Hey, everybody. It's Patrick Escolas with another Banyan Technology’s Tire Tracks podcast here at CONNECT 24 in downtown tropical Cleveland. I've got Tony Sneed and Chad Garland of TMCO with me today. How are you doing?

Doing great.

Good.

Tony, you're the Managing Partner, and Chad, you're the Director of Logistics?

Right.

All right, so first question. I see TMCO on that shirt, and Sneed Supply Chain Solutions on that. What's up with that? Which is real?

Well, neither.

That’s exactly right.

We're actually rebranding the company, and it's three different companies in one. We've got TMCO, Transportation Management Co-Op, and that's our LTL arm where we have a TMS system with company called Banyan, as a matter of fact. I don't know if you know him.

I've heard him. They're pretty awesome.

Okay.

Great account managers.

Then we have 440 Transit, which is our brokerage division. Then we also have Sneed Logistics Inc., which is are warehousing and assets. And then we also have our procurement and sourcing division of Sneed that is kind of new to the company, that we actually go out and source and procure materials for customers and actually do the logistics and the warehousing on.

What don't you guys do?

Well, actually, we also just bought another little small expedite company.

All right. There you go.

Old Town Express, which has been around for 30 years. We have assets in that as well.

That's awesome. Now, is that something that came about from something that you saw as an opportunity or there were clients that had a gap? How did it come about to kind of diversify or bring all of those companies in as one?

It's a combination of everything. I mean, you've got some of it is need. It's always about customer needs and wants, but a lot of it's about people also. So, you bring people in like Chad and Mike DeBose. It's overall warehousing. Todd Tim that was in manufacturing for 32 years. They bring out deals and they bring things that's such a value, not only from the warehousing logistic side, but just like on the procurement side. There was such a big opportunity there that it made sense. So, a lot of things I do and a lot of things I'll take a look at, it's just, does it make sense? And does it tie in, is it a value add to our customers? You're always looking for that value add no matter what.

And is this something where each division is looking at different prospects or you're coming to somebody with all of it in one suitcase?

I think it depends on the customer. A lot of times you'll go in and see what the needs are. We've got it to present to all customers. But a lot of times, it just doesn't make sense. We made a call this morning, actually, here in Cleveland. We wasn't selling them on procurement. We wasn't selling them on the warehousing portion. There wasn't a need there.

And you're not going to fit a square peg into a circle hole, right? 

Exactly, exactly. But we found out what the needs were and we go through of what we do, how we do things. That's basically what we do.

You guys have been doing this a while. Is this something that you've seen happen to other like providers? Or is this something a little unique within the TMCO or the family of companies that now falls under?

I don't think I've seen anybody that does what we do and how we do things.

Well, there you go. 

But we got such – everything I do is about people and who we have working here and what are some of their strengths and some of their attributes that they bring to the company and we'll go with it. I mean, like I said, it just has to make sense to us, but there was no set vision. There's always vision as far as what's next out. You're always looking to a turn right to turn left. So, you're always making that decision on what makes sense. There's a lot of things we haven't done that just didn't make sense to our company. You look at what we do, how we do things. You're always looking to get better. I always use this example. We started truckload many years ago. We got really good at truckload two or three years ago. And a lot of that was when Chad came on board and, and bringing some of his thoughts and some of his people.

Chad, the truckload whisperer.

He's the whisperer. But you're always looking to get better at what you do. And then all the new things that come along are those things that you know what does make sense and what ties in to what we currently do.

Speaking of tying in and obviously, a completely unbiased question, how does technology help when you're doing so many diverse different things?

Well, technology is becoming more and more of an ask question when you go into, even our current customers. A lot of our current customers we've been with literally 20 years. But we're a little different in what we do things. We're part of our companies, not only their logistics, but I'm in production meetings, I'm in budget meetings, I'm in anything you can think of because logistics and shipping and those costs are such an important part of that now. The question we get asked now is how can we see this? Or what is the new things? And some of the new things that Banyan’s came out with as far as the track trace, the visibility pit portion of it, that's all critical and especially, and it depends on the customer too. We do a lot of farming and we do a lot of automotive. Well, everything is so critical as far as timing on that. The more visibility you got, the better especially with our customers. 

You say that it's the people and a lot of the trends or the common thread is always there within the freight and logistics industry, that relationship. How do you best position yourselves as these consiglieres that are invited to these internal meetings with your clients and customers to get your advice or what you think would be – where does that come from, that trust? 

Well, it's the transparency. I mean, that's from day one. We are always transparent, good, bad, or ugly, as far as what happens, what we can do, and then what's going on. A lot of this is knowing what's going on in the industry and being proactive with our customers. Andy Ferrand's with us this week. He's really been working on the density factor and what's coming up with that. We're telling that story to our customers and we’re getting out in front of these things.

Yes, that's a hot one.

We do a lot of that, even from the truckload side, even from the warehousing side. We're getting in front of that and letting people know here's what we see. Here's what's coming up. Here's some of the adjustments we might need to make. So, it's not being hit with it after the fact next May. It's being proactive and saying, “Look at what's coming. Here's some of the things that we're going to do to resolve it and things that we're going to do now to help in that situation.”

What's the best way that you put yourselves in a position to be ahead of those? How do you – because it's really easy to fall behind pretty quickly. Is that just keeping your finger in the pulse? How does that work?

Well, you're always looking for ways to the resolution. So, you're always looking to, “Can I offset that by changing your processing program? Can I offset that by looking at your lanes? Changing the product mix, changing your packaging needs, how you package?” There's a lot of different ways that once you see what the problem is, then you go, “Okay, what are some of the resolutions to this?” You start that process of talking to them. 

That sounds like a lot of process disruption or change management. Is that a struggle when you come to your clients and say, “Hey, I'm looking at some of the things you've come to me and you need to change what you're doing drastically?”

It can be. I mean, it can be. It depends on the customer. Some are more apt to make changes than others. So, you're packaging, that's a big deal. As far as, a lot of them are procured –

Got a lot of infrastructure around that, yes

There's a lot of different levels to that, depending on the customer. Some like change more than others, or are adaptable to change more than others. It depends on the customer, man.

You've already kind of well diversified, kind of given a suite of services. Where do you go from here? Is it, figure out how this works a little longer? Is there other opportunities to expand without there in the market?

Yes, we're going to start buying airplanes next and chartering flights. I'm telling everybody that.

Yes, it's either that or containers –

You flying them?

I'm working on that.

He's working on his last.

Yes, but now, I think you work at getting better at what you do. 

Okay.

And you're always looking at, okay, what can we do different? These guys are great at that. They're always looking to, what's next. Whether it be from the IT perspective to how we look at things, how we see things. So, you're always looking to get better at what you. You never stopped doing that. But as far as new things coming out, I mean, we're looking on the international side, doing more and more, but we do a lot now, in and out of Mexico.

Okay.

Yes, a lot of the –

[Inaudible 0:09:21] So, we want to get strength there and build more there. But, I think, you look for the next opportunity, but you, you keep gaining or keep getting better at what you're doing now.

Okay.

I'll let Chad talk some more.

Yes.

Oh, that's okay. I mean, just piggybacking of what he said there about international. Another key

to it is communication and networking.

Hundred percent.

Being at a conference like this, we connect with a lot of different companies, and whether it's IT, or trucking, or manufacturing, communication, information is great. It's just like, he was keying on a couple of things. We tell customers, we've been telling customers two or three months. I mean, actually, months ago about the international, like the strikes that could be possibly happening. Been averted so far on the international, on the Canadian rail, and different things like that, and it's just a network that we have actually internationally. Todd's brought a lot of value to the company in that market as well.

That's awesome. One of the things I've talked about just most recently with Brent Hutto of Truckstop is, and I've talked to a lot of people is that, a lot of brokers are waiting for the pendulum to shift again ever since we've hit the new normal after COVID. One of the things he said was, "I don't know that it's going to shift, it's going to swing back for the next six months." You've diversified, you've offered a better suite and you have the relationship. What does another broker or carrier do? What do you see that somebody could do to stay relevant, stay profitable, or stay in business when they don't have the ideal conditions that they used to even two years ago?

It's tough. I mean, I think you've got a lot – other brokers we consider, it's somewhat of a competition.

Sure.

Our competition. You see a lot of things as far as giving them advice.

Not the secret sauce. But from a trend perspective, how do you – I guess, a better question so you don't share secrets or your insight is, where do you see things going? Do you agree with that pendulum isn't coming back down? Or what does that look like from the TMCO Sneed, Tony, Chad side?

I mean, we definitely see it. I mean, we do, from the truckload brokerage side, we've got so many of our loads are connected to our current customers, which we do their LTL, we do warehousing, we do truckload. But a lot of our stuff is dedicated milk run type scenarios. We have been affected, especially in the automotive industry. I think, we are seeing probably anywhere from 20% to 23% reduction, depending on the customer.

Good time to be a car buyer.

Yes, yes, exactly. It's one of those, I don't want to say survival mode, because I mean, normally, we add so much and we're always in continued growth, but it's through the diversity. And if you're not diverse like it – but I think, internally, it's taking a look at how you're doing things. Don't always be these guys that we're competing against, it's always being the lowest cost. And you're always throwing process out that sometimes maybe that you can't make happen. I think that's where they run into trouble because it gives you a bad name under that. Don't get me right, we're not perfect. I mean, we struggle some, but we work so hard at sourcing, and finding needs, and where – maybe we do some load consolidation. We do some partial truckloads. There's always different avenues of different ways of looking at those things.

Kind of flexibility and adapting.

You have to build that in.

I guess one thing for all of us brokers is that, we need to take care of these independent carriers. We need to have relationships with them because that percentage of trucking is depleting. All the old truckers are basically –

Starting to hanging out there.

– fading out. And we need more new people to have interest in trucking and transportation. I think that, whether it's through the ATA, American Truck Association, or through the Independent Drivers' Associations or whatever, I think all of us needs to have good relationships with all of our trucking companies. It's a two-way street.

Absolutely.

It's a two-way street. We would rather be a little higher, but have dependable services.

That's very well said. Tony and Chad, thank you so much today.

Yes, it was great.

For anybody listening, relationship is the name of the game, diversify where you can, and use technology to make good decisions. Thanks, guys, I appreciate it. For everyone watching, stay tuned, we'll have more with Banyan's Tire Tracks podcast.