Cut costs. Win loyalty. Carrier strategies built for a changing world.

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Supply Chain Now

Episode: Cut costs. Win loyalty. Carrier strategies built for a changing world.

Date: September 17, 2025
Host: Scott Lewton & Tevin Taylor
Guests: Lori Boyer (Director of Content, EasyPost), John Wharf (Director of Sales & Solutions Engineering, EasyPost)
Topic: Carrier Strategies, Cost Reduction, Customer Loyalty, and Adapting to Change in Shipping

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the rapidly evolving shipping and carrier landscape, spotlighting how supply chain professionals can cut costs, sustain customer loyalty, and adapt to the shifting network of carriers, especially around peak season. With insights from EasyPost’s Lori Boyer and John Wharf, listeners gained a wealth of tactical advice combined with real-world trends, tech innovations (notably AI), and practical examples, all delivered in the show’s signature conversational, keep-it-real tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Shifts in Carrier Strategy & Market Trends

[09:02–16:23]

• Major Carrier Roles
  • UPS: Best for B2B, guaranteed time-definite shipments
  • FedEx: Go-to for residential and weekend coverage, delivers Saturdays and Sundays at no extra cost
  • USPS: “Godfather of lightweight shipping” for rural, lightweight, P.O. boxes—most affordable, but less suited for heavy items/tracking (D: 09:02)
• Market Evolution (2025)
  • UPS & FedEx are “leaning” their networks, consolidating routes, tightening up on capacity and surcharges for peak season.
  • Lower overall shipping volumes in summer 2025 signal a volatile, capacity-constrained peak ahead.
  • Diversification is Essential: Relying on a single carrier is risky—organizations must diversify and explore emerging options (A: 10:51).
  • New, nimble players: Roadie, Veho, DoorDash, Uber entering local and last-mile delivery.

“The more you can diversify, the more you can split up how your volume is going out the door, it just ensures a smoother process. It ensures your customers are happier.”
— John Wharf [10:51]

2. Rise and Importance of Regional Carriers

[12:43–16:23]

• Regional Carriers on the Rise
  • Amazon Shipping is rapidly capturing market share for metro deliveries with no weekend surcharges.
  • OnTrac and LaserShip merger now covers 70% of the U.S.—“no longer a hunky dory, small deal” (D: 13:58).
  • A quarter of packages, ~3.5 billion/year, now go through regional carriers.
• Benefits
  • Cost savings, good delivery times, high service—IF shippers understand each carrier’s strengths and coverage.

“If you can have a good network of these regional carriers, they can take a huge chunk of the major carrier volume and save you some money in the meantime… It’s almost an essential part of the playbook.”
— John Wharf [14:16]

3. Balancing Cost vs. Time in Transit for Peak Season

[16:54–20:14]

• Cost savings shouldn’t sacrifice service—savings in shipping may drive up costs elsewhere (returns, service complaints).
• Customers value kept promises (“time in transit is less important to consumers as keeping your promises”—A: 00:00, repeated at 16:54).
• Real-time communication and proactive shipment updates are crucial to customer experience.

“Transparency and visibility… simply letting [customers] know, like, hey, we've had a hang up, that's going to make a giant difference in that customer experience as well.”
— Lori Boyer [18:39]

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4. Smart Cost-Cutting Without Compromising Customer Experience

[21:29–25:53]

• Must Rate-Shop
  • Automated rate shopping tools crucial for getting the best rates and options in real-time.
  • Analyze post-shipping performance to know if service levels are met.
• Packaging Optimization
  • Data shows shipping box volume often 40% too big—cutting down on dimensional weight saves significantly.
• Claims Management
  • 40% of USPS claims never get filed—automation can recover significant missed dollars.

“If you're not rate shopping, you need to start, end of story… There are so many ways that you can get boxes to consumers and keep costs low while keeping customer expectations high. … Sometimes the monetary amounts… are a staggering amount of money a year that they don't even realize they're spending.”
— John Wharf [21:29]

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5. Adoption & Application of Technology

[26:34–32:33]

• AI & Automation
  • EasyPost’s Luma AI tool helps route, cut costs, and simplify the shipping process.
  • Cartonization, load planning, and automated claims tools highlighted for reducing manual labor and errors.
• Industry Lagging in Tech
  • Many shippers still use outdated interfaces and processes; adoption is critical to remain competitive.
• Beyond Discounts
  • True operational improvement requires redesigning networks and processes, not simply chasing lower rates.

“You have to redesign your network… If you're just going to be tactical, chasing a discount, you're going to miss out on the opportunity.”
— Tevin Taylor [32:03]

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6. Red Flags—When to Reboot Shipping Strategies

[32:33–37:14]

• Over-reliance on 1-2 carriers = risk and lost savings.
• Outdated technology, manual processes, ignoring high surcharges, and ignoring customer/team feedback are all signals.
• High surcharges (e.g., new $2.50 import fees, $1800 unauthorized package fees) require immediate attention.
• If customer promises aren’t met, or costs climb without operational improvements, it’s time for change.

“If you think you know everything—that’s a mic drop red flag.”
— Lori Boyer [36:12]

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7. Actionable Steps to Optimize Peak Performance

[37:54–43:18]

• Diversify NOW: Test different carriers before peak hits; don’t wait until there’s a crisis.
• Tech + Process: Implement automated, real-time rating and routing; evaluate options early and often.
• War Room Approach: Hold internal “war room” meetings now to analyze surcharges, regional options, cross-border practices, packaging, and claims.
• Inventory Tactics: Prepackage and prelabel top SKUs, push inventory closer to the customer to reduce shipping zones and increase flexibility.

“The sandbox for that entire environment is right now... The better setup you can get now, you’re going to have a much smoother peak season throughout.”
— John Wharf [37:54]

“Schedule a war room now, it’s time… do a little bit of testing because the big three carriers are reducing. They're going to cap you.”
— Lori Boyer [39:54]

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8. Final Thoughts: Delivery Experience = Brand Experience

[44:14–47:15]

• 84% of customers say a bad delivery experience will make them abandon a brand (D: 44:14).
• Visibility, proactivity, honesty, and even turning mistakes into recovery opportunities are make-or-break factors.

“Customers are far less likely to count it as a bad experience if you were proactive… Those challenging experiences … are actually incredible opportunities to create an above and beyond experience.”
— Lori Boyer [44:43]

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9. How to Act Immediately

[45:34–47:29]

• Getting Started with EasyPost
  • New, simple website; quick onboarding; open conversations even for those not intending to become clients.
  • Leverage free resources: blog, podcasts ("Unboxing Logistics"), and direct access to experts via email/LinkedIn.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “It's okay to try switching things up if you feel like that service level is going to be what meets the customer's needs.”
  — Lori Boyer [18:39]

• “If you don’t like change, you’re going to hate extinction, right? So you gotta change.”
  — Tevin Taylor quoting Fred Smith [20:14]

• “The biggest shippers in the world have the exact same problems that you do. The scale is just a lot bigger.”
  — John Wharf [27:06]

• “If you’re not looking around, I guarantee you’re leaving money on the table.”
  — John Wharf [21:29]

• “Don’t chase discounts. Diversify who you’re using, use technology, and most importantly, break the status quo. Then you’ll ship smarter, not harder.”
  — Tevin Taylor [47:42]

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Timestamps: Important Segments

• [09:02–10:51] Carrier Strategy: UPS, FedEx, USPS breakdown and 2025 shifts
• [12:43–16:23] The Role and Growth of Regional Carriers
• [16:54–20:14] Balancing Cost vs. Service; The Value of Kept Promises
• [21:29–25:53] Cutting Costs Strategically: Rate-Shopping, Packaging, Claims
• [26:34–32:33] Tech Adoption, AI Solutions, and Operational Improvement
• [32:33–37:14] Red Flags for Shipping Strategies
• [37:54–43:18] Peak Season Playbook: Quick Tests and Operational Tweaks
• [44:14–47:15] Delivery Experience as Brand Value
• [45:34–47:29] EasyPost Onboarding & Free Resources

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Overall Takeaway

To master an unpredictable shipping landscape:

• Diversify carriers (national and regional),
• Automate rate-shopping, tracking, and claims,
• Use proactive, transparent communication,
• Redesign processes, not just chase discounts,
• Leverage technology and data aggressively, and
• Act immediately—test new solutions before peak season hits.

Final Word:
In logistics, “deeds not words” distinguish the winners—waiting is no longer safe. Evolve, experiment, and communicate, or be left behind.

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Transcript

[A]

What we've seen time and time again is that the time in transit is less important to consumers as keeping your promises. If you're giving them an estimate for when things are going to get there, you have to hit it or you're going to start running into problems real fast.

[B]

Welcome to Supply Chain, now the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights and real supply chain leadership from across the globe, one conversation at a time. Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Lewton and Tevin Taylor with you here on Supply Chain now. Welcome, Tevin, how you doing today?

[C]

I'm doing great, enjoying Nashville, Tennessee. Temperatures are wonderful and the people are nice as usual.

[B]

You just checked off all three things I usually start with, especially the weather and the temperature. We've got cooler temps here in metro Atlanta, but Tevin, we got some straight up fire on today's show. Great show teed up here today. Timely, highly relevant topic too, folks. We all know that carrier networks and the whole shipping landscape is shifting by the day. But what are the most important moves that you need to know about and how do these evolutions impact your supply chain organization? What opportunities or risks do these market changes present? Hey, we're diving into all of that and more as we host a couple of business leaders that are helping businesses of all sizes save big ship successfully and absolutely delight customers. And folks, the time to act is right now. It's past now. Now, Tevin, all of that and we got a whole bunch more. All that's music to my ears. How about you? You ready for a great show here today?

[C]

I'm ready. 30 years in the transportation business, I'm still confused. So hopefully we can work that out today.

[B]

Undoubtedly, we're going to unlock all kinds of secrets and strategies over the next hour. And Tevin, to your point, given your significant track record of doing big things in supply chain. All right, Tevin, you ready to bring bring on two of our faves.

[C]

Let's rock and roll.

[B]

I want to welcome in back by popular demand, Lori Boyer, director content with our friends at easypost and her dynamic colleague, John Wharf, director of sales and solutions engineering with easypost as well, Lori Boyer back again. How you doing, Laurie?

[D]

Oh, so good and really, really excited for today's convo. It is timely and gonna be with John on board. I'm super excited, man.

[B]

We got a one, two punch here today. John, how you doing? Welcome back.

[A]

I'm doing fantastic. I'm right where I want to be.

[B]

Oh, man, that makes my Day. I'm gonna go tell my mom that. Well, great to see y' all both. We got a great show. Very timely show teed up because Tevin, as we talked about in the front end, the time is now. We should have already been making changes and enhancements and improvements to our how we ship and how we manage and prepare for peak and we're going to unlock some solutions there, aren't we, Tevin?

[C]

We are indeed.

[B]

But first let's start with the fun warm up question. So in the pre show, folks, we were discussing what is perhaps the biggest movie blockbuster of the summer. We're talking about the new Superman movie. I've got a little still shot here from Laurie. Look at this. I love this at the end. Superman and a man's best friend. So get this. Superman's grossed over 600 million at the global box office on a budget of 225 million plus. They spent 125 million in marketing. Which goes to show you even the best of the best needs some marketing spend. So I want to ask you this. I've seen it. Salt my son Ben. I'm going to go around the horn. Lori, starting with you. What's your verdict? Good or bad or indifferent?

[A]

What?

[D]

I loved it. For me, Superman is. It's a classic. I grew up with it. But I also really love kind of the quirky take on it. I love movies that kind of embrace the cheesiness. Like it's just part of that's what normal life is. Because that is my normal life.

[B]

I'm with you. It was a great tip of the hat to the famous the once in a lifetime Christopher Reeve portrayal of the man of Steel. But it was definitely different and updated. John, what was your take on Superman?

[A]

I have a reputation for being somewhat of a harsh movie critic. So I have to always set standards for myself. First of all, I loved it. But the only rule that I said going into the movie is I said if I finish and I walk out of the theater and I just, I want to be a little bit better. I want to try a little bit harder, I want to be kinder, I want to be more helpful. Then the movie has succeeded. And I felt like it did that in spades. And that's kind of what Laurie was saying. Those earlier Christopher Reeves movies, that's what they did for me. They made me want to try to be a little bit better of a human being. And that's what it did for me. So succeeded big time.

[B]

Well said. A couple great reviews there, Tevin. Now the Train's gotta stop for a second because you haven't seen the movie yet, is that right?

[C]

I have not seen it.

[B]

Okay. But were you a big fan of Christopher Reeves back in the day?

[C]

Absolutely. So now I'm kind of excited about it. I guess I'm embarrassed that I didn't even know there was a new movie out. I'm to the point where I don't go to the movies anymore. I wait for it to be on Netflix or you know, where I can watch it at home. I travel a lot and I got to be honest, I'm married to somebody that literally will not go to the movie theater. So really like going by myself either. Yes, you are.

[B]

Well, the experience certainly has evolved greatly over the years for sure. But hey folks, if you haven't seen Superman, the newest one, it is a movie built for the movie experience. See it at home, sure. But go check it out and we'll get Tevin's verdict next time. So let's get to it. I want to do this though, Laura, you know me, me and you both I think are kindred spirits that we don't get enough context in this ever fast moving environment. So for folks that may have missed your earlier home run appearances, if you would tell us about yourself and easypost.

[D]

Yeah, I'm Lori Boyer, I'm oversee our content team here at easypost. Basically just means I spent all my time reading up on trends and I am a nerd at heart who is constantly quoting studies looking at the data. I also host our podcast Unboxing Logistics so I get to meet with tons of really smart people smarter than me and I love working at easypost, love the supply chain and logistics industry. I think it is fascinating and just love to be here.

[B]

We all greatly benefit from your research and how neck deep in the market with what's going on out there and really quick level setting from a what easypost does. How would you categorize that we make shipping easy.

[D]

I mean that's we're easy post but we are connected to a hundred plus carriers through a single API. That is massive. So you can sign up with us, have access to 100 plus carriers. We offer tracking and shipping insurance and really just everything a shipper needs to make the process as smooth, smooth and easy as possible. To get those labels we've recently really leaned into AI. I love AI. We have a a cool new AI tool, luma that helps you, you know, cut costs, route faster. All of the kind of things that you need to take the pain out.

[B]

Of shipping I love where you wrapped there. I love all of that. Because who doesn't need an easier day, but a more successful day and also a more painless day, if I use those words right. All right, Tevin, really quick before I switch over to John. We've enjoyed our chats with Lori and the EasyPost team, huh?

[C]

We absolutely have. And it's. It's amazing. I learned something new on each chat. So it's like, even though it's a lot of the same information, it's amazing how it's evolving even as we have multiple podcasts.

[B]

Seriously, it's like my phone calls are changing just in the last two hours. Man, it's tough to keep up with. I'm glad. I'm glad we got innovative companies like Lori, John, and easypost. Help make it easier getting pain out of our day. All right, so, John, you joined us a while back. I want to say Tangerie Bellamy was my fearless co host for that session. Welcome back. It's like homecoming. Tell us a little about yourself.

[A]

Yeah, so I manage the sales and solutions engineering over here at easypost. So basically helping all new prospects know what we do, what products we offer, how they function, how they can best benefit them, offering demos, helping with onboarding, integration, getting them set up for success.

[B]

That is outstanding. Getting them set up for success and then helping them find that success is my favorite part. Okay, we got a lot of stuff to get into here today. I want to establish a little more context, especially focused on the key shifts that supply chain leaders have got to be aware of, as we're already in peak and there's been a ton of them. I want to start with. There's three buckets I want to walk through here, right. I want to start with the first bucket, which is some of the cool things that the major carriers are up to. Lori, why don't we start with you? What. What do folks gotta know in terms of the shifts that the major carriers are making?

[D]

Okay, major carriers. So today, a big goal. We're coming up on peak. What do you do about carriers? We live and breathe carriers all the time. So we wanted to give you a little bit of info of what we're seeing with carriers and what kind of changes are happening, what different shippers are doing when it comes to carriers. So obviously, Scott, you asked about the big ones. Let me give you a little general background. So if you're looking UPS, I always recommend UPS is a great option when you're a B2B shipper, if you're needing some really guaranteed Time definite shipments. Y that's kind of their general bread and butter FedEx. FedEx is kind of the go to for residential and weekend coverage. They deliver Saturday and Sundays, typically with no extra cost, which is really helpful for weekend stuff. And I like to think of USPS as kind of the godfather of lightweight shipping. So if you're shipping, you know, rural P.O. boxes or lightweight USPS is almost always going to be your most affordable. They don't have residential surcharges. They go to every address in the United States. Downsize there. If you are shipping heavy, you tend to get expensive really fast. Your tracking's not great. And so when it comes to shifts, however, if we're talking what's different 2025, I would say, like we're seeing some lean shipping. UPS is definitely has consolidated routes. They're reducing some of their sorting capacity. We haven't seen UPS's fees yet, their surcharges. FedEx that we have, we're kind of seeing some consolidation and kind of some leaner shipping routes coming into peak 2025. I want to hear what John's seeing as well. He's on the frontline cloud constantly. John, what. What are you seeing?

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I think you hit the major things on the head. One of the big things is 2025 has been kind of a weird year for shipping. There was a lot of kind of slowdown around the doldrums of summer. July was extremely low as far as overall shipping volume went. And that means heading into peak season, we're going to see all of those things that Lori already called out. We're going to start seeing limited routes. We're going to start seeing maybe a little more constriction about overall volumes that these carriers can handle, which is why you have to start considering other options. You have to make sure that you're never pigeonholed into being stuck with just one thing. The more you can kind of diversify, the more you can split up how your volume is going out the door. It just ensures a smoother process. It ensures your customers are happier, and it gets rid of all those potential pain points that may be upcoming with the overall volume increase that we normally see in peak.

[B]

John, well said. And I know both of y' all are up for a phone call. If folks want to kind of dig deeper with what you're seeing in these shifts out in the marketplace. I know y' all love doing that. I really value that. Tevin, I'm not going to call out certain parts of your background, but you Spent a whole bunch of time, big chunk of your career as some of these major carriers. What'd you hear there from Lori and John and their market observations?

[C]

I work for Brown and Purple, right? So I can really speak from both angles. The big guys, you know, during peak season, they usually cut you off and especially when there's capacity constraints. So you absolutely have to forecast, manage. When John says diversify, it's like there are other options, right? So you have to look at just besides those three, what other options are in the market. You hear about roadie, you hear about veho, you hear about Doordash even, or Uber. How can you make sure that you're satisfying your customer service and not impacting them when you have these ebbs and flows in the market?

[B]

Let's talk about regional carriers. Laura, let's get back to you. What are. What shifts are we seeing with regional carriers?

[D]

Well, I think it's a great question already, bud, about Amazon, so that Amazon Shipping has really been taking off when it comes to our customers. So we're seeing a large shift in people wanting to move to Amazon Shipping. They also, when we're talking weekends, have no additional surcharges. They're really good, I would say, but especially they're really good in the metro areas. They can be really, really fast. So we are seeing a big movement towards Amazon Shipping. They've really done well this last year, but in other regionals as well. On track Lasership and on track, you know, merged. They are kind of the biggest regional player these days. They cover 70% of the United States and they offer all seven days. Other regionals, Speedy, LSO, if you're Texas, like Tevin and I, Lone Star, there's a lot of really, really good options. One of the things that's really cool about regionals is almost a fourth of packages. It's like 3.5 billion packages now a year are going through regionals. They're not like just this little hunky dory. That's probably not the right term, but, you know, small deal anymore. They're. They're part of people's ongoing strategy.

[B]

I love it. And I hadn't heard word hunky dory in a long time. So. Lori, thank you for bringing that to the show. And by the way, does. Does any of the regionals get a really cool nickname, like the Godfather that you gave to usps, Lori?

[D]

Oh, I'm gonna have to think of one.

[B]

All right, think of one. We'll get back. All right, John, Regionals, what are you seeing?

[A]

Look, they're essential. Now it's one of those things like Lori said, where it kind of used to be this kitschy off the wall type of thing, but now with their approach, with their methodology, the whole idea being if you can service the major metros throughout the domestic US you're actually covering the huge, vast majority of percentage of where people live. So through kind of stringing together this series of regional carriers, depending on where you're located, where you're shipping to, everything like that, they've created this really cool infrastructure and network throughout the domestic US where you can cut costs, you can still have really good delivery times. You just have to understand where their strengths are, where they service, kind of what their capacity is. But if you can get in and you can have a good network of these regional carriers, they can take a huge chunk of the major carrier volume and save you some money. In the meantime, keep customer service really high, keep, make sure that you're delivering on time, that everybody's happy, removing those pain points like returns and exceptions and any problems like that. But it's becoming more and more the norm that it's no longer uncommon to ship with regionals. It's almost an essential part of the playbook.

[B]

That's right. And John, kind of to your point, Lori's Data point there, 3.5 billion. Right. Going through those regional carriers. Tevin, curious to get your thoughts on what you're seeing with regional carriers.

[C]

It's interesting. Five years ago, I'd say the regional carriers, they were just basically picking away little bitty pieces of business. But the 1/4 number, I actually didn't know. It doesn't surprise me. I see Amazon out there actually trying to get market share and it makes a lot of sense. So that final mile, Amazon's gonna pick up a lot. The regional carriers are gonna pick up quite a bit. But look, there's still the three big ones, right? At least here in the U.S. there's FedEx, there's UPS, and there's the post office. So they're gonna continue to be the big cruise ship and the other guys are gonna be the motorboats trying to kind of grab some market share here and there. It be interesting to see more consolidation and merger and how that'll compete against the, the top three.

[B]

That's right. Good stuff, Tevin. All right, this third bucket, I want to talk about this juggling act that's been around since we were battling dinosaurs. The. That's. I know why that analogy came to my, my, my brain. But we're juggling Cost with time and transit. Right. Trying to establish that peak season balance. So John, speak to that, especially as it relates to the service offerings out there that are helping organizations maintain or find that balance perhaps.

[A]

Yeah, I don't think that there's any secret that it's very easy, right. Coming from easypost, coming from something where our main focus is shipping rating, you know, you want to make sure you know what you're paying. It's really easy to kind of obfuscate cost and only focus in on what shipping costs are. But if you've ever worked for any company that ships thing cost means a lot of things things and if you're saving a lot of money on shipping, but it's impacting other areas of your business like customer service returns, anything else like that and those costs inflate well then maybe you're not actually saving money in the long run. One of the things that we have to do constantly and what my team has to do is kind of dig into all these different businesses, operations, their procedures, what they do, what's important to them, where do they see value and most importantly, where do their customers see value? How do they continue to get return customers, how do they build loyalty, how do they build a brand? And it's always by finding that balance between hey, we got to get stuff out the door, we've got to get it to people and we need to get it to them within the time that we promised to them. Now that can mean a variety of different things that could be overnight depending on what you're selling, that can mean five days. But what we've seen time and time again is that the time in transit is less important to consumers as keeping your promises. If you're giving them an estimate for when things are going to get there, you have to hit it or you're going to start running into problems real fast.

[B]

John, been there, done that perspective And I love your comment there about while it's important for us to really know our numbers and know get past the obfuscation I think is a great word you used. But more importantly know where our customers see value. Right. And look through that prism. Lori, your own comments around this long, long standing balance we've got to find.

[D]

I think John really hit it on the head. But there's a couple of pieces I want to point out here. As a consumer research shows that they don't really care which carrier you're using. As John really mentioned, they just want their package to get there. So it's okay to try switching things up if you feel like that service level is going to be what meets the customer's needs. In addition, the second piece, which is huge. So as John mentioned, sometimes it's not the time in transit that matters as much as getting it there when you say you will. But if you don't get it there when you say, you know, we all run into problems, that just happens. There's exceptions that occur if that happens. Transparency and visibility, making sure you're notifying that you've got tracking going, simply letting them know, like, hey, we've had a hang up, that's going to make a giant difference in that customer experience as well. So I want to make a point that the tracking can be really, really critical. The ability to track and the ability to have that visibility for your consumer into where the heck is my package?

[B]

Yes. And that reminds me, Tevin, I love when Lori joined us last time, we spent a lot of time talking about the wsmo. And one of the things that you shared there reminded me organizations got to lean in new technologies so they can automate that, that critical communication to customers rather than tying up their, their incredibly important human resources and answering all the questions you know are going to come with the whole where's my stuff? Movement we're in. But Tevin, what you hear there from John and Lori, when it comes to.

[C]

The balancing act, I'm hearing communication, visibility, transparency, you know, trust in your carrier. And if you break that with a consumer, they're going to switch their business. I'm okay if you fail, but let me know before I find out. Don't make it where I come home and think something's on the porch. I'd love to say, hey, sorry, there's a weather issue. Your package is being delivered tomorrow. Then I'm okay, but it's got to happen proactively and with all the AI tools and the data resources, everyone should be providing that to consumers. And if you're not, then the good old saying from Fred Smith, you know, if you don't like change, you're going to hate extension, Right? So you got to change.

[B]

That's right. And maybe we'll touch on Luma, the cool airplay I've got amongst others at easypost. There are better ways, folks, especially if you ship packages out there. Gosh, turn to technology and take out a lot of the manual interventions that can really just eat away at your, your team members days. All right, let's keep driving. I want to walk through some other critical topics and themes that is going to help folks tackle the next few months here. So John, I'll stick with you here. What are some smart ways that you'd recommend to folks in terms of how they can cut shipping costs without hurting customer experience? Something you and Laurie both touched on earlier.

[A]

Yeah. And this is where it comes down to the, the marriage of real time data and data analysis after the fact. Right. One of the biggest things that is going to really help improve upfront cost across the board, regardless of what you're doing. If you're not rate shopping, you need to start, end of story. I wish that there was an alternative, there was another way to do it, but the fact of the matter is with all of these things that are consistently flexible with surcharges, additional fees, maybe a carrier causes charges, weekend fees, maybe they don't. If you're not actually looking at and having a quick performant, really high speed ability to look at a package and know where is it coming from, where is it going to and what are my different options, what do they cost? That's step one. Step two then is looking back at all of that data. Where are you performing, where are you not? Are you actually hitting the time and transits that you're, you're setting for your customers? You'll know if you're not because they will let you know. And then it's just all about options. Right. One of the biggest things that is not unique to our industry but we see a lot is hey, we do this because it's worked, right? We've done this for 20 years. Oh, we just manually process shipments. Oh, we just go to, you know, an online site and we print off UPS labels because that's what we've done for 20 years and it's served us well so far. You're doing yourself a disservice if you're not looking at what options are available to you. There are so many ways that you can get boxes to consumers and you can keep costs low while keeping customer service expectations really high. But if you're not even in the market, if you're not looking around, I guarantee you're leaving money on the table. And sometimes the like actual monetary amounts that we see when we do analyses for customers, it's a staggering amount of money a year that they don't really even realize they're spending because hey, it's business is normal. Right? We already anticipated this cost, so who cares? You should.

[B]

Oh my gosh. I would just add, as we all know, if we're doing business as we always done, there's all kinds of risks and costs we're incurring. And I would take your, your disservice comment a step further, John. Not only are we doing ourselves, our businesses a disservice, but we're making life harder for our team members that are already working hard to delight our customers. Let's make their days easier. Lori, your comments here.

[D]

Yeah, I'm just going to add a couple more because John hit those so well. If we're talking about ways to cut costs without impacting the customer experience, that's really big. Again, when you're looking at all that, that rate comparison, make sure the customer experience is still going to be perfect. But there's a couple of other easy things. Looking at your packaging, research shows that like mostly box volume is about 40% too big most of the time. So on your dim weight we know carriers don't just charge us based on how much it actually weighs, but also on its dimensional weight. So change your packaging. Don't send a T shirt in a shoe box type size where you know we're seeing people being able to cut like 10% off of shipping cost hundreds of thousands of dollars simply by changing the type of packaging they use. And another one big one that people don't think about and this is a massive thing, your USPS specifically claims. USPS claims 40% of the claims. So something does go wrong 40% of the time those claims never get filed. Wow, that is money that's due and available for you. And just because the process is kind of a nightmare, people don't do it. But that is one thing I wanted to bring up because we've recently added this really cool new just automated way to do it through easypost, our USPS playing system. Super easy. If you ship USPS and you get claims, please just file those claims. Easy post makes it super, super easy. Doesn't cost stuff and you can get money back that you, you deserve.

[B]

Lori, that is terrific news. So if you want to work with the Godfather, the USPS a little bit easier and automate those claims that so many folks clearly are missing out on. New feature that is outstanding. All right, so Tevin, we heard there from John and Lori about how we can find ways to innovate how we ship, taking costs out while really serving the customer and our team members even better. Your thoughts Tevin?

[C]

Well I heard breaking with status quo, looking at options, using data to kind of drive some of your behaviors. The other thing I would mention is there's still some old fashioned things that people need to look at like zone skipping and Consolidation. I mean the conference I'm at right now in Nashville, they talk about shipping in bulk to regional hubs. They're setting up to be closer to the customer. So then you can inject into last mile networks versus longer zones by having one DC and you got to do some cost analysis there. But you know, if you can reduce zones by doing zone skipping, those are things you should look at as well. But this is one of those questions where it's like what I'm adding to, it's nothing compared to what you've heard so far.

[B]

So it's good stuff. Tevin. It's just Lori and John are like in the 21st or 22nd century with some of the cool things they shared, man. Got to have both. Got to have old and new ideas. Let's keep driving. John's go back to you. Easy post is working with a variety of organizations of all sizes. You can go check it out on the brand new spanking website. Looks so good. Let's talk about some of the big brands and some of, some of the ways that they're leveraging savings that I bet a lot of companies of all sizes can, can lean into. Give us some examples, John.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. So what's really, really cool about our industry in general is that the biggest shippers in the world have the exact same problems that you do. The scale is just a lot bigger and they had to find out how to resolve those problems because at the scales that they're shipping, the costs can be enormous. You've probably heard, and I bet Lori can even quote off the top of her head. For some of these big industries, if they can't ship for 5, 10, 20 minutes, the amount of money that they are losing in those minutes is staggering. It's huge. But I think we've already hit on a couple of them. The biggest thing is there's a whole bunch of new tools that allow you to do really, really clever things with how you ship. Whether that is cartonization and load planning software where you can solve a lot of those problems that Lori brought up about using the wrong box sizes, putting stuff together that you shouldn't. Should I split ship? Should I not? Should it all go in one big box? Or should I kind of break it up as needed? And then as far as rate shopping goes, you've kind of alluded to it. We may talk about a little bit more, but we basically have an AI powered thing that takes a look. You set up some basic rules about what your expectation and your customer's expectation is for time in transit and we'll tell you the cheapest service level that'll get it there within that time period. And it's all of those things that we all know that even instinctually as you work in this industry, it's kind of like a no dumb moment, the more you can take it away from the manual process. Like all of us, I'm sure have worked at different organizations within this industry where there's so much tribal knowledge, where it's, oh, go ask Doug, he's done this 30 years and he'll tell you the way to ship it. We have to get it out of people's heads and we have to make tools that will intuitively and quickly do it for us. And that's kind of always the drive. But we are seeing some of these huge brands save, to Lori's point, six figures in packaging a year, let alone high six figures of shipping costs. You get a two day order and the instinct is I'm going to go buy a second day air label. Well, what if USPS Ground Advantage can get it there in two days? Why not at least look at it? Especially because as Laurie pointed out, the consumer doesn't care what the logo is on the box. What they care about is you and your commitment to them and whether or not you're going to hit it.

[B]

Good stuff, John. And Laura, your ears were burning throughout his response there. Same question. Some of those examples that we want to spike to football on that will help people kind of visualize how they can make some of these big gains. Laura, your thoughts?

[D]

John really hit it on the head. But taking a look at the data, we're in an industry where pennies make like a giant difference.

[A]

Yep.

[D]

Right. Just because of the volume, it adds up so, so quickly. So being able to shave off $0.03 here or being able to shave off some minutes there, that all adds up in a really fast way. This is an industry that was made for technology, for data, and we're a little bit slow moving into that. Research shows that our industry kind of lacks a little bit. We don't always like to implement our technology as fast as we should, but the big companies we're seeing really do well, are doing just that. They're finding the little tiny things they can shave off and that adds up to a huge amount of savings. Whether it's cartonization, whether it's the shipping time, whether it's paying for USPS and a regional instead of UPS ground on a certain route, all of those things can really add up fast. And so that's really where I see all of our different retailers doing.

[A]

Well. One of the things, Lori, that you just said that I always talk about is if you want to know how quick our industry is at adopting new technology, go into any location to ship something and just take a peek at their monitor. When they're trying to make a label, you'll immediately know what generation that software was made in. And it was probably before you were born.

[B]

Oftentimes the good old green screens or the purple screens or you name it. Tevin, John and Laurie just shared a lot of good stuff there. I want to go back to kind of a theme you, you brought up in your last response. Kind of a throwback. I think one analogy here that if we can automate things in a very innovative way and have access to all the data that John, Lori are talking about so we can make faster decisions better producing better outcomes, not just for the organization and our team members, but for the customers. Imagine that. It's kind of like when I got my first pair of Velcro shoes. I didn't have to worry about struggling to tie those laces anymore. It was just slap it across and take off running. And Tevin, little throwback. I thought you'd appreciate that because I bet you had a moment like that too. But what'd you hear there from John and Lori with some of those examples?

[C]

Well, I look forward to wearing Velcro shoes again. And green screens were in my past, so that brings back some memories. But really there's one common thread. They're hitting the all the key points. But people don't just chase discounts. You have to redesign your network, you have to redesign your operations. You have to think about how you can be leaner and more customer centric. So if you're just going to be tactical, chasing a discount, you're going to miss out on the opportunity and the fact that you might need to revamp your operations or your network.

[B]

That's right. Well said, Tevin. Spoken like a true operational pro. I want to talk about red flags for a minute. Lori, I want to start with you here on this question here because you know every strategy, especially in these fast moving global business times, velocities off the charts and growing, every strategy needs a refresher and a reboot. So what red flags when it comes to shipping strategies, when organizations see it, should they just hear in their ears, reboot, reboot. Lori, what comes to mind right off.

[D]

What Don was just saying about maybe look at what kind of technology you're using if it is slow, if it is outdated, that's just a red flag. Another one, if you're using a single carrier or if you're highly dependent on a single carrier, that's a big red flag. You're wasting money. There's a lot of money going down the drain that you could be saved. I want to point out surcharges we didn't get into quite that much around surcharges for this upcoming peak. We are seeing high surcharges. We've had some of those come in. I wanted to make a note. USPS is also bringing back surcharges for the first time in a few years this upcoming peak. So you really got to watch those surcharges during peak season. They can add up super fast. So kind of run an analysis. Are your surcharges running, you know, 15, 20% of your spend? If your surcharges are really high, that is a red flag for me. What else? Wsmo, we talk wsmo, you're getting people complaining. That is a red flag.

[B]

John, before I get your take, folks, lean in to not only your feedback's a blessing, you get it from customers, it's a blessing. And to be able to act on it, it's even better. But the same thing with team members. Look at every opportunity, Go to the Gemba, see what they're experiencing, get their ideas, and better yet, when you get them, act on it. John, reboot. What red flag should folks and business leaders and splashing leaders out there look for?

[A]

Yeah, I would say once again, few carriers, one to two, it's a bad sign. Manual processes drive me crazy. I know that that's my soapbox that I talk about way too much. But like, the more manual processes you have, the slower you're going and the more cost you're leaving on the table. And I would also just say data is your friend. Chances are, regardless of what system you're in, regardless of how long you've been doing what you've been doing, you have some amount of data that you can look at. You're fielding tickets, you're taking calls, you're helping customers, you're getting feedback, like Scott said, both internally and externally. You know the old saying, you know, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, chances are it's probably a duck. If you keep hearing the same problems time and time again from both your internal stakeholders and what your customers are saying, chances are it's a problem you need to take a look at, even if it's something that maybe you want to avoid. You have to avoid stagnation. Like every year it gets more and more important. And I know that Lori has this kind of mentality about life. I have this mentality about life. I never feel like I know everything because it's changing. And the second that I close myself off and I try to say like, oh no, I've got this all figured out now, you know, I'm the expert. I've got everything just perfectly tuned, then I'm usually behind because if you're not opened up to, to new technologies, new ways of doing things, you're probably in bad shape.

[B]

John, I love that spiking the football, keeping it real. And I would debate you because Lori knows everything in my book and she's demonstrated.

[D]

John. I mean that was like to me, mic drop on Red Flag. If you think you know everything.

[B]

Right. That's so true. Lori. That's right. That's like a football size red flag. Tevin, what about you? What'd you hear there from John or Lori or what do you think should be screaming? Reboot. Red Flags for folks that need to need to change what they're doing.

[C]

You know, if you haven't changed your carrier network in over two to three years, it's kind of like car insurance. You're probably paying too much and you're leaving money on the table. So Lori sold that. I agree. If customer promises don't match reality, there probably needs to be a reset. And last but not least, if costs are climbing, service is not improving, there's a signal, something stale in their model. So time to make some changes like you just gotta stay on top of it. If you get too cozy, something's wrong, right? I apologize to anybody on this. Listening. That's car insurance related. But if you don't manage that, car insurance, it just keeps climbing and it's like I'm not getting anything out of that. There should be some kind of proactive management. So I would say those would be the three that they kind of weave into their, their comments.

[B]

I agree with you, Tevin. And it reminded me one more thing that John said earlier. The only thing worse than a problem, especially when you let down a customer, is when it repeats itself. And time and time again we got to get to root cause and fix it for all parties, the whole ecosystem. All right, so John, let's get back to you here. We can't stress enough. Time is of the essence and we gotta move. And the cool thing is a lot of what you are both are Speaking to you and Lori and Tevin, for that matter, are very actionable. Right. So peak season is upon us. What are some quick, quick, quick, quick, testable changes that you would recommend supply chain leaders explore to optimize peak performance this year? John?

[A]

Yeah, I think that step one is to realize that peak season is going to be volatile. It is. Every year things are going to change. You are going to have to be able to pivot on a dime. And the only way you can do that is if you're figuring out how to do that now. Now, if it's the 11th hour, if it's December 22nd and all of a sudden, you know one of the major carriers is saying, we're not going to pick up anything more. You're not going to find a solution that day that's going to keep your customers happy and keep your brand satisfied. So I think the most important things that you can do now is you can start diversifying. You need to start looking at what other options are available to get goods out to your consumers. That's all there is to it. You need to have technology that moves fast. You need things that are accurate. You need to be able to trust the decisions that are being made. And the best way to do that is to test it now, right? Get that under your belt, understand how it works, how it operates, how it's coming to the conclusions. Is it saving you money? Are you getting more tickets? I think it's really important, once again, that balance between how much money are we saving on one side, Is it costing us on the other side? And really the sandbox for that entire environment is right now. You have to start making these changes. If you are someone who's listening and you are saying, oh, I do only have one carrier or two carriers, start looking now. Start contacting regional carriers in your area, see what they can do for you, see what's available. Because the better setup you can get now, you're going to have a much smoother peak season throughout. And you will be grateful because, look, peak season is going to be hard on all of us. There's no way around it. Make it as easy as you can.

[B]

Knowing all the things outside of our control, especially in this type of current environment, man, we got to pull hard on the levers that are within our control. And if you don't take action, you get what you get. Laura, your thoughts on any other steps you would recommend that supply chain leaders do to optimize peak performance this year?

[D]

I'm going to just bounce off of John's there. I want everyone who is listening right now. I want you to schedule for sometime in the next week or two a war room meeting.

[B]

Yes.

[D]

I want you to gather your shipping people, everyone who needs to know and you need to be doing what are the surcharge issues? You know, are you having a lot of oversized unauthorized packages? Look into what is happening with all the surcharges, look into de minimis, what kind of impact is that going to have on checkout your, you know, fix your HS codes, carrier import charges, all of that kind of stuff. You know UPS just announced a $2.50 new import fee. You need to get that data where as John mentioned, what regional carriers are you going to be testing? It's time to ab test right now. Peak is upon us. Let's not do this in November so 5 to 10% of your volume. See if you can get some relief valves out there. Do a little bit of testing because as we mentioned the big three carriers are reducing, they're cutting down because of that consumer demand issue. That means they will cap you. They're not going to cap the giants out there, they're going to cap you. So regionals look into doing that. Look at your cross border hygiene. Are you one of those people who ship USPS and are not filing claims? Find out where you're leaking money but see schedule that war room now, it's time right now and figure out there's small ways and it's going to be different for each company but I promise you can find ways to save tons of money.

[A]

Lori, I know you skipped over it really quick but one of the things you mentioned unauthorized oversized packages, isn't it $1800 now $1800 fee. We're not talking a $2.50 fee.

[B]

That dog's got a lot more bite than bark. Holy cow. And two of the things Tevin, I love what Laurie said there. She suggested war room which I love that but you had like a romper room moment. Laura, you were peering out into our audience. I love that. And then that cross border hygiene. Tevin, we're talking about this other day. There's all sorts of ways we can do things better. Some leveraging technology, some leveraging better process, some some depending on better communication and a better challenging all assumptions and really knowing the laid to land instead of leaning on long held assumptions so dangerous in this environment. Tevin, what'd you hear there from John and Lori's recommendations?

[C]

We've talked about diversifying. If one thing you remember off this podcast is you need to be doing that. She mentioned 5 to 10. I'm going to up that, say 10 to 15. Let's just go higher. Why not? But the two things that are outside of transportation that can help that I've done for iconic launches like with iPhone or with even the Harry Potter book 20 years ago. You can prepackage and pre label your top selling SKUs. Go ahead and get that done in fulfillment. Get it done while things are slower before peak and then push inventory closer to where it's going. Right. So you can actually have temporary stocking locations that are closer to demand and start doing that in regions. And then what happens is you're reducing your zones, you're helping make sure that you don't get caught up in the, you know, the line holes taken and there's no capacity. So those are the two things I would add on to the transportation side.

[B]

Love it. So I got a hall of justice here between Lori, John and Tevin, folks. If you all need something, here it is. Right. Okay. We got a fast and furious finish coming up and I want to do this before we learn from John just how easy it is to get started with easypost. I really want to Lori, build up the why. I want to build up the why. And check this out folks. Lori, if you're not over there checking out the blog series that Lori and the team publish at Easy Post, you're missing out. I will talk about the podcast in a second. But you recently wrote Lori, this great article about from meh to memorable how to level up your delivery experience. And you had this nugget here, 84% of customers say a bad delivery experience would stop them from shopping with a brand. Again, as Lori says, that's not just a bummer, that's a business risk. Major business risk. Lori, your thoughts here.

[D]

It's a huge part of your brand is the shipping experience. And so again, for me, if we're going to be talking about, yeah, jump over there. That article has tons of really great tips for from research of what makes a difference. But I think it really goes back to visibility again and being super proactive. Customers are far less likely to count it as a bad experience if you were proactive. So again, people don't need you to be perfect.

[B]

Right?

[D]

They understand things happen, you can make up for that and they'll actually consider it a great delivery experience. Maybe if even when something was late but you were proactively reaching out, you are offering a little bit of a coupon or something to hop on to make up for A bad experience. I want to say all those challenging experiences that you do have with shipping, those are actually incredible opportunities to create an above and beyond experience. So don't worry when there are mistakes. Just be really proactive and communicative and make sure the visibility is there for your customers.

[B]

As research points out, as Lori brought to us, the risk is real. But John, there is a better way. And there's some good news here. Cause it's really easy to act on a lot of what y' all have shared. Just how easy is it to start working with easypost?

[A]

Incredibly. Like Scott mentioned earlier, we have a brand new revamped website. Come check it out. There's a whole bunch of calls to action. There's a wealth of information on there available for you to see. You can also reach out to salesasypost.com that's handled by a whole cross functional team of both business stakeholders, technical stakeholders, everybody else. We are always willing to chat. Whether you have interest in, in continuing business with us or you just have some questions you need answers to reach out. We are happy to talk. This is what we eat, sleep, drink, breathe all day long. We love talking about it. That's why we're here. Maybe that makes us mentally unwell, but we enjoy it.

[B]

Not at all. You know, we gotta all maintain a healthy sense of humor in global supply chain, especially these days, right? And one thing I've learned in collaborating with Lori and John and Ted for that matter for so long is that they do love to have these conversations. Even if you don't do business with easypost, they love to have the conversation and help because we all know the pains folks are having out there. And hey, we all love to delight customers. I want to point out that new website John mentioned, Trisha is Johnny on the spot. That's right there. Easypost.com it's just that easy. Amanda has shared Lori's great article. Hey, check out all the blog posts, you'll enjoy them. I like the keep it real factor and the sense of humor. Y' all bake into those. All right. And one other thing, man, Lori, I don't know where you when you get any sleep because you also got this unboxing logistics podcast that you host that we're big fans of. And y' all have had some great episodes here lately. You were talking a minute ago about cross border hygiene. That was, I think that was the theme of your last podcast. Is that right?

[D]

Yeah, yeah, lots of. Just. There's so many smart people out there. You know, Scott, you get to meet with them all the time. I love meeting and learning from others in the industry. So yeah, for sure. Check out Unboxing Logistics.

[B]

Tevin, let's get your key takeaway in really quick. We've covered a lot of ground here. John Laurie have brought it on time and in full. But what is the one patented key takeaway that you got to share with folks?

[C]

So to me, a lot of good things I've heard, but with the customer in mind, don't chase discounts. Diversify who you're using, use technology. And most importantly, you got to break the status quo. And when you do that, you're going to ship smarter, not harder. We're all good.

[B]

Oh, I love that. And we're all good. And we all need to be good to get through these turbulent times. Okay, John Wharf, folks, can find you on LinkedIn and elsewhere. Rock and rolling out across industry. Is that right?

[A]

That is absolutely right, Lori Boyer, how.

[B]

Else can folks track you down?

[D]

Lori yeah, I'm on LinkedIn as well. I'm totally open to if you have suggestions for topics, anything you want to learn. L boyereasypost.com I'd love to hear from you and chat and give advice and just connect.

[B]

Anyway, what a terrific session. Big thanks to Lori Boyer and John wharf, both with EasyPost Sheriff Tevin Taylor. Always a pleasure. I love your keep it real take here today and I look forward to having you back soon. All three of y' all back really, really soon. But folks, I'll tell you, this session here, there's so many actionable ideas. I've got at least four pages back in front and my hands hurting from all the notes from John, Laurie and Tevin. Here's our homework and here's a good thing. There's plenty of opportunities to take at least just one thing that was shared here today. Put it into practice. Share it with your team. Hey, do something for your customers, your suppliers, the whole ecosystem, your team members that are working so hard to make it happen each day. The clock is ticking. The time is well past now. And now the choice is yours. Evolves in your court. So with all that said, deeds not words, folks. Now it works. With all that said, on behalf of the whole supply Chain now team Scott Luden. Challenge you do good. Give forward. Be the change that's needed. And we'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody. Join the Supply Chain now community. For more supply chain perspectives, news and innovation, check out supply chain now.com subscribe to Supply Chain now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain now, wherever you get your podcasts.