[00:00:00] Lori Boyer: People care far more about the package arriving when you say it’s gonna arrive than they do necessarily, that it’s fast. Amazon announced one to three hour shipping, I believe. You do not need to meet that speed. Your customers are gonna care more about getting their package when they want it, at the right cost and the right knowing where it is than they necessarily do about speed.

[00:00:43] Lori Boyer: Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton and Tevon Taylor here with you on supply chain. Now

[00:00:52] Scott W. Luton: welcome to today’s live stream, Tevon. How you doing today?

[00:00:55] Tevon Taylor: I am doing great, Scott, how are you? 

[00:00:58] Scott W. Luton: I am doing outstanding. I wish I had some of the sun you’re getting down there in, uh, warm and sunny locations, but you look great.

[00:01:04] Tevon Taylor: Thank you.

[00:01:06] Scott W. Luton: As always, and speaking of great, we’ve gotten an outstanding, a fantastic show here today. Got one of our favorite guests of all

[00:01:13] Scott W. Luton: time back with us here today as we dive into quite the

[00:01:16] Scott W. Luton: challenging current landscape across global supply chain. And certainly for all of our shippers out there, uncertain times, skittish cus uh, consumers shipping complexities and almost perfect.

[00:01:28] Scott W. Luton: VUCA environment that’s breaking old 

[00:01:30] Scott W. Luton: fashioned playbooks everywhere. Breaking hearts too, VUCA of course, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. But there’s always good news if you’re looking for it. And we’re delivering some good news today as we’re sharing what smarter, innovative teams are doing differently when it comes to shipping.

[00:01:46] Scott W. Luton: You’re gonna gain some very practical approaches to optimizing control and costs while minimizing headaches for all of your team, hardworking, talented team out there. So folks, stick around for what might just be 

[00:01:58] Scott W. Luton: the most actionable learning 

[00:01:59] Scott W. Luton: hour of the day. So 

[00:02:00] Scott W. Luton: Tevon, given your well established track record of making stuff happen in global supply chain.

[00:02:06] Scott W. Luton: Looking forward to your take throughout the show here. Today.

[00:02:08] Scott W. Luton: Should be going, huh? 

[00:02:09] Tevon Taylor: I’m excited to hear from Lori and, uh, excited to hear all your tidbits as well.

[00:02:14] Scott W. Luton: I am too. I am too. I appreciate that.

[00:02:17] Scott W. Luton: So let’s get to work. One of our favorite guests, Lori Boyer, Director of 

[00:02:21] Scott W. Luton: Content with EasyPost and host of the wonderful

[00:02:24] Scott W. Luton: podcast, Unboxing Logistics. Let’s bring in Lori.

[00:02:28] Scott W. Luton: Hey. Hey Lori. How you doing? 

[00:02:29] Lori Boyer: So good to be back.

[00:02:33] Scott W. Luton: It is so 

[00:02:34] Scott W. Luton: great to have you back. I know you’ve been busy, helping teams find a lot more success, shipping, supply chain and otherwise, 

[00:02:41] Scott W. Luton: but Tevon and Lori, 

[00:02:43] Scott W. Luton: we’ve got a 

[00:02:44] Scott W. Luton: interesting and a related and a

[00:02:46] Scott W. Luton: halfway 

[00:02:46] Scott W. Luton: serious fun warmup 

[00:02:48] Scott W. Luton: question that really goes to that. Helping folks find success. 

[00:02:52] Scott W. Luton: And I wanna start with, for our fun warmup question here 

[00:02:54] Scott W. Luton: today, and we’re gonna hit it on Modex 

[00:02:56] Scott W. Luton: in a minute, but when it comes to trade shows, industry shows, 

[00:03:00] Scott W. Luton: What’s a couple of your favorites?

[00:03:03] Lori Boyer: Oh, I love different trade shows and I, I think different trade shows kind of have different, uh, 

[00:03:07] Lori Boyer: purposes. Not even purposes, but you know, goals. So. You know, manifest and Parcel Forum and The National Postal 

[00:03:17] Lori Boyer: Forum, they’re all really great I think, in terms of education, but one last year I really loved that I went to for the first time was Deliver Americas, and it’s a little bit smaller.

[00:03:26] Lori Boyer: It’s kind of an international one that often, You know, has a bunch of stuff overseas. But I really love that there were just really good conversations at that one. So some of ’em have amazing educational, they all have great, but I really thought that was an interesting one for just some good ’cause it was slightly smaller and there were a lot of opportunities to really chat with people that sometimes in those big ones get lost.

[00:03:50] Scott W. Luton: That’s a great call out. Uh, Tevon, in my experience one of my, my litmus tests I guess I’ll call it, is access to fellow attendees, access to presenters. You wanna connect and have these real meaningful sidebar conversations that Lori’s kind of referencing. Is that what you look forward? Tevon?

[00:04:05] Tevon Taylor: yeah, when I’m 

[00:04:06] Tevon Taylor: at a conference, it’s nice to have apps that let you chat with other members 

[00:04:10] Tevon Taylor: that are there. Um, the big ones like CES and uh, NRF, uh, they’re starting to 

[00:04:16] Tevon Taylor: adapt to make it where you can have meetings and, and look, it’s the show floor’s. Awesome. But you’re there 

[00:04:21] Tevon Taylor: also to network and talk business as well.

[00:04:24] Scott W. Luton: te hit on something there, Lori, that is like.

[00:04:26] Scott W. Luton: Divisive, like licorice 

[00:04:28] Scott W. Luton: and Crocs, and that

[00:04:29] Scott W. Luton: is the event 

[00:04:30] Scott W. Luton: app. 

[00:04:31] Scott W. Luton: I can’t keep up

[00:04:31] Scott W. Luton: with them. I hate downloading them. 

[00:04:33] Scott W. Luton: Lori, are you a fan Thumbs up or thumbs down?

[00:04:36] Lori Boyer: If they’re good, love them, like the really good 

[00:04:40] Lori Boyer: ones,

[00:04:41] Lori Boyer: they make it so easy to connect. They give you so much info. Some of ’em feel like maybe they were madelike 20 years ago and then, uh, just sort of more of a pain than help. But, 

[00:04:53] Scott W. Luton: So 

[00:04:53] Lori Boyer: yeah, they’re good. 

[00:04:55] Scott W. Luton: good stuff. That’s all right. Tevon and Lori, we got a lot of good stuff to get to here today. Uh, let’s do this though. Let’s level set. Lori, we’ve enjoyed, as we’ve mentioned, we’ve enjoyed all of you and your, your EasyPost colleagues. 

[00:05:08] Scott W. Luton: let’s level set, with what EasyPost does 

[00:05:11] Scott W. Luton: in a nutshell.

[00:05:12] Lori Boyer: Yeah, so EasyPost makes it easy, obviously. Um, we really, I would say help companies ship across carriers, and especially its. Scale help you really make better decisions. So instead of, you know, usually you sign up for a carrier, you’re gonna have to hardcore hard code into all your different carriers.

[00:05:33] Lori Boyer: Instead, you can just get one single point that then connects you to a hundred plus carriers and you can compare rates, print the labels, track the shipments, and optimize just in this single place with EasyPost. Really simple concept, but huge. When it comes to understanding. I wanna say as well, 

[00:05:52] Lori Boyer: the big, big shift we’ve had over the last couple of years is layering AI into all of 

[00:05:57] Lori Boyer: it.

[00:05:57] Lori Boyer: So. AI is really the backbone and the functionality of it so that you can go ahead and make those best decisions on which carriers and which routes and, and how you should be doing everything in your operations. 

[00:06:09] Scott W. Luton: Lori, I love it Now, 

[00:06:10] Scott W. Luton: Tevon, as Lori talks about the 2026 version of shipping, a lot smarter. You know,

[00:06:15] Scott W. Luton: tapping into all the innovative technology out there. My brain went 

[00:06:19] Scott W. Luton: to, when I was in 

[00:06:21] Scott W. Luton: industry shipping stuff. Long time ago, and I had spreadsheets, I had post-it notes. I had

[00:06:27] Scott W. Luton: had a very non-optimized approach, and the information was anywhere but 

[00:06:32] Scott W. Luton: at the point of the decision,

[00:06:34] Scott W. Luton: and that really is a great opportunity, 

[00:06:36] Scott W. Luton: Lori, but what, resonates with you there

[00:06:38] Scott W. Luton: te 

[00:06:38] Scott W. Luton: to make things 

[00:06:39] Tevon Taylor: Uh,

[00:06:39] Tevon Taylor: look, what I appreciate about EasyPost is they do sit in the decision 

[00:06:43] Tevon Taylor: layer. So a lot of companies don’t have that,

[00:06:45] Tevon Taylor: right? Um, it’s not just about access 

[00:06:47] Tevon Taylor: to carriers, but it’s in making the right

[00:06:49] Tevon Taylor: decision, in real time based on cost, service, and customer, expectations. So. 

[00:06:54] Tevon Taylor: EasyPost kind of has that nailed, 

[00:06:56] Tevon Taylor: which is really cool.

[00:06:57] Scott W. Luton: I am with you, 

[00:06:58] Scott W. Luton: alright. So Lori, 

[00:06:59] Scott W. Luton: Let’s do this.

[00:07:01] Scott W. Luton: Let’s level set around 

[00:07:02] Scott W. Luton: consumer demand. How would you describe what’s really going on with consumer demand right

[00:07:07] Scott W. Luton: now?

[00:07:08] Lori Boyer: So there’s a question I get a lot from people. What are we seeing? What are we anticipating? Because everything is a little bit weird in flux with the economy in general right now. So I think the biggest thing to understand is that demand isn’t actually down right now?

[00:07:23] Lori Boyer: It can feel that way for some people because it’s kind of way less predictable.

[00:07:28] Lori Boyer: So we’re seeing about a third what the data is showing is about a third of shoppers are. Switching up trading down in what they’re buying. So it could be that there are certain types of things that they would buy in the past that they’re not buying. Um, apparel is a big one. Home goods, furniture.

[00:07:50] Lori Boyer: Electronic upgrades especially ’cause those are really spendy right now. Um, mid-tier brands in general, we’re seeing less spending in those areas where we’re still seeing more spending or the same kind of spending in beauty, healthcare, um, not healthcare, although everyone spends in healthcare, beauty and skincare.

[00:08:12] Lori Boyer: Uh, experiences premium niche brands. I think McKinsey calls it kind of the barbell effect. Consumers cut their spending kind of in the middle, but they’re still spending, it’s just been moved to where they’re spending.

[00:08:25] Scott W. Luton: Yep. Tevon, uh, Lori shared a lot of insights there. Your thoughts when it comes to the state of 

[00:08:32] Scott W. Luton: consumer demand?

[00:08:33] Tevon Taylor: she’s absolutely right. 

[00:08:34] Tevon Taylor: it’s fragmented to a certain degree. Um, definitely, you know, there’s lower demand? to a certain 

[00:08:40] Tevon Taylor: extent, uh, makes it easier to plan some things, but what we’re seeing, 

[00:08:44] Tevon Taylor: especially in the warehouse, is you have skew level

[00:08:47] Tevon Taylor: Unpredictability, so then you have inventory that’s hard to match.

[00:08:51] Tevon Taylor: So forecasting mix is what we’re seeing. That’s 

[00:08:53] Tevon Taylor: hard to do. 

[00:08:54] Tevon Taylor: It’s very weird right now and it’s hard to predict some of these motions and movements.

[00:08:58] Scott W. Luton: I’m with you. 

[00:08:59] Lori Boyer: I wanna say, can I just jump off that Scott? Kevin is so right on as always. So we are seeing what 

[00:09:05] Lori Boyer: the data’s showing is it is way more promotional so when we have this kind of uncertain consumer, they are way more likely to respond to flash sales or to cultural events or. Seasonal thing, and so you do, the demand becomes very difficult to predict and, and that makes costs hard for shippers, obviously, for everyone.

[00:09:26] Scott W. Luton: That’s right. and of course that factors into shipping complexities. And, but 

[00:09:30] Scott W. Luton: to your, your big point there is you can better 

[00:09:33] Scott W. Luton: predict, based on some of the, insights you 

[00:09:36] Scott W. Luton: and 

[00:09:36] Scott W. Luton: Kevin both shared. 

[00:09:37] Scott W. Luton: Two quick points, uh, you know, 

[00:09:39] Scott W. Luton: we talk a lot about consumer demand, of course, because of, 

[00:09:41] Scott W. Luton: how big of an input 

[00:09:42] Scott W. Luton: it 

[00:09:42] Scott W. Luton: is for.

[00:09:43] Scott W. Luton: Supply chain management. But

[00:09:45] Scott W. Luton: I heard someone 

[00:09:45] Scott W. Luton: say demand is very resilient, 

[00:09:47] Scott W. Luton: but it’s very choppy. 

[00:09:48] Scott W. Luton: Um, alright, so Lori, shifting our focus more and more 

[00:09:52] Scott W. Luton: to shipping right? And the cool stuff y’all doing and also a lot of the insights, uh, from the industry you’re 

[00:09:57] Scott W. Luton: seeing. I bet a lot of teams look at those 

[00:09:59] Scott W. Luton: rising shipping costs and assume, 

[00:10:01] Scott W. Luton: hey. It’s just carriers raising rates, but that can’t be the

[00:10:04] Scott W. Luton: real story. What are you 

[00:10:06] Scott W. Luton: seeing?

[00:10:07] Lori Boyer: Yeah, so we are seeing a lot of rising costs when it comes to the carriers. Again, this is sort of my bread and butter,

[00:10:13] Lori Boyer: so I, this is where I had spend all my time. Um. That being said, it is not always just the raising rates. We see rates going up. Absolutely. I think 5.9% is how much they’ve been raised just in 2026 so far for flat rates.

[00:10:32] Lori Boyer: But the real 

[00:10:33] Lori Boyer: real story and where I think a lot of shippers are feeling this pain is that since 2018, overall shipping costs have gone. Like between 30 and 40% depending, and it’s mostly hidden in those. you 

[00:10:49] Lori Boyer: know, accessorial fees. So we’re seeing a lot of surcharges. I think just yesterday the USPS came out, or it wasn’t yesterday, but I think last week, their first ever fuel surcharge in the history 

[00:11:02] Lori Boyer: of the United States Postal Service.

[00:11:04] Lori Boyer: Um, and, and we’re just seeing fees, residential handling, fees, dimensional weight. Um, and, and some of them are self-inflicted. I had to say again, when it comes back to it you know, poor packaging, poor zone decisions, um, all of that can really raise costs and and maybe just not even being aware of some of those. fees. or, or sending out a package that maybe was a little too expensive or a little too heavy compared to what you were trying to do. So yeah, a lot of companies are trying to solve kind of for the wrong problem. They’re trying to like negotiate a better rate. When the isn’t as much of a problem as the decisions they’re making around what to do.

[00:11:47] Scott W. Luton: Interesting, interesting. And hey, the 

[00:11:48] Scott W. Luton: new postmaster, uh, making some historical decisions, but hey, something’s gotta be 

[00:11:52] Scott W. Luton: done. I, I guess, uh,

[00:11:53] Scott W. Luton: Tevon,

[00:11:54] Scott W. Luton: your thoughts on what we heard there, from Lori?

[00:11:57] Tevon Taylor: Yeah, Lori’s, right? It’s not just a rate problem. you have bad 

[00:12:01] Tevon Taylor: network design, packaging issues, poor cube utilization, things like that impact, uh, the overall. That 

[00:12:09] Tevon Taylor: we’re seeing. But don’t forget, I mean, fuels through the roof. You have fuel surcharges 

[00:12:14] Tevon Taylor: that usually are on scales that are negotiable.

[00:12:16] Tevon Taylor: Um, but you also have 20,000 truck drivers that have been taken out of the mix. Don’t forget that. And not to be controversial there, but when you do that, all 

[00:12:25] Tevon Taylor: sudden the rates that truckers are charging 

[00:12:27] Tevon Taylor: go 

[00:12:28] Tevon Taylor: up, right? So we’re seeing 

[00:12:29] Tevon Taylor: that in our 

[00:12:29] Tevon Taylor: business quite a bit.

[00:12:30] Scott W. Luton: Excellent point. You know, uh, speaking of fuel, jet 

[00:12:33] Scott W. Luton: fuel, I came, uh, I came 

[00:12:34] Scott W. Luton: across a graph yesterday that showed a huge spike. I had to add a couple monitors on top of the 

[00:12:38] Scott W. Luton: one to see the tip of the spike. It is amazing. 

[00:12:42] Scott W. Luton: now there are some legitimate concerns around overall 

[00:12:44] Scott W. Luton: supply, with global airlines, so we’ll 

[00:12:47] Scott W. Luton: see. Uh, 

[00:12:48] Scott W. Luton: but a couple of things, some data 

[00:12:49] Scott W. Luton: suggests, speaking of shipping costs, that 53% of 

[00:12:52] Scott W. Luton: total shipping costs now sit.

[00:12:55] Scott W. Luton: You guessed it in the last mile as opposed 

[00:12:56] Scott W. Luton: to about 41%, 

[00:12:57] Scott W. Luton: some

[00:12:58] Scott W. Luton: seven to eight years 

[00:12:58] Scott W. Luton: ago. and Lori, you were touched on some of the, factors that increase 

[00:13:03] Scott W. Luton: costs, and we’ll 

[00:13:03] Scott W. Luton: touch on 

[00:13:04] Scott W. Luton: this, and some things you can do

[00:13:05] Scott W. Luton: But some estimates say that about 8% 

[00:13:08] Scott W. Luton: of 

[00:13:08] Scott W. Luton: first 

[00:13:08] Scott W. Luton: attempt deliveries fail. And of course, that’s gonna 

[00:13:12] Scott W. Luton: be driving up, costs.

[00:13:13] Lori Boyer: Huge, 

[00:13:14] Scott W. Luton: folks, 

[00:13:15] Scott W. Luton: good news is, and 

[00:13:16] Scott W. Luton: Lori’s gonna tell us, there’s a better way that can address all of that And much, much more. So Lori, listen. 

[00:13:23] Lori Boyer: Hopefully I have a magic bullet. 

[00:13:24] Scott W. Luton: You, Hey, you always bring all of them a magic wand, an easy button, maybe you always bring it. Uh, all right, so you’ve talked about, of course, the man, uh, coming in bursts. Uh, instead of that steady flow, uh, you implied it here. We’ve talked about on previous shows, if only consumers will make it easier on us, that’s not gonna happen.

[00:13:45] Scott W. Luton: But based on what you’re seeing, what does that, um, unsteady flow actually do to a shipping operation day in and day out?

[00:13:53] Lori Boyer: Yeah, I mean, we all know, we call, I, you know, we call ’em Microsurges a lot is these bursts of volume around promotion. Some TikTok, influencer shares something, you know, external events, whatever it is. and it trickles down to the warehouse to everywhere labor. I love how Kevin brought up even drivers labor strain is a big one.

[00:14:12] Lori Boyer: missed cutoffs or suddenly, like, what we see a lot when it comes to shipping is people end up. Spending 

[00:14:19] Lori Boyer: way more money because you don’t have the carrier built in you know, needing more expedited shipments or you’re suddenly getting higher cost per order.

[00:14:27] Lori Boyer: And yeah, that volatility, it’s an exciting moment when you get a whole bunch of orders, but it also is a chaotic moment and, you know, when not prepared for, can become really, really hard to manage if you don’t manage it well, unfortunately. That’s really dangerous for your consumers and and for your customer 

[00:14:48] Scott W. Luton: Yep. And Lori, uh, and Tevon, you wanna be in position as an

[00:14:52] Scott W. Luton: organization to really delight all those customers when that burst comes in. Right. Uh, Tevon

[00:14:58] Scott W. Luton: your thoughts. We heard there from Lori. 

[00:15:00] Tevon Taylor: Yeah, this is where the, the rubber really meets the road operationally. I mean, most, most networks 

[00:15:04] Tevon Taylor: are not set 

[00:15:05] Tevon Taylor: up for that volatility. They’re designed for averages. so from, from what we see is, you know, 

[00:15:10] Tevon Taylor: shipping becomes the shock absorber. for poor upstream planning. So if, if marketing’s dropping a 

[00:15:16] Tevon Taylor: promotion without ops alignment or inventory being in the wrong place, you’re gonna have costs go up.

[00:15:21] Tevon Taylor: ’cause now you’re expediting and 

[00:15:22] Tevon Taylor: your margin goes out the door, you know

[00:15:24] Scott W. Luton: And, And,

[00:15:25] Scott W. Luton: just lemme clarify, you don’t want margin going out the

[00:15:28] Scott W. Luton: door, is that right. Tevon.

[00:15:29] Tevon Taylor: That’s right. You want margin.

[00:15:35] Scott W. Luton: That’s We’re, we’re a business, not a All right. 

[00:15:40] Scott W. Luton: So Lori, I’ve been looking forward to posing this next question to you. 

[00:15:43] Scott W. Luton: ’cause it, it’s 

[00:15:44] Scott W. Luton: really 

[00:15:44] Scott W. Luton: a billion dollar question. So, 

[00:15:46] Scott W. Luton: as most companies. Default to

[00:15:48] Scott W. Luton: faster shipping to stay competitive and

[00:15:50] Scott W. Luton: to, appeal to the customer that we think wants 

[00:15:53] Scott W. Luton: that. 

[00:15:54] Scott W. Luton: The billion dollar question 

[00:15:55] Scott W. Luton: though, are customers really as in 2026, 

[00:15:59] Scott W. Luton: valuing speed 

[00:16:01] Scott W. Luton: as much as 

[00:16:01] Scott W. Luton: we think they are.

[00:16:02] Scott W. Luton: I am so excited that you asked this question because this may be one of the number one things that I’m seeing with customers getting wrong. Not your fault at all. I mean, speed has been massive for customers for a long time, so in 2022, speed was the number one, most important factor to consumers.

[00:16:24] Lori Boyer: Okay. I think that makes sense. Wasn’t even that long ago this year, or in 2025, I guess. it’s number five. It’s a long way down the list.So number one, how much is it gonna cost them? Do they have to pay? They still want free.

[00:16:39] Lori Boyer: Number two, reliability. Is it actually gonna come? You talked about that 8%, Scott, you know things weren’t delivered, right? Three, this is really interesting visibility. They wanna know where the heck their package is. What’s going on with it. and, then four is accuracy. and I I was speaking with the great Chris Capis at MIT oversees their program there and he said that’s the one they’re seeing a lot People care far more about the package arriving when you say it’s gonna arrive than they do necessarily, that it’s fast. and So we’ve seen a lot of people focusing on fast. Just a couple weeks ago, Amazon announced one to three hour shipping, I believe. Um, delivery. We saw just this last week, FedEx announced that they’re gonna try to do same day with a delivery window

[00:17:33] Lori Boyer: within an hour or two.

[00:17:35] Lori Boyer: most shippers out there, you do not need to meet that speed. You don’t have the infrastructure, you don’t have it set up that way. Your customers are gonna care more about getting their package when they want it, at the right cost and the right knowing where it is than they necessarily do about speed.

[00:17:57] Lori Boyer: there are those who are, you know, everyone, this industry is so diverse. Your consumer base may be one that really, really cares about that speed, but you need to figure that out and don’t feel pressured to make a shift to being like, I gotta get this there today, because that’s what everyone else is doing.

[00:18:15] Lori Boyer: Um, your customers may not need that, and that’s the trend we’re seeing shift more and more. They want accuracy and they want visibility, and they may be willing to wait a week.

[00:18:25] Scott W. Luton: You know, this is such a wonderful segment of the conversation. 

[00:18:30] Scott W. Luton: We got to act and ship in reality and 

[00:18:33] Scott W. Luton: Tevon, you heard the top five data-driven, 

[00:18:36] Scott W. Luton: preferences, starting with 

[00:18:37] Scott W. Luton: costs, reliability, visibility, that whis, o

[00:18:41] Scott W. Luton: where’s my

[00:18:41] Scott W. Luton: stuff at, right? Uh, accuracy. and fifth was speed. Tevon your

[00:18:47] Scott W. Luton: thoughts.

[00:18:48] Tevon Taylor: Yeah, the days are gone where speed’s The 

[00:18:50] Tevon Taylor: most important thing. Cost is at the 

[00:18:52] Tevon Taylor: front of the line. The most important thing 

[00:18:55] Tevon Taylor: for any consumers to give them the 

[00:18:57] Tevon Taylor: option and the choice. Don’t pigeonhole them 

[00:18:59] Tevon Taylor: into one solution. Give them options. If they want it really fast and expedited, they wanna put it on an airplane, they’re gonna pay 

[00:19:06] Tevon Taylor: for it. And it’s even going into sustainability where it’s like, 

[00:19:09] Tevon Taylor: Hey, if we use this type of box, this is what you pay. If you let us use this type of 

[00:19:13] Tevon Taylor: box, it’s this cheap, right? It’s not cheap. Money. So I, I, I think just put that in the consumer’s hands and let them have 

[00:19:21] Tevon Taylor: an option. 

[00:19:22] Tevon Taylor: And I’m all about 

[00:19:23] Tevon Taylor: options, right?

[00:19:23] Tevon Taylor: If you want it faster, we’ll give it 

[00:19:25] Tevon Taylor: to you, but then the cost is yours, not mine.

[00:19:27] Scott W. Luton: That’s right.

[00:19:28] Lori Boyer: Amazon themselves is charging for that. You know, it’s not like free to get your stuff within one 

[00:19:33] Lori Boyer: to three hours. So love that point. Te. Sorry Scott, you, jump in.

[00:19:37] Scott W. Luton: No, you keep bringing it Uh, two thoughts come to mind. We were talking 

[00:19:41] Scott W. Luton: about USPS earlier, and of course last year, if y’all saw the numbers, Amazon. 

[00:19:46] Scott W. Luton: Overcame shipping volume,

[00:19:49] Scott W. Luton: over 

[00:19:49] Scott W. Luton: USPS last year, first time in history, talking about his 

[00:19:52] Scott W. Luton: history, 

[00:19:52] Scott W. Luton: and then secondly, again, acting reality. and I think both of y’all are 

[00:19:56] Scott W. Luton: speaking to at 

[00:19:57] Scott W. Luton: such an 

[00:19:57] Scott W. Luton: important point.

[00:19:58] Scott W. Luton: We can’t assume so many folks. Assume what the customer 

[00:20:01] Scott W. Luton: wants.

[00:20:02] Scott W. Luton: That’s why we’re talking about the big A and Amazon. 

[00:20:05] Scott W. Luton: They’re 

[00:20:05] Scott W. Luton: constantly pulsing and polling the customer to figure out what’s really important to 

[00:20:10] Scott W. Luton: them,

[00:20:10] Scott W. Luton: right? And what is not that important so that we don’t have to bring on 

[00:20:15] Scott W. Luton: needless complexity in any supply chain or shipping operation.

[00:20:19] Scott W. Luton: So really, really good stuff there. Lori. 

[00:20:21] Lori Boyer: And they test. I think that’s 

[00:20:23] Lori Boyer: another key point

[00:20:24] Lori Boyer: there. Amazon will test 

[00:20:26] Lori Boyer: that’s the same thing I say when you’re adding care. When you’re diversifying mix, when you wanna maybe change a zone, test it in a small scale, and then implement on the wider scale, 

[00:20:36] Scott W. Luton: I love that, Lori. It reminds me, we got Easter around the 

[00:20:39] Scott W. Luton: corner folks, before you take a covered 

[00:20:43] Scott W. Luton: dish 

[00:20:44] Scott W. Luton: to that, family dinner, and especially if it’s a new recipe, you need to test it first. 

[00:20:49] Scott W. Luton: Lori, is that right?

[00:20:50] Lori Boyer: hearing a bad behind this.

[00:20:52] Scott W. Luton: I’m not gonna call out any of my aunts and uncles. Uh, of course not. But anyway, you gotta test it. Experimentation 

[00:20:59] Scott W. Luton: pilots are important. okay. Good stuff there. Uh, so here we go. AI 

[00:21:04] Scott W. Luton: is everywhere right now. It’s, it is a fascinating 

[00:21:07] Scott W. Luton: time to be in the golden age of supply chain tech. I mean, who knows what next year are bringing, or next five years are bringing.

[00:21:13] Scott W. Luton: It’s exciting and scary together, 

[00:21:15] Scott W. Luton: but you know, a lot of 

[00:21:15] Scott W. Luton: operators are still skeptical and probably for good 

[00:21:18] Scott W. Luton: reason, right? I would argue the approach is so 

[00:21:21] Scott W. Luton: critical, right? We’ve gotta select the right problem, 

[00:21:24] Scott W. Luton: right? Use the right tool. there’s folks

[00:21:26] Scott W. Luton: getting that right.

[00:21:27] Scott W. Luton: and folks getting that wrong out

[00:21:28] Scott W. Luton: there.

[00:21:29] Scott W. Luton: But Lori, where are you seeing AI make a really big difference in shipping 

[00:21:33] Scott W. Luton: decisions?

[00:21:34] Lori Boyer: Yeah, I, I think you’re right. I agree with you, Scott. There’s good reasonfor people being skeptic. Skepticism, I can talk. Words are hard, It’s out there. AI is not always delivering and we are still in kind of some of the baby stages in our industry. We can do full episodes on ai, but my biggest thing I would say is that where AI is working is in helping with that decision making kind of that we talked about earlier.

[00:22:04] Lori Boyer: That. We are getting things wrong. Maybe we don’t realize that we’re getting hit with a lot of surcharges that we don’t need to get hit with. Maybe we don’t realize that in zone eight that this other regional carrier may be way more reliable or way more affordable or faster or whatever it is that we’re looking for.

[00:22:24] Lori Boyer: Those decisions have been so hard 

[00:22:26] Lori Boyer: in this industry. Scott, back when you had all your, your spreadsheets and your sticky notes, sometimes That’s how we were still trying to make the decisions. ai, where AI shines is that it can take massive amounts of data. Make it easier for us to actually make a decision not just an insight.

[00:22:47] Lori Boyer: AI helps you actually make That. decision and start to test things out. And so my thought is where can AI help you actually organize massive amounts of data and make a decision?

[00:22:59] Lori Boyer: Yeah. and and And, scale it right so the whole team can, take advantage. Uh, Tevon Lori as 

[00:23:05] Lori Boyer: promised is bringing it here. She’s backing up the truck and hitting us with her latest actionable perspective here 

[00:23:11] Lori Boyer: today. Your thoughts, Tevon?

[00:23:13] Tevon Taylor: She’s amazing. We know that. Come on. Um, number one, I think to be skeptical is healthy. 

[00:23:19] Tevon Taylor: a lot of operators have been burned by 

[00:23:21] Tevon Taylor: that next big thing, so, you know, we we’re kinda laggards 

[00:23:25] Tevon Taylor: in, in the field

[00:23:26] Tevon Taylor: a little bit, but it doesn’t happen overnight.

[00:23:28] Tevon Taylor: You have to make small incremental improvements. And the key point, and Lori said it You really 

[00:23:33] Tevon Taylor: have to start with a problem if you don’t know 

[00:23:35] Tevon Taylor: what 

[00:23:35] Tevon Taylor: you’re trying to fix.

[00:23:36] Tevon Taylor: AI is just a waste of time. It’s just another

[00:23:39] Tevon Taylor: layer of

[00:23:39] Tevon Taylor: complexity that people dunno what they’re using it for. So know what you’re solving for, work towards that 

[00:23:44] Tevon Taylor: problem.

[00:23:45] Tevon Taylor: Do it slowly and incrementally and, 

[00:23:47] Tevon Taylor: and it it’ll be amazing for you. I. 

[00:23:49] Scott W. Luton: You know, and, 

[00:23:50] Scott W. Luton: If we don’t do 

[00:23:51] Scott W. Luton: AI

[00:23:51] Scott W. Luton: right, it actually does the opposite. 

[00:23:53] Scott W. Luton: It 

[00:23:53] Scott W. Luton: creates 

[00:23:54] Scott W. Luton: chaos and, 

[00:23:56] Scott W. Luton: pressure and, and anything but results. So, so it’s 

[00:23:59] Scott W. Luton: all about the approach.

[00:24:00] Scott W. Luton: Yes, that’s right, Lori. 

[00:24:01] Lori Boyer: Yeah, right. Like, again, on 

[00:24:03] Lori Boyer: that key piece of needing to

[00:24:04] Lori Boyer: make a decision, 

[00:24:06] Lori Boyer: Keep it simple. Make sure you’re reliable.

[00:24:08] Lori Boyer: And that includes with your ai, is it reliable data, is it reliable, um, information that you’re training it 

[00:24:15] Scott W. Luton: Agreed. Agreed. And one, one more 

[00:24:17] Scott W. Luton: thing, I’m not gonna try saying skeptical or skepticism, ’cause my South Carolina English is much better than your Texas English. But, you know, it was when, when he wasn’t building the hierarchy 

[00:24:27] Scott W. Luton: of needs. Abraham Maslow. Does that ring a bell? He coined the law of the 

[00:24:32] Scott W. Luton: instrument

[00:24:33] Scott W. Luton: Maslow said, quote, it is tempting if the only tool you have is a 

[00:24:37] Scott W. Luton: hammer

[00:24:38] Scott W. Luton: to treat everything if it were a nail. And from an AI perspective, there’s lots of folks running around. We know we’ve 

[00:24:43] Scott W. Luton: talked about it, we’ve seen

[00:24:44] Scott W. Luton: it running around with hammers, treating everything 

[00:24:47] Scott W. Luton: as nails and, and we gotta get back 

[00:24:48] Scott W. Luton: to what are we trying to 

[00:24:49] Scott W. Luton: solve and what’s the best tool 

[00:24:53] Scott W. Luton: to address that. So, um, Lori. 

[00:24:55] Lori Boyer: Great 

[00:24:55] Scott W. Luton: wanna shift a little bit 

[00:24:56] Scott W. Luton: here because as we kind of get into

[00:24:58] Scott W. Luton: kind of prescriptive, proven best

[00:25:01] Scott W. Luton: practices, right? you got a lot more in that, uh,

[00:25:04] Scott W. Luton: bag of tricks you

[00:25:05] Scott W. Luton: got before teams jump into new tools or big

[00:25:07] Scott W. Luton: changes.

[00:25:09] Scott W. Luton: We gotta, we gotta take a better

[00:25:10] Scott W. Luton: first step. How 

[00:25:11] Scott W. Luton: should ship out there identify where their shipping

[00:25:14] Scott W. Luton: costs are coming from?

[00:25:16] Lori Boyer: Okay, I, we talked a little bit about visibility earlier, and I think that you’ve gotta start there. So first of all, you’ve got to make sure you have clean data. Make sure your teams are working together. from the same source. I see that fairly often. You know, you get into a warehouse and you may have like 20 systems going on.

[00:25:35] Lori Boyer: I get that it’s normal, but we need to be working together on the same systems and you need to have numbers that everyone agrees on. So before you do anything with a tool, you’ve got to make sure got that clean, reliable data. So that means an audit, um, to go over and make sure you know What you’re gonna be using.

[00:25:54] Lori Boyer: I also wanna say, if you’re looking specifically for identifying the shipping costs where I’m seeing people, wasting or letting money go down the drain a little bit out the door, 

[00:26:04] Lori Boyer: like we said earlier, again, the accessorial charges, 

[00:26:09] Lori Boyer: um, again, dimensions, weights, don’t rip and replace until you’re actually seeing where your specific issues. are um, a lot of people don’t do that and, and struggle thinking, like you said, they’re hitting it with the hammer. Um, you need to find out your own leaks. Maybe it’s your service level, maybe it’s the carriers you’re using. Maybe it’s, you know, that you are shipping So much faster than your customers even care about.

[00:26:35] Lori Boyer: So start by really carefully auditing some of those. Those are the ones I’m seeing the most often.

[00:26:39] Scott W. Luton: I like it. Lori and Tevon, one of the things that she 

[00:26:42] Scott W. Luton: mentioned beyond kind of. getting real with where costs are coming from. Kind of that simplify,

[00:26:47] Scott W. Luton: standardized, automate mantra that you see in a lot of organizations. That’s still, it’s as old as time itself, but it still works. Tevon your thoughts and we

[00:26:55] Scott W. Luton: heard there from 

[00:26:55] Scott W. Luton: Lori.

[00:26:56] Tevon Taylor: Yeah, I’d. At revenue leakage, you see people still shipping error, which is 

[00:27:00] Tevon Taylor: bizarre. they’re dimming out on packages and, and when I 

[00:27:03] Tevon Taylor: mean, dimming out, they’re 

[00:27:04] Tevon Taylor: shipping literally a big box, 

[00:27:05] Tevon Taylor: small item. And the, the carrier’s gonna go by the 

[00:27:09] Tevon Taylor: dimensional weight, not by the actual, size of the 

[00:27:12] Tevon Taylor: package or weight of

[00:27:12] Tevon Taylor: the package.

[00:27:14] Tevon Taylor: Accessorials are huge. If you ever look at 

[00:27:16] Tevon Taylor: UPS, FedEx, DHL, those accessorial 

[00:27:19] Tevon Taylor: charges are 

[00:27:20] Tevon Taylor: hard enough to understand. I

[00:27:21] Tevon Taylor: feel like you have to get a PhD to kind 

[00:27:23] Tevon Taylor: of read through ’em, but make sure you understand what those costs are, right?

[00:27:27] Scott W. Luton: You got to, 

[00:27:28] Lori Boyer: Small mistakes can make big rle, You 

[00:27:31] Lori Boyer: know, big impact there 

[00:27:33] Lori Boyer: on

[00:27:33] Lori Boyer: those fees.

[00:27:34] Scott W. Luton: Massive. So after then, Lori, once we really get real and understand exactly and very accurately where costs are coming from, what would You

[00:27:44] Scott W. Luton: actually change? Starting, 

[00:27:46] Scott W. Luton: I was gonna say tomorrow, but really starting today to get them under control. Your 

[00:27:51] Scott W. Luton: thoughts.

[00:27:52] Lori Boyer: Again, and if you’ve ever heard me or follow the podcast, you know, I say start small. Do not try to overhaul everything at once. As I think, Scott, you like to say, don’t boil the ocean. Um, I focus on decisions. So first maybe, uh, reevaluate your service levels against what your customers

[00:28:11] Lori Boyer: actually expect.

[00:28:13] Lori Boyer: Again, this is one I think we’re not aware of that maybe we’ve said it and forget it, and we think that that’s what they need. Offer those options. like Tevon said, a lot of companies out there actually I think are overserving on speed. second, I’d improve maybe how quickly you can make decisions.

[00:28:29] Lori Boyer: So when we talked about those big microsurges that are occurring with volume and demand, when your demand shifts, slow reactions are expensive. That’s, it’s not just the customers. You end up spending too much money. So how quickly can you make a shift with your decisions. third, I’d say maybe look at your routing.

[00:28:53] Lori Boyer: We see that.

[00:28:54] Lori Boyer: as a big issue. Don’t just default to the same carrier, the same service every time. Obviously all of this takes kind of technology and, and that is again, where we talked to AI It comes back into play there. It’s really key. But yeah, look at different carriers. I just say we’ve talked about Amazon a little bit here today.

[00:29:12] Lori Boyer: I wanna throw in a plug for Amazon shipping. Amazon shipping. For those of you who dunno, is a carrier. So Amazon entered the carrier 

[00:29:21] Lori Boyer: arena about 18 months ago. Um, and you can use Amazon, take advantage of their infrastructure and everything that they’ve got going. Um, we’re seeing that when our data people use our AI tools to compare and lookAmazon shipping is.

[00:29:36] Lori Boyer: Coming up is one of the most affordable and one of the best options a lot of times. And that’s something that’s interesting ’cause they’re still kind of a regional carrier, but they are one that we’re seeing more and more of our customers are moving volume over to them. Which makes sense. They’ve got a, a great backbone to everything they do.

[00:29:53] Lori Boyer: But yeah, keep an eye out. look at routes, see where it is that you can get, not just speed, but the reliability, the visibility, the ability for 

[00:30:02] Lori Boyer: people to, um, trust And feel comfortable.

[00:30:05] Scott W. Luton: And Lori,

[00:30:08] Scott W. Luton: uh, before I get TE’s comments, of course, EasyPost, offers a ton of ways folks can do all that. Uh, you have mentioned,

[00:30:16] Scott W. Luton: we’re gonna make sure we ask Lori how folks can start with EasyPost and just. To

[00:30:19] Scott W. Luton: minute, but the whole Amazon shipping thing is fascinating, right? Not only, uh, I, I mentioned

[00:30:24] Scott W. Luton: earlier how they finally supplanted the USPS.

[00:30:26] Scott W. Luton: Of course they’re shipping most a lot of their own work, but to your

[00:30:29] Scott W. Luton: point, 

[00:30:30] Scott W. Luton: they are getting some volume 

[00:30:31] Scott W. Luton: gains from other, volume out there. So, Tevon Laura just shared a bunch of things that we gotta start doing, not tomorrow, but today.

[00:30:38] Scott W. Luton: Your 

[00:30:39] Scott W. Luton: thoughts. 

[00:30:39] Tevon Taylor: The

[00:30:39] Tevon Taylor: easiest thing is make sure the service level and the customer expectation are matching. Don’t overserve the 

[00:30:45] Tevon Taylor: customer, you know, don’t give ’em a filet if they 

[00:30:47] Tevon Taylor: want a cheeseburger. Right. that makes no 

[00:30:49] Tevon Taylor: sense to me. But, you know, decision making speed. in today’s environment when demand is shifting constantly. You can’t be slow at making decisions when you’re slow. Business goes out the door, it’s an expensive miss. Um, so you gotta make sure you’re taking care of that. And then, you know, look, at the end of the day, the companies that are winning, they’re not necessarily the ones with the lowest rates, they’re the ones making the best decisions consistently at scale.

[00:31:14] Tevon Taylor: You know, it could be companies like Amazon,

[00:31:16] Tevon Taylor: But, you know, there’s a lot of leakage here if you allow 

[00:31:20] Tevon Taylor: decisions to be made slow or if you overserve a customer that’s not expecting the faster service or the 

[00:31:25] Tevon Taylor: faster service level.

[00:31:27] Scott W. Luton: Tevon. It’s so true. And, and Laura. 

[00:31:29] Scott W. Luton: It’s always important to pick and choose your 

[00:31:32] Scott W. Luton: battles, right? I would argue in times 

[00:31:34] Scott W. Luton: like this, right 

[00:31:35] Scott W. Luton: now, 

[00:31:35] Scott W. Luton: going back to The VUCA 

[00:31:36] Scott W. Luton: acronym, it’s one of my favorite 

[00:31:37] Scott W. Luton: ones, 

[00:31:38] Scott W. Luton: is so important to, to part of the control factor, to 

[00:31:41] Scott W. Luton: optimize the 

[00:31:42] Scott W. Luton: control, to pick 

[00:31:43] Scott W. Luton: and choose our battles. and oftentimes if we don’t know, what our customers really 

[00:31:47] Scott W. Luton: want, 

[00:31:47] Scott W. Luton: we’re inviting needless battles that on its face is 

[00:31:50] Scott W. Luton: terrible. But think about. The impact it has for your hardworking team. What problems are we creating

[00:31:57] Scott W. Luton: that 

[00:31:57] Scott W. Luton: they shouldn’t even have to 

[00:31:58] Scott W. Luton: deal with 

[00:31:59] Scott W. Luton: Right. so Lori, one of the best pieces of good news here And

[00:32:04] Scott W. Luton: and 

[00:32:04] Scott W. Luton: we’ve seen it time and time again is 

[00:32:06] Scott W. Luton: there’s great work

[00:32:07] Scott W. Luton: that you and the 

[00:32:07] Scott W. Luton: EasyPost team are doing 

[00:32:09] Scott W. Luton: that, again, one of my favorite parts, it makes. 

[00:32:12] Scott W. Luton: It gives easier days to teams out there so they can find success easier. But how 

[00:32:18] Scott W. Luton: how easy is it?

[00:32:19] Scott W. Luton: No pun intended to get started working

[00:32:21] Scott W. Luton: with the EasyPost 

[00:32:22] Scott W. Luton: team.

[00:32:23] Scott W. Luton: It is

[00:32:24] Scott W. Luton: easy. It should be, 

[00:32:25] Lori Boyer: That’s all you need, right?

[00:32:27] Lori Boyer: No, of course. Um, working with EasyPost is fantastic. We are, as I mentioned, Amazon shipping and whatnot, but we are totally carrier agnostic. That means we serve all carriers. Our goal is just to give you the tools to be able to make those decisions so that you can make sure that.

[00:32:45] Lori Boyer: you are using the right carriers in the right time and the right label and, and have all those different abilities accessible to you. If you want it to start with EasyPost, of course you can always go to EasyPost.com. there’s, just click on the link there to learn more. When you’re small shipper, it’s free.

[00:33:03] Lori Boyer: As you get bigger, you know it, it’s gonna depend on the number of labels that you’re sending, but for sure, it’s really easy to 

[00:33:10] Lori Boyer: do. You can also always reach out to me. I’m on LinkedIn, or you can 

[00:33:15] Lori Boyer: email me so what, whatever you want. Will make it easy

[00:33:20] Scott W. Luton: Let me pick, Let me 

[00:33:21] Scott W. Luton: pick one thing out. Uh, two things actually. cause folks, if you’re not connected to Lori, if you’re not following her, if you’re not 

[00:33:25] Scott W. Luton: listening to the podcast, you got to, But the other thing she said earlier than that, 

[00:33:29] Scott W. Luton: Tevon, 

[00:33:29] Scott W. Luton: She mentioned that if you’re a certain ship of a certain volume, you may be able to start working with Easy 

[00:33:35] Scott W. Luton: Post for free Tevon.

[00:33:37] Scott W. Luton: Your thoughts.

[00:33:39] Tevon Taylor: Uh, hey, free is for me for sure. ’cause I’m 

[00:33:41] Tevon Taylor: one of 

[00:33:41] Tevon Taylor: those, I’m a smaller parcel 

[00:33:43] Tevon Taylor: carrier for sure. So. I love hearing that, but yeah, it’s, it’s a platform I mentioned 

[00:33:48] Tevon Taylor: earlier. it lets you get into the decision layer and it helps You with

[00:33:52] Tevon Taylor: your shipping needs, shippers of all sizes. So that’s a great thing about EasyPost.

[00:33:56] Scott W. Luton: It is outstanding and 

[00:33:58] Scott W. Luton: all right, so Lori. 

[00:34:00] Scott W. Luton: I love, your podcast, as you know, right? I love how you always bring data and facts, and a variety of perspectives. So folks, if you haven’t checked out unboxing Logistics yet, please do that. And L’Oreal’s perusing and catching up on some of your latest shows. 

[00:34:16] Scott W. Luton: You’ve had some, uh, you’ve had some heavy hitters.

[00:34:18] Scott W. Luton: Tell us what’s the 

[00:34:19] Scott W. Luton: latest 

[00:34:20] Scott W. Luton: with unboxing

[00:34:20] Scott W. Luton: logistics.

[00:34:22] Lori Boyer: Yeah, you know, I love hosting just so many smart people in this industry and figuring out what’s going on. I loved, recently you have here, uh, Sal Ano, he’s kind of the big expert on ocean shipping. and so we talked all about the strad of Porous and what’s going on there. And I thought that was really interesting.

[00:34:44] Lori Boyer: He talked about what, delays, you know, what one day. In the straight would mean how it trickles down to the rest of us. Um, yeah, just come join us. We have a fantastic community there, wonderful unboxing logistics. 

[00:34:58] Lori Boyer: family who are just smart, hardworking logistics people.

[00:35:03] Scott W. Luton: Making it happen. Making it happen. Uh, unboxing logistics, wherever you get your podcast. 

[00:35:07] Scott W. Luton: Tevon, uh, are you a fellow unboxing

[00:35:11] Scott W. Luton: logistics fan?

[00:35:13] Tevon Taylor: I, I am, but unfortunately I haven’t watched all the shows. But, I am a 

[00:35:17] Tevon Taylor: fan, I’m a fan of Lori’s.

[00:35:18] Tevon Taylor: How, how could you.

[00:35:20] Scott W. Luton: Oh, man. We gotta make that happen. 

[00:35:26] Scott W. Luton: Well, all this about price, speed and reliability. There’s been no talk about sustainability. What about tools for differences with carbon usage? 

[00:35:33] Scott W. Luton: The better we are 

[00:35:34] Scott W. Luton: at optimizing and finding efficiencies day-to-day in our operations, shipping operations and

[00:35:38] Scott W. Luton: otherwise, that will certainly help us address and make bigger gains from a sustainability 

[00:35:43] Scott W. Luton: standpoint, number one.

[00:35:44] Scott W. Luton: But number two, I bet, Lori, you would love you and the team would love to talk 

[00:35:49] Scott W. Luton: about, whether it’s sustainability initiatives 

[00:35:51] Scott W. Luton: or, or anything 

[00:35:52] Scott W. Luton: else related to today’s conversation. Is that right?

[00:35:54] Lori Boyer: Yeah, fantastic.there are so many aspects

[00:35:58] Lori Boyer: of sustainability that come into the shipping industry, and I think especially as we talk today, a little bit about customers and their specific needs, some of your industries, sustainability is gonna be really critical to your customer base.

[00:36:12] Lori Boyer: The good news, what I’ve seen with sustainability Is the best sustainability options also typically save you money. So I think that’s kind of what Scott was referring to. You know, shipping in, or I think Kevin earlier mentioned the boxes. You know, having smaller boxes and having less waste in your returns program being way better.

[00:36:30] Lori Boyer: And so it’s not just the emissions, but it’s also just the way that we’re actually becoming more efficient. actually can save us money. And help the environment as well, 

[00:36:40] Lori Boyer: One of my thoughts that also comes to 

[00:36:43] Scott W. Luton: mind kind of along the lines of what Lori shared, is when our team, especially at 

[00:36:46] Scott W. Luton: scale, right? EasyPost works with companies at all levels, but think of if we can empower our workforce 

[00:36:53] Scott W. Luton: to make much

[00:36:55] Scott W. Luton: smarter, more confident, easy shipping decisions, 

[00:36:58] Scott W. Luton: right?

[00:36:59] Scott W. Luton: And, the right 

[00:37:00] Scott W. Luton: box, the right carrier, maybe we’re cutting down on those missed 

[00:37:04] Scott W. Luton: initial deliveries, so we’re cutting down on those really wasteful miles. I mean. Especially in a decent sized organization, those 

[00:37:10] Scott W. Luton: gains really, mount quickly. uh, now I’m not talking about a formal sustainability, policy or strategy, but 

[00:37:19] Scott W. Luton: I, I, like to think in practical, real terms,

[00:37:21] Scott W. Luton: Tevon your 

[00:37:21] Scott W. Luton: thoughts. 

[00:37:22] Tevon Taylor: Yeah, I, I mean, 

[00:37:23] Tevon Taylor: look, sustainability does happen. On its own when you make the right shipping decisions, the right packaging decisions, and, and look over my 30 years in 

[00:37:31] Tevon Taylor: this business, I remember loading 

[00:37:33] Tevon Taylor: trucks in 1996 and it’d be a, a box that would go up to my 

[00:37:38] Tevon Taylor: chest and it weighed like three pounds. 

[00:37:40] Tevon Taylor: It’s like, what a waste, what a waste of space.

[00:37:43] Tevon Taylor: but you know what 

[00:37:44] Tevon Taylor: if, if you plan accordingly and you do the right things, you talk about overserving customers, if everything’s going on an airplane, and the customer doesn’t care the timeline to 

[00:37:52] Tevon Taylor: get that package. That can go on a 

[00:37:54] Tevon Taylor: train, a truck or somewhere else where the footprint’s a lot smaller as 

[00:37:58] Tevon Taylor: well.

[00:37:58] Tevon Taylor: so those decisions will happen more and more. But sustainability, in good business 

[00:38:04] Tevon Taylor: sense and profitability, those had to align. You can’t just spend money on sustainability and not get anything. it’s gotta be a business decision as well.

[00:38:12] Scott W. Luton: That’s right. And as 

[00:38:13] Scott W. Luton: Lori mentioned, a lot of times

[00:38:14] Scott W. Luton: sustainability gains certainly impact, that bottom line, 

[00:38:18] Lori Boyer: I’m a little bit of a history nerd, so I just have to jump in. The earliest, 

[00:38:22] Lori Boyer: um, recordings of sustainability efforts, it’s like ancient Romans, right? And, and really. it’s not that they were trying to save the planet, but the types of returns programs they had and, and the recycling and the diff, it was because it makes business.

[00:38:37] Lori Boyer: And I think you both are right on the best ones because they’re gonna keep going, right? The best plan is when it makes business sense for you, and it it goes back to those decision making, I think. So it’s not just price, speed, reliability, Throw in the sustainability option as well and make all of those what your customers and consumers are looking for, and, and emphasize there and, and it’ll be successful for you financially as well.

[00:39:03] Scott W. Luton: And it’s gotta be a holistic equation. you know, some, 

[00:39:05] Scott W. Luton: and I’m not trying to offend anybody. Some customers really care about sustainability, others 

[00:39:09] Scott W. Luton: do not. And there’s all points in

[00:39:11] Scott W. Luton: between really understanding, at a very, you know, 

[00:39:14] Scott W. Luton: first step. What is success? Uh, what they value, what they don’t, muda.

[00:39:19] Scott W. Luton: Versus true

[00:39:20] Scott W. Luton: value. alright, so, and by the way, I loved your, your historical point there, Lori. If the Romans only left us a recipe for their concrete, we’d be so much further ahead. 

[00:39:30] Scott W. Luton: Y’all should check 

[00:39:30] Scott W. Luton: this out though. This is, an ebook, LLMs and shipping. What teams are already doing. 

[00:39:36] Scott W. Luton: With or without permission. 

[00:39:37] Scott W. Luton: It’s a 

[00:39:37] Scott W. Luton: practical guide that shows 

[00:39:38] Scott W. Luton: what’s really

[00:39:39] Scott W. Luton: happening

[00:39:40] Lori Boyer: One thing in this guide I love, I wrote this guide, so I love everything. But as I have this amazing prompt section that will walk you through how to create really good prompts for whatever LLM you’re using. If it’s chat GBT or Claude, or if you have a personal one. there’s some really good ways for prompt management in here that are just super practical and helpful.

[00:40:00] Scott W. Luton: Okay, love it.

[00:40:01] Lori Boyer: love for my own writing.

[00:40:03] Scott W. Luton: Well, Lori, I appreciate that, and I appreciate the practical approach y’all put into these resources. So folks, go check out LLMs and shipping to see what’s really happening and where the real opportunity is. and then secondly, uh, Tevon really quick. have you downloaded and

[00:40:18] Scott W. Luton: read this yet?

[00:40:19] Scott W. Luton: 

[00:40:19] Tevon Taylor: No, but I want to, the little picture looks like somebody fell over though. Like somebody with. 

[00:40:25] Scott W. Luton: You know, I’ve seen this graphic a thousand times and it does like look like someone’s taken a nap. Lori, 

[00:40:32] Scott W. Luton: I feel like that’s. 

[00:40:33] Lori Boyer: A. 

[00:40:34] Scott W. Luton: I feel like that’s, uh, one of those ink block tests and Tevon just has opened up my eyes to seeing things differently. How about that? Um, alright. Speaking of on the top of the hour, 

[00:40:45] Scott W. Luton: we mentioned events and Mo Modex is gonna be the biggest 

[00:40:48] Scott W. Luton: modex 

[00:40:49] Scott W. Luton: in history. Maybe not dating back to, Roman 

[00:40:51] Scott W. Luton: Times, but almost 40,000 people in Atlanta, and Lori and the EasyPost team’s gonna be there.

[00:40:57] Scott W. Luton: and I wanna point out 

[00:40:58] Scott W. Luton: exactly couple things here. Number one, 

[00:41:01] Scott W. Luton: if this is on your radar, 

[00:41:02] Scott W. Luton: it’s April 13th through the 16th. It’s just two weeks away. You can learn more@modexshow.com. You will find Lori.So this is,

[00:41:10] Scott W. Luton: you got a Georgia World Congress 

[00:41:12] Scott W. Luton: Center, right?

[00:41:12] Scott W. Luton: You got Hall A, hall B, and

[00:41:14] Scott W. Luton: Hall C, 

[00:41:15] Scott W. Luton: where 

[00:41:15] Scott W. Luton: we’re gonna be in Hall C in podcast Row, and you’ve 

[00:41:17] Scott W. Luton: got, the EasyPost booth, and that number 

[00:41:21] Scott W. Luton: is, let’s see, B as in boy, 7, 6, 0 4. So Hall B. But if you can’t remember 

[00:41:27] Scott W. Luton: that. I had some, you could tell very complex graphics. So I’ve got B 7, 6 0 4, but folks, you got food right around the corner so you can come, have a innovative supply chain conversation, and then you step over and you get some delicious 

[00:41:40] Scott W. Luton: food right there.

[00:41:41] Scott W. Luton: And again, this is the B Hall. so come 

[00:41:44] Scott W. Luton: join the EasyPost team. Lori. I tried my best. I’m 

[00:41:47] Scott W. Luton: not, um, uh, a Bugs Bunny illustrator, 

[00:41:51] Lori Boyer: It was perfect and it made me

[00:41:54] Lori Boyer: hungry. Even now, I think that’s the one requirement when we get a booth at an 

[00:41:58] Lori Boyer: event, please be at least 10 feet only from the food.

[00:42:01] Scott W. Luton: Uh, that’s right, that is right. Strategically placed. Uh, 

[00:42:05] Lori Boyer: Tevon.

[00:42:05] Scott W. Luton: Are you gonna be at Modex?

[00:42:07] Tevon Taylor: I will be at mode and, I’m gonna see Lori this time because at Manifest, every time I 

[00:42:12] Tevon Taylor: go by her booth, she’s talking to somebody or doing podcast or interviews. So, Lori, I’m gonna see you this time and Scott, you and I are gonna see each other.

[00:42:19] Scott W. Luton: I can’t wait. I cannot wait. But one of the things I can’t wait on is your patented key takeaway What’s one thing that folks

[00:42:27] Scott W. Luton: can’t forget from this conversation?

[00:42:28] Tevon Taylor: I had to, I had to like write down all my notes from Lori, like usual. I do have a notebook of Lori notes, so.

[00:42:34] Lori Boyer: Oh, good. 

[00:42:35] Tevon Taylor: This, this is the, the, the real summary is rising 

[00:42:38] Tevon Taylor: shipping costs aren’t just about carrier rate increases. they’re largely driven by internal inefficiencies like accessorials packaging, poor routing decisions.

[00:42:47] Tevon Taylor: So making these decisions, um, decision problems more than 

[00:42:51] Tevon Taylor: a rate problem. Okay. But the biggest opportunities come from improving visibility and aligning those service levels with actual customer expectations while 

[00:43:00] Tevon Taylor: enabling faster, smarter decisions in real time. So that’s the summary of everything I 

[00:43:04] Tevon Taylor: heard in the scribbled notes I have here.

[00:43:07] Scott W. Luton: I like it. I like it. And folks, you heard Tevon say actionable. This

[00:43:11] Scott W. Luton: was a very 

[00:43:12] Scott W. Luton: actionable conversation. I, I appreciate Lori’s 

[00:43:14] Scott W. Luton: angle of 

[00:43:14] Scott W. Luton: attack as always.

[00:43:16] Scott W. Luton: So, Lori Boyer, 

[00:43:18] Scott W. Luton: Director of Content with EasyPost, host of the outstanding podcast, 

[00:43:21] Scott W. Luton: Unboxing 

[00:43:22] Scott W. Luton: Logistics. 

[00:43:23] Scott W. Luton: Always a pleasure to connect with you and, and, hear what you are studying and helping and changing, here lately. Appreciate 

[00:43:30] Scott W. Luton: you being here.

[00:43:31] Lori Boyer: Thanks so much. It’s been fun as always. 

[00:43:34] Scott W. Luton: It has, it has very practical too. Tevon, I 

[00:43:38] Scott W. Luton: look forward 

[00:43:38] Scott W. Luton: to seeing you in Atlanta in a couple weeks, but really as always, appreciate your, uh, practitioner

[00:43:43] Scott W. Luton: perspective as well. 

[00:43:45] Tevon Taylor: Thank you for having me on, Lori. Good seeing you again.

[00:43:48] Scott W. Luton: I. 

[00:43:49] Lori Boyer: Always Tevon. 

[00:43:50] Scott W. Luton: Hey, we have the great opportunity to keep the conversation going. Uh, and that’s really where the challenge comes in. You gotta take one thing. Share it with your team. Your hardworking,

[00:43:58] Scott W. Luton: operations team, your supply chain team, your shipping team, warehouse team, whatever, right?

[00:44:02] Scott W. Luton: Make it easier for ’em. Take one thing, share it with the team, do something with it. Deeds, not words. And with that said, on behalf of the Supply Chain Now team Scott Luton challenge. You do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed, and we’ll see you next time.

[00:44:14] Scott W. Luton: Right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.