Transcript for "[Carrier Panel] Where the #$*& Is My Package?": Hello. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today's webinar. Where the is my package? Inside the carrier confessional, what every shipper should know. I'm KJ Swaggart. I head up enterprise alliances here at ProShip. I'll be your moderator today. So if you're joining us and you're responsible for transportation, fulfillment, customer experience, or carrier strategy, you've likely heard this question that inspired today's title more times than you care to count. Where is my package? Or as we in the industry call it, the WISMO calls. The reality is that that question is really just about package location. It's about customer expectations, confidence, communication, visibility, and trust. And today we're gonna unpack what really happens behind the scenes when millions of packages move through modern carrier networks every single day. Before we get started, I wanna go over some housekeeping items. So, if you're here live with us, you can submit your questions using the Q and A function in the webinar and we will address those toward the end of the session. This webinar is also being recorded, so you will receive your on demand recording within the next week. You can also download any additional resources that have been provided from the related content section. Also in that section, you will find a link to the survey that we're running to help build our annual pro ship report on the future of parcel shipping. If you're able to fill out that survey, eligible responses will receive an Amazon gift card. Gotta love that. So, finally, please complete the webinar survey at the end of this session to provide feedback on our webinar today. Again, I'm KJ Swaggart, Head of Enterprise Alliances at ProShip. I'd like to introduce our carrier panelists joining us for today's webinar. Great people. I'm super excited. We'll start with Mike. Can you kick us off and tell us a little bit about yourself? Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks so much, KJ, and good morning, ProShip, conference, goers. Very nice to speak with you this morning. My name is Mike Collino. I'm the CTO at Better Trucks. Have been here, over the course of the last seven years working alongside of our cofounders. We are a regional carrier that operates, almost across the country, predominantly in the Midwest, Southeast, West Coast, and in Texas. So thank you very much. Happy to be here. Thanks so much, Mike. Ashley, why don't you go next? Hi. Ashley Hellman. I'm the VP of product at UPS Digital, which is a subsidiary of UPS. We are responsible for, InsureShield shipping insurance amongst some other things, but most notably is the TrackAlert, which is directly it's an API that's directly relevant to the conversation we're gonna have today. So excited to share and already loving the GIFs in the chat. Very cool. Thanks, Ashley. Hey, Quan. You round us out. Yeah. Happy to. Hank Emerson. I'm vice president of business development at Diho. I've been here for a little over five and a half years. And DHL is a last mile shipping partner. We cover about, 84 53% of The US population. We have 84 markets. And, yeah, really happy to be here. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks so much. Really appreciate you all being here today. I'm very excited about this session, feel very honored to be able to moderate with these three esteemed panelists and all their experience. Super excited to just jump right in. I want to start by pulling the curtain back a little bit on carrier operations. Most shippers see a tracking page and a delivery date, right, but there's an incredible amount happening behind the scenes, as we all know, as we know, to move a package from point a to b. When things go wrong, it's easy to assume it's a simple issue, but the reality is that these networks are incredibly complex. So I think one of the biggest disconnects in our industry is that shippers often see the outputs of a carrier network, but not the operational reality required to produce those outcomes. Ashley, I'd love your perspective here. What's something that shippers don't always understand about how carrier operations actually work? Nice. Love that question. I don't know if I'm gonna, like, myth bust anything mind blowing here, but I do think that when we sit down and we think about, like, all the steps the package has to take to get from. point a to point b, it's not just get picked up on the truck, get delivered to point b. There's a ton of steps along the journey. And for shippers, that's important. You wanna know where each what's happening at each stage of the journey. But in order for us to get you that information from a carrier perspective, it's super complex. And on the back end, what's happening in order for us to know where a package is is, especially in this world of scanning, is that package has to be right side up, with the label on top when it goes under a scanner. If it misses that, and guess who does that? It's humans for the most part that are making sure that as it goes under the scanners in these, like, 300 different belts that it flows through, that it's getting those milestone touch points so that that information can be, transferred to you. One of the reasons why I'm so excited about RFID and what that's gonna do for just tracking and that type of data in general is that it's no longer reliant on a scanner. It becomes reliant on sensing technology, which. not only just tell you, like, where a package is, but it can sense completeness of a particular order too. So excited where that's gonna take us, and what that means in the realm that that we are with AI and technology and agents. Agents can't work without complete data, and that's what I think RFID is gonna help us achieve. That's said. it first. Yeah. No. I love that perspective because touching on RFID, and then both shippers and consumers underestimate how much planning, engineering, and data goes into every single package movement. So I think whether it's USPS, a national carrier, a regional carrier, post office, another network, there is an incredible amount happening behind the scenes in terms of, like, route optimization, planning, operational coordination that all takes place before a package even reaches a front door. So, Ashley, you also mentioned, and we've had previous conversations, about you having firsthand operational experience inside the network. Would you mind sharing that story? For sure. Disclaimer that that is this is not the regular, and, this is not my, yeah, you don't have to worry about this happening in your everyday to day package delivery, but, I do have some firsthand experience in loading the car. Oftentimes at UPS, we get the pleasure of being brought in during peak season, to get some hands on experience and, and help out. And there was an assignment a couple years back where I actually got to load a package car. And when we talk about human error, man, there's a lot that could go wrong there. There's special codes on the label and on the packages that for the person loading the car, that's, like, translates to where you're supposed to put it so that when the driver gets there to the address, they know exactly where to look, and where it would be so that they can get it out and get it to you. The first day that I loaded the car, the driver came out pissed. He was like, who the hell loaded my car? This person needs to be fired. I was like, hi. It's me. And he was like, oh, I don't know how early I'm allowed to, share, potty potty mouth language, but he maybe have said it might have said a few words there. But over the course of two weeks, I did get good at that. And by the end, he was he was ready to give me a full time employment in that position. But lots of human error possible in that process. I can tell you firsthand. That's a great example. So we have the bell, so you can say whatever you want. Right? So maybe the title could be, like, who the loaded my truck? We could. do that too. So there you. go. No. I like that. That's a great example. I also worked for a national carrier. I can absolutely relate. We, had there was, like, a Texas ice storm. I don't know if people remember this. This, probably over a decade ago. And all the salespeople in the Midwest were sent to Texas to help from two to 5AM or two to 6AM overnight shifts, loading package cars. And I actually got out of it because I was pregnant. So I didn't have to go and work the night shift, but I had to sales cover multiple states. So, I mean, even there's all that that goes behind the scenes, but it's all hands on deck during PCs in it too for all the carriers. So that's such a great example. And I think you all like, most people see a delivery truck, they think that packages just get loaded and driven around. We know that that's not accurate. We shared our stories. And the reality, it's that carefully designed process behind every stop and every single package. So, Hank, I'd love to hear from you and from your side. When shippers question carrier decisions, what are some of the operational realities that they're not seeing? Yeah. Thanks, KJ. And I think your your phrase around carefully designed process is exactly right. So a lot of times, I think shippers get surprised usually as a result of balancing the network efficiency, based on their that carrier selection, the service commitment. So, obviously, there's a lot of varying speeds out there in the market. Next day, two day, three day, so on and so forth. So what's important to you? Do you have a customer promise? How does the carrier that you're involved with meet that customer promise? As well as capacity and just the operational realities. Technology has really helped, all of us in terms of being more efficient. So it's really exciting the things that we can do now based on the the technical, advancements. I'd also say, like, you know, because of that, you think of a package going from a to b, it sounds pretty simple. I I think, you know, once you get into the nitty gritty of the, operation, you really understand how much information is coming through just to make sure that we can perform against that and all of the things and steps that need to be made, efficiently and accurately to ensure that package gets from a to b on time and in the great condition. Yeah. Absolutely. I appreciate that perspective as well. Mike, you and I have talked a little bit about misconceptions when we've had previous conversations. I'd love your perspective here also. Yeah. I think one of the biggest misconceptions that we we've talked about it, in a couple of these, in a couple of these answers and responses is just the fact that the shipper's expectation in in many scenarios is that, that the process is fairly limit linear, as it relates to, you know, how a package flows through the network. What's interesting is I'm pretty confident that if you ask them, you know, how warehouse operations work, how picking and packing works, they could easily speak to, you know, the challenges that need to be overcome, especially when things fall off the happy path. And and in reality, surprise, surprise, is really no different from a last mile package delivery standpoint. So, you know, we're looking at hundreds of of data points, for every single package across our network, and then making decisions across, you know, pickup, sortation, capacity, and planning, and routing as as Hank alluded to. There's just so many variables that are constantly changing. And one thing that is unique at the Better Trucks is we do own and operate our own first and middle mile network, and so. that gives us an incredibly, large set of data points along the package journey. We are and I'll I'll hit on this a little bit, further as we as we go into the conversation here today. I'm pretty I'm pretty sure of that is that, you know, we wanna move away from from kind of just signal catching, and we wanna move into a more proactive posture so that when those signals present themselves in the data, at any point in the network, we have the appropriate steps, whether it's an SOP, whether it's technology that that supports an SOP, to essentially get that package back on its track, to to to essentially get the the package journey, sort of resurrected so that we can meet the the promise back to the customer. So, again, I think that misconception of, like, everything is on this linear path, Mhmm. just as just as similarly as it's not that way inside the warehouse, same holds true, for all the variables, when a last mile carrier comes into the mix to to to deliver that package as well. Yeah. For sure. I, that's a really great way to say it. It's not linear inside or outside the warehouse. Right? You. said something. else you said something else, Mike, that I've never heard before and I love it. Fall off the happy path. I think that's. a, like, a positive way of saying things things might have gone wrong. I've not heard that before. That's great. We're gonna add that to the quotes here. So, yeah, Hank, Mike. So themes I'm hearing from both of you. Today's carrier networks, incredible sophistication, but heavily dependent on visibility, good data, not linear. I love that. I wanna shift into visibility because at the end of the day, most customers ex most customers like experience your network through the tracking updates that the carriers are providing. So when a shipper or consumer says where the is my package, what they're really asking for is confidence. They wanna know what's happening, whether the delivery promise is still intact. So, Ashley, you've talked a bit about data and visibility. I love your excitement around what's coming and what's new. Where do you think shipment data is underutilized today? Yeah. I think that's a great question. And I don't know if this is a hot take anymore with the amount of, like, white papers and thought leadership that's come out, like, as of recent. But, I think visibility and tracking data is largely commoditized to this point, and it's exactly what Mike was saying. It's like what you do with it and how you're proactive. Just to put it in perspective, UPS has gone on record about talking about the amount of data that we have, and it's, like, 70,000,000,000 or sorry, 70 petabytes, which is, like, an enormous huge amount of data. But it's just having that data doesn't do anything for you. It's what you do with it and how you use it. And I wanted to give a little bit of example. I've mentioned TrackAlert earlier. TrackAlert has a huge amount of milestone data today. And people are using it to say, like, where is my package? But I think the real unlock is using that milestone data as a trigger in an event. And I was gonna give an example and I was gonna give an example of how we're leveraging orchestration with TrackAlert today. There's companies out there that are looking at their returns in reverse, like, workflows. Mhmm. And, like, for example, there's health care companies specifically. I think this is a a big problem for you. You've got maybe, like, a vaccine line that ships in a cooler, and you need to get that cooler back after you ship the package to, like, whatever hospital it is that you're shipping it to. The the hospital doesn't care about the cooler, but you care about the cooler because of your cost of goods sold. How do you get that back today? It's probably you sitting there tracking to see when that thing got delivered. When it does get delivered, reaching out to the hospital saying, hey. When can I get that back? Here's Here's a return label coordinating with the carrier, but that's all, like, right for automation. And in in this solution that we created, we're using TrackAlert, to detect when that delivery event occurs, and then we trigger the event of a return label based off of the shipper's preference. And then it picking up that package and coordinate with the carrier to pick up that package and bring it back to whatever warehouse that that shipper wants. So using that milestone data to, like, actually do something with it, I think, is where the future is. And that's what becomes, like, the real value unlock, not the data itself. That's so true and such a great distinction. It's the goal isn't collecting more data. It's how do we turn the data we have into action. I love that distinction, Ashley. Hank, so moving on to you. From a carrier perspective, tracking, I mean, really, it's become table stakes. Let's be honest. So what do you think shippers are asking for today beyond basic tracking? What are you seeing? Yeah. A 100%. And I I echo what Ashley was talking about. It is commoditized in terms you know, tracking is expected. The thing that I like to say is I'm not gonna know less about my package tomorrow. There's gonna be, you know, forward communication around updates. I think the next step is, like, the personalization based on the type of good that I'm receiving. So it's a real focus is making sure the tracking information is timely, it's accurate, and it's useful. So, you know, as we evolve and Avidio, you know, pushes more tracking events to the end customer, for one example, like, we have pharmaceuticals that go through our network right now. And so if a customer wants to receive as they receive their pharmaceuticals, I it's event based. It's important. I want as much information about that package flow as I can get, and we. push that to them. It's up to them where they can opt out of that information or they can track it. So it's very different. I'm you know, if I get a Hanks t shirts, I probably don't need to know every single step, and that's okay. But I have the option as the end consumer with VeHo to opt out of that if it becomes a little bit too noisy. But in terms of the high value goods, pharmaceuticals, event based shipments, I can get as much as I want. So I think it becomes this personalization and optionality, that it, you know, becomes really important. And, also, I wanna talk about, like yeah. It's it's providing the information. Can it be actionable and the accuracy around it. I think it creates a lot of noise when you send tracking updates, but it's not accurate. Then that's when the shipper starts getting the WISMO calls, and we really wanna, you know, reduce that as much as possible. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I like that. The WISMO. We love that acronym in the industry. Right? Yeah. So so, really, it's less about, like, adding more tracking events to your point and more about delivering confidence, communication. I love the customization side of it too. There's more c words for us there, the way the customer wants to receive it. So one thing we hear a lot from our seats is frustration when customers don't receive any updates. Is that a technology problem, more of an expectations problem? Ashley, you have some opinions on this. What do you think here? Yeah. It's on that track alert topic that I talked about earlier. You guys wanna know, like, where your package is, but one of the and, like and I know there's a lot of frustration about why is it not being pushed to me. One of the answers or and the answer to that could be just whatever shipping system you're using and how they're hooked up to milestone events. Mhmm. For instance, in the UPS world, I can't speak for everybody, but there's two types of APIs where that data could be consumed. One is a free track API, and another one is track alert, which is a paid API. And the track API, the free version, it's built off of, like, a poll type mechanism where somebody has to ask where is my package in order for that response to be delivered. So if you're not asking, it's not telling. And then on track alert, the paid version and, also, just side note that there are a lot of different milestones in the course of a package to get from point a to point b. And do you if if we sent you all of them, might be noise, and then you could be like, stop talking to me. Not, the reverse of that frustration, just a different kind. Right. But on TrackAlert, the paid version, it's more of a, a push notification that happens, and it's based off of seven major major milestones that happen along that journey. And so when each of those, like, types of milestone events occurs, it gets pushed to that shipping platform of, like, here's where that package is in the form of a proactive notification. So all of that to say is you might not be you might not be being notified about where your package is because of the type of API, and the way that whatever platform it is that you're using is hooked up. Very technical. point. There. Sorry. Yeah. And, no, I it's I would also, like, you know, add on that. Like, as visibility and tracking gets more efficient and better, that allows some flexibility for the merchant. So if the merchant can offer more flexible customer promise dates because the tracking and the visibility is so tight that the customer feels like, oh, I really trust this. You know, I trust this process. That's really what we're offering. So tracking, visibility gets better and better. Now the merchant and the customer kinda it was a customer behavior thing going on. It's like, okay. I'm okay if this package arrives in three days because I'm so confident with the updates and the communication that that's great. That works for me. So it becomes the speed isn't. always the most important factor. A lot of customers are comfortable with the slower promise date if they're confident that it'll arrive within those three days, and tracking visibility helps with that confidence. Yeah. I love that. That's such a fantastic point. Most customers are willing to accept a delay if they're informed. It's what they don't like and what I don't like when I have something coming is just being left in the dark. Yep. Agreed. Yeah. I think transparency is a huge thing and, like, proactive communication can help you avoid some of that frustration that we talked about earlier. Example there is just and not like, is my Lemur face cream. Like, that's important to me. I want it. But do I need it, like, tomorrow? No. But, if I don't hear anything about it, then I'm gonna think that it's lost, and I'm gonna reach out to Lemur and say, hey. Haven't which is, like, a lot of time consuming for the brand when it actually could still be in transit and just hit some type of a delay. And, like, it's not a critical package. I mean, you know, define. Like, my antiaging is definitely important to me, and super critical. to you. Yeah. yeah. But I could wait today. Yeah. Well, where the is my face cream? No. We have a new title. There we go. I. like it. We'll just switch titles throughout this whole webinar, you guys. I love that. So another area where we see confusion, and this is something we've we've all talked about in our conversations before, is when a package changes hands between carriers. So first mile, middle mile, final mile. Sometimes packages change hands just depending on the commodity, depending on the carrier. And customers frequently become frustrated during these handoffs with carriers because they could potentially lose visibility, or they don't necessarily understand who's responsible for the shipment at that particular stage. So helping the customers and end consumers to understand these transitions is definitely an important part of managing expectations and reducing those WISMO calls and those support inquiries. Mike, let's switch to you. What are your thoughts on the carrier changes here and the handoffs? Yeah. Yeah. Great great question, and and great points, made by by the other panelists here. As you stated, Better Trucks has, you know, largely grown over the course of the last seven years in partnership with working with other regional carriers. And what we've learned as part of that process is that, first and foremost, at the end of the day, the the shipper wants an end to end promise, and they want, Yep. the responsibility to to to to to be carried out by, you know, the primary carrier. So one of. the things that we've done as part of that process is is worked, quite diligently and come up with a framework for any any carriers that we're we're interfacing with primarily for that point so that we have the milestones, the events, the SLA set up so that in the event that, we're expecting event or, you know, some sort of milestone scan and it doesn't happen, again, we're taking that proactive posture, as opposed to waiting for it to become an exception, waiting for it to actually miss its SLA. We're using signals across the network to identify when a package or, God forbid, you know, a container of packages, has, again, kind of fallen off of that happy path and it has an increased prop probability of of not meeting, it's, it's SLA. And so, one of the things, as part of the work that we've done with carriers, as well as, within the walls of of our own, network is extend the visibility to our operational partners, as well as to our partner carriers. So, if you sat down with our head of operations as part of any product backlog or backlog grooming, or, you know, prioritization session, you know, if someone mentions the word feature, she will she will, you know, correct them and say, I don't need features. I need visibility. And so that's the type of that's the type of focus, that our operations teams have. And, again, we're trying to instill that in our partners so that, again, we can provide, sort of that end to end custody for a particular shipment, receive all the appropriate, you know, data, points and signals on our side so that we can, again, regardless of it if it's, you know, single carrier journey all the way through, which Better Trucks supports and provides or if it's, you know, some amalgamation of, you know, carrier partners working with Better Trucks. It's the same process to us internally because we've taken those proactive steps upfront to ensure that, you know, we know what to expect. We know what the SLAs are, internally before the the the final SLA. And if our operations team has the ability to to intervene, they're gonna do it. That was fantastic. Great thoughts. I I like that. You have another, like, another bomb for us, Mike. I don't want features, Yeah. I want visibility. There we go, the happy path. We're getting all. these quotes in. I love this. This is great. Awesome. Thank you so much. So we've talked to you guys, and covered a bit around data, exception communication, visibility, confidence, and the important for the importance for the end receiver. So let's shift gears a little bit and talk about the opportunities that shippers are potentially missing out on today that could improve both operations, we're looking inside the house, and the customer experience, so the final delivery. Ashley, earlier you touched a bit on customer communication and the post purchase experiences where the this is my face cream. Right? Where do you think organizations are leaving value on the table? I love this question so much because this is exactly why, my subsidiary exists. So I think I'm gonna debunk, like, a myth here Is I think that a lot of brands out there think that, like, if once they put a package into a carrier network, if something happens, it's not their fault. They didn't do it. So, like, it's on them. But, that's not true. We did a survey last year, and what we found out is that consumer 60% of consumers, if something goes wrong in the post purchase experience or the delivery experience part of that journey, the consumer is not gonna shop with the brand again. So even though it might not be your fault, it still is your problem. And then the other major thing I think that's just, like, where we are in the world right now today is that you as a brand, like, wanna own your relationship with your consumer. But in this world of AI, a lot of agents are gonna be doing those that shopping. So the opportunity for you to own that experience and really become like a hero becomes more in the post purchase than it does in the buying part of the journey. So that delivery experience, even though it might not be in your control, and it might not be your fault if something goes wrong, it really is your problem. And may and taking that opportunity, to make it right when things go wrong is gonna what is what's gonna be, I think, what differentiates good brands from bad. And. great news for the brands out there is that you're not at it alone. There's tool there are tools, tons of tools out there today. I was gonna talk just briefly about three of them that we have. One is called InsureShield shipping insurance. So if something goes wrong, today, there's something out there in the world that every carrier is required to provide called carrier liability, but you, as the shipper, have to prove that the carrier was at fault in order for you to recoup, and and file that claim and get paid out on it. But there are products out there like InsureShield that cover you as the shipper if you have a have a financial loss. So that's something that if you have that in place, the minute that something goes wrong, you can have the confidence to be able to make it right with your end consumer. Mhmm. The other thing I think, is this product called Commerce Shield. So what we've done is we've heard from shippers that they want intelligence, and we should know as a carrier, be able to predict where things would go wrong and then trigger the appropriate types of risk mitigation events. So we've responded to that, and we have a new product that we call Commerce Shield that leverages the delivery intelligence that we have as the UPS carrier to come up with a confidence score that that you can then use to create actions around. So maybe with particular scores, you wanna add shipping insurance or you wanna add chargeback protection or add a higher chain of custody. You can do things now with that insight and the predictability of it that you wouldn't have necessarily had before where you're just taking a guess. And then the last thing, I think this is oftentimes overlooked, is just post purchase in general. Oftentimes, I think brands, let consumers rely on the carrier or that status update to be able to, like, go to, like, ups.com to check where their package is. And that's great. But for you as a brand, you wanna own that experience because, again, what we talked about at the beginning is that that's the expectation of the consumer. So there's tools out there, like, that are around this post purchase tracking and notifications where you can create a white labeled site. So your brand is on it and it come So when the the order gets created, the email goes to the consumer. They can go back to that email or SMS notification. It link to the tracking page that has your brand on it. And from there, they can communicate with you. They can start a return or an exchange or ask for help or file a claim, all from that one centralized page so that the customer isn't frustrated in having to figure out where they need to go to find out where the f their package is or what the f you're doing about it. You can really take control there. So I think and some, shit happens, but and and the consumer is gonna blame you for it, but there's tools out there that can help you be the hero and take advantage of that moment, to really create a loyal customer. Yeah. That's such a great point. And I I just wanna touch on something you said because we're getting some chatter about it as well in the chat. But it's 60% of consumers, if they. have a bad delivery experience, will not return to that brand. That is not a small number. So having. that good consumer experience, choosing a carrier that's going to carry on your brand and act as an extension of your brand is super important. So 60%. Right? That's not a small number. It's really to I like the touch on the tools and things that are already there so you can utilize those, communicate proactively instead of waiting for customers to ask questions. I think that's hugely important. Mike, I'd like to shift to you and and your perspective here. What capabilities do you think shippers either overlook or maybe don't even fully appreciate today? Yeah. I think, in many cases, we've become so ingrained. We've been sort of a a victim of the the current state that's been here for a very long time, which is, you know, tracking page, very simplistic, tracking APIs. Many of our shippers aren't aware of the tools that are out in the marketplace. And I think the biggest opportunity for shippers is many of them haven't asked. Right? They haven't gone to their to their carrier and said, No. you know, what changes from a a technology and from a data standpoint in the last, not even five years, the last year? Do you see helping shippers like us understand, again, how to get those packages delivered on time, so that we don't see that that that 60%, drop off? And so, Mhmm. from from from my under from my standpoint, the the fact that shippers know, aren't going to their carriers, even ones that they they have established relationships each year and and and asking the question of, you know, what has changed in the last year as it relates to technology? What are the ways in which, aside from, you know, post purchase or just, you know, visiting a tracking page, can I get more proactive alerts pushed to me? Can I get more, greater visibility into the operation or where the package is at within the network without waiting for those milestone scans that my customer is seeing? So, Mhmm. there's just a world of opportunity. My integration team, works directly in in in concert with the technology teams at our shippers. You know, we are trying to bend over backwards and try to and trying to to provide one, kind of a a a state of affairs as it relates to, you know, what are the the trends that we see, from our vantage point, whether it's tracking, rate shopping, whatever it might be. And then also, you know, being able to consume whatever requirements they have or specific needs that they have and tailoring it around tracking visibility. So, again, I think that's the big opportunity is that. shippers just aren't asking enough of their of their carriers, because there's just a a a whirlwind of innovation that I think that's taking place in this in this arena especially. For sure. Yeah. I I wanna echo what Mike was saying around, like, the speed at which innovation is happening is is just really kinda mind blowing. So, I think it's right. You know, shippers ask your customers, you know, what is needed for you to have a better delivery experience? I also agreed with, you know, Ashley around, like, the partnership between a carrier and a shipper is paramount. So, like, how can we actually at DHL, we call ourselves a shipping partner. How can we work together to ensure that your customers are receiving the best possible delivery experience on par with the product that they're receiving from you as the shipper. So, you know, you think about technology and optionality. We have a thing that's like perfect placement. You can actually your customer can take a picture of saying, this is where I want my package placed for this package. And that flows through the entire system all the way to our driver partner to ensure that we actually follow those instructions and improve it with the photo proof of delivery. Like, all these types of things of giving optionality to the end customer to make sure that they deliver they receive the package in the way that they want to. And then working in concert between the shipping partner and the shipper to ensure that happens. Like, these types of innovations are gonna continue to, like, move incredibly fast. And how can we work together that the customer is really getting the best possible delivery experience? I think that's a super exciting thing because of all the technology that's out there that enables all of this. Oh, for sure. And then, like, just even understanding that some of the biggest opportunities aren't necessarily new. Like, innovation is going quickly. And to to Mike's point, you just might not know. Customers might not know. So working together, being good partners, and utilizing capabilities that the carriers already have or expanding on more efficiently is is going to be key. Ashley, you've touched on some of the tools and data. Let's talk about the data itself. Right? So we talk a lot about visibility after something goes wrong. Do you feel like comp companies, excuse me, are missing opportunities earlier in the process? Yeah. For sure. And I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is on that 70 pet petabytes worth of data that I said that you think it's. Just kidding. where companies are going today and taking advantage of the moment is using that data to do something powerful, to create, like, ML around it and create this intelligence that can then be used and triggered with an action. So example there is we created this for that's called delivery defense. We use it in our Commerce Shield capability, but it's called delivery defense. It uses two years worth of UPS shipping data. So that's, like, 26,000,000,000 delivery touchpoints, over a 150,000,000 addresses. There's, like, 45,000,000 returns in it and 26,000,000 claims or something like that. Like, it's an immense amount of Okay. Those individual kind of touch points mean nothing, but when you bring it together, we've created 25 models around it that produce a score that says based off of this historical information, here's how likely a successful delivery to this address would be based off of these signals. Now as a shipper, what you can do with that information is create personalized experiences, and apply personal and surgical risk mitigation type tactics. So if you get a really low confidence delivery score, can you ship it to an access point, incentivize access points in the cart, add signature required, add some type of protection like InsureShield or chargeback protection to it to make sure that if in the event something goes wrong, you're made whole and you can respond and act quickly. So. I think it's taking that data, creating ML around it, and then not just leaving it there in the form of intelligence, but adding automation to it, is really what's gonna be, like, the next kind of stage. And I think the orgs that are using that intelligence to create that automation and save them time and make better decisions are the ones that are gonna win in the next couple of years. For sure. Yeah. For sure. Hank, we've talked a little bit about, like, carriers and in this section in, like, learning. What are your thoughts here? Yeah. The the learning will be continuous, all from the successful deliveries or, you know, to to kind of leverage, Mike's phrase, if it falls off a happy path or unhappy path, what are the learnings there? So there's there's learnings across the board at any point through a package journey, and how can we consume that information, make it actionable, and make sure that the network gets more efficient over time. Because each time our network gets more efficient, whether it be, you know, sorting in a warehouse to when it's moving through our middle mile to the actual, you know, route to get to the customer's doorstep. All these things give us signal and data that we can make our our operation more efficient. And when that happens, we can pass on better pricing to the market and still maintain and run a very healthy profitable business. So, like, all this is super important and everyone benefits from it. So we get more efficient. Customer gets the best in class delivery experience. We can pass on better pricing to the market. It's just it's just a great thing as we continue to learn and make sure that, you know, as Ashley was saying, don't just take the data for data. Ingest it. Do something about it to make it a better experience. So information collected around successful deliveries, delivery locations, what the customer wants, how personalized can it be. Can. it be behind the potted plant? You know, whatever. Address characteristics, geofencing, all of this is happening. It sets breakneck speed, but it's really for the benefit of the end customer, which is which is great. That's fantastic. Yeah. Behind the potted plants, hide it from your spouse, like, where do you need your package? Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. That's perfect. Thanks, you guys. Like, so visibility, tracking technology, definitely all key parts of the carrier ecosystem, but none of these work particularly well without strong relationships between shippers and the carriers. So we're gonna shift a little bit to something near and dear to my heart, obviously, as head of alliances, but building better partnerships. And I'd love to talk, for a few minutes here. So beyond contracts, beyond pricing, what separates a great carrier partner from an average one? Hank, let's stick with you. So what do you think are some important characteristics of a strong shipper carrier relationship? Would love your quick insight here. Yeah. This is a near and dear one. So, like, communication and trust are super important when you're talking about partnering to ensure your customer gets a great delivery experience. So we operate most effectively when we communicate. There are clear set of metrics and expectations, what's important to you to ensure that we can act against it and perform against it. Volume fluctuations, manifest, seasonality, just be open and transparent. We'll do the same because, again, we're working together in the betterment of your end customer, which is super important. So, I think on the high level of that is, like, if there's not trust in the room, if there's constantly playing this leverage game in the market, maybe the carriers have it, maybe the shippers have it. I I think that that can actually erode what the customer experience is in some instances. So at the very top level is around trust, communication, and working together. Yeah. I like that trust, communication, working together, being transparent. It it applies so much more than just pricing. So we talk about volume changes, capacity challenges, operational. adjustments, right, like tech updates, API changes. Ashley touched on that earlier. There's a few different ways to push and pull information or even just shifting customer expectations. Nobody out there likes surprises when they're trying to serve customers, and that's on both sides. Right? So, Ashley, we talked a bit about transparency. It's one of your themes in your notes. How do you look at this when you're viewing strong partnerships? Yeah. I think that's a good question. And just to build a little bit on what what Hank said, I think, you know, transparency and communication, like, bidirectional is key. However, you can enter into with all the, you know, best intents. But if that information that you share is not accurate, then it erodes that trust and the transparency that you're trying to create. And that could seem scary, but I think in the moment again that we're in with AI, you don't. have to be a big brand with millions of dollars to be able to spend on consulting. You can be anybody with $20 a month, to be able to access this intelligence where you could build a pretty accurate forecast and plan based off the historical information, external trends, different scenarios that could and allow you to be more accurate in your planning and the transparency that you provide to that carrier. So, I think that's next level transparency, and I think that's where we're headed. And I think it'll just strengthen that trust between the two to create a better partnership. Oh, I like that. Just, you know, and $20.20 bucks in your pocket, and how can you use that? Use your tools. Right? Use your tools. This is the next level of transparency. And, really, what you're both describing here is moving from that, like, vendor relationship to a more strategic partnership. And that's huge, especially as we get into peak season and as we continue to evolve, as a supply chain in in the world of supply chain. So carriers, they're gonna earn the most trust. Usually, they're the ones that have the difficult conversations early on our on the carrier side. So, again, whether that's about capacity, service levels, or operational constraints, if we talk about the shipper side, the organizations that are often gonna get the best results are the ones that are proactive. They're sharing forecasts. They're using their tools. Right? They're communicating changes, treating carriers like an extension of their operations rather just a provider. So really a true strategic partner. That's where we're gonna see the most success. Yeah. It's built on predictability, transparency as Ashley said, and shared commitment. And, also, I wanna talk about, like, you know, aligning the measuring sticks. So, you know, how is on time delivery reported on your side? How How do we do it? Making sure that we align with the shipper's metrics and how they report. That just, you know, enables us to make sure that we're measuring performance and all the things that are super important on the same types of, you know, basically criteria, that helps a lot. So there's no, like, surprise where I have a data number and you have another one and there's conflict. Let's just align on all of that stuff that's important to you, together. And I I think one of the things kinda building on top of, you know, the things that we've talked about, you know, kind of the the to dos, to to make better carrier partnerships on the shipper side, I I do believe that there's a pretty heavy, amount of work, that carriers can do as well, again, to to create a better, bidirectional partnership. And so I think one of the things that we see at Better Trucks is the fact that, there is a maturity curve, and a bit of a spectrum as it relates to, you know, how shippers are thinking about everything from visibility to, you know, rating and pricing. And so I think too often this industry, as as relates to last mile carriers, try to fit every single shipper into a single box. I'll give you an example outside of visibility. We've had a product, on our side called dynamic, pricing, which has been large for largely available for the last, couple of years. There are some customers who are absolutely ecstatic about getting discounts, and and receiving the updates from a rating standpoint that, based off of capacity or whatever it is, you know, we're lowering the cost of shipments. At the same time, there's another group of shippers that have no desire whatsoever to move off of a static rate card. Right? And so, you know, the more that a carrier, or or the more that we would try to fit, you know, everybody into the dynamic pricing model or to shrug our shoulders and put everybody into the static rate card model. That's just not, like, that's not viable, for us. It's certainly not viable, for for shippers who are who are interested, who are looking for partners who can who can provide that level of of of accommodation. And so I think there is, at the end of the day, a a very long list of things that carriers can do, outside. of what, you know, more information and and and things that shippers can provide. There's a a a long list of things that carriers can do as well. Yeah. I I definitely agree with that. I like how you said there's different maturities, right, or a spectrum or a learning curve. with it. I think that's great to touch on because not everybody is at the same part of the spectrum, let's say, as as others when it. comes to carriers. Yep. So great points from all of you. It actually we're actually bringing us into our final section right before we jump into Q and A. This has been an awesome discussion so far. So just as a quick reminder for everyone out there listening, if you have any questions, please feel free to submit them into the Q and A, and we'll address them in a couple of minutes. So let's look forward. Right? We'll end here with the with kind of future thinking. As we think about how carrier relationships evolve, it raises a bigger question. Where do you feel like parcel delivery is heading next? So as we look at the next, you know, three to five years, I'd like to hear each of you, you know, give me a minute or two on your thoughts on technologies, trends, what do you think is going to have the biggest impact on parcel delivery in the future? Ashley, let's start with you. Nice. Yeah. Two things. One, I think you guys can probably tell that I'm bullish on AI and what that's gonna do for us. But, where I'm excited about that taking, like, carriers specifically is being able to use that historical data, create intelligence around it so that, those pack we can predict when that package is gonna go off the happy path and do something to avoid it ever happening in the first place. So that's, I think, the thing that I'm most optimistic and excited about, but there is a dark side to AI. And I think over the next couple of years, everyone and their mother is gonna create some type of agent and tool. But, if you if you're not thinking about, like, the agents as people and context and, like, really having to work with the agent to give it that context that it needs and the guardrails, then you're you're you need to do the diligence in deciding as an organization what types of tools you wanna use and work with because there really is an investment in getting those agents to work, that to a point where you would trust them to take that action for you. And a lot of that is the working with it on the guardrails and the audit trails, like, being able to trust the decisions that it makes and informing it, and the the orgs that do their diligence and understanding which tools they are gonna invest in, where it's gonna make the best impact, and putting in that investment and time to optimize how those agents operate is, something that I'm excited about, but kind of the counterbalance of of one on For sure. Yeah. And I'll I'll just go. next if that's alright, KJ. I, you know, I think, the one thing that I'd like to leave everybody with today is that the, you know, where is my package is actually a really low bar, for the industry. And, again, you know, shippers, if you're out there, you know, challenge your your your carriers, you know, accordingly. We have enough data, as we've talked about here. There's plenty of of of emerging technologies and patterns and practices that are in place, that the goal shouldn't be answering, you know, where's the where the bleep is my package, you know, faster. That that's not the goal. Right? Like, we should. know when a package is starting to go off of or fall off of that happy path. We we should understand why. Back to the head of operations on my side, like, they want to see it. They wanna understand what's the SOP or what are the tools that they have to get that package, that container, you know, back on back on track before the customer ever has to ask. So to me, the future of visibility isn't about a better tracking page. It's ultimately just needing the tracking plate page less than Nice. Yeah. Thanks, Mike. And and I agree with Ashley. We can we can talk about AI to nauseam, but I'm not gonna do that, but it's a super important technology. It's gonna make things, efficient. today. It's gonna make things more personalized. So there's really a lot of goodness there. And and I think when you talk about the near term, KJ, yes, for three to five years. Yeah. Probably that near zero to three, there's gonna be a lot of, Sure. efficiency and automation and and AI leverage. When I think about five years, it's kind of the modality. So I think, you know, I'll be walking down the street probably ducking from all the drones, dropping packages off of my doorstep, my neighbor's doorstep. But I think that's in in some sense, a little weird, but also exciting, but, you know, that's where I think it's going at. Autonomy, personalization, curb to door remains pretty stubborn still, probably human for the next five years, but we'll see with the drones. But I think it all comes around this, like, theme of delivery experience is becoming the differentiator over speed, especially as tracking and visibility gets better, tighter, and more personalized. So it's like this shift of precision windows, proactive communications. And I think whoever really owns the consumer's trust at the door is in pole position to continue growing the business. So, that's that's my point o two. That's my two cents, KJ. Yeah, I like that. Watch out for the drones. Darn. drones. That's we go. New title. That's great. Thank you all. Before we moved into audience questions, I wanna leave everyone with just, like, one final thought, one practical takeaway. You know, where the hell is my face cream? Watch out for the damn drones. Like, whatever. Whatever it may be. Right? So, Hank, we'll just start back with you. So for our audience, if you want them to remember one thing from today's conversation from your seat, what would that be? I think it is what's important to you and your customer, and then how can you leverage your your shipping partner relationships to get the best out of that. So that's that's what I'll leave you with. What what can we do for you? Love that. Mike, what about you? Yeah. I just, I I think that the, that the world is changing, especially from from from where I sit. We talked about the the advances in technology. We've talked about the the the the physical technology as well with RFID. There's a a a multitude of of options at the buffet of catering to, not only what a shipper's customer wants, but what do we what a shipper wants. Right? Like, what are the how do we plug into the operational systems on their side to make it easier so that they don't have to pick up the phone and make a a where's my package, call? And so, yeah, in in my mind, that's a that's a good carrier's responsibility is to continually put the capabilities of what we can do, in front of our shippers. And then at the same time, it's up to the shippers to basically say, alright. Yeah. We've got a great relationship, and you guys have been working great for the last, you know, ten years operationally. But, you know, I I'm at the point where I I need to understand where where the puck's going, and I need to skate over there and, you know, help me understand, you know, what you can do from a tracking visibility standpoint that better helps my business. Like, that that's a completely fair question for shippers to ask. Yeah. Very fair. I absolutely agree. Ashley, final thought from your seat. That the question is not where the f is my package. It's what the f am I doing about it. Because it's not about the fax question of, like, of where it is in any point in time. It's the act. It's like what you guys care about as the shipper is the promise that you made to your customer and the actions that you can take to keep that promise and keep that relationship. So there's there's tools out there to help you do it, but just really diving into the ownership of that post purchase experience. For sure, I like that. Thank you all so much. This has been just such a fantastic discussion. Again, so appreciate our panelists, my friends for joining us today, sharing their valuable experience and expertise, great stories, awesome one liners, I think things we won't we won't soon forget, right? So, now as we end you guys can all like just take a deep breath. We're gonna rapid fire. We're gonna turn our attention to some of the questions that have come in from our audience. Okay, sorry. You guys ready? Okay. Ready. Yes. So excited. I love it. Alright. First question and if you want to answer it, I say just blurt it out, that came in. So this is great. What advice would you give to an organization looking to expand or diversify their carrier mix? If you want to take it. Yeah. I think, ultimately, it's identifying, you know, how you would stitch together, you know, the coverage that you have today. Right? So identify what carriers are out in the market. Many of them, have, special, regional focus. Figure out, you know, just at the end of the day, how can I, you know, cut out a couple of, carrier, sort of coverage areas on the map and literally try to stitch that together over whatever, you know, coverage I'm being provided, here today? So that's an easy place to start. And, again, you know, AI LLMs are your friend. Like, all of this information is crawlable via AI on the web. And so, you know, in pretty, in in a pretty quick amount of time, you'd be able to get an answer quickly. Just to build on that too, I love that. And. I think not necessarily starting with, the price. Like, starting with the outcome that you wanna achieve and then working backwards and using that to stitch together your mix. Backwards planning. I'm such a fan. I love that. Hank, do you want to add anything? Yeah. No. I think I think they both they both covered it well, so kudos. Good. Ditto. I I like. Yeah. Exactly. that. Perfect. Alright. We have another good one that came in. So, oh, seasonality. Right? We're here. When planning for peak, are there any early red flags you see immediately that tell you if a shipper is likely to have a service or capacity issue? Oh, red. flags. I can take this in pretty for. it. Yeah. Just, like, not having any sense of type of volume swings or, forecast, I think is a pretty big red flag. Mhmm. And so and also, like, how are they going to do a a single node from one facility, multiple? How are they going to shift volume around? So, like, just asking fairly basic questions will give you a general sense of how prepared you think they are in terms for peak season. And I get it. You know, stuff's moving fast. Teams are changing. But I think, having that forecast information, as early as possible, even if it's not perfect, is still a great way to start. Yeah. I'll double click on that. I would just say planning. If your if your shipper, and and and vice versa. If your carrier if your shipper, can't put the the time on the calendar to prepare. for the, you know, the the most, Yeah. chaotic chaotic time of the year, that should be a rough way. Yeah. The making time for it. Right? Yeah. That's a really, really good point. I like that. Alright. We'll move on to another one. If my company is looking to expand into new markets over the next few years, are there any carrier related things we should start considering before it's too late? So top of mind things as you're looking to expand to new markets. I. think, I think oh, yeah. Ashley, you you. Sorry. maybe go ahead, Hank. I'll take it. You I'm gonna I'm we're for sure gonna have different answers. You go first. Okay. Great. I think, you know, it's the coverage is is for one. You know? So what are you solving for? As Ashley's alluded to, like, what are working backwards, what's important? And, also, what type of coverage and, are you solving for speed? Are you solving for some some type of personalization? Is there something else? And so what fits your needs? And then going to market and making sure that you you pick a partner that fits that as best as possible is, probably step one here. Ashley. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I think to add on to that is that, like, the system system's thinking approach, like, it's not just getting the package from point a to point b. It's everything around that too. Like, what happens downstream in the communications to your customers? How are they gonna file a claim? What happens if they need a return? Like, making sure that you think through all of that in the backwards planning and not just, like, who's the cheapest carrier? How am I gonna get it from point a to point b? It's all the stuff around it, and do. your tools support that? Yeah. I'll I'll add on one, other item here is, you know, check the check the care. check the cap capabilities of your carrier. Right? So, you know, if I'm a a a a a pro ship, shipper, right, like and if the carrier is not on the platform, that's a pretty, that's a that that's a pretty, hard thing to to kinda reconcile. Right? And so, I I know the the ProShip team, does a great job of of bringing on new carriers, but, again, whether it's, you know, rate shopping, whether it's, you know, track and trace, whatever it is, like, understanding the capabilities of that carrier outside of, like, can they get packages delivered? That's a huge piece of of that kind of future planning as well. That's great. Thanks, you all. I appreciate that. We have a couple other questions, but just in terms of time, we're gonna move on to my last question and then close this out. So any questions that were left unanswered, we'll make sure to share that with the audience, in the resources. So, final question. It has nothing to do with supply chain logistics. Maybe. Maybe a little bit. But, I want you to think about I have kids in sports. I was an athlete. It was big in my house. I was a big athlete. You and your personality. Think about your walk up song. So, like, you're going up to the plate. You're coming out onto the field. You're skating out on the ice. Whatever it is. What would your walk up song be? And this is a really good way to showcase your personality. So, Ashley, I'm gonna start with you. So, Ashley, your walk up song. Go. Okay. It's really just, like, in the moment right now. If I had to think about, like, my song personified, it'd probably be Britney Spears' Work Bitch because, man, am I doing that a lot these days. Love that. That's great. Mike, let's start let's go with you. Welcome song. Yeah. I I think I would say some of this is tied to maybe how, logistics and and being in personal in the last six years has has maybe shaped me or shaped who I am today. I find myself this week traveling. I took a 5AM flight, earlier this week. I'll take a 11:30 on the way home. And and that kinda just defines, I think, again, how parcel it shaped me, and every moment is just under pressure. So I would say, queen under pressure would be. Oh, good one. Oh, Alright, Hank. these are good. These are good. I've got I've got envy. Mine, I think, will have to be ACDC Thunderstruck. It's about to be peak season. We're gonna be rolling, so I need a little pump up music, for the for the time. I like that. So so Thunderstruck was actually on my sock I coached a bunch of youth soccer. It was actually in one of my boys' soccer team's warm up mix, There. you go. I love it. Not not necessarily the other two. We might have to bleep out the Britney one, but I think they would like that one too. So, I love this. I I will share mine because people always ask, but it is, ludicrous. Get back. Go ahead and look it up on your own. And if you ever meet me in person, you will probably understand. I'm just a little spicy. So, again, like, thank you all, Ashley, Mike, Hank. I really appreciate you joining me today. I so look forward to seeing you all in the back half of this year at shows. Thank you to everyone who joined and watched, and we sincerely hope that our conversation helped demystify some of the operational realities behind parcel delivery. Just highlighted some opportunities that you might not be fully leveraging today and just a few ideas, backwards planning, some one liners that you can take back to your organization. So thanks again for joining. Wishing you all a wonderful rest of your day and happy September. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so. much.