What’s Trending in Parcel Shipping for 2023 (ft. Nate Skiver)

In this episode of LeaderShipping, host Caleb Nelson speaks with Nate Skiver, Founder of LPF Spend Management, a leading parcel transportation and eCommerce delivery expert with over 20 years of experience in consulting, about the latest trends in shipping for 2023. Here are some of the key topics covered in the episode:

Main Topics:

• Nate’s predictions for shippers in 2023 amidst a looming recession, strikes, and economic slowdowns.
• The UPS/FedEx duopoly and shifts in the industry, plus regional and LTL carrier expansion and how managing those contracts has changed.
• The rise of accessorials and its impact on the shipping landscape, and how businesses can survive by diversifying their carrier mix, optimizing packages, and upgrading their network efficiency.

Additional Resources:

• Caleb on LinkedIn
• Nate on LinkedIn
• LPF Spend Management Website
• Blog – Teamsters/UPS Impact on Shippers
• FedEx DAS Remote & FedEx Extended Peak Surcharges
• Sifted Unboxed Newsletter

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SPEAKERS
Nate S, Caleb N

Caleb N 00:10
Hello everybody and welcome to leader shipping this is a podcast ran by sifted. It’s powered by sift it’s logistics intelligence. It’s hosted by me, Caleb Nelson. During this podcast, you’ll hear directly from industry experts and trailblazers on exactly what it takes to be a leader shipper. Let’s jump in. We’ve got really, at this point, one of our first guests is I can’t think of anybody better than some of the industry Trailblazers that have started in parcel. Some of you may know our first guest from LinkedIn has many articles with personal Magazine. Today, we’re honored to welcome the founder of LP F spend management, Nate skiver. Nate, thank you so much for coming on.

Nate S 00:57
Thanks, Caleb. Really excited to be to be a guest and get to do one of the things I love the most is chat about parcel

Caleb N 01:06
so yeah, man. Me too. I think it’s gonna be a great conversation between us. I think that’s one thing that we were in prepping for this. I was thinking, you know, what, Nate and I are gonna have fun. Like, it’s parcel, we joke about it that it’s like, parcel and fun are kind of an oxymoron together, but not for us. I think when you’re passionate about something, and you get to really be able to express ways in which somebody can make better decisions in something that really matters for them, which is parcel shipping. That’s where I think you and I shine. Absolutely. A little bit more background on Nate, legend in personal transportation and E commerce delivery. With over 20 years of experience in parcel consulting, Nate is the real deal. And if you follow him on LinkedIn, you You certainly know the the importance of his content that is being widely shared in the industry. And Nate, for first time guests on leader shipping, first time for us on this podcast. Like I said, I couldn’t think of a better guest than you for first time.

Nate S 02:20
Again, I appreciate the invitation. Legend might be a bit strong. But I have, you know, almost think it’s kind of like a process of elimination. As far as the veterans of parcel, we just whittle it down to how many have been doing it for 20 plus years. The list isn’t that long. Now, I do appreciate, you know, being at the top of the list for this one. But the legend might be a little bit strong, but I’ll take it this

Caleb N 02:44
way. You take it where you can get it. And if somebody calls you a legend, and it’s a good thing, then take it all day. I think that really, as I’m speaking to shippers every day, there’s very some very specific things that are on their mind at the start of really a new year. Right, we got done with the announcement of the GRI which was largest in history that we’ve seen from both FedEx and from UPS, and magically they match the same number 6.9. Yeah. And we’ve got a lot of things kind of in the mix. We haven’t yet finished out q1. And there’s a lot of talks already on possible recession. UPS is labor issues and possible strike that’s coming up this summer. And I would say a lot of uncertainty, I think the top of that list from shippers that I talked to, is this strike situation with UPS? How big of a deal is this in your mind? And what are you advising clients to be able to do behind the scenes there?

Nate S 03:51
Yeah, I mean, it’s, so I’m not going to, to make a prediction necessarily as to what I think will happen. I mean, it’s, it’s it would have a huge impact on the market, just because of the fact that UPS plays such a large role overall in the package delivery market that deliver 20 million packages a day or something like that. And if there were a complete stoppage, which there’s been discussions about continuance of service in some way, things like that, you’re partially but it would still have a significant impact. And it would be disrupted regardless of who you are with a competitor of UPS or a package shipper. There’ll be service delays, there’ll be a cost impacted leading into or coming out of it if it were to happen. So saying all that, you know, I don’t have one answer for clients, but I’ve been or contacts I’ve been talking with. But I think it’s it’s one of those things where the ones of course, who are in the best position to start with are the ones who already have multiple carriers in place. And so there’s already some flexibility there to be able to move some volume to other carriers existing carriers, its inherent to the program if you want to add carriers. But if you are single source with with UPS, I think it’s one of those things to where kind of a knee jerk reaction to go move a lot of volume probably isn’t the best move. But it should be a significant enough event or potential event to cause you to rethink your overall parcel sourcing strategy. And so in doing that, if coming out of that it is we should diversify, then that potential event can kind of guide those initial actions and the results should be any mitigating some risks.

Caleb N 05:42
Yeah, and I, you know, I think one thing that’s really interest, I couldn’t agree with you more on on diversification, and I want to dive into that, as we talked about some emergence of some regional carriers that are really didn’t exist, you know, 810 years ago that are very prominent now. But in terms of, of likelihood, I get asked that all the time, like how much of this is saber rattling from the Teamsters? How much of this is, you know, a marketing ploy from FedEx, in some ways, like you saw FedEx really? Hit UPS customers fairly hard recently, right?

Nate S 06:20
Yes. Yeah, that was, I think I forget who surfaced that and published it. Like, you know, FedEx pitching, right, using that, as a pitch with UPS customers. Hey, hey, come on over. But do it quick. Due? March? Yeah.

Caleb N 06:39
They gave them a march, march 31. Deadline? Everybody

Nate S 06:42
knows that. That doesn’t happen. But But yes, I mean, it. It’s kind of common sense. Not maybe not as a full on pitch. But Sure. There’s opportunity there for FedEx now, on their earnings call last week. They made it a point, I think it was in response to a question about it. But to say we’re not just opening up to the network, and everybody can come on over, they at least said they’re they’re being selective. And of course, however, they determined this want long term customers, basically not just a stop gap, which, you know, interesting how you kind of navigate that, while you navigate it through. You try to from FedEx and standpoint through agreement terms. Yeah.

Caleb N 07:29
Yeah, that’s really interesting. And I would say that there there being the capitalizing on it 100%. But to your point, if a strike happened, there is so much volume that’s going through ups as network right now, there is no way that any other carrier can pick up all of that volume, and, and be just fine. So it’s a really interesting situation. And to your point, I totally agree with you if you’re 100% single source with UPS. Heck with any carrier right now, right? You really need to be in the in the mindset of diversification. It comes to that next question, which is, you know, your thoughts on the duopoly that acts more like a monopoly of FedEx and UPS in some cases? Any shifts that you’re noticing there to kind of potentially break up that duopoly? I think there’s some really interesting things. Interesting things happening on the Amazon side right now. That’s, that’s kind of unique or, you know, regional carriers, what what are you seeing?

Nate S 08:32
Yeah, I mean, I think there’s, there’s, there’s definitely a lot happening has been in the market last least three years or longer with more delivery providers in the market, I guess more better technology to execute decisions intelligently about which which carriers to use when and better data and intelligence on the the expense and the performance, delivery performance. So all of those things lend itself to should at least shippers having more options and being able to, to really design and build a program that isn’t just UPS and FedEx with small pieces of volume elsewhere, which is which is what kind of happens a lot of times because you start with this single source or all of your volume or almost all of it with one carrier. And you look at it as how can I fit things in instead of looking at it as how, let me design a might program the way I think it should be and then decide which carriers are best to meet those needs. And so there has been you mentioned you have a new delivery providers regionals have played a more prominent role in the market. All that said, last I checked, which there’s not a lot of great data on this holistically, at least you To VPs and FedEx still have a pretty good stranglehold on the market, get from a third party standpoint. And so I think it’s it actually requires a mindset shift, which is not easy. From package shippers are more package shippers to be pursuing these solutions that are there, and not just trying to fit small pieces into the program. There’s no shortage of options. So I think, be pretty creative and, and develop a program that isn’t just UPS or FedEx and then small pieces elsewhere.

Caleb N 10:36
Yeah, and I think you’re, you’re extremely rare. The one thing I really respect with you, Nate is, you come from the other side of the table, working directly with, with shippers with as a customer, of FedEx and UPS, you’ve done this before, where you’ve diversified and reached a chunk of the United States, in a prime like experience of like a two day delivery. And if my memory serves me correctly, you didn’t do it with five or 10 Different parcel carriers, we’re not talking about diversifying with the substantial amount of parcel carriers, we’re talking about being very selective on the part of carriers you bring on, and who’s having a very good game plan and understanding your data. So that you know which, how much to give to, to what carrier, which area, the United States that they’re going to serve us, and what’s going to be the biggest bang for your buck? I think that’s a really interesting call out is oftentimes we get shippers that say, and I I don’t have the bandwidth to take on diversifying and bringing on five parcel carriers in my network right now. And I don’t think you need to do that.

Nate S 11:45
Yeah, it obviously depends on a lot of things around in the amount of volume and the type of company whether it’s truly a retail with stores and ecommerce. So it can get complex, but also adding carriers or diversifying your carrier base, if you’re very specific about the role that a carrier or provider will play, be it geography, I mean, all kinds of things kind of fit into this package size weight, then you can really design a solution as opposed to just kind of taking a swipe at it and saying, I’m going to add five or six carriers, I’m going to kind of go the other direction, and add as many as I can to try to make sure I have enough options. Yeah, like you said, there’s there’s plenty of data to inform decisions ahead of time, there’s data to then allow you to adjust along the way. It’s not a, like a once even a once a year type event. It’s a continual process doesn’t mean you change things all the time. But you know, managing and monitoring the changes you did make. I’m just like any other type of project to see if the results are what you expected. If they’re not, there’s plenty of data to tell you should to tell you why. And then you can continue to make changes. And so I think that’s where, again, the post the data on the expense, delivery performance, incredibly critical. And then technology to execute multicarrier. Yeah, is I mean, far better than was even five years ago. Problems.

Caleb N 13:27
Yeah, yeah, there’s been an emergence. And I would say, COVID has been a really big help for that. In a lot of technology that did not exist five years ago, that is very prevalent today. You have a lot more options. I’m curious what, when you’re talking to, to shippers, to customers of FedEx, and ups, and you’re talking about diversification, what stands in their way? What’s what’s one of the biggest issues that you’re seeing that that’s facing them? Is it on the technology side? As far as hey, look, I only create shipments and labels through UPS Worldship. And, you know, I’m siloed based upon where I can actually perform those label creation and or decision of which carrier gets what, what’s, what’s the bottleneck there? What’s holding people back from diversifying? Well,

Nate S 14:18
that’s a long list. But I would agree, so technology even despite the fact there are some very good solutions in the market, and I think access to them, technology is still a challenge and it’s not this isn’t new. Because if you don’t have the right technology in place, then you have to go justify getting it and, and you know, it’s the kind of even old school like, you know, the business case together show the ROI, which is you need to do that. Yeah. But I can at least speak from several years ago experience that it it’s always like, how much money is this going to save us this has the well, you know, exceed the payback has to be super short. And it’s almost unrealistic sometimes expectations that are placed on a multi carrier shipping solution to generate this value, even though it can happen. So one I think is, it’s a can be a large undertaking within an organization. So, honestly, that actually stopped it before we get started sometimes. The other ones I mean, you knows as well as the other and I do. UPS and FedEx contracts. They do an amazing job of through revenue commitments, termination language and penalties. You name it, you know, other things as well around pricing to make it difficult. It’s it’s challenging, it’s definitely not impossible. And I think that actually is, that’s one if it’s, if it’s not number one, it’s one a. Yeah, one of the biggest reasons. Yeah, not as legitimate. Sometimes it’s more perception, I think, in reality.

Caleb N 16:01
Yeah, I think I think the perception is totally. Your comment about it being more perception is is spot on. I think. They oftentimes get spooked shippers out there. Customers of FedEx and UPS get spooked by their carrier reps, even some sometimes about pulling some of that business away or diversifying that. When in reality, it’s a math problem. That’s kind of how we see it sifted is, look, this is a giant math problem and some individual contracts, just create a more challenging, more complex math problem than others. And understanding how much you can peel off, because you can not totally replace the FedEx or UPS today. But how much can you peel away without decimating that, that that agreement that pricing agreement with FedEx and UPS and still making, I would say, the biggest bang for your buck and mitigating that risk. And I think mitigate cost mitigation is not the same thing as cost reduction. Right, you are mitigating that risk, in hopes that you do not need to pay more later on. And that often doesn’t come up as a 3x or 4x. ROI. So shippers kind of need to go into it with a different mindset of this is much more about the stabilization of my business, reaching my clients, and really controlling that client experience and avoiding future pain. There’s a lot of shippers I talked to that was, you know, Ron q4, it was I’m getting kept. You know, FedEx is only telling me I can provide him with X number of shipments. Otherwise, I’d be on a penalty status or whatever that is, I think there’s a very good use case for shippers to say. This is worth looking at this not just from a how much can I save standpoint?

Nate S 17:59
Yes. And so that’s the that last statement about how much can I save? So I have, you know, I have clients who are packing shippers, and I have clients who are carriers. So I advise carriers as well, hey, I was a customer of carriers for 17 years, so I can help them position solutions and things like that with retailers. And on both sides. I think if you focus on cost, regardless of what the objective is, you focus on cost first. Usually that is from the shipper side, reducing costs, you’re not going to get away from that thought like if you go in with that objective, or that is what you lead with. Everything else is secondary shouldn’t be maybe, but it is. And you always end up just focusing on the expense reduction this case. So I completely agree. And like one of the things that I play I choose to look at it is. So let’s say that you, you do have an opportunity to diversify, provide you better service in certain areas, maybe some flexibility and risk mitigation, operationally, whatever it is. And that actually results in a slight total program cost increase. Now, most companies won’t even bother to think about that. Yeah, but I see that as an investment in making your program program very specific to what you and your customers need. Not just, you know, kind of offset some of the increase if there is one, with UPS and FedEx with alternative carriers. That’d be great. You can always do that. And as soon as that number doesn’t, you know, see a five plus percent reduction or whatever the objective is. Everybody just stops thinking about it. Yeah, I think the biggest thing

Caleb N 19:49
I do too, I also see, you know, it’s just the way of there’s been a major sea change in the way that business is being done in the parcel industry, from clients even negotiating With FedEx and UPS have the old adage of give me what I want, or I’m gonna pull my business. In a lot of cases, it just doesn’t work the same anymore. And so approaching it in different ways. And having a more open mindset of understanding, I gotta look at my data, I’ve got to be more I would say, more informed than I probably ever have before, I have to work with my Porter carriers in an unemotional state that really is backed by data and logic that requires me to make a move in this way, because I need to do X in order to benefit my organization. And it goes to that mindset of cost mitigation versus cost reduction. And I think it’s a very interesting standpoint. I think, what we’ve probably seen, I’m sure you can see this, too, that those parcel, customers of FedEx and UPS are slower to change in some cases. You know, we’ve been doing it the same way for a long time. And I’ve been one of them.

Nate S 21:07
I agree. Yeah. And it’s interesting, because that to that just concept of what we just talked about, of diversification and, and not getting hung up really on the entirely on the revenue commitments and the impact of making some discount changes. It’s interesting, though, because, you know, this environment now, from a pricing standpoint, and just as the market in partial to two years ago, yeah, well, three years ago, sure. Yeah, I can understand some hesitation to open up the contract and things like that, because you left and right UPS and FedEx. It wasn’t necessarily I mean, with an increase, sometimes, regardless of the revenue that was moved or retained. That’s not the case. Right. Now. They actually need volume and revenue. And so that revenue is more valuable. I mean, depends on the profile the packages, but but it is. And so, interestingly, thinking about making those changes from a packet shipper standpoint, now actually UPS and FedEx, I mean, if you actually engage them, they’d be making some concessions now, too. And so you have a, I guess, a more difficult decision sometimes with your diversification, because now you’re actually weighing it against maybe a slight reduction. Yep. Against UPS and FedEx, not the case two or three years ago.

Caleb N 22:35
No, and I think I think the the name of the game, really is, is walking that fine line between having a flexible program. I think flexibility COVID really taught shippers that they need to have a flexible program. And what I mean by that is, they need to be diversified, they need to be able to jump to another carrier if they need to, or shift things around and not be behind the ball where it takes them six to seven months to bring on another carrier. And they need to be able to be nimble enough from a technology standpoint, to adapt to some of those changes. And there is a 100% value that comes with that flexibility. And right now the pendulum is swinging in favor of shippers. A lot of shippers know that. But without them doing something about it, it’s not going to just automatically go to their favor. Anyways, they’ve got to accurate. We talked about FedEx and UPS, getting very creative. And I think this was touched on with dynamic pricing that FedEx mentioned on their earnings release call. But the ever present subject of fees as a serial charges, we’ve seen some significant increases from FedEx and UPS, if you look at it, you know, post COVID pre COVID And you kind of measure that gap. Some of those increases are up 30% on a number of those assets Oriole charges. I’m interested to see you know what, what changes need to be put in place for businesses right now, in order for them to survive. Some of those substantial increases because not every shipper out, there is shipping socks in a nice, you know, five by five by five inch box. Some of them just are oversize, and they’re gonna be considered ugly freight for FedEx and UPS. How do those shippers really kind of navigate through this and survive?

Nate S 24:38
Well, I mean, it’s, it’s difficult in and so both of us have probably mentioned this a couple of in a couple different ways. So again, this one is also I think, were very, very good data visibility into data, actionable data insights to make decisions about it’s because really the The physical kind of profile the packages, and then some, maybe some are also behaviors if you have third parties involved with that, but that’s what creates, that’s why there are excess oil charges, it’s to FedEx and UPS to address them what your variants are some costs, and then some in their network. And so having visibility into what’s driving those excess Oriole charges is the mean, that’s table stakes, you have to understand that before you know what you can or can’t do about it. And I think so there’s there’s part of it, you start there. And then of course, if it is with the UPS or FedEx, part of that can be addressed through negotiation, or if you have a contract that’s coming up, obviously competitive situation to bid it is much more effective. And then alternatives, it just depends. So delivery or surcharges. That’s been a fun one. Every year it of course, the surcharges themselves go up eight to 10% or so. Depending, it might be a little bit more than that. The zip code list doesn’t always grow, but it changes for sure. Remote Area, that’s, you know, super, super remote area surcharges for teens 1325. And so if it’s lightweight, then you’ve got options. You do have options with a postal workshare. Carrier. If it’s not, you really don’t if it’s oversized, like you mentioned big and bulky. Depending on the weight and the size. There’s plenty of regional carriers who either have the same types of fees, or even though they discount them, or they they won’t take. Yeah, 65 pounds. Yeah. Sorry, tough luck. And so there, you do have limited options. But if you have the network, maybe that aligns with their some final mile carriers, who are a little bit more flexible on package size, as long as it’s not, you know, 65 pounds, but the bulky part, they’ll actually deliver that based on kind of like flat fee tiers. So there is there’s options, but you have to start digging into those potential options. It first starts with knowing, knowing where to look to begin with. Yeah,

Caleb N 27:32
because I totally agree, I think, you know, you and I speak that same data language, that data and somebody’s parcel data is really the language in which the carriers speak. And if you’re looking to identify ways to either reduce costs improve, you know, your client experience or cost mitigation, like we talked about, you’ve got to, you have to understand that data, like there, it’s not, it’s not an option, I think, you know, 10 years ago, you could get away with some of that stuff, because it wasn’t changing as frequently as it is. But the carriers have gotten so good at getting creative on changing some of that logic around. And it’s not necessarily that this costs, this fee used to cost this, and now it costs this. It’s in a lot of cases, like you touched on the logic in which that fee gets triggered. So there’s some interesting items there. I think the one thing is, as you know, when we go through and analyze, something we do we’re built to do every day is analyze a new shippers data set. The idea that there is self inflicted pain that’s happening on their own business that they’re not even aware of, because it’s hidden on line items on a really long UPS or FedEx invoice. Absolutely. By showcasing some of that, I think there are some more creative ways that clients can be able to reduce their cost outside of the traditional, you know, I need to open up a negotiation or I need to do a full RFP.

Nate S 29:06
Right. Yeah, and I think there’s a couple things that go with that. So one, I guess this would be your during a negotiation or an RFP, but is to make sure assuming you’re not single source because then you do have I mean, limitations or if you choose to do that, but is that your is that to make sure you’re getting the proper value for the attractive package volume. So not just you the ones that have access oils that are driving up the cost, but making sure that you’re really in because especially in this market, the the slightly you know the dense packages residential, not that great, but commercial or dense residential delivery areas. You need to make sure you’re really driving value if you are waiting for ups that are Next are others who that volume was well. And, you know, if you’re not able to address all of the other surcharges in the areas that are impacting your costs, at the very least, you’re getting the most value you can for the volume that you should get really strong rates for. I mean, that’s that’s one thing. And I think the other is, you mentioned the dynamic pricing. So, you know, it’s interesting. Now what I mean, absolutely, the the invoice data and the contract and rate like analysis is central, a multi care shipping solution, if I think there are a couple of leaves that can help manage, like revenue thresholds, which is needed. That topic, though, is interesting, because, you know, FedEx announced actually, back in June, what they called dynamic pricing. So the first release of it will be in August, which was their announcement of its holiday peak season surcharges. Which is, which is a weekly change, right, a weekly measurement of the volume over threshold, things like that. It’s super complicated. Yeah, I mean, it’s, I guess, quasi dynamic, it’s, it’s weekly. I expected FedEx, actually, to continue with some form of that. Post January and it habits. Now, they said that they they did extract, incremental, 100 and $50 million, which is margin. Yeah, just during, I guess, the fourth holiday period, or it was there? November, December, January. And so UPS though, did continue. Residential demand surcharges, which is ironic. And theirs isn’t quite as is, I guess, dynamic. And, but it’s still similar principle of measuring it over baseline. And this was just real quick, one of the I posted about this. We’ve talked about revenue loss, discount loss, rather, agreement because of revenue. Well, then, of course, with the man surcharges. If you go above a certain threshold during your period of times, you have surcharges on the top end. Yeah. So if you drop too far below, you’re penalized if you go too high. You’re you’re you’re penalized if you’re right in the middle. I guess that’s good. You don’t get penalized? Either way, that’s a win win win for UPS. Oh, man. Yeah, they’re carrying revenue per piece. If you discounts, higher revenue per piece, if you get a surcharge, very predictable volume and revenue right in the middle. Yeah. So

Caleb N 32:42
yeah, they do. It’s one of those things that I think most shippers the way that the carriers are doing that. But I mean, carriers, FedEx and UPS are doing business today. looks totally different than when it did 10 years ago, five years ago. And I think what that means is the shippers. You know, I think, to kind of recap that I think most shippers need to have a different approach to how they monitor how they identify. The way that they even communicate to FedEx into ups, is is different because the carriers are doing different business today than they ever happened before. And in some ways, especially on the feast standpoint, this is like the analogy of the frog in the pot. That temperature gets slowly risen over time that that frog does not feel that temperature and start to boil them. And I think it’s very interesting that those shippers that I see really succeeding and in parcel right now, are those ones that are most flexible, most open minded, most dynamic in how they approach it.

Nate S 33:55
It’s interesting, they have some level of influence over it, right? I mean, that’s what being a guest subjected to beholden to whatever you want to say. Excess Oriole charges, those are variable dynamics, you want to use that term for a purpose for UPS and FedEx, not just to cover the costs, but to to make sure that they can adjust that they choose to cover their costs, and then some, but they also, generally speaking with many of them can change the criteria as to how they apply. Yeah. And they can do that, broadly speaking, they can announce the change. And then if customers weren’t kind of given a heads up, which sometimes they are sometimes not. Then you go negotiate, you got to negotiate. Well, that doesn’t that shouldn’t apply to me. And if it’s a criteria change, maybe you get a kind of a bit of a stay there you get a few months, but if it’s a change on the actual rate, you’re negotiating down out from an increase, you’re gonna lose. Yeah, I’m positioning. Exactly. And so that’s the the point about you’re having the flexibility that enables some level of influence and control. Whereas surcharges in the way that FedEx and UPS structure everything in an agreement, you have very, very little control.

Caleb N 35:22
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more with the parting comments, were advice, if you were to give any kind of bullet point advice to shippers that are listening right now, on what they need to prepare for what they need to do. Um, I know, we touched on it all. But what would be your advice kind of summed up to shippers today?

Nate S 35:47
Yeah, I mean, I would say so it’s going to kind of restate some of what we talked about. But if you if a shipper doesn’t already have a solution and a partner in place, on parcel, personal spend management, data analytics, that that is the best starting point, and, and understanding where the the expenses, but also, a lot of those partners can help you understand your contracts to begin with, which is, in and of itself an undertaking, starting there to then determine what opportunities are there, not just cost reduction, but but actually opportunities to mitigate operational risk and contractual risk. Enabling flexibility, starting there with that analysis, I think, is what you have to do. Now, that’s the exercise for this year. Better to get started. Now, in that part, you’re going to make any changes, you need to start that process. I mean, as soon as you can, in q2, realistically to be able to get ahead of peak. So I think start there. Very generically, and I’m gonna say, have an open mind. Yeah. It sounds kind of very, very general. But sometimes, oftentimes, actually, package shippers, retailers, I was one of them for a long time, don’t kind of have a predetermined, you know, result they’re looking for. Don’t, don’t get locked into that. Try to start with your data, determine where you have opportunities, and then figure out how to solve them.

Caleb N 37:34
I think that’s awesome. I think we, we often use the, you know, the term Let’s fish where the fish are. And oftentimes, shippers do not know where the fish are to even go fishing first. And I think identifying it by utilizing a data analytics company is is a great start. The floor is yours, Nate, where can people reach you and interact with you to learn more about you in your in your company?

Nate S 38:02
Well, honestly, the best way is probably to to follow me on LinkedIn messenger, message me on LinkedIn as well. As can you find out more about LTF spend management as LPS been management.com. But LinkedIn is probably the best one, give me a follow if you care about parcel at all. When I hear you know, what’s going on in the industry, sometimes a little bit of humor along with it. And that’s what I try to provide

Caleb N 38:32
any any Ron Burgundy quotes. win me over. So keep keep going with those posts. And if you will, if anybody is listening to this and hasn’t followed Nate, are you living under a rock because Nate is prevalent on that and provide some significantly valuable content in an ever changing world. So thank you, Nate, thank you for being on the show. Really appreciate it. And looking forward to interacting with you a little bit more as 2023 progresses.

Nate S 39:00
Right. Thank you.

Caleb N 39:01
Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us for this leader shipping podcast hosted by sifted episodes on the horizon includes sustainability and parcel shipping with Kevin mirallas. Chief Sustainability Officer at delivered. If you enjoyed this podcast and you want to listen to it more interact with us, like subscribe, make sure that you’ve got notifications turned on so that when we release a new episode, you can follow along with us. Thank you so much and look forward to seeing the next one. I’m on top of the world I’m on top I’m on top of the world