2022 will be a year of change for shippers. Labor shortages are causing the carriers to struggle to meet capacity demands. Meanwhile, consumer demand for sustainable practices is on the rise. Carriers have always taken a sophisticated approach to determining pricing and routing freight, but the disruptions of the last two years are forcing them to completely recreate their projections – even as labor shortages and spikes in demand for capacity make it hard to establish a baseline.

Caleb Nelson is the Chief Growth Officer at Sifted, a logistics intelligence platform that helps parcel shippers leverage their data to implement the changes necessary in this ever-shifting market.

In this interview, Caleb simplifies the complexity of shipping costs with co-hosts Scott Luton, Greg White, and a Supply Chain Now livestream audience:

• The multitude of challenges being caused by shortages of labor and capacity, how companies are responding, and whether it is jeopardizing their profitability
• The growing pains being felt as companies scramble to build new projections after the disruption of COVID-19
• What all these pressures in combination are going to do to peak seasons – for shippers and carriers

Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the voice of global supply chain. Supply Chain Now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues, the challenges, and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on Supply Chain Now.

Scott Luton (00:31):

Hey. Hey. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you are. Scott Luton and Greg White with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today’s livestream. Gregory, how are we doing?

Greg White (00:40):

We’re doing great. I love that you do that now. I mean, we’re global, universal maybe.

Scott Luton (00:47):

Yeah. Maybe so. Maybe we’re sharing some best supply chain practices to folks in different parts of the solar system. You never know, supply chain is pretty popular these days, right?

Greg White (00:57):

We’re about to know aren’t we when they get that new – what is it called? John Well?

Scott Luton (01:03):

Yes. You’re talking about the John – it’s the Webb telescope. It’s in place –

Greg White (01:10):

Yes. John Webb. That’s it.

Scott Luton (01:11):

Yeah. I think you’re right. And we should be seeing images from that in just a couple months. That should change fundamentally our entire understanding of the universe, so we’re looking forward to that and hope we don’t find anything that we don’t want to see, Greg. We’ll see.

Greg White (01:25):

Right. Well, we’ll see where we came from, they said. Because it’s going to be imaging things that happened as much as 13.5 billion years ago, because of the speed of light. So, I mean, we may see back to the Big Bang. It depends on how accurate everybody is in terms of estimating how old the universe is.

Scott Luton (01:47):

Yes. James Webb Space Telescope, that’s the official answer. Someone from NASA [inaudible].

Greg White (01:52):

There you go. I know you’re excited about that. And that’s almost as exciting is what we’re going to talk about today.

Scott Luton (01:58):

Well, you know, that’s a great segue. I’m going to take a second stab at it, because you said Big Bang. Well, folks, we got a big homerun show today as we’re going to be talking about becoming a data driven super competitor to navigate all these global supply chain hurdles. And to become, not only more successful, but more sustainable. They’re almost inseparable these days, right, Greg?

Greg White (02:20):

They are. You’re right. I mean, assurance, sustainability, fair trade, accurate pricing, all of that stuff is really so interconnected with all the enterprise data that exists out there and how to do something with it.

Scott Luton (02:35):

Right. So, to help us with that discussion, we’re going to bring in the James Webb of supply chain. It’s Caleb Nelson with Sifted. So, buckle up and get ready because we want to hear from you too. Hey, we’re going to stay hello to a bunch of folks that are already logging in. Let us know folks where you are tuned in from, we’d love to make that connection.

Scott Luton (02:55):

But quick program note before we get started here today, Greg, coming up on May 18th, it is the 2022 Supply Chain and Procurement Awards. Registration is open. We’ve had over a hundred nominations. We’ve got a lot of tough judging exercises and decisions to make. But, folks join us for free. You can learn more at supplychainprocurementawards.com, and you can register for the two hour virtual event, especially on LinkedIn, where over a thousand people have already joined us, and we’re still a month and a couple days away.

Greg White (03:30):

That’s right. Have we elected a chief justice among our judges for this?

Scott Luton (03:36):

That’s a great question. We’re going to have to jump on that, Greg. Thank you for being the parliamentarian of the awards.

Greg White (03:43):

Always here to serve. I mean, it’s not just a recognition for companies around the world who are doing great things. It’s a fundraiser for a company, a nonprofit that is doing great things to stop human trafficking and slavery.

Scott Luton (03:59):

That’s right. And Greg’s talking about our friends at Hope for Justice. So, a lot of good stuff going on there, you know, celebrating with purpose. That’s the best way to do it. So, folks, join us, that’s May 18th. I want to say hello to a few folks. We got a big conversation, again, with Caleb Nelson and Sifted coming up in just a second.

Scott Luton (04:18):

Tempest is back with us tuned in from Texas via LinkedIn. And, Greg, we asked Tempest the question about where she’d gotten her name from. She was named after the Huxtable, I can’t remember the character’s name, but Tempestt Bledsoe played the character on the Cosby Show. Remember that?

Greg White (04:33):

Yeah, I do. I don’t remember the character name, but I do remember the name Tempestt. Yeah.

Scott Luton (04:38):

So, Tempest, welcome back in. Hopefully, Texas, the weather out there is nice today. Clay Phillips, “The Dawg,” of course is back with us via LinkedIn. Great to see you. Steven Bush tuned in from Kennesaw, “Happy Friday”.

Greg White (04:51):

[Inaudible].

Scott Luton (04:52):

That’s right. That’s near your former neck of the woods, right? Current, former, whatever.

Greg White (04:58):

Yeah. Former tennis partner, Steve Bush.

Scott Luton (05:00):

Okay. Very good.

Greg White (05:01):

He’s the better half of the tennis partnership.

Scott Luton (05:04):

Okay. Steven, we got to get the goods from you on Greg White’s tennis game, the champion tennis game.

Greg White (05:10):

Nobody’s seen it for quite a while, by the way.

Scott Luton (05:12):

Great to see you, Steven. Keivan is back with us. Keivan, great to see you. He’s tuned in via Facebook. “Good morning/ good afternoon/ good evening/ good night,” he says. Keivan, let us know what you’ve been up to lately. Peter Bolle is all night and all day, Keivan deserves a very similar nickname for sure. Nozipho, tuned in via Facebook, great to see you here today. Look forward to your perspective on the conversation. Joseph, tuned in via LinkedIn, “Good afternoon,” he says. Hey, let us know what are y’all from. Ken Allen from Nashville, “Glad to be listening.” Greg, one of our favorite cities and home of hot chicken.

Greg White (05:51):

This is Kenny Bob, right? This is Kenny Bob’s barbecue sauce.

Scott Luton (05:57):

It could be.

Greg White (05:58):

I think so.

Scott Luton (05:59):

So, Ken, let us know if we’re connecting the right dots. Hey, look here. Ramsey Midkiff, the one and only Ramsey MidKiff, “Good morning Supply Chain Now crew. Coming in from Waxhaw, North Carolina.” Great to see you, Ramsey.

Greg White (06:13):

Say it again.

Scott Luton (06:14):

Waxhaw, you know, is my stab at it. I might be butchering it. Ramsey, let me know. Ramsey knows I have trouble pronouncing even the word pronouncing. I have a hard time with pronunciation, it’s well documented. It’s great to see you here, Ramsey. Okay. Welcome everybody. Looking forward to your comments as we work to a great conversation here today. With no further ado, Greg, let’s welcome in our guest.

Greg White (06:42):

That was quite a bit of ado, so we should have no further of it.

Scott Luton (06:46):

No further ado, let’s welcome in Caleb Nelson, Chief Growth Officer with Sifted. Hey. Hey. Caleb, how are you doing?

Caleb Nelson (06:53):

I’m doing good, Scott, Greg. It’s so great to be here. I’m excited to be on the show.

Scott Luton (06:58):

We are too.

Greg White (06:59):

Glad to have you.

Caleb Nelson (07:00):

If we can just talk about the James Webb Telescope for the next, like, hour, I would be super happy.

Greg White (07:08):

Yeah. I’m with you.

Caleb Nelson (07:09):

It blows my mind.

Scott Luton (07:10):

Go ahead, Greg.

Greg White (07:12):

It’s super impressive. I can’t remember, I watched some kind of report, it may have been a YouTube thing, but what a feat of engineering that thing is?

Scott Luton (07:20):

Really, we could easily talk about it for the rest of the afternoon. I’m hoping, I’m keeping my fingers crossed, we all know all the things that can go wrong. It’s amazing what the team has done just to get it in orbit, I think a million, 2 million miles away, whatever that is. And, now, as they fine tune the cameras and get all the programming working, I think we’re going to see some mind blowing and we’re going to know so much more about the universe. And, Caleb, to your point, it boggles my mind just the sheer science behind it, so I’m with you there.

Caleb Nelson (07:48):

The engineering is unbelievable. But you’re totally right, the images that will come out of that should be pretty amazing, pretty stunning. I can’t wait.

Scott Luton (07:58):

Agreed. So, let’s remember, Caleb Nelson, Greg, is the James Webb of supply chain. So, that’s the first time we’ve used that.

Caleb Nelson (08:06):

Yeah. I’ll gladly take that title.

Greg White (08:07):

You can see into the past and, hopefully, into the future because we could really use that.

Scott Luton (08:12):

That’s true. True. So, I got a great segue here, because we’re going to talk about food first. It is National Gardening Day today, April 14th. And to close the loop here, Greg, you’re right, Ken Allen, he represents – probably the founder and owner – of Kenny Bob’s Sippin, Dippin, and Flippin Sauce. I love that. Pre-show we were talking about fry sauce, Caleb, which is legendary out there in Salt Lake City where you are, and that’s where I want to start. We’re going to get into supply chain and the heavy lifting in a minute, but with National Gardening Day, I got two questions for you. First off, green thumbs, any green thumbs in your family? And then, secondly, this time of year, what’s your favorite food to consume?

Caleb Nelson (08:54):

Oh, man. So, the first is easy. My mom is a green thumb. She didn’t always start out as a green thumb. It wasn’t until I was a teenager and we put a garden in the back that she said, “I’m going to plant”. And when we all were sitting down and asking, “What did you plant?” Like, selfishly, “What are we going to enjoy this summer?” “Tomatoes.” That’s all she planted. And it was because she didn’t want it to be a failure for her first garden.

Caleb Nelson (09:21):

And let me tell you guys, I am so sick of picking tomatoes. When I turned 18 and I left the house, I made a vow to myself never to pick another dang tomato in my life.

Scott Luton (09:36):

Greg, I have yet to successfully grow one tomato bush in my entire life. And Caleb’s over here saying I’m tired of picking them, because they’re so successful.

Greg White (09:46):

Well, I mean, you’re controller, Scott. My wife is outstanding at it, and she grows them in relatively small quantity. And I can verify that they’re delicious because I’ve asked the deer who routinely eat them.

Caleb Nelson (09:59):

That’s exactly right.

Scott Luton (10:01):

All right. So, we know what Caleb is not looking forward to. So, clearly, the documented green thumb is his mother. So, what’s one food this time of year that you love to put on your plate?

Caleb Nelson (10:13):

You know what? It’s artichokes, oddly enough. If you haven’t had a really good freshly picked steamed artichoke – my kids love it – it’s one food, one vegetable, we all sit down and enjoy together as a family. And I realized that the other day, the reason why is because it’s just a vehicle for the butter dipping sauce that you typically dip it into. So, it’s all about the butter.

Greg White (10:38):

It is a deliberate advice.

Scott Luton (10:40):

It is. Caleb, I knew for some reason that you fit right in and you’re just further proving our case here today. Hey, really quick, Greg, we’ve got Barbara, who’s driving up to Nashville. Barbara, connect with Ken and get some of that Kenny Bob’s Sippin, Dippin, and Flippin Sauce. I can’t say that enough. Waldemar, great to see you here today, tuned in via LinkedIn. Dani Lewis tuned in via LinkedIn from Atlanta, GA. And the one only Rob Tiffany, superstar. He says, “It’s all about the butter.” Rob, great to see you.

Caleb Nelson (11:11):

See, Rob gets it. He gets it.

Scott Luton (11:13):

Really quick before we move forward with Caleb and talk global supply chain, Greg, what’s one thing you’re looking forward to this time of year?

Greg White (11:24):

Egg salad. Always egg salad. And I was reminded of that – I know. I know. I’m a [inaudible] man. I was reminded, I’m in Hilton Head now, and people who have been at the Masters are regaling me with all of the joys of Augusta. And egg salad is one of those things. I’ve never been to the Masters and had their egg salad. Because my kids’ spring break was always the week of the Masters and we have just got them all to where their spring breaks are no longer during that week. So, soon. That’s a bucket list item for me, is, egg salad at the Masters.

Scott Luton (12:01):

Greg, anytime the word egg is mentioned, it has changed everything for me in the last two weeks. So, Caleb, Greg White shared last week –

Greg White (12:11):

Mistakenly.

Scott Luton (12:12):

– growing up as a kid and playing baseball, his nickname was Egg White.

Greg White (12:17):

Egg White. [Inaudible] places very nicely.

Scott Luton (12:23):

That’s right. I had to. I can feel my oldest daughter giving me the eye roll from her school miles and miles away from that. Hey, it’s the little things in life. Hey, really quick, Gene Pledger, we couldn’t do a livestream without you. I hope this finds you well. I hope you had a great time in Atlanta a few weeks back, and that Alabama is bringing you lots and lots of good weather this Easter weekend. Okay.

Scott Luton (12:44):

So, Caleb and Greg, we’re enjoying ourselves way too much. We got to get down to work. We got to talk global supply chain, some of the cool things that Sifted is doing. But before we get there, there’s some big things, as we all know, playing out in the global ecosystem, big themes of data and sustainability in mind. You know, it’s a global obstacle course. Goodness gracious, very challenging environment when it comes to supply chain.

Scott Luton (13:08):

So, Caleb, I want to start with you here today, talk to us about a few of the immediate pains that shippers are experiencing. And I think we want to start with a topic, whether you’re in supply chain or not, talking about the labor shortage, the labor market. So, that’s impacting everything, right?

Caleb Nelson (13:26):

Yeah. Absolutely. I would say it’s the number one challenge that FedEx and UPS for final mile, like parcel and eCommerce delivery, that they’re facing right now, let alone what the ocean port employees are facing. There’s just not enough employees to be able to deal with the influx of additional freight that’s coming through. FedEx had their earnings release call at the end of last year. And they talked about this being a major challenge for them as an organization for the rest of this year. And we’re seeing it be displayed back to shippers in a variety of formats.

Caleb Nelson (14:05):

What it’s causing is it’s causing for delays in transit time. We’re constantly tracking at Sifted packages that go through our customer systems. And we’re absorbing that data and looking for areas where errors are happening. And it’s not uncommon for some FedEx shippers to be a low 70 percent on time delivery percentage range, which is unbelievable. I would say, a year or year-and-a-half ago, it wasn’t uncommon to be in the 90 percentile range for on-time delivery. UPS is weathering it a little bit better than FedEx is. And that’s a challenge right now that anybody who is, to your point, Scott, in transportation definitely fills that pain. But outside of transportation, too, what customers expect for on-time delivery when they order product and be delivered to their door, they’re seeing more delays and more damages happen than ever before.

Scott Luton (15:04):

One of the things you kind of touched on there that, I think – well, we’re all consumers too – that is often lost in a shuffle when you don’t get something on-time, that you’re expecting that pair of socks you need in two days or what have you. But the labor force, they’re overworked. There’s a lot of newness in the labor force. And, of course, there’s always a training curve. Clearly, that’s impacting. But folks can’t find enough people to work.

Scott Luton (15:27):

And, Greg, I know you’re passionate about the topic of labor, I want to get your take in just a second. But, folks, in the cheap seats, again, welcome. And anyone who just joined us here today, we’d love to hear your observations too. We’re walking through some of the pains that shippers have, so we’d love to hear from you. Greg, your take on some of the labor remarks that Caleb had.

Greg White (15:45):

That’s 100 percent of the start of the problem. I mean, let’s just look at this in its initial incarnation. We sent every single worker on the planet home from work for some period of time all at once. Virtually, every single person went home at the same time or in a very, very short window. It’s hard to restart that. Then, we paid people to stay home, in the States, at least. And some of those people have figured out the system, some of those people have just gotten out of the system.

Greg White (16:22):

These numbers are maybe a couple weeks old now, 10.6 million available jobs and less than 9 million workers in the workforce available to take them. Actually, it’s way less than that because I think we heard the statistic early this week or late last week, Scott, that there are 1.7 jobs per person per available worker out there right now. It remains a big issue. I mean, I don’t know what everyone is seeing every single day, but restaurants closing early or opening late. I mean, that’s probably the big thing. You know, grocery stores with skeleton crews and all of that sort of thing.

Caleb Nelson (17:04):

One thing that was interesting in that FedEx release call that I mentioned earlier was they talked about needing to reroute shipments to other facilities that have enough personnel to do the sort side work and out for delivery of those shipments. They’re rerouting as of end of last year, at that time, about 600,000 packages a day to other facilities that have enough personnel, that have enough employees. And that amount, you look at those companies, they are efficiency organizations. The more efficient they are, the more profitable they are. And when they are not as efficient as they need to be, profitability goes down. And the pressure, they’re not going to simply take that and their shareholders aren’t simply going to take that. Where is that pressure going to go? It goes right back to the shipper.

Scott Luton (17:57):

So much to unpack here, Caleb and Greg. I want to share just a couple quick comments here from folks that are tuned in. Selam says, “It’s 7:00 p.m. here right now. What should I say in this situation? Good evening or good morning?” That would be good evening. And great to have you here via LinkedIn.

Greg White (18:13):

Operate in your own time zone. It’s way too confusing to shift to many time zones. Because we’re in the afternoon, by the way. And Caleb is still in the morning.

Scott Luton (18:22):

That is right. That is right. The simple things. Keivan says, “If we can somehow motivate customers to pick up from lockers and stores, thereby we can reduce labor needs and increase sustainability by reducing transportation needs.” Great point there, Keivan. We used that a couple times.

Greg White (18:40):

It’s not going to happen. Even Amazon couldn’t get people to do that. They can’t get us to. Who could?

Scott Luton (18:46):

That’s right. Ken says, “More and more people are starting businesses. We also co-pack for other people and are seeing a boom in new clients because they’re tired of working for someone else. That has also affected the labor market.” Excellent point. And then, finally, Michael says, “We’ve had 18 months straight with numerous open positions posted and not yet filled.” Michael, I’d love if you could shed just a little bit of light on the nature of those positions, that’d be interesting. Okay.

Scott Luton (19:11):

Caleb, you’ve mentioned as you’re talking about the labor market so much going on there and so much not going on there, unfortunately. But you touched on capacity. Lots and lots of freight out there. We’ve seen some interesting conversations and data points here in the last week or two, but talk to us about all the shipments that are out there.

Caleb Nelson (19:30):

It’s the explosion of eCommerce growth. And COVID is a major driver to that. That growth was already on an upward trajectory that was kind of like a hockey stick. But from COVID, that forced individuals not to be able to go to their favorite stores in-person to go buy goods, it drove everybody to have a habit of going online to order their products. And those carriers that are familiar with, actually, building the networks out that move those shipments to and from Point A to Point B have done some projection growth on where is growth going to go. And they’ve built and scaled their network to fit that.

Caleb Nelson (20:14):

Well, COVID came out of left field and completely obliterated that projection. And it doesn’t work in terms of like flipping a switch where they can automatically expand their networks overnight. And what that means is they’re looking out their windows at their warehouses and being like, “I am swimming in freight, I can’t even see the floor.” And what that means is it’s, again, added pressure back to the shipper on longer delays. Traditionally, more freight going through a system means a little bit more damage that’s happening. And firm prices, both FedEx and UPS have said that they’re going to be pretty firm on prices this year. UPS has a mantra of “Better not bigger”. And for one of the first times in my 20 year history in transportation, I’m starting to see that bigger as a shipper is not a benefit today. It’s almost a hindrance, especially around Q4 and peak season.

Scott Luton (21:13):

That’s right. You know, such an important emphasis on smart business, you look at the railroads, you look at what UPS, you mentioned, Caleb, is doing. To generalize, it’s not just getting freight volume and getting that revenue. It’s got to be profitable given these challenges you’re laying out there, Caleb. Greg, your take here as we’re talking about just the sheer volume out there.

Greg White (21:39):

Yeah. Well, I mean, it is. It’s huge and it’s gone way, way up. I mean, you know, we are expecting a big lift in eCommerce in 2020, but not near the lift we got. And it has continued to be sustained longer than people expected because, remember, at first, we all thought we’d go home for two weeks and everything would be fine. And it’s been two years. So, you know, you still hear stories of people being released from lockdown. Or Philadelphia just again mandated masks indoors. So, I mean, it’s been a very volatile environment over the course of the last two years, so it’s been hard for companies to get their feet under them.

Greg White (22:14):

I’m curious, though, that we’re talking about maximized capacity and, Caleb, you’re probably aware the Dow Transports have gotten demolished just in the month of April. I mean, they’re down 12 to 14 percent. And a lot of the big banks, their analysts are saying it’s now inevitable that there will be a freight recession. Do you really think there’s that much – and I’m not asking you to predict the stock market, but you see capacity out there – I wonder if they’re perceiving the excess capacity or the coming excess of capacity appropriately? I mean, [inaudible] you have that would be helpful.

Caleb Nelson (22:53):

No, I don’t see that. I mean, from what we see is that – and I believe Ken was his name, his comment earlier of new organizations that are starting up. Yes, perfect to hear from Ken Allen. New organizations starting up, new people starting new businesses, if you go and talk to any fulfillment warehouse or 3PL that does pick, pack, sort, and shipping, they are at max capacity as well. And I don’t see that totally happening in the final mile, eCommerce, knocking on your door and leaving the package at the door. That slowdown is not going to happen anytime soon. Not the slightest.

Greg White (23:35):

I think, that’s a really good point. It depends on what segment you’re talking about. And you’re right, because I think it was a JP Morgan report, by the way, they’re not that good at predicting because their stocks are getting crushed today because they missed earnings estimates. But they were talking about multimodal and trucking and ocean freight. And I think we have to recognize this, this is really important when we’re in supply chain. We have to recognize that there are so many segments of supply chain that nothing really, except for COVID, impacts every layer of the supply chain. It may impact manufacturing. It may impact distribution. It may impact retail. But maybe it doesn’t impact all. So, you have to look very closely at that segmentation to see what markets are being impacted. So, that’s a great take.

Scott Luton (24:24):

Excellent point. And I was going to say, I love judgment day with Greg White. Your new nickname, Greg, Judge Greg, because you’re going to get a judgment whether you like it or not. Okay. Caleb, I appreciate you offering your data driven perspective there, because y’all got your finger on the pulse for sure.

Scott Luton (24:40):

Really quick, Michael, let’s see, he was talking about all the open positions for so long at his organization. “Everything from support departments,” he says, “like IT and finance to brokers and even broker assistants.” So, a mix of tech, senior level, entry level, you name it. And, Eric, good morning to you from Ecuador, via LinkedIn. Great to have you hear, Eric. We’d love to hear what you’re seeing. All right.

Scott Luton (25:01):

One final topic I want to touch on before we kind of shift gears and talk more about Sifted and, really, your journey as a founder, Caleb, regional carrier issues. So, that could probably mean a bunch of different things, but what are some things y’all are seeing?

Caleb Nelson (25:15):

To, you know, piggyback on labor concerns and on excess capacity, the biggest change that we’re seeing for 2022, and I’m predicting for 2023, is, shippers understanding that they no longer can single source with one individual carrier. Those days of “I’m going to push all of my freight and all of my volume to FedEx or all of it to UPS, negotiate the best discounts possible” put you at an added position of risk. And what’s happened is where all of that comes to kind of a crossroads is right at peak season at Q4. And FedEx and UPS have come to some of their larger customers and said, “You are capped on how many shipments we’re willing to take from you on a daily basis, especially at our peak.” And if you can imagine being in that position in Q4, at your busiest time, and having that type of limitation put on your business, it’s not just, “Oh, I don’t get my shipments out the door,” that’s a growth limiter to your business as a whole.

Caleb Nelson (26:26):

And how shippers are getting around that is by diversifying. They’re adding a little bit of complexity to their distribution model. But they’re also mitigating risk to a great degree. And where they’re realizing that they need to be looking at it is, how much can I peel from my FedEx or UPS contract to give to a couple of regional carriers? And what other alternative options can I have in order to be able to do that? So, we’ve seen explosive growth from regional carriers, like OnTrac and Lone Star and LaserShip that have taken on this new business. They are typically putting a moratorium, those regional carriers are putting a moratorium on accepting new business around Q4 because they’re busy as well. So, there’s added risk there in not diversifying for a shipper and being able to do so in working with a regional carrier prior to Q4 is going to be absolutely key.

Scott Luton (27:26):

Greg, what’s some of the things you heard there from Caleb?

Greg White (27:29):

Great relief, for one. I mean FedEx, and particularly UPS, have been in too much control of what gets delivered to the home for a long time. And I mean, the reason that businesses like Caleb’s, yours exist, is because people feel like they’re being treated unfairly by their parcel carriers. You know, many firms audit, many firms optimize, and that’s what you guys do is you do that in a technologically and data driven fashion to help them optimize. But, really, it’s to overcome the unknowns that can even come from a contract carrier like that. So, I think it’s good that companies are diversifying. And there has been an incredible proliferation of these smaller, more regional carriers in the tech world. I talk to them all the time.

Greg White (28:21):

And because they are capped, there will be more and, ultimately, there will be consolidation. I mean, look, let’s face the fact that the reason that Amazon even has a logistics division is because, way back in 2014, FedEx, UPS, and the postal service failed them during peak season. They really had no choice. And it took yet another crisis eight years later for so many of us to recognize that we need to diversify even further. I think it’s a good thing. It really is good for the market. It checks the big players and they clearly need it. You know, Scott, I go all the way back to Carol’s [inaudible] kind of comment when she first took over UPS.

Scott Luton (29:03):

I remember.

Greg White (29:06):

You know, basically take it or leave it. This is how we’re going to do things. And that they’re even doing that to their largest shippers tells you what kind of chance you’ve got as a small or medium business.

Scott Luton (29:16):

Excellent point. And, you know, some of what this drives as well is more innovation and more democratization in industry. And while Uber Freight and Rodeo are really big examples of that, but started small, is creating lots of opportunity for folks, also going back to Ken pointed out. So, interesting times, certainly in global supply chain and with entrepreneurship, and that’s where we’re going next. Caleb, before we do, I want to give you the last word. We covered a wide range of issues, kind of painting the picture for what the Sifted team is working through and helping others work through. Any final word on kind of what we’re seeing out there?

Caleb Nelson (29:53):

It’s all about the data. I would say that it’s all about the data. Longer the days, those are long gone, where you can come to the carrier and say, “Give me what I want or I’m pulling my business and I’m going to give it to this other carrier.” That is an emotional response. That is not a data driven response. And if you go to the carriers with that kind of a response right now, Greg, to your comment about Carol with UPS, they’ll say, “See you later. We wish you the best of luck.” And so, what that means is that it requires for shippers to have a very good understanding of their own data. The story that that data is telling them, because everybody’s data set tells a different story. And a lot of cases, it’s not necessarily UPS and FedEx just simply taking advantage of a situation by any means. I think that they’re in a really tough spot.

Caleb Nelson (30:42):

What it is, is it’s about how can I, as a shipper and as a partner with UPS or a partner to FedEx, be a better fit to them, work on my data to be able to say “I need concessions in these areas”, but this is what I’m going to be doing internally to be a better fit to you, and have it be a data driven perspective I think is what it’s all about. So, if you’re a shipper and you’re feeling that pressure and looking for ways to be able to alleviate that pressure, the answer is in the data.

Scott Luton (31:14):

Man, help me help you. Help me help you.

Greg White (31:19):

[Inaudible] the money.

Scott Luton (31:21):

That’s right, show the money. But, really, knowing yourself, knowing your organization, knowing your business to the point where you can help your suppliers. I love that key point there.

Greg White (31:31):

Even if you don’t help your suppliers, which certainly you will do, help yourself. At least know your business that well.

Scott Luton (31:38):

That would help your employees, your team members, hopefully, take some stress off their day to day. You know, Mike Griswold has that great firefighting quote.

Greg White (31:49):

Yes. Don’t reward the arsonist.

Scott Luton (31:52):

Yeah. Don’t reward the arsonist, which is kind of a theme that we’re hearing from Caleb. Really quick. Dr. Rhonda is back with us, one of our favorites here. She got a break in the schedule to tune in. Hey, how about that? You make our day. Great to see you out in Arizona, Dr. Rhonda. And Michael talks about a large organization he worked for back in 2000s had UPS and, at the time, Airborne Express as their carriers to avoid the issues of capping shipments and to avoid the labor strikes that hit them in the late ’90s. Good point there. A little history lesson.

Greg White (32:23):

Yeah, that is good. And I think maybe, Caleb, small and medium businesses, they haven’t have had the sophistication that some of these larger companies like Michael worked for. And they kind of got caught on the back foot. And to Ken’s point, there will be more of them if they’re not careful caught on the back foot, because they’re not aware of the risk that is inherent in the supply chain.

Caleb Nelson (32:48):

Yes, 100 percent.

Greg White (32:49):

As I’ve told many people, my first lesson in supply chain was, assume everyone will fail you and have a plan B for that.

Scott Luton (32:58):

Plan C, Plan D.

Greg White (33:01):

Well, these days, I think you really do need to diversify that much. Even to the point, Caleb, you’re making, around these regional carriers, those are Plan Cs and Ds, whatever, the whole alphabet.

Scott Luton (33:12):

Once you know your business, as both of y’all are pointing out. And by the way, Caleb, I’m not sure what interstate or what road is in front of you there.

Caleb Nelson (33:20):

Can you see that from the reflection?

Scott Luton (33:21):

I love it. We’re seeing [inaudible] supply chain happen.

Caleb Nelson (33:24):

Yeah. It’s exactly correct. I mean, it’s in real time right here. If it wasn’t a cloudy day, you’d be able to see the Wasatch Mountain Range and some of the mountains that are there. It’s a beautiful view.

Scott Luton (33:33):

Next time, Caleb Nelson, next time. Okay. So, let’s talk about Caleb Nelson for a minute. You were Co-Founder of Sifted, and the business that came before Sifted. And I know y’all have got quite the story as y’all continue to grow and grow and do more. Let’s talk about what the business does, but more importantly, maybe as a starter, what was your why, Caleb? Why did you create what became Sifted?

Caleb Nelson (33:57):

Well, I have a personal why, and that is a legacy. I want to know that fundamentally the transportation space that I operated in specific to data analytics on the final mile in eCom and LTL is different after my time in it than before my time. And I think that is a great motivator. Everybody needs a personal why, and that’s mine.

Caleb Nelson (34:18):

Why we started Sifted from a tactical reason is, we looked around at a lot of other companies that were providing data, and it was auditing firms that provide a postmortem report. Which is, you know, Scott, Greg, congratulations, you spent $250,000 with UPS this last quarter. Good job. [Inaudible] anything else. So, along with the auditing services, shippers were desperate for needing more data, needing to understand their data, needing to understand what their businesses were doing in ways that they can be able to improve.

Caleb Nelson (34:54):

And we’ve talked a lot about external factors. We’ve talked about carrier capacity, labor issues. We’ve talked out how carriers are dealing with rates. But there is just the same amount of operational cost savings that happened within a business’ four corners in their warehouse. That if they did some things differently, operationally, they would make just as much of an impact from a cost savings standpoint, an efficiency standpoint, a customer expectation standpoint, than they would ever make dealing with FedEx or UPS externally.

Caleb Nelson (35:30):

So, we saw that there really wasn’t an option on a company that really provided strong data, and could do it in simplistic software, and gave it to the shipper to do it themselves. I think that’s a really interesting part, which is ,normally, you’d have to raise your hand and say, “I’m going to go to a consultant or I’m going to hire a data team internally to be able to make this work.” A consultant is great, but it’s “Hey, you don’t have the information, Mr. Customer. I do.” What we noticed is, shippers, they are more sophisticated now than they’ve ever been before. Let’s give them better tools so that they can do it themselves and empower them so that they can make better decisions. And that’s the whole reason why we created Sifted.

Scott Luton (36:13):

I love it. I love it. And I bet Greg loves it.

Greg White (36:17):

I do love it. I think that, you know, the name is perfect. Basically, sift through all of that information and find the value and present it.

Caleb Nelson (36:23):

That’s exactly correct. Whether it’s operationally or externally with your partner carrier, there is needles hidden in that haystack and it’s hard to find it on your own. We see a lot of individuals use Excel. Excel is a great tool. Don’t get me wrong.

Scott Luton (36:40):

Wait a second. What is this that you speak of, Caleb?

Greg White (36:43):

Nobody in blockchain has ever heard of Excel, Caleb.

Caleb Nelson (36:47):

It’s this little unknown tool that very few people have heard – no. It’s used so heavily that we call it being trapped in Excel Hell. And it takes, in a lot of cases, shippers hours upon hours to massage the data in Excel just to get it to a spot where they can make actionable insights to it.

Scott Luton (37:07):

Let me just ask a quick question, did y’all have that same – and before I became an entrepreneur, in every office I’ve worked in, including in the military – there was always that one individual that was so proud of the Excel Macros that he or she could build and they confused the heck out of everyone else.

Caleb Nelson (37:25):

They were the only ones that understood it.

Greg White (37:27):

The data hoarder, that’s what I call those people.

Scott Luton (37:30):

Yes. Hey, God bless them. We all need all kinds of different types. But, man, they lost everyone else in terms of what it did and how to get to whatever output. And that kind is what I’m picturing in my brain, Caleb. Excel is great, but we can’t use it for everything, including like driving your sprinkler systems and moving freight across the world. There’s better ways. There are better ways.

Scott Luton (37:53):

Really quick, Caleb, I want to circle back now that you’ve kind of shared your whys, both personal and professionally, you can kind of shared a little bit about the mission behind Sifted, I want to circle back for kind of a couple of examples maybe.

Scott Luton (38:05):

But before we do, I want to say hello, this is Josh. Josh is an undergrad senior studying supply chain management. Appreciate that feedback and great to have you here, Josh. Steven is like us, he’s watching what’s driving past right in front of you.

Greg White (38:20):

I am so focused, Scott, I didn’t even notice that. Now, I feel like I’ve seen maybe a semi drive by since you say something and I’m thinking, “Did he stage that?”

Scott Luton (38:29):

Man, if Caleb wasn’t such a good speaker, I’d be just dialed in on what’s passing there. Asim is with us here today. Man, bunch of certifications there. Thanks for dropping by. And then, finally, Dr. Rhonda says, “Helping each other is simply a win-win all the way around.” Excellent point there. Okay.

Scott Luton (38:49):

So, getting back to Sifted – and, Greg, I’m glad you mentioned it because that’s the first thought. It’s like making biscuits and you’re sifting the flour and you’re baking powder, whatever goes in the biscuits. I make terrible biscuits, I’ve been told – Caleb, talk to us about a couple of examples. You know, kind of bring it down to a couple of examples that anyone could wrap their head around.

Caleb Nelson (39:11):

Yeah. So, I think to some of the points that we’ve talked about earlier, adding in a new carrier. If I bring in a new carrier, how much can I peel away from my existing contract without decimating it, because I probably need that existing carrier. How much can I give to that new carrier without decimating my existing contract? What weight breaks service levels should I be giving that freight over to? All of that is a giant math problem. And it’s typically, like we talked about, solved in Excel. But there is some value of saying Excel is great. It’s not a transportation tool. I need a system that can go through. And, literally, in a sandbox environment, rerate those packages as if it had gone with that new carrier to tell me exactly how much I would be able to save and improve on my transit time.

Caleb Nelson (39:59):

So, that what if question, breaking away from kind of the traditional audit like, “Congratulations. You spent a-quarter-of-a-million dollars last quarter.” And getting into predictive, “What if I changed this?” That is a universal question for all of the Sifted software, which is, it can be adding a new carrier, adding a distribution center. “Hey, I’m noticing that I’m shipping a lot to Zone 5, 6, 7, and 8, it’s costing me a lot of money and it’s staying in transit really long. What if I ship more locally, which gets into the sustainability aspect of things and reduces the fuel that I use.” The sifted software does all of that, all the way down to box size, “Hey, I need to improve and get rid of some of the dimensionalization dim fees that I’m getting. What if I shipped out on this box size for this SKU?” Those kind of analytic works, which are typically very difficult to solve on your own, that’s what we solve every day in the software.

Scott Luton (40:58):

At our fingertips, is that right?

Caleb Nelson (41:00):

Yeah. Gold.

Scott Luton (41:02):

I love it. Greg, what did you hear there?

Greg White (41:04):

Well, I mean, immediately, Scott, I thought of a company called Paccurate, which, Caleb, you probably ought to take a look at. Not individual SKUs, but the accumulation of an order, there’s probably some opportunity for you guys to work together there just on that point. But I think that what’s really important is I just keep coming back to the SMB, the small and medium business aspect of this, where some larger companies have built this for themselves or through a large technology carrier or whatever, and customized it heavily to their business. This gives access to every business. This is a main street kind of application and gives access to every business to kind of level the playing field with their huge partners out there to have the same technology or the same capabilities to be able to do the things that is helping the Amazons and the Walmarts and some of these other companies be so super efficient and effective in their last mile delivery.

Greg White (42:07):

So, I’m a huge fan of small beats big. I love it when companies come in and start helping smaller companies rather than go after the whales right out of the gate. Because there are so many of them, you test the market. They are not less complex. They may be less sophisticated, but their business is not less complex. It’s basically a microcosm of a Walmart or whoever they might compete with. So, a solution like this is a huge lever for companies like that to understand first their profitability, and then to optimize it as they progress. So, I love it.

Scott Luton (42:42):

Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.

Greg White (42:44):

Who’s a really good example, Caleb, of somebody you’ve worked with? I mean, if you can share names.

Caleb Nelson (42:48):

Yeah. So, one is a company called Beddy’s, B-E-D-D-Y-S. If you don’t have little kids, you might not know who they are. If you have little kids, you probably know who they are. But what they created is a really cool product. If you think of like a sleeping bag and sheets that go on a comforter on your bed and combine them into one, it is a comforter that has a zipper around it and you make your bed by zipping it up. It’s great for little kids. And with four kids of my own, trust me, I know because I’ve got them. They’ve been a great customer and they have exploded in growth.

Caleb Nelson (43:24):

Started, to your point, Greg, as a startup on, really, SMB side. And we’re dealing with a lot of logistic challenges on their growth. How do I be a better shipper? How do I be the best version of Beddy’s that I possibly can be? We’ve been working with them for a while and, significantly, not only reduce their cost, I think that’s just a given, but help them scale as an organization and make better choices along the way.

Caleb Nelson (43:51):

A lot of companies will make those decisions out of gut instincts and not out of data that backs it up. So, to be able to model it out first, get it down to a specific if I do this, this is how much it’s going to save me and improve X, then I’m going to go implement it. That’s the way to do it.

Scott Luton (44:10):

Yeah. I’m with you. And by the way, Beddy’s, folks, that’s B-E-D-D-Y-S.com. They’re offering a birthday BOGO. You all can check that out.

Greg White (44:18):

There you go. Who’s birthday?

Scott Luton (44:21):

I don’t know. It could be organizations. I’ll have to get to Malcolm and the research team on that question, Greg. Really quick, TSquared, who holds down the fort for us on YouTube, says, “You got to love the supply chain management and logistics nourishment. I’m sure a live broadcast from WorldPort and Memphis World will definitely give insight into the shipping issues, UPS versus FedEx.” Excellent point as always. Josh, we’ll try to get back to this question. He’s talking about an alternative to Excel, especially if you don’t want to create those technological skill barriers. That’s a great question. We’ll try to get back to that. And, Fatima, great to have you here today via Bangladesh. Okay.

Scott Luton (45:00):

So, speaking of resources, Caleb, I think Greg and I both really dig the Sifted story. And I love when organizations take the time to invest in resources that folks are going to gain help from without even having to become a customer. They may become a customer, very well. But there’s two resources that your team is pointing out to us. One of them is about making a greener last mile. You’ve touched on sustainability a couple times. Talk about this e-book.

Caleb Nelson (45:28):

Yeah. It was really interesting to me because I think in transportation, we tend to think of sustainability as a nice to have. And a lot of individuals are like, “Look, I’m just trying to get shipments out my door,” and now you’re talking to me about sustainability and doing all of this other stuff. As a consumer, we think of going green typically as either it’s going to cost more. Like, if I’m going to go be a consumer and be green, I’m going to go buy a Tesla and not pay gas prices. But my breakeven on that is not for another, I don’t know, 10, 15 years. Solar panels on your house is no different. You’re going to breakeven after 15 years based on normal house usage.

Caleb Nelson (46:07):

Transportation is one of those rare industries where sustainability and cost reduction is a one for one. Whatever you do in one, you’re going to have it in the other. So, if you ship more locally, that reduces your total average cost per package, because you’re not shipping to higher zones, you’re shipping more locally. If you’re able to reduce your box sizes, you’re avoiding dimensionalization charges as well as additional waste. So, there’s a lot of really important things that are happening in transportation, where if you’re more sustainable as an organization, you’re more efficient and you’re going to be more cost effective.

Caleb Nelson (46:42):

The driver of that has really been from consumers. We pulled about 500 of our customers and their customers as well, and they mentioned that 90 percent of them wanted to see a sustainability option at time of checkout when you go to buy some product. About 80 percent said they would be willing to wait a little bit longer for delivery if it was a more sustainable way to ship it. So, it’s being driven internally. And that ebook gives five easy ways for a shipper to be more effective at being a more sustainable organization.

Scott Luton (47:19):

Love that. And, folks, we have dropped the link to that, The Greener Last Mile. You can click on that and download that ebook that Caleb was talking about. And by the way, hello, Anita, tuned in from Boston, Massachusetts. One of our favorite cities. The home of Kelly Barner, the one and only. So, Anita, great to see you here today. Okay.

Scott Luton (47:38):

So, Greg, everyone’s looking for a greener last mile. We talked a lot about transportation and logistics today, let me give a quick shoutout. Yesterday, I spent some time with Joey, a professional truck driver with Southeastern Freight. And not only has he been driving for eight years, he is a U.S. Navy veteran, but his father has been driving for 30 years. And they get together and they can talk shop. I said, “Joey, you and your dad got to write a book. I can only imagine the stories that the two of y’all have.” And by the way, Joey said, “We need to create a campaign #bringbacktheairbreak.” So, folks, help me. Let’s create a new campaign here.

Greg White (48:16):

You mean the horn?

Scott Luton (48:17):

Yeah. That’s right. The air horn. Sorry.

Greg White (48:20):

I still do it. I’m like a six year old on the highway, I still do it.

Scott Luton (48:23):

I’m with you. I’m with you. Okay.

Greg White (48:27):

The tinted windows, it’s become really hard, Scott. I just want to say, it helps if you have a sunroof.

Scott Luton (48:31):

Well, I think if you could slow down instead of zipping around those trucks, I could just see you driving left and right through the beautiful Hilton Head, which is gorgeous I bet this time of year. Let’s talk about, not just a greener last mile, but also a more profitable last mile, Caleb. A second resource that you and the team are offering up here today, right?

Caleb Nelson (48:53):

Yeah. So, it culminates to what we’ve been discussing, which is carrier capacity issues, labor shortage issues, regional carriers, sustainability. It all puts pressure back on the shipper to reduce their costs in a variety of creative ways. And we talked about, you know, negotiating or working with your partner carrier, not out of an emotional response, but out of a data driven response. What are some of those levers you can pull? That’s what’s found in that profitability standpoint of ways you can focus on being a more profitable shipper.

Scott Luton (49:29):

Love that. All right. So, Greg, Caleb has thrown two resources out there, Greener Last Mile, also, More Profitable Last Mile, your thoughts?

Greg White (49:38):

Well, I think, one, we, as consumers, probably need to stop thinking of sustainability as an additional cost. I know we do. I still do. But it’s circular, literally and figuratively. Circular in that, if you are using, for instance, something that produces carbon, less fuel, then you do inherently lower your cost. It might change your business and there might be a cost to do it. But I believe that there are, and will continue to be, ways to make those types of changes more and more effective.

Greg White (50:12):

I mean, I’ve looked at the Tesla shingles. I’m not going to pay $44,000 or whatever it is for a roof plus installation because the return on investment, to Caleb’s point, is 30 years. If that starts to get down into the single digits, which it will over time because every company has to expand their market reach, then we’ll see more and more of that happening. So, I think that’s one thing that I see that’s really important.

Greg White (50:39):

And the other is that, as companies start to be able to have the visibility, we’ve talked to companies, as I said, Caleb, that do exactly what you described, “Here’s what you spent”. But now if they can take that, here’s what you spent, here’s why you spent it, and here’s how you could spend less, because we know there are a lot of traps – maybe not intentional, but whatever – in terms of, like you talked about, dim weight, whatever, surcharges even for last mile. You don’t find out that it costs you $400 to ship that $400 item at $420 after you receive $420 until after the shipment is complete. So, if you can give them insight and predictive ability in that, then they can know, as you’ve described, when they ought to use a separate carrier to get some of those items delivered. And, to me, that is found lost money.

Scott Luton (51:37):

Love it.

Caleb Nelson (51:38):

Yeah. It’s being the best shipper, the best version of yourself that you can be. And that’s what we’re all about, it’s all about maximization and profitability and efficiency.

Scott Luton (51:49):

Love it. Okay. Man, I felt like I’ve learned so much here today beyond the Sifted story, and beyond Caleb’s personal why and professional why, and all the cool things you’re doing. We’ve learned about Beddy’s, that could be game changing for many folks. We’ve learned that Tesla makes shingles, this is new to me. I have to check this out, Greg. I’ve been so caught up with what Elon Musk is doing with SpaceX, I guess. But to folks that are tuned in again, we’ve got the links to both of these free resources, The Greener Last Mile and The More Profitable Last Mile in the comments, y’all check those out. Thank you, Selam, very accurate assessment. I take what James Webb of supply chain, Caleb Nelson, says. I take it right to the bank. Greg, I don’t know about you. But Selam agrees.

Greg White (52:34):

[Inaudible] what they’re doing, you can literally take it to the bank or probably just have it shipped to the bank for you.

Scott Luton (52:40):

That’s right. Okay. So, Caleb, as we start to wrap here and we’re going to let you go, I’m sure you got plenty of stuff to get to here on this Thursday afternoon, but how can folks connect with you and how can they connect with Sifted and learn a lot more?

Caleb Nelson (52:54):

sifted.com. I think that’s a really easy one. S-I-F-T-E-D.com. And I’m sure there’ll be links down below. But they can also reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’m a big user on LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn. I think it’s a great platform for us as supply chain experts to communicate with each other. Supply chain is one of those unique things that the industry is massive, but the people that work in it relatively small. And I’m really grateful for LinkedIn and the platform that it provides for us to be able to communicate with each other. I’m always on there. Add me and you’ll see what’s latest and greatest have happened at Sifted.

Scott Luton (53:33):

I love it. And, also, to kind of further your point, we’ve got a duty to inform the consumers. There’s a lot of misconceptions around global supply chain and, you know, the media’s covered a lot more in the last couple years. But we got to get the right story out there and how it really works. So, Caleb, I appreciate your work there and great to have you here today. Congrats on all of Sifted’s growth and success. And we look to having you back again really soon.

Caleb Nelson (54:02):

Scott, Greg, it’s been awesome to be on. Thank you.

Scott Luton (54:05):

You bet. We’ve been talking with Caleb Nelson, Chief Growth Officer with Sifted. Have a great rest of your day. Greg, man, I knew this was going to be good. You know, we’ve been fortunate to have a couple pre-show conversations with Caleb and his team. Big thanks to Grayson and others. I love the DNA and their culture. I love how they’re enabling organizations and leaders to, not only run a tighter ship, but to get to know themselves and their business so much better. And it’s like the art of the possible but via tech. It’s like quantifying what that art of the possible is, right?

Greg White (54:44):

Yeah. Look, I think the lesson here is, if you are an SMB shipper, you got to get your ship being together and internally to be that, what Caleb was describing, that best version of your shipper self. I mean, you have to understand your own business before you can project that out to your trading partners and be that best trading partner to your fellow trading partners. And this enables you to do it in such a simple fashion. One of the points that I think someone raised around Excel or not wanting to leap the technological hurdles of upskilling, technology isn’t that way. And so much small business technology is built to lay out those hurdles so you don’t have a big lift to get to the next level of technology. In fact, it takes a lot of the confusion that you and Caleb described with that data hoarder who puts out a 7,000 tab –

Scott Luton (55:42):

Macro.

Greg White (55:43):

– Macro or whatever. And it puts that all in the background and just shows you the valuable data that you need to make your judgments from and your decisions from. So, I think the perception of what technology is today, particularly technology focused on SMBs, needs to shift in a lot of places, because it is built to produce the result. I call it amplifying the supply chain. As robust as any enterprise technology as simple as an app, and that’s how you get small business over that hurdle.

Scott Luton (56:14):

Okay. I love it. I love it. And back to those master Excel users, my dear friend, Troy Boozer, is tuned in here today.

Greg White (56:22):

Oh yeah. That’s right.

Scott Luton (56:23):

I know the first thought that come to his mind, we call it getting factorized. But love you, Troy Boozer. Barbara says, “Thank y’all. Finishing up my last class for my -” probably “- master of science in supply chain logistics in a week and this is a great way to learn new things.” Barbara, hey, thanks for stopping by and make sure contribute everything you know and your experiences and your journey. Love to have you here. Jenny Patzlaff, “Data hoarder, such a thing of the past. Data transparency and democratized data is key.” Jenny, I agree with you.

Greg White (56:55):

Amen to that.

Scott Luton (56:56):

Greg, we’ll wrap it just a minute. I’ve been around folks, you probably have, too, that have weaponized data. They use it to hit others over to head with and kind of get their way, so to speak. And it’s not a good thing for culture. It’s not a good thing for the business. It’s important to know your data. But, man, use it, help others with it, help others understand it so we can, as a team, make better decisions.

Greg White (57:22):

I was just going to say, you made me think of, we had this report and I’ve worked with so many companies that have transformed their supply chains that you see it over and over again. This report that describes how you hurt the company most recently. And instead, what they’re doing with Sifted and so many of these SMB focused technologies are doing, is, they’re saying, this is how you can help the company today right now.

Scott Luton (57:47):

I love it. I love it. And I love Caleb’s story. Man, dripping with passion, you know. I love the personal why.

Greg White (57:54):

He lives it and you can tell.

Scott Luton (57:55):

That’s right. All right. A couple quick comments and we’re outta here. Steven Bush is talking about Marty Groover, author of Speed of Advance, he’s going to be their keynote speaker for Heidelberg U.S. and Canada Customer Summit in May, so check that out. He offered up the link. Thank you for sharing, Steven. And I’m coming to you, Steven, for the goods on Greg’s championship tennis game. Kim Winter, the legendary Kim Winter, Kim Winter is with us here today from Dubai. Great to see you, Kim. Keep the good stuff coming. I love your Ukraine coverage. And, of course, we’re big fans of your podcast as well.

Greg White (58:28):

He keeps us dialed in to what’s going in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as well, so that’s fantastic.

Scott Luton (58:35):

That’s right. Okay. Folks, hopefully, you enjoyed this conversation as much as Greg and I have. Be sure to check out sifted.com. Check out these free resources, they’re there for you to use and apply and improve your journey. Be sure to connect with Caleb Nelson and, really, the whole Sifted team. Greg, always a pleasure.

Greg White (58:52):

Likewise.

Scott Luton (58:52):

One last thought, I don’t want to throw stones, but it’s interesting to see generalized media kind of be late to the supply chain story. I saw a headline, a big established media was breaking a late breaking story that Amazon was UPS’s biggest customer and competitor. And it was headline news and it kind of illustrated the point that there’s lots of –

Greg White (59:17):

Welcome to the party.

Scott Luton (59:18):

Right. But, hey, such is life. Folks, hopefully you enjoyed our time here today. Have a wonderful weekend. Have a wonderful close to your week. Most importantly, be like James Webb of supply chain, Caleb Nelson, do good, give forward, and be the change that’s needed. And on that note, we’ll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (59:39):

Thanks for being a part of our Supply Chain Now community. Check out all of our programming at supplychainnow.com, and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain Now anywhere you listen to podcasts. And follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain Now.