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- [00:00]
Lori Boyer
People care far more about the package arriving when you say it's going to 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 going to 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.
- [00:33]
Scott Luden
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 here here with you on Supply Chain now. Welcome to today's live stream. Tevin, how you doing today?
- [00:56]
Tevin Taylor
I'm doing great, Scott. How are you?
- [00:58]
Scott Luden
I am doing outstanding. I wish I had some of the sun you're getting down there in warm and sunny locations, but you look great.
- [01:05]
Tevin Taylor
Thank you.
- [01:06]
Scott Luden
As always. And speaking of great, we've got an outstanding, a fantastic show here today. Got one of our favorite guests of all time back with us here today as we dive into quite the challenging current landscape across global supply chain and certainly for all of our shippers out there, uncertain times, skittish consumers, shipping complexities, an almost perfect VUCA environment that's breaking old 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 and teams are doing differently when it comes to shipping. You're going to 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 the most actionable learning hour of the day. So Tevin, given your wellestablished track record of making stuff happen in global supply chain, looking forward to your take throughout the show here today. Should be good one, huh?
- [02:10]
Tevin Taylor
I'm excited to hear from Lori and excited to hear all your tidbits as well.
- [02:15]
Scott Luden
I am too. I am too. I appreciate that. So let's get to work. One of our favorite guests, Lori Boyer, director of content with Easy Post and host of the wonderful podcast Unboxing Logistics. Let's bring in Lori. Hey. Hey, Lori. How you doing?
- [02:30]
Lori Boyer
Hey. So good to be back.
- [02:33]
Scott Luden
Gems, it is so great to have you back. I know you've been busy helping teams find a lot more success, shipping supply chain and otherwise, but Tevin and Lori, we've got an interesting and a related and a halfway serious fun warmup question that really goes to that right. Helping folks find success. And I want to start with for our fun warm up question here today and we're going to hit it on Modex in a minute. But when it comes to trade shows, industry shows, what's a couple of your favorites?
- [03:03]
Lori Boyer
Oh, I love different trade shows and I think different trade shows kind of have different purposes. Not even purposes, but you know, goals. So, you know, Manifest and Parcel Forum and the National Postal 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, 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 them have amazing educational. They all have great. But I really thought that was an interesting one for just some good because it was slightly smaller and there were a lot of opportunities to really chat with people that sometimes in those big ones get lost.
- [03:50]
Scott Luden
Laurie, that's a great call out, Tevin. In my experience, one of my, my litmus tests, I guess I'll call it, is access to fellow attendees, access to presenters. You want to connect and have these real meaningful sidebar conversations that Lori is kind of referencing. Is that what you look for? Tevin?
- [04:06]
Tevin Taylor
Yeah, when I'm at a conference, it's nice to have apps that let you chat with other members that are there. The big ones like CES and nrf, they're starting to adapt to make it where you can have meetings and like it's the show floor is awesome, but you're there also to network and talk business as well.
- [04:24]
Scott Luden
Tevin, hit on something there, Lori, that is divisive, like Licorice and Crocs and that is the event app. I can't keep up with them. I hate downloading them. Lori, are you a fan? Thumbs up or thumbs down if they're good.
- [04:38]
Lori Boyer
Love them. Like the really good ones, they make it so easy to connect. They give you so much info. Some of them feel like maybe they were made like 20 years ago and then just sort of more of a pain than hell. But yeah, they're good.
- [04:55]
Scott Luden
All right, good stuff.
- [04:56]
Lori Boyer
Love myself a good app.
- [04:57]
Scott Luden
That's all right. Tevin and Lori, we got a lot of good stuff to get to here today. Let's do this though. Let's level set. Lori, we've enjoyed as we've mentioned, we enjoyed all of you and your EasyPost colleagues. Let's level set with what EasyPost does in a nutshell.
- [05:13]
Lori Boyer
Yeah. So EasyPost makes it easy. Obviously we really, I would say help companies ship across carriers and especially at scale, help you really make better decisions. So instead of, you know, usually you sign up for a carrier, you're going to have to hardcore hard code into all your different carriers. Instead you can just get one single point that then connects you to 100 plus carriers and you can compare rates, print the labels, track the shipments and optimize just in a single place with easypost. Really simple concept, but huge when it comes to understanding. I want to say as well, the big, big shift we've had over the last couple of years is layering AI into all of it. 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 how you should be doing everything in your operations.
- [06:09]
Scott Luden
Lori, I love it now Tevin and as Lori talks about the 2026 version of shipping a lot smarter. You know, tapping into all the innovative technology out there. My brain went to when I was in industry shipping stuff long time ago and I had spreadsheets, I had post it notes, I had a very non optimized approach and the information was anywhere but point of the decision. And that really is a great opportunity Laurie. But what resonates with you there heaven to make things easier.
- [06:40]
Tevin Taylor
Look, what I appreciate about Easy post is they do sit in the decision layer. So a lot of companies don't have that right. It's not just about access to carriers but it's in making the right decision in real time based on cost, service and customer expectations. So easypost kind of has that nailed, which is really cool.
- [06:57]
Scott Luden
I am with you. All right, so Lori, let's do this. Let's level set around consumer demand. How would you describe what's really going on with consumer demand right now?
- [07:08]
Lori Boyer
Okay, 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. It can feel that way for some people because it's kind of way less predictable. So we're seeing about a third. 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. Apparel is a big one. Homegoods, furniture, electronic upgrades, especially because those are really spendy right now. Or 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, health care, not health care, although everyone spends in health care. Beauty and skin care experiences. Premium niche brands 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.
- [08:26]
Scott Luden
Yep. Tevin, Laura shared a lot of insights there. Your thoughts when it comes to the state of consumer demand.
- [08:34]
Tevin Taylor
She's absolutely right. It's fragmented to a certain degree. Definitely. You know, there's lower demand to a certain extent, makes it easier to plan some things. But what we're seeing, especially in the warehouse is you have SKU level unpredictability. So then you have inventory that's hard to match. So forecasting mix is what we're seeing. That's hard to do. It's very weird right now. And it's hard to predict some of these motions and movements.
- [08:59]
Scott Luden
I'm with you.
- [08:59]
Lori Boyer
I want to say. Can I just jump off that style? Kevin is so right on as always. So we are seeing what the data 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 things. And so you do. The demand becomes very difficult to predict. And that makes costs hard for shippers, obviously for everyone.
- [09:27]
Scott Luden
That's right. And of course that factors into shipping complexities. And but to your. Your big point there is you can better predict based on some of the insights you and Tevin both shared. Two quick points. You know, we talk a lot about consumer demand, of course, because of how big of an input it is for supply chain management. But I heard someone say demand is very resilient, but it's very choppy. All right, so Lori, shifting our focus more and more to shipping. Right. And the cool stuff you are doing and also a lot of the insights from the industry you're seeing that a lot of teams look at those rising shipping costs and assume, hey, it's just carriers raising rates, but that can't be the real story. What are you seeing?
- [10:08]
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. So I. This is where I ha. Spend all my time. Yeah. 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. But the real, real story and where I think a lot of shippers are feeling this pain is that since 2018, overall shipping costs have gone up like between 30 and 40% depending. And it's mostly hidden in those, you 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 of the United States Postal Service. And, and we're just seeing fees, residential handling fees, dimensional weight, and some of them are self inflicted. I have to say again, when it comes back to it, you know, poor packaging, poor zone decisions, 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 rate isn't as much of a problem as the decisions they're making around what to do.
- [11:47]
Scott Luden
Interesting, interesting. And hey, the new postmaster making some historical decisions. But hey, something's got to be done, I guess. Tevin, your thoughts on what we heard there from Lori?
- [11:58]
Tevin Taylor
Yeah, Lori's right. It's not just a rate problem. You have bad network design, packaging issues, poor cube utilization, things like that impact the overall reality that we're seeing. But don't forget, I mean fuels through the roof. You have fuel surcharges that usually are on scales that are negotiable. 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 of a sudden the rates that truckers are charging go up. Right. So we're seeing that in our business quite a bit.
- [12:31]
Scott Luden
Excellent point. You know, speaking of fuel, jet fuel, I came came across a graph yesterday that showed a huge spike. I had to add a couple monitors on top of the one to see the tip of the spike. It is amazing. Now there are some legitimate concerns around overall supply with global airlines, so we'll see. But a couple of things, some data suggests, speaking of shipping costs that 53% of total shipping costs now sit, you guessed it in the last mile, as opposed to about 41% some seven to eight years ago. And Laurie, you were touched on some of the factors that increase costs and we'll touch on this and some things you can do. But some estimates say that about 8% of first attempt deliveries fail. And of course that's going to be driving up costs huge. But folks, the good news is, and Lori's going to tell us there's a better way that can address all of that and much, much more.
- [13:21]
Lori Boyer
So Lori, hopefully I have a magic bullet.
- [13:25]
Scott Luden
Hey, you always bring your magic bullet
- [13:27]
Lori Boyer
to solve all our supply chain challenges.
- [13:29]
Scott Luden
All of them. A magic wand, an EAS button maybe.
- [13:32]
Lori Boyer
Ready?
- [13:32]
Scott Luden
You always bring it. All right, so you've talked about, of course, demand coming in bursts instead of that steady flow you imploded here. We've talked about on previous shows, if only consumers will make it easier on us. That's not going to happen. But based on what you're seeing, what does that unsteady flow actually do to a shipping operation day in and day out?
- [13:54]
Lori Boyer
Yeah, I mean we all know we call, you know, we call micro surges 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 Tevin brought up even drivers labor strain is a big one. Missed cutoffs or suddenly like what we see a lot when it comes to shipping is people end up spending 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. Per order. 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 base.
- [14:49]
Scott Luden
Yep. And Lori and Tevin, you want to be in position as an organization to really delight all those customers when that burst comes in. Right. Tevin, your thoughts? What we heard there from Lori.
- [15:00]
Tevin Taylor
Yeah, this is where the rubber really meets the road operationally. I mean, most networks are not set up for that volatility. They're designed for averages. So from what we see is shipping becomes a shock absorber for poor upstream planning. So if marketing is dropping a promotion without ops alignment or inventory being in the wrong place, you're going to have costs go up because now you're expediting and your margin goes out the door,
- [15:24]
Scott Luden
you know, and, and just let me clarify. You don't want margin going out the door, is that right, Tevin?
- [15:30]
Tevin Taylor
That's right. You want margin?
- [15:32]
Lori Boyer
I'm gonna wait outside the door. I'll wait for it all to come to me.
- [15:35]
Scott Luden
That's right.
- [15:36]
Tevin Taylor
We're a for profit business, not a revenue business.
- [15:40]
Scott Luden
All right. So, Lori, I've been looking forward to posing this next question to you because it's really a billion dollar question. So as most companies default to faster shipping to stay competitive and to appeal to the customer that we think wants that. The billion dollar question, though, are customers really, as in 2026, valuing speed as much as we think they are?
- [16:03]
Lori Boyer
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. 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 going to cost them? Do they have to pay? They still want free. Number two, reliability. Is it actually going to come? You talked about that 8%, Scott. You know, things weren't delivered right. Three, this is really interesting visibility. They want to know where the heck their package is and what's going on with it. And then four is accuracy. And I, I was speaking with the great Chris Capless 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 going to 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, delivery. We saw just this last week, FedEx announced that they're going to try to do same day with a delivery window within an hour or two. 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 going to 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. Now 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. 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. And they may be willing to wait a week.
- [18:26]
Scott Luden
You know, this is such a wonderful segment of the conversation. We got to act and ship in reality. And Tevin, you heard the top five data driven preferences, starting with cost, reliability, visibility, that Wismo. Where's my stuff at? Right. Accuracy. And fifth was speed. Tevin, your thoughts?
- [18:48]
Tevin Taylor
Yeah. The days are gone where speed's the most important thing. Cost is at the front of the line, but the most important thing for any consumer is to give them the option and the choice. Don't pigeonhole them into one solution. Give them options. If they want it really fast and expedited, they want to put it on an airplane, they're going to pay for it. And it's even going into sustainability where it's like, hey, if we use this type of box, this is what you pay. If you let us use this type of box, it's this cheap, right? So cheap you save money. So I think just put that in the consumer's hands and let them have an option. And I'm all about options, right? If you want it faster, we'll give it to you, but then the cost is yours, not mine.
- [19:27]
Scott Luden
That's right.
- [19:28]
Lori Boyer
It's a great. Amazon themselves is charging for that. You know, it's not like free to get your stuff within one to three hours. So. Love that point, Tevin. Sorry, Scott. You jump in.
- [19:38]
Scott Luden
No, you keep bringing it. Two thoughts come to mind. We were talking about USPS earlier and of course, last year, if y' all saw the numbers, Amazon overcame shipping volume over USPS last year. First time in history. Talking about history and then secondly again, acting reality. And I think both of y' all are speaking to it. Such an important point, we can't assume. So many folks assume what the customer wants. That's why we're talking about the big A. And Amazon, they're constantly pulsing and polling the customer to figure out what's really important to them. Right. And what is not that important so that we don't have to bring on needless complexity in any supply chain or shipping operation. So really, really good stuff there, Lori.
- [20:22]
Lori Boyer
And they test. I think that's another Key point there. Amazon will test. That's the same thing I say when you're adding carriers, when you're diversifying, mix when you want to maybe change a zone, test it in a small scale and then implement on the wider scale.
- [20:37]
Scott Luden
Love that, Lori. It reminds me, we got Easter around the corner, folks. Before you take a covered dish to that family dinner, and especially if it's a new recipe, you need to test it first. Lori, is that right?
- [20:50]
Lori Boyer
Well, Scott, I'm hearing a bad story behind this.
- [20:53]
Scott Luden
I'm not gonna call out any of my aunts and uncles. Of course not. Anyway, gotta test it. Experimentation. Pilots are important. Okay, good stuff there. So here we go. AI is everywhere right now. It is a fascinating time to be in the golden age of supply chain tech. I mean, who knows what next year will bring, next five years of bring. It's exciting and scary together. But, you know, a lot of operators are still skeptical and probably for good reason. Right? Yeah, I would argue the approach is so critical. Right. We've got to select the right problem. Right. Use the right tool. There's folks getting that right and folks getting it wrong out there. But, Lori, where are you seeing AI make a really big difference in shipping decisions?
- [21:34]
Lori Boyer
Yeah, I, I think you're right. I agree with you, Scott. There's good reason for people being skeptic for 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, that, you know, 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 8 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. Those decisions have been so hard in this industry, Scott, Back when you had all your, your spreadsheets and your sticky notes, a lot of times that's how we were still trying to make the decisions. AI where AI shines is that it can take massive amounts of data and make it easier for us to actually make a decision. Not just an insight. 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.
- [23:00]
Scott Luden
Yeah. And, and, and scale it right. So the whole team can take advantage. Tevin, Lori, as promised, is bringing it here. She's backing up the truck and hitting us with her latest actionable perspective here today. Your thoughts, Tevin?
- [23:13]
Tevin Taylor
Well, she's amazing. We know that. Come on. Number one, I think to be skeptical is healthy. A lot of operators have been burned by that next big thing. So, you know, we, we're kind of laggards in the field a little bit. But it doesn't happen overnight. You have to make small incremental improvements. And the key point, and Lori said it, you really have to start with a problem. If you don't know what you're trying to fix. AI is just a waste of time. It's just another layer of complexity. People don't know what they're using it for. So know what you're solving for. Work towards that problem, do it slowly and incrementally and it'll be amazing for you.
- [23:49]
Scott Luden
You know, and if we don't do AI right, it actually does opposite. It creates chaos and pressure and anything but results. So it's all about the approach.
- [24:01]
Lori Boyer
Yes, that's right again on that key piece of need. Make a decision, keep it simple, make sure you're reliable. And that includes with your AI. Is it reliable data? Is it reliable information that you're training it on?
- [24:16]
Scott Luden
Agreed, Agreed. And one more thing, I'm not going to try saying skeptical or skepticism because my South Carolina English is much better than your Texas English. But you know, when he wasn't building the hierarchy of needs, Abraham Maslow is. That ring a bell? Where he coined the law of the instrument? Maslow said, quote, it is tempting if the only tool you have is a hammer to treat everything if it were a nail. And from an AI perspective, there's lots of folks running around. We know, we've talked about it, we've seen it running around with hammers, treating everything as nails. And we got to get back to what are we trying to solve and what's the best tool to address that. So, Laurie, I want to shift a little bit here.
- [24:58]
Lori Boyer
In a fast moving industry, your material handling systems can't fall behind. Hytrol designs and manufacturers conveyor systems built to keep operations running at full strength, increasing throughput, reducing downtime, supporting growth at every stage. With more than 75 years of proven performance and a reputation for reliability, Hytrol continues to set the standard in material handling. If you're ready to move smarter, visit hytrol.com and see why industry leaders choose Hytrol
- [25:33]
Scott Luden
because as we kind of get into kind of prescriptive, proven best practices. Right. You got a lot more in that bag of tricks you got. Before teams jump into new tools or big changes, we gotta, we gotta take a better first step. How should shippers out there identify where their shipping costs are coming from?
- [25:53]
Lori Boyer
Okay, we talked a little bit about visibility earlier and I think that you've got to 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. 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 you've got that clean, reliable data. So that means an audit to go over and make sure you know what you're going to be using. I also want to 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. Like we said earlier, again, the accessorial charges, again, dimensions, weights, don't rip and replace until you're actually seeing where your specific issues are. A lot of people don't do that and struggle thinking, like you said, they're hitting it with the hammer. 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 that you are shipping so much faster than your customers even care about. So start by really carefully auditing some of those. Those are the ones I'm seeing the most often.
- [27:16]
Scott Luden
I like it. Lori and Tevin, one of the things that she mentioned, beyond kind of getting real with where costs are coming from, kind of that simplify, standardize, automate mantra that you see in a lot of organizations that still, it's as old as time itself, but it still works. Tevin, your thoughts we heard there from Lori.
- [27:32]
Tevin Taylor
I'd call that revenue leakage. You see people still shipping error, which is bizarre. They're dimming out on packages and what I mean dimming out, they're shipping literally a big box, small item. And the carrier is going to go by the dimensional weight, not by the actual size of the package or weight of the package. Accessorials are huge. If you ever look at UPS, FedEx, DHL, those assorial charges are hard enough to understand. I feel like you have to get a PhD to kind of read through them, but make sure you understand what those costs are. Right.
- [28:04]
Scott Luden
You got to.
- [28:04]
Lori Boyer
Small mistakes can make big rizzle, you know, big impact there on those fees.
- [28:10]
Scott Luden
Massive. So after then, Lori, once we really get real and understand exactly and very accurately where costs are coming from, what would you actually change starting. I was going to say tomorrow, but really starting today to get them under control.
- [28:27]
Lori Boyer
Your thoughts okay 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.
- [28:40]
Scott Luden
That's right.
- [28:41]
Lori Boyer
I focus on decisions. So first, maybe reevaluate your service levels against what your customers actually expect. Again, this is one that 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 Tevin 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. So when we talked about those big micro surges 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. We see that 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 that is again, where we talk 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. I want to throw in a plug for Amazon Shipping. Amazon Shipping, for those of you who don't know, is a carrier. So Amazon entered the carrier arena about 18 months ago. And you can use Amazon, take advantage of their infrastructure and everything that they've got going. We're seeing that when our data people use our AI tools to compare. And look, Amazon Shipping is coming up as one of the most affordable and one of the best options a lot of times. And that's something that's interesting because 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 great backbone to everything they do. 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 people to trust and feel comfortable.
- [30:43]
Scott Luden
And Lori, before I get Tevin's comments, of course Easy post offers a ton of ways folks can do all that you've mentioned. We're going to make sure we ask Laura how folks can start with Easy posts in just a minute. But the whole Amazon shipping thing is fascinating, right? Not only I mentioned earlier how they finally supplanted the usps. Of course they're shipping most a lot of their own work but to your point they are getting some volume gains from other volume out there. So Tevin, Laura just shared a bunch of things that we got to start doing not tomorrow but today. Your thoughts?
- [31:16]
Tevin Taylor
The easiest thing is make sure the service level and the customer expectation are matching. Like don't over serve the customer. You know, don't give them a filet if they want a cheeseburger. Right. That makes no 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 mess. So you gotta make sure you take care of that. And then you know, look at the other day, the companies are winning. They're not necessarily the ones with the lowest rates. They're the ones making the best decisions consistently at scale. You know, could be companies like Amazon but you know there's a lot of leakage here if you allow decisions to be made slow or if you over serve a customer that's not expecting the faster service or the faster service level.
- [32:04]
Scott Luden
Tevin, it's so true and Lori, it's always important to pick and choose your battles. Right. I would argue in times like this right now going back to the booker acronym, it's one of my favorite ones is so important to to part of the control factor to optimize the control pick and choose our battles and oftentimes if we don't know what our customers really want, we're inviting needless battles. That on its face is terrible. But think about the impact it has for your hardworking team. What problems are we creating that they shouldn't even have to deal with? Right. So Lori, one of the best pieces of good news here and and we've seen it time and time again there there's a great work that you and the Easy Post team are doing that again one of my favorite parts it makes it gives easier days to teams out there so they can find success easier. But how easy is it no pun intended. To get started working with the EasyPost team.
- [32:59]
Lori Boyer
It is easy.
- [33:01]
Scott Luden
It should be, right? It's gotta be.
- [33:03]
Lori Boyer
No? Of course, 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 you are using the right carriers in the right time and the right label and have all those different abilities accessible to you. If you want 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 a small shipper, it's free. As you get bigger, you know it's going to depend on the number of labels that you're sending. But for sure, it's really easy to do. You can also always reach out to me. I'm on LinkedIn. Or you can email me. So what, Whatever you want, we'll make it easy.
- [33:56]
Scott Luden
Let me pick, let me pick one thing out. Two things actually. Because folks, if you're not connected, Laura, if you're not following her, if you're not listen to the podcast, you got to. But the other things you said earlier than that, Tevin, she mentioned that if you're a certain ship of a certain volume, you may be able to start working with Easy post for free. Tevin, your thoughts?
- [34:15]
Tevin Taylor
Hey, free is for me for sure, because I'm one of those. I'm a smaller parcel carrier for sure, so I love hearing that. But yeah, it's, it's a platform I mentioned earlier. It lets you get into the decision layer and it helps you with your shipping needs. Shippers of all sizes. So that's a great thing about easypost.
- [34:32]
Scott Luden
It is outstanding and. All right. So Lori, 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 Lori, I was perusing and catching up on some of your latest shows. You've had some, you've had some heavy hitters. Tell us, what's the latest with Unboxing logistics?
- [34:57]
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 Sal McCurgliano. He's kind of the big expert on ocean shipping. And so we talked all about the Strait of Hormuz and what's going on there. And I thought that was really interesting. He talked about what delays, you know, what one day in the strait would mean, how it trickles down to the rest of us. Yeah, just come join us. We have a fantastic community there. Wonderful unboxing logistics family who are just smart, hardworking logistics people.
- [35:38]
Scott Luden
Making it happen. Making it happen. Unboxing logistics, wherever you get your podcast. Tevin, are you a fellow unboxing logistics fan?
- [35:49]
Tevin Taylor
I. I am, but unfortunately I haven't watched all the shows, but I am a fan. I'm a fan of Lori's. How can you.
- [35:54]
Lori Boyer
Oh, Evan, me to have you on. Need to come join. Join the bar.
- [35:59]
Tevin Taylor
Yeah. Say I've never been on the show though, so tears away.
- [36:03]
Scott Luden
Well, folks, you're only seeing part of the Tevin Taylor factor right here over the last hour, so we're have to make that happen. All this about price, speed and reliability. There's been no talk about sustainability. What about tools for differences with carbon usage? The better we are optimizing and finding efficiencies day to day in our operations, shipping operations and otherwise. That will certainly help us address and make bigger gains from a sustainability standpoint, number one. But number two, I bet Lori, you would love you and the team would love to talk about whether it's sustainability initiatives or. Or anything else related to today's conversation. Is that right?
- [36:37]
Lori Boyer
Yeah. Fantastic. There are so many aspects of sustainability that come into the shipping industry and I think especially as we talked today, a little bit about customers and their specific needs. Some of your industries sustainability is going to be really critical to your customer base. The good news, what I've seen with sustainability is the best sustainability options also typically save you money. So I can guess kind of what Scott was referring to. You know, shipping in or I think Tevin earlier mentioned the boxes, you know, having smaller boxes and having less waste and your returns program being way better. 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.
- [37:24]
Scott Luden
One of my thoughts that also comes to mind, kind of along the lines of what Lori shared, is when our team, especially at scale, right. Easypost works with companies at all levels. But think of if we can empower our workforce to make much smarter, more confident, easy shipping decisions. Right. And the right box, the right carrier, maybe we're cutting down on those missed initial deliveries. So we're cutting down on those really wasteful miles. I mean, especially in a decent sized organization, those gains really mount quickly. Now, I'm not talking about a formal sustainability policy or strategy, but I like to think in practical, real terms. Tevin, your thoughts?
- [38:05]
Tevin Taylor
Yeah, I mean, look, sustainability does happen on its own when you make the right shipping decisions, the right packaging decisions. And look, over my 30 years in this business, I remember loading trucks in 1996, and it'd be a box that would go up to my chest and it weighed like three pounds. It's like, what a waste. What a waste of space. But you know what? If you plan accordingly and you do the right things, you talk about over serving customers, if everything's going on an airplane and the customer doesn't care, the timeline to get that package, that can go on a train, a truck, or somewhere else where the footprint's a lot smaller as well. So those decisions will happen more and more. The sustainability and good business sense and profitability, those had to align. You can't just spend money on sustainability and not get anything. It's got to be a business decision as well.
- [38:55]
Scott Luden
That's right. And as Lori mentioned, a lot of times, sustainability gains certainly impact that. Bottom line, I'm a little bit of
- [39:02]
Lori Boyer
a history nerd, so I just had to jump in the earliest recordings of sustainability efforts. It's like ancient Romans, really. Right. And really, it's not that they were trying to save the planet, but the types of returns program they had and the recycling and the. It was because it makes business sense. And I think you both are right on the best ones because they're going to keep going. Right. The best plan is when it makes business sense for you and 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 emphasize there. And. And it'll be successful for you financially as well.
- [39:46]
Scott Luden
And it's gotta be a holistic equation. You know, some. And I'm not trying to offend anybody, some customers really care about sustainability, others do not. And there's all points in between really understanding at a very, you know, first step, what is success, what they value, what they don't. Muda versus true value. All right, so. And by the way, I loved your. Your historical point there, Laurie. If the Romans only left us a recipe for their concrete, we'd be so much further ahead. Y' all should check this out, though. This is an ebook. LLMs and shipping what teams are already doing with or without permission. It's a practical guide. It shows what's really happening.
- [40:23]
Lori Boyer
One thing in this guide I love. I wrote this guide, so I love it.
- [40:26]
Scott Luden
Okay.
- [40:27]
Lori Boyer
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 ChatGPT 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.
- [40:43]
Scott Luden
Okay. Love it.
- [40:44]
Lori Boyer
Love for my own writing.
- [40:47]
Scott Luden
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, Tevin, really quick, have you downloaded and read this yet?
- [41:02]
Tevin Taylor
No, but I want to. The little picture looks like somebody fell over, though. Like somebody with red hair.
- [41:09]
Scott Luden
Seeing this graph a thousand times. And it does, like, look like someone's taking a nap.
- [41:14]
Tevin Taylor
He's holding.
- [41:15]
Scott Luden
I feel like that. I feel like that's one of those ink block tests. And Tevin just has opened up my eyes to seeing things differently. How about that?
- [41:24]
Tevin Taylor
Sorry, Lori.
- [41:25]
Scott Luden
All right, speaking of, on the top of the hour, we mentioned events and Modex is going to be the biggest Modex in history. Maybe not dating back to Roman times, but almost 40,000 people in Atlanta. And Lori and the EasyPost team is going to be there. And I want to point out exactly a couple things here. Number one, if this isn't on your radar, 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, you got a Georgia World Congress center, right? You got Hall A, Hall B, and Hall C, where we're going to be in Hall C in podcast row. And you've got the Easy Post booth. And that number is see B as in boy, 7604. So Hall B. But if you can't remember that I had some, you could tell very complex graphics. So I've got B7604. But folks, you got food right around the corner so you can come have an innovative supply chain conversation. And then you step over and you get some delicious food right there. And again, this is the B hall. So come join the Easy Post team. Lori, I tried my best. I am not Bugs Bunny illustrator, but
- [42:34]
Lori Boyer
it was perfect, okay? And it made me hungry even now. I think that's the one requirement when we get a booth at an event, Please be at least 10ft only from the food.
- [42:45]
Scott Luden
That's right. That is right. Strategically Placed. Tevin, are you going to be at Modex?
- [42:50]
Tevin Taylor
I will be at Modex. I'm going to see Lauren this time because it manifests every time I go by her booth. She's talking to somebody or doing podcast or interviews. So Lori, I'm going to see you this time and Scott, you and I are going to see each other.
- [43:02]
Scott Luden
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 folks can't forget from this conversation?
- [43:11]
Tevin 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.
- [43:17]
Lori Boyer
Good, good.
- [43:18]
Tevin Taylor
This is the real summary is rising shipping costs aren't just about carrier rate increases. They're largely driven by internal inefficiencies like accessorials, packaging, poor routing decisions. So making these decisions, decision problems, more than a rate problem. Okay. But the biggest opportunities come from improving visibility and aligning those service levels with actual customer expectations while enabling faster, smarter decisions in real time. So that's the summary of everything I heard in the scribbled notes I have here.
- [43:50]
Scott Luden
I like it. I like it. And folks, you heard Tevin say actionable. This was a very actionable conversation. I appreciate Lori's angle of attack as always. So Laurie Boyer, director of Content with easypost, host of the outstanding podcast Unboxing Logistics. Always a pleasure to connect with you and hear what you are studying and helping and changing here lately. Appreciate you being here.
- [44:14]
Lori Boyer
Thanks so much. It's been fun as always.
- [44:17]
Scott Luden
It has, it has. Very practical too. Tevin, I look forward to seeing you in Atlanta in a couple weeks. But really, as always, appreciate your practitioner perspective as well.
- [44:28]
Tevin Taylor
Thank you for having me on. Lori, good seeing you again.
- [44:31]
Lori Boyer
Oh great. Always, Devin.
- [44:32]
Scott Luden
Hey, we have the great opportunity to keep the conversation going and that's really where the challenge comes in. Gotta take one thing, share it with your team, your hard working operations team, your supply chain team, your shipping team, warehouse team, whatever, right? Make it easier for them. 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 Luden, challenge you do good, give forward, be the change that's needed. 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 now. Wherever you get your podcasts.