Episode Summary
Listen as Scott and Greg welcome Gail Rutkowski to the Supply Chain Now stage at the CSCMP Atlanta Roundtable Event in Atlanta, GA.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio. Broadcasting live from the Supply chain capital of the country, Atlanta, Georgia. Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology’s the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.
[00:00:29] Hey, good afternoon. Scott Luton here with you, love on Supply chain. Now welcome back to the show. Really excited about this. This final interview we’re gonna be doing if you can hear the energy in the room. We’re here. Lobb with CSC and Peatland roundtable had a great launch event. And guess what? We’ve got the keynote with us, which we’re gonna introduce in just a second. But for starters, Greg White, you’re back with us. My fearless co-host Supply chain adj. trusted advisor Hato and Greg. Great. This was great. A great session. Gail did a great job. I loved her presentation, so I loved it. Let’s talk about I did too. And yeah, let’s talk about that. Just second, give a shot. The Chris Barnes executor is her special contributor, kind of back behind the scenes. Appreciate you being here with us. Hey, Chris. So as we’ve alluded to already, our guest today is Gail Rakowski, executive director of Narced Track and Nasrat. We love her acronyms. And in the world Supply chain, that is national shippers, strategic transportation counsel. Gail, how are you doing? Good, thanks. Great to have you to be here. And your presentation day. And for our listeners, Gail spoke on a wide variety of evolving issues that are not only just just impacting transportation. Yeah, that was kind of the main thrust, but it really impacts everyone across. And in Supply chain and really the business community. Yeah, global business community. So, Gail, thanks for carving out time. And you’ve had a full day here today, a winning hit. Now, where do you hail from? Chicago. Chicago. And you’re headed back out. F9 Sharon Oh, I get ahead of the snow. What’s that? Yeah, I know that it’s that white stuff that falls of the sky.
[00:02:08] So for starters, before kind of talk about some of Keith things for your presentation, let’s talk more about narced track and what it does and then your role where you spend your time. Okay.
[00:02:18] Nasdaq is a shipper association. We’ve been around since 1952 and basically champion the policies, procedures, things involving the transportation professional within the shipper community. Our membership is pretty much equally split between a third shippers, the third carriers and a third third party logistics companies and technology companies. We have some really huge big member shippers and some smaller companies. I got my start at Nesterenko over 20 years ago when a gentleman from Johnson and Johnson called me up and said, I think you need to be part of this organization. Really? I was at Medline Industries at the time and now working as their director of transportation and we were working on an ad issue. So you’ve been there, done that. You been there, done that? Yeah. I spent a long time in the Shipard community as director grant space for Medline, ran a private fleet for the Quaker Oats Company. Then it went on. I call it the dark side. Went on to say, work, Robinson. Well, I’ve kind of been around. But then most recently, before I retired and became Nasdaq, I worked for three Patel setting up third party Logistics services on a consulting basis. So I’ve seen all parts of the industry. I love transportation. I can tell I refer myself as a transportation geek. My whole life is been in transportation and now I get to combine is executive director of Néstor at which I started five years ago. I’m able to marry my two loves politics and transportation, and not too many people will admit to loving politics nowadays. But still, there’s. When I go to D.C., there’s still an energy there that I find exciting.
[00:03:50] If you seek collaboration and compromise and kindred spirits and and truly move the needle, it can it can still be found, put it in the political realm or elsewhere. You’re right. Greg, before you ask Gale about some of the key things from her presentation that some some deleted within our audience need to hear should know about. I don’t know about you, but I could tell in just Gil’s delivery. She’s been there and done that. She was she was ready. Not only did she cover some topics at that, I felt as know some things in the world transportation supply chain that I know deeply. There’s plenty of other stuff that I have a surface search, surface level understanding and get walked us through a variety of issues, including I’m oh twenty twenty. Yeah. And really as a gave us a great walking around view.
[00:04:34] But you know, I think a couple of things.
[00:04:37] One I learned of Gail, since you’re an email, you better open it up because she’s going to call you straight out if you don’t.
[00:04:44] But even more important than that, if that if it’s possible, even more important than that is Gail and the folks at Narced Track saw the carnage that we saw in the trucking industry coming. And to me, that cemented in my. Mind why an organization like yours is so valuable? Because so many people were caught unawares by that and simply by being as engaged in the market or probably engaged in the market through your organization. But at least as engaged in the market as your organization is, they could have easily seen it coming. I mean, you know, aside from that and maybe in addition to that. But are there other aspects of your you know, your presentation that you gave today that you feel are particularly important to reiterate here?
[00:05:31] I think the biggest thing just in general is that the impact that regulation and legislation has on not only transportation, but the supply chain in general. There are so many things that that if you’re a supply chain person, that the eighty five California regulation about co employment, that issue in and of itself could have a huge impact on the decisions you make and how you staff here, especially here in California, higher staffing. And if you’re not aware, then what’s going on, you could really be impact. Yeah. You get caught.
[00:06:02] You can get caught on the back foot for sure.
[00:06:05] So if we think about kind of the the executive summary of your presentation, if you’re thinking about two or three key items that it is important to Sheer and make sure it’s between folks two years. What else? What else, what kind of on your presentation?
[00:06:20] I think number one and we joke about e-mails, but stay informed. Aside from Patrick, there’s a lot of other ways out there that you can keep up on these issues through industry magazines and periodicals and in some of the e-mails that you get. But obviously, we have a Web site in the fast lane content hub where we post things that let our members know what’s going on in this legislation. Things have happened, particularly beginning of the year, know that January is a great time for a lot of things to go into effect until 2020. 85 was just rolled on January 10th, the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse on January 6th. And all of these things are just happening now and have the capacity to really impact the decisions that you’re going to make as you develop your transportation and supply chain strategy throughout 2020.
[00:07:05] So I don’t ask you a bit about Iamso 2020. So I was home with my family through the holidays and we started Daryl study and you started studying.
[00:07:15] I’m 022 and actually started to Brantly was a big fan. This is my extended family, my wife’s uncle, Uncle George.
[00:07:23] Who who who knows? Maybe. Listen, he was asking me about the the authority behind IIM-A 2020. Is it? Who’s behind mandating that? That’s driving the needle.
[00:07:34] That is the HMO of the AMA was the International Maritime Organization. It is a worldwide organization comprised of steamship companies and a lot of other international transportation groups that get involved in this and mandated this back in 2016.
[00:07:51] Is it a self regulatory organization? Is it an industry it regulatory regulatory organs? So it’s not it’s non-governmental anyway, right?
[00:07:59] It is not governmental in any way. However, it casts a pretty big shadow, obviously, and in the fact that most steamship lines are not American flagships. So I think one left. Yeah. Steamship line, that is American flag. So a lot of people in the U.S. really didn’t pay attention to particularly the refineries, but so they grew the refineries.
[00:08:18] You needed to make the fuel to make the fuel. Right.
[00:08:21] So this this group of foot there, there’s significant influence where this regulation and this industry change has teeth. Yes. Yeah, OK. So.
[00:08:30] So the heart of ammo is low. So for sulfur fuels, because heavy fuels, full sulfur. What I sell her high sulfur fuels, I think they’re much more polluted than these low. So for sulfur fuels, it’s hard for me to say.
[00:08:48] I know. Right. Yeah. Acronym. It hurts. It hurts. Yeah, you’re right. I saw the one you had on your presentation, not living below the letter stand. Couple of Patel as you could say. You got to go. I will hit the bar.
[00:09:01] But but I think the important thing for our listeners to understand is, is that the goal here and and because this is an industry organization, I think particularly to be applauded. But the goal is to reduce pollution. Right. Because these ships produce a tremendous amount of pollution. They’re usually diesel driven. Correct. And with that heavy fuel, they create a lot of pollution.
[00:09:23] I actually saw the fuel itself. It looks like tar drastically is what’s left when the refineries every find everything else they needed. It’s what it’s at the bottom of the barrel that they use to to move these ships. Wow.
[00:09:34] Well, you know what’s interesting, I saw an article in The Wall Street Journal a few months back and it pointed out that the supply chain behind the new fuel made may hit some challenges there, because right now you can get the correct fuel in any port. Right. Prevalent. Right. And as as as these ships move towards new fuel, that supply chain getting that to every port. So that really sticks. Is it gonna be a challenge? And then some of the new technologies that this article. As I recall, really pointed out in Asia, specifically Japan, how they’re looking at alternative fuels, you know, from the cook, the not cooking old, but some sort of oles and and batteries even, and they just have not haven’t not arrived at something that is is as robust as a crown.
[00:10:17] Well, in that and then in addition to all this, the steamship lines tried to use this as an opportunity to raise their pricing, which has been pretty depressed for a while. And that didn’t work so well. Yeah, the market didn’t exactly did it? Except it now. Capacity is pretty plentiful right now. So Ryazan drive those kind of increases, they were asking for that.
[00:10:36] So at the EFT, after your presentation, one of the questions you got asked you to speak on autonomous trucking and just this past week, I believe companies is plus that a. Oh, I could have that wrong. Anyway, this company, which is an autonomous trucking industry, was talking about how by the end of 2020 it will be prepared to run autonomous trucking in all the lower 48. However deeper in an article, what Greg White would you expect? What would be involved in the cabs of this truck? What would be involved in the cab of these truck that these autonomous trucks? Co-driver a driver and Ranzie Driver. Yes. So, you know, we see these predictions almost weekly, right, from different companies. And while we applaud certainly the innovation, I think that Tom’s I’ll get your your you weigh in on the scale. It can kind of be disingenuous in terms of what truly is a Thomas Trucking and and what that’s going to do with the market. You know, I’d love you to weigh in again, kind of as you address it in the Q&A.
[00:11:40] And I think, as I said, I think the biggest impact on this will be public perception. If you’re sitting there in your you know, your family’s suburban and you’ve got an eighty thousand pound vehicle bearing down real highway and you look and notice that there’s no driver there. There’s a perception there now about being unsafe with the car driving public, even though it has been proven to be relatively safe. They have been experimenting with platoons. Right. There’s things that are going on out there. But I think what we’re going to see and what we are seeing is more computerization within the tractor itself or computer assist in terms of accident assistance and braking and all that kind of stuff to make the driver more aware. So I think the driver it’s going to be more of an education for the drivers, become more technology proficient. Yes, we can utilize.
[00:12:26] You mentioned that in your presentation. And I was I have to admit, I was pretty surprised that the things that we have in cars or that you have even in some of the smaller vans. Right. The sprinter’s and the transit for trans advance. Right. You know, it’s surprising to me that in an industry with such an emphasis on safety that those don’t already exist. Why do you think it doesn’t?
[00:12:47] Well, some of it has existed in various formats. One of the issues that they struggle with and in fact, I just read an article recently, is the driver getting too distracted. So right now, if you go into a tractor nowadays, it looks like you’re in front of a computer yard. It looks like an aircraft coming. You want the driver to look? Yeah. Now, a pilot can go on autopilot.
[00:13:06] The truck can’t be also a pilot is alone by right, Miles? Right.
[00:13:11] So, yeah, he’s not sitting in downtown for so. So I think those issues kind of make it a little more difficult. Yeah. But I think the carriers have come a long way and I know that great. Some of the cool things that they’re doing with it with the truck tractor manufacturers is really interesting.
[00:13:25] Yeah. And we’re hoping we’d talk about this during National Truck Driver Week. How truck drivers are becoming technologists. Yeah. And hopefully that leads to more of the appeal. And one of things you touch on your presentation was the path that the talk of lowering the aged 18. There some obstacles and challenges there. I love how you put it, especially if you’re the parent of a teenager. Yeah, that might sound changing insurance for them. Exactly. You know, trying to get creative and do things differently to get around some of the challenges we have in the trucking industry.
[00:14:01] Right? Right. The one thing I didn’t mention, too, is that there is a big push to get more women behind the wheel.
[00:14:06] Yes. Yeah. There’s some great groups that we’ve rubbed elbows with over the years. Women in training. Ellen Voiceprint. Yeah. She came in and she spoke on a panel at the last mutex. It was here in Atlanta, 2018 eighteen. But that’s important. And you know, we need we need not just in trucking, but really across Supply chain. We’ve all read plenty of statistics and and background coloring behind some of the challenges there, but that that’s a welcome movement and hopefully continues to grow more Lix. All right. So let’s shift gears a bit. No pun intended. Let’s talk about twenty nineteen is January. Thanks for the courtesy. Yeah. So we look back to it looking back at twenty nineteen. What what’s gonna stick out in your mind. Let’s say it’s twenty twenty nine and the end you’re thinking about ten years ago. What are a couple of things. This. Last year. That are really going to stick with you.
[00:15:02] Honestly, the first thing that came to mind when you started talking, you mentioned the question is it was like the year, the exhale. You know, it was a chance for people to catch their breath and look about look at what happened and how they’re going to respond to it. As I mentioned, a lot of my network folks, we have been talking about this for a while. And even though it may not have taken them by total surprise, it was still a huge impact to their budgets to see it actually. How to explain to your sea level what happened when you have one hundred and forty eight companies mentioning transportation is having the biggest impact of their earnings history. You know, on Wall Street, that’s huge. Yeah. And while you’d like to think that any press is good press, it really didn’t help their transportation person sitting down there, having to explain to the sea level why they took a 20 percent increase in their freight budget this year. So I think I think 2019 should have been. Maybe it has been for some smart shippers a chance for introspection. Look back, see where our plan went awry. What are we gonna do to change and how are we going to make transportation a strategic part of our overall supply chain Kisha? How do we give transportation a seat at the table instead of waiting till something happen? I mean, 30 years of transportation, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times they actually get involved in a project before it went to hell, before it went to heck.
[00:16:19] You could say hell, you can’t say how sorry I was 20 years tracking.
[00:16:23] It’s funny because, you know, I was in I was in retail. Right. And I was really insulated from transportation to me. I press the magic button. The p0 was created. It went to Union Carbide or whoever. We had people, strange, strange people in this dark room in the corporate office who dealt with the freight forwarders and the carriers and that sort of thing. And I only had to yell at one person, right. If my shipment didn’t show up or I didn’t look like he was gonna show up on time. I went to that dark office and you were nice about that. Never set my foot inside the door. But I leaned in the door and I would say, fix it. Right. And, you know, and I have to admit that even after decades and decades, I’m not gonna say the third decade. Decades and decades of being in the industry. I was not aware of some of the issues that I would have considered. You know, I don’t know some of the issues that exist in this industry. Yeah.
[00:17:20] And I think I think it’s hell.
[00:17:21] I think a lot of companies are insulated from. Yeah. From what goes on in transportation. And I truth truly think we talk a lot about transparency in Supply chain. I think the transparency to how transportation works is critical to understanding your ability to perform at the level that your consumers and customers need. Right now you just can’t and you just can’t sweep it under the rug.
[00:17:44] Well, as in Michigan, through technology behind that, and that’s gone a long way to increasing visibility within transportation. There’s a human component in transportation that I don’t think will ever go away. And I think there’s there’s a part of transportation that when push comes to shove and you need somebody to help you, you’re not going to get the help a dylon up the computer or go into a computer. You’re going to get it by contacting your carrier, who you established a partnership with, who you’ve established strategic relationship with. Say, I need your help.
[00:18:12] And that’s never gonna go away, especially the problem solving related to the things we define as you have to put out every day. Exactly.
[00:18:21] Yeah. You can’t you can only use artificial intelligence for so much and then you need actual intelligence to exact. Right. The other way. So far. I see.
[00:18:30] All right. So I want to as we kind of worn down interview, doesn’t want to get you to weigh in on that. What’s the value to professionals for participating in groups like NASCAR Track and groups like CSC, NDP and other industry groups where you think folks stand to benefit the most?
[00:18:48] I think it’s so on two levels. It’s so important for people in the industry to be able to get influences from all over, from not just your company or not from your media colleagues, but it’s important to hear I’ve learned things in my interactions with associations from my colleagues that I could never figured out on my own to be able to call up a colleague at Johnson and Johnson or CBS or one of our other members and say, hey, I’m struggling with this issue. Can you help me? Yeah. Is is has been so invaluable in my career. And I know even it’s the same thing for SEUS MP when you’re dealing with these kinds of issues to be able to know that someone else is in that foxhole with you. You know, misery loves company and transportation, so it really works out really well. I think the other issue, too, it’s a value. I think that people that belong to the associations need to learn how to sell that value within their companies. And I think that’s where we’re failing right now. I don’t think we’re giving our members enough ammunition to go to their sea level and say, this is why I belong to see SCDP. This is why it’s important. Here’s why. I’m going to Washington, D.C. with Nasdaq. Yes. Here’s what it means to you and our supply chain. We need we need is an asset. Station to educate our folks about the agreed.
[00:20:02] I think one of the challenges, just from what I’ve seen them and my experience have been associations is twofold. Companies don’t invest. Some companies don’t invest enough into professional development and networking associations because what you what what you just said there in terms of the benchmarking, the best practice sharing and the kind of problem solving across the different four walls, that is invaluable. So companies need to figure out, hey, it’s not just about acquiring talent and keeping talent develop. They develop the talent.
[00:20:33] Right. You’ve got to nurture the knowledge base. But I’ve got to tell you, I got to augment your answer. I have to Sheer because your foresight, your organization’s research capabilities to have the foresight to see 2019 coming. You don’t need another reason than that to be associated to a group than that. You can’t have that kind of insight in that kind of market research inside your organization when your job is to create the products that are moved or to move the freight. You need somebody who’s taken that step back from operating to overseeing the practices in the industry and to advocating and analyzing what’s going on in the industry. I mean, you are so no one should ever get caught like companies did in 2019. And knowing and I have to tell you, obviously, I’m a little slow on the uptake, but obviously I just put it together right when you started your presentation that that what you all had available. Everyone else should have been accessing. Right.
[00:21:33] If they had known that, you know, if they had known or been a party to your organization, they could have had that same access to that information and not got caught on back foot. It could have saved companies. Right. Could help them mitigate a lot of that. I mean, the number of jobs, the number of jobs that were lost based on just the few companies that you listed on your presentation were substantial. And it could have saved jobs, it could have saved companies. It could save millions, maybe billions of dollars. You like to think so? You had that. That’s a business case, isn’t it? I mean, if you think about it, transportation is so transactional by nature. Yeah. That it’s very difficult for transportation people to get out of that foxhole, as you described it, and become strategic and make that look. So this is what Nasdaq’s mission is. And that’s why strategic is. I make jokes about it. That’s why it’s in our acronym that we need to teach transportation people how to be strategic. Yep. Yes, no doubt.
[00:22:21] Ok, so as we wrap up here, I know that you share some of the events and you had a great well-received webinar series, I think it was called The Maureen Storm. Perfect Stars When. All right. That was Storm and that’s the next one. Yeah.
[00:22:33] Well, we’re right in the middle of our next series called Breaking Down the Silos. We’ve already had two installments. One is transportation and finance, how to break down that silo. We had transportation and procurement. The next one’s coming up February 6th. And it’s with sales of those sales group.
[00:22:50] One point at me and say, what does everybody think on the sales? Just like a sales Miura idea.
[00:22:55] But I think it’s important for transportation to learn how to relate to these folks and understand how they can work together. So that’s some really great panelists who’ve already done some programs internally to improve that relationship. And you also will be at CSICOP Edge. We will be at edge. district as a track. Our spring meeting will be April 26 to 28 in Washington, D.C., where you can get like a full day of just transportation, education on some of the topics we talked about today. Terrific.
[00:23:21] Well, I really wish we had more several ARod with you. The things you spoke about in a great Reader’s Digest version and any short change of topics, you just kind of Sheer the most relevant and and pertinent information. So I enjoyed it today and that presentation is gonna be available, I think.
[00:23:37] So why don’t we make that available in the show notes here in case or any of our listeners wanna okay with my skills.
[00:23:44] And so last question, where can folks come out to learn more about Maastricht?
[00:23:48] Sheer a nice that org and a SS TR A-C dot org. Click on that organization. You can get information on the strategic shipper program. You’ll need information about our event and and you can get right to SC Competes page from there as well.
[00:24:02] Outstanding. Okay. Well, thanks so much. Big thanks to go. Rakowski with the with Nasserite. That’s ex-director nice track. Fascinating. Love what you do. I love your approach doing it. Yeah. So no nonsense.
[00:24:14] Matter of fact. Yeah. And funny. I mean, you have a good sense of humor. Open those emails. Yeah. What a pleasure.
[00:24:22] Thanks so much for being here with us, Gail. Thank you. Safe travels back to Chicago. And we’ll talk more with you. Thank you. So to our listeners. Thanks for checking us out here today. I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Gayle and Kendra and Caitlin as much as we did with CSC and Peatlands roundtable, kind of as our backdrop on the house.
[00:24:41] And if you think about our internal episode. Big thanks.
[00:24:48] Greg’s gonna break my legs here. Big thanks to both Chris Barnes executive producer and special contributor extraordinaire and my co-host, Greg White. Check us out. Find where we get your. Gas from you can also go to supply chain now radio dot com. And on behalf HULTINE, thanks for joining us. And we’ll see you next time on Supply chain. Now thinks about.
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Watch Scott and Greg as they welcome Gail Rutkowski to the Supply Chain Now booth at the CSCMP Atlanta Roundtable Event.
Featured Guests
Gail Rutkowski is Executive Director of the National Shippers Strategic Transportation Council (NASSTRAC). A veteran of more than 30 years in the transportation industry, Gail has experienced both sides of the industry, from shipper to carrier, from small shipments to truckloads, from domestic to international. Gail’s experience runs the gamut from private fleet management with Quaker Oats and Belden Wire and Cable, to truckload sales with C. H. Robinson, to transportation management with Thomas & Betts and Medline Industries. She started and ran the logistics services division at AIMS Logistics before leaving to start Wabash Worldwide Logistics, helping clients expand their 3PL service offerings, and manage their truckload services. Gail is past president of NASSTRAC and a member of their Executive Committee. Selected as NASSTRAC Member of the Year in 2001, 2005, and 2012, Gail became Executive Director in 2014. She has been a frequent speaker at a number of industry conferences and has published articles in Traffic World and LQ Magazine. In 2005, Gail was named one of the top 50 people in Logistics by World Trade Magazine. Learn more about NASSTRAC here: https://www.nasstrac.org/
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