at e Road We Believe Fleet Management doesn't have to be problematic it should be effortless connected and future ready for your heavyduty operation with a reliable accurate technology solution you can elevate your fleet's performance improve productivity across your business monitor events as they happen and reduce cost and downtime get on the road to better Fleet Management and safer more productive operations go beyond the basics and visit ero.com [Applause] [Music] today welcome to loaded and rolling I'm your host Thomas Watson we're doing a live show today and it's also technically trucking's peak season those of you
listening to us that's right I'm dating it it's the 17th but if you're looking at this time and supply chain it's normally one of the busiest ones and so for fleets on the road the name of the game is fill up your trucks with as much stuff as possible optimization is the key because depending upon how many days you have you may have fewer days to ship so you got to get more out of it and your drivers go home to visit their family so it's a Race Against Time uh going to be talking today
about how fleets manage that and we're going to be welcoming the folks at ITF group our guest coming up is Sam Burkin she's president and CEO of ITF group group and we talking a little bit about Fleet optimization operations and technology which is a lot of fun stuff especially during this hectic time of the year uh as well so we're going to welcome on Sam let's pull on Sam real quick and uh give him a give him a shout Sam good to see you sir PL pleasure to get to talk to you and uh you
know looking forward to uh you know seeing what are you all up to is it business of booming right now during this peak season yeah good to be here I appreciate it and uh I agree with you right now the business is booming like uh the the we can see a uh recently a good change specifically on this quarter 4 uh very positive uh numbers as you know like you know uh since the 2022 everyone uh experienced some tough times but right now it seems like the market is improving and uh very good uh trajection
that we see and I mean that's always a a fun thing because it's to me from my experience is working with markets they can go really quick they can flip extremely fast it feels like sometimes and talking about ensuring management of your tractors and trailers and the downtime component uh tell us a little bit I mean how's how's it been on your side did was there a point in this time of the year where it kind of felt like things were starting has it been really all of a sudden near our traditional holiday season uh
I'm sorry I couldn't hear you the last part was cut off your last can you inter it please oh yeah yeah definitely uh were you guys were you getting picking up in more activity was it more active over the this half part of the year was Christmas Q4 current situation uh was there a specific time of the year where you're thinking hey uh things are slowly getting better it's getting a little busy definitely I mean uh we can see the transactions uh the last quarter right now I mean as I stated like uh beginning of
the year started a little slow however uh as we see like you know I mean the the changes are uh uh on a positive side that we can uh we can see the spot Market is changing along with it uh you know uh we are in the process of uh RFP season for the uh uh for the new year and then some of the rfps has already been closed and but uh you know I mean I I think 2025 we will start seeing some good uh positive uh you know numbers there and I think the
RFP is a great point I spoke with a carrier that was an automotive carrier they told me earlier in the year customers were asking for short RFP Cycles one of them even mentioned like quarterly bids which blows my mind I was used to when I started you get like a year uh to deal with stuff are customers was there any change in the duration of the bids are customers trying to extend it out or are they really do they want shorter bids is there kind of any strategy to this probably it's a kind of a
little uh you know uncertainty points in in some of them and then in some of the occasions as we see like you I mean the co has changed the total uh behavior of the you know majority of the shippers right I mean the before we used to have a yearly rfps now we can uh see quarterly rfps on some of the customer behaviors some of them are you know uh semiannual rfps so it depends on as you stated like also it depends on the industry where they're at and uh definitely uh depending on the market
and then the economies also uh plays uh you know crucial role here that's probably the you know majority of the shippers are uh looking at the you know shortterm versus the long term but on the uh major uh you know players we can see still the you know uh yearly rfps are traditional rfps are being honored and then the you know they're still utilizing those from our end and looking at other operational try to figure out operational cost RFP is bringing in your Topline Revenue uh looking at things like Fuel and maintenance uh one thing
I've noticed fuel prices a lot better than they were this time last year uh from a carrier standpoint what's that feel like is that a big big deal or is it you buy your own fuel so you already get a discount how does that kind of impact it as well in addition to maintenance so this is h both of them are the you know good points meaning like you know I mean as we buy our own uh fuel along with it you know we get partnered with the uh you know uh certain uh providers uh
uh that's a good point but the fuel is a crucial cral part of our operations right I mean the it plays a a crucial role we have to make sure that you know the I would say like the fuel the insurance and then the plus the labor and as you stated the the maintenance cost are the uh very crucial parts of our operations and I think that kind of ties into the challenges as well Rising costs inflation um I read something that even uh it was Warner or Schneider somebody like tried increasing driver pay and
it nearly tanked their bottom line what's the what's the situation right now what's kind of your biggest challenge uh in terms of all of these added costs is there something that kind of stands out for folks who may not be as familiar with what's going on on asset side see if we got him in there we had yeah beginning of the year we had some uh you know getting the uh you know uh getting the operational costs straight up you there oh yeah we're here we'll um uh you were cutting out on me there if
it happens again we'll call you we'll make sure we get someone to call you we can throw you in on the phone um but uh let's uh let's see if we can pull you back in here if uh when we're looking at the the cost was uh is there a stickier cost is there something that's easier to control or is it something like you can't really give drivers a pay cut so I'm assuming wages is kind of fixed but uh what are kind of the lowest hanging fruit in terms of trying to control that costs
so I mean the the the driver costs has the crucial part of the uh any operations and then especially the drivers are the you know I mean very important part of our operations and uh uh obviously the the driver uh you know the the pay has changed and uh when those uh you know when the co hit you know there was a definitely shortage and then been experiencing the shortage on the drivers right I mean that that that that problem has been existed and then it's still there and uh the bringing the better Talent bringing
the better uh you know drivers is the and the safer drivers is the crucial part and then as a company uh we are you know investing into the uh the pool of the drivers where we can you know make sure that they have a very good uh uh I say like a experience along with it they have a stable you know intention to work and we Don't Mind Investing extra for meaning you know I mean uh uh paying some extra uh per mile rates along with it uh as we came out with the different uh
structures right uh we put uh different kpis in place along with the bonus structures that helps our drivers to be motivated uh to be to be on the road long as it you know uh keep the retention low elds there's more Predictive Analytics that's stuff that's really cool I wish I had that when I did Trucking because we just had to wait for someone to complain and it was very reactive is that something helping you all identify better drivers is is the ELD and the safety technology or is it still kind of uh talk us
a little bit about that because I feel like it's easier now to identify better dri drivers but at the same time you got to keep them yeah driver behavior is the uh key component of the of the of the operations right I mean how they behave on the road on the safety standpoint uh elds definitely they brought us a very good uh efficiency in the process along with it it eliminated a lot of manual steps that the industry has been experiencing with those paper locks and also the uh the the key features is the it
become easier for tracking tracing and the visibility standpoints become more uh you know efficient uh for the for the customers and uh uh the the the the system itself is uh as we are implementing more technology into our fleets we can evaluate our driver Behavior harsh breaking you know I mean the you know uh thick driving and the Plus some of those telematics along with those technologies that we're eliminating we have ai in place at the moment and that's definitely very yeah helpful I was curious about the AI because I've spoke with some folks uh
the the cool AI I've heard is the machine learning for maintenance as well it'll tell you that if this part fails on your truck then this other stuff May Fail uh when you're looking at like being a fleet and figuring out where you want to use AI uh is there anything that really stands out or is there anything that everyone's talking about is like I got to use it for this first and then eventually I may get to this exactly the preventive maintenance is the uh you know uh that's what we call right I mean
we have to make sure before uh tracks gets break down we have to make sure that we're changing the oil on time we're taking the trucks to the PM on time and uh making sure that you know uh the all the maintenance are you know followed based on the uh processes that would build and based on that uh some of those failures obviously will give us some uh you know uh will give us some idea what would be the next uh I agree with you like the the The crucial part of the AI is uh
is bringing those stuff more into a visibility of the technicians it will deliver that uh you know uh uh the the data to to to the decision maker ERS in in our case the fleet managers are the ones who U you know monitors those staff on the day-to-day operations and implementing those uh Ai and then implementing the processes in those uh you know uh into the process will you know definitely will help to uh you know increase the lifespan of the fleet and then along with it it will reduce the risk of the breakdowns the
one I like with that is the PM uh the preventative maintenance schedules and with the AI now instead of like every 6 months or once a year it's like you can tailor it to every truck is that something that's kind of successful on helping the maintenance cost is y all can actually get that tailored ability to find out the use rates of each type of truck within your whole network exactly and then the you will be able to also evaluate whether those U you know uh trucks are being utilized properly or not and uh in
addition like you know I mean some of the uh you know uh units may get uh you know overused or we have to make sure you know I mean asset utilization is a key factor on here too so we should not be underutilizing some uh you know units versus the overusing other ones so that gives us the ability to you know maintain the assets and uh prevent those uh you know breakdowns uh utilizing it equally into in our uh Fleet Network and uh has it kind of improved on the maintenance front when you're looking at
breakdowns and stuff back when I was dispatching it with covid uh it'd be weeks you'd be sending them to a dealership there weren't enough technicians on call there was Parts you couldn't get delivered uh at least now when you're identifying these problems has it improved enough to where you can get these units turned around quickly and back on the road or are there still any lingering things that kind of you're stuck waiting on yeah I mean the definitely there is the Improvement on that side you I mean we don't experience that much back orders anymore
and also uh the the situation we can see a little bit more Improvement on the dealer side as well so we are uh basically uh you know uh used the habit of stocking up some of the items that we uh you know utilize them on the day-to-day operations and the inventory uh you know we have a separate Inventory management process for for for the extra parts that we keep and then also we were able to build up a a large network of uh you know uh providers where we uh partner with them uh in the
case of breakdowns or in the case of uh uh preventive maintenance we usually uh do that on a schedule M uh scheduled basis and uh that helps us uh definitely to improve the uh whole operations and looking at the actual truckload comp component as well I know you all are combined truckload you have warehousing you have a 3pl com combination um you know having that ability uh are you is it are you seeing it more busy on the truckload side or the warehouse side or what's uh what's kind of the situation because I'm hearing a
lot about the potential of tariffs some shippers may be ordering more um you know does it feel like to you that maybe it's a a pull Ford or is it just holiday as normal that we just hadn't seen in two years what's kind of the vibe oh that's a that's a very good question so I mean and then I would like to also add into uh in addition we started uh you know offering the global forwarding business as well so now we are also uh handling the ocean and then air Freights uh from us and
you know outside of the US so basically we we are uh you know uh partnered with the the a lot of uh providers outside of the United States and then we are actively already Shi some ocean and then air frees so uh back to that question uh basically we are right now on the warehouse side 95% utilized we have two locations in St Louis Missouri capacity of 500,000 square feet I mean 95% is already occupied and then we see a strong demand for the 2025 we see like the implementation of those tariffs some of the
already we had a conversation with our uh uh Partners uh outside of the United States they are expecting implementation of the tariffs will uh definitely affect and there is some already um actions has started actually you know moving some uh shipments uh heavily uh to the US and uh in terms of uh uh the the truck yeah I mean track utilization is also uh you know the same like as we are in pix season right now very busy and uh as you saw like you know mean the uh Cyber Monday all the way until today
we're experiencing a very solid volume of the shipments and close to the holidays uh Christmas probably that's I mean we're about a week away right now and then we should see another uh jump close to the end of uh this week and then beginning of the next week and uh for for you all as well do you have a lot of drivers uh over the road or is it semi- Regional uh cuz I remember when I worked over the road at us express it took us a week to just place them on a half of
the country and pinball them around because you got to get them home is there any challenges with uh finding the right load and then getting everyone home at the same time because this it was a balancing act yeah that's uh that's a it's a it's a very I mean challenging uh basically we have a certain I mean the the how the let me tell you like how our hiring process is going on right now is we're basically focusing and targeting hiring the drivers where we have the solid uh you know volume certain lanes that we
you know we've been handling for the past three four years so those areas are the uh key places where we uh you know Source our drivers from and that we basically uh you know provide the solutions uh you know to our clients and then also we we help the drivers to keep the you know I mean life work balance right I mean to keep the moral up and uh for the holidays uh we are uh pre-planning already I mean it has been for the past couple of days our uh dispatch team and our teammates they
are uh you know working on uh pre-planning the schedules making sure that uh you know the the appointments are already scheduled and then they're making sure that you know the shipments are ready to go and uh also you know want to make sure that everyone uh you know uh makes the home for the holidays and uh yeah I mean that's uh what we can see from our and looking ahead to growth opportunities um you know it's one of the big questions I'm trying to find the answer to is uh with the EPA the phase three
emissions these newer trucks can be more expensive uh for conversations with people does it seem like a lot of carriers do you just do you just wait and buy your allotment this year do you hang out and see if they change it uh or do you just you know every two years you upgrade your trucks regardless is there any changes in that stuff with the upcoming uh change in administration and potential shake up of potential you know environmental stuff so uh normally what we do is we change our equipment every three years uh we want
to make sure that you know we are uh you know uh renewing our equipments constant basis providing the drivers with the uh newer trucks and uh good technology within the trucks itself you know uh also we make sure that you know we prevent the breakdowns right I mean as the trucks get aged uh you know the maintenance cost goes up along with it it uh affects their performance as well on the road so that's a reason like you know we have a multiple vendors multiple uh partners that we partnered with uh specifically to make sure
that you know our trucks are replaced on the regular basis and uh uh yeah I mean it was challenging for us during the co to get the uh access to the newer equipment but as you stated as the uh you know regulations are approaching uh we are on a uh you know uh I would say like on the uh hold mode on in terms of just you know implementing the massive change but uh as I stated earlier like you know I mean as the tracks are aging out and we're approaching to that three-year term we
will be um you know you know upgrading our older trucks to the new ones and I kind of had a final follow-up question on that as well one of the things I keep reading in analysis like a Morgan Stanley is that interest rates uh drivers and trucking companies are hoping also that an interest rate cut will help for those who aren't familiar do it just help you have like lower financing or does an interest rate is that something better just across the board uh how how does that help in the trucking World especially when you
have a lot of assets to pay for definitely so the interest rate is the key component for I think for any business right I mean whether it would be manufacturing or tracking business because the the cost of the equipment the cost of the Machinery you know uh you know uh ends up on the operational cost that's the uh mainly the reason you know we we when we analyze the data we look on the how much the interest rate but the good news is we can see a a a a dramatic change on the uh prices
of uh new equipments right not on the tracks that much but I would say like you know I mean compared to co we can see about 20% drop on the pricing on the tractors but on the trailers we can see about change of close to 30 to 40% uh you know better rates and uh the uh HED equipment becoming also you know back on the normal and uh the the the financing char charges are still up however you know as the um pricing has dropped uh compared to the co the the trailer and uh trucks
I think we're at the reasonable standpoint that we can start you know uh acquiring uh more equipment and in addition this year we uh you know added uh several hundreds of uh assets uh into our Network oh that's going to be exciting stuff I um I got to help out back in my other job we'd grow some assets and it's hard it's hard to grow a trucking company organically that's why so many buy buy each other out um I got a little under three minutes left looking into 2025 anything on your your list are you
most excited for anything what's on your radar uh you know what what's kind of top of Mind as we're approaching uh this new year so I hope like you know in the uh if in the case the tars tariffs will be implemented uh we should be looking on the alternative options uh where we can uh Source those rate uh primarily you know uh as a global forwarding we're also trying to find some alternative solutions for our clients on the forwarding side of the business and uh finding the optimal ways of cutting their cost on the
international meaning on the ocean and uh on the uh air shipments and uh I think the there is going to be a uh definitely a good change uh beginning of the you know uh the second quarter uh we feel like we already feel like there is a good positive changes as we saw like you know I mean the as you stated it's too hard to grow uh tracking business and it's too hard right now in this market to get the reliable one and uh the the the the goal is to be able to provide the
solid uh you know solution and capacity uh the clients and uh to be able to uh provide those solutions that will uh make them more efficient and optimize the uh you know our Network along with it assist the uh you know uh the potential clients to uh you know minimize their uh costs associated with it Sam I really appreciate you coming on to the show will be a positive yeah no all all positive postive about 25 yeah it will be yeah all positive all positive it will be it will be good if folks want to
get in contact learn more uh learn about ITF group what's the best way to find out uh we have our LinkedIn page at ITF group uh also uh follow us on Instagram and uh you know email us info ITF group.com thanks so much for coming on the show Sam hopefully Freight Santa delivers us more freight I'm looking forward to I'm excited to catch up with you all again soon as well thank you appreciate it that's going to be a wrap for this show if you're just joining us live we'll be on Apple YouTube and Spotify
this will be on demand so you can catch us as well I have the newsletter it's called loaded and rolling just like the show it comes out on Thursdays at 2 p.m. Eastern you want to check it out coming up in January I also take over truck Tech so subscribe to that they're keeping me busy just like this Market staying busy but that's it for this week thank you so much for joining us folks we'll join you again next week see you soon [Music] [Applause] [Music]
