The Ins and Outs of First-Mile Consolidation With Tyler Abderholden From Sendle - Ep. 37
In This Episode
First-mile consolidation is a great way for growing SMBs to simplify their shipping logistics. Tyler Abderholden, vice president of Sendle’s global network, explains what first-mile consolidation is and why it’s beneficial.
How does first-mile consolidation work?
Generally, a multi-carrier shipping strategy involves coordinating multiple pickups at different times of the day. First-mile consolidation gives small businesses a way to reap the benefits of a multi-carrier approach without the headache of multiple pickups.
Tyler explains, “One driver will show up to your operation [and] pick up all of the packages, whether they're going to carrier A, carrier B, carrier C, carrier D, and so forth. … You have a single pickup. It comes at your preferred time of day.”
Benefits of first-mile consolidation
With first-mile consolidation, “you are managing a single touchpoint with a single provider.” By relying on a first-mile consolidator to get packages into the hands of the right carriers, merchants avoid shipping delays caused by missed pickups. And because consolidators access volume discounts, merchants save money too.
Giving customers a choice
First-mile consolidation provides access to a variety of shipping speeds, allowing customers to choose what works best for them. Tyler and Lori point out that the next-day shipping trend has begun to decline, with more consumers willing to wait longer for their packages.
Tyler says, “Everything was moving to, how do we get to next day? And now everything has been, some things need to be next day and some things are okay to take a longer time. And that's great. Customers have that choice.”
Links
- Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-abderholden-06a00920/
- Visit Sendle’s website: https://www.sendle.com/en-us
Transcript
Lori Boyer 00:00
Welcome back to Unboxing Logistics. I'm your host, Lori Boyer. Today we're having an interesting episode where we are going to be introduced to one of EasyPost's favorite partners, Sendle. We're going to be learning about what Sendle does and specifically, first mile consolidation, how that works for small businesses and how you can take advantage of kind of the benefits of consolidating your shipping.
So I've invited on from Sendle, Tyler Abderholden, and he is going to share with us today a little bit more about what first mile consolidation is and about Sendle the company. Tyler, can you introduce yourself?
Tyler Abderholden 00:43
Great. Thanks, Lori. Tyler Abderholden. I am the vice president of our global network at Sendle. I have been with Sendle for coming up on three years now. Prior to Sendle, I had a career at FedEx in a lot of different capacities, including network optimization, load plan optimization, line haul facilities, hubs and so forth. I had a great time at FedEx and I've been really enjoying my time at Sendle and bringing some experience into Sendle, which is a startup.
We have been around for about 10 years now. I think actually in a couple of months we will hit our 10th year anniversary. We started in Australia which is really fun to work with a lot of talented individuals from down under who always keep us on our toes. And at any rate, so very excited to be here.
Very excited to talk with you about first mile consolidation. What Sendle has kind of going on right now, and as well as kind of how the industry has kind of pivoted towards simpler solutions with more consistency.
Lori Boyer 01:39
Awesome. So Tyler, I'm curious, you know, what has your experience been moving from like mega corporation, you know, the big FedExes of the world to the startup environment? That's like a pretty big shift.
Tyler Abderholden 01:52
Sure, sure, sure. I started going gray actually at FedEx, so can't blame the startup lifestyle completely on going gray, but there is definitely challenges involved with the startup lifestyle versus a more traditional, large enterprise global you know, ship like FedEx.
So but no, I, you know, I, I, I learned a ton at FedEx. It's a great organization to learn from. It's a great organization to get your feet right, you know, right into the weeds right off the bat you know, they give you a lot of opportunities, a lot of experience spend a lot of time on docks. Not necessarily something I will probably go back to in my life, but you know, really learning firsthand is, is the best way to learn.
So very much loved that time. Moving to, to Sendle definitely was a huge transition. Like I said, it is a startup, which means, you know, there is some wild and crazy hours. Like I mentioned, we have a lot of coworkers that work in Australia. This time of the year in the summer is not great, especially if you're not on the West coast to try to interface with with folks over in those time zones, but you know, ultimately it's a fast paced environment, which is something that I've, I've always been attracted to.
When I started at FedEx, I actually started at SmartPost which is really hardly in existence anymore. Just some of the, I would say shadows of what it was. And you know, SmartPost at the time was growing, you know, 50 percent year on year when I started working. It really was a startup lifestyle within a large organization like FedEx.
So something I'm very used to, was excited to get back into and be able to make a meaningful impact on a daily basis. Challenge my peers, work with really talented individuals. I think that's another hallmark of startups is, you know, you bring a lot of folks together with a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of different experiences. And ultimately, you know, great ideas come forth from it.
Lori Boyer 03:46
I think that startups are so fun in a way, they're so agile and, you know, my husband works at a really large corporation. And there's, you know, there's always just a lot of layers and, and processes and, and he's always shocked when, you know, it's smaller companies, you can kind of make decisions and go for it. So I think that's super fun.
Tyler Abderholden 04:06
Yeah.
Lori Boyer 04:07
Okay. So Tyler, I want us to hear. Anytime that I'm hosting an episode here, it's really important for my audience that if they only catch a bit or if, you know, they're half paying attention and only have a few things that they can take away from our time together today.
That we get that out of the way right at the beginning. So Tyler, my question for you right from the start here is if people can only learn, you know, one, two, three things today, what would you want them to remember from today's episode?
Tyler Abderholden 04:40
So, I mean, the biggest thing is, and I think this has been, you know, a common theme in the logistics industry for the last 5 to 10 years is, you know, you want to try to find for diversification.
You want to build robust supply when it comes to logistics. And you know, kind of ensure that you can go through peaks and you can go through lulls in your business as well as in the industry as a whole. But ultimately make sure that you have really robust solutions that, that that affords you the best savings, the best ETAs, you know, all the value propositions that you're looking for.
And so while that's nothing new, what I think is really starting to become brought to light in the logistics industry right now is that all of those solutions typically required complexity. Right. You have to manage multiple dispatches. You have to manage multiple carrier relationships, multiple contracts and so forth.
And you are starting to see a, see change in the industry that says, you know, there is great things about FedEx and UPS. And one of them is it's a single provider solution, right? And so these, you have these big enterprises that that is been their secret sauce. So, so to speak, right? And it has kept some of the, you know, I would say, competitors or the alternatives a little bit at arm's length from making, you know, deep inroads in the U.S. You see this actually in a lot of the other countries it's definitely something that the global market has done a little bit differently with respect to the fact that there's not just the, you know, the kind of the duopoly that we have in the U.S. With FedEx and UPS, and to some extent the United States postal service as well.
You know, most markets have 10 carriers 11 carriers, and people are used to essentially affording a lot of complexity and that is kind of the way of the world. But what we see in the U.S. is, you know, you have these simple solutions, one door, one UPS or USPS or FedEx. And everyone kind of says, that's my path.
That's my, that's my journey. And like I said, I think FedEx and UPS do a great job. Like this is by no means us trying to say that what FedEx and UPS do is not wrong. It's actually a great solution. It's a great mousetrap. What I think the industry has done is it's caught up with how do I afford diversification, robust solutions, give carriers, our customers choice by what, but also reducing some of the complexity.
And it's not just technology, the physical complexity around managing a single pickup, managing a single relationship with a carrier that can provide you essentially out the gate you know, robust solutions manage volatility much better than, you know, a single carrier like UPS and FedEx can. And we've seen that, right?
So FedEx has gone through periods where they've, you know, put peak caps on, they've turned away customers. You know, you've seen a lot of those types of behaviors that have caused ripple effects within the customers out there that have prevented them from feeling confident about a single solution like UPS and FedEx.
And so. How do you open the door to diversification, which is a buzzword, everyone talks about it, carrier diversification and so forth, but how do you open the door to that without giving up really the, the, the, the, the simplicity and you know, the, the, the solution that is, you know, essentially a one carrier model.
Lori Boyer 07:52
Yeah. So you say that there is, they should come away with knowing that there are ways to simplify and keep that kind of comfortable feeling of having a simple solution while also being able to take care of the benefits of diversification and that kind of stuff. Very cool. Very cool. I'll be excited to learn about that.
Anything else you want people to take away?
Tyler Abderholden 08:17
You know, Sendle has been in the U.S. For three years. A little over three years, excuse me. I actually think coming up on four. So we, we are still relatively new. You know, I would, I would encourage folks to take a look at our website, go to sendle.com. You know, we are doing something different with respect to the logistics industry. We are the the world's first B Corp logistics company. So we are very tied to our environmental roots and sustainability. It's another angle that has been, you know huge and not only why I work for Sendle , but you know, really what we're trying to make sure that we're taking and decarbonizing the really dirty logistics supply chain.
So we are very passionate about that. So not trying to just build, create, create, you know, unique solutions for customers, but also making sure that we're taking care of our planet and taking care of each other.
Lori Boyer 09:06
Yep. I love that for our community out there. You know, I've had Sendle here before talking about sustainability and they are really just a beacon for us in, in that kind of realm.
So fantastic. All right, Tyler, let's jump into first mile consolidation. Okay. So first we're going to pretend there's somebody out there who doesn't even know what this is. So pretending you're talking to a fifth grader or something. What is first mile consolidation? Or at least how would you define it, Tyler? What does that look like to you?
Tyler Abderholden 09:37
Sure. So it's giving the customer. Customers to this day, we, we, we all know there's a ton of platforms out there that give access to multiple carriers. It's great, right? There's a ton of technology solutions that can aggregate and consolidate you know, information coming from multiple different parties.
So simplify your life, right? EasyPost is a great provider of solutions. And you know, the customers have very easy access to essentially multiple carriers, and that's great. That's giving customers empowered them to make their own choices to understand what each carrier offering is providing, but it also means that you have to carry all that baggage.
And so what first mile consolidation really is at its heart is, don't give up that customer choice, right? Don't give up that ability for customers to have preference and the speed, the ETA, the quality of the service that they're looking to, to provide for their, for their customers. But also ensure that you are managing a single touch point with a single provider, right?
So that means that one driver will show up to your operation, pick up all of the packages, whether they're going to, you know, carrier A carrier, B carrier, C carrier D and so forth. And really what Sendle is trying to do is not limit it to one or two or three or four or five, give customers essentially access to, to lots of carriers that provide more consistency on ETA, more consistency on price. And so all those value propositions that out of the box you have from a platform that offers you access to multiple carriers taking that same digital experience and creating the same experience in real life, right? A single provider, you go to EasyPost for all your labels, you go and have a single provider pick up all of those parcels on a daily basis.
You have a better relationship with that individual, that driver. Driving resource. You have more control over the the pickup times. You know, you're not waiting at six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock waiting for that driver to show up. That's coming late because you've had two pickups already this morning.
You're just waiting for that third one to get out the door. You have consistency that all your packages get processed timely. They're not you know, waiting on docks and so forth. So that is in a nutshell, that first mile consolidation experiences is consolidating all your carrier mixes, all your packages, treating them like a one product, right? One service and having them run through disparate networks once they leave your dock, but not have to bring that complexity to your dock.
Lori Boyer 12:05
So I've read recently that about 60 percent of retailers either already do first mile consolidation or they're considering it. Is it right for everyone? So I guess that's my first question. And if not, or, you know, what are some indicators that maybe it is the right time for a company to look at first mile consolidation?
Tyler Abderholden 12:26
I think first mile consolidation starts at customers that have reasonable pickup volume, right? So this isn't going to be, you know, your, your, your minimum order quantity of one, right, type shippers. You know, this isn't, you know, shipping care packages to, to kids in college or to your grandparents or anything like that. And, you know, there's, those are solutions for, you know, retail and so forth. But you're looking for customers that are shipping you know, could be a startup like Sendle, right.
Just getting your feet into the, into the fray experiencing some of the volatility, working on multiple marketplaces shipping on multiple different you know, locations. Those are all great. Customers that you're already experiencing multiple different marketplaces, potentially providers.
And so those are great opportunities for, for consolidation. It's one of the reasons that customers sometimes find like a third party fulfillment shared or co working space that allows you know, multiple customers to consolidate volume and, and manage some of the complexity, right? That, that in an extent, it is an extension of reducing some of that complexity by you know, bringing on a third party fulfillment. What Sendle is saying is you don't have to go to a third party fulfillment to, to benefit from some of those you know simplifications. You can experience that same experience out of your garage or out of your home. So you don't have to have a storefront.
You can, right? But you're looking for that customer that's got that, you know, they're shipping, you know, 30, 50 packages, at least a day, probably less than a few hundred. Right. You know, probably less than 500. The minute you start to get to about 500 a day, you're probably looking at dedicated, you know, warehouse space.
You're probably looking at possibly other more complex solutions. You know, but these are customers that are growing and, you know, just like Sendle as a startup, you know, we're, we're also in that growth phase. Right. We are looking for those types of customers that share that experience with us. And we're looking to be able to take them from, you know, the living room to the garage from the garage to your first warehouse, from your warehouse to your, you know, your enterprise, right? And so we're trying to make sure that we can bring those experiences that are typically exclusive for customers that are shipping thousands of parcels a day and bring it down to, you know, truly that entrepreneurial customer that is growing and trying to make a business. And you know, at, is that that 50 to a hundred packages a day and growing. We think that this is a great opportunity for them to get into, you know, the savings and value proposition that is first mile consolidation and multiple carrier diversification, which is things we've all talked about.
And bring those those values to your business earlier, instead of waiting till you get big enough to justify the experiences you've, you know, graduated into, you know, an enterprise or a large business.
Lori Boyer 15:09
Okay, so you've mentioned, you know, obviously, just the complexity. And as you said, if you're working in your garage, or you're still, you know, in that really fun, exciting startup phase and it starts to get a little bit big, you're suddenly trying to do 100 a day, and it's getting a little crazy.
That, that's a good sign, right? That maybe you need some help with that complexity. I think a lot of our audience will say, well, what about costs? What about, you know oh, what are the actual benefits? Let's pretend I am, Tyler. I'm selling a hundred sweaters a day, killing it at my Lori Boyer sweater company. Why you know, what other benefit am I going to get besides like it makes my life easier?
Tyler Abderholden 15:52
Sure. So I mean, like I said, let's, let's just start with what your day looks like, right? So if you don't have a first mile consolidation and you do want the value of multiple carriers, right? And so that can reduce your costs, that can increase your ETAs.
So there's, I would say known benefits in that carrier diversification. You start your day, you're packing, you're picking and packing, you're building up, you know, you're putting your sweaters in your boxes and so forth. That first driver shows up at 11. You've only been able to complete half your orders that are going to that driver and that business.
And so right out the gate, you got, you know, half of that volume that you were going to continue to process that day is going to roll over to the next day in terms of being able to get picked up. That's going to create a slower experience. That's going to potentially put at risk some of your marketplace positioning.
All of those things that customers are very, very protective of. And so you know, then the next driver shows up at two. The next driver shows up at five. You were trying to go out and run an errand. You can't because you're essentially required to be around, available, make access to wherever your packages are available in your garage or otherwise.
So all of that is the, what I'm talking about in terms of managing that complexity. Moving forward, right? Once the packages leave. So once say we've, we've solved for that, you have a single pickup. It comes at your preferred time of day. You know, all your packages are picked up, not just for one carrier, but for all.
Moving forward, you get the same value proposition of a multiple carrier solution. You get the lower costs, right? Costs are lower than what you would typically see in in published rates that are available widely. You're going to get a faster ETA right? You're gonna get four days cross country instead of five or six.
You know, you are going to get choice, right? So you still have the ability to say, hey, These are non time sensitive packages. So I really would prioritize an extra 10 percent savings, an extra 15 percent savings. Those are still choices. On the other side of that, I need that there in three days. Can I get a guarantee?
Those are all essentially part of the value propositions at Sendle. Aggregates are essentially multiple carriers into a single network stream provides consistent services so that you have the same choice like you're at UPS. I want a two day solution. I want a three day solution. I want the ground economy solution, right?
Those are the same types of services that Sendle offers. Those services are enabled by multiple carriers. So you by naturally, you naturally have that carrier diversification in place without you managing that front first mile complexity with the value ETA, with the savings on cost with carbon neutral in every single shipment that Sendle is saving.
Those are all value propositions I would say that Sendle brings back in addition to just solving some complexity and managing some of those logistics service provider solutions in your business. We like to say sometimes that we're your fractional logistics CEO CLO, chief logistics officer, right?
We, we think that there's a, an opportunity for us to be able to provide you know, those services as that fractional you know, executive for your growing business without having you have to pay for the costs or the fees and so forth, right? It's all baked into the solutions that are off the shelf. And so that's a big value proposition for again, these growing businesses that are still potentially one person running that business from their home.
They don't, they may, maybe they have their, their spouse or their kids or whoever helping them pick and pack. But they're, you know, not grown up yet into the, the, you know, multiple warehouses located across the country. And, and, and at that scale yet.
Lori Boyer 19:19
Why would it save money? So I'm going to, I'm going to be the I'm going to be asked the hard questions here. Why would it help them? How, how is it, how much cost savings I guess should they expect? So let's pretend that I've, you know, my Lori Boyer sweaters, I've been using one carrier and, you know, I have an okay rate and, you know, how is it that that's going to save me money? How is it going to be cheaper?
Tyler Abderholden 19:43
Yeah, so what Sendle does is so we aggregate small shippers, right? So by by, or we exist to support small businesses. And so what we do is we take small shippers' volumes. We aggregate that because we can control the first mile experience. We can essentially ...
Lori Boyer 19:59
What do you mean by aggregate?
Tyler Abderholden 20:01
Just by, you know, combining Lori's sweaters business with, you know, Tyler's hat shop and, you know, Tim's you know T shirt company and Aaron's you know, shoes, right.
And you take all of these small businesses and we can add the volume together and then essentially negotiate directly with these carriers as if we are, you know, Nike, right, as if we are these large household brands. And so essentially we can go in, present the packages to these carriers and middle mile and last mile providers.
And we, we essentially look like, as a, as a, as a carrier, we look like essentially Nike, and we look like these large businesses that negotiate these great partner rates. And so by, by doing that, we're able to essentially lower the cost of entry, and we are able to then return that savings back to, to the customer to bring more volume into, to the networks.
Lori Boyer 20:56
Okay, and so about, if you could give an estimate, you know, I, I, I know my guests never love to give specific numbers, but do, would I expect that I could say, 3%, 10%, 150%, you know, are they paying me suddenly?
Tyler Abderholden 21:12
We have aspirations to be 150%. We're not there. No, yes. Yeah, like, so we, we like to say that we can save you between 10 and 20%. What you would typically see is the best in market rates. And so, you know, that is you know, huge savings in many instances. And so that's not just essentially off the cheapest rates while that exists, right? Again, so think of the cheapest rates in market that you can buy, you know, and, you know, really off the shelf anywhere.
And, you know, that's typically like a Ground Advantage or UPS Ground Economy. You know, that's where I'm saying, you know, you should be able to see 10 plus percent savings on every single package you're shipping. But then you also look at like the more expedited services, right? So like a Priority Mail or a three day or a two day type solution.
And you're seeing similar savings off of those as well. So it's not just essentially exclusive to the cheapest solutions or the most expensive solutions. But again, Sendle essentially tries to ensure that there are service solutions that meet the customer's profile, whether you're shipping, you know meal kits you know, or, you know, live, I, I, I my kids at school right now and I have the, the gecko, the, the class pet is living with me this summer.
We're, we're having to feed them all these crickets and things like that. So, you know, you, you know, you obviously, you don't want an eight day ETA when you're shipping you know, live animals or anything like that. So, you know, you want a faster service that meets the, the, the, the, the requirements of what you're shipping.
So Sendle has those service offerings. And again, you'll see consistently discounts across the board. What you would otherwise typically see as the parallel service offerings.
Lori Boyer 22:47
So I guess that brings up a question for me. Are there any types of things that people ship, you know, whether it's pharmaceuticals or, you know, hazardous materials or anything that is not a good candidate for first mile consolidation?
Tyler Abderholden 23:03
Yeah, I mean you know, ultimately any of those service the, the the product lines that can cause problems. So hazmats for sure. You know, definitely things like for tax purposes, like vape and, and, and, you know, cigarettes. Things like that, alcohol, any of those that require any FDA or other legal jurisdiction requirements from multi statecommerce or anything like that.
Those are not great solutions because again, part of the, the, the, why the solution works so well is we're able to put those packages into multiple different networks. And, but what that means is if you have a product line that is significantly limiting to where those packages can get processed, there's, there's only certain carriers that can process, you know, wine shipments and beer or hazmats and so forth.
So by limiting the scope of what's accessible means that the solution doesn't add as much value. So those are not going to be great fits because you are shipping a I would say a protected product line. And you have to kind of go to those dedicated carriers that provide dedicated services for, for those, my hazmat people, I love you, but I know you have so many extra barriers and challenges, but hang in there. I do want to make a point as well. We're talking a lot about Sendle. We've talked about EasyPost. That doesn't mean you have to choose just Sendle , choose just EasyPost. There are options out there. Some people even, you know, get together with other warehouses, other small businesses that you know. So you can consolidate on your own.
Lori Boyer 24:34
Obviously we're big fans of Sendle and EasyPost here, but there are a lot of options out there for you to choose from. It just makes sense to take advantage of all of these benefits when you are in that size. So that's just something I want to point out. Okay, so another thing that I get questions on with this is, it feels like because you mentioned like, oh, the speed and everything is still great. It feels like it might actually slow down the process. So if my stuff now needs to be combined with someone else's stuff, am I somehow putting at risk that things would be a little bit slower? To me, I guess that kind of logically makes sense. But, you know, how do we get around that?
Tyler Abderholden 25:16
So you'll see a little bit really in the overnight packages. So packages that, you know, maybe were, you know, if you got picked up by 3 PM in the afternoon, that means those packages can go back to a warehouse, a shipper's warehouse and processed and so forth and made available for that first delivery next morning.
I would say those are probably the ones that are the most at risk. And again, it's a, it's. I'm just trying to be transparent, right? There's no, it's not like a lot of these packages. You'll still get overnight shipments with Sendle, but those are the ones that are at the most risk because they're the most time sensitive to make that cut to make that dispatch. That shipper needs to make it to the, you know, the destination facility for, for their pre sort, put packages on vans and so forth.
Because we are picking up a consolidation of volume, moving them into the different networks for then middle mile to final mile deliveries. There are instances for that overnight. But because we have carrier choice we know the lanes, we know the ETAs. We can optimize that. And so we can minimize essentially all the other issues that go down the you know, down the line. Right. So we can, you know, make sure that we're picking a four day carrier instead of a five day carrier to protect that lane. We can pick a, you know, three day carrier in certain lanes and so forth to make sure that that service is consistent, meets the business requirements, meets the service requirements that we've essentially established.
Right. So, you know, again, if you want the ground economy, you know, type service, we call that our saver solution. And that is not going to take, you know, that's not an overnight solution. It's not a, you know, next day. It's going to be, you know, more like in the, you know, the three to three to seven, three to eight days.
You know, and that's where, you know, you'll see dramatic savings. And again, if you're not shipping you know cost conscious goods or time sensitive goods. That's a great solution. Phone cases, right? Great, a great opportunity. And you look at even what, you know, Temu and Shein have done and changed, I would say, the balance of the logistics industry.
Everything was moving to, how do we get to next day? How do we get to next day? And everything now has been, some things need to be next day and some things are okay to take a longer time. And that's great. Customers have that choice.
Lori Boyer 27:18
Okay, I have to stop you. Did everybody hear that? Tyler just said, some things are okay to take longer than one day or two days. We have been really, especially you small businesses have been hounded on for so long about needing to keep up with Amazon and needing to keep up with this speed, speed, speed, speed. But yeah, that's, that's great to hear an expert in the field say that there are times when maybe you don't need to.
And I always, as you know, as if you follow me, test it out. And, you know, give them options, give your buyers options and see if they are willing. It could mean like, from what I'm hearing, Tyler, with Lori's sweaters, you know, I have some amazing, super like covered in diamond sweaters that are wanted overnight.
Maybe that's not the best option to try to consolidate with something else, but I'm assuming I could then take all my other stuff, like I can split it up. So some goods are going, you know, overnight, some are being consolidated. Good. Is that how it works?
Tyler Abderholden 28:22
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, again, you can get the same pickup experience, but the packages could. So I'll use a different slightly different. Let's say you sold raincoats, right? And we got a tropical storm that's coming through, right? If I live in the path of a tropical storm and I want to buy one of Lori's raincoats, I, getting it tomorrow is probably very important. I'll pay the extra to get it there.
But if I'm in Wisconsin and which is where I'm based out of, and it's going to be dry for the next eight days I'm not in immediate need of the raincoat. Right. So it could actually be the same product. That could actually, you know, again, based on customers' needs and so forth, I need it tomorrow and that's great.
Let's get a solution for you. At, or, you know, if it shows up next week, that's fine. I just want to buy the product and not have to go to a store and have it at my doorstep and delivery and all those other conveniences that, you know, logistics and ecommerce provide. But again, that's something that Temu and Shein broken into and challenged.
Essentially, a lot of those preconceptions around requiring same day, next day type deliveries. And so I think that's great. Again, I think customers choice. We there's also been the conversation about the end of the free shipping era. And, you know, logistics continue to get higher and which was also combining with the urgency to get packages there tomorrow to meet this, you know, this Amazon model of next day, you know, two day delivery prime and so forth that was dramatically increasing cost to serve.
And so that's putting already at a disadvantage a lot of the small shippers that are out there. So I think it was great. I think it's actually slightly refreshing have that customer choice can be given back to the shippers and the customers, right? And so making sure that the customers have the preference and the choice and say, yes, I would love a free shipping solution, get it to me next week or I will pay you that 15 premium but I expect it tomorrow.
And that is, that is great choice. That is, that is empowering shippers. I think in a lot of ways that we've lost prior to, I would say, you know, early 2020s.
Lori Boyer 30:21
Yeah, I agree. Absolutely. And, and as I said, keep testing everyone. As you test and see, you know, there may be a dollar amount or there could be, you know, a timeframe. Just give options and you may be surprised at what you see.
So another question I have is technology. Okay. So what kind of technology will I need at Lori's sweaters in order to be able to do this? Is this something I just, you know, if I signed up with say a Sendle or if I'm using an EasyPost or do I need anything special, Tyler?
Tyler Abderholden 30:56
Nothing. You need a computer, you need a computer and access to the internet. Don't need dedicated software. You don't need dedicated printers. You don't need anything, right? You can go, like I said, you can go, like you said, you can go to EasyPost, you can print off labels, you can go to sendle.com and print off labels and manage all of your shipments through, you know, the native dashboard that Sendle offers.
You could have you know, Sendle also tries to make sure that, you know, we are a carrier. And so what we do is we, we, we work with a lot of partners, a lot of transportation software or warehouse management solutions making sure that Sendle's available. So you might already be using a tool that Sendle is integrated to. And so accessing Sendle through our API is another way to get direct access to these shipping solutions, print labels manage a single pickup and you know, be able to run your business from there.
Lori Boyer 31:45
So a question that I have is, I found that in this industry, relationships are really important. They're, they're just a big deal in our industry, which I think is so funny because we deal with things so much, but this is an industry where it's very relationship heavy. So, will this impact maybe, so let's say that I've been using a certain carrier for a lot of years and how is that going to impact my relationship?
If suddenly I'm spreading it all out between multiple carriers, I'm doing you know, consolidation. I guess what it what would be your recommendation there?
Tyler Abderholden 32:20
So, I mean, I'll start from the angle is, you know, Sendle doesn't, we don't do contracts. All right, so we don't put customers in the position where they have to sign a contract and manage you know, that, you know, any established contractual terms, right?
So we know that there's a lot of carriers that do that. And, you know, there's, there's, there's the safety net for the carriers, but then that's also a, you know, a wall of sorts for the customers and the shippers to get out of. Right. So those, those, those can be constricting in some instances they can be, you know, golden handcuffs because they're the access to, you know, great rates and great services or consistent rates and consistent services flat rates, things like that.
But then they demand essentially certain amounts of volume, certain amount of package distributions and so forth. So Sendle doesn't manage any contracts. We don't put any expectations that you have to use us. You know, we want to make sure that customers love us. That's, that's our goal. We talk a lot about our, you know, our net promoter score and you talk about relationships, right?
Things that can really damage your business you know, bad reviews, Google things like, you know, Google reviews and things of that sort. You know, we have a net promoter score, which is kind of the industry tool for, you know, managing customer experiences, and we rivaled Disney. So, you know, typically, you know, you got the FedExes and the UPSs and USPS.
They, they kind of align with your utility provider. No one, there's no love lost for your utility provider, you know, or Direct TV, you know, anything like that. Right. So those are like you know, look, utilities is what typically logistics falls up under, which does not score generally very high.
So, you know, having a net promoter score that, that rivals Disney is something we're very proud of ensuring that you have a good customer experience, but, you know, kind of going back to your, your initial question is, you know, we want to be your partner. And so that starts by not establishing or forcing you to sign on a dotted line or anything like that.
And making sure that, you know, you want to be able to use Sendle as your provider. And so, yeah, I think. To start, there's no risk, right? Obviously you might have contractual relationships established already with your business. There's no risk in trying Sendle. There's no, there's, you know, you don't have to give us all of your packages.
You could give us some and you could try it out. I guess long term, obviously, if you're going to completely depart from one of your previous carriers, then yes, you'll have to work through whatever those contractual limitations and obligations that you've established for your business prior. But, you know, ultimately we want to democratize the access to logistics and make sure that you know, you're not forced into a provider solution because of contractual reasons or otherwise. And you know, choose your provider because you love them and they're giving you great service and they get you great value and your customers are, are, are, are held and ensure that they're, they have positive experiences and don't want it, the, the, your shipping provider to cause you to have bad Google reviews and damage your business reputation.
Lori Boyer 35:15
Which happens too often. It's too, you know, businesses, it's no fair for you, but sometimes, you know, when the package goes awry, you're the one who's blamed, not necessarily the carrier. So okay. So a couple of other questions that I have from my audience around first mile consolidation. Are there risks that we should know about? You know, is it any riskier, I guess, than shipping just, you know, the more mainstream way, the original way?
Tyler Abderholden 35:50
I don't find it more risky by any means. Again, I think by limiting your number of pickups, like again, if you start from the fact that let's say you were doing packages through the Post Office and packages through UPS and maybe packages through a local regional carrier or something like that the bigger risk to your business is if you have a missed pickup.
You know, miss pickups happen. You know, I, we, we try to be 100%. You know, I worked for a very long time at FedEx. Hit 97, 98 percent compliance is, is the industry standard, but that still means that you're missing almost one pickup a month.
Lori Boyer 36:24
Yeah.
Tyler Abderholden 36:24
If you do the math on that, you got 20 plus pickups. If you're at 95 percent compliance, you're going to miss one pickup a month. So compound that by, by the fact of saying that I got three pickups a day, right? So I got 60 pickups I have to manage on a monthly basis. I miss three, right? That's where you starting to see that the lack of confidence and the controls that, you know, everything starts to spiral. Your business, you know, you have to deal with miss pickups. You're communicating to customers about delays because all those things happen. And, you know, I hate to say that, you know, I think everyone in the industry, FedEx, UPS, USPS included, we're all striving to improve those metrics and get to closest to 100 percent as possible.
But it's very challenging, right? And so. Yeah. Car accidents, you know, all these things. Lollapalooza was just this last weekend. You can't access half of Chicago for six days. You know, all these things happen. And so that's and, and I'll also throw out, like, we're in the middle of the presidential cycle and all the roads shut down when, you know, the vice president or the former president come to town, everything's shut down and you know, the logistics drivers are incapable of accessing certain locations at certain times of day. So it is impossible to be 100%. We are you know, striving for perfection, but we'll never get there as an industry. What you can do and you can control is minimizing your exposure to some of those risks.
And I think some of this actually reduces some of those risks. Once you pass the pickup experience you know, the delivery confidence, proof of delivery you know, we prioritize working with partners that create our carrier network that, you know, offer proof of delivery, you know, all those types of experiences that give you better access to confidence that the package was delivered, delivered appropriately.
So we do try to upscale the value as much as possible prioritize carriers that can, can provide extra services like that. And, you know, that's, that's definitely a way that we can de risk some of the, the I would say natural occurring errors that exist in the logistics life cycle.
Lori Boyer 38:24
Yeah, I, I am such an advocate of the multi carrier approach because of risk management. You know, I think we experienced so much during COVID and everything, you know, where people who were reliant on a single carrier if you do run into a problem, then you don't have anywhere else to turn. So. I assume if, for instance, you're typically going to be sending this shipment with carrier A and you run into an issue, you can then shift that consolidated load to carrier B or C or F.
Tyler Abderholden 38:55
Yep. We can control a lot of what, what happens after that point of pickup. And, you know, mitigate, mitigate those issues. Not much you can do about a tropical storm shutting down access to multiple states for multiple days. Those packages are likely going to get delayed. There's, there is no carrier that gets there.
Lori Boyer 39:12
Tyler, if we can figure out how to, how to either deliver through the storm or just stop the storm, maybe we could come up with something to like stop tropical storms. You and I will be rich.
Tyler Abderholden 39:23
Yeah, or, or, or we just need to find a, you know, connect with Waffle House and make sure that we can do the drop off. So if anyone's the Waffle House they do a great job and making sure that they stay open. Nothing shuts them down.
Lori Boyer 39:34
I know. I know.
Tyler Abderholden 39:36
So.
Lori Boyer 39:37
Okay. I think that I, I learned so much about kind of this first mile consolidation, all the benefits, you know, the, the kind of, expectations I would have from the process.
Is there anything else that you feel like my audience would want to know about First Mile Consolidation? Any best practices? Things they should be on the lookout if they are looking for a company like Sendle ? Sendle yourself. Any, you know, what, what are things they should be looking for? Any other final tips for people?
Tyler Abderholden 40:08
Yeah, I mean, I, I, I, look, I, my biggest tip is to look. You know, one of the things I, I personally do almost every year is I always, you know, re quote my insurance, right? You know, they're all they're great financial tips to just begin with, but they're great, you know, solutions tips as well. When you're thinking about your business, right?
Be open minded is the biggest opportunity. There's there's a lot of a lot of voices, yourselves included, that are encouraging customers to look at ultimately, ultimately, you know, new carriers or alternative carriers or create diversification. And, you know, I think there's always a you know, that you're, you're jumping into a pool moment.
There's that I'm not sure, you know, the, the, is, is the grass always greener? And so, you know, my, my encouragement to everyone is to just be open minded and look. Scope out options by no means is Sendle the only provider out there, obviously. There are lots of solutions that are available to customers.
I would just continue to encourage customers to look you know, the there is, this is not a anything wrong with FedEx, UPS, USPS. Obviously they manage you know, the, the lion's share of the logistics business in the United States. I think they're great solutions. And so, you know, if you haven't looked at those yet, you should but make sure that you're putting a fair comparison against the alternatives, because you might find that you know, you can, you can truly find a partner in your carrier solution and build that business the way you want it to be built, not the way that Amazon wants you to build it, or not the way that UPS or FedEx or whoever is going to pigeonhole you into a solution, but build the business you want to build, be open minded to alternatives I think that's the biggest thing and take a little risk.
I mean, obviously everyone that's ever, you know, started a startup business, decided to enter into a side hustle naturally is is going to be willing to take a little bit of risk. I think this is one that reaps a lot of rewards once you look into it.
Lori Boyer 42:05
Yeah, that's really cool. And again, I love how you mentioned that you don't have to put all of your all of your packages in, you can test it out a little bit here and there.
Final question just from me is okay. So Lori Boyer sweaters, you know, is really going to take off this peak season. Got some big plans Tyler. So when is too late, like during peak, is that a bad time to shift over? Is it too late right now? Or, or do you think that I'm good?
Tyler Abderholden 00:42:35
No, I absolutely right now is still a great time to switch. I think once you start getting into the middle of November while there's, we would be happy to be able to provide solutions. I think there's still a inherent transition that occurs when you move from any one provider to another and so make sure you give yourself a little bit of time to work with you know, your new provider your new solution, make sure that the solution is giving you the answers you're looking for.
Lori Boyer 43:02
When you say a little bit of time, are we talking three hours or three months?
Tyler Abderholden 43:07
No, like I would say, give yourself at least a couple weeks, right? You want packages shipped out, delivered. You want to see the, you know, the results of whatever carrier solution that you're choosing to migrate to before you just commit and Cyber Monday hits and Black Friday hits and now all of a sudden you have all these packages and you're putting them into an unknown network that, you know, you know, by all means, you got to kick the tires, validate what's been told to you, make sure that the value proposition meets what your business needs and give yourself an opportunity to say, hey, if this isn't for me, I have a path to work backwards to whatever I was previously using or have another solution that I want to try.
So you want to make sure that you have a good process in place not only for yourself for you know you know, the actual fulfillment of the packages or, you know, whatever marketplaces you're working on. But you want to have some amount of stability in your business prior to those, those busiest couple of weeks leading up to Christmas.
So that would be my encouragement. Doesn't mean you have to wait to or, you know, you can't change in November. You absolutely can. But again, giving yourself a little bit of a, of a lead time is, is, is definitely encouraged.
Lori Boyer 44:12
I love that. Okay. Well, it has been great. I have learned so much about first mile consolidation. When I do someday open a sweater store, I am going to be so brave to try it out. But thank you so much for being here. Any final words, if people want to connect with you, if they either want to learn about Sendle or if they just want to learn more from you about, you know, the industry in general, are you on LinkedIn? How can people connect with you?
Tyler Abderholden 44:39
Absolutely. You can connect me on LinkedIn. Lori, I'd be happy to share my email if people want to reach out as well. No problem. Happy to chat. And if you do ever start your sweater business, know that we also operate in Canada which it would be a prime market for selling sweaters as well.
So yeah. As well as Australia, though, again, sweaters in Australia sometimes is not the best product market there, but we definitely have solutions across the globe, looking for ways to, to, to help you grow and expand your business and excited to hear from you all. So I really appreciate Lori.
Thank you for the time and having a chance to chat with you guys. This is great. We love the partnership we have with EasyPost and we're really excited about what we're able to build in the in the U.S. And continuing in North America.
Lori Boyer 45:20
Thanks so much, Tyler. We'll see everyone next time.