[00:00:00] Shannon Vaillancourt: You have to focus on your payment data. I think too many, uh, folks are, are looking at the shipping data. They’re not looking at the freight payment data, which is what you’re really paying. that’s what you’ve gotta really try to harness is that data. ‘Cause I see too many of these companies where they’re just putting a total charge on a GL line for freight.

[00:00:22] Shannon Vaillancourt: that doesn’t cut it anymore.​

[00:00:37] Scott W. Luton: Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton and the one and only Kim Reuter here with

[00:00:44] Scott W. Luton: you on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today’s live stream. Hey, Kim, how you doing today?

[00:00:48] Kimberly Reuter: Good. How are you? 

[00:00:50] Scott W. Luton: Wonderful. Melting away. The heat’s coming

[00:00:52] Kimberly Reuter: Ugh. Don’t 

[00:00:54] Scott W. Luton: away.

[00:00:54] Kimberly Reuter: It’s too much. It’s too soon

[00:00:56] Scott W. Luton: Too soon. That’s right. We’ve enjoyed the spring, and I bet our guest is gonna have something to say about the heat out there in Arizona, but we’ll get to that in a second.

[00:01:04] Scott W. Luton: Folks, we’ve got a great conversation teed up here today. We’re talking about saving freight, saving freight expenses without launching a big old RFP, right? That’s a headache. We’re gonna touch on a wide variety of topics from how to identify those hidden costs across carriers, modes, and ex- uh, accessorials.

[00:01:24] Scott W. Luton: I can never say that word to save my life, Kim. Uh, how to optimize your carrier mix and routing using clean, unified data. And even better yet, how to realize anywhere from 5 to 15% transportation savings in weeks, not months, weeks. We’re diving into all that and much, much more. Now, Kim, given your impeccable track record of supply chain success over the last couple of, we won’t break the 20-year rule, last couple of decades, I’m looking forward to hearing your take here today.

[00:01:54] Scott W. Luton: You ready to go?

[00:01:55] Kimberly Reuter: Oh, yeah. Very… This is one of my passions for sure

[00:01:59] Scott W. Luton: It is. I’ve seen you in action, uh, my friend. I’ve seen you in action. So folks, we’re gonna get to work, and we’re gonna start by welcoming in an esteemed guest back by popular demand. Folks, he’s a 30-plus year industry veteran and innovative founder and CEO of RateLinx, a leader in supply chain analytics and data-driven optimization.

[00:02:19] Scott W. Luton: You guessed it, Shannon Vaillancourt’s back with us. You’re gonna enjoy Shannon’s perspective, practical perspective on the opportunities that almost every supply chain organization can take advantage of, as well as what’s going on out in the market. Let’s welcome in Shannon Vaillancourt Hey, hey, Shannon. How you doing today, my friend? 

[00:02:38] Shannon Vaillancourt: I’m doing well. How are you doing today? 

[00:02:40] Scott W. Luton: I’ll, I’d be doing better if I could pronounce accessorials. That gets me every single time,

[00:02:46] Scott W. Luton: Shannon and Kim 

[00:02:47] Shannon Vaillancourt: I know you got to say it slow. 

[00:02:50] Scott W. Luton: A 

[00:02:50] Scott W. Luton: syllable. 

[00:02:50] Shannon Vaillancourt: to be

[00:02:51] Shannon Vaillancourt: careful with that one. That’s why you got to say it slow

[00:02:54] Scott W. Luton: Hey, anything over three syllables, maybe sometimes over two syllables

[00:02:57] Scott W. Luton: really gets me. but um, really quick. Now, Kim, we were talking pre-show because Shannon Vaillancourt is the biggest Chicago Bears

[00:03:04] Scott W. Luton: fan, uh, to the west of the Mississippi River, ’cause he’s based in Arizona where it’s really

[00:03:09] Scott W. Luton: hot. So I want to ask Shannon,

[00:03:11] Scott W. Luton: uh, the draft was just a month and some change ago.

[00:03:14] Scott W. Luton: Shannon, what grade are you giving the Chicago Bears

[00:03:17] Scott W. Luton: draft?

[00:03:19] Shannon Vaillancourt: You know, it doesn’t matter anymore what happens. Uh, they’re gonna get an A grade from me. as long as they keep Ben Johnson. We have the, we have the best coach And we got the best quarterback in the league, 

[00:03:30] Shannon Vaillancourt: so the rest of it.

[00:03:31] Shannon Vaillancourt: doesn’t matter. 

[00:03:33] Scott W. Luton: Okay. I like

[00:03:34] Shannon Vaillancourt: it’s like 

[00:03:34] Shannon Vaillancourt: whatever they’re gonna do, we’re good with, So we trust them.

[00:03:38] Shannon Vaillancourt: Especially after last year’s draft, everyone’s like “Why’d they pick Colston Loveland? Why’d they get another tight end? That’s silly. They picked the wrong one.” 

[00:03:47] Shannon Vaillancourt: No, they didn’t. Not even 

[00:03:50] Scott W. Luton: I like that frank confidence in team leadership. Uh, and K- and Kim, I tell you what, uh, you are not a Bears fan. Uh, but I hope you were able to enjoy the draft somewhere, have a beer, and talk supply chain with somebody. Kim, was that on your

[00:04:06] Scott W. Luton: docket during the NFL 

[00:04:07] Kimberly Reuter: it was. I wouldn’t say I was really paying attention to the draft so much, but definitely the drinking and the talking supply chain were part of it. 

[00:04:14] Scott W. Luton: Well, in that case, we got a lot of good stuff here, uh, ahead of us here today as we talk through some great opportunities for folks out there, especially shippers. And I wanna start, Shannon and Kim, um, I wanna start by defining the problem. You know, why shippers overspend. So Kim, you know, you’ve worked across both large enterprises and a lot of fast-growing brands.

[00:04:37] Scott W. Luton: So I wanna ask you, why do shippers still overspend even when they already have contracts in place,

[00:04:42] Scott W. Luton: Kim? 

[00:04:43] Kimberly Reuter: So the two biggest that I see, and they’re actually related, is the creeping and unmonitored charges, right? So especially when you’re dealing in parcel freight and you have a large business, if your boxes are over dimming or over weighing or whatever, and you don’t know about it, you’re looking at thousands of packages, even maybe ten thousands of packages getting these additional charges before you realize you have a problem.

[00:05:08] Kimberly Reuter: So that is why having real-time data going against what you’re actually supposed to be charged so you can catch the problem quickly. I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve walked into and they’re like, “We have a $100,000 problem.” And that $100,000 problem took about two months for them to get. So those are the two biggest, are these unmonitored charges that are coming.

[00:05:29] Kimberly Reuter: They may even be in the contract. You probably even signed on for them. You just don’t know that they’re happening, and you can’t find it

[00:05:35] Kimberly Reuter: because you don’t have

[00:05:36] Kimberly Reuter: real-time data

[00:05:37] Scott W. Luton: Hmm. And that leads to a whole bunch of bad and suboptimal decisions. Good stuff

[00:05:42] Scott W. Luton: there, Kim. Uh, Shannon, as a, a follow-up question to you, you know, when companies don’t have visibility into some of the issues that Kim mentioned there and

[00:05:49] Scott W. Luton: others, you know, where

[00:05:50] Scott W. Luton: does the technology typically fall short there?

[00:05:54] Shannon Vaillancourt: I think it’s on, on the integration. I’ve always been a big proponent of the integration. Uh, you know, pulling all the data together into one spot and not only connecting it together, but showing it to the user in a way that they can understand it, I think is important. what’s interesting is that not everybody can consume numbers the same way.

[00:06:17] Shannon Vaillancourt: So, You know, as, an engineer, I look at numbers and they, they jump off the page to me. Uh, so I’ve done this with customers where I’m, I’m, going through their data and I’m showing them the reports and I’m like: Oh my God, look what’s happening. I’m like: It’s just, It’s screaming at me. And they’re like, What? I don’t, I don’t see it.

[00:06:35] Shannon Vaillancourt: And it’s because not everybody can consume numbers, uh, the same way. So it’s like you’ve got to not only pull all the data, connect it, but you got to present it to them in a way that they 

[00:06:45] Shannon Vaillancourt: understand very easily and can see it

[00:06:47] Scott W. Luton: Yep. And, and, you know, you make a great point

[00:06:50] Scott W. Luton: because that overspending isn’t, number one, it’s not

[00:06:53] Scott W. Luton: always obvious to anybody. And then kind of to your point, Shannon, it’s not always obvious to everybody in the

[00:06:58] Scott W. Luton: organization, you know, uh, because we all have different superpowers,

[00:07:02] Scott W. Luton: different skill sets. Some p- people like Shannon and Kim are

[00:07:05] Scott W. Luton: great at math. Some folks like myself,

[00:07:07] Scott W. Luton: not so much. And it can oftentimes also be buried down deep into the data. So I wanna talk about where those savings are, um, oftentimes really

[00:07:17] Scott W. Luton: hiding And of course, the opportunities that are at hand. So, you know, Kim,

[00:07:20] Scott W. Luton: when you look at a shipper’s network,

[00:07:23] Scott W. Luton: what are some of those first red flags that tell you there’s being– there’s money being left on the

[00:07:28] Scott W. Luton: table? 

[00:07:28] Kimberly Reuter: The first is if they, if they don’t have data, right? So first and foremost is I wanna see, you know, you’re monitoring your KPIs, how do you know what’s going on? Um, and then we start digging into it. And the biggest opportunities I see are underperforming carriers. Um, and I, this sounds really weird because it would be, it seemed like it would be really obvious if you have six or seven different carriers and one is underperforming.

[00:07:52] Kimberly Reuter: But it is very, very hard to identify an underperforming carrier in a large network and identify why they’re underperforming. And when you can get to that, then you can start having meaningful conversations. But I have worked with so many shippers that have one or two bad carriers on their network, and they’re actually afraid to get rid of them.

[00:08:13] Kimberly Reuter: Because they won’t have a backup or they won’t have a second or whatever the situation is gonna be. Um, but they, and they also can’t have meaningful conversation because they can’t actually identify the problem. kind of in this circle of low performance that they can’t get out of

[00:08:27] Scott W. Luton: Hmm. So Shannon, that begs the question, you know, uh, especially with you and the RateLeagues team, how do y’all help surface those opportunities quickly that Kim’s talking about without requiring that headache of a full sourcing event?

[00:08:40] Shannon Vaillancourt: I always find that the customers have good contracts. They have good pricing in place. They’re just not using it. Uh, and that’s where we can, you know, show them the opportunities that are there by, by just optimizing themselves within their current agreements. You know, you think about if you have a company that they put all their rates in place, and let’s say that they’re about 90% optimal.

[00:09:08] Shannon Vaillancourt: So nine out of 10 times, you know, they’re, they’re using the most optimal carrier based on the rates and, and their requirements that are in place. That’s still a big number if you’re missing the 10% opportunity out there, and that’s where having that visibility to see what, what is the one in 10? You know, ’cause that’s where, that’s where us as, as people, yeah, that’s where I always, you know, us as humans, we have a bad time with trend analysis ’cause we’re like, “What?

[00:09:39] Shannon Vaillancourt: Nine out of 10 times 

[00:09:41] Shannon Vaillancourt: I’m, I’m, I’m, doing the Right

[00:09:42] Shannon Vaillancourt: thing, so I’m getting an A, Right

[00:09:45] Shannon Vaillancourt: It’s like, well, when I was in college, well, some of my classes that wasn’t an A, um, as an engineer, it was 94. So– And that was ridiculous, but, you know, you could argue with them all day long, man, and they’re like, “Look, nine out of 10 is not good enough as an engineer.”

[00:10:03] Shannon Vaillancourt: So, but here that’s where people are like, “Well, only one out of 10 times.” You know, just like we would fall into that trap sometimes with, you know, I would see this on LTL with floor charges, and they’re like, “Oh my God, our floor charges are out of control.” And I’m like, “Well, how often does that happen?”

[00:10:17] Shannon Vaillancourt: They’re like, “Half the time.” I’m like, “Yeah, but it only accounts for 10% of your spend.” And they’re like, “Yeah, but it’s half the time.” 

[00:10:25] Shannon Vaillancourt: Again, that’s where you got to have the data there showing them the right way, ’cause unfortunately we’re– most people just 

[00:10:34] Shannon Vaillancourt: can’t feel the, the patterns the right way 

[00:10:37] Kimberly Reuter: They can’t see the trends. And, and that’s what I see is unless you have, unless you’re like Shannon and I

[00:10:43] Kimberly Reuter: and you were born into supply chain,

[00:10:46] Kimberly Reuter: um, and have been doing this since

[00:10:49] Kimberly Reuter: tablets were made of stone, um, you don’t know, and you can’t see the trends. And that’s a

[00:10:55] Kimberly Reuter: lot of what Shannon’s talking about here, is sitting down with the customer and saying, one,

[00:11:01] Kimberly Reuter: “Here’s a trend that you’re not seeing.

[00:11:03] Kimberly Reuter: Two, here’s what’s causing your trend. Here’s the thing that’s

[00:11:07] Kimberly Reuter: happening five steps back, you know, that happened five steps ago that actually made

[00:11:13] Kimberly Reuter: this happen. It didn’t happen by what happened yesterday. This was caused by the way that your container was packed in China.

[00:11:20] Kimberly Reuter: This was caused by the contract.

[00:11:22] Kimberly Reuter: This was caused by how you booked it. This was caused by all of these other things that happened four or five

[00:11:28] Kimberly Reuter: steps ago. And because you’re not a supply chain

[00:11:30] Kimberly Reuter: expert and you haven’t been doing it since the beginning of time, you can’t see it.”

[00:11:35] Kimberly Reuter: And what Shannon is able to do is

[00:11:37] Kimberly Reuter: help you identify that problem before you get the $100,000 bill 

[00:11:44] Scott W. Luton: that’s a perfect segue, Kim. Perfect segue. Uh, you’re describing a bunch of situations, and we, we’ve all been talking about some different conditions,

[00:11:53] Scott W. Luton: the different reasons why these mistakes and these bad decisions happen. Now we’re gonna kinda segue into how

[00:11:59] Scott W. Luton: shippers can actually uncover and act on these opportunities, right?

[00:12:04] Scott W. Luton: 10% may not sound like a lot, but that

[00:12:05] Scott W. Luton: could be a massive, massive opportunity. And better yet,

[00:12:09] Scott W. Luton: how they can act on these opportunities again without an RFP. So, Kim, when you bee-bop into an organization and you see that the data’s messy, because you’re the deacon of data, we’ve established that over, over the course of the last couple

[00:12:21] Scott W. Luton: years, what’s the first step to turning that into something

[00:12:25] Scott W. Luton: actionable?

[00:12:26] Kimberly Reuter: The first thing we have to do is figure out what the KPIs are. What are we try- what do we need to monitor first and foremost? And, and you will be surprised how many companies I walk into and they’re like, “Uh, we just monitor the ETA,” or, “We just monitor when it’s supposed to show up at the warehouse.”

[00:12:42] Kimberly Reuter: You’re– They’re not monitoring customs clearance, when the freight’s available, when it was picked up, when the carrier was notified. They’re not mo- not monitoring any of that. They’re just waiting for a truck to show up at the warehouse. And when it doesn’t show up at the warehouse, they’re like, “Well, we don’t know what happened.”

[00:12:56] Kimberly Reuter: And so that is the level of, like, management and insight that you have to have in supply chain to keep from having that $100,000 surprise bill is what is going on. Where is your data coming from? You have to have a master data. That’s another thing wh- I run into all the time, multiple sources for data.

[00:13:17] Kimberly Reuter: One source for data, a daily report that is published and is reviewed, and a weekly review with management. Like, you have to have that to know what’s going on

[00:13:25] Scott W. Luton: Hmm. All right. So Shannon, from a RateLinx perspective here, now that we’ve kind of heard from Kim, uh, talk about some of the things that are very common out in, out in organizations, you know, what are the most important insights or views shippers need to focus on to start optimizing spend, Shannon?

[00:13:43] Shannon Vaillancourt: Well, you’ve gotta see what, how it’s made up, uh, first and foremost. uh, you know, if you don’t understand what’s driving your total charge, um, it’s gonna be hard to manage. ’cause you could have, after the fact accessorial charges that are causing, you know, the creep in your spend. Uh, or it could just be like, like Kim said, could be master data, where, when you’re shipping it and you’re doing your routing and optimization, you’ve got bad master data, So you thought it was a certain size, a certain weight, uh, and it wasn’t. So that could change the carrier that you end up ultimately using. And it’s like we see, unfortunately we see that quite a bit. so that’s where by having all this, again, integrated together so I can see what, What you thought it? was.

[00:14:35] Shannon Vaillancourt: ‘Cause that’s where I always talk about the shipment record is, is hope. So when you wake up in the morning, get your first cup of coffee, everything’s great, man. You’ve got your plan. It’s gonna be awesome today. It’s what you hope it’s gonna be, and then reality hits. And it’s like, So, how do you reconcile the two?

[00:14:52] Shannon Vaillancourt: And that’s why by pulling this all together, you can show that, you know, here’s the real problem. It’s, again, it’s not a maybe it’s not even a rate issue. Uh, again, optimize within your own, uh, rates first before you try to go out and, and reduce the rate. It’s like, ’cause I could give you a reduced rate, you’re not gonna use it.

[00:15:13] Shannon Vaillancourt: And it’s, and, and here’s why you’re not gonna use it, because of all of these things that we’re seeing, bad master data, or maybe you’ve got a bad process that’s not allowing you to use that carrier at the right time. And it’s like, here you just went and, wasted your time and probably upset a carrier or two that you’re gonna need, 

[00:15:32] Shannon Vaillancourt: because of that.

[00:15:33] Scott W. Luton: Hmm. Kim, hope and pray is not part of a, a proven optimization strategy,

[00:15:38] Scott W. Luton: is it?

[00:15:38] Kimberly Reuter: It is not. Um, I can tell you that for sure. I’ve never seen that

[00:15:41] Kimberly Reuter: work out. Uh, and Shannon’s talking, is kind of touching on something that’s sort of important. Well, not sort of important, really important, because RFPs take months, okay? I hate personally, I’m not an RFP

[00:15:52] Kimberly Reuter: person. Um, they take forever. Big consulting company

[00:15:58] Kimberly Reuter: RFPs are like six-month processes. And here’s the thing, and Shannon just said this, you can have the best

[00:16:03] Kimberly Reuter: contract, you can have the most amazing contract in the world, but if that

[00:16:08] Kimberly Reuter: carrier is not a carrier that you can use or if you’re not monitoring that

[00:16:12] Kimberly Reuter: they’re sticking to that contract, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. And so one of the things that we always talk about, you know, we’re talking about RateLinx, we’re kind of the tail-

[00:16:21] Kimberly Reuter: not the tail end, but the, well, sort of the tail end of the logistics piece and the supply chain

[00:16:25] Kimberly Reuter: piece.

[00:16:25] Kimberly Reuter: But here’s the thing. We don’t know what buyers are thinking. In supply chain and the logistics portion, we have no idea what

[00:16:32] Kimberly Reuter: buyers are thinking. And we all know they’re a little crazy, right? They don’t, they’re not completely logical. They make weird decisions. Um, they buy, you know, 40 40-footers of salt for no reason.

[00:16:44] Kimberly Reuter: Um, and then, and then they, and then they’re like, “Oh, go pick it up,”

[00:16:47] Kimberly Reuter: right? So that is why you

[00:16:50] Kimberly Reuter: have to have, one, visibility. Know who your carriers are and where they’re performing

[00:16:56] Kimberly Reuter: best, right? Um, you don’t wanna send your LTL carrier to poke up, pull up 40 40-footers worth

[00:17:02] Kimberly Reuter: of, you know, salt. Yeah, they’ll do it, but they’re not gonna be

[00:17:04] Kimberly Reuter: best at it.

[00:17:05] Kimberly Reuter: So you need all of this visibility in one

[00:17:08] Kimberly Reuter: place so that you can manage and you can flex with the business, because we all know the supply chain is the last to know when something’s

[00:17:17] Kimberly Reuter: coming 

[00:17:17] Scott W. Luton: All right, Kim, uh, we’re gonna be walking through here, uh, in just a second what all of this really looks like in practice, what Shannon and Kim both are talking about in practice. We’re gonna make this conversation very actionable, which is so important now that we’ve really set the table. But first, I want to say hello, Edgar.

[00:17:37] Scott W. Luton: Great to see you, Edgar. He says, uh, “Great day for Kimberly, Shannon, and Scott all the way from the Silicon Val- Valley of logistics in Aguascal- uh, Aguascalientes, Mexico.” I hope I said that right. But Edgar, welcome in. I’d love to get your take on what we’re talking about here today. Okay. Now we’ve set the table, Shannon and Kim.

[00:17:59] Scott W. Luton: And Shannon, I wanna talk about what RateLinx actually reveals when you analyze the treasure troves of, of shippers’ data, right? What are the first insights that typically stand out, Shannon?

[00:18:12] Shannon Vaillancourt: you can see the quality of the data, and I think that’s, that’s important to understand, too. Do they have good quality data, and where are the gaps that they have? Uh, So in order to have good quality data, it has to explain– data has to describe the situation that you’re looking at.

[00:18:29] Shannon Vaillancourt: So, you know, from a freight perspective, you think of, the different modes. That’s a lot of different, you know, data points that you have to capture and And be accurate on. Uh, so does it, first of all, you know, handle all that? And then, you know, does it also have The additional context that’s required? You know, one thing that sometimes is overlooked is, um, routing requirements. So you know, who exactly are you shipping to? Why exactly did you do that? Um, “You know without knowing the exact customer, uh, or even an order number perhaps, you can’t make the right decision on it. ‘Cause I’ve seen that happen too, where people have, have run their analysis And they’re like, “Oh my God, there’s, you know, thirty percent of savings in here.” and then you find out that all that savings is because they have a routing exception. You know, they’re shipping to retail perhaps, and it’s like you gotta use one of these three carriers. So, you know, are they at least using the most optimal of those three? That’s something to understand. by showing a thirty percent savings, you’re not using any of those three.

[00:19:35] Shannon Vaillancourt: So that’s why when you put it in place, all of a sudden you don’t end up saving the money you thought you did. So that’s why I always think about the context, um, ’cause it’s not just, you know, a shipment’s a shipment’s a shipment. That’s not how it is. You have requirements. Sometimes it could be based on the item, the value, how likely it is to be damaged.

[00:19:55] Shannon Vaillancourt: You have to use certain carriers, Um, to do stuff. And it’s like you gotta optimize within that. that’s what I’m looking at when I look at the data is, again, how many of these data points can I see, uh, so that way we can help 

[00:20:09] Shannon Vaillancourt: drive decision-making for them

[00:20:11] Scott W. Luton: All right. So Kim, you were nodding your head a lot at

[00:20:13] Scott W. Luton: what, at, at what Shannon was saying.

[00:20:16] Scott W. Luton: Uh, pull out one very important nugget that he was sharing.

[00:20:20] Kimberly Reuter: I think the biggest thing I, I heard him say is using the right carrier for the right

[00:20:25] Kimberly Reuter: product. and you know, as you said, you could have all these contracts, but you don’t have somebody who specializes in perishable, as an example. I do a lot of cold chain stuff.

[00:20:35] Kimberly Reuter: So, you know, do you, are you working with a carrier

[00:20:37] Kimberly Reuter: who can handle cold chain? Um, is it their specialty? Uh, do they care about it, you know? And here’s

[00:20:44] Kimberly Reuter: another thing I think, you know, when we talk about using data

[00:20:48] Kimberly Reuter: to make your decisions and really digging into that data, you know, what Shannon is really, um, putting forward here,

[00:20:54] Kimberly Reuter: because look, almost every trucker’s gonna tell you they can pull it.

[00:20:58] Kimberly Reuter: If the price is right. Let’s be honest, right? Like, oh, oh, I’ve never pulled a reefer in my life, but for $1,200 I will pull a reefer. Um, I don’t have reefer insurance. I don’t know how to keep the gen set running. I don’t even know how to do any of that stuff, but I’ll pull it for you. And so there, that’s where you have to take control of the decision-making and saying, “I appreciate that, Greg, that you wanna pull my, my reefer worth of $200,000 worth of frozen crab legs, but you don’t have the insurance policy to cover that if it gets stolen.”

[00:21:30] Kimberly Reuter: And so these are the kinds of decisions that you have to be able to make, and you can’t make those decisions quickly if you don’t have all that information together in one spot. And then you can’t manage it to make sure they did it right

[00:21:44] Scott W. Luton: Gotta protect those crab

[00:21:45] Scott W. Luton: legs, especially if it’s the Luton 

[00:21:47] Kimberly Reuter: It’s a 

[00:21:49] Scott W. Luton: I believe it. I 

[00:21:50] Kimberly Reuter: thing. Like seafood s- uh, they se- steal seafood all the

[00:21:54] Kimberly Reuter: time. 

[00:21:55] Scott W. Luton: Well, s- so let’s talk about one lane in particular, whether you’re

[00:21:59] Scott W. Luton: shipping, uh, crab legs or tulips or whatever. Common example,

[00:22:05] Scott W. Luton: Shannon, of, of a lane quietly driving up costs that a shipper may, uh, might not catch onto on their own

[00:22:13] Shannon Vaillancourt: Well, I mean, we had this happen with a customer of ours. so funny story, uh, this is a while ago. We had a customer that they did a survey of their customers out there, and they asked them, “What’s your favorite toilet?” And they were picked as their favorite toilet. The problem was they didn’t make toilets. 

[00:22:37] Shannon Vaillancourt: So they said, you know, what? Maybe, maybe we should make toilets.” So they did. And so the toilets get pulled in from, you know, Asia into the Port of Long Beach, And then they start shipping them out, and they’re all coming out of their DC in California, in Southern California. And, uh, you know, they’re using the same routing that they were using for the rest of their product, which was not toilets.

[00:23:03] Shannon Vaillancourt: Um, so very different product. And our system showed, you know, we have a loss savings KPI where it shows what it is. Um, and it showed that it’s coming out of this location, and it was– that, location was specific for these toilets. and they’re like “Oh my God, this is great. This is the greatest thing ever.”

[00:23:23] Shannon Vaillancourt: And I, and at first I was like, “What do you mean? You guys are spending way too much.” and they’re like, “No. Normally we would’ve just gone a whole year, and then we would’ve looked at it and gone, ‘Oh my God, how come the rollout was so bad? We didn’t make any money, or we lost a lot more, money than we thought.'”

[00:23:39] Shannon Vaillancourt: They’re like, this. is awesome.” So then they were able to fix the routing, And then their loss savings just, boom, dropped down to nothing. It was like $200,000 to zero overnight. and it was because they finally could measure it. And, and I always find it, ironic that, it was toilets ’cause I’m like, “Yeah, your

[00:23:55] Shannon Vaillancourt: freight went in the, went in the toilet.” and they’re like, “Ha ha ha.” 

[00:23:59] Shannon Vaillancourt: And they’re like, No, it did though.” I mean, that’s a true story. So, I wish, uh, I wish I was embellishing on the toilet thing, but that… I was like, wow, that was 

[00:24:08] Shannon Vaillancourt: wild. 

[00:24:08] Scott W. Luton: I bet, well, I bet you’ve, over the course of, uh, over 20 years, uh, you know, 30 years in the industry, uh, Shannon, uh, as we were saying in the pre-show, I bet you gotta write a book, and Kim’s gotta write a book because there’s a lot of good stories out there that you can, all of you can’t share in public. 

[00:24:24] Scott W. Luton: you know, I think it’s important to talk about how RateLinx helps shippers evaluate carrier performance beyond just on-time delivery. Shannon, your thoughts?

[00:24:32] Shannon Vaillancourt: whole point of the carrier is to get the product there in, in one piece on time, uh, that you want. And I think, you know, there’s a lot more that goes into it. think everybody forgets about the, the payment of it. Uh, what about the data that you’re getting from the carrier? Is it still timely?

[00:24:52] Shannon Vaillancourt: You know, we talk about data quality, like I said earlier, does it accurately describe the situation? Well, one other, uh, attribute to data quality is, is it timely? Um, So are you getting good data from the carrier that then is matching up, uh, that has your key field information in it Uh, so how’s that working?

[00:25:11] Shannon Vaillancourt: And then just how are they to work with, uh, on a daily basis? there’s a lot more to it than just the delivering of the product. And I think that’s where capturing all that information, keeping all that into one spot, uh, so that way you can measure the true quality of the carrier is very important.

[00:25:29] Shannon Vaillancourt: And that’s where I think a lot of customers forget about that and they’re just, you know, fixated on getting the late deliveries, uh, marked. but it’s like that’s Sometimes it’s not the carrier’s fault either. There really are every once in a while some acts of God, uh, or you held them at the dock too long.

[00:25:46] Shannon Vaillancourt: Um, or, know, it got to a big yard and just didn’t get checked in, or it got checked in And didn’t get to. a dock on time. I mean, it’s, there’s so much more, uh, into this. And until you’ve been on a dock and experienced it, you can’t appreciate how big some of these places are that, that these carriers are coming in and out of.

[00:26:06] Shannon Vaillancourt: So, so that’s why you gotta 

[00:26:07] Shannon Vaillancourt: have the whole picture, I think

[00:26:09] Scott W. Luton: Well, speaking of the whole picture, you know, uh, going back to you, Kim. You know, Shannon was describing some of the real-time data and visibility that’s,

[00:26:17] Scott W. Luton: um, that really is so available here in 2026, and we were talking pre-show just how far we’ve

[00:26:22] Scott W. Luton: come, 

[00:26:23] Scott W. Luton: uh, you know, in the, in the last couple decades.

[00:26:25] Scott W. Luton: But Kim, when companies don’t have this kind of visibility, what

[00:26:28] Scott W. Luton: happens? 

[00:26:29] Kimberly Reuter: they start getting charges. So,

[00:26:32] Kimberly Reuter: Shannon makes

[00:26:32] Kimberly Reuter: an excellent point, which is when we talk about logistics, uh, we almost always talk about was it delivered on

[00:26:39] Kimberly Reuter: time. Uh, that’s

[00:26:41] Kimberly Reuter: almost the only thing we ever focus on, right? Did it arrive on time? But the truth is, is that when there’s a problem

[00:26:47] Kimberly Reuter: and it didn’t arrive on time, there’s about 20 little data points that we need to figure out what happened.

[00:26:53] Kimberly Reuter: Because you need to really start managing when was it

[00:26:56] Kimberly Reuter: gated in, when was it gated out, when

[00:26:58] Kimberly Reuter: did it get to the

[00:26:59] Kimberly Reuter: door, how long was it at the

[00:27:00] Kimberly Reuter: door, um, when was it transloaded, where was it transloaded, what was it transloaded with? There are all these data points that go into a trucking delivery that a lot of people don’t even think about, especially if they’re not in supply chain.

[00:27:15] Kimberly Reuter: They’re only thinking about, hey, um, did it arrive? But we need to know all of these other things. And the other thing that having all of these data points does, it doesn’t just help you problem solve when you have a problem, it actually helps you avoid a problem. Because when you start doing this the right way, you attack it at the gate out, right?

[00:27:36] Kimberly Reuter: Oh, well, that truck didn’t gate out at the right time. It gated out late, or that truck gated in late. We gotta get it to a door. We’ve got to prioritize that over the other trucks because we need that inventory. You can start making those decisions, but you have to have all of that information. It’s not just about UTA

[00:27:54] Scott W. Luton: Yep. Well, one of the decisions, uh, I think Kim touched on in her last response, uh, Shannon, you know, how does RateLinx identify when something should shift between parcel and LTL and truckload as an example? Your thoughts, Shannon

[00:28:08] Shannon Vaillancourt: And again, just having all the right information.know, we have a lot of customers that are able to supply that data to us. So they’re, through the TMS, they’re able to, to shop between them all and make sure they’re picking the right carrier that will get it there on time. ‘Cause, you know, what’s interesting is you think about on the LTL side, a pallet of stuff.

[00:28:31] Shannon Vaillancourt: You know, if it’s nicely boxed, you can fit a lot of boxes on a pallet. So from an LTL perspective, one pallet of goods is a lot of boxes. Whereas if you’re going parcel, you could ship that parcel, but that’s a lot of boxes. You know, imagine the, the parcel guy showing up. So we do, we do have a customer who will ship a 500 box shipment via FedEx for real, but they do it for a reason.

[00:29:03] Shannon Vaillancourt: And the reason is the handling because of where they’re delivering to. You cannot get a pallet in there. But then on the flip side, I’ve got customers who will cap it at like 20 packages. I’ll only go parcel at 20 packages or less because of the handling, not only in their warehouse, but on the delivery side.

[00:29:24] Shannon Vaillancourt: And so they’re taking that cost into account. So Yeah

[00:29:27] Shannon Vaillancourt: LTL is a little more expensive. Still gonna have the right transit time to get it there. But from a handling perspective, it’s gonna be handled better through an LTL network all together. It’s gonna be shrink wrapped. When it gets to the delivery point, it’s gonna get unloaded the right way, all that stuff.

[00:29:44] Shannon Vaillancourt: So that’s where, again, taking all of those accounts, this isn’t just a freight cost exercise. There’s a lot of other factors that go into it and, and that’s where we’ve done that, where we’ve had to look at those other factors and incorporate them into the decision-making. So now you think about on your measuring side, are you doing the same measurement or are you just like, “Oh my God, why did this go LTL?

[00:30:07] Shannon Vaillancourt: It should have gone parcel.” Or, “Why did this go parcel? It should have gone LTL.” You gotta have all of those factors in play, and you have to have that type of complexity, and that’s the, that’s the whole picture 

[00:30:19] Shannon Vaillancourt: that we talk about. Everybody’s a little different

[00:30:21] Scott W. Luton: Kim, uh, I wanna circle back based on what Shannon has shared, what both you and Shannon have

[00:30:26] Scott W. Luton: shared thus far at, at about the halfway point of

[00:30:29] Scott W. Luton: today’s show, because there’s lots of different reasons why organizations ride that struggle bus, right? Uh, whe- whether they’re

[00:30:36] Scott W. Luton: struggling to see the opportunities, identify them, act on them.

[00:30:41] Scott W. Luton: Um, and oftentimes it can be

[00:30:42] Scott W. Luton: because a lack of the,

[00:30:45] Scott W. Luton: uh, correct or,

[00:30:46] Scott W. Luton: or targeted technology or lack of adoption of technology, or

[00:30:49] Scott W. Luton: maybe, maybe it’s, it’s just in their

[00:30:51] Scott W. Luton: blind spot. But, you know, why do most organizations ride that struggle bus and fail to capture these opportunities that you and Shannon are talking about?

[00:31:01] Kimberly Reuter: Oof. Uh, if I really knew the answer, uh, I could officially retire. Uh, I don’t know the real answer because I d- I haven’t figured it out. Like, I’m like, “Why would you not pay

[00:31:10] Kimberly Reuter: attention to this?” So here’s my take on it

[00:31:13] Kimberly Reuter: in all these years in working in supply chain. First and foremost, supply

[00:31:16] Kimberly Reuter: chain is almost always managed as an expense.

[00:31:20] Kimberly Reuter: Um, and so it’s at the bottom. It is not ever seen as being revenue generating, which I think

[00:31:25] Kimberly Reuter: is a, mistake, especially in e-commerce, because, uh, supply chain is revenue generating. Uh, and so it’s managed as kind of like an afterthought, and people don’t think about supply chain until they get the $100,000 surprise accessorial charges.

[00:31:39] Kimberly Reuter: And then they’re like, “Oh my God, what’s going on with this group over here that we had no idea what these guys do, but evidently they’re doing something that’s gonna cost us $100,000?” So supply chain is almost never in the forefront until there’s an issue, and I had hoped that COVID would change that, but

[00:31:56] Kimberly Reuter: we have definitely gone back to that 

[00:31:58] Scott W. Luton: So it’s like, uh, what you’re saying is maybe seven steps

[00:32:01] Scott W. Luton: forward since the old Stone Age days and now a couple steps back in in some cases, 

[00:32:07] Kimberly Reuter: Yep. In a lot of cases, the s- you know, the, during COVID, the C-suite was all about supply chain.

[00:32:13] Kimberly Reuter: Shannon, you probably saw this too. Like, all of a sudden, I’m getting phone

[00:32:16] Kimberly Reuter: calls from CFOs and CEOs, and they’re like, oh, and CMOs. I’m like, “Cheese and rice, when the marketing guy calls you, you know it’s bad.”

[00:32:24] Kimberly Reuter: Um, and so, and then, like, during COVID,

[00:32:26] Kimberly Reuter: like, I I I could not get off the phone with the C-suite. COVID stopped, things went back to normal.

[00:32:32] Kimberly Reuter: I have not talked to a C- I talked to maybe, You

[00:32:35] Kimberly Reuter: know, old clients who cl- st-

[00:32:38] Kimberly Reuter: you know, who, “Hey, we need your help. Can you come back in?”

[00:32:40] Kimberly Reuter: But I’m back to talking to VPs And directors

[00:32:44] Scott W. Luton: Um, cycles, cycles. Uh, you know, so what’s

[00:32:48] Scott W. Luton: clearly though, folks, if you don’t get help from a platform like RateLinx, get help somewhere. And if you wanna kick the tires on RateLinx, I know Shannon and the team will, will be more than happy to take your questions, give you a demo,

[00:33:00] Scott W. Luton: um, give you a

[00:33:00] Scott W. Luton: sense of what you could save, what, uh, how you could enhance your performance, all that stuff.

[00:33:04] Scott W. Luton: Shannon welcomes those

[00:33:05] Scott W. Luton: conversations. 

[00:33:06] Scott W. Luton: when you bring

[00:33:06] Scott W. Luton: it all together, right, clean data, lane insights, carrier

[00:33:10] Scott W. Luton: performance, mode optimization, and, and, and many other things that you and

[00:33:14] Scott W. Luton: Kim both have talked about, what kind of impact do you typically

[00:33:18] Scott W. Luton: see with your customers?

[00:33:19] Shannon Vaillancourt: 10, 15, 20%, uh, savings impact. not only that, you see just streamline, uh, processes. And, and I think it’s just, you’re gonna see a lot of confidence. Um, you know, with the, the challenge is always them seeing the data, but, you know, they could quickly go out to, you know, the warehouse and make a quick change that’s gonna leverage what they currently have in place.

[00:33:46] Shannon Vaillancourt: I mean, you know, we’ve had customers where uh, they’ve looked at the data and, and it was just a small tweak they had to make, and all of a sudden they’re saving a million dollars. same exact carriers, they just made a slight change to how they’re processing it out there. Again, no RFPs were required.

[00:34:04] Shannon Vaillancourt: They didn’t have to get new rates in place or anything like that. Or, or they see that it’s a, a creep on a certain charge, and they’ll go work on that charge, um, whether it’s, uh, talking with the carrier or getting the right carrier to handle that freight because of the type of freight it is and with the charge they have. so that’s where you can make some pretty quick impacts, and I think that’s the other thing is the time to value. Because you’re not doing an RFP, you know, your typical three to six-month slog through an RFP, you can get these things in a week or two. Uh, So that’s where the time to value makes it well worth it. and I think that’s what holds a lot of people back, is they don’t understand the full scope of it, uh, So they don’t understand the return that they could possibly get, and they don’t know how, um, because they’re not quite sure where it’s all coming from. to me, freight, the one thing I learned getting into this industry was there’s a– it’s not logical all the time.

[00:35:04] Shannon Vaillancourt: Um, you know, as an engineer, I came in and I thought I knew a lot of stuff, and I realized I quickly knew nothing. Uh, and I had to really learn about a lot of stuff. You know, just how, you know, like LTL, how they deficit weigh. and I’m like, “I don’t understand. I just add air? Just whatever up to…” And they’re like, “Yeah.”

[00:35:25] Shannon Vaillancourt: I’m like, “I don’t get it.” But, you know, that’s how it is Uh, And it’s like, so you think about that, you could add a little bit more onto that pallet for free. And it’s like, but again, is your ordering pattern the right way? we’ve had customers where they looked at the data and what, they saw was that they had a customer that was ordering And they were shipping to them every day.

[00:35:46] Shannon Vaillancourt: And they talked to the customer and they’re like, “Hey, can we just ship to you on a Wednesday?” And they’re like, “Yeah, yeah, that’s, fine. We always wondered, why’d you ship to us every day?” So then they were able to… And it, and so they were able to hold it to a Wednesday, and all of a sudden, the customer they thought was the most profitable, they ended up, you know, was not profitable because of the everyday shipments.

[00:36:05] Shannon Vaillancourt: They then flipped them to become profitable. So again, That’s where 

[00:36:09] Shannon Vaillancourt: pulling all this data together is so important

[00:36:11] Scott W. Luton: that’s such a great anecdote there, uh, Shannon. Kim, I’ll get your r- response. If you don’t, you know, i- if, um… It goes back for me to one of the other anecdotes that, that, uh, Shannon shared about a customer that, that ships all those boxes parcel, right? But they knew why they did it, right? And, and for that business, without me not knowing much more to the story, it made sense for them.

[00:36:33] Scott W. Luton: Unfortunately, and I know I’ve been there, uh, when I was in, in manufacturing, sometimes we’d ship stuff just to get it out, and we really wouldn’t know why we were doing certain things. And kind of to Shannon’s point, well, gosh, if I kn- if I had that option, we don’t have to do it like we’ve done it for seven years.

[00:36:48] Scott W. Luton: We send it to all of you on, on Wednesday instead of every day of the week. Oh my gosh, it can, it can game change your relationship just with that one customer. And then you scale it across enterprise, you’re like, “Oh my gosh, we would hit the lottery.” Kim, react just to what Shannon shared there

[00:37:02] Kimberly Reuter: you know, Shannon touched on something really specific, which was confidence, and that when we can get this kind of data and people can rely on it, and we can communicate that information to the rest of the organization, it helps the supply chain team build confidence. Because the truth is, the supply chain is always under attack because when things go badly, supply chain’s the first place we stop, right?

[00:37:25] Kimberly Reuter: This is where it happened. This is where the problem… And so supply chain’s trying to problem solve and run their business and optimize all at the same time. So it can be very daunting. So be able to have all of this information together and have software that can help you make the right decision quickly is very valuable

[00:37:45] Scott W. Luton: Yep, I’m with you. Um, okay, so let’s do this. You know, um, not long after we last got together, uh, Shannon and Balan Court, we said, “Hey, let’s run a quick poll.” And we ran, I think, a flash poll around, uh, to, to members of our, uh, our ecosystem here at Supply Chain Now asking what their biggest freight cost headaches were right now.

[00:38:07] Scott W. Luton: And I’m gonna, I’m gonna, uh, show this up here. Uh, look at this. So rising freight costs came in at 48%. And there, there were several dozen responses here. I think it was like a one-day or maybe a

[00:38:17] Scott W. Luton: two-hour poll or something like that So 48%. Too many manual processes came in at 15%. Lack of shipment visibility came at 15%.

[00:38:26] Scott W. Luton: Here’s that word again. Accessor- accessorial and billing issues came in at 15%,

[00:38:31] Scott W. Luton: and carrier performance and communication came in at 4%. So Shannon, first,

[00:38:37] Scott W. Luton: um, any surprises, just your observations on these

[00:38:40] Scott W. Luton: responses?

[00:38:41] Shannon Vaillancourt: Well, what’s interesting is it’s, you know, rising freight costs, lack of shipment visibility, accessorial. So only 15% were accessorial and billing issues. So the rising freight cost tells me they don’t know the makeup

[00:38:54] Shannon Vaillancourt: of the freight. they’re looking at total charge, and they’re like, “I don’t know, total charge is up. and it’s like, “Well, why?” And you know, what what specific area is it up. in? And they don’t, they don’t know, That’s why that’s just all lumped into rising freight costs. 

[00:39:10] Scott W. Luton: Kim, what’s your

[00:39:11] Scott W. Luton: reaction to, to this breakdown? 

[00:39:14] Kimberly Reuter: I thought it was interesting that carrier performance and communication only came in at

[00:39:17] Kimberly Reuter: 4%, which is interesting to me because this used to

[00:39:22] Kimberly Reuter: be a big issue, right? Communicating with your carrier and managing their performance was horrendous, and it used to be a big, like, I remember back in the day, I had a carrier I had a problem with, and I had to

[00:39:35] Kimberly Reuter: make them, this is back when you used faxes. They had to fax me back a signed receipt of the delivery

[00:39:42] Kimberly Reuter: orders. Because they were saying they weren’t getting them, right? So, so communication has

[00:39:49] Kimberly Reuter: gotten so much better that only 4% actually care about it, right? When back in the day, that used

[00:39:54] Kimberly Reuter: to

[00:39:54] Kimberly Reuter: be the biggest issue. We were just joking when we started, like Shannon and I remember when

[00:39:59] Kimberly Reuter: you couldn’t track a package. And if you did track a package, you had to pay for tracking.

[00:40:05] Kimberly Reuter: Um, and so we’ve come such a long way. So

[00:40:07] Kimberly Reuter: that’s what really stuck out to me is that we at

[00:40:10] Kimberly Reuter: least have solved that problem, it looks like

[00:40:12] Scott W. Luton: Yeah. Um, all right. And, and, and by the way, uh, Shannon and Kim, beyond what y’all have shared, you know, there’s probably no end in sight. I think diesel, uh, fuel pricing, uh, on average, I think it’s $2 more than it was at this point last year. And, and, you know, there’s not any relief on, in the, uh, short-term horizon.

[00:40:31] Scott W. Luton: So, uh, so, you know, that’s all the more reason I believe, Shannon and

[00:40:36] Scott W. Luton: Kim, hey, why not take this step change opportunity based on the current book of business,

[00:40:41] Scott W. Luton: the current customers, your current volumes,

[00:40:43] Scott W. Luton: your current expenses? Hey, you got a great opportunity here to find, I think as we put on the front end, Shannon, 5 to

[00:40:48] Scott W. Luton: 15%.

[00:40:50] Scott W. Luton: That dog will hunt. So Shannon, let’s do this. You know, folks out there know I love a good case study. I guess I’m just a big old nerd like that. Uh, so Shannon, walk us through a real example where a shipper avoided a full RFP but still achieved meaningful, tangible savings 

[00:41:08] Shannon Vaillancourt: probably a good one that we ran into was one customer where, on the, parcel side, looking at their metrics on, on their freight, and they’re noticing that their cost per pound is going up. and it was going up in, it was like, you know, middle of the year, so it wasn’t around a rate change ’cause, you know, that’s immediately what you think.

[00:41:31] Shannon Vaillancourt: You’re like, “Well, of course, cost per pound goes up. There’s a rate change, you know, January.” It’s like, no, this was just at an odd time of year. and so they’re digging into it, and they’re, and they’re looking at my zones haven’t changed, my weight hasn’t changed, my, my dimensional weight hasn’t changed.

[00:41:49] Shannon Vaillancourt: You know, nothing’s really changed. They’re like “We don’t understand what is going on. Why is our cost per pound going up?” once we started looking at the rest of the data, what we saw is that their LTL shipment counts have gone up, their parcel shipment counts have gone down. 

[00:42:06] Shannon Vaillancourt: so what happened is they’re, they moved a tier on their incentive discount with, uh, parcel.

[00:42:14] Shannon Vaillancourt: So that’s why their cost per pound went up. They lost part of their discount. And that was because you go back to the beginning, they had changed, their whole, uh, distribution, uh, process. So, they were trying to do fewer shipments that were bigger. That way they’re going more LTL and truckload, less parcel, you know, ‘Cause again, the most expensive pound of every shipment is the first one. So you try to pay for that as few a times as possible. And so what they were able to do was go back to the parcel carrier and, and change their incentive discounts to get back to where they were. So that was a quick… I think it took them, like, a week, and they had that all corrected and fixed, and it was like, you know, it was a pretty substantial number that they ended up saving on parcel, millions of dollars for that.

[00:43:03] Shannon Vaillancourt: And it was just, again, they had made this huge, you know, decision on changing how they’re gonna move freight and, you know, there’s always a consequence. You know, there’s a, there’s a cause and action once you get into this level of complexity with freight that you gotta look at everything. And, uh, luckily they had the trends to see that, oops,

[00:43:24] Shannon Vaillancourt: it’s all of a sudden went up 

[00:43:26] Scott W. Luton: Shannon, I’m gonna ask you your biggest takeaway from that example. Um, I know there’s many others, and I

[00:43:32] Scott W. Luton: appreciate that. Uh, you accumulate quite of those examples, uh, over the last, uh, two decades plus, I’m sure. but Kim, when you hear

[00:43:39] Scott W. Luton: that, like for me, when I hear that, it’s

[00:43:41] Scott W. Luton: like take whatever opportunity, especially when you’re talking about innovative technology, right?

[00:43:48] Scott W. Luton: To examine the current state of the business and, and all of us. It’s, it’s part of us being human, I

[00:43:52] Scott W. Luton: think. We kind of assume certain things are locked in, and we walk right past opportunities every day.

[00:43:58] Scott W. Luton: And I’m not just picking on… I’m picking on all of us, including myself. We m- we, we walk past so many opportunities.

[00:44:04] Scott W. Luton: But what was your– what do you think is a big takeaway from the anecdote Shannon just shared

[00:44:07] Scott W. Luton: with us? 

[00:44:08] Kimberly Reuter: based on my own experience as well, is that an RFP is a one-time event, okay? So you go out, it’s this big thing. They’re always full of dog

[00:44:16] Kimberly Reuter: and pony shows. It’s really hard to figure out what’s

[00:44:19] Kimberly Reuter: going on Um, and they take months and months and months and months.

[00:44:22] Kimberly Reuter: And a lot of times you pay a consultant thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to put

[00:44:27] Kimberly Reuter: this information together for you. And then once the RFP

[00:44:30] Kimberly Reuter: is done, it’s done. that’s it. you still have to manage your supply chain. You still have to manage that contract you

[00:44:39] Kimberly Reuter: just came up to. You still have to make sure the carrier is managing, is reaching those

[00:44:43] Kimberly Reuter: KPIs.

[00:44:44] Kimberly Reuter: So RFPs aren’t really that valuable because it’s just a one-time search for a rate. It’s not actually optimizing what you’re doing on a daily

[00:44:54] Kimberly Reuter: basis. and,

[00:44:55] Kimberly Reuter: all the examples that we have used today have been when a company introduced a new product, 

[00:45:01] Kimberly Reuter: a new customer, or a new carrier and something broke. Now, if you had had visibility every single day, not just when you did your six-month RFP, if you were optimizing every single day, you will catch those things because supply chain is living.

[00:45:20] Kimberly Reuter: It changes 

[00:45:22] Kimberly Reuter: daily. It changes hourly. We can go from sunshine to a snowstorm, supply chain completely screwed. That’s the end of it. So this concept of we manage it once and we pay a lot of money to manage it once is dead. You have to manage it every day

[00:45:40] Scott W. Luton: Well said. Deacon of Data. Uh, you didn’t have the Rolling Stones opening for you, Ken. That was great. Um, so Shannon, from that anecdote you shared, or maybe in the broader sense, because, you know, you’ve, you’ve got the luxury of having seen many, many companies, big, small, different sectors, all points in between, you know, try to tackle this thing.

[00:46:01] Scott W. Luton: You know, what’s the biggest

[00:46:02] Scott W. Luton: takeaway from that example or your experience, especially for those teams that are looking to do this themselves?

[00:46:08] Shannon Vaillancourt: I mean, Kimberly hit it right on the, on the nose really. Um, to me, the reason why I, I enjoy this industry and I like what I do is it’s always changing. you do your one-time RFP, you’re doing it based on that point in, time. That point in time means a lot of stuff. so based on what you’re trying to accomplish that day, what you think your freight looks like.

[00:46:36] Shannon Vaillancourt: So now all of a sudden you, you roll those rates out, you fast-forward three, six months down the line, and manufacturing has decided to change how they’re putting product together. All of a sudden now you go from product that has 10% plastic parts to maybe it’s 40%. That just blew up what you did on the RFP.

[00:46:58] Shannon Vaillancourt: Everything changed. So you have to be measuring and monitoring this because as we’ve said to people, sometimes your freight characteristics change. You know, maybe I’ve got a big customer on the East Coast, and all of a sudden I’ve got a great sales guy who brings up somebody in the, in the West Coast. whoops, I didn’t account for that when I was doing the RFP ’cause I was more focused on the southeastern part of the country, and I have my great carrier mix down there.

[00:47:23] Shannon Vaillancourt: And now I’m sending one of those guys out west, and I’m like, “Wow, what’s going on here?” So that’s where I love it. There’s, you know, we always used to joke back when I first

[00:47:33] Shannon Vaillancourt: started, there’s, you know, three sure things in life, you know, death, taxes, and a UPS rate change. 

[00:47:38] Scott W. Luton: Right 

[00:47:41] Shannon Vaillancourt: I, still think that’s true.

[00:47:43] Shannon Vaillancourt: Uh, 

[00:47:43] Shannon Vaillancourt: but you know, there really is, you know, things in life that you can count on, and it’s that freight changes, man. There’s, there’s three sure things in life, probably death, taxes, and, and just stuff changes. Uh, and you’ve 

[00:47:56] Shannon Vaillancourt: gotta stay on top of it

[00:47:57] Scott W. Luton: Well said. Well said. And, uh, uh, the Bears winning a Super Bowl at least once a century, Shannon. 

[00:48:05] Shannon Vaillancourt: That’s it. So yeah, don’t 

[00:48:07] Shannon Vaillancourt: even kidding. Not going to– Hey, I, I’m only kidding. As Atlanta Falcons fan, I’ve got no room to stand on. Uh, I get it. Only kidding. Um, all right, 

[00:48:16] Scott W. Luton: So this has been a great, very practical, tangible, actionable discussion. So to that end, so Kim, for team, teams out there just getting started, right? Maybe especially when it comes to applying innovative technology to how they ship, you know, to,

[00:48:32] Scott W. Luton: um, How

[00:48:33] Scott W. Luton: they f- how they boost their supply chain performance.

[00:48:35] Scott W. Luton: I know we’re in a golden age of supply chain tech, but you’d be surprised, especially the companies I talk to all the time,

[00:48:41] Scott W. Luton: we still have a lot of immaturity in industry. So Kim, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to folks out there?

[00:48:48] Kimberly Reuter: Find software that, uh, makes your life easier in supply chain. You have to use data. You have to use data. You cannot use anything

[00:48:58] Kimberly Reuter: else but data in supply chain. And here’s the other reason you wanna use a software like, uh, RateLinx or any other type of software. When you can use data, and you can trend, and you can produce reports, you can now communicate back up the chain.

[00:49:13] Kimberly Reuter: And this is a big, you know, Scott, as you know, I’m a big proponent of this, is supply chain not staying silent and siloed, and that you’re communicating back up the chain. So when you can get this data that we’ve been talking about here and these use cases and these examples that we’ve been talking about today, and you can go back to your marketing team or back to your merchandising team and say, “Hey, when you did this thing and you didn’t tell me, this is what happened.

[00:49:37] Kimberly Reuter: This is how much it impacted the company. Um, in the future, if you were tell me that we’re gonna have a release of specialized, uh, extra long golf clubs, that would be helpful because then I can make sure

[00:49:50] Kimberly Reuter: that we have the rates available for that over dim thing that we’re gonna be sending out.” Um, but a- again, I’m always trying to push supply chain people to communicate out.

[00:50:02] Kimberly Reuter: Don’t just be the receiver. You have to proactively go out to the organization and tell them how it’s working

[00:50:09] Scott W. Luton: That’s right. Kim, that’s a T-shirtism. We gotta make sure s-supply chain does not stay silent or siloed. That’s a new T-shirt coming to the 

[00:50:18] Scott W. Luton: SCN merch store. That’s right. That’s right. Uh, and by the way, I have a hard ti- hard enough time swinging normal-sized golf clubs. I don’t want any extra large golf clubs, but Shannon, uh, Shannon does not.

[00:50:31] Scott W. Luton: Shannon swings them like the best, and his sons do, too. Uh, all right. So Shannon, if there’s one thing, we got a bunch of shippers out there that are listening or they’re watching, you’re tuned in, uh, and they’re fighting the good fight, right? They’re trying, like most, like overwhelming majority of workforces, they wanna show up, make an impact, make better decisions, you know, really deliver.

[00:50:51] Scott W. Luton: What’s the one thing that these good shippers gotta focus on, especially if they wanna see results quickly?

[00:50:56] Shannon Vaillancourt: you have to focus on your payment data. I think too many, uh, folks are, are looking at the shipping data. They’re not looking at That the freight payment data, which is what you’re really paying. Uh, and that’s what you’ve gotta really try to harness is that data. ‘Cause I see too many of these companies where they’re just putting a total charge on a GL line for freight.

[00:51:22] Shannon Vaillancourt: that doesn’t cut it anymore. gotta have the freight payment data in all its, you know, glorious details, uh, laid out there, uh, and matched up with your shipment so that way you understand how that happened. You know, why did that happen? How did that happen? You know, we always talk about the three Ds, diagnose, develop, deploy.

[00:51:44] Shannon Vaillancourt: You know, diagnose the problem So when you develop the solution, it’ll work when it’s deployed. Too many people are, you know, shoot, ready, aim. Uh, they deploy software and they’re like, “This is supposed to save me 20%.” You know, put a TMS in, it’s supposed to save me 20%. It’s like, no, not if you’re just gonna automate the same decision-making process that you’re going through. it’s just gonna spend your money faster 

[00:52:11] Scott W. Luton: and the great news, uh, the great news out there for folks is, uh, especially in this golden age of supply chain tech, if you can avoid, as Kim was saying, the, the slick sales presentations and really dial it in on what you’re looking to do, what, what success looks like, what you’re looking for in a technology platform, and you’re talking with quality, um, providers that have been in the industry for a long time, there are options.

[00:52:34] Scott W. Luton: There’s options to certainly elevate your performance and, and delight your customers like never before. And Shannon, I know that you invite those conversations. You invite all the folk, even the skeptics out there, Shannon. You, you’re what you love talking with all of them, one and all. Is that right, Shannon? 

[00:52:52] Shannon Vaillancourt: I, I enjoy a great conversation. 

[00:52:54] Scott W. Luton: Yes, you do. Yes, you do. 

[00:52:56] Scott W. Luton: Yes, you do. Uh, all right. So folks, as we wrap up here today, a couple key takeaways that, that I’ve written down on my 12 pages of notes here today at least. Um, we gotta innovi- uh, identify cost leaks already in your network.

[00:53:10] Scott W. Luton: That’s such one of the biggest takeaways,

[00:53:11] Scott W. Luton: folks. Um, it’s, it’s where you are, right?

[00:53:14] Scott W. Luton: Finding solution and finding big-time opportunities where you already are. Using clean, unified data to uncover opportunities. You know, the deacon of data that’s endorsed by Kim’s position there. Don’t be silent and siloed. And then we can take action quickly without the need for a big old headache of an RFP that, uh, I think Kim or Shannon said it, just doing the RFP is one thing, then you got more work to do after you’ve done it.

[00:53:42] Scott W. Luton: We don’t have to do that. So take those two things to heart. Uh, and also we’ve got some resources here. So first off, you gotta be connecting or if at least follow Shannon Vaillancourt and Kim Reuter on LinkedIn. I promise you, you’ll be glad you did. Lots of opportunities and, and insights there. Secondly, Shannon challenged you.

[00:54:02] Scott W. Luton: If you wanna see how any of this works in your own network, s- uh, reach out to him and the team. We’ll drop a link You can request a free savings snapshot from RateLinx. Takes a few minutes, uh, and it gives you highlights where you can reduce spend right away. So we’re gonna drop the link to the organization right there.

[00:54:19] Scott W. Luton: And then lastly, Shannon, y’all have got another big conference coming up, InSight 2026, hosted by Shannon and the RateLinx te- uh, team. How long you been doing this event, Shannon? 

[00:54:32] Shannon Vaillancourt: This will be our 

[00:54:35] Shannon Vaillancourt: third or fourth? 

[00:54:38] Scott W. Luton: Oh my gosh. 

[00:54:39] Shannon Vaillancourt: I don’t know. 

[00:54:40] Shannon Vaillancourt: Some 

[00:54:41] Scott W. Luton: a third or fourth. 

[00:54:42] Scott W. Luton: Yeah, that’s what 

[00:54:43] Shannon Vaillancourt: Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to believe that we didn’t do this because this one’s gonna be, uh, I think very more hands-on, uh, than, than the previous years. We’re gonna have breakout sessions. That way people can, can dig into how to do some of this stuff with the tools that they have 

[00:55:00] Shannon Vaillancourt: in front of them.

[00:55:01] Shannon Vaillancourt: So I think it’s gonna be really worthwhile 

[00:55:04] Scott W. Luton: I’m with you. I, I, I’ve enjoyed it when I’ve been out there. I can’t, uh, uh, y’all gotta be at least, like, I don’t know, 15 years doing it. Feels like it. But, uh, folks, coming up, uh, October 13th, 14th in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

[00:55:16] Scott W. Luton: the agenda’s gonna be published real soon, ’cause October’s gonna be around the corner soon. Uh, and again, it’s gonna be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, where I bet Shannon would welcome a nice round of golf with folks out there, maybe between the sessions. We’ll see. Um, all right, so Shannon Vaillancourt, Kim Reuter.

[00:55:34] Scott W. Luton: Kim, first off, wanna thank you. I really enjoyed, uh, our collaboration over, uh, the years, and I’ve seen you talk on all sorts of different things when it comes to supply chain and entrepreneurship and, and, uh, e-commerce, you name it. Really enjoyed your perspective as always. Thanks for 

[00:55:50] Kimberly Reuter: Thank you. Thank you. for having me. I love being here

[00:55:54] Scott W. Luton: Um, and Shannon Vaillancourt, once again, you’re rocketing up the appearance charts.

[00:55:59] Scott W. Luton: Uh, I’ve enjoyed our discussion since you and I sat down in Phoenix 

[00:56:04] Scott W. Luton: at a DEM– Yeah, that’s right. Uh, I think it was a Demska conference way back in the 

[00:56:09] Scott W. Luton: day. 

[00:56:10] Shannon Vaillancourt: Yeah, way back when. 

[00:56:11] Shannon Vaillancourt: Yeah, it was when I first moved out here too.

[00:56:13] Scott W. Luton: Right. And, but RateLinx continues to innovate and grow and thrive. And, and Shannon, always a pleasure to connect with you. Thanks for being here 

[00:56:23] Shannon Vaillancourt: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you. 

[00:56:24] Scott W. Luton: But, uh, folks, you got homework. Shannon and Kim brought it today.

[00:56:28] Scott W. Luton: Been there, done that perspective. You got to take one thing from today’s very actual conversation, put it into practice. Deeds, not words. That’s how we’re gonna continue to get stuff done. And with all of that said, Scott Luton here on behalf of the Supply Chain Now team, do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed, and we’ll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now.

[00:56:47] Scott W. Luton: Thanks, everybody.