Details That Save Loads | Episode 353

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Today we're talking about the importance of details and accurate information.
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We just wrapped up a good episode there.
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We kind of went down a few different uh rabbit holes, Ben.
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What are your what are your thoughts?
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To me, this is one of those discussions that like if you focus on these things, like these are the things I get you, I think you get like the most return on your investment of time and effort in your day, right?
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Like where and why most people are overwhelmed, don't get to more prospecting, or whatever it is that they feel like they should be getting to and they don't get to every day.
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Like that's really what we covered in this episode.
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This is probably one of the better ones I think we've done even in a while for just like everybody probably could get something out of this that would save you some time and avoid some problems.
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Yep.
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And we give a lot of good examples too of of things that we've dealt with internally in the past and just you know, through interactions with other people on um, you know, where things went wrong and could have been prevented to save time, money, and a lot of frustration.
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So with that said, let's hop into it.
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Welcome back for another episode of the Freight 360 podcast.
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Ben, we're gonna get into a good discussion about why details are so important in this industry.
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Um, but first, if you're brand new here, make sure to check out all the other content.
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We've got hundreds of long form podcasts, lots and lots of hours of short form cont of content for just about anything you could think of.
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So make sure to use that searchable uh library on our website if you're looking for you know any kind of training material.
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It's all in there.
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And if you are looking for a full educational option for your team, we got the Freight Broker Basics course in there.
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Share with your friends, like the channel, all the things that help us uh get in front of more people.
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And this episode is brought to you by Ascend TMS.
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So if you're looking for a new TMS, Ascend is the recommended TMS for small to medium-sized brokers.
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So if you're new or growing, check them out.
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Ben, what's going on with you today?
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Welcome to August.
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I knew, dude, I'm super excited to be rounding the corner into fall.
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I'm just trying to enjoy the warm weather while we got it here.
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So fall is fun though.
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And we got football right around the corner.
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It's uh it's a good time of year.
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So that we do.
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Very much looking forward to it.
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Actually, like last night was the first random day that like the humidity fell enough that it was like noticeably cool.
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Like, not like cold, but like I we I was we go out for bike ride a lot, Ava and I, where we're just like, it was probably like 7 30, and like I was like, it's like not muggy.
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Like it was so noticeable that like we both looked at each other and we're like, is like the weather change or something?
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Like it literally felt like fall, like last evening.
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I'm like, it's the first time like we like literally enjoyed running around and playing outside where it wasn't just like we were soaking wet 15 minutes later and both went like, okay, we have to go back in.
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So yeah.
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Nice little nice man.
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She's gonna be able to do that.
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What's going on up in New York, man?
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Uh, beautiful weather.
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And um, it's crazy.
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The I drove past the um the new Bills stadium yesterday, and it's right across the street from the old one, which is now a flattened pile of rubble.
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It is completely torn down.
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So I was shocked at how fast they ripped down the jewel table.
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Did you get anything from it?
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Did you get any memorabilia or anything?
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Like they were they were selling, like you could buy your if you were a seasoned ticket holder, you could buy your seats.
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Um but they were charging like a ridiculous amount.
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Like even you can even go, like our local grocery store, Wegmans, bought up a bunch of the inventory and they're selling it like in the grocery store.
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Um, you can buy like a seat for like 300 bucks or something stupid, and it's like, yeah, I don't know, no thanks.
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So I remember I had a piece of like for the Sabres, they they built a new arena like in the late 90s, and they sold pieces of limestone, I think it was from the old arena, and I got like a commemorative, commemorative one of those as a kid, and I don't have it anymore, so I guess I just I don't know.
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I have a piece of turf from the stadium.
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I guess that's kind of cool.
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Yeah, and also it's like and you move and things don't transition over time because I'm like I I thought about that because like they did that at Three Rivers, obviously, a long time ago before they built Hines Field and PNC Park.
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And I remember going to the demolition and they were doing the same thing, and I'm like, I always thought I'm like, it would have been kind of cool to have like a seat from a place like I saw my first baseball game at.
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But also I'm like, I would have nowhere to put it.
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And I'm like, it would just probably sit in my attic anyway.
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There was something I had that was like my favorite piece of memorabilia that I lost somewhere in just moving and getting older.
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Was if you go to, I can't remember the name of the building now, but there's one building at Pitt where I had most of my business classes.
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It might have been the business school building, I think it was.
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But in that building, when you walk in the entryway, every day when I would go to class, home plate from Forbes Field was still there.
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Like it was a glass thing with the home plate there.
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And like I never went to Forbes Field, like that was before I was even born, I think it was gone, because they built Three Rivers in like the 70s.
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But it was so cool, like literally walking past that every day.
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And above it was the it was the picture from the cover of Life magazine where they were looking down on the baseball game during the World Series when the Pirates won from the Cathedral of Learning, which is the other like iconic building at Pitt.
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And it was just super cool because it's like you're in college there and you like know this was like one of the most famous sporting events that happened in Pittsburgh.
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And it was signed by Bill Masarowski, who hit a game-winning home run.
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And one of the guys I worked with at Dollar Bank, actually, I didn't work with him, he was like somebody in another business, I can't even remember, that I did a lot of business with.
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He knew that I used to talk about that because it was like one of my favorite things at Pitt.
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And I was like, I would love this for my office because like you could get that picture, but I'm like, I can't find it, and like I couldn't buy it anywhere.
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And this guy just randomly showed up at my office and like gave me this, like, and it was huge.
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Like it was like four foot by three foot picture from the cover of time.
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And I went and waited in line when Bill Masarowski was still alive and did a signing and got him to sign it in the same place it was at the building in Pit, and I lost it.
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And it's like one of those things where I'm like, I definitely really wish I still had that, but also like I don't know, you get older, you move, things go into storage, things get lost.
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But anyway.
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Um, that's crazy, man.
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That's cool, though.
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So, news, did you hear about this$86 million nuclear verdict?
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No.
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So I'll I'll read it off.
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I put it out in our newsletter this week.
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Um, here's a little blurb.
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Um, Freight Waves put a really good piece out on it.
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So um I'll just read it verbatim, kind of how we put it out.
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So, freight veterans David Parker from Covenant Logistics and Max Fuller from UX Express sat down with Freight Waves and delivered a wild mix of good news and horror stories.
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The scary part first: an$86 million verdict just landed against QXO, um, which is a carrier.
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Formerly, uh, they had acquired a company called Beacon Roofing, but they're based out of Utah.
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Said despite the jury finding the carrier wasn't even negligent.
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Parker says his insurance costs have jumped roughly 300% in three to four years, while coverage got cut in half, and he's made half a dozen trips to DC, plus two Trump meetings, pushing for tort reform, which he now pegs at a 20% shot of passing, up from basically zero his whole career.
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Translation is carriers are winning cases and still losing, and the whole industry is bracing for the next nuclear verdict to drop.
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So there was the jury said that the carrier was not um was not negligent, but the verdict was to hold them, you know, at 86 million.
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It's I think it's like one of those where you know the initial lawsuit amount like is kind of glaring, right?
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And then it'll go through a pellet and probably have a different outcome.
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But it I just think that's insane.
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Um how do you how do you find somebody, how do you hold them financially liable when you determine that they're not negligent?
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Not only is that like it kind of these things like like kind of don't surprise me anymore.
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Once you're like running businesses and you start to like see these things, you realize like insurance like doesn't cover most of what you think it does as you get older and you just realize that, right?
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The second thing is like most of like the entire court system is like inaccessible for a lot of things, like just average everyday people that like should be able to like use the courts to hold people accountable, like that just like doesn't exist.
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Like whether it's like construction on your house, doing improvement, or like it's a$20,000 claim in freight brokerage, like you can't go and you can't go to court because you need to pay an attorney to do that.
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And the attorneys cost more than the money.
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So it's just like you just get stuck eating these things.
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And on the other end, you have attorneys that just like sue over things that make like little to no sense, but has like some little detail and some regulation or some law or some case law that they're able to justify like massive amounts of money.
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Then the other people have to spend a whole bunch of money on attorneys to get that number reasonable, and it's like just a giant waste of resources.
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Like there's literally no value created at all.
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There's no protection whatsoever.
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And like tort reform is one of those things that like I absolutely think should occur.
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And I kind of don't understand why anyone would be opposed to it, right?
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Like, who thinks we should all be paying attorneys more to argue with each other to create nonsensical problems where they just we each pay each other, pay attorneys to fight with each other's attorneys?
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Like the whole scenario in system to me is just like broken and needs resolved.
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Yeah, pretty crazy, man.
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Pretty crazy.
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Um, let me see if there's anything else in the news noteworthy.
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There was some like the market update from Dean was really good that I put out.
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Um let's see here if I can give you the uh warehouse robot robot shock.
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The FCC blocked new foreign-made ground robots, creating a major sourcing problem for U.S.
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warehouse automation.
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Um I got a billion dollar port goes quiet.
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Charleston paused operations at its Leatherman container terminal amid weak trade demand and high costs.
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And truckload prices reached a four-year high as fuel costs rose and capacity tightened, potentially feeding consumer inflation.
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Yep.
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And to add to that, um the manufacturing uh posted its best month since 2022.
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So if you think back to what Dean said last time he was on the show on the uh demand set, is demand side is that he said he can keep an eye on that.
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That is it, the manufacturer something index about uh um, I think they do it either monthly or quarterly.
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It's gotta be monthly if they said it's the best month since 2022.
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But yeah, that's a good indicator of of shipping demand.
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And then so you kind of pair that with capacity tightening.
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That's kind of a two-sided uh flip from where things were the previous years.
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So it's enough.
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All right, well, um anything else in the news or sports?
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No.
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All right.
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So uh we're trying to pick a topic for today, and we we were talking through why details are so important, and we can go down a lot of different rabbit holes here in um you know as it re as it relates to freight.
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Um I think whenever I look at any of the issues, the majority of issues that I've seen or dealt with in my time in freight, a lot of the times the there's miscommunication or a detail was, you know, incorrect or missed or something like that.
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And it really is like a um, you know, kind of the source of a lot of problems and and issues.
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So I'm kind of curious where your your thought process came from on this topic, and we'll dig into it.
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Yeah, like most of the stuff and the training I've been doing for like a lot of the clients in the past month is like very, I would say like literally business communication 101 class.
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Like how you write an email, right?
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How you respond to an email, right?
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Using proper subject lines, keeping all communication related to a shipment in one email thread.
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And when your customers start a new thread, you reorganize them by going back and taking what they said, put it in the other thread and keeping it in one place, right?
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Like those things are like very simple, but avoid so many of the problems that occur later, right?
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Like I do feel like freight brokerage is one of these jobs that like I always laugh because I always say it's like that ounce of prevention is worth like a pound of cure, which just means like a little bit of effort, making sure your details are right in the beginning, saves you hours and hours and hours on a weekly basis that you waste going and fixing something later.
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So whether that is like reading an entire email before you respond, like I can't tell you how many emails in the past two days I've been involved in, where two or three people are asking a question in an email thread that was answered in that thread, but they just didn't slow down enough to read the whole thing before they asked another person.
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And I'm watching like this one company, I'm like, five of these people are complaining, they have like way too many emails to get through, but they're all self-induced, meaning like they're creating this work for themselves because they don't slow down, read the whole thing.
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Instead, they just reactively ask a question to three other people, and that creates three more emails that now they're gonna have to read to come back to them.
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And like email is one of those things that's like super simple when you think about it.
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Every time I send it, I will probably get one more if I ask a question.
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And if I ask a question to three people, I will probably end up with three more emails that I will have to read later today.
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So if you just slow down enough and ask it all at once, you might only have one email come back to you instead of seven, or keep asking six questions that you could have asked all in one email.
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Or putting a subject line of like your load number and your customer's PO in the subject, so both of you can search your number in your system to find that communication.
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Like those things reduce so much work and so many problems, but nobody ever wants to slow down.
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And the funny thing is they'll tell you they can't slow down to do this because they're too busy, but they're too busy because they don't slow down to do this, right?
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That's actually a good point.
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And something that we did at Pierce to try and like, and this is just a a you know, a very specific example, but we created a um we call it a help desk.
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It's it's really it's a kind of like a form-based ticketing type system where whenever a specific kind of request comes through, so let's say it's um a credit increase or an initial credit line being requested, or um a request to approve a carrier that's on um you know, needs an override for compliance rules or whatnot, or any you know, any other number of you know, standard requests that a broker would have to their support team.
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We created these forms that have all the pertinent information.
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Um, we try to only put in there what's required and not make, you know, we have a lot of optional fields, but we just we require only the minimum basics.
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And then it takes that information, it creates an email and it titles the subject line in a very specific way so that it creates a thread.
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So it'll be like, you know, the customer, if it's a customer um credit increase, right?
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It could be like the name of the customer dash the amount of credit.
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If it's for a motor carrier, it could be like um the order number dash the DOT number dash the carrier's name.
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And it creates this thread that gets automatically sent to the correct department, which is a group email, and then CC's the actual requesting broker on it.
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And then all communication stays in one thread and goes back and forth and has the pertin information right up top, along with the entire form is going to be embedded into the original email that goes through.
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But we found that to be massively helpful because originally, if you go back years and years ago, it was like, yeah, you know, if you need this, just email this person and let them know X, Y, and Z.
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And it's like, well, if they forget to include something, then it frustrates the support rep who's like, well, I need to know the load number or the carrier's MC number.
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And it's like, all right, well, now that we've created a form that's foolproof and it requires you to fill out the minimum required information before you can submit it, um, that solves that whole problem.
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The issue still can come down to people putting the wrong information into the correct fields, right?
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And we've that's human error.
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Yeah, and it's not like a hundred percent, but like where I'm running into this in a lot of places is like, well, one, because there's lots of different clients, and I have a lot of different emails for different things.
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So it's like somebody will call me and be like, hey, I sent this to you and I'll try to find it.
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And I'm like, well, I put your name in and I found 45 emails.
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Which one is it?
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And by the way, all your subject lines are the same, right?
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I'm like, so like I literally can't find the thing you need help with.
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And the other thing is like when I'm talking to somebody and like, well, I'll need something or I'm trying to help with something, they're like, oh, I'll just send you this in an email later.
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I'm like, no, like I don't want more emails.
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Like, let's just fix this now.
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Don't send me something later.
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I don't need to see this.
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I'm calling you to help you with it, right?
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Or like uh like running the brokerage.
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I'll jump on for like an issue with a load, whatever, a claim, a missed delivery, whatever it is.
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And you're like, oh, I'll just copy.
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I'm like, no, no, don't copy me on any of this.
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I don't need every email between you, your carrier, and your customer.
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I'm just telling you how to resolve this.
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If you have an issue, let me know.
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I don't need visibility into your shipment level data.
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Put your notes in the TMS.
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If I need to see it, I'll find it there.
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And that's this other thing that, like, again, very 101 level.
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Like, why you put everything in a TMS is because everybody can see it when they need to.
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Nobody needs to see every email you've ever had related to every load to help you with a problem.
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Put the stuff in the load, right?
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Like, then it's in one place where everybody can see it when they need to see it.
00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:17.559
Yeah.
00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:18.679
Same premise.
00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:19.240
Agreed.
00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:46.119
Yeah, I think the uh the email overload is is a it's like a personal maybe pet peeve that I have where I'm like just trying to uh stay caught up on an inbox when probably 90% of the emails that come into my inbox, I either don't need to be CC'd on or I just end up deleting because I'm not the one who has to action something on it.
00:20:46.199 --> 00:20:46.919
You know what I mean?
00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:47.399
Yeah.
00:20:47.639 --> 00:20:51.319
Um yeah, I uh copying you in for visibility.
00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:53.000
I'm like, don't do that.
00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:54.919
I don't need that visibility.
00:20:55.159 --> 00:21:03.879
I have so what I what I do now is like the ones that I know I'm copied on, and I know, like, for example, like those ones that are pre-formatted in a certain in a certain way.
00:21:04.119 --> 00:21:07.639
Um, I have those auto just they go right to a folder.
00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:09.079
So I never see them in my inbox.
00:21:09.319 --> 00:21:11.159
So I can if I ever need to go see them, yeah.
00:21:11.240 --> 00:21:11.639
I'll see them.
00:21:12.119 --> 00:21:14.199
But so great point, right?
00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:19.639
Like this is another thing that like is very simple, but like not everyone kind of knows this.
00:21:19.720 --> 00:21:21.159
But like, okay.
00:21:21.399 --> 00:21:26.759
So let's say you're a small brokerage and you have like an operations email, right?
00:21:26.919 --> 00:21:33.079
Because sometimes maybe you need your team to see issues and you want that copied on.
00:21:33.240 --> 00:21:38.439
And like there's lots of customers that then forget to copy the rep.
00:21:38.679 --> 00:21:41.000
This is one that I've run into in the past month a lot.
00:21:41.159 --> 00:21:41.480
Okay.
00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:48.919
So what happens is everybody says to their customer, send the email to me, I'm your account manager, and copy operations.
00:21:49.319 --> 00:21:53.799
But then someone else at that company knows they want to use your brokerage, right?
00:21:53.879 --> 00:21:57.079
Like they want to use White Shark and they're like, hey, here's another order.
00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:01.559
But it's not the same person that always sends loads, it's just somebody else there that needs help.
00:22:01.799 --> 00:22:06.759
They just send it to operations because they don't actually know the account manager, right?
00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:12.039
Well, that inbox might have 800 emails in it from like everything that's in there.
00:22:12.199 --> 00:22:17.240
So you kind of need visibility, but you never will ever be able to read everything in there.
00:22:17.399 --> 00:22:26.039
So then what happens is the customer will call the company, be like, dude, I emailed over a load, either a change or a new load, and nobody got back to me.
00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:27.639
Like, what's going on over there?
00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:33.639
And then when we find the email, we go, like, oh, well, they didn't copy the person, they just sent it to operations, right?
00:22:34.119 --> 00:22:37.720
So the solution, right, is really pretty simple.
00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:39.159
It's exactly what you said.
00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:42.759
Create a rule and a folder for each customer.
00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:46.919
You create the rule for the domain of your customer.
00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:56.119
So any email that comes from this is important, the customer at acme supply.com, right?
00:22:56.279 --> 00:23:00.599
That rule directs every inbound email into this folder that you call acme.
00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:01.720
Supply.
00:23:01.879 --> 00:23:07.639
So now the count manager can just look at the operations box and there's a folder for every customer.
00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:10.279
And if there's a new one, there'll just be a number next to it.
00:23:10.679 --> 00:23:11.639
One, two.
00:23:11.799 --> 00:23:13.240
Now I don't have to read 800.
00:23:13.319 --> 00:23:15.559
I just look at that folder, just like you said.
00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:23.319
And this is like some stuff that like I think is pretty basic, but oftentimes people forget that you can do this or just don't do it.
00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:31.000
But like these are things that are immensely helpful for organization and being able to not lose track of stuff communication-wise.
00:23:31.319 --> 00:23:31.799
Yeah.
00:23:32.039 --> 00:23:32.759
Yeah, agreed.
00:23:32.919 --> 00:23:34.839
Little uh little work hacks there.
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:35.879
I like it.
00:23:36.119 --> 00:23:38.679
Um curious, have you ever done?
00:23:38.759 --> 00:23:43.319
I'm thinking back to like the email threads and you know being copied on stuff.
00:23:43.399 --> 00:23:54.199
Sometimes what I'll do because I I use my inbox almost like a to-do list where in basically an email will not stay in my inbox when it's when I'm done with it.
00:23:54.279 --> 00:23:56.839
It'll either get deleted or file it if I want to, you know, keep it.
00:23:57.000 --> 00:23:58.359
You call it inbox zero, right?
00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:00.119
Like you work down to zero.
00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:00.519
Yep.
00:24:00.759 --> 00:24:01.000
Yep.
00:24:01.159 --> 00:24:11.799
And then I have my emails also said to be in a threaded setting where like any replies with the same subject line kind of live grouped together in a thread.
00:24:11.879 --> 00:24:20.199
And sometimes what I'll do is if like, you know, like I'm doing a lot of like uh data work prep for a TMS transition right now.
00:24:20.279 --> 00:24:30.279
So I might spend an hour or an hour and a half like buried deep in data heavy mode, and I'm not looking at my email at all.
00:24:30.519 --> 00:24:37.480
And then I'll hop back in email and I'm like, okay, well, there's a thread with you know 20 different emails here.
00:24:37.639 --> 00:24:45.639
Sometimes I'll just take the most recent one, copy it, the whole thing, throw it into like chat GPT or whatever, and say, hey, can you summarize what's going on here?
00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:46.759
Let me know what's going on.
00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:49.319
And it'll just spit out everything.
00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:50.919
And it's usually very good.
00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:54.119
Whereas like Outlook's built-in copilot, I don't really like.
00:24:54.679 --> 00:24:55.319
Use it this morning.
00:24:55.480 --> 00:24:56.679
And it's the same issue.
00:24:57.000 --> 00:24:57.960
So two or three things.
00:24:58.039 --> 00:24:59.319
I literally did this this morning.
00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:07.079
I was researching a load where there was an additional layover, but I couldn't find in the TMS because nobody put notes in there, right?
00:25:07.319 --> 00:25:11.480
Where the layover occurred and there was a multi-customer shipment, right?
00:25:11.639 --> 00:25:18.119
So I'm like, well, the additional layover charge needs to be applied to the customer that had the layover, right?
00:25:18.199 --> 00:25:21.639
Like why they couldn't unload or load, why we had to pay this.
00:25:21.799 --> 00:25:23.079
That goes to that invoice.
00:25:23.319 --> 00:25:26.199
No notes in the TMS, no ability to find this.
00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:33.159
Go and search operations, find at least 15 different email threads about this load.
00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:36.119
Tried to use Copilot, literally gave me nothing.
00:25:36.279 --> 00:25:37.960
Told me what I was already able to see.
00:25:38.119 --> 00:25:38.759
Tried it again.
00:25:38.919 --> 00:25:39.639
That didn't work.
00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:55.559
And then I did exactly what you said, which is I now right-click those emails in Outlook, save them to a PDF, and I will move all the PDFs into either Claude, mostly Claude now, and I go summarize what happened here, and I can ask it questions that I would want to know, like where did this occur?
00:25:55.720 --> 00:25:56.599
Was this approved?
00:25:56.759 --> 00:25:57.480
Who approved it?
00:25:57.639 --> 00:25:58.519
When was it approved?
00:25:58.679 --> 00:26:00.359
Which customer was it associated with?
00:26:00.519 --> 00:26:05.079
Did we ask the customer to go and find or pay this charge at the time it occurred?
00:26:05.159 --> 00:26:05.480
Right.
00:26:05.639 --> 00:26:11.799
All of those things that should have been recorded in the TMS, I can do that by saving the emails and putting them in there.
00:26:12.039 --> 00:26:18.039
The other way I've been able to do this, and this is a hack I found on emails that works pretty well.
00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:26.199
When you have multiple emails, okay, like addresses across a company sometimes, right?
00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:31.000
You cannot connect multiple into Claude or GPT.
00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:32.919
You can only connect like one Microsoft account.
00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:34.599
So it can't search over them.
00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:40.039
And there isn't a native Outlook plugin to do this across all of your inboxes, right?
00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:42.279
So it's kind of surprising at this point.
00:26:42.679 --> 00:26:42.919
Shocked.
00:26:43.079 --> 00:26:43.319
Correct.
00:26:43.639 --> 00:26:45.000
I'm trying to work on one just personally.
00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:52.199
I'm having engineers put it together right now so I can do this across like a whole company to find things I need to when I need to help people instead of them sending me emails.
00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:53.720
I just want to ask it a question.
00:26:53.960 --> 00:27:10.839
However, the workaround I found is if you put a Claud plugin, for example, into Chrome and you open all of your inboxes in Chrome, you can get it to use cowork to go into every inbox and do the same thing and summarize all of them.
00:27:11.159 --> 00:27:12.119
Interesting.
00:27:12.919 --> 00:27:13.720
Got it.
00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:18.839
So details, unless you got anything else on like the email, that whole bit.
00:27:18.919 --> 00:27:21.079
I I kind of had a couple things I wanted to point out.
00:27:21.480 --> 00:27:27.319
The one last thing on emails that I think I use and not everyone kind of uses in the way you can.
00:27:27.399 --> 00:27:35.399
And this is like native to Outlook anyway, which is like if you pin an email for your to-do list, it'll stay in the section at the top.
00:27:35.559 --> 00:27:39.159
So it's not necessarily read and unread or inbox zero.
00:27:39.319 --> 00:27:50.039
But if you have like six emails that you know you have to get to later, you can pin them and they will move to a different section until you unpin them, which again has been there forever, but not everyone really uses that function, too.
00:27:50.199 --> 00:27:50.839
I think what you can.
00:27:51.159 --> 00:27:54.359
I used to use the different flag colors too on emails back in the day.
00:27:54.599 --> 00:27:55.480
Yes, I used to do that.
00:27:55.879 --> 00:27:57.240
Every one of them meant something different.
00:27:57.399 --> 00:28:04.679
So kind of shifting gears a little bit, but still kind of focused on details and having things organized.
00:28:04.759 --> 00:28:22.199
I would kind of just sum or kind of categorize this into like running a very tight operation is having accurate information in your TMS kind to your point before, but like whether it's a PO number or a rate or an accessorial or a customer.
00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:40.359
Like I was telling you uh off air about a situation where like the wrong customer is listed on the TMS for a bunch of loads, and like, you know, we're getting customers kicking back saying, like, this one's not ours, and then you look at it, and the BOL is for one commodity, and then the customer clearly has nothing to do with that commodity.
00:28:40.439 --> 00:28:46.199
So we're trying to figure out like, you know, you know, how do you prevent that or fix that?
00:28:46.279 --> 00:28:50.919
And should a, you know, should a billing person recognize this when they see it or not?
00:28:51.079 --> 00:29:00.359
Um, but just having accurate information there, because to your point, like the TMS, we we tell everybody, like it's it's it's gonna be as good as the data that you put into it.
00:29:00.519 --> 00:29:08.359
So like, just like your CRM, like if you don't put good notes or accurate information in, um, it's gonna be, you know, it's not gonna do its its best for you.
00:29:08.439 --> 00:29:13.399
Like a lot of times, you know, people use the phrase like uh garbage in, garbage out, right?
00:29:13.480 --> 00:29:24.919
If you put bad information or you know pour quality information into a a system that's supposed to do work for you, it's not going to have the information it needs to properly give you the best output.
00:29:25.159 --> 00:29:40.839
So um that's why I think like if you and this is it's actually really cool because as I'm going through this TMS transition right now, and we're we're going through and identifying like, hey, what custom fields might you want, and you know, what regular fields might you want to require?
00:29:40.919 --> 00:29:50.359
And where do you want things to be laid out in a way that procedurally will make it as easy as possible to reduce any kind of like human error?
00:29:50.599 --> 00:29:59.639
And you know, like oftentimes I think people get into a, you know, they get in their TMS and they're at a brokerage and they're just like, oh, this is just the way it's always been, so we're gonna keep doing it this way.
00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:02.759
And it's like, well, do you have the ability to change it?
00:30:02.919 --> 00:30:11.159
Do you have the ability to improve, you know, not just the the way the tool is used, but also procedurally how you guys interact with it?
00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:15.720
So like required fields, and then even like on a required field, hold on.
00:30:15.879 --> 00:30:17.960
I did this today, this morning for this.
00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:18.359
Okay.
00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:24.519
So another one that like this is a people thing and a field thing, and you need to address both, right?
00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:37.799
So, and for this client, they do a lot of high value shipments, but they're not getting the load values all the time from their customer, and it wasn't a required field in their TMS.
00:30:38.039 --> 00:30:47.159
So before I turned on required load value for everyone, I wanted everyone to know you're not going to be able to like finish a load without this number, right?
00:30:47.319 --> 00:30:50.679
So they don't all just start yelling at everybody going like my load can't get built.
00:30:50.759 --> 00:30:54.039
And they're like, Yeah, because like that has to be there.
00:30:54.359 --> 00:31:01.639
But what they also needed to do from like the personnel standard load value, just required load value.
00:31:01.720 --> 00:31:04.039
So you can't like the value of the cargo.
00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:06.039
The value of the cargo, yeah.
00:31:06.439 --> 00:31:18.279
So I said, guys, like I need everyone to put this number in here, but what I absolutely do not want to happen is everyone just puts in 100k to get the load bill.
00:31:18.439 --> 00:31:19.799
Because like that defeats the whole purpose.
00:31:19.879 --> 00:31:24.039
So, like the people have to do it correctly and it needs to be required, right?
00:31:24.279 --> 00:31:28.039
And then I always get the same pushback every time I do this with any client.
00:31:28.199 --> 00:31:29.639
Well, my customer doesn't give it to me.
00:31:29.720 --> 00:31:30.919
I ask, they can't tell me.
00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:32.359
I'm like, okay, fair enough.
00:31:32.679 --> 00:31:34.039
But like, you know what you're shipping, right?
00:31:34.519 --> 00:31:36.119
Well, yeah, do you know how much you're shipping?
00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:39.960
Yeah, I got the weight, I got the case count, or I got the palette count, and I got what it is.
00:31:40.439 --> 00:31:40.679
Okay.
00:31:41.399 --> 00:32:53.970
Well, can't you just put that in Google and say what is the approximate value of this today?
00:32:54.930 --> 00:32:55.889
Like, well, I guess.
00:32:56.049 --> 00:32:57.329
I'm like, okay, we'll do that.
00:32:57.490 --> 00:32:59.170
Like it's at least better than nothing, right?
00:32:59.329 --> 00:32:59.569
Yeah.
00:32:59.809 --> 00:33:04.849
Like, we just need to know if it's over 100, do we need more insurance or a carrier with more insurance?
00:33:05.009 --> 00:33:06.450
Like, that's really what you're trying to figure out.
00:33:06.529 --> 00:33:10.450
So if it's 125 versus 135, like that's not the end of the world.
00:33:10.849 --> 00:33:14.609
What you want to avoid is the bigger issue of shipping.
00:33:14.769 --> 00:33:16.450
I found this with somebody two weeks ago.
00:33:16.609 --> 00:33:23.490
They moved$500,000 worth of cargo in an LTL network that has insurance at 50 cents per pound.
00:33:23.809 --> 00:33:27.329
I'm like, realize that like you have like literally no insurance on this.
00:33:27.569 --> 00:33:27.730
Yeah.
00:33:28.049 --> 00:33:28.450
What do you mean?
00:33:28.529 --> 00:33:29.730
I'm like, well, guess what's gonna happen?
00:33:29.809 --> 00:33:38.129
If there's a claim, that customer is not gonna pay a half a million dollars worth of invoices to us because they think contingent cargo covers it.
00:33:38.369 --> 00:33:39.250
It doesn't.
00:33:39.490 --> 00:33:45.170
Your job is to make sure you protect this, not that your customer knows what to do.
00:33:45.329 --> 00:33:47.649
That's not their job, that's our job, right?
00:33:48.529 --> 00:33:49.490
Yeah, exactly.
00:33:49.730 --> 00:34:04.529
Another um thinking like data, um, and I've I I like usually recommend this depending on how your customers are, but having a field that prints to the customer invoice that is like the customer's reference number, right?
00:34:04.690 --> 00:34:09.170
It could be PO number, order number, you know, whatever the case might be.
00:34:09.489 --> 00:34:16.849
And um, you know, that way when the customer gets an invoice, if there's a high volume, right, they then know right away, oh, cool.
00:34:16.929 --> 00:34:18.129
Here's our number.
00:34:18.449 --> 00:34:22.369
We know exactly, you know, which shipment this is related to.
00:34:22.609 --> 00:34:35.329
The problem to your point though, the people side of it, the problem I've seen is that like when people know that a field is required, sometimes they just like put anything in there just to satisfy it, like you said, like the 100K for the value.
00:34:35.409 --> 00:34:37.489
They'll put like a period in there or the date.
00:34:37.649 --> 00:34:45.009
Um, and I guess you know, something's better than nothing, but um having it inaccurate is is bad.
00:34:45.089 --> 00:34:53.329
Like I I had one, I was trying to figure out a um we had a guy that's not with us anymore, and we're trying to get one of the loads closed out.
00:34:53.569 --> 00:35:00.449
And I'm like, all right, cool, let me go and see what like the the customer PO number is, and it was just like zero, zero, zero, zero.
00:35:00.529 --> 00:35:06.609
And I'm like, that is absolutely not what the customer's reference number was on this load.
00:35:06.769 --> 00:35:10.929
Um so it gets messy again, garbage in, garbage out.
00:35:11.329 --> 00:35:24.289
So when you have bad information and like a carrier invoices you, right, and they're on, you know, let's say they're on net 30, or better yet, let's say they took a quick pay, right?
00:35:25.010 --> 00:35:36.769
The longer it takes you to figure out the billing information for your shipper, the customer, that is delaying payment to come into you, which can dramatically hurt your cash flow.
00:35:37.010 --> 00:35:53.329
So that's the kind of stuff that, like, not to mention if you're not invoicing daily, if you have bad information, or if the customer has a special billing portal or something like that, and you don't have the right attachments in there, or whatever the case might be, I've seen just absolute headaches.
00:35:53.490 --> 00:36:06.849
I remember we worked with a customer, this is like probably 10 years ago, and the c the company was uh it's technically Spencer's, you know, you know the store, like the shopping mall stores, Spencer's that have like gay gifts and stuff like that.
00:36:07.090 --> 00:36:12.450
Yeah, but it's I guess they're they're affiliated with spirit Halloween stores, I think.
00:36:12.690 --> 00:36:15.489
But it was all these pop-up Halloween stores.
00:36:15.570 --> 00:36:29.650
So like the project every year would be like they take all the stuff for the Halloween store, they send it out to whatever location is gonna be um set up as a Halloween store, they stage it, and then they tear it all down and they put it back.
00:36:29.809 --> 00:36:42.210
But there was a there was like a some kind of like billing requirement that had to be done, and the one year it like got all messed up, and there was like it was like hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:36:42.369 --> 00:36:48.690
It might have been like millions of dollars worth of like invoices that were being tied up, and it was the biggest disaster.
00:36:49.009 --> 00:37:00.369
And um, yeah, I mean, one one small preventative action or fix could have prevented, like you said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of uh cure, right?
00:37:00.529 --> 00:37:02.929
So here's something a big pain in the butt.
00:37:03.250 --> 00:37:05.489
So this is like super interesting to me, too.
00:37:05.650 --> 00:37:22.050
So I'm trying to build out like a pretty comprehensive like financial reporting tool where basically I can search across multiple companies that are owned by one company and understand how one is doing business with the other.
00:37:22.210 --> 00:37:24.130
So like a brokerage and trucking company, right?
00:37:24.210 --> 00:37:27.730
Hey, this brokerage created an order and the trucking company ran it.
00:37:27.889 --> 00:37:31.730
Well, did it get into this TMS and is it done correctly in both?
00:37:31.809 --> 00:37:34.610
And was it done correctly in the accounting system, for example, right?
00:37:34.849 --> 00:37:36.289
But across all of these.
00:37:36.529 --> 00:37:45.009
So a workflow I created to like learn and how to do this is I'm like, I need to do it correctly, but I need to protect it and to make sure the security is correct.
00:37:45.170 --> 00:37:54.610
So what I'll do is I'm like, I go and create a deep research report that's like 50 pages long, and I'm like, I want to know everything that is available right now publicly.
00:37:54.769 --> 00:37:55.650
What can go wrong?
00:37:55.809 --> 00:37:56.849
What are the vulnerabilities?
00:37:57.009 --> 00:37:58.210
What are the best ways to do this?
00:37:58.289 --> 00:37:59.250
What are the other ways to do it?
00:37:59.329 --> 00:38:00.449
And put it all in one place.
00:38:00.690 --> 00:38:11.570
Then I put it into Notebook LM and I have it create a 30-minute podcast where it debates all of the points in it, and I can learn so much so fast from like a conceptual standpoint.
00:38:11.889 --> 00:38:13.570
Can actually like read it to you?
00:38:13.650 --> 00:38:15.250
Like, no, it doesn't read it.
00:38:15.329 --> 00:38:17.570
It it literally will, it's like me and you.
00:38:17.730 --> 00:38:21.329
Like it reads the whole thing, and it there's two different voices.
00:38:21.409 --> 00:38:26.369
It's like a woman and a guy, and you can have it debate the points or give you analogies.
00:38:26.449 --> 00:38:30.210
So for like the tech stuff, I'm like, use a bunch of metaphors so I can remember this.
00:38:30.289 --> 00:38:37.409
It'll be like, oh, this tool, confluence, is like um that's like the waiter that brings you the information.
00:38:37.570 --> 00:38:41.650
This tool where your data is held, that's like the walk-in freezer in the back of the restaurant.
00:38:41.730 --> 00:38:45.809
And this tool, Excel and Excel Power Query, that's like your chef.
00:38:45.969 --> 00:38:47.250
This is your sous chef.
00:38:47.329 --> 00:38:53.009
And it used a restaurant analogy, and like I can now mentally visualize how these things work together.
00:38:53.170 --> 00:38:57.329
And then it goes, well, hey, this is where this can really go wrong.
00:38:57.409 --> 00:39:07.250
And if your data is not correct, you can be making decisions that create like millions of dollars in liability and risk because this one thing over here wasn't updated correctly.
00:39:07.409 --> 00:39:16.849
And I'm like, oh, like this is super interesting to me on like how you kind of have to do these things because it's like what we were talking about, but like a little bit of a more in-depth use case.
00:39:17.009 --> 00:39:30.690
And every single time I'm doing these, because we're building out a WMS system too, is it like everybody we're interviewing to run the new warehouses is like, dude, everyone I've worked at, this guy I talked to last night, he's been in the industry for like 40 years, opened warehouses all over the Northeast.
00:39:30.769 --> 00:39:40.449
He's like, dude, every one of these companies, the big ones, small ones, medium ones, they buy these crazy expensive WMSs and they use about 10% of it.
00:39:40.529 --> 00:39:42.050
And he goes, here's the funnier part.
00:39:42.210 --> 00:39:50.769
Not only do they only use about 10%, but when I go to the management or ownership and say, like, hey guys, like can we use this feature in here?
00:39:51.009 --> 00:39:58.130
They discourage it because these tech companies charge them$150 an hour to discuss how to use the next thing.
00:39:58.210 --> 00:40:01.730
And then the company doesn't want to pay the additional charges, like McLeod does.
00:40:01.889 --> 00:40:11.809
And then they just keep using less of it because they won't pay to get the rest of the value that they're already paying for, which is this crazy ironic loop in the entire process.
00:40:12.050 --> 00:40:15.090
I found that's funny.
00:40:15.409 --> 00:40:30.929
So I guess to to kind of wrap on this, when it comes to like the importance of details and accurate information, what is practical advice, in your opinion, for either a company or a leadership or an individual?
00:40:31.170 --> 00:40:43.650
Because what I think what I found is, you know, and it's probably no surprise, but some people just really it's not a strong point for them to be detail-oriented and organized and you know, kind of running that tight chip.
00:40:44.050 --> 00:40:58.449
Where others, like for me, for example, I feel like I'm very detail oriented and I get frustrated when I deal with somebody who's not, and I find it as like an area that I want to coach them on and you know help them get better at before anything else.
00:40:58.690 --> 00:41:12.849
Because, you know, in in the grand scheme of things, like how how well can you, you know, grow somebody if your basic interaction and communication with them is is messy and confusing and and garbled.
00:41:13.009 --> 00:41:15.730
So what what's kind of your take from a leadership standpoint?
00:41:15.809 --> 00:41:19.489
How do you how do you instill that in your company or in your team?
00:41:19.889 --> 00:41:27.329
I always start with giving people the reason why they should want to improve this or do it better, because then they remember.
00:41:27.409 --> 00:41:30.289
And when you have a reason, you're more likely to do it, right?
00:41:30.369 --> 00:41:31.809
I literally parent this way too.
00:41:31.889 --> 00:41:44.610
It's like if I ask my daughter to pick up her toys, I'm like, well, hey, honey, the reason I don't want your toys near the stairs is because if you fall and it's very dangerous, you would don't want to have something bad happen or whatever that is, right?
00:41:44.769 --> 00:41:46.769
And then you could literally see the light bulb go off.
00:41:46.849 --> 00:41:47.889
It's like, oh yeah, okay.
00:41:47.969 --> 00:41:49.009
And then we'll do it, right?
00:41:49.170 --> 00:41:54.289
And it was always the thing that drove me nuts as a kid because like parenting in the 80s was like, do it because I said so.
00:41:54.449 --> 00:41:56.449
And I'm like, yeah, like what that's ridiculous.
00:41:56.529 --> 00:41:59.409
Like, I'm just doing like random things just because you say it.
00:41:59.489 --> 00:42:00.929
Like, why am I doing this?
00:42:01.250 --> 00:42:03.570
So it's the same thing I like use with adults.
00:42:03.650 --> 00:42:07.969
I'm like, well, here's why you want to slow down and make sure these are correct.
00:42:08.289 --> 00:42:12.130
Because you're wasting hours later fixing it anyway.
00:42:12.289 --> 00:42:17.329
So would you rather spend like 30 seconds to read the rest of it and make sure it's correct?
00:42:17.650 --> 00:42:23.969
Or just have a random problem that's gonna happen today or tomorrow that takes you an hour and a half to fix and cost you a bunch of money.
00:42:24.130 --> 00:42:26.289
Oh, well, it makes way more sense to just do that.
00:42:26.449 --> 00:42:27.889
Okay, that's what we're talking about.
00:42:28.050 --> 00:42:29.489
That's the whole thing, right?
00:42:29.730 --> 00:42:34.529
So slow down, and your goal is to be a hundred percent accurate on everything.
00:42:34.769 --> 00:42:43.170
Now, the expectation is that you're never gonna be a hundred percent, but every time you do anything, that's the way you should be perceiving it, right?
00:42:43.250 --> 00:42:45.889
Is like reading it and making sure it's all right.
00:42:46.050 --> 00:42:50.449
And I have some people that on the other end, they move so slow because they read every detail.
00:42:50.529 --> 00:42:54.449
And I'm like, okay, like you kind of just need to get to the high points.
00:42:54.690 --> 00:43:00.050
You're already detailed enough and need to speed up, and then you guys are moving way too fast.
00:43:00.289 --> 00:43:05.809
And this is why you're here 11 hours a day fielding phone calls to fix problems.
00:43:05.969 --> 00:43:09.570
It's because yesterday you didn't slow down enough to do this.
00:43:09.730 --> 00:43:13.650
And you gotta just keep reiterating this over and over and over.
00:43:14.210 --> 00:43:23.090
And then you have to be able to see when it's happening to catch it and to slow them down and be like, hey, just saw this, just saw this order go in there.
00:43:23.329 --> 00:43:26.929
Well, I don't see a load value, I don't see a PO, I don't see this.
00:43:27.090 --> 00:43:29.090
Like, can you make sure that's in there?
00:43:29.409 --> 00:43:31.250
And it really is a lot of work.
00:43:31.329 --> 00:43:34.210
Like, that's what you get paid for when you're like leading and managing people.
00:43:34.289 --> 00:43:37.250
But like that's really how I kind of implement it.
00:43:37.409 --> 00:43:48.210
From like a tech perspective, I'm trying to build right now a tool that gives me visibility into all these things so I can just ask it what was missed in the TMS this morning, what needed to be added, and by who?
00:43:48.449 --> 00:43:51.889
Give me a summary, and then I can just message them directly in Teams, right?
00:43:52.050 --> 00:43:54.130
And I can do the same thing across all the emails.
00:43:54.289 --> 00:44:00.529
So little by little, I think I will literally have this built to be able to do this faster and with more people.
00:44:00.769 --> 00:44:05.009
But from a personal side, like it's the way we probably learned brokerage 10, 15 years ago.
00:44:05.090 --> 00:44:12.050
It's like your manager is just looking at the board all day, and then he's messaging you on IM like, hey, do you need help with these loads that aren't covered?
00:44:12.210 --> 00:44:14.210
Hey, looks like these loads were like half built.
00:44:14.289 --> 00:44:15.170
Do you need something?
00:44:15.329 --> 00:44:17.889
Hey, looks like a bunch of loads are delivered with no paperwork.
00:44:17.969 --> 00:44:18.769
Did you get to that?
00:44:19.250 --> 00:44:22.210
Like, you still need the person to do it with the person.
00:44:22.449 --> 00:44:29.730
The thing I think will get better is the system that allows you to do this without clicking into 12 different pieces of software to find these things all day.
00:44:30.529 --> 00:44:31.250
Well said.
00:44:31.489 --> 00:44:32.210
Well said.
00:44:32.449 --> 00:44:34.289
Well, that puts a a bow on it.
00:44:34.369 --> 00:44:35.650
So final thoughts, Ben.
00:44:35.969 --> 00:44:39.730
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right.
00:44:40.130 --> 00:44:42.849
And until next time, go bills.