FreightWaves LIVE: An Events Podcast

As company leaders and managers emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, they should take away three lessons learned and integrate those lessons into their midterm and long-term planning, according to Heather Sheehan, executive director of AWESOME, a nonprofit group that focuses on advancing women in supply chain leadership.Those three lessons are: effective communication at all levels; the need to hire and develop good talent; and the importance of hiring people who are good problem solvers, Sheehan said Wednesday during American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech virtual summit. “Leaders have to be open and vulnerable in their communication to balance optimism and realism,” Sheehan said during a fireside chat entitled “Leadership and Logistics in the ‘Next Normal.’”Sheehan also stressed the importance of hiring good problem solvers, those who can understand the root causes of a problem and come up with solutions to address them.Hassett Logistics President Michelle Halkerston said open communication was key to getting her company’s teams to rally together and meet customers’ needs during the coronavirus pandemic. Her company provides logistics services to the domestic airfreight market. Hassett also offers 3PL services, and it has been a trucking carrier for more than 40 years. Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves PodcastsWatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With his workplace, the Port of Los Angeles, providing the backdrop, Gene Seroka kicked off American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech summit Wednesday by calling for “bold steps in the digital transformation of the maritime industry.”“Today’s challenges have introduced widespread uncertainty, created erratic trade flow and further spotlighted the need to reassess strategies. Indeed we are in the midst of challenging times. This pandemic has wreaked havoc on economies around the globe,” said Seroka, executive director of the largest container port in the Western Hemisphere.  “We all must do whatever we can to fight it,” he said. “One way is to assure much-needed supplies are reaching the people that need them most. In March I was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to be the city’s chief logistics officer concurrent with my duties here at the port. We quickly went to work, established Logistics Victory Los Angeles — or LOV LA — to marshal our city’s logistics and purchasing capabilities in an all-out effort to speed personal protective equipment to our medical and other front-line workers.  Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves PodcastsWatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's Freight Forecasting Michael Vincent is joined by Jeff Dangelo - Founder of Turvo in a discussion of the need to re-think collaboration, transparency, and data.Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves PodcastsWatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five years ago, Thomas E. Keller Trucking, a unit of Defiance, Ohio-based Keller Logistics, was dissatisfied with its carrier benchmarking efforts and found itself in the lower quadrant of carriers in terms of measuring its performance. That changed when Keller joined the carrier benchmarking initiative of the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) Profitability Program (TPP), said Jonathan Wolfrum, the unit’s president. Today, the unit is growing its top line, and is doing so quite profitably, Wolfrum told Todd Davis, FreightWaves’ vice president of customer success and benchmarking, during the second day of the FreightWaves Carrier Summit. Much of the turnaround, Wolfrum said, can be attributed to superior benchmarking processes built out through Keller’s participation in the TPP program. FreightWaves supports the program through ownership and support of its inGauge online benchmarking platform. ArticleFreightWaves virtual eventsApple PodcastsSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Technology was already a huge timesaver for trucking carriers. Then came the coronavirus. The outbreak created more market volatility and simultaneously forced trucking to operate in a different — socially distanced — manner. All of which makes trucking technology even more important.How Nashville, Tennessee-based C&N Deliveries uses the technology solutions of Bloom Global offers a case in point.C&N CEO and founder Nicole Clemons spoke with FreightWaves Director of Market Intelligence Zach Strickland in a “Technology in Action” talk during the FreightWaves Carrier Summit . ArticleFreightWaves virtual eventsApple PodcastsSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every decision can impact the bottom line, says Terri Lucas, vice president of sales at SkyBitz Inc.“Customers want to be sure their return on investment (ROI) is there before moving forward,” Lucas said. “We are working every day to provide the right data set so that they can derive those ROIs.”Lucas, along with Debbie Sackman, SkyBitz’s senior product manager, took part in a “Technology in Action” talk during the FreightWaves Carrier SummitArticleFreightWaves virtual eventsApple PodcastsSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Hummer, president of Don Hummer Trucking, says that his company was able to successfully pivot to a remote work environment in mid-March because it already had a strong technology infrastructure in place, including its partnership with companies like McLeod Software, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.Hummer shared his insight on how his company was able to operate and thrive during the pandemic with Heidi Boggs, director of customer care and support for McLeod Software, in a virtual technology talk at the FreightWaves Carrier SummitArticleFreightWaves virtual eventsApple PodcastsSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For-hire truck drivers are mostly staying with their employers at current pay during the coronavirus pandemic. They are eager for stability in an uncertain time.That is the finding of the National Transportation Institute, which tracks driver pay and retention through surveys of hundreds of fleets.“Turnover is at record lows at most fleets we survey,” Leah Shaver, CEO of the Institute, said during a WavesTalk on the second day of the virtual FreightWaves Carrier Summit on Thursday.Unlike 2018, a banner year for driver pay as spot rates soared amid super-heated freight demand, 2020 shows “no meaningful upward movement” in driver pay. Sign-on bonuses are unnecessary because fleets aren’t doing a lot of recruiting. Two years ago, many drivers jumped from carrier to carrier to collect the cash. Driver turnover reached 100%. ArticleFreightWaves virtual eventsApple PodcastsSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus crisis has forced Ruan Transportation Management Systems to become more creative and flexible in responding to customer needs. Customers, in turn, are more willing to try new services they would have shunned before, the company’s president says. “We’re finding some more efficient or lower cost ways of doing things that perhaps were taboo in the past,” such as centralized billing or on-site support, “and perhaps exorcising some demons,” President Dan Van Alstine said Thursday during the virtual FreightWaves Carrier Summit to FreightWaves President George Abernathy.  ArticleFreightWaves virtual eventsApple PodcastsSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veterans who become truck drivers — and the carriers that hire them — discover that there’s a lot in common between serving in the military and driving a big rig, according to JIm Morbach, vice president of field and government recruiting for Werner Enterprises (NYSE: WERN).Morbach was interviewed by Matt Beach, vice president of sales for SeatMyTrucks, to discuss military hiring in a virtual fireside chat that was part of the FreightWaves Carrier Summit on Thursday. ArticleFreightWaves virtual eventsApple PodcastsSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices