a last mile delivery fleet, uh, at PepsiCo we had 28,000 in us, these box trucks that would deliver direct to the stores. Every time you have to take one off the road, not only do you have the cost of the maintenance, but now you also have that potentially lost sales.
'cause that driver that that box truck is not gonna be able to deliver. So do that in a smart way. I think route optimization obviously plays that with that as well. And as we're seeing companies look at maintenance now also when they decide what is that fecal that I'm going to buy? So whether it's still combustible engines and they look at the data and they say, Hey, we see differences between maybe different makes and models. Again, you can imagine like a PepsiCo between 28,000 just Frito-Lay last mile delivery fleets. You had anything from something that was 25 years old to a brand new electric vehicle. So it can help companies also make the right decision, and what is it that I'm going to invest in? And then from a customer's perspective, potentially saying, what is that type of vehicle that I want to send to my customer to go and deliver it?
Do I want it to be that kind of that old, uh, 25 year old box truck with a big smoke coming out of it? Or do I want to pick for that particular service to a company that I know is very sustainable? I want to send them a nice new electric vehicle because they're gonna appreciate having it delivered in a sustainable way.
Mm-hmm. And, and who, that's all the rage. We all want that, right? We all want that. Consumers, practitioners alike. Michael, I wanna get you and I I wanna switch gears here. I wanna talk about, as we look to kind of put a bow in our conversation here today. You know, we've talked a lot about some of these themes, these partnerships across the ecosystem, reliable partnerships with that growth, but yet sustainable growth for retailers. And just extending those thoughts out, just overall convenience and peace of mind for retailers, which can come from, Uh, these last mile, uh, delivery platforms. So Michael, speak to some of that and we'll go around the horn here, but Michael, your thoughts?
Yeah, convenience and peace of mind. I, I mean, I, I think, you know, the good news about where we're, we are in, in the evolution of all of this, our ability to serve that, that last mile is we're getting better and better all the time. There are companies out there, the, the connectivity is getting better. I mean, half the companies that are out there today that, that are beginning to catch, hold and thrive. It, it, the reason they weren't here 10 years ago is because we didn't have all the digital connectivity. We didn't have the APIs, we didn't have the framework and that infrastructure. So the good news is the foundation that's been laid out there from a connectivity perspective, and a lot of the work that talking about things like partnerships, whether it's a carrier or a third party logistics company or a digital service provider working together to build standards and a foundation.
There's a lot of that going on. And so I think retailers should be excited about the future. It's only gonna be better where maybe we looked at, again, back to that whole Amazon effect. It's like, well, I know they do it, but how do we do it in our world? The rest of the world is building that foundation to be able to figure out how to solve for some of the same things that, that maybe Amazon did early in the game. And I think there's just a general all, whether you're in software or you are a, you're a carrier, you're an asset-based carrier, a third party logistics provider, the weaving in of customer experience is something that's really important. I mean, you, you hear it all everywhere you go. It's becoming more and more important no matter where, whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500 company to make customer experience and put the customer at the center of the model. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, we're doing it in our organization. And as we Travel around, some of the conferences part, and I run into each other out all the time. Um, it doesn't matter who you talk to, but they're trying to figure out how do we build this thing with the customer first. So The future looks good. I think if you're on the customer side of this.
Agreed. Michael, gosh, we've come a long way in just the last few years. It'd be interesting to see what's right around the corner. Uh, I'm gonna get Bart and Greg to speak to this. And then we're we, for the sake of time, we're gonna move into, uh, offering some resources here. So, Bart, when you think about the partnerships and the sustainable growth and convenience and even better peace of mind, who can't get enough peace of mind these days, especially for retailers, your thoughts, mark?
Yeah. I, I would say, although last mile is really complex, it is often fairly simple for retailers to measure it. And there's two things that really keep 'em up at night is CSAT and n p s, customer satisfaction score and net promoter scores, those go up. That means more revenue for the retailer. That number goes down, that cost revenue. We have seen, and I've seen it personally, by providing technology solutions and these delivery solutions where a company can go up in a promoter score multiple points. And for that particular retail, very large retailer, every point they went up, the revenue increased by $10 million. So, huge,
that's the thing. That's where you have to look at is walk and move that needle. And again, it's by looking into the technologies, looking into the, these newer solutions. But again, like we said before, right, is how do you minimize risk by having more options, then having the intelligence through technology to pick the right solution for that customer.
Hmm. Well said. Csat, n p s man, to keep your eye on those two amongst others, and I'd love to make those gains $10 million by the, by the tranche. I love that Bart. And by the way, Michael and Bart, as y'all are out and about and meeting each other at industry events over hopefully tasty adult beverages, you gotta send us some pictures back this way. Okay. or it didn't happen. All right.
So Greg, as we start to kinda wind down, and we're gonna get into some resources and make sure folks can know how to connect with John Bart and Michael here, what your thoughts here, when, when it comes to, again, I, I keep going back to that peace of mind for retailers, that's just a phrase that speaks to me and paints a picture. But your thoughts, Greg?
Yeah. Well, as a reformed retailer, <laugh>, I can tell you, uh, first let me address something just really quick. All you retailers out there can have the peace of mind that John Conte is gonna get his money, whether you pay him for it or not. The point is, don't don't take on all that capital responsibility for fleets and fleet maintenance because these solutions will do it. Trucks are still gonna wear out, John, you know that. And they're still gonna need fuel filters and all that sort of thing. So I think you're gonna get your money. Okay. I just wanted to say that because I want everyone to feel better that Joan is gonna get paid. That's right. But look, what are retailers good at a lot, a
Lot of things, but logistics supply chain is not one of them. Mm-hmm. As a reformed retailer and a son of a retailer, I can tell you that supply chain was a dirty word. My father actually used it as dirty word because he was a merchant. We are merchants at heart. We know what people want. We know how to get it to them. We know how to present it to them. We know how to please them when they get it. What we don't know is how to get it there. And that is something that we would rather have somebody else doing. so the peace of mind comes from instead of making dinner, making a phone call, right? You guys deliver it and, and it's taken care of. And that's what I think that the flexibility of these platforms provide is that it's flexibility, it is assured accountability. It is, you know, cost, reliability. It is economies of scale of all these other organizations. Let their fuel filters clog up and let them call John and spend money with John, right? <laugh>, all you gotta worry about is whether it shows up on time and to Bart's point, whether your your net promoter score is going up. And I think that's the peace of mind that most retailers want. And that's really, honestly, they ought to embrace it rather than try to do things that aren't retail things. Let supply chain people, do supply chain things and let retail people do retail things and everyone has a lot better peace of mind, including your consumer.
Excellent point. Bringing the pros, Greg. Great point there. Alright, for the sake of Tom, I wanna share, uh, a, a neat resource from our friends at Freight that we've been talking about here. Again folks, y'all can check it out, freight.com F A Y T.com and here's some good news here that you can get your first three deliveries for free. If you go to freight.com, sign up as a shipper and enter that code first three free. And we're dropping all that information into the chat so you're one click away and middle information away from getting some free Excellent last mile services. Okay, let's make sure our esteem panel. I really, eeally wish we had a couple more hours here with, with the four of y'all, but alas we do not. I wanna start with Bart Unk really enjoyed having you back here today. I know you got a bunch of things going on. I think I saw a note somewhere. you're jumping on on a I one of the new trucks right after, after today's session. But how can folks, if They can't catch you here, how can they connect with you after today's session?
Yeah, they can connect best with me through either Bar Mark, L l c or my brand new website supply chain better supply chains.com. So I, a lot of what I write webinars I'll links to, for example, this webinar on your guys' site. They can find all of that better supply chains com.
Outstanding bart, better supply chains.com y'all check that out and thanks as always Bart for being here. John Conti really have enjoyed everything but your Phillies fandom, I've <laugh>, I'm just messing with you. Hey, y'all got a great team. Good luck throughout the playoffs.
Really appreciate it. It's busy as y'all are growing at Find at Parks. thanks for spending time here. How can folks connect with you?
Yeah, I would say LinkedIn is probably the best platform and then you, you know, you could always email me at John dot conti@finditparts.com. Okay, wonderful, wonderful John, a pleasure to meet you here and really enjoyed your perspective. and then switching over to Dr. Beast, Michael Campisi with E F W. Michael, really appreciate you and the rest, many of y'all fighting through the fire alarms and all the ills that come with travel sometimes. thankfully the good always outweighs the bad, But Michael, how can folks connect with you and the E F W team?
Yeah, Scott, good to be with you. Thanks for having me. You can find me, LinkedIn is a great, great way to connect with me. just send me a connection request, not follow, but actually do the connection request and uh, that'd be great. and Michael Dot campisi@efwnow.com and, and of course Efw Just come to our website and you can find what you wanna learn about us on there. Awesome. Thanks so much
Michael. Great to have you here. Alright, Greg, you're gonna get the rapid last word here today. We've covered as we knew we would, covered a ton of ground with Michael, art and John, so much opportunity out there. Your final thought, Greg.
Yeah, do what you do best and let other people do what they do best, right? That the, i I think constantly of the efficiency that can be built out of specialization, the efficiency in terms of performance and in terms of cost. And this has been a great discussion around why that can work for you, whether you're a retailer or a B two C provider, whatever your business is, where you've got to deliver and count on that last mile. Trust a specialist, give yourself the flexibility. That's gotta be the key word today. Don't think guys, the flexibility of options for delivery, of options for cost enhancement or, or reduction for satisfaction of your customers. All of those things that you can get from a platform of a broad number and type of providers out there and the transparency that allows you to see what it's gonna cost you. So it's not a surprise. That's another thing retailers don't like <laugh>,
Surprises by the way. So yeah, I, I think that look, take advantage of this platform. Look at it and just learn about it because as I'm thinking about companies that I'm associated with as well, I'm thinking this is just a great opportunity to be able to reach into some of those new markets, right? To stabilize some of those markets where you've got difficult things, difficult areas that you deliver to and diversify the way that you serve your customer base. It, it opens up whole new markets to you.
Wonderful. Great way to, great place to leave it there. Thank you Greg White. Thanks Catherine and Amanda behind the scenes. Thanks everybody that showed up here today. I know we couldn't get everybody's comments. We're gonna make sure the whole panel, uh, gets all that information. Who knows? Y'all maybe grab some conversations after the fact. Again, big thanks to Michael and to John. Big thanks to Bart folks, be sure to check out better supply chains.com. Check out, find It parts. We got a ton of resources we brought here Meet. Be sure to venture over to freight.com and check out the offer there. Three, your first three deliveries if you sign up as a shipper. So check that out. Uh, we gotta leave it there though. So folks, the challenge is on you. The last challenge is on y'all. Take something that all the brilliance that Michael, Bart, John and Greg dropped here today. Take at least one thing and put it into action. Deeds, not words. That's what it's all about. And with that said, we welcome you back here. Thanks for being here, Scott Welcome to play. Welcome to play chain. They know the voice of lower suppression. Welcome to surprise.Welcome to surprise me. challenging you to do good, to give forward and to be the change. And we'll see you next time, right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.
Thanks for being a part of our supply chain now, community. Check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain now, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain. Now.