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 Luten and Supply chain Hall of Famer, Jake Barr with you here on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s live stream. Hey Jake, how you doing Today?

Jake Barr (00:24):

I am celebrating the end of Halloween. Okay,

Scott Luton (00:29):

You had about 7,000 kids come through your neighborhood and supply chain

Jake Barr (00:33):

One pieces of Candy Scott, 1200.

Scott Luton (00:36):

Alright, really quick that aside, you’ve got a great nonprofit for folks that want to send their candy for a great mission. Tell us more. There is a

Jake Barr (00:45):

Wonderful organization called Soldiers Angels that collects holiday treats that you may not have given out and that goes for Halloween or even Christmas and they actually take the candy and actually put together care packages for men and women serving abroad.

Scott Luton (01:05):

Love that. We’ll see if we can drop the link to that organization, but almost as important, that’s really important. We appreciate everybody serving our country, both here at home and abroad, especially during holiday season, right? There’s a lot of families that serve right along with ’em, but on a much lighter note, today’s show folks, you know it’s the buzz where every Monday at 12 noon eastern time, we discuss a variety of news developments across global supply chain and business news that matters, we like to call it. And the buzz all month long in November is powered by our friends at OMPA software and consulting company delivering advanced supply chain planning solutions, specifically tailored to individual industries worldwide. You can learn more@omp.com. Jake, we’ve got a big show teed up here today, and I’m just going to get the tip of iceberg here. We’re going to offer a supply chain leadership pulse check.

(01:51):

Hey, what is a top priority for Chief Supply Chain officers everywhere right now? On the next note, all we need is love and a US and China trade deal. More to come on that. Later we’ll discuss the booming porch piring industry. Gosh, we’re going to dive into some key takeaways from Change, north America 2025 and rate links, insights 2025. We’re even going to attempt to quantify all the varying levels of uncertainty impacting global business, all that and much, much more. Jake, are you ready? It’s going to be a big show today. Let’s jump. We got to jump. Hey, one more thing. Maybe the biggest news of on the buzz here today. We’ve got a special repeat guest and a long time friend of the show, Shannon Valour, CEO of rate links joining us. Folks, he’s going to share some, as I mentioned, some of those key takeaways from a great event and better yet, he’s going to tell us why freight audit is dead.

(02:40):

So get ready for that. Two things before we get going here. Be just like Naela, who is over on YouTube, nabila, let us know where you are too in from. We’d love to connect the dots just like Leah Kim tuned in from Seattle via LinkedIn. Great to see you, Leah, Tricia’s, Johnny on the spot already dropping that Soldier’s Angels organization. Wonderful, big thanks to Tricia and Amanda. But hey folks, let us know where you’re tuned in from. We want to hear your take on all these topics no matter what social channel you’re on. And if you enjoy the show today, we’d love for you to share it with a friend and or your network. They’ll be glad you did. Okay folks, we got three things to hit before our big guest joins us here today. I know Jake’s already eating his Wheaties. He’s always ready to go.

(03:21):

He never misses a beat. So let’s dive into the first one here. Today we released our latest edition, Jake, with that said, over the weekend, as we always do, it was a beautiful weekend, by the way, here in metro Atlanta except for the Falcons. More on that later maybe. But we started this edition with a few key takeaways from change, north America 2025, which was held in Columbus, Ohio in September. Now Jay, I loved Amy Augustine’s perspective in an interview with me and Christine Barnhardt. Amy serves as vice president for operations and supply chain at CHA Pro and she told us Calm is a supply chain superpower when chaos hits. Breathe, delegate, trust your team, make composure and clarity, operational advantages, not just soft skills. And then fast forward to one more point here, conference chair guitarist and supply chain rockstar. You see him right there.

(04:13):

Bart debunk when he was speaking about the AI explosion here in the golden age of supply chain tech. He makes a great point. AI might play the notes, but humans make you feel the music, oh, that’s poetic. The future of supply chain he went on to say isn’t about choosing between man or machine, it’s about using AI to amplify what people already do best. Folks, that’s just two observations. You can check out the rest right there. And with that said, we’re dropping the link. Jake, did you happen to see our latest edition with that said, and what was your favorite takeaway?

Jake Barr (04:44):

I did, I have, but I’m trying to figure out how you got in the photo with the two superstars. So between Christine and Bart, who I know both very well,

Scott Luton (04:54):

Let the riffraff in. Jay.

Jake Barr (04:55):

I did. Jay just let the riff R in. So actually I want to amplify a couple of things. So Bart, again, right on point, but fundamentally, if you’re looking for a key takeaway on the AI front, I call it keep it simple, stupid. It’s the KISS principle. Fundamentally, I want you to follow somebody, and it’s a young lady called Alex Wang, Alex a LEX, Wang, WANG. I love her for the simplicity of how she explains how to use AI and what AI is in simple digestible notes that you can play and make great music out of no matter what level in the supply chain you’re operating in

Scott Luton (05:37):

Really.

Jake Barr (05:38):

I mean she can take some of the most you’d think complicated things and make ’em simple in a heartbeat.

Scott Luton (05:44):

Okay, I love it. Well find it. Drop that link. But folks check out. With that said, Trisha’s dropping a link already. T squared. Welcome back. The pride of Baltimore. Bring on that good, good nourishment. T squared says especially one of his favorite topics. Reverse logistics and supply chain management. IT systems. By the way, T squared, that interview we had with Amy Augustine with mpro, she’s done some big things in returns management, reverse logistics, so we’ll drop the link to all those interviews, but it’s always great to have you here with us. Okay, and Jake? Yes, they let me in. They let the riffraff in so that’s okay. Barrett and Christine made me look really good. Lemme tell you, moving overhead along, let’s have a supply chain leadership pulse check with the supply chain Hall of famer, Jake Barr. So Jake, it’s hard to believe, but it’s already the 3rd of November.

(06:32):

We got two months ago in the calendar year we got the biggest holidays, but we got a whole bunch of work from a global supply chain standpoint before we can take a moment and enjoy New Year’s Eve maybe right? Maybe some good college football. I don’t know. A lot has to happen between now and then. I want to ask you, you work and rubbo with some of the most successful leaders out there, organizations out there. When you think of true world-class chief supply chain officers, what’s one of their top priorities right now? Where we are in the

Jake Barr (07:00):

Year, God, I could list a half dozen, but the majority of ’em are trying to double down and invest in capability for their people on the floor, as I call it. It’s called How do you Bring Calm to the Chaos? So you bring calm to the chaos by helping the people that are doing and executing the work every single day, a more simple way to sift through all the noise. And so they’re actually doubling down. We’ve got half a dozen easily or more projects underway where folks are just doing some fundamental things to put, I’ll call ’em ai. Predictive intelligence assists in the hands of their folks on the floor.

Scott Luton (07:38):

Okay, alright, we’ll get more from the front lines and the boardrooms and our next supply chain leadership pulse check. Good stuff there, Jake. And I bet you welcome hearing from anybody that wants to compare notes from what you’re seeing out across industry. Is that right Jake?

Jake Barr (07:52):

That’s the only way the profession gets better.

Scott Luton (07:54):

That is right. Okay, we’ve got one more thing before we bring on another mover and shaker across global supply chain. And folks, I love sharing resources and I got another one to share with you here from our friends at EasyPost. Folks stop losing money on problem packages. I’ve been there, done that. We got to ship like it’s 2025, not like it’s 1985, not picking on 85. That was a good year. Bears one has Shannon might test here in a minute. EasyPost offers complete shipping protection with EasyPost Guard, which provides an all-in-one suite that automates all kinds of stuff, claims, insurance, shopper guarantees, and all of that lets you focus on growth and delighting knocking your customer’s socks off even better. So for example, EasyPost Guard automates USPS claims, they identify and file the claim for you. You don’t have any forms or pesky follow-up. They see about a 90% approval rate for claims filed through Guard and even better yet, you only pay when the claim pays.

(08:50):

So there’s zero upfront risk. Stop chasing refunds, start recapturing revenue, get easy postcard. Today we’re going to drop a link so you can learn a whole bunch more. Okay, Jake, we knocked out all three items. We’re right on time and we’ve got a terrific repeat guest joining us. I know you’re ready. I’m going to introduce, and by the way, Tricia, always appreciate what you do, dropping links and making it real easy for folks to connect the dots with resources and perspective we share. Alright, so great guest here on the Buzz powered by OMP. My dear friend Shannon urt has been leading all sorts of innovation across global supply chain for decades. He founded Rate links back in 2002 with a vision to give businesses complete visibility into their supply chains. Now since then, rate links has evolved into a pioneering force in supply chain technology, offering an integrated data as a service platform that empowers organizations, Hey, count with me, leverage critical data, optimize logistics strategies, enhance supply chain management, solve complex challenges, reduce costs, taking friction out, and a whole bunch more. So please join me in welcoming my friend Shannon Valour, CEO, with rate links. Hey. Hey Shannon, how you doing today?

Shannon Vaillancourt (10:01):

I’m doing pretty good. How are you doing today?

Scott Luton (10:03):

Wonderful, wonderful. Jake, we mentioned 1985, that’s a big year in Valenti court household, huh?

Jake Barr (10:09):

I’m actually, I’m pleased that Shannon is not canoeing down the street in our fair area of

Scott Luton (10:16):

Phoenix, right? Y’all had a lot of rain. Y’all had a stretch at least where you had tons and tons of rain. Shannon,

Shannon Vaillancourt (10:22):

I’ll tell you what, it was pretty crazy. I mean, growing up in the Midwest, you’re used to bad weather and stuff, but I mean we got three or four inches of rain in a day or two.

Intro/Outro (10:34):

Wow.

Shannon Vaillancourt (10:35):

And what I didn’t realize, because we’ve only lived out here now for seven years, is that it’s not necessarily the water, it’s because yeah, you’ve got flooding. It’s that the desert washes into the roads and makes some of the roads impassable because it’s just a big sandbar. So it’s like you’re driving and in the Midwest there’s water. I mean, heck, the funny story that me and my boys have, it was one of the last years that we lived in Wisconsin and we were going to the Humane Society to look at two dogs adopting two dogs, and it really rained hard. And I’m driving there and it’s just outside of town and the water was kind of deep and I got halfway through and I looked at the boys and I’m like, Ooh, I think this is a bad idea, but we’re committed. So we made it through and we get to the Humane Society, we look at the dogs and we come out, my wife’s there, she met us there and my license plate on the front of the car was bent completely up.

Scott Luton (11:26):

Oh my gosh. With

Shannon Vaillancourt (11:27):

The water pushing it up. And she’s like, Hey, what happened to your license plate? I’m like, oh, I have no idea. And I looked at the boys, I’m like, we dunno.

Jake Barr (11:34):

Oh my. We’re

Shannon Vaillancourt (11:34):

Not, we didn’t admit that until many years later

Jake Barr (11:37):

He was in the here. Evil say no evil.

Shannon Vaillancourt (11:39):

Oh yeah.

Jake Barr (11:40):

He knew what was about to happen if he admitted the

Shannon Vaillancourt (11:42):

Truth. We’re committed boys, so we got to keep going. But yeah, but here you can’t do that because if you’re driving through that, there’s stuff in the water, there’s rocks, sand, so you could damage stuff here. So that’s what I’ve learned now from living here. You got to be a little cautious.

Scott Luton (12:00):

So I had a whole fun warmup question on a whole different topic, but you’ve already given us more, so much work with you, Shannon. I have one quick follow up question before I get Jake to process this too. Did you end up closing the deal and adopting the dogs?

Shannon Vaillancourt (12:12):

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. So that was 10 years ago. One sadly passed away at the end of July and we had to put him to sleep. He was my dog. He’s actually, he stares at me every day. He is on my wall here in the office and then the other one’s at home Oreo and he’s like the, he’s still a year old. I think

Scott Luton (12:32):

Oreo, I love that name. And hey, it is always tough to lose a good dog. So I hate to hear that. But Jake is the bar household a dog household?

Jake Barr (12:41):

Are you kidding? I literally grew up as one of 10 kids in that any given time we had eight to 10 dogs.

Scott Luton (12:51):

Oh my gosh. The pictures that come to mind, we can barely handle two in the looting household, but both of them, Shannon and Jake are rescues. The dogs

Jake Barr (12:57):

Ate better than I did though I’ll say that.

Shannon Vaillancourt (13:00):

Oh yeah. My dogs ate better, slept better. I’ve got, there’s a sign up on top of my desk that says I work hard so my dogs can live a better life About right.

Scott Luton (13:13):

It’s so true. Alright folks, we’ve got so much to get to here today. I want to start though. We did Tricia Johnny on the spot sharing Alex Wang on LinkedIn. That’s one of the folks that Jake was recommending. Go check that out. And we need as much effective simplicity as we try to wrap our heads around innovative technology that changes by the hour. Check out what Alex is sharing. Okay, we got a lot to get into here today. Let’s go through a couple of news stories. Let’s start with some what may be good news. There’s a lot of skeptics out there which we’ll touch on maybe, but this appears at least to be some good news, maybe a little less icy frigidness and trade war because it’s been simmering for quite some time between the US and China. As reported by supply chain dive, the US and China reached an agreement last Thursday on tariffs and trade.

(13:56):

Early reports say that the deal includes the US lowering tariffs and suspending some trade actions such as this investigation into China’s ship building sector. In return, China has agreed to make commitments on things such as fentanyl, rare earth exports and agricultural trade known that last item. We’ve been tracking this a bit because a lot of folks don’t familiar what soybeans are. They’re major, big, big deal when it comes to our economy and certainly the agricultural sector and American farmers have been watching this. China has agreed to purchase 12 million metric tons of US soybeans by the end of the year. That’s massive. And 25 million tons annually in 26, 27, 28 for context in 2023 in what was a bit of a more normal year at least, China imported about 22 and a half million metric tons of soybeans from the US so to commit, we’ll see if it happens. Jake commit to 12 million metric in basically two months. We’ll see starting with Shannon Val Court first, your thoughts on this news and the overall tariff war out there.

Shannon Vaillancourt (15:00):

I think it just comes down to we got to land on something. That’s what it comes down to. That’s what I keep hearing. We can plan for anything except for the uncertainty and that’s what’s been the disruptive part of this year with all the tariffs. It’s uncertainty. So glad it got done from what I understand, it’s what good for a year. So we’ll see if it

Jake Barr (15:19):

Maybe,

Shannon Vaillancourt (15:21):

Yeah, because it’s China, I’ve heard that. We’ll see, they could all of a sudden change their mind again and we’ve seen what’s happened as well with our tariffs this year. It keeps changing every minute. It’s pretty crazy.

Scott Luton (15:33):

It’s a big elephant in the room with Jake. You saw him nodding his head earlier is will all parties honor the commitments that they reportedly are making? Jake, your thoughts on what we’re seeing here

Jake Barr (15:44):

Too, little too late. Scott. Unfortunately in the world, as Shannon knows very vividly, the world of logistics and supply chain is an interconnected network

(15:54):

And sequencing of activities that have to occur. So to be able to get the amount that we’re talking about transferred in that kind of short of time. So let’s step back and say, Hey, is dampening the noise a good thing? The answer is yes. Okay, the question is will it stick right? And what’s the long play of? Will it stay in place for a while? So anything that’s good to help the farming community at this point, given their current situation is a good thing. So I applaud that. But the commitment is a bit of a hallow one for thinking about how do you work that amount of metric tons through the pipe in that short period of time.

Scott Luton (16:31):

Yeah, I’m with you, I’m with you. Those are great questions and concerns to bring up. And there’s a bit of a track record and party not honoring the commitments they make. We’ll see how it plays out from here. Hey Leah and Nabila and t squared would love to hear your thoughts. Anyone else out there on this trade truce that may come to fruition between China and the us? Alright, so Shannon, you hit on perhaps one of the biggest themes of the year and that is uncertainty. Oh my gosh, in all of its different flavors and levels and angles. Hopefully optimistically speaking, not too naively, maybe hope we get a sliver or two back of certainty in industry with this trade deal. We’ll see. But the World Economic Forum was asking a really interesting question lately, just how do we quantify and measure all the uncertainty in global business?

(17:20):

And we’ve got perfectly measurable inflation rates or GDP growth or many other things that we can get down to data science really, but uncertainty. It’s a different beast and it’s terribly intangible. Now, some surveys are used such as the chief economist outlook. I can never say that word. Economist, chief economist Outlook. It’s May, 2025 editions showed that 82% of chief economists around the world said that the current level of uncertainty is very high. Okay, another breaking news, two plus two equals four. Of course it is the US Federal Reserve publishes the beige book, which is a regular publication that reports views from the fed’s 12 districts. Now in September, the beige book referenced historically high uncertainty and then you’ve got a global economic policy uncertainty index. Try to say that five times fast, which shows that uncertainty has skyrocketed across global business over the last 25 years, particularly this year. So Shannon, you nailed it earlier as you always do your thought on maybe beyond even quantifying uncertainty, what are you seeing out in the market that tells you there’s lots of uncertainty right now?

Shannon Vaillancourt (18:26):

I think it’s funny that I’m certain that there’s uncertainty. I love that we’re measuring something that’s uncertain. As an engineer, I always get stuck on that stuff. I mean, what I’m seeing is a lot of just no decision. That’s how I see uncertainty unfold is that nobody’s making a change. They’re going to stick with whatever they got, whatever it is, and they do the best that they can. I mean, we did see earlier in the year that people were taking advantage of where the tariffs were at the time, where they were either pulling a lot of stuff forward and then it would just sit and then they would kind of ride out the storm of the uncertainty. But that’s what I’ve seen a lot of. It’s just a whole lot of nothing, people just doing nothing and waiting it out, hoping that it’s going to finally just settle in.

(19:12):

Because again, what I’ve seen throughout the year, talking with a lot of people and being at some of the conferences, they say that doesn’t matter what the number is, we just need a number and it just needs to stop because once we get the number, the companies can manage around it. It’s hard to manage when you don’t know what’s going to happen from one day to the next. We have a customer that does a lot of importing and what’s funny is that it is so silly. They’re like, we used to import our stuff and the product itself had price tags on it and for the first time we’re importing it with no price tags. And I’m like, wow, that’s something that you would never think about that you’d have to take into account. They’re like, no, you can’t bring it in with a price tag yet. We have no idea what we’re going to sell it for yet. And it’s for the holiday season. So it’s kind of funny.

Scott Luton (19:56):

I think that’s a pretty tangible illustration of uncertainty in my book. Shannon, Jake, your thoughts on what we heard there from Shannon and what you’re seeing out there, especially, it’s always tough to make decisions. It seems like

Jake Barr (20:07):

Scott, in that time of uncertainty, the consumer always votes and gives their opinion and they vote either thumbs up or they vote thumbs down. And so the uncertainty has had a chilling effect on demand in a number of categories across verticals. And so you literally see choices being made, trade-off choices, trading down choices, not buying choices, delaying purchases. And so to Shannon’s point, a few people tried to hedge, as I call it earlier in the year where they were trying to buffer using some pull ahead strategies, right where they were trying to out in front, well gosh, if the tariff’s going to go into place, I’m going to run and I’m going to rush. I’m going to pull a bunch of stuff in and then just pay the price for holding it. Well, unfortunately that didn’t work because then the tariff numbers changed again and then I’m left sitting with a pile of stuff that I really can’t price adequately.

(21:04):

So it’s had a tremendous, and now shaman’s example is very true. We see in a number of folks that used to have a very well integrated set of activities on the supply chain where they were higher productivity, where they were actually pre pricing before it even came in, right, to simplify work and to save steps. And they’re having to back away from that because they don’t know. And that’s the worst thing you can have from a supply chain. Supply chain is always built to deal with a level of uncertainty. We buffer in people, we buffer in safety stocks. But when you’re trying, I mean we’re playing like Russian roulette right now. It’s not even uncertainty it’s called on any given day, what do I wake up thinking we might need to respond to? That’s a whole nother level.

Scott Luton (21:53):

No, I loved Shannon, you talked about, I don’t care what the number is, I just need a number. I feel that in my bones sometimes, Shannon, that is such a great, great call out. But hey, it’ll continue. We’ll see where these deals that we’ve seen and heard about, we’ll see if they, number one, make it to paper. And then number two, the bigger billion challenges will they make it to in practice. You shall see. Okay, really quick, angel tuned in via YouTube, watch ’em from Sierra. Beautiful Sierra, Leon, great to see you, angel. Your thoughts on these historic levels of uncertainty. Alright, let’s, let’s move to another topic. Get this Porch Pirate everywhere are having record breaking success in recent years, getting your booty, according to our friends at Retail Brew and Omnis sent Americans alone lost 15.7 billion in stolen packages last year, 2024. That’s about 241 million parcels.

(22:47):

And it’s not just the big stuff that they’re after far from it, 85% of thefts, target goods, less than a hundred bucks, about one in three households in the US were hit last year and get this retailers only covered 6.5 billion in refunds, far less than even half of the total loss. Now what are those ever fast learning consumers? Bunch of ’em, some of ’em at least. What are they doing about it? Well, surveys show that 44% say that they’re going to be shopping online less. Yeah, I don’t believe that. Maybe until maybe the next prime day. I bet 27% say they’re using lockers or pickup approaches and 29% are going to spend more with retailers that offer easier refund policies. So Shannon, two part question. Have you ever had a package stolen? And number two, your thoughts on what we’re seeing in this port’s privacy.

Shannon Vaillancourt (23:37):

I haven’t had a package stolen off our port. We’ve had packages not magically show up where you could see it into a terminal and then it disappears. But no, I haven’t had one stolen yet and we live in a gated community, so probably not fair comparison for us either,

Scott Luton (23:53):

Right?

Shannon Vaillancourt (23:54):

But it’s fascinating now to think about this. When I think about the package got delivered, so from that perspective it was delivered but it wasn’t actually received by the user. And I’m seeing a lot more technology out there around this. Now I know that UPS has an API that you can use that will give you a number back that says what the likelihood is of it getting delivered safely and not getting stolen. And then you can of course leverage that to then insure it against the stolen part. It was funny a couple years ago or maybe a little bit longer, I remember my wife ordering something online and for an extra $7 you could insure it against getting stolen. I’m like, what? I just get a kick out of it. I go back to, I think about when I first started in the industry, you couldn’t track anything.

(24:43):

And it was like, the funny story is that my partner Frank, when he worked in college, he worked at a place and they were like, Hey, they were blaming him, he was running the shipping station. They blamed him for not putting stuff on the truck because people weren’t getting their packages. This is back in the mid nineties, early nineties. And what was happening was people were going into the truck afterwards and putting different address labels on it, no tracking. So they were just at lunchtime or whatever, putting different address labels on the boxes. So it was all going to somebody’s house and they were blaming him, the college kid.

Scott Luton (25:17):

If we could just take all of this innovative, bad actor thinking and divert it to doing good things in this journey, we oh man, talk about things we do. Jake, what’d you hear there from Shannon? So Shannon has not experienced a loss from the front porch. Jake, how about you?

Jake Barr (25:33):

I have over the years, but Scott, the thing that’s happening probably faster than we can blink our eyes is the cost of the technology to support alternate methods for ensuring secure delivery continue to come down. And so I actually will say you’re going to end up seeing the major players where most of the packages originate. And so hate to say it, but if you take the partial service and you break it apart, and whether it’s UPS, FedEx or Amazon in terms of prime delivery source, you’re seeing the Amazon secure delivery system pick up in terms of the number of users where it’s delivered into your door and secured or into your garage and secured so that there’s no Porch pirate opportunity.

Scott Luton (26:23):

That’s good. Cut ’em out all entirely. I love that. Good stuff Jake and Shannon. Amanda says she’s seen TikTok videos of people that have a lot of packages stolen that put fake packages out that explode with colorful powder that coats the thieves. Now that is must see tv.

Jake Barr (26:40):

There are some beautiful YouTube videos. There’s a guy that does this full-time, really engineering wonder that have motorized glitter bombs that he puts out. Really? Yes. He puts GPS trackers and then shares that info with the local police departments. Okay, so you can actually acquire these from him.

Scott Luton (27:01):

It’s like an arms war between the pirates and then the countermeasures. You name it, T squares says that glitter bomb alarm is the best humbler. I bet. I bet. And there’s not much of an excuse I don’t think you can offer up. Okay, we got a lot of more good stuff to get into with some of the cool things Shannon and a rate Links team are up to. But folks, I got one more great resource that I want to share with all of y’all out there and it kind of goes back to what Jake was saying with Alex and folks that are able to really simplify what we can do with ai. Well check out this cool new resource from the team over at OMP who are powering the buzz all month long. In November, ebook is entitled Making AI Work for You from Explainable to AgTech.

(27:41):

This ebook explores how decision centric planning powered by UN and IQ enables organizations to move beyond explainable AI toward truly ag agentic systems. It’s a practical guide for leaders ready to unlock the full potential of AI and planning strategy and execution. And it’s got a lot of insights baked in from the world-class team over at zero 100. So check it out. We’re dropping a link right there. Trisha’s already on the mission, so check it out, let us know what you think. Okay Shannon, now I want to start. I was able to attend Rate links, insights 2024. Had a great time. We co-presented with you Shannon, man, he brought actual insights by the truckload. And Jake to your other point, I was there mainly for the slides and for a couple of dad jokes, but Shannon, it really delivered. I couldn’t make it this year, so I’d love for starters. Shannon, as we learned more about what Rank Links is up to, I think you had a bunch of folks, I think you set a record this year for attendees. I know it’s very selective customers primarily, but what would you say is one of your top takeaways or two from Insight 2025?

Shannon Vaillancourt (28:44):

I’d say probably the top takeaway that I had was the amount of collaboration that occurs not only between rate links and our customers, but just between the customers themselves. It’s funny, you’ve got companies in different industries, different business models, and they all have the same basic wants and needs when it comes to the logistics side. So it was kind of cool seeing them be able to talk to each other and bounce ideas off of each other to really see how they’re not only leveraging our system to help them, but also leveraging other parts of the system and really connecting the data together to get the most amount of insight and information to drive their business forward. So me, that’s what I really took away from this year was there were companies talking to each other where I was like, well I didn’t think that you two would have anything to really help each other with, but now that you say it, it makes total sense that you guys can help each other out. So it’s kind of cool whether it’s big or small company, it goes both ways. It was kind of neat.

Scott Luton (29:43):

Two quick thoughts. Jake invite you to the common denominators. I think we’re surprised every once in a while just how powerful those common denominators, those common threads are, even with companies that are in completely different sectors. I mean Mars and Venus, right? How you pull ’em in a room and really empower some of those actual innovative conversations. And secondly, I think kudos to you Shannon and the Rate Links team investing in your ecosystem like that. That is a very valuable way of using very finite resources. Jake, I bet especially in your hall of fame career, you’ve seen some really powerful pulling together of ecosystem partners that has driven all kinds of innovation. Your thoughts we heard there from Shannon

Jake Barr (30:22):

Scott, it’s a backup the truck moment, the only way the profession gets better is by benchmarking outside of your domain. You literally bring to light inflection points and trigger questions in your head when you actually benchmark with businesses that aren’t like you. It causes you to get out of your comfort zone, it causes you to what’s the implication of how we would do that from a work process or a technology or organization structure standpoint. So I applaud Shannon for what he did because fundamentally you lift rising tide lifts all boats.

Scott Luton (30:57):

That is right. And folks, insight 2025 was just last month in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. And if you’re interested in 2026, reach out to Shannon and team. We’re going to be dropping some contact information soon. It’s a great event. Okay, so Shannon, you and I met in Arizona way back. I want to say it was 2019.

Shannon Vaillancourt (31:17):

It was bc

Scott Luton (31:19):

It was. That’s right

Shannon Vaillancourt (31:20):

Before COVID.

Scott Luton (31:21):

That’s right. And one thing you shared then that I bet has only gotten bigger and bigger, it kind of stopped my tracks and I got a little graphic here. You shared that freight audit is dead. Look, you’ve got a tube stone right there. Freight audit is dead. I know I didn’t snap that picture at someone’s funeral. That’s straight up from my stock. So Shannon, if you could, some folks have a cliche and a mantra, but there’s all kinds of action and good stuff behind what’s like this personal mission for you. Tell us more what you mean when you say freight audit is dead.

Shannon Vaillancourt (31:52):

What I saw back then and even earlier and where we took it a little differently is on the freight audit side, what I noticed is that a lot of the freight auditing was around trying to find the mistake that the carrier made, not let the carrier know that they made a billing mistake and just continue to, I guess celebrate the mistake by adjusting an invoice, which just caused a lot of friction and I think a lot of tension also. And it’s like what we try to do. So it’s like to me that’s freight audit. Freight audit comes in and that’s what they do. They just audit, they point out all the mistakes. They don’t really give you a solution, they just tell you’re wrong and off they go and we take a different approach. We’re doing the freight audit to capture the information and to make it more frictionless.

(32:37):

Carrier doesn’t want to bill wrong, the customer wants to pay the right amount, carrier wants to get paid the right amount. And what we find is that oftentimes the mistake is made. Well, there’s manual that occurs. There’s a manual process that occurs at the carrier side when it comes to invoicing, you make a mistake. That’s just how it is. Unfortunately as humans, we’re not perfect. We get hungry and tired sometimes and that impacts your performance. So that’s where we want to fix that. That way the customers and their carriers are having a better flow because it’s really not that difficult to get this done. And then that way the customers are leveraging the data to manage their business because they could be giving the wrong freight to the wrong carrier and that’s causing a problem. Or the pricing agreement that they’ve put in place is just not objective.

(33:26):

That’s the other one I find. I’ve found some doozies in my life looking at stuff where it’s like, well, how’s that going to work? And they’re like, I don’t know. I’m like, well, it’s not going to work. Here’s the change we got to make. So it’s clear you left just a little gap in there for interpretation. So that’s why to me, freight audit, the old eighties and nineties, you get your little spectacles and get you a little visor, those days are gone. This is about information now, especially with ai, forget it. You have to capture more information. Its context is what’s missing around that shipment. Otherwise you can go to the bank with completely wrong numbers or completely wrong initiatives that you think this is going to now hit your initiative number and it won’t.

Scott Luton (34:13):

I want to share three quick things and then Jake, get your thought on freight audit being dead and getting debtor and debtor by the minute because the technology is there as Shannon and his team proves. Number one, I love your opening comment there because folks want to just, they want to pay what they owe or they want to get paid on what they’re due. It’s not maybe a hundred percent, but certainly to 80%. And number two, when you’re able to automate and get rid of all this manual review, you’ve talked about it, your customers have talked about it, conversations change and you free up time to talk about new service levels, how to delight the customers even more, the new levels of innovation, you name it. And then lastly, one of my favorite, we’ve done a lot of real powerful market driven case studies, Shannon, you and I together and my favorite one, I think we had some good ones and it’s just tough. One of my favorites, I call it Natalie from Ecolab. She talked about all the people that they were hiring and throwing at hundreds of thousands of manual freight invoices. No one liked to do it and by leveraging a better technology, it really unlocked all kinds of benefits to the organization. Alright, so Jake, I’m going to bring you in here. Freight audit is indeed dead. Your thoughts,

Jake Barr (35:20):

It’s not dead yet, but it’s definitely taking some death gasp in the world of predictive analytics and AI capabilities, you have to ask yourself, why am I wasting these precious bodies? I mean really, you’ve got an opportunity to let the data actually and the AI actually find the match the mismatch, actually do the corrective action actually ensure that it’s billed correctly even before the freight is out the door. Okay, why do I need to wait for somebody to go reconcile? Right? That’s 100% waste

Scott Luton (36:00):

Is so true. And to your opening point, yeah, unfortunately it isn’t dead. There’s some old fashioned organizations, I’ll call it, not on Stones folks, but those are probably the primary reason why it’s not truly dead and there’s a massive opportunity to Jake’s point saving that precious, that beautiful human time and repurposing them to much more rewarding work. Okay, let’s do this. Shannon, you were referencing earlier some of the work that you and the Rate Links team do, folks that are regular audience members here have seen you I’m sure plenty of times, but for any of our new audience members, tell us two part question. What does Rate links do in a nutshell? And number two, what is one thing other than playing great golf with your sons, what is one thing that is really exciting you about what’s planned ahead for rate links in 2026?

Shannon Vaillancourt (36:48):

Oh, you got me stuck on the golf thing. Don’t get my head over on that side. I can’t think about work. But yeah, what we do here at Rate Links, we help a lot of customers manage their freight spend, whether it’s through easy ways to execute on the freight, easy ways to measure and monitor your performance on the freight and find ways to really, I think, optimize it as best as possible within your service and your cost initiatives that you have. And that’s where we’re able to deliver a really tailored solution on that side that fit your business the way that it needs to be fit. Again, collaboration, like I said at our Insight conference, it’s really amazing what we’re able to help with because we have a very great conversation with our own customers as well to learn from them. Also, I think that’s just like you kept saying, Jake, that’s what makes everything better. You’ve got to keep your mind open and ask a lot of questions and I’m definitely a question person for sure. I’m always curious and that’s really what’s got me excited about 2026 is it’s just more good stuff coming on that side. More integrations to make the answers easier, to get faster, to get more obvious what they are just so people can move faster. That’s really what I think the AI is for. It’s to do the non-value added work.

(38:11):

I think that’s what everyone’s in love with this AI thing of thinking it’s value. It’s more the value added where it’s making really complex and it’s really not. It’s just doing math perfectly is really all I think the AI is doing. Most of the math we do, by the way, is third grade math, which I always get a kick out of.

Jake Barr (38:29):

It’s the only math I can do, Shannon,

Shannon Vaillancourt (38:31):

That’s my point,

Jake Barr (38:32):

Shannon, don’t ask him to go to fourth decimal point answers. Okay, that’s all I

Shannon Vaillancourt (38:36):

Was going to say. Yeah, does he understand level of precision?

Scott Luton (38:40):

Oh my gosh. Oh, you’re giving me heartburn from my middle stamping.

Jake Barr (38:43):

Yeah, we dealt with military aircraft. I mean really

Shannon Vaillancourt (38:47):

He thinks the Dewey Decimal system is math. No,

Scott Luton (38:52):

Shannon, you’re letting all my secrets out. You’re letting these secrets out. Well you’re also kidding aside, you are singing Jake’s song because Jake touts supply chain math. The power math all the time. Jake, what’d you hear there from Shannon? And what’s exciting him about rate links is up and coming journey.

Jake Barr (39:10):

I mean Shannon laid out, they’re continuing to double down on investing on helping people get more predictive with what the data is really telling ’em. Right? At the end of the day, that’s what’s going to unlock the savings both in productivity and operating costs. So you can use the numbers to help you tell a different story of what your options are. Your hit

Scott Luton (39:32):

Two quick thoughts there also, Shannon, you are a question guy I think as you put it, and I think that’s part of the culture that Ray links, you’re really dialing it in on what the problems are so you can really prescribe the perfect solution. And man, when you do that, what’s like saying a problem well-defined is half solved or something like that, but that’s important. And then secondly, you mentioned Dewey Decimal, some of our smartest audience in all global supply chain. That might be a new thing for them, but back in the day, that’s how you found the library books you wanted. It was all sorted by this Dewey decimal system that they used for decades before you could Google and find the section and whatever. Again, I think I got that right, right?

Shannon Vaillancourt (40:13):

Yeah. Then you go electronic, you do the microfiche. That was the

Jake Barr (40:18):

Technology. We’ll just send Scott a slide rule for

Scott Luton (40:22):

Yes. Yeah, I’ll be like, well, you do this with this. But anyway. All right, let’s do this. So we reference case studies folks, I want to put something on your calendar. Shannon is joining me on November 20th at 12 noon Eastern Times. We’re going to be talking with Tanner Dasra, if I’ve got that right with Trove brands on how it’s time to put logistics challenges in a headlock, how to block tackle and win a whole heck of a lot more. So join us on November 20th at 12 noon eastern time. Okay, Shannon, the billion dollar question. I know you and your team get out to very selective events. You host great events, you’re solving a lot of problems out there. How can folks track you down? How can they connect with you and rate link, Shannon?

Shannon Vaillancourt (41:01):

Probably best ways on LinkedIn is probably the best way to get ahold of me and reach out to me through there.

Scott Luton (41:06):

It is just that easy. And I bet we’re dropping the link to your LinkedIn. So folks are one click away. I see Trisha’s already sharing. There’s Shannon on LinkedIn right there. And we’re also sharing the rate links live stream, that case study I just talked about. Come join us, bring your questions. Shannon will appreciate those for sure. And Shannon really have enjoyed your appearance here. So folks, you go to rate links.com too. You can check out all the things that Shannon and the team are in, connect with him or follow him on LinkedIn and be sure to ask about Insights 2026 and golf if you want. Shannon Valor’s attention asking golf. Actually, Shannon,

Jake Barr (41:44):

I’ve got a question for Shannon because Shannon on the sixth, we leased the new freight index. So I’m going to go, Hey Shannon, is it going to be trick or treat on the sixth? Okay,

Shannon Vaillancourt (41:57):

Which way is which, depending on I guess if you’re a carrier or if you’re

Jake Barr (42:03):

The Yeah, that’s right. It’s in the eyes of the beholder, right? Shannon? The data,

Shannon Vaillancourt (42:07):

From what I understand, everything I’ve been reading and hearing and seeing is that they’re expecting stuff to be still. Soft rate market should be still soft because the capacity’s not really coming out. It’s like as the price has been dropping, usually capacity comes out, but it hasn’t been coming out. It has historically come out.

Jake Barr (42:30):

Perhaps uncertainty is factored in.

Shannon Vaillancourt (42:36):

I’m certain of the uncertainty.

Jake Barr (42:38):

I’m certain that people are currently not pushing the yes or no button on capacity, even though the softness is continuing to build,

Shannon Vaillancourt (42:48):

Right?

Jake Barr (42:48):

That’s right.

Shannon Vaillancourt (42:49):

And of course, the question that I keep hearing now is the driver shortage finally not a real thing. I’ve been hearing that my entire career, as long as I’ve been in this industry since the early nineties, I’ve heard that we’re going to run out of drivers and it’s like, but now is that not the case? And it’s like again, capacity comes and goes in the market. That’s historically how it’s been. And now it starts to come out and then it comes right back in, is what they’ve been seeing. So it’s been kind of floating the price. It’s weird what we’ve been seeing lately.

Scott Luton (43:20):

It is

Shannon Vaillancourt (43:20):

The uncertainty. It has to be

Scott Luton (43:22):

No doubt. By the way, join us on Thursday at 12 in the Eastern Times. We dive into the US Bank freight payment index for three third quarter, 20 25, 12 noon. Alright, Shannon Fallon court with rate links, love to have you here. I look forward to reconnecting in person soon. I know you’ve got a busy week lined up. Hit ’em straight next weekend and we look forward to having you back on the buzz. Thanks so much.

Shannon Vaillancourt (43:42):

Thank you. Appreciate it. Nice meeting you, Jake.

Scott Luton (43:45):

Talk soon folks. Shannon Valour, make sure you connect with him, follow him, check out rate links. We’re dropping all the links right there in the chat and you’ll be glad you did. Alright, I got to ask you the billion dollar question, Jake, we covered a lot of ground with Shannon between the news and between the rate links crew. What’s one of your biggest takeaways from Shannon’s appearance here on the buzz powered by OMP?

Jake Barr (44:06):

Well, I have to actually say it’s not just Shannon’s appearance, but it’s also from this week. With that said, because we skipped over the statement from Oracle this past week around the pace of innovation, and that’s not to be taken lightly on a period of uncertainty when you’re trying to stabilize, you actually need calm to get that stability back into place. And as the squirrel cages are running faster and faster with trying to drop in new doses of innovation, that makes it even more difficult. So to me, Scott, the takeaway this week is you need to be a student of the game and start lifting the skillset of your operation because this chaos is not dampening.

Scott Luton (44:54):

Well said Jake. Well said. Folks, check out. With that said, we got a lot of more takeaways from our interviews and the rest of the event. Make sure you connect with Shannon and the team. You’ll enjoy their perspective. They drop. I include that November 20th a case study. You’re going to see a perfect practice of what it means to leverage innovative technology in your global supply chain operation. Speaking of Jake, I can’t get out of the buzz here today without talking about again the gift that keeps on giving Corin versa. Orchestrated a brilliant panel back in September. We had five incredible supply chain dynamos. I think three of them were chief supply chain officers from some of the most popular brands around the globe. And we’ve got a blog summary of some of Corrine’s biggest takeaways from a jam packed hour. So I got to ask you, Jake, and folks, y’all can find that at the resource hub. We’ll drop the link on the chat. Do any of those takeaways stand out or are you still kind of in awe of the hour long conversation that Corinne,

Jake Barr (45:51):

I know all those power pack leaders and the reality is if you miss that event, you need to go back and watch it on demand. And hey, news flash breaking news here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (46:04):

Okay,

Jake Barr (46:05):

We’re going to give you a double dose, two more leadership episodes, just as good as the first one. Stay tuned. Those will happen in January.

Scott Luton (46:14):

Oh, I can’t wait. I cannot wait. Sign me up, register me. You name it. Tricia is dropping the link to Koreans blog posts on the new resource hub@supplychainnow.com. So check that out. Alan, great to see you, Alan from beautiful Canada. I was pulling for your Blue Jays, Alan. Alan says the calm before the storm. He got a kick out of that. Alan, I’ll tell you what it’s been storming and storming. I’m looking for some Norman. Norman, huh? I think we all are, but Jake says, one of your mantras, Jake, the new never normal normal’s never coming back. Right? Did I get that right?

Jake Barr (46:45):

That is right.

Scott Luton (46:45):

Okay. One more thing folks make sure is on your radar because I want you to join me and Jake and Corinne and so many others at the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2025 in Denver. The current one’s going on right now in London. Look forward to key takeaways. But up next you’ll find us in Denver on this tightly focused the best planning summit planning event of the year. And Jake, I don’t know if I told you this, talk about breaking news right here on the Buzz powered by OMP, but Noha Samara who you see right there, she’s the event chair. I think all the planning summits, Jake, she’s joining us again near the end of the month, along with of course Mike Griswold with Gardner. So we’re going to be able to pick her brain again.

Jake Barr (47:27):

Absolutely. The world of Decision shapers. That is

Scott Luton (47:30):

Right. Alright folks, that just about does it for a jam packed edition of the Buzz Powered by our friends over at OMP. Make sure you check out all the resources. Trisha’s dropping a link to the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit there in Denver. Check that out. Make sure you connect with Shannon Valour. Big thanks to him and the rate links team. Big thanks to my esteemed co-host, hall of Famer, Jake Bard. Jake, thanks for being here today.

Jake Barr (47:55):

Hey, I am looking forward to it just as always. But the question we need to leave the audience with today is will your beloved Clemson Tigers fire that coach or keep him?

Scott Luton (48:07):

We’re going to keep Dabo. We’re going to keep Dabo. It has been a tough, tough year at three and five with a heartbreaking loss to Duke. Yes to Duke Blue Devils over the weekend, but I still love Old Dabo. We’ll see if he can get the ship turned around. So thank you for that painful stab on a Monday, folks. Big thanks Amanda and Tricia behind the scenes making production happen. Big thanks to all of y’all that tuned in. I know we didn’t hit everybody on other comments and questions, but check out the resources and most importantly, whatever you do, Jake and Shannon dropped a ton of knowledge. You got to take one thing here today, share it with the team, put it into practice deeds, not words. That’s how we’re going to, to Jake’s point, keep transforming global supply chain and leave no one behind. So with that said, on behalf of the whole supply chain now, team Scott Luton challenging you, do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed. We’ll see you next time, right back here on Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (48:58):

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