Hey, everybody. WeIcome to another Banyan Technology's Tire Tracks podcast. I'm your host, Patrick Escolas. With me today, I have MODE Global, not only one but two of the key players over there. We've got Gene Welsh and Chase Smith. Hey, guys. Welcome to the program. Thank you very much for joining us.

Thanks for having us today, Patrick. Long overdue, and we look forward to the conversation with you.

Yes. You guys didn't have to get the same haircut as me, but I really appreciate all of us falling in line here. It makes it easy. We are going to make a lot of money on this shampoo and hair product advertising we do on the side here.

It's our own little version of Band of Brothers, so to speak.

Bald of Brothers.

Yes.

There you go. Appreciate being with another gentleman that is phallically challenged in this day and age.

That's right. Gene and Chase, if you want to give everybody a quick introduction of who you are, what your titles are, and what's your overviewing. Then, also, who's MODE Global? If someone hasn't heard of you guys that's listening or watching. What are you doing?

Sure. Great. Again, my name is Gene Welsh, I'm the Chief Transportation Officer here at MODE Global. Joined the enterprise in 2022. My responsibility as Chief Transportation Officer is for all of our product line offerings. So, our OTR business, our intermodal business, our LTL and parcel platforms, our international air and ocean offerings. As well as really making sure that we're making the right decisions for the front of the business as far as our technology offering.

It doesn't sound like you're busy at all.

No, at this point. I'm just waiting for emails to hit my inbox. So, yes. Just a little bit about MODE Global, again, I had a terrific 2023 in spite of market challenges. We have a multi-brand operating platform, as you can see in our background. MODE Global is the parent entity. We support our three wonderful operating brands, which is a vendor logistics out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, mode transportation, which is really born on the back of the intermodal business, and then some tech TTS, which is a significant OTR business. I highlighted kind of the genesis and the start of each one of those operating brands that sit under the global portfolio. They are all empowered and operate every brand that we support from a MODE perspective. That's a little bit about MODE Global. I'll turn it over to Mr. Smith to introduce himself. 

All right. What do you got, Chase?

Thanks, Gene. Appreciate that. Patrick, thanks again, for having us, and making the time here today. As you said, my name is Chase Smith, I'm over our LTL and parcel solutions here at MODE Global. I've been with the organization for about three years now, so joined in 2021. Again, thanks for having us today, and looking forward to getting into some of the topics that you've prepared.

One of the things that just recently happened, the MODE VPO, and I'll let you guys define what that is. It's not the Vice President of Operations. It's an exciting piece of technology with the Banyan Technology, that it's kind of working together. I know around my office, there's a lot of excitement, and we've been seeing some of the data within it, and just starting to scratch the surface of what that can do. Without me kind of spoiling it, or butchering some of what the VPO is, telling me about that. That's the newest, that's the most exciting thing we're talking about right now in here. Not that everything within freight and logistics isn't exciting, but that's the hot one for us.

Sure. Our MODE VPO platform is a proprietary tool, that we saw a need and I would offer directly driven out of some of the challenges through the pandemic years. How do we use data to manage our internal datasets in a better fashion? Then, from that, how does that create value for our customer base?

It stated as an internal tool?

Yes, it started as an internal tool. Then, we've scaled it out to be a customer-facing product and we've seen really great success. Again, in short, the VPO acronym stands for visibility, predictability, and optimization. At the end of the day, it affords MODE Global and are associated clients an opportunity to be far more proactive than reactive in nature. Again, I would offer the Genesis was really some of the challenges that we all endured through those pandemic years. The one role that I would say resonates and always has for supply chain, no matter what mode of transport we're talking about, it's fundamentally expect the unexpected. Then, through the pandemic, that was exponentially pronounced. We kind of threw any role we thought we knew out the window through those years.

Yes, it was whatever you could get, wherever you could get it. That was the way to do it. 

Correct. Correct. Again, when you think about an annualized basis, the amount of transactions that run through our multiband platform, it was significant. So that, how do we take that transactional detail, and then, have it in a very intuitive and user-friendly UI that people can make informed decisions? From an internal perspective, how do we use that to ensure we're maximizing backhaul versus headhaul synergies? How are you looking at opportunities to take OTR business and potentially convert it into intermodal? That's been one of the biggest pieces if you think about the ESG. That, being a core pillar of fundamentally every firm's strategy at this point, we can highlight through this user interface the carbon offset. So, CO2 offset when we comp intermodal and the OTR business.

With that, I'm sure there's, like you said, it's greener, or you can at least see the offset of it. But generally, are there are a lot of cost saving opportunities with moving intermodal, or generally, or historically, it's been an OTR movement? Or it depends where you're at? What does that look like? Because I live mostly OTR kind of background here. Intermodal is a little bit of a foreign to me, but I'm always curious to see where it can be used more and why it's not used in certain opportunities.

Yes. From a hard dollar's perspective, the short answer is yes. It really depends on the customer's specific supply chain. There might not be lanes where there are ideal rail routes that would support a cost savings. Are you talking about multileg shipments in some of those challenges? For the most part, I follow the 80-20 rule. Most of the analysis we've seen, that comp of the intermodal movement on a door-to-door basis versus the OTR movement on a door-to-door basis. There are hard dollar savings opportunities in the intermodal markets.

The other piece there when we get into, so from visibility, that network analysis is very impactful, at least for our internal use, as well as our customers use. When we look at the upload and the results of the finding, it really is astonishing to me. In certain instances, it's very eye-opening for our customer base. What are we doing in instances where they have their own private fleet, and they might not right have visibility to the appropriate headhaul versus backhaul relationship there. They might also be leaving dollars on the table, not keeping the containers or the actual physical assets in their supply chain, so street turning boxes and things of that nature.

We're not only looking at outside assets, it's just helping getting a better view of some of the internal assets that a customer might have, and how to better use those within their process as well. That's interesting. It's always crazy to me is that some of these technologies can bring visibility to your own – like, "Hey, what are you doing with that truck?" "I don't know." "But we know what you're doing with it, or what you should be doing with it." Yes, Chase, if you please. 

Well, I think the key word there from Gene there was from a visibility perspective is, it is quite enlightening. You've got all this data. What the tool allows us to do is aggregate those data points to a level that's interpretable and actionable, right? It's bringing visibility to the options that exist in terms of modal optimization, and so forth. Being able to see where those opportunities exist across their supply chain.

Again, to Gene's point, not every lane is going to be a good fit for an intermodal conversion and so forth. Then, you've also got transitory things that come into play as well. Getting products to customers quicker, cheaper, faster, is obviously something that everyone's focused on.

You're still probably not going to move those expedited ones that you've got to move last second anyways. Yes.

That's right. But it does show you, again, based off of your ability to come out and properly ingest this information. And then, again, aggregate it back up to a level to where you can make those decisions versus being reactive to the need itself. So, you understand why you're doing this, not just because you have a need that needs to be fulfilled, so you can be very proactive in how you source your carriers.

Is this something that's mostly used to, "Hey, we could have done better last quarter let's look at it this way"? Or, is this an also another way to kind of find savings in having carrier discussions as well with his data? Where's the ROI, not just from the "Hey, there's a better process"? Where's some of the softer tertiary value to just be able to visualize and have an idea of what's out there and what the choices would be.

Across the customer base, Patrick, I would offer that significantly variable. The initial intake, we've created a very user-friendly Excel ingestion as the first step. Where it gets really exciting is where the customer data ends up being directly fed into the VPO platform through an FTP link. Then, you have live data, the decision-making process can happen very, very fast.

I'm not just looking at last quarter data. I'm looking at yesterday's to see I'm going to rotate it today.

Correct. If you take as a smaller data set is the first pass. Like say, again, depending on the customer experience. Look at one of their business units and see what that business unit specific trades are. Then, after that, experience expanded. When you get to that FTP live feed environment, it's far more impactful in my view. Absolutely.

I mean, what are you seeing? I'm sure, like you said, it's going to be, client's a client. Are there any overarching trends with all of the data that's been used both internally, and as you've been handing it out? Is there – I mean, I'm sure there are some, but what are the noticeable ones or where you're seeing, that, hey, there's a big savings, where these people could go to – user start using trains? Or, is there any big broad sweeping trends that are coming out of all the data and the patterns that you're seeing with the VPO tool?

A couple items here. I think, the customer reaction to understand that they could convert traditional OTR into intermodal, or vice versa, depending on the velocity of the need, and the delivery, the promise requirements for the customer. That has been very eye-opening to understand, "Hey, this an available routing on the class, one railroad." "Terrific. Let's execute and let's save some dollars, let's reduce our carbon offset and things of that nature." But dependent on the other, the door swings both ways, so to speak. "Hey, we're moving on the rail, and the transit chose this amount of days. If we move to OTR, we could cut X amount of days of our carrying costs, so on and so forth." 

That's the other piece on VPO, where we look at the rail schedules. That's the actual lifting, so that is pushed through all of our transactions on the intermodal segment, which is in excess of 300,000 on an annualized basis. When you think about that, it's a better mousetrap for the actual rail transits versus the OTR transits.

Just to add to what Gene stated here. Another, let's call it eye-opening trend that we're noticing here is around the emissions footprint itself. There's, again, being able to aggregate that information to not only show where there's opportunities to offset, but actually quantify what that footprint is. Being able to do that in terms of you being able to understand how the overarching strategy supports multiple areas of the supply chain, having visibility into that footprint, and then, also, being able to lean into the optimization capabilities that allows you to reduce that is very, very significant.

Is that something that you guys are seeing with your customers? Because obviously, I'm starting to see with some of my clients is the need to track the actual carbon emissions. But across the board, are you seeing more and more buy in for offsetting? Or, is it still just kind of toe in the water to know what's actually being moved and how much it's costing as far as that carbon offset?

It's definitely increasing in, let's call it popularity. Now, you're getting RFPs, RFIs, and so forth. Then, where there used to be maybe one or two questions around environmental aspects. Now, you're getting full on request for information around what you're doing to be socially responsible, environmentally friendly, and so forth. It's absolutely increasing in popularity, and its application as well. Again, having visibility into the footprint, and having visibility into how you can reduce. That's two items, but really, there's a third leg. How do you get back to zero, neutral? That's where some of the offsets would come.

I think that there's still a lot of people that, let's call it, have one toe in the water, so to speak. Just jumping in with a cannon ball. I'm still trying to figure out what is the best path for the organization, because inevitably, it will be a different path depending on your industry vertical and where you're at in your journey.

That makes a lot of sense with the industry vertical too. It's a good point. Now, I would assume that you need a lot of data to get the appropriate results within the visibility production optimization, the VPO. How are people channeling that in? Is it just coming from TMSs? Is it ERPs? What does that look like? Because data can come from everywhere now, from everywhere. From Matthew McConaughey, talking about it with AI in Salesforce. But, as far as we've always lived it within the technological aspect of logistics within the TMS world, where's that data being pushed in for, for you guys to really get great data and great – I don't know about you, because it's not always making the choices for you. But seeing the option for your clients and customers.

Yes. I had a great question. For us, significant tip of the hat from my end to our technical folks, they've done a great job with our data warehouse. Again, if you think about our multi-brand operating strategy, normalizing that data into an ingestible format. Obviously, that was a significant lift. They've done a terrific job, our MODE Global data team, normalizing that information.

We've now enhanced the VPO, and the datasets we get from a couple external parties. Most notably, the recent great news on our partnership with you guys on the Banyan side, is that LTL and parcel detail. For us, that's really the next evolution of VPO. As we stand today, it's a real direct comp of the intermodal versus OTR business. What is the logical evolution from a domestic optimization network is to add in the LTL, and parcel details, which we're working very closely internally on. We're going to enhance that strategy through the partnership with Banyan, which again, obviously, with us joining you today, we view you guys as a best-in-class firm. So, we're very excited about that Genesis.

Well, thank you. I'll give you the 20 bucks on Venmo after here. Within that, and as you put more of the LTL and parcel into it. Are you telling me, within here, I might be able to make a selection that, "Hey, I should move these five parcel shipments as either five individual, one LTL? Or, I should throw it on a train here? Or in fact, I might want us to wait two days and stack it with the full truckload." Is that what it's telling you right now?

That's exactly it, Patrick.

It's kind of the pre-automated decision. We're seeing the logic and the visibility of the decision before that load consolidation, that magical thing that doesn't quite exist in a completely automatic. I just put the data in, I don't do any thinking, and it does the results for me. But right now, you're telling me that I could have all that in front of me, and I could select, "Hey, this is telling me that this is going to be the best whether from a cost, a transit, or even a carbon emissions process."

Absolutely. It's bringing the options to your awareness. Again, in a way that you can act upon what you're seeing. Again, being able to take off, or to add in parcel and LTL only supports the optimization capabilities from a truckload to rail perspective. Now, yes, we're bringing the visibility there. Does it make sense for you to send this straight through? Does it make sense for you to hold it a day? Now, you've taken two parcels and made an LTL, or you've taken an LTL and combined it, and now you've got a volume LTL. Again, and all of these obviously have a positive impact from an emissions output perspective, as well.

And possibly costs. And yes, as long as you can wait to hold on to it and put it together, then, the transit time may not be important. I also love the fact that, like I said, with a lot of my clients are mostly LTL, maybe truckload, and then maybe some parcel depending on it. But the fact that they could all of a sudden see a rail option right next to it, because I'm telling you that half of them haven't even thought to look at so.

Back to your earlier question, Patrick. I think that's one of the most eye-opening things, at least from a customer experience we've seen. Like, "Oh, we've always–" It's one of those things in supply chain period. "Well, why are you doing this way?" "Well, we've always done it that way."

And you're going to slap that person right away and be like, "That's not an answer. No."

But again, if you can take the power of data, and then visualize it, to Chase's comments, it's actionable. That is a terrific Genesis. Data for data's sake doesn't make much of a difference. But if you can visualize it, see it, understand the impact from transit costs, CO2 offset, all of these great things, it allows the beneficial cargo owner to make better and more informed decisions for their supply chain in a live environment, which is a win in this day and age.

That's the goal, right? At the end of the day, it's the goal. I think too, one of the powerful aspects, or maybe even benefits of what we're talking about here with this VPO tool, plus the benefits from it is that, you're getting to a point where you don't have to be the person that's been afraid for 30 years, and have that tribal anecdotal knowledge of, "Oh, if it's coming from this location, I use these guys, and I go this mode. That's the way to do it." Now, as we're seeing, and I think we're a lot of the pain is, and what we've seen. Not only does everyone want to integrate with their ERP and kind of take, I don't say human error out of it. But we're seeing people come into this industry as new employees, new hires, and then people that have known exactly why they've made these decisions leave, retire, or at least starting to make their way towards that.

How do you replace these people with 30 years and they just know where and how it should move? I think that the VPO tool has to be – one of those benefits is, "Hey, you don't have to know it all. Here's a tool, they can put it in front of you, and you can start to figure that out."

Absolutely. I mean, you hear those kinds of stories all the time, where tribal knowledge exits the business. Now, you're tasked with bringing someone in who doesn't have that access to that tribal knowledge anymore. Again, the tool makes it very simple to make what has historically been very complex decisions much, much easier, much, much quicker. And again, it's defendable, because you're using data to rationalize the decision.

I love the defendable.

It's not a yes, anymore. Again, you don't have to bring in 30 years of experience in either of those modes, or any of those modes. Again, it brings it all together for you, and again, you can rationalize the decision against the data that exists to make the best and most informed decision based off of, as Gene coined it earlier, the commitment to the promise.

I think within that, we kind of have this thing where we're talking about blurred lines within the data coming down there, and not just the Robin Thicke song. Where this data merge and it's coming in, I can't help myself. I see this Genesis come through, and I'm like, "Yes, I'm not a standup comedian, but I got to make my jokes where I can."

Shoot if we got to shoot.

With that, why are they blurred? Is it just because we could move it so many different ways with this data? Or, is it because within any shipment, it could be touching two or three places? Talk to me about what that means, even just from the nomenclature standpoint. Where's the data blurring? How do we clarify and pull it apart so we can see it clearly? Or, is it all going to stay blurred and that's okay?

Again, in my belief, VPO is a platform, gives you the opportunity to get out of the gray and get into a more black and white decision-making process. Pat, from my perspective, I think, when we talk about the interaction of VPO, whether that be our strategic partners from the rail side, from the OTR side, LTL side, from our strategic technology partners. And last but certainly not least, the beneficial cargo owners, which we all support. For me, it really is growing better to get. How does this tool a great IT platform lead to better conversations from a partnership, perspective, from a management and supply chain in total.

To your question on gray. Again, while there is development required on the LTL piece, which we're excited about. When we think about just the OTR and intermodals today, it really gives you that ability to have great conversations with your partner network, as well as your customer network around those words, growing better together. That's, again, my belief on VPO and the value to the marketplace.

That's something that I hear within these podcasts talks, time and time again, the amount of data, the amount of technology is never going to take you away from the need for partner network development. Where, where all of these tools and data come in, it's to help you where you should be looking to maybe grow your network or where you should be looking to get your pencil sharpened on a few lanes here, maybe diversify your carrier pool. That kind of fits in with not just what you guys are saying, but with a lot of different people that I've talked to within the industry, looking at it from a bunch of different ways.

I wonder if that's why technology has taken such a long time to really grab the ship, because it seems like, me coming into the world, maybe only about three, five years ago, we seem to be shipping logistics through all that freight. The redheaded stepchild of technology, it was like, somebody gave us EDI, like 20, 45 years ago, and just said, "Get some spreadsheets, here's your EDI, you'll be fine." Up until a certain point, no one really did anything else until probably about, I don't know, 10 years ago. Then, if it wasn't for COVID, I don't know that we'd have this giant smash towards, we need the automation, we need the integration, we need all this decision making.

I think that because it's also, it's who you know, it's what networks, it's who's going to take care of you. Maybe that took away from where that technology piece and other industries got routed so much faster. Do you guys have any thoughts on that or am I just rambling? 

No, I can speak into this. The blurred lines, I mean, that's kind of part of it. We've been slow to adopt new technologies that, let's say, other industries were very quick to adopt because the application was significant. We understand now that the emerging technologies and their application on our business are significant. But again, how significant is it? Because the cost to acquire the type of technology is not always within reach for people. 

That's fair.

Back to the relationship side of the business. Transportation is a relationship business, and VPO in its very nature is meant to support the relationship, it's meant to make things easier, again, quicker to decision, and so forth. Then, when you consider technology and how, let's say, carriers are using that now to change their pricing strategies, thinking dynamic pricing as an example. From an LTL perspective, that is something that has been catching a little bit more momentum here over the last few years, and you're starting to see more and more interest in that area.

It disappeared during COVID for some reason. No idea why.

Yes. Mystical that that evaporated.

But again, in the spirit of the blurred lines, I mean, that is also something that creates a little bit of a challenge. I mean, especially as people try to fill that out, is that best for their supply chain or not. There's a clearly a benefit for the carriers in that regard, because they're matching price with cost. We need them to make money, because we need them to be around. If you look back over the last 20 years, or really, even back to the 1980s, post-deregulation, the industry is only consolidated. There are less and less options from a capacity standpoint now than there has ever been. Because of the barriers of entry being so high, it's so incredibly unlikely that that's going to change. You're going to see some consolidation amongst existing players. But for you to see a new entrant into the space, so unlikely.

It's a big industry, small pool of names, is where – I see that time and time again. Or, it's a big industry, but it's a small pool. Everybody seems to know everybody. And yes, like you said, it would be crazy to me if all of a sudden a new – even with the yellow situation, if a new LTL carrier out of nowhere came up, then actually started getting market shares by itself just because of what you explained. That's interesting. Sometimes you think about it, sometimes you don't in the day to day. But that's one of the things that I think within your guy's aspect with the ability to see some of these options that weren't available before, especially to some of our clients that just leaved LTL, and only a little bit ago started looking at, "Hey, maybe I should be moving in truckload, maybe I shouldn't be moving in parcel."

Now, seeing that wider range, because once you give one additional option, then you're saying, "Well, what else?" You've taken the menu from one, I choose the same sandwich every day. But now, you're telling me I can get a burger, or I get a wrap, and maybe down the road, I can get a full steak. Wait, what else you got hidden back there in the kitchen? What's going on and why haven't you tell me about this earlier?

I also think that there's a lot of tech undertaking/initiatives, let's call it, over the last 10 to 15 years that have come in like a lion and left like a mouse. I mean, at the end of the day, we think about all the buzz around right blockchain, and blockchain in principle was a terrific idea. But the application to the logistics space, there was a lot of dollars spent in chase to make that be successful.

From that perspective, it didn't turn the corner that people expected. That's where, back to MODE. We're a 3PL, but I offer on top of that 3PL, we're a tech-enabled firm that has managed transportation 4PL capabilities. We know what our core business is, but we've also seen some of the challenges where competitors in our space have been committed to beat technology, logistics firms. We've seen some of the – over the last 18 months, there's been very hard times for a lot of people with that model.

Again, when you think about the technology piece, in my view, you can't put every egg in that basket. It's got to be the relationship piece that Chase has spoken about, that high-touch customer service environment. But when you look at it, to increase the efficiency curve is really where our focus is from a technology strategy. How do we make our people that support our customers more effective, more efficient on the day to day, so they have more time to have intimate and real conversations with a customer, instead of just a seat, someone's sitting at a desk grinding through? We want to be in lockstep with our customers, and our strategic partners.

The two words that resonate around that are value creation. Value for the employees and the individuals, so they understand what the vision is for MODE Global. Value for our beneficial cargo owners, so they have a blessed best-in-class supply chain experience. Last but certainly not the least, value for our strategic partnerships. We want to make sure we're fulfilling commitments and having great conversations with them. Again, I think one of the prohibitors to technological adoption is some of the things that have occurred over the last decade.

Some of the things you're talking about, it makes a lot of sense. I know from the Banyan side well before I got here, a decision was made. We were going to stop having somebody in a tech space or development think of what the newest best thing that the industry wants. We're going to go to our clients who live in the industry, and you're going to tell us what we should actually be working towards. Because, it's like you said, if you go tech for tech sake, it doesn't always translate to effective, new processes, or actually getting sticky, or getting traction within the industry. I think that's a really key point there, and some of the other aspects that you brought up really sounds like you have a holistic approach to kind of – maybe not just the industry as a whole, but also handling your client.

What else other than something like the VPO tool are you using to really handle everything that might get thrown at you, not from like, "Hey, you guys have taken care of my Intermodal for so long, here's everything else I'm doing. Show me what you can do with that"? Or, what does that look like? How does that process go and why is MODE so good at it?

I mean, again, my opinion, Pat is this. MODE, we are not beholden to one specific client vertical. We have a very, very healthy spread across multiple vertical segments. From that, when we bring out a new customer, or we have an existing long-standing customer, we really want to understand from them the VOC conversation, or voice of the customer conversation.

I like that.

Like, what can we do to be better for you? How can we assist? What are your existing pain points? My philosophy is turn a challenge into an opportunity. "Hey, we're having X, Y, and Z delivery challenges at this site? What can you do to improve performance there?" At the end of the day, when we think about the match of price and service, and Chase has been probably in too many meetings with me on the customer side where I've said this, like, "I can put a dollar in the spreadsheet, that's terrific." That doesn't mean the freight will ever move. What is the appropriate combination of price and service? 

Transportation in and of itself is a "commodity." We want to change that commoditized value into a long-standing partnership and relationship value, as opposed to just chasing the rate of the day.

There it is, relationship over everything and understanding. I love your VOC. I don't know if that's an internal term you guys have. I haven't heard the voice of the customer conversation before. But I love that and I may steal it, and at least be on my calendar for certain meetings I have. Which will – might be a little bit of discovery, and might be a bit of a vent session for somebody. Either way, it's a really nice way to put that.

That would be another 20 there, Patrick.

Yes. I've been accused of the word salad thing a few times, Patrick. I've also been told to go watch Wapner, doing my best Rain Man. Made a call, but if I get a couple other three-letter acronyms out?

No, it's okay. All of my clients, no matter how long their name is end up with a three-letter acronym, just so. Because, again, same way in my brain, as I'm kind of going through it, it's like, this is the fastest way, and I can find where it needs to. Plus, let's be honest, everybody has freight and transportation in their name. If you just went off the name, it all starts with an F or T, it's all in there anyways. It's nice to get some unique combination of letters sometimes to diversify.

You are more than welcome to steal VOC whenever you'd like.

Well, I'm going to do that. It sounds exceptional what you guys are doing with the data as far as what you're able to put in front of your clients and customers. Like I said, extremely excited about as Banyan continues support as you called it, more of that gray data in with the LTL and more of the focus on the parcel and LTL. There's an even broader picture of where and how things could move, both from like we said, pricing, time of transport, and from a carbon emission standpoint.

I always, because people, whoever, all seven and a half people listening or watching to me regularly, I get to talk to them, and they have to listen to me. I guess, they could pause and delete it anytime they want. But this is where I like to offer it, on top of what we just talked about here, about Gene, and Chase, and from either your individual perspective, or MODE as a whole, here's a little bit of my soapbox to you. What's your message either to your clients, to the industry? Or, I mean, like I said, all 12 people I know, it keeps going up every time I come up with a number.

For us, in the message that we've been trying to get out to our customers and our strategic partners, very similar to the topics that we've discussed today. Specifically, as it relates to a holistic approach. Again, with all of the blurred lines that exist, and with all the different pieces of technology, and all of the all of the various aspects that can make transportation more difficult than it needs to be. Taking that holistic approach. Not just saying, "Okay, look. Here's MODE, and they do a great job on my intermodal business, but I'm taking the truckload, or the LTL, or parcel somewhere else." Ultimately, that lends itself some challenges. 

When you can take a partner like us as an example, and we can really peel back the proverbial onion for all of those modes. That's really how you unlock the capabilities, and the strategies that we're discussing today with respect to VPO. It's a top-down approach. Then, really, we're solving against the challenges. We're not producing solutions for the sake of having something to do. You heard Gene joking earlier. We're not really sitting around just waiting for an email to come through.

What a lie.

We're having intimate conversations with our customers around the challenges that exist for them today. Understanding that today's challenge is not tomorrow's challenge. We're trying to be thought leaders, we are thought leaders, and we're trying to be proactive with not only how we deliver our solutions, but how we cater those solutions in a customized way to support the business needs at hand. Again, how we do that, by industry vertical, by customer, what have you, it varies a little bit, but there are consistent themes in there. 

Again, speaking to the spirit of VPO, visibility was a challenge, predictability was a challenge, and optimization was, let's call it what it is, an untapped area of opportunity for many. And really, that's the message we're trying to get out, is, we're not saying you have to put all your eggs in one basket. But if you're not having these types of conversations around how you can optimize your supply chain to better meet the ever-changing demands of your customer, give us a call. Let's have a conversation around that. At the end of the day, we're here, again, because we want to have a relationship with you in a way that supports the business. Again, this is a relationship business. We expect to see these people for a long time, and we want that to be a moment of embrace, and knowing that you have a partner out there that you can rely upon.

The shoe doesn't always fit, right? But in the instance it does, we want to capitalize on that. And when it doesn't, we want to make sure that we give our best effort from a consultative standpoint to make sure we can get you going in a direction that ultimately lends the output that you're looking for.

Gene, I can see why you bring Chase in so many of your meetings. It's a good call.

It is a good call. I'll give you another way to look at this. I'm going to give you the old Teddy Roosevelt. Complaining in the absence of proposing a solution is called whining.

That's a great line.

That really is one of the things, from my side of the business, that's really ingrained in us. Like, "Hey, here's a problem. Let's figure out a solution for our customers. Let's figure out a solution for our partners. Let's figure out a tech solution that supports both our partners and our customers." From that perspective, again, it really resonates, and I don't want to sound like a broken record. But growing better together is the important piece for mine. We are a solution firm. We're ready to take on anything that is post in front of us. Knock on wood, I'm going to toot my own horn. We've done it to great effect, we've created a lot of viable solutions for our customers, new, long standing, whatever the case may be. That's something that excites me, the MODE Global Enterprise.

Again, my belief, Pat, we wouldn't be talking about this today without the relationship with Brian and Ed. Very, very excited about that solution-driven mindset.

Go ahead Chase.

Just to add to that there, Patrick. I'm just going to bring it back around. Again, we're here to provide solutions, but at the end of the day, we're here to have fun, and enjoy this as well. At the end of the day, we're working with people who want to enjoy –

When do I schedule the fun in? When is the fun scheduled in Chase? Is that sometime between the third or fourth meeting? Was that somewhere around the 11th? I need to know.

When that Venmo hits, I'll let you know. We'll see what happens.

You're 100% right, because one of the things I love about this industry is almost everyone you talk to in freight is really a straight shooter. Generally, they're like, "Yes. We want to get this done, so we can go on with the rest of our lives." Whatever that that problem may be, or maybe if it's not get that done, and get on to the next one. Then eventually, get moving into what might be the weekend or get home with a family. I think that the tools that you guys are presenting are making that easier to do with less time crunching the numbers. 

I'll say that kind of as a little bit of an outro here, sounds like MODE's got the statement that, it doesn't matter how much data you have. It's really what you do with that data and what actionable items you can have in front of you as far as process choices. The more timely they are, the more real time they are, the better that is. The more options you have, the better of a process and the better decisions and defendable decisions that you're going to be able to make with, either if you're the guy who's been doing freight for 30 years, but you just got on the job last year and you're trying to figure out how to do this the best way you possibly can. 

I want to thank you guys very much for having this conversation with me. I learned a lot. Again, I look forward to the partnership with MODE, and seeing more of the VPO, and where it goes from here. Because like you said, we're just starting to keep adding more items to the menu here, it sounds like. At a certain point, we might be a five-star restaurant where we can get just about everything from all-day breakfasts, do a milkshake with my steak too.

Thank you guys for the time. I know I've got to see the tool. Well, I'm sure we'll have a webinar here soon where we show that off with the visualization of it too. But in the meantime, anybody listening who has more questions, whether you're a Banyan client or whether you're a MODE client, or whether you're somebody that hasn't touched either of them, reach out to anyone at the Banyan, MODE side, and we'd be happy to talk to you about it. But for everybody else, thank you for listening. It's been another episode of Banyan's Tire Track podcast. Gene, Chase, thank you so much for joining me, and I can't wait to see what else we'll do together.

Thank you.

Pat, thank you very much for the time, Have a wonderful afternoon.

Hey, thanks, guys. Now, time for the fun part. That's right. Send the Venmos, and now we get fun.

That's it. Thank you for the [inaudible 0:41:11].

Bye, guys. Appreciate it so much, guys. Have a great one.

Bye-bye.

See you.