Season 2, Episode 2:The Evolution of the Industry and Why we Need a Carrier-Centric Mindset with Special Guest: Kristopher Glotzbach
In this episode, Bain chats with special guest Kristopher Glotzbach about tech, automation, TMS, data, integrations in freight, influencers, and so much more.
Kristopher Glotzbach has nearly 30 years of experience in the freight industry. From valuable and significant time at CH Robinson, Uber Freight, FourKites, American Backhaulers, ShipWell and more, Kris has seen this industry evolve from a time when work was done with atlases and pieces of string and drivers calling in from pay phones to the complex tech game we play in now.
Listen now!
SHOW NOTES
The Evolution of the Industry
- Remember when lanes were mapped with atlases and string? And drivers had to call in from pay phones?
- Then came... the first proprietary TMS!
- Now we have a wealth of tech springing up like API integrations and automation software.
Kris Glotzbach hot take: "I think what it's (tech) intended to do is really automate everything... and I think that in itself may be the problem. You're not going to be able to automate everything. What it should really be doing is making people's lives better."
- The best tech helps remove redundancy and gives prescriptive and guided actions.
- Then we began amassing large amounts of data, which was great but became Monday Morning Quarterbacking.
- Now with the addition of smartphones and ELDs we can start using this data to predict and prescribe the path of least resistance.
TMS, Tech Strategy, and Integrations in Freight
- TMS is not a tech strategy by itself, but TMS IS something that every brokerage that wants to grow needs to be mindful of.
- A TMS downstream is hard enough. A TMS for shippers, infinitely harder. With this, you're going upstream one level. You're getting into the planning horizon, etc . This is where it becomes more complex: A lot of disparate systems, integrations become a huge challenge.
- It's exciting to see now this evolution of digital tools that are bolt-on to existing TMS. (Buy what you can, build what you need to differentiate!)
Carriers and Data
- We need to work with carriers in a way that allows them to monetize all this data they are gathering.
- Yes, we are currently in a carrier-centric market, but no matter the market conditions, we need to maintain a carrier-centric mindset because carriers are the lifeline of this industry.
- With so many disparate systems now, we need to move to APIs where we can set up 1 to many integrations instead of the one to one integrations that happen with EDIs.
What does Kris see for the Future of Freight?
The brokerage industry will continue to consolidate.
We'll see more of capacity as a service - or trucks as a service model. Trucks will roll off the line with tech embedded into it.
Automation and autonomous vehicles - We've made strides but we’re a ways from full automation or autonomous due to infrastructure, regulations, sophistication. Rather we will see the emergence of tech-enabled drivers.
“If I'm a small-to-mid sized broker, I really need to be thinking about tech.” - Kristopher Glotzbach
If you want to reach Kristopher Glotzbach, you can email him at Kristopherglotzbach@gmail.com.
If you'd like to reach an expert at Metafora, you can contact us here!
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