Name: [3PL Panel] 3PL Smackdown: Who Wins? You Decide.
Uploaded: 2026-09-01T20:30:48.477Z
Duration: 59 min 20 s
Description: [3PL Panel] 3PL Smackdown: Who Wins? You Decide.

Transcript for "[3PL Panel] 3PL Smackdown: Who Wins? You Decide.": Alright. Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's main event, three p l SmackDown, who wins? You decide. I'm Steph Marrow Guste. I am the director of marketing here today, and I'm also your referee for today's match. Today, we're putting three experienced logistics leaders in the ring to tackle real world shipping challenges that businesses face every day. And in this session, the real matchup is assumptions versus strategy. And the fun part is that you'll have a chance to compare your instincts against theirs and see how they approach each shipping scenario. So because we're in logistics, there's rarely ever one right answer. Success comes from understanding the trade offs behind the decision, and that's exactly what we're here to explore today. Alright. So before we get ready to rumble and get started, let's go over a few housekeeping items. Just so you know, we are doing question answer, so please submit your questions using the q and a function in the webinar platform. We will address these at the end of the session as time permits. The webinar is being recorded, and you will receive an on demand recording of it within the next week or so. You'll also be able to download any additional resources from the related content section. There you will also find a link to a survey that we're running to help build our annual pro ship report. It's all about the future of parcel shipping, and we would really love your response to it. And as just a little plug, it is gonna be published on December 1, so stay tuned. Any eligible responses to the survey will get an Amazon gift card. So take advantage of that. And then, of course, finally, please complete the session survey at the end of the webinar to provide feedback on the webinar and tell us how we did. Alright. Let's get on to introductions. As I said, I'm Steph Monroe Guste. I am the director of marketing here at ProShip. Now let's introduce our SmackDown contenders. Michelle, why don't you kick it off and tell the audience a little bit about yourself? Hi. I'm Michelle Keske. I've been in logistics and fulfillment over twenty eight years. I'm currently the president at Diamond Fulfillment Solutions and have been using ProShip for over ten years. Alright. Thanks, Michelle. Brian, do you wanna go next? Sure. I'll probably tell everybody how old I am. Hi, Brian Corbett, VP of sales and marketing. I have been in, I'd say supply chain for twenty five years my whole life, really, and, particularly contract logistics last ten to twelve years and, represent Barrett. So happy to be here. And love. love the background. Ready to ready to fight with everybody. Ready to rumble. Love that. Joe, I hear your, walk up music playing, so why don't you introduce yourself? Hey, everybody. My name is Joe Lowe. I'm the vice president of IT here at Stasi Americas. Been here for about six years. Been using ProShip since I came on board. Been in the industry for about fifteen. So happy to be here and, get going. Awesome. Thank you guys for being here today. We really appreciate it. And why don't we get the smackdown started? But before we do, we have to introduce the concept to the audience. So before we dive in, hear how it's gonna work. I'll present three different logistics scenarios based on real challenges facing manufacturers, retailers, and distributors. You'll vote on what you think is the most important factor or best course of action to each scenario. And then our panelists will share how they'd approach the situation based on their experience. And each after each round, we'll revisit the poll results and see if the discussion changed your way of thinking. Alright. How about we ring that bell and get started here with round one? So round one, peak season panic. Our first challenge is all about the craziness of peak season. If you've ever lived through holiday season planning, you know that growth is super exciting right up until it becomes super overwhelming. So, let's take a look at the first scenario. Scenario one is a fast growing ecommerce retailer is projecting a 50% increase in holiday order volume compared to last year. The company has experienced fulfillment bottlenecks in previous peak seasons and is concerned about labor availability, carrier capacity constraints, delivery performance, and maintaining a positive customer experience during the busiest time of year. The retailer has six months to prepare and just one chance to get it right. So before we get to the panel, I wanna ask you guys in the audience, What do you think is the most important thing to focus on first? So we have forecasting and planning, labor preparedness, carrier readiness and capacity, and customer communication and visibility. Give you guys a couple seconds to answer. Alright. We've got votes still coming in, but it looks like forecasting and planning, wow, is taking a big lead here. Alright. Forecasting and planning it is. So let's go to our panel and see what they think about it. Michelle, let's start with you. How would you prepare this business for a successful peak season? Sure. For me, successful peak planning is really about removing the surprises before they happen. Six months sounds like a lot of time, but it goes quickly. Number one, I would use the time to validate the forecast, build the labor and operation plan, communicate with the carriers, prepare the inventory in the warehouse, and establish daily visibility once peak starts. During peak season, we're proactively communicating with our clients using ProShip and our APIs. We get updates from every shipment and every carrier and the status of the shipment, and that's how I would address the peak season panic. That's great. I think, your perspective is right on point. Preparedness is definitely the key to a successful peak season. Brian, when you're advising a customer heading into peak, what's at the top of your checklist? So, look, everyone on the panel is gonna give really great answers here. And and, you know, we as we walk through and I was thinking about trying to how to answer this to, you know, add some add some value to beyond just the forecasting and labor. One of the things that I think we do at Barrett and and has been successful with our individual or our buildings is to, walk through disaster planning, beyond, just lay like, the labor prepare preparedness part of it. What what plan around the what ifs, not necessarily hitting your forecast, because during during peak season, the idea of a company kind of, you know, doubling or tripling their sales is is a great thing, and we wanna be prepared for that. And we also wanna be prepared for disappointment. So I think the most important thing beyond the basics, for me would be to work, to to prepare for the what if plans, which is above or below your forecast, and then walk through, you know, walk through an action plan with the owners of the building, on on how that how how that's gonna play out. Okay. That's great. It sounds like so far we're right on with the poll. Forecasting and planning. is important. Joe, why don't you give us a little insight on the topic? Yeah. I I totally agree. And look, I mean, forecasting is helpful, but the truth is we know brands are sometimes either under or over, in some cases, even guessing their forecast. So as a three PO, we can and don't just wait for the perfect forecast to come in. That's where we really wanna put our forecast on top of theirs. In some situations, we even know their promo cycles better than they do. So we wanna build a peak plan based off of that as really it comes down to a domino effect from the forecast to the labor to the throughput, the pickups, the CX teams. You know, one of those really slipping can just topple November as a whole. Yeah. I think you guys are definitely onto something. You're matching the poll. Forecasting is huge. Joe, I'm gonna stick with you for a second though. Let's stay on the technology side specifically. As the VP of IT, what data systems tell you whether a customer is truly ready for peak or not? Yeah. This is where this is where we have teams that will plug in the forecast hours and theirs on top of the labor planning tools. That includes per shift, per station. Moreover, all systems go into hyper care mode as they certainly should. That includes our ProShip systems, APIs, integrations. So when the latency does tick up, we know we are on it before our clients ever know about it. So, that all comes down to peak planning and the checklist. We all know peak isn't one in November. It's really one in July when you decide whether you're gonna guess, or you're gonna use your operation as an instrument. So I've said this a few times to some teams internally in different ways, but guessing isn't a strategy and hope isn't a plan. That's great perspective, not just in peak season, but in life in general. So thanks for sharing that. Brian, I'm gonna go to you next. Let's zoom out a bit. Aside from forecasting and labor planning, is there anything you'd advise your customers on preparing for the aggressive growth of peak season? Well, yeah. So there's really two two two surprises that nobody likes during peak season and and a three PL relationship with their client, which is, hidden hidden costs that weren't communicated or orders, struggling to get out the door. Okay? And they're both related. Right? Because, typically, it costs more money to do more volume. And if you you don't communicate these things upfront, it can still be bad. Right? So I I I again, I I've come back to this idea of walking through scenario planning and and walking through costs upfront. You know, if a then b, which costs c, and align on these things upfront. So there's no surprises. That also helps the decision tree of the, in the building because one of the problems during peak season is is resource and time. And a lot of times, it's all hands on deck, out in floor, and so people can be hard to reach, both both sides. So if you could go through the decision tree of events as best as possible in advance and kinda get both part parties to sign off in advance on, okay. What are we doing on the offside? What are we doing on the labor side? How much is it gonna cost? Over the brand, the company already okayed this process. Right? We don't need to have a meeting and have you know, so if you can do all these things in advance of peak season, you know, that's success. And success for me is is a happy client and, a three p l performing to what they agreed to do. That's great. Great perspective. I think that what this part of the conversation kind of points out is that, although the planning is hugely important, some of these other things that were in our poll are kind of interconnected with it. So how how about we go back to the audience and just do a quick pulse check. After hearing the panel, which of the four, of the four choices feels most critical to peak season success? Again, it's forecasting planning, labor preparedness, carrier readiness and capacity, customer communication and visibility, or are they all interconnected and must be planned together? Alright. We're definitely getting a lot of votes on, they're connected and must be planned together. And I think that's a great way to enter peak season is with a plan. I loved, your reference to the decision tree, Brian. I think that really sets companies up for success. So let's let's shift to preparing shipments. From preparing shipments rather to managing customer expectations after those shipments leave the building. Many companies assume that if the package arrives on time, customers are gonna automatically be happy. But as we've all learned over the past few years, customer perception and actual delivery performance aren't always the same thing. So that brings us to our next challenge, round two, the Wismo crisis. Alright. Picture it. An omnichannel retailer discovers that nearly 30% of all customer service inquiries are shipment related. Packages are generally arriving on time, but customers frequently feel uninformed during the transit and reach out for updates. Leadership wants to reduce the where is my order inquiries while improving customer satisfaction and reducing support costs. So let's go to our second poll regarding Wismo. What is the biggest driver of Wismo inquiries? Is it a lack of shipment visibility, poor customer communication, carrier performance, or internal process gaps? Alright. Let's see let's see where they land. Alright. Keep those votes coming in. Looks like lack of shipment visibility is definitely taking the early lead. Big jump there. Alright. We hear you. 17 votes. I think we'll, we'll dive in then. What I love about this one is that every organization I've talked to seems to have a different theory about WISMO inquiries in general. So why don't we start with you, Joe? What strategy would you take to solve the visibility issue and the customer experience problem as a whole? Yeah. I I really think that there's two things that drive Wismo, and that's transparency and the technology. Most companies think they have a visibility problem, but in reality, they likely have a exception management problem. You know, treating the tracking page is a symptom. The real question is, can you catch a shipment in trouble before the customer notices? That's really where the integrations and technology stack can really play a difference. Those robust integrations that gets the status from every carrier near real time, you know, ping the customer before they email and ultimately brings down that panic. And that's where the both the transparency and the technology stack can go side by side. That's great. Brian, do you wanna add something here? Oh, yeah. Sure. I mean, look. I think the where is my stuff is is really usually a joint problem. As much as we we wish it was just one lane that could be easily fixed, it's usually not. From the from the three p l side, it's usually sometimes it can be simple stuff operationally on the floor, you know, scan driven or miscans or or whatnot. It could simply be a pallet that didn't get didn't get loaded. But I think overall from a from a company brand standpoint, when they and their their customers, which are the most important, the where is my order, I I have found lately the trend now is is is an excessive delay beyond whatever the promise was originally during checkout. So what we do is we we really when I when we move customers into our ecosystem, we really wanna understand what are you telling your your customers based on the shipment service that they are paying for. And we wanna make sure that we we act as advisers, and we say here you can use carrier x y z through ProShip or whatever whatever the carrier is to hit those promises, because ultimately, the end user is is asking where their stuff is when there's been a communication gap on what they thought they were buying during checkout and what they actually received. So most people today are not refreshing tracking numbers every day. It's not 2002 eBay where, you know, you just you're you're you're checking a tracking number every night. They they have a mental clock in their head. They say, okay. I paid for seven days. I paid for three days or I paid for overnight. And their brain they're they are they are subconsciously you know, the alarm goes off in their head when they feel like there's a gap in what they paid for. Right? So I think that it's really important to to, to work on your shipping logic directly with the three p l, and align services with promises. Right? That's to me, that's the most important thing by far. I think I'm living in post or, you know, pre eBay times because I am still clicking that tracking button to refresh it all the time. I. just get really excited, but, definitely makes. That's just that's just being excited. yeah. Yeah. Joe, I'm gonna I wanna see what your, perspective is on it coming from the IT side. What have you seen change the most when it comes to customer ex expectations and how they've changed over the years? Yeah. I think a shift that we've seen and it's really that cost versus performance style. So, you know, clients often want the cheapest carrier and the best performance, but, you know, you can quickly find that you can't always have both. And where you set that dial is what determines what your CX head count's gonna be and what your customer satisfaction is gonna be. And that's where the differentiator is. What happens when the package leaves the warehouse? How fast can our transportation team and automation flows react when things go sideways? All of which is once the package leaves the warehouse, the prior points we mentioned were really success within our four walls, but, that's really what they're looking for. And you have to balance that with the shipment logic that Brian had mentioned, really going through that in great detail prior to peak. That way you're not making a change, you know, Thanksgiving right before Black Friday. Great. Brian, what about trial and error, during peak season? Are you for or against it? Is that the right time to do it? Brian, we can't hear you. This whole time I've been on mute. I I I first said thank you for the softball, and then I started to plug ProShip. So no. Oh, Here here's the. thing. Let me do I'll do it real quick. So we don't wanna we don't wanna break anything during peak. We also don't wanna break anything during non peak. So the trial and error thing, is usually relegated to, when somebody wants to try a new cheaper service. We can give them advice and say, hey. We've done this and that before with other companies and go from there. But, but, yeah, we certainly don't wanna break anything over peak season. But did, Joe's point's really good. Like, the idea of, you know, working through that logic and and he's right. Like, you know, people want the best service, the cheapest price. Well, with ProShip, you know, you don't you what I like to say is we can do both. Right? And that's where we work with let your customers decide is what I would say. If somebody wants to pay for the more expensive service, we can we can map that out, with the right logic. If somebody wants, you know, the slower service, cheaper price, let the customer decide there. So that's why it's really important to just understand, you know, time in transits and and what the customers are gonna pay for, and you can set your you can set your shopping cart up for that, which, you know, works usually usually, you don't have to change during peak. So. Great advice on. I took up so much time with the mute there. My bad. there. No. That's okay. That's, I I see you, preparing, strategizing a there. wow. So why don't you jump in here? What strategy would you take in this scenario? For me, I think the biggest pieces here are visibility and carrier performance. You know, we've got clients that ship under their own shipping account, and then we've got clients that ship under our account. When clients ship under their own account, it really gives less ability for the three p l to ship and manage those shipments. When they ship under the three p l account, we have all the visibility in the world to pull levers, ask for favors, regarding carrier performance. Shipment visibility has come a long way. You know, we request email addresses, so that when the orders are placed, we can send updated statuses. Not only, you know, where's the order in our facility, but once it leaves our facility through all the carrier processes, because of the technology out there and the APIs, you can see where your package is almost, you know, every hour of the day minus if it's missing a scan. But lastly, to help with visibility, I know our team, are assigned to specific accounts and clients, and they're constantly running exception reports, you know, each morning and proactively communicating with the client. You know, many times, we're fixing, an issue or addressing an issue before the customer even knows about it. And then, you know, to echo what Joe said, we really try to help manage their the client's expectations on cost versus performance of a carrier. You know, what's the carrier sweet spot? You gotta think about that. For example, you know, the postal service, they might be cheaper, but they deliver to a mailbox. Anything that's bigger than a mailbox is typically gonna get destroyed, damaged, lost, take longer to deliver. So, you know, that's sort of my advice on that. Brian, do you have anything to add to that? I mean, I'm just thinking about you guys ship a $700 women's dress. Yep. Does. somebody talked about that. delivered to their mailbox? Yeah. I mean, Michelle's points are a really good one on on, linking. Look. The the let's be honest. The carriers themselves have their own brand. K? They just do it, like, FedEx, UPS. You know, my mother knows the UPS driver by name for thirty years, versus versus gate workers at Beho. There's a different deliveries experience these days. You can even talk about like, I I live in a in a community. You know, more modern, people were packed in, like sardines, and then stuff goes into the mailbox center. Right? Like, that's a that's a different ex that's a different client experience. You know, those packages that I have to walk across the street, you know, open up a box. You know? And it's like it feels like I'm working to get my stuff, whereas FedEx and UPS are bringing a a right to my door. So if you're buying a $700, women's dress or a Bulgari ring or, you know, something nice, you're gonna probably get an overnight service hand delivered from the driver. So all these things package in to what the what the brands are are selling, which is their, you know, their product. And so we really we really I I really hone in on this with customers during onboarding. Say, what what experience are you trying to convey during your delivery process? And I'll tell you which carriers what the experiences look like if you don't know. And, hopefully, you you believe us because Michelle's point's right. Like, if you're spending a lot of money on something and it gets put in a poly mailer and then gets stuffed in a mailbox, it might get there quick even. Right? Post office deliver they're they're fine. They deliver stuff good. Right? But it's a different buyer experience. And and. and to be honest, a lot of these companies, their pricing, they they are it's all packed in. Right? You know, just the idea of, let's say, getting a a $10,000 Tiffany's bracelet put in a mailbox is a totally different experience than having it handed off to you by a driver in a nice pretty box. So these are important things that that we talk about with our customers. I really think that's a great point, Brian. You know, it's really the value of the product and or the perceived value, right, 100%. of the product Yep. by the consumer. And that's, you know, that's really the end all goal is how's that consumer feeling about the whole experience of ordering it and. then actually getting it. Well, Michelle, the funny thing is, you know, we everybody chased we did people companies were chasing this Amazon two day delivery, but we we there it's a meme at this point of getting a brown box with no packet. Like, it's just it is yep. It is what it is. It's not pretty. Right? Everyone knows. what everyone gets an Amazon box. That is not an experience. In fact, it's a nuisance. No. So Yeah. these are things that these are things that we wanna tell the company, remind them, you know, you know, Barrett, particularly, we have a lot of premium brands in our portfolio, and they all tend they all they all understand this and, and the yeah. So really good point, Michelle, to bring that up about the, the mailbox and the post office and the brand and the value and the cart value. We you know, we talk about cart value and, yeah, all those things are related. Yeah. Brian, I just wanna go back to something you said for a minute, and that was regarding the Tiffany bracelet, I believe. And I just. wanted to interject and say that the ref can be bribed, to win this match. So, just a side comment I'll. ship it through the mail. It'll be there in twelve days. Yeah. Perfect. Right. to. the right to the PO box. Yeah. And then you have to go unlock it and get a key and yeah. Oh, it'll be worth it. Michelle, Yeah. just, I wanna dive a little bit further into Wismo. How does your company deal with Wismo inquiries during the peak periods? I think one of the things that, we try to encourage our clients to do is put messaging on their website so customers know what they should expect, you know, potential delays, what have you, you know, just based on peak and volume. Again, it's it's about as much proactive communication that you can do, but it's it's, you know, not necessarily directly with our client, but down to that consumer, that person that is waiting, anxiously for their package. Yeah. Brian, you when we previously talked, you talked a little bit about the importance of getting, in front of the messaging and being honest with with the customer. Can you expand a little bit on that? Yeah. I mean, I think you do it during checkout. I I think that, as as it relates to peak and, and planning, there's yeah. Whether it's batch emails or getting in front of checkout and saying, here's the x, here's the estimated time. You know, underpromise and overdeliver is a classic, can't go wrong, but companies are afraid to do that because they feel like they'll they'll be abandonment. But I I think the best thing to do is just I I think I think people in general really love we're starving for honesty. Like, the whole society is, like, craving just people just telling the truth. It's, like, basic. And so if you have a basic service, say, three to seven days, we we don't know. It might be five. It might be six. That's okay. Just say it. Right? So, like, I think you you model your ship your shopping cart off of honesty. Just say here and here's the service. Here's the price, and and people can figure that out. People are smart. I just feel like I just feel like honest being honest about the basic stuff, like parcel carriers and service levels and when you're gonna get your stuff. It's so basic one zero one that, and it pays huge dividends. All the successful brands at Barrett that we've worked through to make custom shopping carts, they it's like a weight lifted off when when they go through and and have a few different options at a few different prices, with realistic expectations. We get really good feedback. And in the back of my head, I'm like, well, we're just we're just giving them all the options and being honest about it. You know? And and I just I just feel like that's so important. Yeah. I definitely agree. I think proactive communication just in general will reduce the amount of inquiries that your customer service teams will get. Great points. But I think we should probably check-in with the audience and see what resonated the most with them about the conversation. So time for a quick pulse check. After hearing the panel, what do you think the best way to reduce WISMO inquiries are? Alright. Managing customer expectations. Alright. They're rolling in now. K. It looks like we have a tie between proactive customer communication and matching customer expectations. We still have some votes rolling in, but I think spot on with what our panel said. I think that's that's great, advice going into peak season and dealing with what could be an influx of inquiries to customer service teams about Wismo. So I think while we're talking about customer experience, let's talk a little bit about another department, and that's logistics executives. They're getting asked the question, how can we improve results while spending less money? So that's gonna bring us to our final round, the main squeeze. But before we ring the bell on that, I just wanted to remind people that we do have a Q and A function in the chat. So if you have any questions for our panelists, we will be sure to ask them at the end of the webinar. So onward and upward. When in when transportation costs continue to rise, most organizations will eventually face pressure from finance leadership to find savings. So our next round is all about the challenge that customers is that customers still expect the same experience, but we wanna find cost savings within the organization. So let's take a look at our next scenario. A manufacturer has seen parcel shipping costs increase by 15% over the past year. The CFO has tasked the organization with reducing transportation spend, but there are some nonnegotiable constraints. So number one, delivery performance cannot decline. Number two, customer experience can't suffer. And number three is strategic carrier relationships must be maintained. The company isn't necessarily looking for the cheapest option, but they are looking for the smartest one. So we're gonna launch our next poll and see what the audience says. Where do you look for savings first? Is it carrier optimization, service level selection, packaging improvements, or network design? Alright. I'm seeing carrier optimization is definitely in the lead, and I suspect that most people have picked that answer because they've either tried it successfully or they've lived through unsuccessfully. But let's hear from the experts. Brian, I wanna start with you. What is your take on reducing costs without compromising service? I would tell my CFO he's a clown, actually. You know? And we have a great CFO. He would he would laugh at that and say get it done anyway. No. I mean so look. I I it's a tough it's a tough question to answer because, the parcel industry has a 90% gross mark 19%, which FedEx's gross margin is published 21%. I mean, these are low these are low margin industries. So it it does make sense that services can't go up with costs going down. Again, this is the this is gonna be a nonanswer because I I think it's an impossible ask right now. My my answer would be to offer more services to to and may and maybe find find reasons to use cheaper services, Yeah. or or or offer those two brands you think aren't using them. Right? Or yourself. Right? Ask yourself, do we need I think the go to first principles with this and say, do we actually need next day service? Could we get away with two day air? Could we use three day select? Could we use Veo? Could we use OnTrack? Could, you know, could we use regionals? So if you go down if you break it down into the basic law first principle, you know, basic question of, you know, question what you're doing now, rather than just saying, hey. We need to just lower cost and and increase, speed. I don't know if that's an answer. Hopefully, it is, but I think that we there's usually with with with large numbers, there's usually things you're doing that you don't need to do. You can do surveys. You can find out, do our customers really need this stuff this fast? You know, do we overvalue that? You know, etcetera etcetera. So that that's where I would probably approach it. Okay. Why don't we look at it from an IT side? So, Joe, I'm gonna go to you. Where's the first place you typically look when you're trying to uncover saving opportunities? Yeah. I think this is a great question, and it goes a little bit same theme as round one where, you know, there's many different one step options that you can look at, but it's a blend of all. And this is where data driven decisions really play a factor. You know, when a CFO says cut 15%, the wrong instinct is to hit the carrier each time. The right one is really to open the data, ask if the solution we designed maybe eighteen months ago still even fits today. We know solution drift happens. A good example I've I've seen is a client may be convinced they're having a rate problem, but we open the data and find their cart is, defaulting expedite shipments when, you know, their customer didn't even ask for it, or a packaging config hasn't been touched in two years. Overall, that's not a carrier problem. That's a business rules problem, and you can fix that in a week. That's zero impact to service. Order profile shifts, skews change, old solution leaks really, I think, leak in different areas, and that's where you'll see the savings are. Also, that's where a strong technology stack really flourishes. This includes from reviewing the existing carrier logic, pulling the levers with those business rules. Even something simple like there's a call out for the packaging, it's quite possible that a box is getting assigned to orders and it's due to a new promo skew causing a new box that's twice as large. Something simple as reducing some of the, you know, boxes that are not used anymore or very seldomly used and introducing a new one that can drop those dim charges across thousands of shipments, literally overnight. That's great. perspective. Michelle, I would I'd like to hear what your take is here, because I know that some clients operate, under their own carrier accounts, but some utilize the three p l network. So let's focus on the three p l, the network. What do you have to say to the clients that don't ship under your carrier network? They choose their own. Yeah. For me, the answer isn't just pick the cheapest carrier. Right? It's about understanding the data, finding the behavior and the processes that are driving the cost, and then using the technology, you know, packaging, carrier, relationships, and smarter business rules to really attack the problem. You know, there's an opportunity for us to provide our clients value around using our account. There's cash flow implications, managing the carrier. There's all sorts of things that we can do, because we have such great relationships with the carriers. Right? And they're chomping at the bit for our business. So, you know, there's areas that we can save them money. But if they're only looking at the shipping, there's many other areas that can be looked at for cost savings. Are they rate shopping? Are they allowing people to pick expedited ship methods when they don't need to? You know, it's important to take a holistic view, rather than just looking at what's going on in the transportation world with increased cost. Joe, why don't you jump in here and just give a little bit of an IT perspective? What other levers can you pull from the IT side, when it comes to reasons that a client might go to three p l, just in general with their carrier situations. Yeah. Michelle brings up a really good point. You know, just in general, the fact that the three p l, you you know, we do have many more levers that we can pull, and that's why with the strong three p l, you know, they're more than just that. They're an integrated product with you. You know, that includes kinda changing the levers from the carrier mix. Rate shopping is a great methodology that really can do that. And rate shopping also has different layers to it. That includes not just, you know, what's the cheapest shipment for that individual package, but, you know, adding the layer of, you know, what's the transit time. Maybe there's some carrier volume balancing that, you you know, from the three p l side that we're doing internally, but also, you know, raise benefits for our customers too. Service levels, the packaging, as I mentioned, with the different box sizes, the business rules, and just the overall network design all pulled as one lever to our client, you know, from their side, but there are many that we have in our, you know, toolbox on our side. That's great. I one thing I really love about this panel is that you all come from different areas of the three p l business. And collectively, I think you guys are describing a much broader, relationship with your customers kind of when it comes to consulting them, much more than what generally people think of with the three PL with just that they they warehouse and ship product. So, you're not just simply moving the packages. You're helping your customers identify, businesses, business decisions that impact their transportation costs. So I think that's really great. Why don't we quick check-in with the audience? I'd like to see if their thinking changed with our last poll. So, for pulse check number three, after hearing the panel, where would you look for the biggest opportunity for sustainable savings? Alright. Alright. We're all getting we're all the options are getting votes, but it looks like service level selection and carrier optimization are kind of neck and neck, which doesn't surprise me in in the least, to be honest with you. This has been a really fantastic discussion. I think that we've spent a good amount of time having kind of the structured piece of the webinar. So I think what we should do is we should speed things up a little bit, with the lightning round, which is my favorite part. I am looking for quick answers, strong opinions, and maybe a couple hot takes from you guys. So why don't we have some fun? Let's start with Brian. Brian, what's the biggest mistake companies make when selecting a three p l? Not visiting the warehouse not visiting the facility and getting to know the operators on the Alright. I like that. Michelle, I'm gonna go to you next. What is one KPI floor. every shipper should pay more attention to? Well, I think order accuracy. You know, everyone talks about cost per order and shipping rates, but if you ship the wrong product to the wrong customer, you're lost far more than the cost of that shipment. Right? Accuracy is one of the best indicators of the health of your entire fulfillment operation. Great. Great. Joe, I'm gonna throw it to you next. What's one thing customers consistently underestimate? Yeah. It's probably gonna be strange coming from the IT guy on the call, but from my perspective is honestly the people. From the IT side, I live in the automation, the AI, the data, but at the end of the day, none of it works without our operations, CX team, and IT rowing in lockstep. The goal is not having all those teams survive the day as separate teams, but pushing each other, and that's what our customers customers actually feel at the end. Great. Great. Alright. I'm gonna go one by one here, and I just wanna hear each of your logistics hot takes. So I'm gonna start with Brian. Give me a hot take. AI is fundamentally underwhelming right now. Alright. That is a hot take. borderline borderline is scam in a way. So I'll, take. Brian just delivered the people's elbow. I don't know how we're gonna top that, but, Michelle, your logistics hot take. Your three p l should really feel like an extension of your organization, not a vendor to manage. If you're constantly chasing them for answers, explaining your business, or managing their performance, you don't really have a partner. You have another problem to manage. Alright. Great. Alright, Joe. You're up. Logistics, hot take. I'd say challenge the status quo. Don't just be happy with what you what happened last peak season. The goal is to, you know, improve for the next peak season, this one, and just use your three PL at your full advantage. They've been through this many times with other customers and brands. This is what we do best. Lean on us and I you know, we really will guide you to the success. Ultimately, your success is ours too, so that's what we're here for. I love it. Definitely positioning three p l's as a as a consultant and as a business partner. So really great hot takes there. I like that. Let's step back. Let's look at the conversation as a whole, and I just wanna hear what your winning insights are to to wrap up this portion of the webinar. Do you have any closing. thoughts or advice for our audience as they go into peak season? I'll start with Michelle. I think the biggest takeaway is that great logistics isn't about moving boxes. It's really about removing problems. Remove the surprise before peak. Remove the uncertainty for the customer. Remove the unnecessary cost from the process, and remove the limitations that that keep a business from growing. You know? That's what I believe a great partner should be and should do, make logistics easier, make the business better, and give their customer the confidence to grow with you. That's great. I love that. Joe, you're up. Your final winning insight, final piece of advice. Yeah. Use you know, coming from IT again, use technology also to empower you. Brian had an interesting hot take with AI being underwhelming. I think that's where you actually start pushing the boundaries. Don't don't be afraid to leverage new solutions. You know, let your three p l really redefine your solution that may have been a previous one that worked. But as your business is growing, you find that it's not necessarily working as well anymore or your potential is outgrowing it. Let the three p l work alongside you to really expand those options, you know, choose those different levers. And, I think that's what November and even going in December and the New Year is really gonna bring success to everybody. Alright. Great. Great. Brian, deliver us a knockout punch here. What is your final advice for the audience? So a year or so ago, one of our our largest clients told our executive team that he said, you know, we don't even think about you guys anymore. Like, you you know, we don't even think about Barrett. And it was, like, kind of basically the nicest thing anybody could say about three p l because where I'm gonna go with this is my advice. That's our job is to run your supply chain. So from a three p l perspective, I would say if you're a company if if you don't have if you don't fully trust your three p if you're if they give you advice and you're and and you don't take it or aren't listening or they're not getting consultative advice, it means you don't trust them. And so if you're in that situation where you're worried about peak and you're not sure if they're what they're saying is true, like, you need to find a new partner. And if you're not worried about the advice and and and the service and the performance of the three p l, then just listen to what what that they say. Right? And take the advice. So I it it comes back to trust. So I think at the end of the day, this is a people business still. It probably always will be. People drive the industry. And so you really wanna trust that that, like Michelle said, be extension of your brand and because, we are giving we are giving you advice of to the benefit of both of us. Right? And so that's my advice. I say I say, if I have a really trusted partner. Yeah. That's great advice. Especially going into the busiest time of year, you definitely want someone you can count on, and someone that shares the same business goals you do. So, thank, you get to go on vacation and we do the work during peak season, right, during Christmas. That's the. goal. Yeah. you. Love. that. All great points. I just wanna thank all of you for sharing your expertise on the panel today. Another quick final reminder to the audience, if you have any questions, there's a little q and a section of the chat. Feel free to throw them in. If we don't get to them, during the remainder of the webinar, we will we will reach out to you via email with an answer. So, let's wrap it up with a poll, shall we? Based on everything you've heard today, what's the most valuable lesson that you've learned? Is it peak season is one month before peak season starts? Is it customers will forgive delays but not silence? The cheapest solution is rarely the smartest one, or there is no one right size fits all logistics solution. Oh, yeah. There's there is no one size fits all logistics strategy. It's definitely running away with the votes. And I tend to agree. You guys made a great case for it. Every business is, needs to be treated as its own entity. They all have their own strategies, but it sounds like you guys are definitely, the people to help them reach their goals. So, to the audience, I hope that throughout today's session you've heard some really new ideas, challenged some of your own thinking, and picked up a few strategies that you can apply to your own organization. With that, we're gonna turn our attention to the questions. We have had some good ones, come in during this session. So I'm gonna jump right in. The first one, Ryan, let's go to you. Can you describe the cost structure of shipping parcel packages as if it were a pie chart? For example, 60% freight, 20% labor, 15% packaging materials, 5% warehousing costs. That's a big one. Mhmm. So tough could. try. Are we are we focusing on parcel here, or are we talking about FTL? Because they're two different things, really. What do you what do you give me some guidance here. I definitely think it's freight, just based on one of the the the example he gave. But let's use freight for for. the question. And and and what is the question? Just to describe what the spend should be? Or. What like, if you were to look at the cost structure of shipping, packages in a pie chart, what kind of would the breakout be? I I don't know if I can I'm sorry. I don't know if I don't know if I can give an accurate description just because I you would need to know the size, weight, class. Like, I don't it's totally it's a total variable. I don't my answer would be I don't think there one exists specifically or that can be applied to everybody. I you know, apparel is far different than heavy goods and bulk bulky goods. So, unless my, my fellow industry peers have some ideas that would kick over to you guys. How how would you answer that? Yeah. That's a tough one. It it it is a true variable. Yeah. The type of products that they're selling makes a big difference. What what kind of, channel are are they looking at? Is it that parcel versus LTL? There's really no I know it's cliche. It goes back to the last question that we asked the the audience, but there's really no one size fits all. And if you constrain yourself within that pie chart, you know, your natural business change could change how that pie chart really lands today versus maybe three months from now or next peak. So, I don't know if I have an exact answer for could well, that. I could say I could maybe this will be helpful. I don't again, without the background of the person asking the question, I I could say this. As you grow, like, your inbound drayage and your FTL are dwarfed by parcel a small parcel. So I I think that one of the things I see a lot of is is, companies are looking at warehouse locations based on their FTL or in inbound freight even or drayage, and they're at a certain volume, and they're they're hesitant to maybe go into Memphis or Dallas or whatever, and they wanna be in New York or LA. But what we often tell them is, hey. That's gonna the savings from being in a better location in the middle of the country is gonna dwarf dwarf those costs. So I would say this, as you grow, your FTL spend in proportion to your small parcel is gonna go this way. So maybe I would just say, hey. Don't worry about so much about the freight cost if you're if you're shipping a lot of individual d to c volume. Is Yeah. What about when you consider how much labor and packing materials and the warehousing cost itself? Is there kind of a formula that helpful? figuring that out, in relation to what they're spending on freight and parcel? No. Not really. I, I I think industries industry benchmarks for, you know, supply chain services in general can be four to 6% of budget. You know? There's some industry metrics. They're usually, you know, tied to your your sales revenue. If you're if you're a $100,000,000 company, you know, Michelle, what do you think is you feeling like that's a good number for a for a budgetary exercise if you're looking for three p l, 6% of gross. I don't know. Yeah. Something like that. I again, I'm with you guys. It really depends on what are we talking about. Right? Are we talking. about one. item. being picked and shipped, you know, small. parcel versus are we shipping an FBA order into Amazon or, you know, full truckloads in the distribution facility. It really does vary. I hate to say that, but, that is something that you should look at too based on the channel so that you have a better understanding and because they are two totally different, you know, beasts. Right? To really drive down to what is it costing you per item or, you. know, per order, Yeah. both from a freight, full truckload, you know, to a small small package order and and and trying to find that balance. Michelle, I was gonna piggyback on what you said about the cost per unit. If you want a basic metric, you should know your cost per unit, which is your total cost divided by units sold every year. At at a. at a that's my best advice for for all the questions. about budgetary numbers. Know your CPU, your cost per unit as an all in figure to run your supply chain. So if it costs you $5,000,000 a year to run your supply chain and you sell 5,000,000 units a year, that's a dollar a unit. You shouldn't you should know that number and then benchmark it, you know, in the industry. That because. having that basic metric is a way to gauge all the things that you do with your supply chain and how much, you know, a good much money you're making. good three p yeah. And I would say a good three p l will go through an exercise like that with you. Yes. I know. many times our sales team will do a Performa, you know, as part of, the presentation. And in that pro form a, they get down to, you know, what is the cost per item or, Yep. you know, per average order or whatever the case may be so you can really see what that is. And then that helps you move some levers too. Right? If you're, you know, if you're thinking that's a little too high, have that conversation with your three PL. Tell them where you need to be. You know? If they want your business, they're gonna move levers, but, you know, we're all in this to make money. Right? They're not gonna move a lever, to hurt themselves. But, again, if if you have a good three p l and it's a partnership, that's something that you can work with on with with them directly on to help you identify that, and they'll be able to drill into, you know, what's the percentage of the pie that is freight, what's the percentage of the pie that's fulfillment or technology or shipping or or whatever the case may be, storage. Well, Michelle, there's there's the quick Google searches will give you some the AI will give you some good cost per units in different industries. Right? Apparel, footwear. Yeah. You know, you you. can find out what a good solid number should be and and can yeah. Sure. You're right. A good three p l, you know, in our proposals, we break that down and show them, here's your cost per unit. Like, you know, and a lot it's a lot of folks don't know what that is, but then it's, I'd wanna know that if I for if I was running a company myself. Mhmm. Yeah. That's some really great guidance. Thank you for that. I think we have time for one more question. Michelle, I'm gonna start with you on this one. How can a company tell if they've outgrown their current three p l provider? Oh, wow. Things that come to the top of my head, first thing is response time. If you're not getting responses, in the time that you normally do or they're being delayed or you're having to follow-up, That's a huge red flag. Secondly, you know, what are what are the SLAs looking like? Because if they're not responding you responding to you, you know, their SLAs are probably slipping as well, or are you seeing your consumer complaints increase, whether it's damage package, late shipping, not getting tracking information. And then lastly, I always look at the technical part of the organization because really when you are in the mode of growth, you really need a strong technical, component to that. And if your three p l is delaying your technical services, you know, maybe to onboard another market segment or add an order stream, that, you know, that's a huge red flag. Great. Great guidance on that. You know, we do have time for one more. I know I said that the last one was last. This one is the last one. We just had one come in that says, while AI was mentioned as underwhelming and or pushing boundaries, do you see the integration treated as an IT project or a business process design effort? Joe, I'm gonna start with you on that. Yeah. That's a that's a really great question. It this year has certainly been I mean, every two months, two months would be a lot, actually. Every every little bit, you see an evolution of AI that just takes the next the next leap. You know, we're building enterprise AI agents that are very accustomed to we have our own developed, in house WMS. We have our own developed connection to ProShip. We're leveraging, you know, obviously, a custom AI, bolt on right on top of that. And I think there's pieces to both sides of the fence, and it kinda goes back to it's the people, type thing with what's most underestimated. I do think there's a business level, communication that does need to happen on how you're gonna actually leverage that AI to deliver the results that make the best use for our CX teams and operations. As IT, you know, our job's not to necessarily off board, like, jargon that won't make sense to anybody. We are slotted to make sure that it's very easy and actionable for people to use, and AI just accelerates how fast you can get there. So sometimes the scope of what people think in AI, I think, is too narrow. Sometimes you really wanna look at the big picture as far as what's gonna make the most impact, what's what's something that we do repetitively but requires some level of, you know, human intervention in between, and that's where the artificial and the intelligence go side by side. I you know, some people in, IT may be a little apprehensive about AI at a glance, just because, you know, it does automate some of the things that we would do overall. But the end goal is not to necessarily keep doing the same things over and over. AI can obviously handle that, but, also, it can handle some of the dynamics in between too. So, I'd say it's both sides, an IT product and a business one because you need the buy in too, to make that happen. Great advice, especially on a timely topic like AI. Looking at the clock, we're reaching the end of the TV time, with our show. So we're gonna have to wrap up things here. But if we didn't get to your question, we will definitely reach out to you after the webinar with an answer. And of course, I want to thank Joe, Michelle, and Brian for sharing their expertise and stepping into the ring to tackle these challenges in real time. Your championship belts are on the way, so check your mailbox for that coming soon. And, again, thank you to everyone who joined us today, participated in the polls, and contributed questions. We hope you have a great rest of the day and that you found a lot of value, in the session. And before you leave, be sure to take our session survey. Let us know how we did. Alright. Thanks, and, again, have a great day. Thank you, Thanks, Steph. Five. everybody. stop. Thank you.