Intro/Outro (00:02):

Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights, and real supply chain leadership from across the globe. One conversation at a time.

Scott Luton (00:14):

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton and Richard Donaldson back with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today’s livestream. Richard, how you doing today?

Richard Donaldson (00:25):

Scott, doing fantastic. It’s Monday, it’s summertime. The gear’s getting going, the barbecues are getting fired up and hey, what’s not to enjoy?

Scott Luton (00:33):

What is not to enjoy, especially if you’re a Nicks fan, right?

Richard Donaldson (00:36):

Right. Oh, goodness. I mean, I think New York, that was a celebration. Talk about that. Geez, what a great win for those guys. Long time coming, but I think New York did a good job of celebrating.

Scott Luton (00:47):

Congrats to all of our friends out there that are New York Knicks fans. What an incredible team displaying all sorts of resilience throughout the playoffs, so congrats and may the party continue. But folks, today, it’s the buzz where every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time, we discuss a variety of news and developments across global supply chain and business. News that matters is what we like to call it. And folks, the buzz is brought to you by our forensic APL Logistics all month long in June. APL Logistics is a global supply chain logistics provider specializing in order management solutions operating from 180 locations across 93 countries. Okay. So Richard, big show here today. Let’s see here. We’ve got a peace deal between the US and Iran. So what comes next? That’s one thing we’ll talk about. Hey, PepsiCo is investing more and more into autonomous trucks.

(01:36):

Stay tuned for that. Hey, what about the logistics behind the fabulous World Cup? We’ll talk about it and it comes a screwworm. So watch out beef supply chains everywhere. It’s quite a leap. From the World Cup to screw worm, Richard, I got to work on that better. But all that more and in about 15 minutes or so, we’re bringing in a special guest. Brody Cook with Fork Mule is going to be here. Met Brody in his award-winning business through our friends at Modex and MHI and you’re going to enjoy gaining his perspective. So Richard, that’s a lot. Are you ready to go here today?

Richard Donaldson (02:08):

Let’s do it.

Scott Luton (02:09):

Let’s do it. And hey folks, Tricia is going to be with us all day dropping links. So you go check it out. You want to click away. She shared a link there to APL Logistics and Tsquared is back. Squared, great to see my friend who holds down the force on YouTube. Bring own the nourishment and lemonade for it. Good stuff there, T-squared. All right. So where are we starting here? I think we got four things, Richard. We want to hit before Brody comes in. And up first is with that said, which we dropped over the weekend, of course, our almost weekly newsletter. Now we lit off with a timely practical message from Marty Parker focused on managing stress and burnout. Folks, you got to take care of yourself before you can effectively take care of your team, right? And leaders out there, hey, if you aren’t taking regular stock, finger on the pulse, on team stress levels, you’re slipping on your duties, right?

(02:57):

We got to do better. So I invite you to check out Marty’s perspective along with a bevy of tools and resources and some terrific live shows. Richard, did you know we have a live show every day this week if I’m not mistaken.

Richard Donaldson (03:12):

Oh my God, Scott.

Scott Luton (03:12):

It’s crazy, isn’t it, Richard?

Richard Donaldson (03:14):

Yeah. Take your own advice here, man.You can’t work that hard. You got to slow down a little bit.

Scott Luton (03:18):

It’s so true, man. So did you get a chance, Richard?

Richard Donaldson (03:22):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (03:22):

Did you get a chance to check out what that said this weekend?

Richard Donaldson (03:24):

Yeah, yeah. And I think I want to go back to just the health benefits. And I think that’s a big trend that’s going on right now. I don’t even want to say it’s a trend so much as it’s a reflection of where we are as a society. I mean, the world’s moving into pace, that’s just ridiculous. AI, everything in space, blah, blah, blah, blah. And taking stock of yourself, taking stock of your health, you’re going to get to beef later a little bit here. We’re going back and forth on health standards. But I think in a way over the last 20 years, I don’t know if we lost sight of it, but it’s coming back into focus now. And it’s not just an individual thing, it’s a team community thing. And I think you see that in, again, we’re going to talk about the World Cup later, just the athleticism that’s out there.

(04:02):

Your health is probably one of the most fundamental things that drives so much of everything else that goes on in this world, longevity, peace of mind, serenity, whatever we want to get into. And it’s not woo stuff anymore. This is stuff that we’re kind of coming back to the basics, which is if you’re not healthy, everything else kind of falls apart. And to put it into sort of a supply chain kind of United States perspective, one of the biggest problems we have here in the United States is we’re just not the healthiest country in the world, let’s be honest. So we’ve got to get back to that. And I think there’s some movement to that.

Scott Luton (04:29):

Richard, all well said. All well said. And folks, two things. Again, we got to take care of our team. Marty offers some perspective there as did Richard. And number two, I like this quote here from Dr. Jordan Peterson, which is a new resource to me at least. Take care of yourself like someone worth taking care of. Hey, charity starts at home, as they say. We got to make sure we’re healthy and rested so we can take care of all the others out there. All right. So folks, check out with that said, let us know what you think. And Tricia, you’re going to be busy today. She just dropped the link right there to your one click away from checking it out. Okay. Richard, from with that said, some of the easy and very intuitive stuff. Two, as outlets are reporting everywhere, the US and Iran have reached some sort of peace deal.

(05:15):

Some have even said it’s been digitally signed already, but it’s set to be traditionally or old fashioned signed on Friday, June 19th, I think in Geneva. So kind of condensing down what I’ve read through, I’ll give your take too, but the Strait of Hormuz is supposed to be getting demined. US blockade on Iran shipping and port activity is being lifted when they sign, I guess, on Friday. And I think the best news here, all military operations are being halted. However, the Wall Street Journal and others have reported that this peace deal now gives way to 60 days of more negotiations over really big items such as a nuclear program in Iran and we know there’s a lot of space between the sides there, right? What one party wants versus what the other. So for me, this is just my take. I welcome and into hostilities.

(05:58):

That’s great news. We know we got a lot more work to do and I’m really curious to see this next stage of negotiations. And one last thing, when shipping starts to normalize and these numbers here get moved, this is as of June 3rd. And folks, the data speaks for itself there in terms of the massive drop off. That’s a couple weeks old, but it’s really tough. Richard’s getting timely, trusted information on actual vessels passing through the strait, but there’s not a whole bunch. And then one last thing, according to a couple reports, there’s now 354 ships or vessels waiting there in the Persian Gulf to make that passage. And folks, that’s going to take a lot of time. We got to get it safe to travel first and then we got to free up the mother of all bottlenecks. So Richard, your thoughts. It’s still some good news, your thoughts.

Richard Donaldson (06:45):

That’s kind of the, I don’t want to say myopic, but that’s a very specific view on the very specific things that are problematic right now. I take a step back and look at the global holistic view. Iran leadership, whether we like it or have to admit, since 1979 has been a problem and this conflict started on February 28th. So we’re about just a little over a hundred days into this. And in that conflict timeframe, we’ve lost 13 service members, US service members, which is tragic as always, but minuscule by comparison to any other conflict out there. Also simultaneously, we’ve taken out close to 60, 65 of probably the most ruthless, terrorist-minded leaders the world has ever known. And so this isn’t a negotiation and I think that’s the thing we have to take in mind here. We’re not negotiating with Iran of six months ago.

(07:30):

We’re negotiating with an Iran that’s still evolving. And when I mean that evolving, you got to take a look at the Middle East, you got to take a look at the opportunities that have been created here, which is Iran is no longer led by the same people anymore. And even that’s fractured to the point that sometimes we’re not exactly sure who’s there. But what we do know is that about 90, 95% of the population of Iran is fully supportive of getting rid of something they haven’t wanted since 1979. So I think when you start to take a step back and look at this holistically, we’re in a position right now where the Middle East is fairly united to contain and change Iran. Iran itself has forever been changed based on the current actions. And no matter what happens in these negotiations, we’re at a juncture right now where things looking forward are never going to be the same again.

(08:12):

We’re not stuck in the same endless cycle of negotiating with someone who’s going to promote terrorism and promote all the other things that are out there. And I think from that standpoint, this has been a massive success and I think that’s missing in most of the coverage and I think it’s missing in most of the perspective.

Scott Luton (08:24):

Okay. So we differ a little bit on how we view this and we could have a full conversation. And one person’s myopia is another person’s pragmaticism, but I said all those words right. But you know what, Richard, one thing, I’ll just mention two things. Number one’s undeniable. The Iranian people, you got to separate Iranian people from the government that has quite a history of terrorism, supporting terrorism. That’s number one. And number two, I believe that to your comments about kind of being in a different spot versus where we’re six months ago. Agree with you on one hand, but on the other hand, I think Iran has got a new taste of its leverage that it is targeted using for decades and it was extremely effective. And I’m really curious to see once we hopefully get past this with the next round of negotiations and we put it to bed, how that factors into strategy and diplomacy and trade and security in the region for years to come.

(09:19):

So we’ll see though, right? We’ll see. I wish my crystal ball was working better. Your last word, your last word-

Richard Donaldson (09:23):

Oh no, no. I was going to say is you’re absolutely right. There’s no right or wrong answer here, Scott. That’s kind of the whole thing. And everyone’s got a perspective on it and I think you’re absolutely correct. The only thing I’d end on is the undeniable fact is within Iran itself, and this is the problem is we’re not exactly sure who the government is. And I think that’s something that we have to take stock in, which is as of right now, the IRGC, the military faction is the one who’s really trying to continue to exert control. They’re fading very quickly. And if that fades, then who are we negotiating with a whole different view of what Iran could look like?

Scott Luton (09:55):

Yeah, we shall see. But you know what? We can all celebrate that hostilities have been terminated for now and that’s a great thing. And let’s see what other traction we can make. All right, good stuff, Richard. And going back to the undeniable inarguable theme earlier, Tsquared says, “Hey, treat yourself like someone you love.” That’s right. That is right. All right, two more things before we bring on the one and only Brody Cook. The next thing I want to share, there was a little bit of big news. There’s lots of big news last week. Gosh, we’ve been tracking this almost every time you join, Richard, because you are an aviation professional and a pilot and of course we’re both space nerds. SpaceX had a historic IPO last week. I think this is a shot of Elon Musk as a kid. I don’t know. But Richard, your thoughts on how it all went

Richard Donaldson (10:42):

Down? Well, I’ll be honest, I got in as early as I could on the IPO myself. I think this is one of the biggest investment opportunities that you’re going to see in your lifetime short of data centers, short of again, my example of the East India Dutch company, laying the groundwork for the infrastructure and the trade and the supply chain that’s going to go into space. And SpaceX is an infrastructure company. What Elon Musk has created here is something that literally provides internet services to the world, provides the infrastructure that’s going to lay the groundwork for supply chains extending into space and back and forth. And this IPO not only has been long overdue and welcome, it’s also created an enormous amount of wealth for an enormous amount of people. So on all fronts, it’s a super positive step forward. I think again, when you kind of look at it pragmatically, it’s nothing but awesomeness for not only Musk and his teams, but quite frankly for the evolution of humanity itself as we sort of extend our footprints into space.

Scott Luton (11:36):

Outstanding. I can’t wait to see where we go from here. This has finally happened. I think Richard was definitely one of the many just waiting and waiting and waiting. Not maybe more doing than waiting, but we’ll see where we go from here. And Jeremy says, Jeremy’s back with us, like when network solutions IPOed but much larger.

Richard Donaldson (11:54):

Much larger.

Scott Luton (11:55):

And he says, “Hey, tell a management consultant how a trillionaire can manage it. ” We’ll find out altogether. All right, one more thing. Tell much to get to here today. One more thing for bringing what I think is going to be an awesome guest. It is remarkable what our friends at EZPost have been up to and I think we’ve got a live show coming up soon with the one and only Lori Boyer. I think it’s one of our live shows this week. In the meantime, folks check this out. You know I love a good case study. This one features a re-commerce marketplace that ships over 25,000 packages a day. Wow. Working with EasyPost, they saved over $2 million and this might be even better. They had 273,000, that’s right, 273 followed by common three zeros, fewer late deliveries. And get this, it didn’t require new carriers or renegotiated contracts.

(12:45):

No new headcount was added to the organization. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Folks, get all the details in the link we dropped and reach out easy posts to see if that is something you can do too. Richard, oh my gosh, 273,000 fewer late deliveries, that’s probably far more worth than the $2 million that they saved, huh?

Richard Donaldson (13:02):

Well, that, and I want to lose sight of the fact too, it’s a re-commerce, right? It’s another thing that’s something you and I have talked a lot about, which is this sort of evolution of where supply chain and circularity is coming in. And we’re seeing a lot of these companies that are not piggybacking but accelerating the circular economy in a way. And I think this is another example of that. I mean, kudos to them for everything that they’re successful with, but underneath it all is the foundational element of really getting into the circularity concept.

Scott Luton (13:26):

Yes. Yes. Well said. All right, folks, all of that brings us to a great guest joining us here on The Buzz powered by APL Logistics. Brody Cook has spent over 15 years in the material handling industry and his organization, Forkmule, won a competitive best startup solution at Modex 2026 right here in Atlanta. I brought 50,000 people out. We’re going to learn more about that here today. So I want to welcome in from the great state of South Carolina. Please join me in welcoming Brody Cook, president of Fort Mule. Hey, hey, Brody, how you doing today?

Brodie Cook (13:58):

Hey, good Scott. Thanks for warm introduction, Richard. Hey guys.

Scott Luton (14:01):

Great to see you. Great to see you. We enjoyed the green room. We were talking about all things World Cup and much, much more. But before we get more into that kind of stuff, Brody, I got to celebrate something. When we were talking a few weeks ago, I learned, Richard, that me and Brody Cook grew up almost in the same neck of the woods, right? Maybe a county or two over. And when I was talking to Brody, I used a bit of a local landmark to determine where he was. And that is the Big Peanut, which is located in Pillion, South Carolina. And Brody, as I told you, I drove past this on State Road 302 a thousand times when I was in school and when I was living in Columbia and I never stopped in to see what they had to sell beyond peanuts.

(14:46):

Was that a good move or a bad move, Brody?

Brodie Cook (14:48):

Probably one of the best decisions of your life not to stop in. That is a landmark propelling there. I don’t knowic for one to be proud of. Every small town has its festival, the peanut festival and I think that’s where it derived from. But yeah, great decision, Scott.

Scott Luton (15:06):

Hey, I appreciate that. And did you know Richard and Brody? While Georgia has cornered to market in terms of peanut production, I think it’s like somewhere between 50 and 60% of national peanut productions in Georgia. Hey, South Carolina still gives five to 7% on average of national peanut production. So there’s something to be said there. But hey, Brody, you grew up in North South Carolina, the city of North South Carolina and you live in the Pillion area now. What’s the coolest thing about living in that part of the country?

Brodie Cook (15:34):

For me, it’s just a small town. Everybody’s close-knit. North’s literally a town population of probably around 1,500 people now within the town limits and Pilon’s a little bit larger and it’s growing, but just community from church to small town ball fields.

Scott Luton (15:49):

I love it. And the hotdogs own those small town ball fields, which is always one of my favorite things. Richard. Now, Richard, I think you call what? Scottsdale or Arizona are, I guess Scottsdale home, Arizona, right, Richard?

Richard Donaldson (16:01):

Scottsdale’s the closest for everyone, but just to be specific, like Brody, I live in a little town called Carefree on the north edge of Scottsdale, which is also about 3,000 residents, something like that. So it’s a small little community that sits just on the north edge of Scottsdale.

Scott Luton (16:14):

Okay. And a bit hotter? Less humid.

Richard Donaldson (16:17):

No, actually, ironically, we’re a little cooler up here. We’re about 12,000 feet, 1500 feet above Scottsdale. So when it’s 120 in Scottsdale, it’s only 105 here. All

Scott Luton (16:27):

Right. I got to figure out that math. I’ll tell you. Well, Brody, great to have you. And Richard, I’m looking forward to diving in here with Brody. So let’s do this. We’re going to start with some news stories here on the buzz powered by our friends at APL Logistics. We’re going to walk through three stories or so. And then we’re going to pick Brody’s brain about a few things here, but I want to start with the news. So let’s see here. Let’s take a look at what is powering generation next forward. As reported by supply chain dive, the food and beverage giant PepsiCo is expanding its use of autonomous trucks. That’s where we’re getting generation next from. I remember the commercial big campaign back in the late ’90s. And then prior to that, I think it was PepsiCo or Pepsi was the next generation, as I recall.

(17:11):

I don’t know. It’s building, PepsiCo’s building on a partnership with Gattek, which began in 2022 and they currently have 41 autonomous trucks deployed across Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas, but that’s going to change. You’re going to grow that. PepsiCo said the following in a statement, “Autonomous trucking, particularly on short, repeatable routes has the potential to support more consistent operations and reduce variability, helping us deliver a more dependable service experience.” So obviously PepsiCo’s delivery is leveraging rather modern technology in a number of ways and one of my favorite live webinars last year, I think we might have a graphic here. We featured a warehouse leader from PepsiCo that talked about the cool things they were doing with Agenic and other technologies in their warehouses. So folks, we’re going to drop the link to that. You got to check it out. All right. Brody, back to autonomous trucking.

(18:01):

Your thoughts on the continued march forward in this technology that we’ve been tracking for, I don’t know, eight, 10 years?

Brodie Cook (18:08):

I don’t see that changing. I think it’s going to continue to grow. And I think we’re just now getting a point where this stuff is really working. People are seeing that it’s working. It’s kind of been a concept up until now and the streets and no different than me in my personal life. I took my first Uber ride and Uber the other week and we were just amazed at how well it worked.

Scott Luton (18:28):

Oh, I love it. I love it. It’s fascinating. I’ll tell you what. Okay. So Richard, as Brody said there, it’s going to keep marching forward, no doubt. Your thoughts, Richard?

Richard Donaldson (18:38):

Well, piggybacking on Brody here, I think there’s some other areas where autonomous kind of capabilities have already exhibited themselves, especially when you get into the heavy industrial Caterpillar side of the equation. Most mining operations now globally are run by autonomous Caterpillar capabilities and have been for quite some time and they’ve fully automated that arena. It’s reduced friction. It’s actually reduced a lot of, and I know Brody’s going to be near and dear to his heart. A lot of injuries and things like that with people associating with working with heavy machinery, and we’ll get to that with the Fork Mule. But furthermore, it’s just a step in the direction of kind of where we are as a world where technology’s allowing us to bring this autonomous kind of capability in. And I think it’s always an interesting conversation, but it’s an inevitable step forward, right? When you think about everything else that has been made more autonomous, logistics, shipping, delivery, packages, I mean, driving just like Brody’s talking about.

(19:29):

So it’s not something to be fearful of, it’s just something to embrace and it’s a natural extension of what is coming.

Scott Luton (19:36):

It’s so true. So a couple final thoughts and we’re going to talk logistics behind the World Cup. Trisha has dropped a link to the PepsiCo article where they’re investing more in autonomous trucking. She’s also dropped link to that PepsiCo warehousing excellent webinar we had here. And then the last thing, Brody mentioned Uber and Richard, I cannot remember the driverless competitor. Yes, Waymo. Okay, good. So we’re talking about Modex a second ago and Brody and Richard, there’s 50,000 people here in Atlanta for Modex. So it was at a Georgia Award Congress, everybody was taking Ubers and stuff. I had the opportunity when I was taking Uber back to the hotel to use Waymo instead. He gave me that option. However, having watched Waymo for years, especially in heavy traffic situations, be so careful and follow every rule. I knew it’d be a two hour commute to my hotel and I had to have a human driver willing to break some rules and I’m so glad because I heard reports back that some of those treks back, especially from that peak time of leaving the Georgia War Congress Center took the Waymo passengers quite some time.

(20:42):

Richard, have you ridden in a Waymo yet?

Richard Donaldson (20:44):

I have. And what’s interesting about that, Scott, is, and you and I have talked about this in previous episodes, but if you look at the models for autonomous vehicles on the road, and if all vehicles were made autonomous, the snap of a finger today, you would reduce overall traffic by something in the neighborhood of like 50, 60%. Traffic is you know it would disappear. And so it’s not Lamo necessarily, which is the irony of its capabilities that are limiting. It’s still the fact that you got human beings driving around causing the issues that they have to be careful of. So it’s a fallacy and deal to some extent because we got to give into the autonomy to get the benefits and until we do 100%, it’s always going to be a little bit staggered.

Scott Luton (21:24):

Even those crazy humans driving though. All right, so we’ll come back on that. And Brody, when you take your first Waymo, you got to report back, give us all the details. Let’s see. We’re going to go to another topic of the World Cup in just a second. I want to circle back to space. Jeremy, we’re talking about the SpaceX IPO a minute ago, Brody. Jeremy says, “Hey, I love space, geeky, delicious stuff, but humans in space strikes me as or fish on the beach.” And I think that’s like those are the fish that get stuck on the beach, Richard, I think, if I’m not mistaken. We shall see. All right, let’s talk about the World Cup. That’s what everybody’s talking about these days. So unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand somewhere, and of course I’m guilty of that occasionally, then you know that one of the biggest sporting events really of the decade started last week, the 2026 World Cup.

(22:15):

And our friend David Schillingford reported on some of the logistics behind this big event a few days ago. So consider this first. This is what the key ingredients they got to delight and satisfy. 1248 players representing teams, 48 teams from around the world, 104 matches, 16 cities, three countries, 39 days competing for almost $730 million in prize of money. Get this, David shared some of these other things. 19.68 million pounds of specialized turf has had to be grown at farms across the US. They’re going to use over 2000 soccer balls, footballs, I guess matchballs is what David called them and they’re made, get this, in Pakistan where 70% of the world’s soccer balls come from, I didn’t know that 20 million pounds of broadcasting equipment will be moved, goodness gracious, in 5,000 vehicles. And finally, I was talking about those ballpark hotdogs earlier, Brody in North South Carolina, 6,000 tons of concession food and 16.7 million drinks.

(23:22):

For the crowds I’ve seen, most of those were beers I think. All of that comes with the logistics of the World Cup. So I got two part question for Brody and for Richard. Brody first, your prediction on who’s going to win the World Cup and secondly, your comments on all those logistics.

Brodie Cook (23:37):

I’m going to go to go USA here, just my lack of better knowing, but we’re going to go Team USA. All right, fair enough. On the logistics of it all, just kind of my mind frustrated training day to day, I go directly to just all the extra days from getting temp workers to extra personnel facilities to make all this stuff happen and the added risk in doing so with people that may not do this job on a day-to-day basis. And I think a lot of that at trade shows, things getting set up where you’re bringing in a bunch of people, throwing temp workers on equipment that may not have the experience that they really need to make things like this happen. So from a safety aspect, it really comes into play.

Scott Luton (24:21):

Brody, that’s an excellent connection. In fact, that’s going to come up in the next story as well. Richard, same two part question. Who’s going to win, you think? And your thoughts on all that has to happen.

Richard Donaldson (24:31):

I got to follow up with Brody on that one. And of course, rooting for Team USA is probably one of the first times in our history here where we’ve got really a solid chance of at least making it pretty far into the brackets. You can’t deny the superpowers, right? So whether it’s Brazil or Germany or France or Italy, UK, I mean, you kind of got to bet on the European companies or that Brazil in particular, that’s usually the odds on favorite. As far as the logistics go, I mean, again, I think Brody kind of summed it up and Shillingford in particular. There’s nothing short of just extraordinary. We look at the volume of things that they have to manage, the volume of things that need to get done. But there’s another side story that I think is really interesting here too, which is that’s within the stadiums themselves.

(25:07):

Outside of that, you also have the ancillary benefits of all this tourism coming in, visiting parts of the United States that people haven’t seen before. And what I’ve actually been watching is the reactions of people visiting from other countries in the US and seeing how warmly invited and welcoming everyone has been. Brody comes from small town, you come from a small town. That alone has created a lot of goodwill towards the United States. There’s a guy from Germany I’ve been watching and he’s been trying all these foods from like Taco Bell to Waffle House and commenting how much he’s enjoying that. And that feedback I think is- That’s going to benefit the whole United States brand here kind of going forward and I think it’s a huge benefit.

Scott Luton (25:45):

I’m with you. It comes in the nick of time. We’ll take as much of that as we can get. And also the Waffle House folks, if you’re enjoying the Waffleous experience for the first time, you can’t go wrong with the patty melt plate on wheat, double hash browns, on the softer side and a few extra pickles. You place that order, you’re going to be happy. Go check out Trisha’s dropped the link to David’s Post, David Schillingford, right? About the World Cup logistics, but that’s just a tip at iceberg. We want to go follow and connect with David Schillingford. He usually puts out interesting analysis almost every weekday morning. So go check it out. All right, I’ll tell you what, beef industry just can’t seem to catch a break, Richard. So folks, as we’ve reported on here before, for a couple years now, it seems like, drought and plenty of other factors have hurt cattle numbers for months if not years here in North America.

(26:32):

And then long comes the new world screwworm. Now this pest was thought to have been, well, it was eradicated 60 years ago, right? It was pushed out of the country, but it’s back and it’s threatening, get this, some $700 million in annual losses, not total losses, annual losses. But great, here comes some $500 steaks. Ranchers though are using old and new tech in their efforts to battle the screwworm, drones to monitor herds, more insecticides, different types of insecticides, even changing the birthing cycles so that the highly susceptible calves are born in the colder months where there’s less flaes. But workforce challenges, there’s been a massive drop in available ranch hands in recent decades is one of the biggest headwinds for those fighting the pest, kind of going back to what Brady was talking about. The article in the Wall Street Journal here talks about how they’re signing up from fence builders to other non-cowboys or non-wretch hands to join in to fight against the screwworm.

(27:35):

One other issue though, get this. US, as I mentioned, eradicated the screwworm decades ago by leveraging sterile screwworms. That’s a tough word to say. But once they defeated the pest, as you might imagine, the sterile screwworm supply chain was largely shut down. I bet there’s not a whole bunch of demand for sterile screwworms out in the world, but now the US says it needs 500 million sterile screwworms a week and that’s five times the output of the single operating production facility that is in Panama right at this moment. Other sites are under construction, but it could be two years before the 500 million fly count, weekly fly count is met. So Brody, no shortage of immense challenges facing the beef supply chain. Your thoughts about this screw worm battle?

Brodie Cook (28:24):

Yeah, no, it’s beef supply chain. I’ve got some close friends that are in this industry and they have faced just one after another challenge over the past few years and it’s stuff where they’re at today and it certainly isn’t going to help anything. I think it’s really the labor shortage that is driving the difficulty in this. And I think if they can’t get all hands on deck and get this, we’re just going to see the cost of beef continue to climb.

Scott Luton (28:49):

Man, that’s a pretty well grounded prediction there. Richard, your thoughts about the screw warm battle?

Richard Donaldson (28:55):

Well, it’s yet another example of the expansion of humanity butting up against the nature itself. It kind of goes back to being healthy and everything else. We’ve eradicated certain things before, diseases, even when you think about going back to even COVID, we’re constantly kind of expanding human needs, human resources, human requirements, and nature itself has its own kind of guardrails that tries to put itself up. So here we are yet again facing something that we thought was eradicated to come back in different forms, but it forces us now to kind of think more longer term, forces us to get into patterns that allow us to insulate ourselves against things like this from happening again, but they’re still going to happen. So it’s tragic that it’s happening right now, to Bertie’s point, it’s over and over again. It’s a beef industry of all things just get hammered, public relations, prices, health, but it’s not that beef demand is going to go down anytime soon.

(29:48):

In fact, I would argue beef demand is going to go up given some of the healthy transferences that are happening right now. So they’ll figure it out, but it’s just like, ma, every time we think we got something figured out, Oh, it’s like nature throws us to remind us like, nope, you don’t.

Scott Luton (30:03):

That’s right. Nature’s like, look, I’ve told y’all before I’m in charge.

(30:08):

One last comment before we move on and we dive in deeper with Brody here. You may be asking yourself out there, “Well, folks, if it’s been eradicated, how can it come back?” Well, it was eradicated in the States. Their efforts pushed it to where it was a problem in other places or eliminated the problem it was in the states. So that bugs just like birds and many other things still migrate to where there’s opportunity and so it is back. Well, we’re going to keep our finger on the pulse of how the fight goes though. All right. Before we dive into the Brody Cook hour or half hour maybe, I want to share this message from our friends at APL Logistics. Folks, you know the biggest supply chain problem isn’t always visibility. It can be the gap between the plan and what the network can actually deliver.

(30:52):

Execution gap is a space between a supply chain plan and its actual financial outcome. It’s what happens when a carefully built strategy for inventory, transportation and distribution fails to produce the margin working capital or service level results it was designed to deliver. That’s where APL Logistics steps up. Company helps customers close the gap between what the plan says and how operations can actually deliver. Insight matters folks, but execution moves the business. Click on the link that Trisha’s sharing there to learn how APL Logistics can help you build a resilient supply chain that sticks to the plan. All right, I want to dive into a few topics here. Richard and I enjoyed our pre-show chat with Brody Cook, but Brody, I want to talk about where we first met and I think that was via Modex programming. I got a picture here where Fort Mule was being recognized.

(31:42):

Tell us about this.

Brodie Cook (31:43):

Yeah, so that would be a picture of me on stage after winning the startup solution of the year at ModX26. Did not need to win that, but it’s been great for me and the company. Fort Mule started as an idea and got us where we are today.

Scott Luton (31:59):

That is awesome. And we’re going to shed some light on what Fort Mule does in a minute. But Richard, you’ve been in the startup game. To beat out, I think there was 15 or 16 companies vying for that prize that Buddy’s were referring to. Come out on top. Man, that’s like a great day, great month, great year, huh?

Richard Donaldson (32:16):

I mean, Natalie’s a great achievement and Brody does resolve that success in Forkmule in particular. But I think the other thing that’s highlights here is in the startup game and the technology game, people try to want to always be AI focused. And what’s the cutting edge of technology? And oftentimes some of the simplest problems that we have to solve workplace injury, problems where we’ve got basic machinery, the things that Brody and Forkmule have solved, those can win out and supersede things in a way that I think people oftentimes, some of the biggest problems we have are staring us right in front of the face. Yet we try to focus on going to space or cracking the atom. And I think Brody’s credit, and this is a great segue for him to go into what Forkmule does, has solved something that’s when you hear it, you’re just like, “Oh my God, that’s such a big problem and no one has yet solved it.

(33:04):

” And I think that’s credit to staying focused on something very simple.

Scott Luton (33:07):

Well said, Richard. Well said. Let’s do this. I want to make a quick plug. I’m a big fan of our friends at MHI. They’re the organization behind Modex and Promat. And it used to be Modex was the little sister, so to speak, of ProMat and ProMat was a bigger show. But with 50,000 people coming to Modex, I imagine ProMat would still be a little bigger. It is something else, quite a one-two punch. Folks, make sure ProMat 2027 in Chicago is on your calendar April 19th through 21st, 2027, and you can learn more at promatshow.com. Richard, I’m going to do my best to kind of explain how this works. So you may see if you’re watching us versus listening to us, you may see the graphic we’ve got pulled up there. And so it is a premium hardware addition that you add to your forklift truck, right so that you can make the modifications when you’re moving the skids, I guess, right, Richard?

(34:02):

You’re moving the forks on the forklift. Sometimes you got to adjust them based on what you’re lifting pallets or other items. And oftentimes, I’ve driven a forklift, I bet Richard has too. Oftentimes when you move those things manually like the masses do, they’re very heavy and they’re unforgiving and they can crush fingers, they can really ruin your day. And then going back to taking care of the workforce, we want to take care of the workforce. So what Brody has come up with in the Fort Mule team is adding this device where you can swing an arm out and it makes it so much easier and we give you more leverage and get your fingers out of the way for you to move those skids or the forks in or out. And that’s of course what I think that might be, Brody, right there in the picture.

(34:47):

Adjusting that’s what it looks like. Richard, does this make sense to you?

Richard Donaldson (34:50):

Yeah. And I think Scott, that’s kind of the thing that I was trying to highlight there. This is when you see this and the first thing your reaction is like, how is this winning a technology startup of the year award? And I think that’s the point that you got to drive home here. There’s a lot of very simple things that are problematic in our world today that can be sold through relatively simple yet elegant solutions like this. And when you total up the amount of injuries that are associated with just forklift operations on the connects, forklifts are everywhere. I mean, they’re ubiquitous. They move things around, they move pallets around. We’ve got automation in our warehouses to remove this stuff. But if I’m not mistaken, if it’s not hundreds of millions, it’s billions. And this is healthcare. This is people injured. This is people going out of the workplace for a long time.

(35:31):

That’s losing your workforce. And this addresses that smack on. And it’s like, again, one of those things where it’s like this huge problem that’s staring in front of the face that no one really wanted to tackle because they’re all trying to solve crack and atom. And I think to Brody’s credit and Forkmull’s credit, they’ve hit this net and that’s why they should have won this competition.

Brodie Cook (35:48):

To piggyback on what Richard said, and kind of falling up from where I left off there, when you look at the world of forklifts, you still of the market out there that is positioning forks manually. The best way to do it is with a hydraulic position or you push a button and it moves a fork, but you’ve only got 20 to maybe slightly more than that percent of forklifts out there that have that feature. So this is aimed at a market that is widely used and it’s been a problem since the first forklift rolled out.

Scott Luton (36:18):

That’s perfect context. And I think one other element to your comments there, there’s probably a reason why only just over 20% of forklifts have that automated technology because it’s very pricey. And so implementing that at scale across massive fleets can cost an arm and a leg. This, to your point, offers lots of advantages for a fraction probably of the spend is my hunch. All right. Brody, all that right? I was going to ask you for a grade on how I positioned fork mule. D I get a passing grade, my friend?

Brodie Cook (36:51):

You get a pass. You get a pass. Yeah. All that seems spot on. It is a simple, cost-effective way to move a fork.

Scott Luton (36:56):

Awesome. Well, hey, folks, we’re going to make sure we drop the link to the website. They got some videos and more information about the fork mule journey. So Trisha, I’m sure we’ll drop that in a second. So let’s kind of broaden things out a bit. We’ve got a thousand more questions for you, Brody, and we hope to keep you as long as we can. You’ve spent over 15 years in the material handling industry. What are some of the trends that you’re … I mean, and you’re in and out of tons of facilities probably every day, every week. What are some of the trends that you’re tracking the most right now, Brody?

Brodie Cook (37:26):

From my side on the trainings perspective, everything we hear AI on everything and we hear the autonomous things, autonomous forklifts. We talked about autonomous trucks, autonomous forklifts and anything from security cameras that are able to at an AI scale track forklift incidents and near misses, things like that. Just the technology that’s emerging to keep operators safe from built-in camera systems that’ll slow down when a pedestrian walks out of in front of a forklift. So just that automated side of the industry, that is the trend and I see that continuing and getting stronger as we go.

Scott Luton (38:02):

All right. Richard, you heard it from someone that is on the front lines in warehouses and facilities, I think every day. Richard, your thoughts on what we’re seeing material handling wise.

Richard Donaldson (38:13):

Well, material handling wise, I think Brody’s the expert here and I think he’s kind of nailed it. Automation’s coming into everything. A slightly different question for Bodie is, here’s Forkmull, which I think is such a fascinating story. In his 20-odd years of materials handling, he identified a problem that’s quite frankly kind of old school. It’s people injuring themselves positioning forks. So even with automation, there’s still a solution that Forkmule could come up with, solve for that and is going to be a very successful company as a result. My question for Bodie is, what else do you see out there in that arena that is so manual, so overlooked, yet so problematic? I mean, this was obviously the biggest one for you to go tackle, but do you see any other big gaping holes out there that automation isn’t filling right away?

Brodie Cook (38:58):

Yeah, I see other things as well out there in regards to because moving forks on and off of the forklift when it comes to more of your dealer side of the network, it’s actually the labor on the forklifts. Taking a fork on and off of a forklift, it’s a very heavy item and I’m working on some solutions there on that end as well.

Scott Luton (39:16):

Well, we’re going to have you back with the next breakthrough too. And in the meantime, Trisha has dropped a link to Fork Mule. It’s simple, just like it sounds, forkmule.com. So check that out and she’s also dropped a link to ProMat so you can meet more Brody’s of the world in Chicago next year. All right, Richard and Brody, I want to tackle a few other topics. We recently had an episode on pallets, right? I think just in my opinion, Brody and Richard not wanting to offend anyone out there, but I think much like pallets are often overlooked. I think forklifts and how we operate them are very overlooked because they’re so commonplace and it’s just part of doing business in global business, global supply chain. But I want to ask you, and I think that’s why it presents such an opportunity. So when it comes to forklift operator training, Brody, and hey, I missed my day.

(40:04):

Richard, when is the last time for me it’s been 26 years, I think, since I last got on a forklift and had a blast working in a facility in Wichita, Kansas. When’s the last time you’re on a forklift, Richard?

Richard Donaldson (40:18):

Oh, good Lord. It’s more than that. It’s got to be in the 50 years, but like 35 at least, right? I think I screwed around with a couple back in the day when I was doing some early construction jobs when I was in high school and college and stuff like that. But the funny thing is they haven’t changed all that much in all that timeframe, kind of the point of the whole fork mule journey. They’re ubiquitous in a way.

Scott Luton (40:38):

So this notion of autonomous forklifts, you don’t see as nearly as much, there’s robotics obviously in warehouses and facilities everywhere, but you hear a lot more about autonomous trucking than you do autonomous forklifts for now. However, according to some, autonomous forklifts grew to a $5 billion industry in 2025. Wow, it’s bigger than I thought. Richard, does that surprise you, not surprise you? Just your general thoughts there.

Richard Donaldson (41:05):

Yeah. I mean, real quick, again, it’s one of those things that’s so obvious. It kind of stares you in front of the face. You forget you’re breathing oxygen, you forget that oxygen’s super important. It’s around you. It’s ubiquitous. Forklifts are the backbone of any … When we go back into supply chain, what’s being used in the Amazon warehouse, but a forklift that’s automated, that’s moving stuff around, moving pallets around, moving boxes around, moving shipments around. Human beings can only carry so much and forklifts have been kind of the backbone evolutionary of moving large quantities of objects. So I don’t think I’m surprised that it’s that big. I’m just surprised that people haven’t tackled this problem sooner.

Scott Luton (41:40):

I am too. I am too. And we’re going to keep our finger on the pulse of where that autonomous forklifts, autonomous trucking, robotics in general. It is a fascinating time here in the golden age of supply chain tech. Your quick comment that comes to autonomous forklifts, Broody, you see that taking off in the short term?

Brodie Cook (41:58):

As I’m in and out of the autonomous trucks on a small scale right now versus the bigger items, I think that’s going to continue to grow as warehouses developer and the way that they’re designed, you’re going to see more and more things going autonomous. That’s just going to be the trend.

Scott Luton (42:14):

Yep. I’m with you. But let me ask you this as we shift gears, we start to come down to home stretch here. I am intrigued by your entrepreneurial journey and congrats again on the success you’ve had with Fort Mule. I can’t wait to see what’s to come. Brody, when it comes to the founder journey and some of the top critical lessons you’ve learned since you … When did you start the company? How long ago, Brody?

Brodie Cook (42:37):

So 2023 is when I started my, let’s say Fort Lst safety training company, Resource Industrial. Fort Mule was founded in 2024, kind of a spinoff as I saw a need in the market for this product.

Scott Luton (42:49):

So over three years when you founded your first company, what’s been a top critical lesson or two that you learned from being an entrepreneur and what would be any advice you’d offer up to want to be founders out there, Brody?

Brodie Cook (43:04):

Yeah. So I’d say that the biggest advice that I could give and things that I’ve learned kind of wrapped up in one statement is just go for it. I wish I’d have done it earlier. I’ve heard that a lot, but don’t think about it. That’s not a one-time decision either. It’s the day-to-day decisions that you’ve got to make as a business owner, as an entrepreneur. You have to continually push and just say, “Yes, I’m going to do it. ” If you stall and don’t do anything, it’s never going to happen.

Scott Luton (43:29):

It’s good advice, Richard. I saw you nodding your head. Just do it like the old Nike campaign used to go. Richard, your thoughts.

Richard Donaldson (43:35):

Bro, literally so the thinking that I was coming from, my experience Silicon Valley and everything else. And I think this is a testament if you really listen to entrepreneurs, people who’ve started companies, it’s about execution. It’s about going for it. Literally, that’s it summed up, right? It’s the idea is you can ideate all day long and create the best business plan all day long, create the best PowerPoint all day long, but at some point you just got to go do it because you’re going to learn more from doing it and making mistakes that come from doing it than anybody else. And that’s what they used to call first mover advantage, right? But I think that point’s been lost a long time ago. Execution, getting out there, doing it, learning, adapting, evolving, that’s entrepreneurship summed up, right? A lot of the people who are successful just literally went out and just did it.

Scott Luton (44:17):

Well said to you both. I would only add that, and this comes from my own personal journey, it’s a timeless truth and that is about you control what you can control and one of the biggest things you can control is your mindset and how you react any news as you go through the journey. Now I’ll think back of the day before I became a first time entrepreneur that literally the day before was the toughest day of my life. And it would’ve been easy to go sulk in the corner and not do stuff and feel sorry for myself all that stuff. We channeled all that energy in founding my first startup the next day and really that bad day was a blessing in disguise while we’re here today. So folks, we can control that mindset. There’s a lot of bad news out there, but there’s always good news if you go looking for it.

(45:00):

And that would be my corollary advice to what you heard, the good stuff from Brody and Richard. We’re going to make sure folks can connect with Brody and Richard here in just a second as we start to wrap the buzz. Folks, go check out our resource hub. It is exploding with written content, blogs, white papers, resources, you name it, including as I mentioned, we met Brody via Modex and we probably conducted about two dozen interviews there this year, including this one with Josh Cloer with No Magic, who talked a lot about from automation to autonomy, what AI robotics are up to when it comes to reshaping and really transforming warehouses everywhere. So go check that out. All right. Brody Cook again, thank you for fighting the good fight. I really admire what you’re doing and all those workforces that are leaning into opportunities like Fort Mule, they’re taking care of their workforce and taking care of their workforces digits, so to speak, and that’s always a good thing.

(45:58):

How can folks track you down, Brody Cook?

Brodie Cook (46:01):

So you can find me on my Facebook page, which is simply ForkMule. You can email me at info@fortmule.com. Probably one of the most direct ways to get me there is that info@forkmuele.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Brody Cook or Fort Mule.

Scott Luton (46:16):

And I bet you welcome any conversation, whether they want to talk Fort Mule or if they want to get your thoughts on warehousing optimization and workforce safety, all that good stuff. Is that right, Brody?

Brodie Cook (46:29):

Yeah, absolutely.

Scott Luton (46:31):

Awesome. All right, folks, to help make that easy, Trisha just dropped Brody’s LinkedIn link, right? You’re on click away from following or connecting with Brody and we’re also dropping again the URL, simple, forkmule.com. All right, Richard Donaldson, when you’re not out there tracking all space stuff or flying the friendly skies, we got to get some video of you flying, Richard. We always teach it. We got to prove it to folks. So Richard, how can folks track you down, my friend?

Richard Donaldson (47:04):

LinkedIn’s easiest, always will be. I’ve got to mainstay there. So my LinkedIn page, Richard Donaldson, easy to find. And again, just like Bodie and everyone else here, always open to connections, always open conversations, whether it’s space, supply chain, or World Cup predictions.

Scott Luton (47:19):

Outstanding. We dropped that link right there as well. Folks, I want to thank Brody Cook, president of Fort Mule. Brody, thank you so much for being here and I wish you safe travels, my friend.

Brodie Cook (47:30):

Thank you guys for having me. Yep.

Scott Luton (47:32):

You bet. Of course. Going to thank my great coast, Richard Donaldson. Richard, always a pleasure.

Richard Donaldson (47:36):

Always a pleasure, Scott.

Scott Luton (47:37):

Thanks to our friends at APL Logistics. Be sure to connect with them at apllogistics.com. Of course, big thanks to man and Tricia behind the scenes. Most importantly, thanks to our global audience for being here with us. I know we couldn’t hit everybody’s comment or question, but y’all keep the feedback coming, but you know you got homework, right? Richard Will knows the homework. He’s gotten A pluses in every homework assignment this year as a matter of fact. But take one thing that Brody or one thing that Richard shared and share it with your team, do something with it, put it into practice, deeds not words. That’s how we’re going to keep transforming global supply chain and leave no one behind except your competition maybe. And with all that said on behalf of the entire Supply Chain Now team, Scott Lewton challenged you, do good, give forward, be the chains that’s needed and we’ll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now.

(48:21):

Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (48:24):

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