Cartels Are Laundering Millions Through Banana Reefers & Freight Fronts

0:27This podcast features Michael Vincent and Ed Behnen.

0:30Malcolm Harris: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a Monday edition of your favorite podcasting. Great. What the truck? I'm your host, Malcolm Harris, joined by the dude himself looking mean and lean, Mr. Michael Vincent. Mike, what's up, baby? Happy Monday, dog. Happy Monday. What's up, dog? What's up, dog? Trailer availability made me do it, man. Trailer availability made me do it. look at that look at that the branding from uh our our very own joining us today man premier trailer leasing i'm really excited about this one this is going to be is that ed edward oh this is ed for sure this is ed rutgers finest by the way rutgers finest don't ever don't ever forget it i got some dirt on rutgers bro okay let's let's hear it let's hear how was your weekend bro The Scarlet Knights.

1:26It was good, man. I had a great weekend, bro. Hanging with the family, did a little bit of grilling and, you know, chilling in, uh, just outside of 146 Media Studios. Chilling like a villain. What the truck west? What the truck west?

1:42Malcolm Harris: West. The west side. Okay, is the best side, but, uh, I'm glad that you, uh... Whoever's got the guns, that's the ones I'm gonna flag. You can't say that. You can't say that at all. It's okay. But it's true. It is true. The things you say may be irrational, but they're not lies. Irrational. Is that what I am? I'm irrational? They're irrational, but they're not lies. That's awesome, man. No, it's good to hear from you. You flashed the Van Buren boys sign, right? Yeah, for sure. Something like that. He was the eighth president of the United States. What's going on, dog? We got a show today, don't we?

2:27Malcolm Harris: We got a show for your behind. You know that, man. Let's look on deck and look at the two guests that we're going to bring in because we got two awesome guests, one in studio and the other joining us virtually. Ed Benin, of course, the SVP of sales at Premier Trailer Leasing, is going to be here in the studio with us. We're talking all the things, all right? The low rate trap, what fleets are actually looking at in trailer leasing and how to prepare for the next iteration of this freight cycle. Ed is fantastic. We had a pre-show discussion. He got here about an hour ago. Dudes being dudes, man.

2:58Malcolm Harris: I'm excited to get Ed on here. Talked about LeBron. Talked about life. Talked about a little bit of everything. Excited about Ed. And then your boy, Lance Healy. I see him right now in the preview. Lance looking good, man. I should have wore a little something better, man. Looking good. Lance knows how to bring it, bro. Dog. I'll tell you what, man. Lance looks like a million dollars plus right now on a Monday morning. I'm excited to speak with him, man. CEO and co-founder of Freight Facts. He's joining us to talk about flipping the script in the industry, building a scorecard that measures shipper performance, not just carriers.

3:35Malcolm Harris: All right. So between Lance, between Ed, we got one heck of a show in the fastest 45 minutes of freight. And let's get to it. All right. Let's get to it. Without, of course, would not be possible without our good folks and our sponsor of the month of July, Gnosis Freight. All right, with Gnosis, ladies and gentlemen, if you are still checking carrier websites, copying container data through spreadsheets, chasing updates through email chains, you gotta have Gnosis. It's an AI operating system for global logistics, one platform to track every single container, automate execution and protect your margins across the full container lifecycle.

4:09Malcolm Harris: Again, Gnosis Freight, an AI global operating freight operating system. For those that have interests, please make sure you go check them out at gnosisfreight.com. book a demo and make sure you tell them that the bald mocha guy and the crazy guy out in texas sent you all right do that for us that's right bro that's it that's i still think they should do they should do swag their swag should be gnosis knockies gnosis knockies is absurd they should give away the freeze you know the the vacuum pack packages of of knockies at shows since what they should. Okay, okay, okay. We could co-brand it with them, bro.

4:44Malcolm Harris: Yeah, I mean, we should get royalties off of that. If that goes down, we should definitely get some royalties off of that. But that's neither or nor there. I'm telling you, you like vodka sauce, bolognese, or just a straight marinara? I'm a vodka sauce guy, man. I like to get a little crazy. Yeah, I like the vodka sauce myself. I made some, and I used Tito's. Fantastic. Tito's is excellent vodka for making vodka sauce. I use a little Everclear because I just wanted to feel alive, you know? That's what Lance does. He just uses straight up moonshine, bro. He calls it moonshine. Moon sauce. A little moonshine marinara.

5:22Malcolm Harris: There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that at all. There's nothing wrong with you guys coming to Chattanooga, Tennessee on October 27th and 28th either. Why? Because there's an event. I can't wait. I can't wait. It's called F3. The Future of Freight Festival is going to be here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, October 27th and 28th. Tickets are now on sale, so make sure you all are coming out to the biggest event of the year for Freight Waves. There's some bald guy right there talking. There's a lot of different people that we're looking at right now, and it's one of the best events that we have, man.

5:54Malcolm Harris: There's going to be market insight. There's going to be conversations, demos. There's going to be networking events. There's also going to be a lot of different, you know, just discussions about where we're at right now in freight. And then most importantly, where we are headed. And I do not want you to miss out on it. Well, Malcolm, it's a little steep for my liking. That's a great question and a great statement. I got this thing. It's called a coupon code. It's just take 20, not like take five, the candy bar. Just add 15 to that. So take 20. You can get 20 percent off of your admission ticket with that promo code off of current pricing.

6:26Malcolm Harris: So, again, take 20 right now. Go register for the Future of Freight event that is going to happen, F3, October 27th and the 28th. Look at Cody. Boy, you are a special person. Cody's on it, man. Cody's on it. And take 20. Take that 20 % and go spend it on some Chattanooga whiskey. You won't be sorry. You won't be sorry at all. You won't be sorry. Or you can take that 20 % and you can go spend it on some bananas. All right. you know you might get a bunch of cocaine because cocaine prices have been dropping i've been telling you guys this for a long time dude if you need some cocaine now is the time to buy no i'm just kidding listen i don't want the people at home to think that we just talk about cocaine although it has been like a common theme the last four shows it's a pretty common theme it has been like like if it quacks like a duck it walks like a duck it might be a duck and guys we're not just aiming to talk about cocaine for the majority of our headlines.

7:27Malcolm Harris: It's just an astronomical amount that has been busted lately, and I feel like I'm doing a disservice in not telling you about it. All right, so you guys can see this B-roll right now, what's happening. Look at the amount that this is. All right, to put it in perspective, all right, Italian authorities seized nearly 1 ,700 pounds of cocaine hidden inside a refrigerated shipping unit carrying bananas. All right. And this was at a commercial seaport on Italy's northwestern Mediterranean coast. And this is crazy. Again, discovered 650 bricks. All right. Among dozens of banana pallets. The container originated in Ecuador and made it to Italy.

8:08Malcolm Harris: This, Michael Vincent, is unreal. It carried a street value of 250 million euros or roughly$290 million. dollars, concealed the drugs again inside a legitimate banana shipment to avoid detection. 200 million euros or euros? Because that's a lot of euros, bro. That's a lot of lamb meat. That is a lot of lamb meat. I mean, I'm honest with you. And I'm a euro guy, too. I mean, I didn't really realize. I'm telling you, I don't think you and I could put away that much euro. I'd try. I'd give them hell. I mean, they would feel the wrath of me for all I could hold. But no, maybe in my heyday. I've lost a little bit.

8:48Malcolm Harris: That is just bold. That is bold. That is just bold, blatant. I dare you to catch us. Here it freaking comes. You know what I'm saying? But here's the thing, right? Ecuador is among the most violent countries in the world right now because of organized crime, right? For sure. I mean, we're cracking down on the cartels. We're going to get to that stuff, right? But about 70, did you know, 70 % of the drugs produced by Colombia and Purdue are Purdue. Purdue, yeah, the Boilermakers. Peru, not Purdue. I was like the Boilermakers, okay. Yeah, not the Boilermakers. 70 % of the drugs produced by Colombia and Peru are exported through Ecuador.

9:35And Ecuador is the number one supplier of bananas to Europe. So congratulations for finally figuring out that one plus one equal two. I mean, if you put that math together, if it's nobody's business, you put that math together. It's like you said, if it smells like shit and tastes like shit, it must be a duck. It must be a duck.

9:56Malcolm Harris: If it tastes like shit and smells like shit, it must be a duck. Michael Vincent, that is a quote, if I've ever seen it. I mean, like, hello? How long did it take you to put together that math? No, that's nuts. Check this one out again. You guys can read more on this. We got some more news kind of concerning. some crackdowns. Got tons of new. Yeah, I mean, we do, man. Borderlands, this comes from Noy Mahoney. All right, so U.S. Treasury Department officials say they're targeting an expansive business network that stretches from tequila production and fuel distro to logistics, private security, and even baby shoe manufacturing.

10:36Malcolm Harris: All right, so with this one, it's basically legitimate businesses. And you can see a list right here that we pulled. They're focused, again, and basically used as cartel fronts. All right, so what this is is you got gas stations, you got tequila vendors. What I thought was really weird was there was children's footwear was associated with this. And then you had, of course, agricultural, which has been a common theme of this too, which is nuts. So, yeah. Was that a pun? That was a very pun. I'm a punny guy. I'm a punny guy. You're very punny. You saw this, and I was just like, man, this breakdown is just scratching the surface of how bizarre all this is, Mike.

11:25Well, I mean, a cartel's taking over legitimate businesses. This does not imply, because of our last article, that they're shipping cocaine and baby shoes.

11:34Malcolm Harris: Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. They're literally laundering the funds in their operations. Yeah. I'm not going to name any names because I love my life, but XYZ Cartel is siphoning money into this legitimate business to clean the cash and then be able to operate smoothly and take it out and just rinse and repeat. Yeah, so when I saw this, I mean, the supply chain issues are massive from the importer looking upstream. Right. Right? Right. And from it, because, you know, this, I forget what some of the laws are, right? But like if they trace, like they can trace certain fibers like wool fibers, et cetera, and cotton fibers to areas in Asia that are controlled and run by forced labor and so on and so forth.

12:28And the FBI can and does at many times just seize your shipments and you're screwed, right? Because you haven't done your due diligence. You don't know who you're. So this is implying that it's open season on Mexico too. So the issue is now is how do companies, how do importers vet their suppliers out of Mexico now, right? Now they got to go back multiple tiers and try and figure that out. And what documents, what red flags, what triggers the rejection of something for them? What is the due diligence requirements that they're going to have to figure out? This causes all kinds of panic or not panic, but I guess stress and planning.

13:09You got to figure this shit out now, right? Because basically the administration has now said anything that CJNG is involved with is subject to us saying, nope, that's cartel shit and we're seizing it.

13:22Malcolm Harris: There's a flag that goes up because of obvious reasons. And I mean, yeah, I think that's going to be a consistent theme with this. It is. It is, bro. I mean, when, you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. A hundred percent. I mean, those, that, that Guy Fieri tequila may not be legit anyway. You know what I'm saying? You know. I mean, he's got to, you got to think about that, right? I mean, come on now. I mean, tequila's big money. The cartel ain't running tequila. Come on. Listen, if you don't believe that, then I got a bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee called the Market Street Bridge to sell you.

13:54Malcolm Harris: That's all I got to say. The Market Street. When are you going to finish that thing yet? Man, it's supposed to be September, but I'm not holding my breath in the least. It looks like they're going to have to sprint to the finish there. Yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure. Let's talk about sprinting to the finish. These next two stories kind of coincide with one, so we'll share both at the same time. Obviously, with C.H. Robinson and this decision on Thursday, I really just want to dive in it with you right now because, of course, the stock completely, I mean, there's some impact here. This is from John Kingston.

14:30Malcolm Harris: They reacted, obviously, on Friday to what happened, given the news that this$600 million case, this nuclear verdict case, was officially... The verdict was handed down. And it is wild. I mean, for those that don't know, I mean, again, three people were killed in the crash alongside numerous injuries to some passengers and a pileup on the Lupus Superior truck driven by its employee. This was Jorginio Gonzalez. And Gonzalez was also killed in the crash. So they were hit with this. John talked about it. It was talked about a ton on Freight Waves today. So I know for time's sake, we don't have to go too into detail about it, but there is not many people that can speak to this as eloquently and as real as Michael Vincent.

15:18Malcolm Harris: So I wanted to know what your thoughts were. I don't know. Kingston's pretty, Kingston's not a slouch. Come on now. He's no slouch, but he's no Michael Vincent. I just wanted to know. I think he wakes up every day and goes, thank God I'm not Michael Vincent. No, I love Vincent, man. We're pals on the Strava app for fitness, and he's always showing love, and I'm showing love back to him. So that's my dog. But thoughts here, man, about all this. I mean, because this is opening up a new day and age. I mean, people are just going to bypass the carrier entirely and just start looking at these brokers.

15:51Malcolm Harris: If this has happened at C.H. Robinson, I mean, imagine ABC, you know, brokerage out there that is doing very very very similar things they don't have a fighting chance do they well i mean you always have a fighting chance i believe but it it's going to be really really hard i mean you got to figure out what your due diligence is again here right just like we just talked about with with the cartels and the administration cracking down on it they now that you got to figure out where you're because the government's not coming back and saying here's what you need to do right the government saying they're okay to use isn't good enough anymore and they're going to crack down on you or allow people to crack down on you for not doing due diligence when they can't define it themselves yeah that that that's the part that frustrates me and right reason i say come on duffy get your head out of your political ass and do something that's going to help the freaking industry instead of 150 million dollars for five or six freaking parking spaces that should have been there since i built the interstate anyways i get off my soap box.

16:54They're not helping anybody by doing this stuff. I get the verdict. I get that. I thought the hiding behind the F4A was BS to begin with. For sure. You should be able to look at anybody who has caused that problem. That was a BS hiding place. And I agree with getting rid of it. Sorry, brokers, but I do. But what's the due diligence? They're still flying blind. So, So, you know, the stock in them dropping in value, which implies, you know, the value of them overall, not just publicly traded, et cetera, is no kidding. Duh. Because, I mean, now they're exposed. But, you know, as Craig pointed out and Loeffler did a long time ago and some others when this first came down, insurance.

17:40I mean, come on now. You don't think the insurance companies are going to start raising stuff now, too? Oh, dude. Yeah. It's going to be paramount. They're screwed. You're not always out. You're not always out because there's always a fighting chance, but it's a slim one, bro. It's a slim one. I mean, it's like Michigan hoping they're going to beat Ohio State this year. It's just not going to happen.

18:01Malcolm Harris: Oh, man. I mean, shots have been taken. I see Lance right now just hype, hype. He's shaking his head right now. He's ready to go. He's ready to go. We're going to talk about that here in a minute. I want to apologize. You're welcome for that one, Lance. You're welcome for that one, brother. I want to apologize for sounding like a Care Bear over here and sneezing like I was Arthur or something, man. I was over here just, that's you. It was really bad. I'm good now. I'm better. Something's happened. Arthur. Oh, Jesus, Luis. All right, let's get to our last headline of the day before we welcome Ed, man.

18:36Malcolm Harris: Which one is it? Just a layoff roundup from Noy Mahoney. Nothing too crazy. Obviously, these have been things that we had been reporting on, But he does compile these and puts them together biweekly. And I always like to kind of bring it to you. So, of course, it's the freight distress report. 1 ,200 jobs have been cut here, I'd say, within the 10th through the 24th. So in the last two weeks, we'll go through them real quick. Amazon, close to 500 jobs. Freight handlers, which is basically public distro centers in Florida, Sarasota, and Lakeland, 168. Then you got a few others. uh temco with three locations out in florida uh west dallas texas and uh lithonia coast of my hometown uh and then um some popular names on here geodes as well as international paper niagara bottling as well as gxo um some of the stuff again guys not to scare you but it's contractual stuff that is run up and unfortunately their services aren't necessarily needed some of it of course is facility closures uh and other of it is um just general just cutting by nature and just getting leaner.

19:41Malcolm Harris: So it's not all bad. It's reshuffling. Like it's never good to report on jobs being lost, but that's what that is. All right. So that is your, I guess, distress report roundup. And yeah, we always like to bring that to you. So you can check this one out as well as all the other articles that we've covered today and plenty more on FreightWaves.com as well as with Craig Fuller and Julie Vandekamp today at 12 Eastern on FreightWaves today. And Also check us out on social media as well at Freight Waves for your morning minute to get all the latest things that have happened over the weekend. All right.

20:17Malcolm Harris: So with that, I'm excited for now our next guest. All right. So we're going to shuffle the pot a little bit and excited to bring him out. This is going to be a good one. All right. Because he's coming to us out of Texas. He's very similar to you, but he is up there in the northeast from Jersey. excited to welcome man Ed Benin he is of course the SVP of sales at premier trailer lease and got me this really cool hat too uh so we're gonna shuffle the deck and uh yeah I'm excited man

20:50oh wow look at you guys just like that

21:00Make it happen, bro.

21:01Malcolm Harris: Boom. All right. And now introducing Ed. Ed, come on up, man. You are now on with the truck. What's up, bro? Appreciate it. Thanks for having us. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. Ed, I want you to meet Mr. Michael Vincent. He is here somewhere in studio as we get our box ready to go. All right. They're trying to figure out the echo. You sound like you're in a stadium. And now from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, let's surf them all. Do I sound like I'm in an echo chamber now? How are we sounding? Pretty good? A little bit better. All right. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. I mean, it don't matter to me if it's not going out in the air like that.

21:45I just want somebody to know.

21:46Malcolm Harris: You said it doesn't matter to you as long as it's not going on the air like that. It's all good. Yeah, it's all good, bro. Oh, man. I can hear you twice every day of the week. It's fine. I love you, brother. I love you, too, man. I love you, too. I get to hear him five times. Five times, man. How about that? Ed is a devout listener to the show. Listener, first-time attendee. So we got to do a What the Truck introduction, right? Mike, I'm going to let you take it away because you got some stuff on your chest that you said that you had for Ed. Let's go ahead and bring it out. What were you talking about?

22:18We got Ed here? Yeah, we got Ed here. Papa. Rutgers University, the Scarlet Knights, which is best known for, like, the birthplace of football, right? But, you know, am I right, Malcolm? Yeah, I mean, 100%. I think they are in the blue blood conversation of football, yes. We did beat Princeton in that first game. Okay. Yeah, see, now that's what I want to talk to you about there, Ed, because you were there. And you know as well as I do that was not football. It was soccer. It was London rules football, which was soccer. They kicked the ball. They had to kick it into a goal. You couldn't pick it up.

22:58There was 25 guys on the scene. It was not football. It was soccer. It was Rutgers getting back at Princeton for beating the hell out of them 40-2 the year before in baseball. I know what we could do. We could make a new sport, which was actually soccer. Sorry to ruin the heyday. But the very first football, actual football game, American football game, was played on November 13th, 1875, between Harvard and Yale. That's the truth. There's the truth. 1869, Rutgers. That was soccer. 1875, Harvard, Yale. That was actual modern football-style game with mostly rugby rules, but that was the birth of football.

23:46that game against Princeton was actually soccer. Sorry. As a true Rutgers guy, we're going to have to agree to disagree on that one, Michael. All right, well.

23:58We can't. And you know what? I always touted it and loved it and loved the fact they're part of the Big Ten now and stuff like that. But doing the back research for this particular show, I'm sorry to admit that it wasn't Rutgers.

24:14Malcolm Harris: I want to make a Chattanooga connection real fast because Ed is a hooper. All right. He is a hooper. He can ball. He can ball. He was a Rutgers guard. You were guard at Rutgers. Were you not, Ed? I was. I was. I think I did a lot more service to the GPA, though, than anything else in my time there. He's a hooper. we got Chattanooga probably the biggest basketball star to come out in the last I'd say 10-15 years was Ace Bailey who was drafted in the top 5 to the Utah Jazz homegrown here in Chattanooga, Tennessee actually went to Rutgers and was ironically a guard so you could say that Ed was the founding father if not Ed did not pave the way Ace Bailey would not have been with the Utah Jazz I'm saying that he doesn't have to oh is that right yeah I'm making that claim for Ed I'm not going to say you're lying is there any way to get can you go back pay for being an agent or anything like that can you no no miss the window on nil on nil things that came with that i love it i love it all right i'm gonna say a saying and the cheapest trailer isn't always the cheapest trailer all right let's talk about this let's open it up and talk through it because ed this is a saying from from from you all at premier and walk me through what exactly does this mean this thing well the you know when you when you take a look at what the monthly rate is that's only one one component of what the total expense line looks like yeah for a piece of equipment when you take a look at when you take ownership of an asset right the spec the model year the condition all those plays such a pivotal role in what your application and the performance of that trailer looks like.

26:06But when you park those aside, you also have so many other components. There's delivery and pickup location. What does that look like for your drivers or overall expense if they're getting dropshipped in? Maintenance, is that included? Is there a net agreement in place where there needs to be conversations about what's covered? How is roadside support or any breakdown support handled from that standpoint? For sure. And then when it's time to turn the equipment in, where does it go? Do you have to bring it back to the location that it was picked up in? What happens if your application and your business changes?

26:41And those assets are now being used in a different location. So all those play such a pivotal role in what that total cost looks like. And it's so hard to just capture that on one line.

26:53Malcolm Harris: It's really almost impossible to kind of capture that on one line. These are solid points. And one of the things that comes to my mind when you're talking about these things is the ability to flex up and down quickly, but also strategically or in specific locations, right? Like flexing up, if I need to flex up in New Jersey, for instance, at Rutgers, I don't need to onboard these things in San Diego. No, you're absolutely right. And that's where having a nationwide presence that can help support a broad network, the ability to pool assets from multiple branch locations, to drop ship directly from an OEM.

27:34You know, those are all things that can really help, help really scale up when you need. But also in times to scale down, being able to pivot and find those areas of demand where things are hotter for a carrier or when they're not. So you can flex down a little bit easier.

27:51Malcolm Harris: So talk to me about the low rate trap. When you say that, what does that necessarily mean and how are folks kind of falling within this right now? Well, I think so much of that really just plays into understanding not just what's included within a rental or a lease agreement, but also what's not included. I touched on maintenance. Historically, that's been handled really one of two ways. standard maintenance package or net where a carrier is responsible for their own maintenance. But I think that's such a common misnomer. A lot of trailer leasing companies are really willing to help structure an a la carte custom solution for their end user and being able to understand what goes into maintenance, compliance, what driver turnover looks like.

28:41A lot of times a standard mileage package just doesn't work. so knowing that you have the support where you can leverage what what mechanics or vendors that we have in in multiple multiple locations can really enhance a program that's already in place especially for carriers that have they have fixed mechanics or their own shops already in place but might not be nationwide in coverage yeah i agree with that for sure when you're talking about the the the the trailers and and one of the things that my interest is because we've had this issue in a former life where we were a subsidiary of a much larger company and the so the trailers were interchanged between those two companies all the time these weren't lease trailers these weren't your trailers but the issue was sometimes our trailers wound up in their system and their trailers wound up in our system and we could never figure out where the hell the damn trailers are you can also drive down just about any area in chattanooga or any other town and eventually you're going to see a yang ming line or a cgma or a or a you know a msc line or you know container sitting in the back of someone's place and you wonder do they even know that thing is sitting there how do you control all that stuff because you you know you got a the logistics of where all your assets are but then also the assets between who's leased what and who and who else is least what and keeping all that stuff separate what's the logistics look like there michael that's a great point you know on top of maintenance trailers have really evolved from more of just the box on weight wheels to a total tech package so really understanding what what goes into that that equipment I mean when you talk GPS you know how how is a carrier you're using that asset is it just the dot on a map right do you have the infrastructure in place to really really have a strategy around what telematics in general looks like because as we talk about dropping hooks four to one trailer to truck ratios it's really easy for equipment to be at a location commingled with other assets and lose sight of it so and I think in in terms of how you deal with that having a partner that walks through that strategy is part of the onboarding process so not only just going through invoicing but understanding you know what what infrastructure is in place who manages who manages equipment location you know is that just is it somebody within dispatch is there another team and having a trust and a partner that can help walk you through that can help set up geofences can help set up alerts that notify you when equipment goes in and out of different locations idle or latency reports where if a trailer hasn't moved in quite some time it helps tell a story about how your fleets operating and that can be a really good breadcrumb trail for you to understand that you know there's a a piece of equipment that's gotten outside of this normal normal application we probably need to do something about it

31:53Malcolm Harris: yeah malcolm i got one follow-up that's okay bro so no i'll go so so ed speak to that about you know we we talk every every show about freight fraud and theft right because it is prevalent and it's just widening and becoming more and more sophisticated and more difficult, right? So one of those, you know, the digital footprint of who's picking up your freight and the provenance of the equipment and the driver and the CD and all that kind of stuff, it's becoming more and more important. Do you see that pressure in your side? Like this, because if someone were to look at the VIN number or something on that trailer, be like, well, wait a minute, Joe Blow was hauling this last week and now it's XYZ Corporation.

32:35Now it's these guys red flags for fraud theft that type of stuff got to be flying all over the place or eventually will are you guys looking into that and how to how do you deal with that type of thing well now that that's a great point and you know fraud cargo theft you know all these things have become so so much more prevalent but you know that's when when you when you talk about true partnership and what that means so much is really what your trailing provider is willing to invest in part of discovery to understand your operation and understand you know where where your equipment is actually going in or going out of you know from a day to day standpoint again a lot of that were that reporting you know not only can we help set those up but having visibility where you have I call it concierge service where when you roll out that onboarding package knowing exactly who you talk to when things go awry and knowing that you can get a human 24-7 on the phone to really help you quantify the issues that you're having, where the trailers are located.

33:42So for us to be able to lean into our GPS sites within our client dashboards and really help you understand and tell a story about where the asset is, it really again paints paints a nice picture to what's going on. Because on top of the freight, you know, unfortunately if the equipment gets into the hands of the wrong end user, with everything we've seen from a nuclear payout, the last thing you want is some sort of accident or litigation to be compounded to the problem.

34:13Malcolm Harris: Let's continue to kind of stay on this thing. Advice that you can give for fleets that are kind of going through this right now. What are some general kind of nuggets that you can leave with those that are listening in that are just like, all right, like, hey, like, this is on top of mind. Like, whenever I wake up in the morning and open my eyes, this is front and center. Well, so much, you know, that we've talked to today can really help mitigate, you know, some of that. I think having a solid maintenance program, which also tackles compliance, knowing that you have partners that can help on that front.

34:50We covered the GPS, but one thing that you guys covered in part with Matthew Leffler that we were able to contribute to last week was just how much from a trailer side there's these different scams that are out there with fraudulent actors that are posting on Facebook Marketplace and other forums, actually creating, I'll call them ghost-like websites that mirror companies like us. and you know unfortunately you have smaller carriers or owner operators that legitimately think that they're dealing with you know more of a season leasing provider yeah the reality is there though um there's a lot of spotters that are out there and the these small carriers or owner operators are told to go go to a facility and just pick out any trailer out of a bunch there's no human interaction, the lack of commercial credit and commercial payment.

35:50A lot of these payments are going through some sort of cash app or Venmo. There's a lot of red flags that are out there, but again, equipment is getting a lot tighter to get your hands on today. So, you know, unfortunately people are looking at alternative means and it's really, really left a big piece of that owner operator percentage exposed to different scams out there.

36:12Malcolm Harris: For sure. All right. Well, with that, I just first off just wanted to say, you know, I really, really appreciate you for not only just being here, but educating us. You know, the things that you guys are doing at Premier are absolutely insane. Right. And I think that people just don't understand the totality of this. So with that, how can we get in touch with you, the work that you and your team are doing and those that have questions about Premier Trailer Leasing? What does that need to look like? Oh, absolutely. Our website, premiertrailerleasing.com, a lot of really good information. Not only is our client dashboard information housed there, we have different blog posts.

36:53We have a recent one that covers a lot of the scams that are out there. but also just reaching out reaching out direct you have trailers at premiere-us.net that is a great way to get a hold of myself and others within the marketing team for any questions that might pop up you know industry related trailer related you know we're there for you

37:16Malcolm Harris: alright Ed Benin ladies and gentlemen thank you so much man this is fantastic I wish we had like two hours for this show because it's just like I feel like we prep and there's just not enough time ever. Let's just keep going. There's not enough time. I appreciate you having me. And, Michael, I appreciate you holding down Texas while I'm out in Chattanooga. Right on. But, yeah, you're an East Texas guy, right? Well, I'm up north in Prosper. So it was nice to escape the heat for at least a little bit. You brought it with you. Justin, man, let's come out to Justin. We'll go to the mule barn and then we'll hit some Marty B's and get some nice barbecue.

37:53Right, man? I'll take you up on that.

37:56Malcolm Harris: Ed Vennon again with Premier Trailer Leasing. Ed, fantastic job, brother. Thanks. Thank you, man. Thank you. And now we are transitioning to our back half of the show, right? We got a couple of minutes, and I'm excited to get this next guest on. He has a great relationship with Michael Vincent. He does not need an introduction. He looks like the wolf of Wall Street. I think he does. He may not. He looks good, man. And Lance Healy, co-founder and CEO of Freight Facts. You're officially on the clock here on What the Truck. Lance, what's up, my brother? How you doing? I'm fantastic. It's good to see you.

38:32Good to see you, Malcolm. And damn good to see Michael, man. How's Texas treating you, man, with the family, everybody filling in? It's fantastic, dude. They are, bro. We got to get together, you and I. I owe you a couple phone calls and maybe a couple, at least three quarters of a bottle of bourbon. I think from the last time.

38:56Just replacing my stock from my house that we did a pretty good job that night. Exactly. Now, I'm looking forward to jamming again, too. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Jamming. And I want to just get into that for a brief second, man. If you don't know Lance Healy, you need to know Lance Healy. And if you see him at a conference, you need to talk to him because he's brilliant. And what he's doing is brilliant. He's got tremendous insights, but you also might hear some really good music at the bar that night, too, right? Because Lance is a percussionist, a drummer, and a hell of a blues harp player. Check that out.

39:33He's a, look at the hair, man. What are you all doing, man? He can rock the blues harp. And you know, when he's not doing that, he's racing yachts across Lake Erie is what the hell. Check him out. he is the band he's only got one fault he's only got one fault he lives out there in the west side of Cleveland and he's got this Michigan flag right in the middle of all this Ohio State stuff that's his one fault we all have our faults but that's his he's a Michigan guy there's nothing wrong with being a Wolverine man

40:09Malcolm Harris: there's nothing wrong with going to Michigan at all honestly I didn't go to Michigan I was at Ohio University not So you're a Bobcat. I am, sir. Yes. And he was there when it went professional as a party school, according to Playboy. He was there when it went professional. It's the Lance Healy effect, you know? It's the Lance Healy effect. Oh, man. Good times. Good times. Good times. Well, if you haven't heard Michael Vincent jam a little bit on guitar, I don't know if you're getting to play as much as you did, but I hope you are, brother. I am, but just by myself. I've got to find a new band and all that kind of stuff here.

40:49So we'll figure it out, bro. I got you, man. That's so much fun.

40:52Malcolm Harris: We're going to have Mike do the intro music for What the Truck at F3 in person. So he doesn't know that yet. But we're going to get him the sheet music, get him composed, and get him ready to go. You will not be disappointed. No, I'm ready to go. If Lance got to come and do this, he's got it. Melt faces! Melt faces! Lance Healy's melting faces with Freight Facts, aren't you, brother? Tell us about Freight Facts. We are fine. Yeah, we're aggregating data from major LTL carriers, and then we create a scorecard on the shippers, not the carriers. So it's the whole mirror piece, right? So everybody's been raiding their carriers for decades, and it's about time that that switches up.

41:42so the shippers are actually initiating it to get their to get their their their shipper scores it's a good time i love that i mean it's a it's a fantastic thing and it's and it's a much needed thing right i mean there's been several that have tried to do that in the truckload side like do they have good bathrooms are their docks accessible how long is the wait time that type of stuff but But when you start getting into LTL, these truckload guys, they don't know what complicated freight is and pricing. Yeah. How huge that information you're bringing to the table is and how far it goes. Because it's not just can you get to the dock on time.

42:21It's are they rating their shipments correctly? Are they classifying it correctly? All that kind of stuff, right? You got it. Yeah, we got about 24 data points that we work with and everything from dwell times to days to pay damage claims as a percentage, a bunch of accessorials at location. A lot of stuff that just is like, hey, here's what it's like to operate and do business with this shipper, this location. And that helps people get dialed in on pricing. It creates accountability. It's on the same scale as like a credit score. so it's like a 900 point scale so everybody knows like 780 good 430 bad um that kind of thing so and um but then we can we can also tell them okay here you suck here's why um but here's how you can get better and so we have uh we've got some freight karma tools um that that says hey if you reduce your dwell time by five minutes as a shipper, your score will go up 30 points.

43:29And we're able to deliver that intelligence to them to help shippers get better. Because a lot of shippers do want to be good partners with their carriers. But I don't know any shipper that tracks their dwell time. Like why would they? They don't care. Right? So this is a way we can collect that data for them and say, hey, this is huge opportunity cost for your carriers. and if you can get more efficient here they can be more profitable and you know maybe they don't have to charge you as much um so yeah it's this is really this is really fascinating like it's

44:05Malcolm Harris: almost like a i mean it is like a a credit score you know essentially uh in this space so that's that's real um i want to do kind of a multi-step question and uh both of them first get ready to Take notes, Lance. Here we go. Evolution of LTO. Because Michael and myself have both been around LTO. Obviously, Mike has been around it longer than I have. But we both have exposure to it. How has this evolved? And let's just put it at the last decade. And how is it going to evolve in the next five years? And then second, we covered a big story a couple of weeks ago, which we thought was kind of odd. But it was good.

44:46Malcolm Harris: But was it? it was the Amazon getting into the LCL space and kind of doubling down there. What are your thoughts? Because I just want to know just, I mean, you're very, very knowledgeable in the space and just want to kind of know about that. So evolution and then Amazon and your take on both. Got it. Yeah. Now from an evolution perspective, the service offerings that a lot of the 3PLs had uniquely in terms of their technology, their multi-curring rating capabilities, that has all become table stakes. And the brokers and the 3PLs out there, they're the ones that tend to drive the evolution and drive the efficiencies because they have to create value.

45:27If they don't have new and cool and creative value and tools, they're kind of dead in the water. So they're the ones that are really driving innovation, in my opinion. The carriers kind of catch up and they see what takes on and then they're like, hey, we can do that too. And then that forces the further evolution for the 3PL. So a lot of digitization, a lot of, hey, you can shop my competitors here on my website, as well as your own TMS offerings. We're able to see where that was something uniquely available through a broker's of not long ago. So we're gonna start to see more and more of that.

46:08I think where the next evolution is coming in is we're going to see a voracious appetite with 3PLs and artificial intelligence and more tools, more efficiency, more data gathering. And just like Ed was talking about and the knowledge of what your trailer position is and everything else that used to be someone just dealt with. But now all of those things are becoming more data points, and all of those data points are going to get synthesized through more artificial intelligence. And I think that's where it's going to continue to go. And we're betting on that also with Freight Facts because we're creating new data points that people can ingest and use and say, okay, here's how it can get better.

46:58We had one day back in the day at Roadway Express, we had one day where equipment didn't move every year. And it was Christmas Day. And that's when we took our equipment inventory. Yeah, right. And you can imagine how accurate that is. You can imagine how accurate that is when you're like, I got to get back to Christmas dinner. So, yeah, you have that GIF locks. I really don't have it. even though you know you do because those arguments are not going to last long. Yeah, fine. Whatever. I still got three of them. That's all I need. So I'm good. It's crazy. But, you know, with the dynamics and a better intelligence or, I don't know, better technology and understanding your freight mix and your rating, right?

47:43And what your lanes are and that type of stuff. And also, like you said, because you see it at different LTL, like BGL, Blue Grace is fantastic at their advancements, a lot of their advancements linking into ERP systems, that type of stuff. Is there more of a, do you think there'll be more of a drive towards specialty or specialization in LTL, kind of like there is in truckload where you have tankers, you have this type of stuff? Not that it's just going to be bulk carriers and that type of stuff, but specific types of commodities do not mix well with others. And if you had specific classes together, your rates might be a little bit lower because it's like in-kind freight kind of thing.

48:27Yes. Do you see that evolution? I do. There's already evidence of that in like a Carter Logistics that do like they supply auto plants, like very specialized. Hey, I'm going to these specific locations so they can get suppliers, you know, hundreds or thousands of suppliers and just do very specific. I'm going to seven plants today. So like, let's load them up and get it done. I think you'll see that kind of industry specific, you know, specialization where they can offer density and they can offer savings because they can offer density and pickups and deliveries. So I think we'll, great call out, Michael.

49:08I think we'll definitely see that more of that with more data coming in place. I think that's good for everybody, right? Because, you know, I was back in the day when I was on the dock going, this is shitty freight. And my boss would always say there's no shitty freight just improperly priced. Exactly. Right? We say the same thing in sailing. There's no bad weather, just bad gear.

49:28Malcolm Harris: No bad weather, just bad gear. Lance, where can we get more information about what you and the rest of your team are doing, man? Because this conversation doesn't even do it justice. Just scratching the surface. No. Yeah. No, that's okay. Yeah, no, it's FreightFacts.io. We open up pre-registration. You sign up now. You'll get your first three reports as soon as we go live. So FreightFacts.io or hit me up on LinkedIn if you get some more questions. I'm always there. I love it. So we'll look forward to it, man. We really appreciate the opportunity. No doubt. We appreciate you just being willing to hop on the show.

50:06Malcolm Harris: And we're definitely going to have you back. A-S-A-P, man. This is awesome. Let's eat. Peace of love to you and your family, Lance. You too, man. Go blue, man, by the way. Don't let a house be blue. Yeah. I'll let you guys work that out. If there's anybody left that's not in prison by the time we play. Oh, man. Appreciate it, Lance. I appreciate you guys. I appreciate Ed for being on the show earlier. It's been a fantastic What the Truck episode. But we still got more to go this week. You're not going anywhere because Wednesday, we got one heck of a show coming up. Let's look at the road ahead before we get out of here for the rest of the day and get you guys at Freightwaves today at noon Eastern because we're going to have two awesome guests on Wednesday.

50:51Malcolm Harris: First is going to be Patrick Sullivan. All right. He is the CEO and co-founder of EV Realty. And then we're going to have John Nolan, the co-founder and CEO of Systems Artitect as well at Cypher and Row. All right. So between John, between Patrick, a heck of a Wednesday episode coming up. That's it for us today. I'm Malcolm Harris that's Michael Vincent peace and love we'll see you on Wednesday let's bring it peace and love everybody peace and love