Taking Advantage of a Shipper’s Market With Tyler Diestel From EasyPost - Ep. 09

October 11, 2023 | 42:02

In This Episode

For the first time in years, it’s a shipper’s market. Tyler Diestel, senior product manager at EasyPost, explains how ecommerce stores can take advantage of the lower rates.

Carrier’s Market vs. Shipper’s Market

What’s the difference between a carrier’s market and a shipper’s market?

Tyler explains that a carrier’s market is created when “there's a lot of shippers … and not enough carriers. The carriers can hike up their rates and just fulfill deliveries for the shippers that are willing to pay those high prices.”

As the Covid-19 pandemic has ended and shipping volume has slowed, carriers now have to compete for business. These days, “The shippers have the option to say, which carrier should I go with? Which [one] is offering me the best prices?”

Lock in Rates While They’re Low

Lori and Tyler agree that getting paralyzed by FOBO (fear of a better offer) isn’t a good idea. Rates are really low right now—and businesses should take advantage of it!

Tyler says, “If you can lock in a rate for a longer term, I think that would be very beneficial. … Right now, the rates are so good that it's hard to see them getting even better.”

Use Technology to Find the Best Carriers

Tyler gives a word of caution: don’t get complacent with your shipping strategy, even if you feel like you’re getting good rates. He recommends finding the best carriers and rates using technology. In the old days, it could take months to integrate with a single carrier. With technology, you can connect with many carriers almost instantly.

Transcript

Lori Boyer 00:00

Welcome everybody to Unboxing Logistics. I'm Lori Boyer. I'm your host for this awesome podcast from EasyPost. In this podcast, we share all kinds of tips and suggestions, talk about the latest trends, everything that's going on in the industry. That is exactly what we're going to talk about today. I have brought on as my guest today, Tyler Diestel.

He is an amazing member of the EasyPost team, and I brought him here because he's been an expert on our topic we're gonna have today. Tyler I want you to introduce yourself a little bit and then I'll share about our topic and we'll get to know you.

Tyler Diestel 00:40

Hi y'all, I'm Tyler Diestel. I'm a senior product manager at EasyPost.

I have been here for a little over four years and before this I was also a product manager, but before that, I actually started off as a data scientist.

Lori Boyer 00:58

Oh, nice. Nice. I thought I was picking up a few nerd vibes from ya.

Tyler Diestel 01:03

Oh, oh, huge nerd vibes.

Lori Boyer 01:05

Oh, good, good. Nerds are my favorite, so I love it. Well, today I invited Tyler. You guys, our community out there, you know I love talking about the latest things going on. And a big one is the fact that we have hit a shipper's market. Cue the applause! Huzzah! It's been a while. It's, it's been a hot minute since we've had a shipper's market. So we're gonna dive into what that all means. Tyler's our expert here on this topic. We're gonna talk about what you should do as a shipper.

How you can take advantage of this. It's really, it's been, I just read a really cool article, about how it's been almost three decades since shippers have had this much control. So, really cool, exciting information. But, as you all know, before we do so, I'd like to put Tyler a little bit in the hot seat, get to know him a little bit.

Tyler, our audience likes to know the real you. I just have a few questions for you, a few this and that you know, you just answer first thing that comes to mind. So, question. What is your favorite kind of pet?

Tyler Diestel 02:18

Oh, a dog. Easily a dog.

Lori Boyer 02:19

Do you have dogs?

Tyler Diestel 02:20

Yes, I have a little Jack Russell Terrier slash Whippet. And he keeps me quite busy.

Lori Boyer 02:26

Okay, you like big dogs or small dogs?

Tyler Diestel 02:29

I used to think I liked big dogs, but I've never actually owned a big dog. I've only ever owned small dogs, and they're always awesome. Every time I go looking for a new dog, I'm like, alright, I'm gonna get a golden retriever. It never happens.

I always, I'm a sucker for small dogs.

Lori Boyer 02:45

Oh, they're so cute. It's like, almost like having a puppy forever. Yeah, that's the softy side of you. Okay, favorite kind of weather?

Tyler Diestel 02:56

Has to be sunny. Huge summer guy.

Lori Boyer 02:59

Really? So, you're in the Bay Area, so do you get about 3. 6 seconds of sunny weather, or what's your weather?

Tyler Diestel 03:08

I used to, I used to. When I was in San Francisco proper, yes, that is 1000 percent true. But now since I've moved over to the East Bay it's a lot sunnier out here. So I've been enjoying the weather quite a bit.

Lori Boyer 03:22

I have to say, I love stormy weather. Like, going to the Oregon coast, any of my Oregon coast viewers out there, shout out to you, I love the stormy wild.

Comes in and hits the rocks, so, I think of that a little bit with San Francisco, anyway. Okay, if you could live anywhere in the world, cost means nothing, where would you go? Are you a stick close to your family kind of guy?

Tyler Diestel 03:48

The first thing that would pop in my head would, if cost didn't matter, it would be on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

I think that would be amazing. One, because yes, during the summer, like that's my favorite place to be, is Tahoe. So whether it's on the beach, going boating, going to the casinos, love all that, love having a nice little rum runner right on the beach. So that's always great. But then come winter, you have all the winter sports going on.

And so you can also cozy up by the fireplace and all that jazz. So it's just beautiful up there. I grew up going there every single summer. So it has a special place to me.

Lori Boyer 04:32

What it was your very first job. Or on the flip side, what is an interesting job you've had, if you had one?

Tyler Diestel 04:39

I would say a maitre d' at Fishman's Grotto Fishman's Wharf I was a maitre d' and then a server there and was doing that during the summers while I was in college to make a couple bucks I would say that was my most interesting job, got me firsthand experience of customer experience, I would say.

Lori Boyer 05:01

Okay, so then that brings the question, what's your, your favorite kind of food?

Tyler Diestel 05:07

Burritos, burritos, love a good pastor burrito.

Lori Boyer 05:12

Okay, what do you put in your burrito?

Tyler Diestel 05:14

Oh, I, I'm a slob. I do everything throw in black beans, got the guacamole. Sour cream, cheese, all, okay, the most controversial thing is I do like lettuce in burrito. Some people hate that.

Lori Boyer 05:27

Okay. You're getting your veggies, right?

I mean, it's totally healthy if you get some lettuce in there. You're good.

Tyler Diestel 05:36

Yep. Exactly.

Lori Boyer 05:37

Awesome. Okay. Final thing. What do you do for fun or what really makes you laugh? For me, I love watching news bloopers. I don't know why, but nothing makes me laugh more than seeing the news anchors say something embarrassing or, or just do something awkward. So what, what makes you laugh? What do you do for fun?

Tyler Diestel 05:58

I would say if it's everyday fun things, like what am I doing after work? What am I doing after dinner? It's watching sports, watching professional wrestling. Or watching any of the Disney Plus shows, whether it's a Star Wars show or something from Marvel love all that stuff.

Lori Boyer 06:19

Oh my word. That's perfect. I love it. Okay. Well, we're going to dive into our topic a little bit. So we're talking shipper's market. This just, I guess Tyler, explain it to us. What is a shipper's market? What's the difference between a shipper's market and a carriers market?

Tyler Diestel 06:36

Absolutely. So a carrier's market is really one that is in the carriers control. So what has really been going on in the past is these carriers are basically set in their ways. They have their their rates which change whenever they so please. They may increase those rates. They may offer them at discount prices to large shippers, but really those everyday small, medium shippers are at the mercy of these carriers.

And for the past, I would say few decades, there's only been a few carriers to even choose from. There hasn't been a great variety. So these shippers have really been at the mercy of these carriers. And that's kind of what's caused this carrier market.

Lori Boyer 07:39

Is that kind of a supply and demand sort of thing?

Are we talking, I mean, what, what causes a carrier market to happen? Why do they have so much power?

Tyler Diestel 07:48

Yeah. So it's really when there's a lot of shippers that want to ship all their products and there's not enough carriers to fulfill all those shipments. And so in that case. The carriers can then hike up their rates and then really just fulfill those deliveries for the shippers that are actually willing to pay those high prices.

Lori Boyer 08:14

Okay. That totally makes sense. And I would think COVID made it worse. Is that what we've experienced?

Tyler Diestel 08:20

Yes. COVID definitely made it worse. During the pandemic, there was a huge surge in the ecommerce business in general.

Lori Boyer 08:29

I think that came just from my house, Tyler. I ordered 9 million packages during COVID, so I may be, yeah, I may be the cause of this carrier market in COVID.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

Tyler Diestel 08:43

But yeah, no so there was a huge surge in just these shippers now trying to fulfill all these ecommerce orders and the carriers just didn't even have the bandwidth to fulfill them all themselves. So they could just say, all right who's the highest bidder.

Lori Boyer 09:03

Yeah. I heard horror stories just talking to some, I was speaking with a 3PL not long ago and they were sharing how they were almost like driving their own goods some days. They just could not get, you know, finding every little regional carrier they could just being really super creative because of that, that carrier market. They, they just weren't able to access the carriers the way they wanted.

So, so we're shifting. Hallelujah! Or sorry, if you're a carrier. I know we have some carriers who watch too, I, I feel for you, but for the rest of you, we're shifting into this shipper's market. What does that mean?

Tyler Diestel 09:44

So, now that we're kind of edging out of the pandemic and things are starting to return back to normal there's less, slightly less packages that need to be delivered. And so the carriers are now fighting for all these packages. And so what they're doing is you'll see carriers reducing their rates having some really good shipment options that get included with their standard services, which is awesome.

And essentially the shippers now have the option to say, Hey, which carrier should I go with? Which carrier is offering me the best prices?

Lori Boyer 10:25

What do you see as kind of the coolest...? I know it's, price is a big part of it, but my understanding is also maybe sometimes there may be other benefits, like flexibility, or other things that carriers offer.

What do you feel like are some of the best advantages for shippers right now when they're looking at carrier options?

Tyler Diestel 10:47

One of my favorite advantages that shippers have right now is carriers have been offering this free insurance, we'll call it. It's insurance that's included in the price of the label. And so a lot of times if you buy a label you, and let's say that package gets lost or damage, you can actually file a claim with that carrier and they'll pay you a certain price of the actual cost of that product. Not just the price of the label, but the price of the product that you were actually shipping which is awesome. And more often than not, that is a feature that's included in these postage labels.

Lori Boyer 11:31

Oh, so. That's really cool. So there's additional, like, features people should be looking for. That's awesome. So, given this kind of landscape, it's our shipper's market now as I talk to people they say, so what, how do I take advantage? What are the best things they should do? Should they lock in long term rates? Should they expand out and, and use multiple shippers? What, what have you seen has been effective for people in the past?

Tyler Diestel 11:56

Look at your own logistics strategy. And start coming up with goals. What are you trying to achieve? That's, when I'm talking with our customers, our shippers, that's the first thing I want to say to them is just say, Hey, what are you, what are you trying to do here? What are you trying to do with your logistic program?

It could be, Hey, I'm just trying to reduce my shipping costs. Cool. That's a goal for a lot of people, but that's not a goal for everyone. Some of, some people say, Hey, I'm trying to make sure that I can have the best shipping method that can get my packages to the customers within two days. Cause I want to compete with Amazon, so I want to have my own two day delivery system.

And so that might be their goal. Another one might just be, Hey, I want to display accurate transit times to my customers. How, how can I do that? What carriers are the most accurate and are you the most confident that they would be able to deliver a package on time? So I would say first, set those goals, figure out which of those you want to concentrate on.

And then you can start looking at the various carriers that are out there. So you can start seeing, all right, can just a single carrier help me accomplish these goals, or should I have a multi carrier mix? Which I would obviously suggest always having at least two carriers in your mix.

Lori Boyer 13:22

Okay. So I want to back up just a minute, Tyler.

So back to the goals. Do you recommend that our our shippers focus on a single goal like their top goal? Should they pick two or three goals? How do you recommend? So let's say they're sitting down having their meeting. What, because obviously people probably have a few goals. How should they focus on that?

Tyler Diestel 13:44

Yeah, I would say sometimes their goals are a combination of Hey, I'm trying to reduce my shipping costs and also make sure my packages reached the destination within some specified SLA. Which is fine. That, if you want to combine some goals, you can do that. But what I would say focus on then is all right, what are the parameters that you're trying to do? So how much are you trying to reduce your shipping costs? What is that SLA that you need your packages to be delivered to your customers? Are you trying to aim for two days or is three days or five days satisfactory to you? So really starting to hone in on what are those specific goals you're trying to do.

Lori Boyer 14:32

Okay. So maybe they have two or three goals. They've set up, okay, this is my, my thing. Everybody's probably going to want to reduce costs because who doesn't want to reduce costs. But some people, like you said, may have higher goals in terms of like, Oh, customer service has been struggling a little bit or, or we're getting some negative reviews.

Maybe we need to focus on making sure that our customers have a super slick experience. So maybe that's a little higher on their list. So they come in and they say, all right, these are my goals. So what's the next step? They reach out to carriers. Should they use technology? Is it about their current relationship?

So what's sort of the next step here in the process?

Tyler Diestel 15:13

I would 1000 percent say use technology. Let's say, and I always like talking about this when I talk about EasyPost. But let's say we were, I don't know two decades ago. And you were a shipper and you wanted to say, Hey, all right, let me now start my shipping logistics program for my company.

Well, the first thing you need to do is integrate with a single carrier. That whole process, if someone was to do it themselves, could take months. And that's just one carrier that you would be integrated with. So what you can do nowadays is hook up with a company like EasyPost. And then easily you're connected with many, many carriers that you can choose from.

So I would definitely recommend using technology. Start seeing what carriers those those companies work with. So like with EasyPost, there's close to a hundred carriers that we offer. So start going through our carrier logs and seeing which ones have the best rates for your specific shipments.

And to do that, that might seem very overwhelming, but you can also reach out to these companies like, like us EasyPost, and we can help you do that. And we can help you work through your multi carrier operation that you got going.

Lori Boyer 16:43

Okay, so, I, and I, I love the, the use of technology and, you know, I always like to say, of course, I work here at EasyPost, we're great.

There are other technologies as well. If you're not using EasyPost, just use some sort of technology for sure. Because you can use one connection and then that'll integrate you with all of these different carriers, right? So if they go on and, and are looking simply number wise, help me understand a little bit can they do like a rate comparison?

Can they using technology so they could go on and say, okay. I guess my question is, can they negotiate somehow? How does that work?

Tyler Diestel 17:24

Yeah, I would say it depends on the size of a company. Definitely if you're small, medium business and you don't do high volume, you might not be able to negotiate rates with the carriers directly, but what you would be able to do is to use any of these technologies.

And start looking at rates that would be associated with the types of shipments that you do. So, essentially, you would go to any of these companies, you would create a couple you can even call them test shipments, that is going from point A to point B. And see what these tech companies will actually provide back to you from the carriers.

So you can examine the various rates that these carriers offer for those specific packages. And from there, you can start seeing, all right, well, maybe I should lean heavy on carrier A and carrier B, and maybe not focus on the rest of these other carriers. And you can do all of that for either zero or very little cost.

Lori Boyer 18:35

Okay, cool. So, let's say you're a little bit of a bigger organization and you can negotiate some rates. Just in general, as it's a shipper's market, would you recommend, I guess, saying, a big savings right now that they do kind of a short term awesome rate or or less of a savings, but they lock it in for a longer time.

What? What are the risks maybe of locking in a long term rate, short term? What? What have you seen right now?

Tyler Diestel 19:03

I would say if you can lock in a rate for a longer term, I think that would be very beneficial. Yes, the rates might continue to go down but I still think that would be the safe play because right now the rates are so good that it's hard to see them go get even better than they are right now. So I would recommend that, although if you do go with the short, the short term approach. I would say be very in tune with the trends that are out there. So if you do start seeing the trend go off at all or stay flat, maybe the next contract negotiation, you say, Hey, let's actually do a five year deal here.

Lori Boyer 19:53

Okay. So long term you're thinking about five years. Okay. I love that you say that because when we are in any sort of market, like a shipper's market or, or even anything in our regular life, we sometimes get a little paralyzed with fear of like, Oh, I don't want to lock this in because, exactly what you said, it could get better.

Right? I keep telling everybody, I listened to this podcast where the guy who invented the the phrase FOMO, Fear of Missing Out, also invented a phrase FOBO, which is Fear of a Better Offer. And I think that's so interesting that, yeah, it could be so easy for us to be worried that we're gonna get lower rates or something better that we lock in now.

And, and then we miss out. So I, I love that advice. Go ahead and lock in something, try to get a longer term and, and don't stress too much about the little changes that may happen back and forth. I, do you agree with that?

Tyler Diestel 20:52

Yes. I would say anything that's out there right now is a solid deal.

Lori Boyer 20:58

Awesome. So multiple, I assume, you know, you recommend locking in rates with multiple carriers that way.

Tyler Diestel 21:08

That could be hard for large volume shippers. A lot of times what we see is when you do get those types of rates, you are promising volume for that specific carrier. And so in those situations it's hard for those large companies to then commit to putting a large volume on carrier A and on carrier B.

And it's tough when you have those conversations with those types of those types of shippers. Because I've gone to them and I've said, hey, you know what, you can save 25, 000 a month in your shipping costs if you just move your volume over to this other carrier, and they would come to me and say, Nope, sorry, I, I can't like I have to put volume on this carrier because they gave me these amazing rates.

So it's hard, for the larger, I would say shippers. But for the majority of shippers, you do have that flexibility to still do that multi carrier mix.

Lori Boyer 22:16

What do you feel like risk management wise? So let's say that you do secure a great rate. You're a bigger carrier. You lock in an awesome rate.

What kind of risk management issues do you have if that carrier goes down? I guess how do you manage when you're sticking with a single carrier? I know there's a lot of risk with that. What, what kind of suggestions do you have?

Tyler Diestel 22:36

Yeah, it's always good to have a second carrier up your sleeve for those types of situations.

I remember back in peak season of 2020...

Lori Boyer 22:48

Peak season, which was like peak season of a never ending peak season of, yes.

Tyler Diestel 22:54

Yeah. So that peaks... I'm going to go off on a quick tangent. For that peak season I was working very closely with our data scientists on a bunch of questions that are being thrown our way.

And when one of the questions was, oh, how is this peak season going to be? And we were just like, this, this year, I don't, I have no idea. I could give my best educated guess, but I have no clue. And it was just always funny hearing that request and just knowing that, oh my gosh, the data scientists have their work cut out for them this year.

But, I digress. So.

Lori Boyer 23:34

It's so true though. So true. And everybody listening probably can completely relate. And we never know when those kind of weird disruptions may happen again. So, yeah, I think it's a great point.

Tyler Diestel 23:45

But yeah, one of the major carriers that we work with got hit hard by a winter storm, a winter storm.

And so their package delivery times were highly affected by this. And so that even impacted our enterprise shippers. So in that case, if they were not... Already set up to go with a backup carrier, they would be stuck having their transit times be something like 20 days sometimes. So, instead of being stuck with just that one carrier, most of them were able to go with their second option and get their packages delivered in more of a timely manner.

Lori Boyer 24:32

Okay, awesome. So I would love to talk as well about, outside of discounted rates, what other things shippers could potentially maybe get from their carriers during this shipper's market, especially in terms of flexibility maybe shipping times, or you mentioned insurance.

What, what are kind of some of the other things that they could potentially put on the table as, as something that they can get from the carriers?

Tyler Diestel 24:58

Yeah, I would say along with the better service options they're actually getting a lot more simplified rates, which is amazing. One of the big carriers...

Lori Boyer 25:09

What do you mean by that?

Tyler Diestel 25:11

So one of the big carriers actually combined two of their service levels into a more simplistic service level, which is cheaper for both services and also has the benefits of the more expensive service. So, by them doing that combination they created an even better service level that now shippers can purchase.

So you have things like that going on. You also have shippers avoiding peak surcharges, which is almost unheard of. So usually during peak season, there's a price hike from the majority of carriers. And that's because of the huge demand during peak season. Well, a lot of these carriers aren't doing that anymore.

So I would definitely, during this year, start looking out for, if you haven't those carriers that aren't increasing their rates. And I, I would also, again, strongly suggest checking out some of the regional carriers. As we've already talked about throughout this is diversifying your carrier mix is huge. And in today's world, there are so many smaller carriers that can tremendously improve your transit times for very little cost.

So I would definitely start exploring those.

Lori Boyer 26:41

So Tyler, I have people ask me, they say, Oh, I've thought about regional carriers, but I'm a little nervous. How do I know that they are going to actually follow through? Or how do I know that they're not going to, you know, mess up my, my shipping somehow? Are there ways?

What do you recommend for people who feel a little bit nervous branching out from some of the big carriers?

Tyler Diestel 27:06

Yeah, I would say you can, what EasyPost provides is you can call our API, look at their prices, and you can also by using SmartRate, look at their transit times. And you can actually see, hey, how long does it generally take for this specific carrier to deliver package from point A to point B?

Lori Boyer 27:29

So there should be, so what I just wanted to make sure I understand this. So there should be technology, there should be data that will show like kind of over time, what their typical transit rate is, and their like, maybe the percentage of time that they deliver on time, that kind of stuff.

Tyler Diestel 27:45

Yes, you'll be able to get that by using the EasyPost APIs.

And even if that doesn't do it for you, I would say reach out to your EasyPost account rep, and we can even walk you through a variety of regional carriers. That could meet your shipping logistics.

Lori Boyer 28:05

Okay. Yeah, I love that. So again, if you're an EasyPost customer, for sure, reach out to your rep. They are totally here to help you to look at all these different regional carriers to kind of vet them and make sure that they would work to your specific use case.

If you're not an EasyPost customer, that's totally fine. You can reach out to the regional carriers themselves. They can provide data. Or there's other, other ways to check their data. Correct. Tyler?

Tyler Diestel 28:33

Yeah. Yeah. I, I would say you can either reach out directly to the regional carriers themselves.

You can also talk, I, if you're really serious about starting to explore many regional carriers, I would suggest even talking to our Summit Team. And having them walk you through your logistic strategy. They're a great resource and have proven to be tremendously helpful to many shippers.

So I'd recommend reaching out to them. If you're with another technology partner, do the same thing, reach out to their support and see how they can help you.

Lori Boyer 29:10

And our, our Summit partners are, they're this great consulting team. So if you are, I highly recommend if you're at a place where you're thinking of expanding some things use consultants, use experts.

As you said, like a lot of times your, your technology the, the different services you use may have people who can help you already. And so reach out, see what kind of data you have and, and don't be scared to try them, especially right now. Right. Any, any roadblocks or any hurdles or, or anything people should be aware of in a shipper's market that they need to be careful of.

Tyler Diestel 29:47

I would say getting complacent with how things are. So let's say you do everything that we've mentioned today. You you set some goals, you end up getting some awesome rates, you have a nice carrier mix, and you're thinking, cool. Let me set this and forget it. You should not do that. You shouldn't do that.

You should be aware of the trends that are going on in the shipping industry. So, I would definitely say do not just stay with a single shipping strategy for many years. You should constantly be revisiting it and iterating off of it.

Lori Boyer 30:29

Okay, that totally makes sense. Where do you recommend? I mean, do you have places that you send people to be able to stay up to date with market conditions?

What do you recommend?

Tyler Diestel 30:39

Yeah, I would recommend following at least a few different companies on social media. And again, social media is not the end all be all, but at least they will bring several of these trends, just like how this podcast is right now, to the forefront, and then you can, on your own, go do some fact checking, and and see what's actually going on, but you still need to be in tune to several of these movements that are happening.

Lori Boyer 31:10

Yeah, that's, I totally agree. I, a big part of what I do is working to stay up to date with the trends, obviously, so I can help provide that education, but on LinkedIn, there are some amazing experts and influencers in our industry who are sharing all the latest data. I think it's great as well to go to some of the trade shows, some of the different events.

You'll, you'll definitely get to hear what people are kind of buzzing about. And then following, you know, things like this podcast, please follow like subscribe, because we are here to talk about all the different updates all the time that's going on. And one thing I really recommend, you guys, is that you actually schedule in some time to trying to read up.

So I usually, you know, I like Friday afternoons, personally. And of course I have my, my daily rounds of news, things that I read. But, but putting an actual time on your calendar to try to keep up to date, because otherwise we can get swallowed up with, with work time. Okay, so, I wanted to recap a little bit the things that I've heard, and then I want to hear what other tips you may have.

So, number one, make a goal. So sit down, figure out what your goals are, know what you want to get, realize you have power. We don't always realize that, so realize the power's in your hands, take advantage now. Two, if you are big enough, definitely lock in some longer term rates with the carriers that are going to work best for you Again, if you are an easy post customer if you're not an easy post customer There are ways to kind of compare and see what different rates you can get, all of, all of that kind of stuff before you lock that in.

Five years is what Tyler recommends but make sure that you also have a backup carrier. If you're smaller and you can't necessarily lock in those amazing discounts right now, you don't ship enough, we're still seeing good rates. We're seeing lack of peak season charges. We're seeing a bunch of these kind of additional service things and you mentioned increased service levels and, and insurance options out there.

So for that, let's use technology, something like EasyPost, your own shipper carrier, whatever you're using, go in and, and compare, see where you can get the best rates, the best deals. Did I miss something that we talked about?

Tyler Diestel 33:35

No, I think you did a really good job, just hitting all those things.

Lori Boyer 33:40

Good, so the last thing I wanted to talk about is relationships.

So I was reading a really interesting article that said during a shipper's market, it is the best time to create great relationships with your carriers. Do you have any recommendations for people in these, like, relationships that they can create long term? I think this article is saying it's a great time because of the fact that they are really working to try to get more business, and so they're more open to it, even maybe for you middle sized shippers.

Any tips you have in terms of relationship building?

Tyler Diestel 34:13

Absolutely. I, I, I first and foremost always say if someone's willing to partner up with you on something, you take them up on it. You hear them out. See what's out there. So if you have the opportunity to talk with several different carriers and actually build a contact that would be there and that seems to be there for the long haul, that's invaluable.

So definitely do that and reach out to them start that relationship, even find a way to even go visit them. Like, I know, even though it's, you have all the power right now, make a trip, go see them. Cause they would then come out and meet you at a coffee shop and that's how you start building that strong relationship with them.

Lori Boyer 35:04

I just have to say I love that idea of actually going there. I recently was speaking with Jill Barron on a podcast. Fantastic. I totally recommend you watch it on on that kind of personal relationship. But that was one thing she recommended. She's one of our great Summit consultants.

But was that you actually get kind of feet on the ground and see people face to face. When it is a carrier's market, I'm guessing that they won't have time. And so now is such that's such an opportunity people overlook, I think.

Tyler Diestel 35:33

Yeah, and especially, I'm not saying that that's going to be true for everyone.

But I bet you now more than ever is the time that you would be able to do things like that and would be able to build these very close relationships, which will, like I said, prove to be invaluable down the road. Even though right now you have the pick of the litter you still need to put in the legwork now that you have this opportunity.

Lori Boyer 36:01

Yeah, it kind of goes back to your comment about not being complacent, not being like, I've got it. Sadly, the power shifts. And, at some point, any relationships you build, any, as you said, if you've locked in great rates, all of those things that you do right now when you have the power are going to help you long term when maybe the power isn't quite there.

Okay, I want to hear from you final tips if, if our audience can do one thing today, or two or three, I'll give you a little, a little gap. What do you recommend? They finish listening, they finish watching, what should they do immediately?

Tyler Diestel 36:38

Okay, so immediately, yes, write down those goals to start checking out what other carriers are out there that meet your shipping needs.

And again, you can do that by just go explore on your own on the EasyPost APIs or talk to an account rep. Just start reaching out to more people. And people can then lead you in the right direction. And those experts are all out there and available. So if you're not finding something on your own, I would say don't even hesitate.

Pick up the phone or send an email and say, Hey, can we get a call on the books? I think that would be the most immediate thing I would do.

Lori Boyer 37:24

I love it. I love it so much. I think that is something that I am totally guilty of is thinking I don't know. That, just let things happen. So we shouldn't be complacent. Reach out, take advantage of this shipper's market.

So thank you so much Tyler for coming on today. We really had a great discussion. I want to hear from our community out there. What are you doing to take advantage of this shipper's market? What questions do you have around it? I'm I'm happy to Write something up to share things on social, anything you need to help you as you're working through this great opportunity. If anyone has any questions Tyler, how could they connect with you?

Are you on Linkedin? Can they email you? What what can they do?

Tyler Diestel 38:08

Absolutely, you can find me on Linkedin, Tyler Destol or you can just email me at tdiestel@easypost.com. And happy to help you through your whole logistics situation or answer any questions that you might have.

Lori Boyer 38:23

Awesome. I'll try to link those down below so you guys can check it out.

Again, thank you for being here. Community, let's make sure that we're not being complacent. Take advantage. This really is a great opportunity right now. So don't sit back and do nothing find one or two great things that you learned today and make sure you implement it. But, till next time. Thanks for being here!