Unknown:
0:00
Music.
Blythe Brumleve:
0:05
Grace Sharkey and Blythe Milligan here with you for everything is logistics, presented by SPI logistics. We're going to talk about freight marketing, and there was this TMSA benchmarking study that was released. TMSA is a transportation, marketing and sales Association. I'm a board member on that association, just, I guess, full disclosure. But they, every couple of years, they release a benchmarking study, and this year's benchmarking study, I think, is the best one since I've been a part of the TMSA, it's been the best one that I've seen that was really surprised going through some of these numbers. Now, this study is only available in for TMSA members, so that's a membership perk. It's a membership benefit. But we're going to talk about some of our favorite stats from or takeaways from this study. First, I wanted to sort of get it out of the way of like the respondents sort of demographics. So let me see if I can go ahead and bring up the demographics of this study, I always think it's important to show who is answering and why. So here are a couple of the demographics from the study. And so basically the respondents that we had where the majority of participating companies are businesses with less than 500 employees and with more than 5 million in annual revenue. Full breakdown is about 39% of these respondents for this are working for companies that have at least 100 employees. So 100 to 500 which is kind of crazy that it's called a small business. When you have 100 employees, I feel like that's such a large business. But then they the very next demographic is micro enterprises, which is less than 50 employees, and that's about 19% of the sample of respondents. And then for revenue purposes, there are the top number of respondents. It was about 25% of the respondents. Make more than 5 million but less than 100 million. Again, quote, unquote, small businesses here, just so you can get additional breakdowns of it, the type of organization that the respondents were part of. 57% were a three PL freight forwarder, truck broker, carrier, well, actually not a carrier. The next percentage is 13% were motor carriers. Then the percentage after that was consultants sitting at 10% and so on and so forth. So those are just some different demographics. In case you are curious about some of the I guess the specific roles of the people who are participated in this study. Time in current position was two to five years, and so 41% of the respondents had been working in their marketing or sales role between that time frame and 36% of the sample has five to 10 years experience in the industry, which I thought was was very good, and so I I don't know why I assumed a lot of marketers in this industry just come in for like one or two years and then bolt and go to Another industry. But that was cool to see that 36% of the respondents, or at least what is that? My math is right, 66% of the respondents have at least two years of industry experience, which is good to see. Okay, so first, so I just did a lot of talking. What is your what is your first takeaway that stood out to you.
Grace Sharkey:
3:21
I've got a lot. Let me see, where should I start here, also the one place I thought was interesting. So start is the tenure numbers. Let me pull those up too, because I think that's at the very beginning. Well, if you
Blythe Brumleve:
3:34
tell me what, what page it was, I'll, yes, I'll scroll to that page. I've,
Grace Sharkey:
3:38
I've got you page right through giving page four. Good old, great. Resignation,
Blythe Brumleve:
3:46
perfect. Okay, so we're on page four, the resignation. Oh, there we go. Page five, actually, yeah.
Grace Sharkey:
3:54
So I thought this was interesting, just because I think it also follows a lot of like what we've seen in regards to just what we're reporting at freight waves as well. Like, that's, I was like, Oh, I wish I had this or some articles that we've touched on. But to see that there has been for the medium, right? This like two to five, five to 10 year span, to see that the tenure has has grown, I think is, is awesome, right? I think that we'll get into a little bit later. I think that goes a little bit into the training data that we got back and improvements that we can make on that. But a big part of this study too, and we'll, we'll touch on, I'm sure, during this chat, is the technology aspect of things. So when I see these like 10 to 2020, plus years falling off. I think that's really interesting, is it showcases right how much our industry, I think, is changing, and how maybe some of these again, I'm just speaking on I'm numbers. I'm seeing, but there's a chance that a lot of these older generations, those have been a part of the industry for that long. Just don't. Know how to process the new automated Whoa, somebody
Blythe Brumleve:
5:04
was actually watching this. We're going to fix this. Oh, I keep talking. I'm sorry. Um,
Grace Sharkey:
5:10
but like, for instance, like, there's been talks a lot about, like, how companies like ch Robinson have lock let go. A lot of their more tenured employees have been there for years and years and years. And I think that points to, like, a different way that we're moving freight right, like the more technological focus, more AI automation, and who's going to thrive during those changes, I think, are those who've only been a part of the industry for a couple years, who are younger, right, and are looking to apply that more to their job. Who aren't afraid of chat GPT and and see it as a tool, instead of something that could take their job. And then potentially, a lot of these organizations right are looking to to grow their footprint in this industry and continue on that technological drive. And if the 1020, plus year individuals can't figure out those pivots, can't, you know, understand the training Well, let's have you retire. Let's get you out of of the situation and spend more time educating training. Are more less tenured individuals. So you see that across the board, if there's if there are layoffs, a lot of times recently, it's been those who are in senior level positions, because, again, I think a lot of our industry has been used to doing things the old fashioned way, and the younger generations are coming in and saying, Why, my God, are we not doing this through automation? I you know, like, why are we calling carriers constantly when there's apps that could easily do this, or text messaging features, etcetera, and their TMS is and and that innovation is starting to showcase, and the 10 year overalls as well. So I just thought that was interesting, because we've seen that when we hear about a lot of the layoffs, we hear about it being more of those who have been at these locate these companies longer, and happy to see that those who haven't are at least staying staying loyal at at companies, staying there for a longer period of time, which probably leads to better success when it comes to adopting more tech over time as well.
Blythe Brumleve:
7:20
Yeah, yeah, because it one, as you were talking, a couple of these stats that stood out to me is a lot of these people, especially the where we've seen growth as far as time and current position. Yeah, was pre COVID, and so right before COVID hit, and then after COVID, they've chosen to stay at that position. Whereas, if you have less than two years experience. We're in 2024 you probably started in 2022 when the freight market was booming, and then things get a little tight, and things get rough, cuts start getting made, and maybe you decide this isn't the industry for me, but for a lot of these folks that started right before COVID, or maybe a couple of years before COVID, are sticking around and they're choosing to solve some of these technology, I think, problems, or maybe workflow problems, and just the greater adoption of new solutions, new technology where it's almost like we're moving away from these, I guess, large, bloated systems, into more like niche focuses, where you Have some like TMSs, for example, that have been around for forever, and they launch a CRM, and the CRM is a glorified email list, and it sucks, and a marketing or sales person can't really use it, right? Whereas you have somebody like a tie software, which shout out to them, sponsor the show, they have a lot of these automation and workflows already built into the system, so you don't necessarily have to rehaul your entire software that maybe has been around for a couple decades. You can instead, you know, jump right into getting sort of modernized very quickly, and reducing the amount of clicks that it takes to do a simple task. And so I thought that that was, that was a good nugget to bring up. So thank you for that. Another one of these key insights that I wanted to bring up was the sales goals, or just sales in general, is that fewer companies are reaching their sales goals. And I think that it's kind of let me go ahead and bring up one of these pages that talks about it says in 2022 92% of organizations were were able to achieve more than 75% of their sales quota. However, this figure has significantly declined in 2024 and with only 45% of organizations reaching the same threshold. So in just two years, it's dropped from 92% achieving their sales 75% of their sales quota to 45% I think that probably has a lot to do with the market, but I think it maybe is a little reassuring to folks in sales out there that you're not alone, that everybody is struggling in this regard. But there's. Something really interesting going on with sales folks too. And let me see if I can bring this up from a sales perspective. But their budgets are also dropping, and they're also not focusing on their current customers, because there's a lot of revenue. Let me see. Budgets are on the rise. Probably shouldn't be searching for this stat right now, but it's one of those things where they are. Companies are hiring for a focus on new customers, but most of the ROI is coming from a demo they rarely target, and that's their current customers. And so what's happening with hiring is that you're probably hiring a lot of like young, cheap talent to go after new customers, when instead you should be focusing on the customers that you currently have, because that is your greatest chance for ROI, according to the study. So I thought that that was interesting from a sales perspective, and that backs
Grace Sharkey:
11:01
it up. It goes into on page nine, right? The of marketing objectives, and you're right, if you're looking you would, you would think, based off of what you just said, that your marketing objective would be focused on more of a customer retention or customer experience, right? But those are actually have decreased in market objectives and the biggest, I guess all of them have decreased, except for brand awareness, has gone up just a little bit, but it's nowhere near if anything more of that objective is still going towards customer acquisition then, and I always found that crazy that it's always like bringing, especially this industry brokerage side, it's always like new customers. What's in your feed, right? What do you have coming up? Where I was like, definitely more of a How can I expand this really great relationship I've already built and start taking over more of their their pie, because that's where you start to flush out the competition. It comes less about price and more just about overall experience. So I think that has been, I don't know, I don't know what I really want to point that too, because part of me all almost wants to say, you know, I think they're hoping for a revenue drive with that, like, how many times I can't tell you how many times I've talked to investors or things like that. And they want to know how many logos, right have been signed on, how many new customer new What are new logos? How, where are they? What are they? You know, it's like for for me, it's like, well, you know, how much are you concentrating right on, on the companies you already have on, I think a little bit goes into the investor side of things. Maybe that's because we've seen that happen more in the industry. But I don't hate that marketing objectives are focused on brand awareness, because I do think that's something that people need to focus on. But when you mentioned the stats you just did on kind of the customer loyalty and the focusing on customer churn to see customer experience was at 15 two years, and 15% down to 7% is like, yeah, and as a journalist, like, I, I'm about to go on like, a tad bit of rant, like I, and I'm you get this too clear. This is like your life. It's like so many people will reach out to me on articles or even just like their own marketing initiatives. And my favorite thing, even as a journalist, is like, case studies, like, and you're not going to do a case study at a new customer, it's going to be a customer that you've had for a long time. So to like, see that, I just think those two things, brand awareness and customer experience are like, so close to each other in terms of, like, I want to stick with you because of your Think of it like, as an Apple user, like, because of the apple experience, it's tied to the Apple brand. So, like, how are, how is this industry? So off on understanding that
Blythe Brumleve:
14:23
are you in freight sales with a book of business looking for a new home, or perhaps you're a freight agent in need of a better partnership? These are the kinds of conversations we're exploring in our podcast interview series called The freight agent trenches, sponsored by SPI logistics. Now I can tell you all day that SPI is one of the most successful logistics firms in North America, who helps their agents with back office operations such as admin, finance it and sales, but I would much rather you hear it directly from SPI freight agents themselves. And what better way to do that than by listening to the experienced freight agents tell their stories behind the how? And the why they joined SPI, hit the freight agent link in our show notes to listen to these conversations, or if you're ready to make the jump, visit SPI three. Pl.com, well, there, there. I love that you brought that up because there was another factor of business factors have shifted, and what are the top three factors primarily responsible for your organization losing business from its customer base? And it's the inability to grow or expand as the customer needs dictate or and that that sits at 45% and that's up by, like, I don't know, 23% from 22 or 2022 and the next one sitting at 41% for 2024 is the inability to meet comprehensive needs. It rarely has been price related. So customer, they're not losing business really because of price. That may have happened in 2022 but shipper needs have probably shifted in that in that time frame as well, where maybe they were looking to cut costs. In 2022 they're always going to be looking to cut transportation costs, but this year, the study is kind of hinting that shippers just want their stuff moved in a reliable way, and they need companies that can be able to fulfill that for them. As their business needs change, and for a lot of this lost business, the drivers have been that these carriers, these brokers, are not able to grow with them, not able to solve problems with them. And so I think that that's also a really key insight from this study, is that by 2024 the landscape has dramatically shifted. The biggest contribute contributions to lost business are now the inability to grow with customer needs 45% and the inability to meet those needs at 41% and they have surged by 23% and 26% respectively, highlighting a major change in what drives customer retention and satisfaction that comes directly from the study, Which,
Grace Sharkey:
16:59
again, is like kind of so crazy to think about in this day and age, because there's so many different ways that a provider can grow with customer needs, right? Like, there's so many ways to partner with here's a great example, like, how cargo Right? Like, now it's helping so many different brokerages offer a Mexico a very good Mexico experience. And like, I see that more and more happening, or think of maybe partnering with someone like pop capacity, who helps you find warehousing capacity on demand, right? Like, there's just maybe I'm like, more mad because people aren't reading my articles and, like, realizing, like, these partners are out there and exist like, like, I maybe they're just like, that's not hitting them. But like these companies are, are there to offer logistics companies a chance to have warehousing capability without having to buy a warehouse in an environment where probably your interest rates aren't in favor of purchasing a large asset like that, right? And so I that's, it's, it's mind boggling. Some of this, these results because they're like, pushing against each other, and again, like to say inability to expand or grow like I can't, if you told me any type of like industry operation or service that you needed, last mile service domain, last mile pickup, there's so many different last mile providers that you could reach out to, um, it just, it kind of makes me laugh that like you're not able to find your customer need. Because I, there's, I can't think of something a customer call about, and I, I would have to tell them, there's no way we could fulfill that. I mean, LTL services, my carrier, like, there's so many different ways to go about
Blythe Brumleve:
18:53
it now. And that's a that's a great point, because, like, are these company are these brokers, and are these sales reps, account reps? Are they even talking to their customers? Like, are they knowing where the customers are trying to go and then, like,
Grace Sharkey:
19:07
that was in the survey, wasn't it? Or something about it's going to drive me nuts now, oh yes, I think the very next one right. Does your organization have a formal customer experience or customer service review, strategy and place. And yes, a lot too. 39% is a lot, but that's not going to win you an election. Most of them don't. And yes, strategy exists, business
Blythe Brumleve:
19:33
and election, yeah, probably the same. 39% sounds large,
Grace Sharkey:
19:37
right? Compared to like, but it's really not. It's like, especially when you add even the second one is like, Yes, an informal strategy exists, but it's not sophisticated. Okay, that's a no,
Blythe Brumleve:
19:49
that's a very nobody's aligned. No one's communicating. And you're talking about 55% of companies like a formal process to understand customer needs. And if we can put two and two. Together, where, if your current customers are giving you the largest ROI, and yet you're hiring practices and your process practices are not aligning with those customers, they're going to leave you. And so let's do the math people as we're figuring out our 2025 budgets, especially when it comes to marketing and sales. We got a lot more for you. We're going to go through a lot more stats, but I would start there. I would start with my current customers. I would interview them. I would get their top takeaways. Where are they trying to go in 2025, and then you have your partnerships manager or your partnerships director that could start to make some of those cargo or, you know, carry your partnerships, you know, things like that, LTL partnerships, you can start making those moves so that you don't lose these customers, and you can continue to generate ROI from the customer base, and so they don't leave you. And then that probably changes your hiring practices, where you're not hiring kids that are fresh out of college and have no idea about the industry, because we've already shown you the stat that they're leaving within two years anyways. And so put more emphasis on your people and the people who have already chosen to do business with you.
Grace Sharkey:
21:09
And this is like a perfect example of when I talk I know Ryan Schreiber talks about this a lot, like hidden data within your organization, like in order to answer that question correctly, that Blythe is is bringing up right like these lost opportunities, what's potentially a customer can do like that also means being able to capture right your every email that comes with A an offering like I can guarantee that your sales reps aren't putting in every especially when they get, like, a long list of of lanes and quotes, they're probably not putting that into a system. So maybe looking at some of these email providers like vuma, or some of these like different capabilities that are different technologies that, like, help manage your email inboxes and actually store that data, so then you can actually pull and see, oh, wow. Like, this is a good, I love this. This is, like, where my I, like, really love operations, because then you're able to take that customer. Maybe you're only doing like, 10 loads of them a week, but they're good rip loads. They're easy to manage. They pay on time. That's another thing too, right? You have these customers, right? That do that are like, beautiful on the surface. They're like ice. Talk about breaking ice. They're like icebergs, right where, like, the top, you might just think, okay, they're a good customer, but underneath is like, I can't tell you how many times you start to dive into these people and you realize, oh, well, who's handling your inbound, who's handling your outbound? Oh, who's handling your vendors that are coming into your systems? How many times a new warehouse pops up? I mean, if this economy does start to turn around here. In the next year, people are going to be looking at, you know, building more infrastructure and expanding the the their operations as well. So that's your shippers, right? So, yeah, I again, this is like, in order to to answer that question, it goes back to, I think technology too, is like, do you even have the systems in place to capture what's being lost, not just to see a lot of times I see, like, CRMs, it'll be like, oh, here fill this field out of like, what their yearly spend is, yeah, for sure. But like, do you actually have the lane data and things of that nature to say, Oh, wow, this is, like, clearly a customer that we're missing out on, potentially missing now I'm more afraid from so
Blythe Brumleve:
23:42
I think the iceberg analogy is very fitting for this episode, because you have no idea what kind of opportunities or chaos just sit right below the water and you are missing them. And so, alright, any last because I want to move into a little bit on the marketing side of things. Thank
Grace Sharkey:
24:02
you. I think you hit most of them the other one, and that kind of actually just goes back to my last statement was, there was one on data government. Governance is becoming a bigger focus. What is data governance? Yeah, so data governance is like the ability to know it's the culture behind collecting and managing your data. So for instance, let's say that you, you have a TMS system and your I'll actually kind of bring up an example from my old position. So we would pull data often, and there's two ways for our reps to put in a load. Let's say it was a load. They got a dedicated load to them, right? They're not fighting anyone for it. There was a way to enter that in as kind of. Like a sale, potentially, you could say. But there was also another way, a faster way, to get loads on the load board that should be used for spot freight, freight that you technically haven't won yet, but you're trying to win it, right? So those are two different situations. Now, at the time, we had a problem with reps only using the spot. Even if they know they had the load, they would use the Spot function because it would post to the load board faster, like that was just in their mind, how do I get my freight to the load board faster? But not realizing by doing that, I don't know what air dedicated freight numbers are, right, because you're entering them into so data governance is like being able to watch over an operations and say, Okay, now that data is wrong because it's not being put in right, or maybe the way that we're pulling it or entering field numbers isn't correct. Like another problem could be like, for instance, let's say that you an expected delivery date is just the 30th, and it delivered on the 31st you, as a dispatcher, didn't hear from the driver, though, until the first of the next month, so you just don't really care about it. You just put in like the first well, now if I was your pull date on that lane, it looks like it takes an extra day to to deliver on that lane, right? And so it's like building a culture that understands, like, how data is being entered into the ripple effects of it, yes, exactly, knowing like, what you can pull and what you can't pull and how all the systems work together, and building a lot of times that, like integration that you're into, like, Tableau, right? And pulling into knowing, like, what those fields should come back as. So it's kind of like that overall operations of things that makes
Blythe Brumleve:
26:50
sense, yeah, and I think that that's, that's probably something that happens so much at organizations all they
Grace Sharkey:
26:58
probably pull something and go, this cannot be right, and it can't. It probably you're right. It cannot be right, but it's because, you know, I you put it under a different, let's say, a lot of times, right? You'll have a customer who you invoice their parent company, right? So it's like, you might pull that. It says, Oh, we've never done loads for Kroger. But like, Kroger wants has you Bill, like some other third party. So it's like, okay, well, that's not Kroger's numbers. It's this one's right? So it's like, I I'm sure it happens a lot, and that's where people, a lot of times, get nervous about, like, data initiatives, because they pull things having very little, I think chattel soon. Actually, I posted this on LinkedIn today. Like, if you're, like, if you think you're a data company, and, like, you don't have, oh, and your data analyst doesn't know Sq, s, CQ is, or whatever, which is slow, yes, QL, yes, then you don't have a data analyst, like, that kind of stuff, right? It's like, the data governance and building that culture and building the infrastructure to actually be able to set up integrations appropriately pull information so that a CEO is getting the right report every time. So brokering
Blythe Brumleve:
28:13
success demands a battle ready strategy. Thai TMS equips FRES with the ultimate battle station for conquering a tough market with Tai, brokers gain access to a comprehensive platform where raid intelligence and quote history converge on a single screen. It's not just a page, it's a strategic command center designed to help brokers win. Tai equips your team with all of the data they need to negotiate with confidence and allows them to communicate directly with carriers and customers from a simple control base, revolutionize the way your brokers perform by giving them a competitive advantage with Thai TMS. For more info, go to Tai software.com backslash battle stations. And we also have a link for you in the show notes to sign up for a demo. Yeah, and I think that this is like the perfect time of year to start thinking about these initiatives and how you want to clean up some of these acts and streamline some of your processes and why, and make sure you communicate that to your entire team. Because I imagine you probably have a lot of brokers out there that just want to do things the fastest and the easiest way possible, not thinking about the all of those ripple effects that you just listed. So I think that that's that's a good place to end on. Well, not end but to shift the, I guess, the conversation from like the sales focus to the marketing focus of this study. Because I know you're going to like this next chart I bring up, and it's talking about how many tools are being utilized for marketing automation, and one of your favorites is at the top of the list. I know near the top of the list. So we got chat GPT sitting at 64% of adoption rates and Canvas
Grace Sharkey:
29:58
percent. I. Yeah, which I don't know if you saw, but they aren't going to be raising prices as much as they told everyone. So thank you, Canva, we love
Blythe Brumleve:
30:09
it, CEO, especially a female CEO that listens to their customers and they make an announcement and it goes terribly, and she reverses it all. So we, we love to see it. So what rounds out, I guess, so that I'll talk about the I guess the top four, the top five of this list, because chat GPT is far, in a way, the most favorite when it comes to tools being used. Canvas second at 46 or 42% HubSpot is at 33% Zapier is at 24% and then Adobe Photoshop rounds out the top five with 24% but the very next one after that is Gemini, which is very shocking to see Gemini so new and so kind of questionable, but I is, I think
Grace Sharkey:
30:53
that's just because it's an offering within the Google business suite, true. Yeah. So that's, it's like, it's, you know, I'm, I have the poor version of Chachi. PT, so when I saw, like, 3.5 Yeah? So, like, sorry, you reached your max, and Geminis my backup. So, yeah,
Blythe Brumleve:
31:15
goodness gracious. I just going to use this opportunity to tell people to pay the $20 for chat. Do it, it is. It's cheaper than Canva, that's for sure.
Grace Sharkey:
31:25
You know, I will say I got into, like, a really interesting conversation. I won't say, with who we say. I want to expose people, but I did get into a very interesting conversation about AI and some of these tools. And, like, I think, listen to Blythe pay the$20 whatever. But I am very excited to see, because the fact that, right, I can, like, be like, okay, screw you. I'll just head to Gemini as more of these tools come out. I mean, this stuff's just going to get cheaper and cheaper, yep, and it's going to get cheap fast. And so we're going to, we're going to investment point. Maybe think about that investors, for all of you invested in AI stuff, the fact that you're just fighting for the who's going to have the lowest price over time. But on the opposite side of it, for all of us purchasing it over time, this stuff is going to become just even more, even better of an ROI, I think, than than we see right now. So I
Blythe Brumleve:
32:14
I'm working on a new product right now that I'm going to be publicly launching in the early part of 2025, and the amount of time that using chat, GPT, the version like for.io which is like the latest version that they have for the paid plans, it is lightning fast. The responses that I'm getting are so incredibly helpful. I had plans to hire sort of a VA like virtual assistant for myself in 2025 or maybe even just like an additional marketing or sales person to to help out with the the variety of tasks that I feel like I'm starting to get to a point where I just don't have time in my day to do them, or some of them a desire in my day to do them. But chat GPT has helped tremendously with a lot of just really that second pair of eyes, that second, you know, piece of information that I'm looking to bounce ideas off of, you know, at 11pm at night, when noone else is really up, and I'm thinking about different ideas. And I
Grace Sharkey:
33:17
just, yeah, yeah, true. I'll probably just go to chat to Bucha too when you ask me about it. So
Blythe Brumleve:
33:22
but I will bring up one stat, especially because, as we're talking about AI, that going back to the study, which, again, thank you to transportation, marketing and sales Association, TMSA, you can go over to TMSA today.org. Sign up, become a member, and you can get access to this same report as well. But when we're talking about AI, there's no really rules around AI usage, which is a security concern and a privacy concern for a lot speaking of data governance, because 44% of companies that are already using AI do not have formalized rules in place to govern its use. This lack of regulation exposes these businesses to significant risks, including potential legal disputes, data breaches and ethical challenges. Formal AI governance frameworks can help protect an organization while maximizing the benefits that AI can offer. So that is crazy. 44% have no rules around it whatsoever. So
Grace Sharkey:
34:20
I think I told you about this too at the TIA tech conference, whatever imma throw names out there. Sorry to expose you. Said it on stage, whatever happy robot got asked that right? Happy robot from an out there is a really cool system. It's done a really great job of like replicating a a brokerage phone call, back down to like the verbiage it uses the background noise. How it I was gonna say manipulates, but it's kind of getting to my thought, how it like barters between the carrier and the. Company on load rates, etcetera. It's really intelligent. But even one of the questions I was asked at the conference for the Shark Tank thing was, well, at some point when you have to tell people that this is a robot, and even they said, probably within the next year. So like, is that? Tag? What's that going to look like? And, I mean, I even had questions like, Is it always going to be a man that answers the phone? Is there? There's at some point where it's like, let me go ask my boss if that rate will work. Like, that's a lie. You're not asking your boss, you know, like, and to your point, like, I kind of want to know that, like I that makes me feel like kind of ick knowing like you're making up a negotiation that isn't real, you know, in an industry that thrives off of negotiation, and so I think there will be a lot of the ethics side of especially the communication tools and back and forth. And, I mean, even Amazon, like, I'm trying to think, if they tell you it's a robot, it's some I want to say that they do, but we should have Mike on the show and ask him, actually, about that stuff. Now I think about it, yes, like, what they're doing at COVID
Blythe Brumleve:
36:15
and Mike, over at COVID, former Yes, of the show as well. I think we actually just is speaking as weird. You said that because I we have been going back through some of our content that we recorded in the last or in 2024 and just starting to add it to if it's especially if it's evergreen, add it to, like a republishing schedule, just to remind folks, you know, a lot of the people that have been on the show, but we literally sent out a tweet today about COVID. So I'd be curious to know if they're still focused on the logistics industry, because I know that they had a couple different industry focuses. They're
Grace Sharkey:
36:45
more focused on the retail and E commerce experience, right? So like, where's my product at? When can the more of that situation, but still like it what? What's the value of that product? And how do you develop that product. If there is a law that comes up and says, hey, you need to tell people, like, this is a robot. Like, I think, I definitely think that will happen, especially how quickly the happy road. I think it was. Juan was like, yeah. Like, that's going to happen, for sure. So
Blythe Brumleve:
37:17
sorry, did you get it? Fruit fly, he's been bugging me. If you've been watching the video version of this show, he's been buzzing in front of my face the entire time, but he's buzzing no more because now he's it's better
Grace Sharkey:
37:28
than a cat sitting outside your door right now, just whining. So if you've noticed me muting my voice or what's my house, because this thing will stop yelling. But Okay,
Blythe Brumleve:
37:38
let's move on to a couple more of these stats as we are running up against the clock here, and we got a couple more topics to get to. So on one of these, there was another stat I wanted to bring up. And I thought budgets are on the rise, but outsourcing is increasing versus hiring in house. So that was another one from you know
Grace Sharkey:
38:00
what? And I will say, I understand the bias of of us too right now telling you to outsource, outsource things away. Yes, I understand that, but I totally think that, and especially in this industry, if we're talking marketing in particular, too, like outsource it, like you're I love the marketing people out there and and maybe you have someone in house that's like helping a little bit with it, but like, in terms of how you're selling the brand awareness you guys are all obsessed with, apparently, the customer service you're not obsessed with, like people like Blythe would be telling you to become more obsessed with that because of their experience. So that's
Blythe Brumleve:
38:45
where the money comes from. Think, yes, outsource
Grace Sharkey:
38:48
it. At least partner with someone. There will be some value of it, especially even if it's done, guiding your own team in, somewhat like get the expertise. But
Blythe Brumleve:
38:57
also marketing is is so susceptible to this as well. You have to document your processes. And I know that that's difficult for creative folks to do, but document your processes so you know what you want to focus on, what you want to do, and then you can do the monotonous stuff, and you can outsource that, because according to the study, it says one of the key reasons for this balance between in house and outsource marketing is the staffing structure within many organizations, with 51% of the companies reporting that they only have one full time response employee responsible for multiple marketing functions, the demand for external support is becoming increasingly apparent, outsourcing offers a way to bridge that gap and enabling organizations to handle essential tasks like content creation, SEO, digital advertising, things like that. However, the continued reliance on in house team highlights the importance of internal expertise and the trust of organizations that people place. Or that the businesses place in their own people to steer that brand strategy, customer engagement and overall marketing direction. So it sounds like you have for a majority of, well, 51% of companies that have one full time employee that's managing multiple marketing activities, which for a lot of these executives that may or may not be listening to the show, like graphic designer is one job. An illustrator is another job. Those two jobs are not the same. A photographer is not the same as a video photographer. A copywriter is not the same as a digital ads expert. Just because someone knows how to set up digital ads doesn't mean they know how to run those ads efficiently Creating content is just a whole other beast. Are you doing video? Are you doing case studies? Are you just doing texts? Are you doing blogs? Why the hell are you doing blogs? Are you focused on SEO? All of these are individual roles that a lot of organizations have placed on the shoulders, and it's happened to me that you place it on the back of one person, usually somebody that's an administrative receptionist or an executive assistant role that they have to do all of those other functionalities, and in addition to run entire marketing department that should have positions for each one of those skill sets that I just laid out for you. So this is where AI is really going to come into play to help a lot of these folks, and then if you document your processes, this is where outsourcing can also help as well. I also think that there's a lot of unrealistic expectations that are put on these folks to be everywhere and all of the things all at once, to be on seven different social media channels and manage them all effectively, and build a website and do all of these, stop putting so much pressure on your one employee, which does look like they're getting more budget, but I hope that they're not pulling their hair out in the process, because anytime you get more budget, then you're probably expected to do more with with less people. And when you get to a certain level, especially, you know, it's not abnormal for $100 million company to have one person that does marketing like it is not abnormal. And if you have $100 million in revenue, I just think about your poor marketing persons, you know, just job responsibilities. And the next time you ask them, that's probably why they're obsessed with brand awareness and less obsessed with customer they have no damn time.
Grace Sharkey:
42:25
That's so true. They there's
Blythe Brumleve:
42:28
no time to do the customer interviews when you're asking them to be the SEO and the content specialists and the social media specialists and all of these other SEOs. Oh, and let's start a podcast too while we're at it. Yeah.
Grace Sharkey:
42:40
Oh, yeah, that's like, because you know how this, you know what? I think we should start a podcast. What are your thoughts on that after, after just cutting your budget on, like, a white paper. Oh,
Blythe Brumleve:
42:52
but none of the executives want to be on the podcast, by the way, yeah, so, oh, good luck.
Grace Sharkey:
42:56
Oh, just the one executive who's like, blatantly, like big hit and like likes to walk around and and make sure, like, the women feel comfortable, like, that's
Blythe Brumleve:
43:08
which you might have more things to worry about if that's if
Grace Sharkey:
43:10
it's always like, the one person in your organization you're like, don't want to have a stage. Who wants a stage, you know, I love it.
Blythe Brumleve:
43:18
We feel for you. We feel for you, solo marketers in logistics. Now, there are a few more stats here that I thought were interesting. Which a couple of these? I think we could really go down a rabbit hole on which one of them is LinkedIn drops from 100% participation in 2022 to 77% it was still far and away. The number one used social media platform, oh, page 29 so on page 29 of the study, so LinkedIn usage drops. All of the social media channels also dropped adoption, with the exception of Tiktok, which grew a little over the same time period from 2022 it was 23% adoption rate to present day, it's 28% so Tiktok is a lot more difficult to create content for which, I think is why you're seeing us just kind of a small rise in adoption for that platform. But every when every other platform is is seen dropping another stat first, I guess, any, any, any thoughts on the social media usage, which I've, I'm starting to hear more complaints about LinkedIn. Like, it's just annoying, which, I guess it's always has been a little annoying. But it does feel like we, we've passed the peak of LinkedIn.
Grace Sharkey:
44:36
I have noticed, like, LinkedIn is also, like, changing some of their algorithm stuff like, I've, like, recently noticed I've been getting, like, more backdated things in my timeline. It used to be like Saturdays and Sundays. It'd be like anything random from the past, like 10 days. But now I've noticed that even more so. So it kind of reminds me, remember, on Instagram went from like, we're showing you everything you're chronological or. To like, trust us. Yeah, trust us. We know what you want to see. And I feels a little like that. So maybe that's the drop off. I can't tell it. I mean, I I think Instagram, here we go. I think Instagram is underused, um, it should be.
Blythe Brumleve:
45:27
It's so cringe.
Grace Sharkey:
45:29
It's not cringing, you know, it it's the
Blythe Brumleve:
45:32
things that make it to Instagram weeks and months later after
Grace Sharkey:
45:36
Tiktok, it wouldn't be a problem anymore. Oh,
Blythe Brumleve:
45:40
but Tiktok actually makes me happy, like, I just it's because I laugh or I cry, like, happy stories, and then eventually, a month later, like, I start getting DMS from people who are like, you would like this, because it finally made its way over to Instagram, and they said it to me, and I'm like, thanks. I saw this even,
Grace Sharkey:
45:57
like, I think because we brought up the Tiktok part. I think the problem is, like, Tiktok is like, truly video, right? The least that these are we allowed to swear, the least that these motherfuckers can do is take a picture, you know, and make a caption and get it up. So that's what. That's where my thing is, like, if you are, like, posting images on LinkedIn and Twitter. Like, at least, get an Instagram account and start doing that too. Like,
Blythe Brumleve:
46:27
unless Instagram just chooses to change their algorithm for the seventh time this month, they also just said that they the Instagram. Adam Morris, I think, is the Instagram lead, or Instagram head of Instagram, he just said that they're going, if for videos that don't get good interactions, they're going to give them lower quality. So your your Instagram videos is they don't get a lot of love, then they're just going to drop the quality rate from maybe like 720 to like 380 pixels. And so, yeah, they're just going to be, they're
Grace Sharkey:
47:00
just gonna be like blurry,
Blythe Brumleve:
47:03
and they said it's just they're so I feel like I gotta do a tap dance every time I get on Instagram, and it's just become a platform. One of the bigger reasons I love Tiktok is because I don't follow any of my friends or family like I it's just the content that I selfishly want to see on Facebook, on Instagram, it just feels like it's my entire family and friends on there, and I have to like mentally prepare myself to go on there to just what are they doing today that I don't care about like,
Grace Sharkey:
47:36
for sure, I guess I'm looking at it from a perspective of like, because you're right. I think Tiktok and just the video aspect might be underwhelming. Um, but it is also like crazy to see how high Tiktok is and how low YouTube is. Like, just, yeah, both of those posts should go on. Both of those like, YouTube
Blythe Brumleve:
47:58
was way down on the list for folks who, who may not know, and they didn't actually capture this information in 2022 so we don't have really have a barometer of, like, Are people using it more or less, but if you're
Grace Sharkey:
48:12
trying stuff, so yeah, yeah, they
Blythe Brumleve:
48:15
and they should, because YouTube just announced that, because used to be that shorts had to be 59 seconds or less in order to be categorized as a short and show up in the shorts feed and YouTube now it's three minutes or less. And so I think that that's a really great switch, personally for me, because a lot of our clips are very good when they're like a minute and a half, but they're not so good if they're less than a minute. So selfishly, I'm happy about this. But for folks who are looking for an if you're starting a marketing role at a three PL or a carrier and you are just focused on like Google SEO tactics from like 10 years ago, you are going to fail if you took that same strategy and applied it to YouTube, you will succeed like it is, I guess I should obviously caveats depending on the type of content you're making. Does it suck? Like is it actually helpful for you? There's a lot of caveats there, but largely that statement is true that YouTube is the second largest search and on the planet, they're showing it with higher priority as far as search results are concerned. So if you are trying to initiate a content marketing plan, look at YouTube like the YouTube search algorithm is very good. Unless you're Joe Rogan and Trump, then that's not going to show up. But anything else which had to make I mean, we are recording this a few days before, you know, no,
Grace Sharkey:
49:42
I think, I think YouTube is like one of the biggest platforms out there. I mean, how many of i in terms of just fighting cable in general, our generation is like YouTube forward. YouTube TV is
Blythe Brumleve:
49:57
such a good experience like I am a. I'm a YouTube household. Like, I watch regular YouTube, I pay for, like, the premium version a month or something. I do not have cable, but I do have YouTube TV,
Grace Sharkey:
50:10
having cable. Or, yeah, I do sure have cable. It's partly because there was an internet speed I needed for Sirius XM, so it kind of came with a package, but, yeah, I just love my cable. You know,
Blythe Brumleve:
50:26
one of the bigger things I've talked about is that cable has missed the mark in their own marketing of just the ease of turning on the TV and having a bunch of things to instantly flip to. With streaming, you have to be so dedicated to what you're watching. There's no flipping, there's no, you know, just sort of browsing. So I think cable has really missed that opportunity of a lifetime to just market the simplicity of cable versus having six different streaming platforms. Though, I do think that YouTube, while we're on this discussion, is in the best position to succeed versus like a Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu, because they don't have to pay for their creators. YouTube doesn't, yeah, Netflix and Hulu and Disney, plus, they all have to pay massive fees for content that is uploaded to their platforms. Now there's a certain danger with that, because you can't necessarily control all the all of the content that's being uploaded, but I think that that's where easily, like YouTube is, is winning. So the last one here, as we round out that this TMSA benchmarking study, which I think both of us will will find this interesting, but the drop in trade show events, as far as a budget is concerned 2022 19% were budgeting for trade show and events. That is down to 7% in 2024 and I think it kind of goes back. I don't know if we discussed this theory like on air, but the we had talked about, maybe people are burnt out from too many events after COVID, and that's what we're seeing in this massive drop off from 19% to 7%
Grace Sharkey:
52:06
Well, there is so I love the survey this, this, I want to, I want to make sure I'm reading this chart right, because it kind of it tried to say that trade shows or showing a 46% still showcasing 46% of respondents said that trade shows did provide a significant ROI. But the chart is the question in the chart is, which of the following areas, does your marketing organization track results or
Blythe Brumleve:
52:40
ROI? Yes, and that is key. Do
Grace Sharkey:
52:44
you see what I'm saying? It's like, I have a different question. So I don't know if that 46% of ROI is accurate, but it is interesting to see that it is something that's being watched closely, and then the statement you just made as well, that we're seeing less of it. So for trade show providers out there, those of us short events, clearly even going back to the brand awareness, like being really, really focused on what people are going to get out of it, and maybe even as a selling point, like providing a true ROI for in some way, for people ahead of time on like what they could do and what that can mean for the business, might help, because they are watching their budgets in that area, which I think that chart is trying to say. But clearly, if the results are people are spending less, they might not feel like they're getting the true value out of it
Blythe Brumleve:
53:40
then, and this might be slightly related to this part about the trade shows, because in another part of this benchmarking study, they say sales travel and entertainment budgets are also shown to be cut from 15 to 8% although overall sales budgets increased during the same time period, just less is being allocated to travel and entertainment. And so I think that that's interesting from a sales versus marketing perspective, because for a lot of marketers, and you can kind of see in this next page that, you know, I don't necessarily want to go through all of it, that's the incentive of going and becoming a TSA member. So you can see the rest of this, the rest of these data points, but marketers tend to only track, from a marketing perspective, the things that they do or the things that they're going to do on if they can track it. So trade shows are very easily tracked, like you can count the number of people that come up to your booth, the number of sales demos you go on, or that you are participating in at the booth. How many dinners did you have with potential customers? Like those are easily like you can write those down and give that as a report to an executive. You can kind of see on the next page. Search Ads stand out and digital. Marketing metrics, search ads for folks who don't know are the least likely to indicate overall performance of the company, and the reason why is we've talked about this enough on everything is logistics and various different episodes, but the way that marketing is measured as successful is how many people come to the website, convert and then turn into a lead, or see an advertisement on social media, and then they go, what do they do? They they don't want to click on the ad because they privacy, you know, things like that. They don't want to click on the ad. So what do they do? They open up Google, they do a search for your company, then they go to your website, then they make a conversion, they fill out a lead form, they sign up for a demo, and then what does Google Analytics tell you? Oh, hey, they found you through search. And so what do you what is it? Quote, unquote, responsible marketer, you see these data points and you're like, I'm going to go spend way more money on search, not knowing that the people were just why they searched. The beginning, they're just Googling your company and then coming back to the site and making a conversion that way. That does not mean that the search ad or Google search was the reason you got that customer. And so for a lot of marketers out there, like I It says it in this study that search ads stand out at digital marketing metrics, and that is just a philosophical issue that I have for marketing departments, how they measure ROI, how they're reporting this to their executive team, and I would implore everyone to look into this, that what would happen if you just shut off The search ads. Everybody's looking to save a little money, everybody's looking to save some time, save some budget, shut off your search ads and see if your conversion metrics change. And I would promise you that if you're doing the right things in all of your content marketing and you just shut off the search ads, then you're still going to see the same amount of people, the same amount of folks that are coming to your site and making a conversion, because what are they doing? They're googling your company. They're not clicking on your social media ad on LinkedIn that you're probably playing paying a premium for to begin with. And then you're going to also do Google search ads that just make your brand names show up at the top when, if you have decent organic SEO, which you do one time. You don't have to do this long sort of$5,000 a month on SEO. You do it well one time, you optimize your static pages on your site. And then from that lens, you can cut off the search ads, and you can have a real indication of how people are finding you online, how they're hearing about you, and then that helps to formulate the rest of your marketing budget on where you should be spending more time if I doubt this is happening, but like x, if you're get if your CEO is on x and he is, you know, talking a lot about your company and promoting it and things like that, wouldn't you want to know that in a marketing report? Yes, of course you would want to know, because then you would continue
Unknown:
58:02
could tell your executive, hey, go do more storytelling on
Blythe Brumleve:
58:06
that platform, because we are getting a ton of leads from that initiative. So it just helps overall. I know, search ads are so easy to track and it's so easy to justify. Oh, look, we just did a brand new website rebuild, and it's sending us, you know, 20 leads a month, when, in reality, it's, you know, maybe two or three folks that are on LinkedIn consistently talking about your company, and someone your potential customers, just go and google your company, and instead that's showing up as a credit to Google search. So that's my rant. Sorry, it was a little long winded. No,
Grace Sharkey:
58:37
it's fair. I mean, I can't, like even my favorite restaurants. Like, clearly, I know, like, it's probably blah, blah, blah.com but I still google it, like, every time to go order, because I'm it's just like, second nature at this point. So you like, clearly, freightwaves.com is@freightwaves.com but even myself, I'll google grace, Sharkey freight waves to find my article. Yes,
Blythe Brumleve:
59:01
exactly. So it's just, it's just helping to try to make my goal and my endless mission in life is just to help marketers understand this data better. And when you play, when I see search ads as being like the top ROI, it just drives me crazy, because I know we have so much work left to still do if you're looking for any kind of I guess, podcast on more information on how to track like real ROI, and what what you your expectations should even be around ROI, I would look up the revenue vitals podcast. It's by the marketing agency. The founder is called Chris Walker. I've been listening to him since 2020 and it has completely changed my marketing initiatives, my marketing life, like how I think about ROI and what is reasonable and what isn't and what you can track and what you really can't track, and just trying to get those valuable. What he calls signals of where your marketing is working the best. And you're not going to get that from like a LinkedIn ads report or a Google search ads report. Their goal is to get you to spend more money with them, so they are going to over inflate their importance to your marketing budget. So I just want, just want everybody to be smarter about these kind of things, like, just, alright that. I think that's about it for this one for the TMSA benchmarking study. So let's go ahead and I guess cap off any, any, any last, I guess, final takeaways from from that discussion.
Grace Sharkey:
1:00:41
I um, no, I think actually look at my list, we hit everything. So, yeah, that's, that's a good round up, yeah, well,
Blythe Brumleve:
1:00:48
I will say one thing that I did want to as much as you know, when we're talking about ROI, 10% of folks do not attribute ROI or think that direct mail doesn't have a great ROI benefits. Lot of folks, you're sleeping on direct mail. How exciting is it to get something in the mail that is not sort of spammy or spam related? Someone sends you a gift package? Someone, oh, yes,
Grace Sharkey:
1:01:15
okay, yes, yes, okay, I see. I'm like, Are you want to send me a postcard about your freight tech, because I do not want that postcard,
Blythe Brumleve:
1:01:23
but you the My point is that you would read it. You would read it
Grace Sharkey:
1:01:28
like a LinkedIn company that recently just sent me a hat out of nowhere, and it made me look them up and see what they're about. I also wonder how to get my home address. Not going to ask that question. I'm afraid of the answer, but it did make me look them up. So don't do coffee if you're watching this. Don't send me stuff in the mail like that. So unless it's like, no, I'll take, I'll take. You know, I've recently gotten rid of some yetis, so I'm room for more yetis. So God no.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:01:57
But if you're thinking about direct mail, I did pull up, I'm going to link to it in the show notes in case, in case you want to check out some more stats. But the direct mail industry is not dead. It's projected to reach a market value of 73 billion by 2026 and it just, I mean, the response rates are insane. So direct mail has an average engagement rate of 95% direct mail response rates are five to nine times higher than any other advertising channel. Direct Mail also has a higher open rate of 80 to 90% compared to emails, which is around 20 to 30% so I think a lot of folks are sleeping on direct mail
Grace Sharkey:
1:02:35
because they're worried it's a bill. I own apology. I own apology to my father, those stats are incredible, and he is like on the mail every single I check my mail once a week, which for me currently on call for jury duty, got real close, but
Blythe Brumleve:
1:02:54
I want to make sure I'm writing a note right now to make sure I include that in the show notes. So y'all can I think it's a justice for direct mail, because I
Grace Sharkey:
1:03:02
That's hilarious. Just we need justice. Alright?
Blythe Brumleve:
1:03:12
Well, let's so we have about 15 minutes left. I'm going to, I'm going to call an audible here. Yeah, do we want to skip our favorite freight businesses? Or do you have something you want to you want to mention, how
Grace Sharkey:
1:03:24
will I'll do a favorite freight business, and then you do the source support, because
Blythe Brumleve:
1:03:28
it'll be perfect. Yeah, that works great.
Grace Sharkey:
1:03:30
So the only reason I want to bring this up is because I, I think it's just a really interesting technology in particular. It's not I will tie a business to it that I think I brought up before, but it's recently come out, I want to say, at the end of August, the and something it sounds like was a big deal and chatted about at the broker carrier summit as well, which shout out to that team over there didn't get a chance to go too. But hopefully in the future, with the FMCSA right is changing the way that they are going to be, of course, keeping track of of carriers, etcetera. So one of the big steps though, that I think is really interesting, just like, again, I always like to look at the technology we use in our everyday lives, the security of that, and why aren't we using it right in this industry? And that is facial recognition. So part of what the FMC is CSA is going to be adding to verification is over time, facial recognition software as well. So being able to tie drivers to the companies that they're actually working for and owners right to the companies that they're starting as well, along with one of the big ones, is they're going to have on site locations that you have to go to, so like, you have to be the human that you're representing, like the human that runs the company, and the human right that's on the other side of facial recognition. And I think maybe our generation knows this a lot more. It's something I've been. Like pushing my mom to add on her phone because she doesn't get it. But there's a lot of we talk about fraud in this industry. Facial recognition does a lot to avoid some of the big problems that we have. It's one of the biggest reasons, or biggest proponents, behind moving to a more digital type of payment system across the globe, because you actually do have a much, much, much lower chance of having your identity stolen when your banking systems, etc, are backed up by a facial recognition software as well. Of course, the data breaches is another one that you're going to able to avoid a lot more. There's a lot of of course, work I think the FMCSA is have to do, and a lot of probably investment in technology. There is a company I think they're working with that's going to be contracting that piece of verification with them. But it made me think about a company I think I might have brought up last time, but just when we're talking about fraud, you know, there's a different, a ton of different fraud companies, fraud prevention companies out there. Highway is a great one. Carrie assures another one. We're starting to see companies like even clearly, probably working with highway. Triumph, of course, is, is, is watching that too, and the list goes on, but there is one in particular, verified carrier that does use facial recognition for and offers this to brokers and carriers alike to vet carriers, right? So being able to say, Listen these based off facial recognitions, based off the driver's licenses that we have on file, this driver does drive for this, this carrier, and I just think it's one of the easiest ways that we can prevent, clearly, fraud in this industry is, is something of that technology at that level. So that was, that's basically just my, my favorite business for today. I thought, I thought it was really cool to read about that.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:07:00
Which company is it?
Grace Sharkey:
1:07:02
Uh, so the company that they're working with actually, let me see, because I think it's, oh, you're
Blythe Brumleve:
1:07:07
speaking of, is more like an initiative, rather than like a specific company that's doing it. Uh, so
Grace Sharkey:
1:07:13
the FMCSA, so verified carrier, is doing it already, but the FMCSA is going to be working with, let me see, I swear to God that I took a photo of it. But they're going to be working with a special company to to offer that, to provide that offering as well.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:07:36
I guess the obvious sort of elephant in the room is drivers are already inundated with all of the tech and all of the in cab cameras and tracking tools and big government, they're already all you know, furious about that. How does this? I would be interested to know how they plan to approach that. I guess stereotype or concern. 80,000% agree
Grace Sharkey:
1:08:01
with that, and I think that goes back to again, and I, I think, I think drivers are becoming more open to some of these standards, especially if it's going to help them provide like legitimacy, right in this industry. But how many of us use facial recognition is on our phone? Like, why is a technology okay for you personally to use, but bad for something that pays your bills? You know, every week like, I think over time, that that argument will start to die down, especially in a situation where it's like, companies are going to want to know who's behind that wheel and who's driving. Insurance companies are going to want to know who's behind that wheel and who's driving. That's the only way you're going to get your insurance rates down over time. It's the only way we can fight for insurance rates, I think, to go down over over time too. So for me, it's more of like, I wanted to bring this up in this podcast, because I want people listening, especially carriers out there listening, like, start looking at this technology now, as your friend and see down the line how far it gets your company overall, right? Because there are going to be people that fight against it, but those are going to be the people that also lose the lane from Walmart. You know, it's there's going to be repercussions at once the federal government, the agency that says you can even drive here in or set up a carrier authority in this industry starts using it too. It's, it's going to trickle into other pieces of this industry as well. So I've always been the type of person it kind of reminds me of, like, you know, Brittany over at a trailer transport, right? Like she's always been, instead of saying, like, no, let's avoid that. Instead the opposite, like, let's lead with innovation. Do that like and you know how talk about brand awareness, like building a carrier, your carrier entity, up, and saying, listen and we, we hire really great drivers, so much so that we use you. Even to provide legitimacy facial recognition so that you know that driver for sure is behind that wheel. Like that's a really great sell, compared to, you know, having to say, No, we don't want to do it just because of of of fear. That's, you know, in in my eyes, as you actually start to research facial recognition is it can be one of the best ways for you to provide that legitimacy to legitimacy and avoid your identity being stolen at the same time. So I just think again, a new wave of technology that carriers might have to get used to seeing, and why not own it now and and connect with the companies that are using it instead of avoiding it and waiting for the day that you have to to show your face, right?
Blythe Brumleve:
1:10:49
And sometimes, a lot, there are economic benefits as more money in your pocket, if you would. Yes, that's,
Grace Sharkey:
1:10:57
that's kind of my point. It's like, you know, when a market drivers are like, things aren't going great, like, I would hate for you to lose a big lane that's run your business just because you were on top of this, like, technology that's gonna, that's coming down the, you know, eventually, by regulators so
Blythe Brumleve:
1:11:14
and if Walmart's gonna do it, that means Target's gonna do it. That means Amazon's likely gonna do it, Costco, you know, all of these major retailers. It's just a trickle effect. And if you want to choose sort of a line in the sand as far as privacy is concerned, or just, I guess, your personal ethics or your personal morals, of what you're willing to accept or what you're willing to give up, then that's that. That's your own choice. I commend anybody who is going to stand up for you know, a certain thing that they feel passionate about, especially if they stand to lose money from it, but there is that other side of the coin where there's some coin to be made from adopting some of this new technology. And
Grace Sharkey:
1:11:53
I do to to kind of take your argument. I do see it because, for example, right? You see it in the airports now, right? They do use facial recognition. Now, when you are going through TSA, you can tell them, No, they can't use that software, and they have to let they still have to let you through. They'll probably pat you down a little bit more. But the other side of that coin is like, well, it's there to stop terrorists. It's there to to find bad people. So, you know, it's, it can just goes into like the good old like, kind of group thought of it as like, as long as enough people do put into the system, it should help save, save lives or save businesses in this example. But I wouldn't be surprised to if there is an additional step, if that's something that you're not used to doing, but I do think it will help protect your businesses as well.
Blythe Brumleve:
1:12:48
Yeah, I mean, and that's it's for a lot of businesses, it's about survival right now, at least until the market picks up, especially after the election, we'll have a more clear item, you know, idea of what the economy is going to look like for the next handful of years. And so if you can get while the getting is good, like you know, choose your choose your battles, I guess is probably the best way to put it. I hope you enjoyed this episode of everything is logistics, a podcast for the thinkers in freight, telling the stories behind how your favorite stuff and people get from point A to B. Subscribe to the show, sign up for our newsletter and follow our socials. Over at everything is logistics.com and in addition to the podcast, I also wanted to let you all know about another company I operate, and that's digital dispatch, where we help you build a better website. Now, a lot of the times we hand this task of building a new website or refreshing a current one off to a co worker's child, a neighbor down the street or stranger around the world, where you probably spend more time explaining the freight industry than it takes to actually build the dang website. Well, that doesn't happen at Digital dispatch. We've been building online since 2009 but we're also early adopters of AI automation and other website tactics that help your company to be a central place, to pull in all of your social media posts, recruit new employees and give potential customers a glimpse into how you operate your business. Our new website builds start as low as$1,500 along with ongoing website management, maintenance and updates starting at $90 a month, plus some bonus freight, marketing and sales content similar to what you hear on the podcast. You can watch a quick explainer video over on digital dispatch.io, just check out the pricing page once you arrive, and you can see how we can build your digital ecosystem on a strong foundation. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'll see you all real soon and go jags. You.
