Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, so welcome to Das Delivered podcast. Today we're thrilled to have a special guest with us, colby Varley, the co-leader at ATS, that's, advanced Transportation Services. We're thrilled to dive into the intricate world of the refrigerated transportation. This company has been around for 40 years and driving excellence and non-asset-based freight logistics, with expertise in managing time-sensitive loads, adapting to industry shifts and building strong supply chain relationships. Colby's journey offers insights that resonate with everyone, from truckers to grocery chain managers. We'll dive deep into the challenges, strategies and innovations driving this essential sector. Colby, thank you so much for joining us today. How are you doing? Good, excellent. Thank you so much for joining us today. How are you doing?

Speaker 2: 0:46

Good, excellent. Thank you so much for having me Honored to be on with you.

Speaker 1: 0:50

It is a pleasure to have you here too, and we look forward to sharing the insights you have with all of the listeners. Wanted to dive deep into the challenges of the reefer logistics? Talk to us a little bit about that. So, when it comes to refrigerated transportation, it always has high stakes. I mean, a lot of the product that's on there can be very expensive. Can you explain why reliability is so critical, especially now that global supply chain disruptions are out there?

Speaker 2: 1:17

yeah, absolutely great question with refrigerated transportation, especially highly perishable food and produce. With what we specialize in, a lot of it's dated. So getting it to the shelf on time, to where the consumer has an adequate amount of time to purchase it, take it home, leave it in the fridge it's still good for a few days or a week. So you know, getting it there as quickly as possible to give the customer the most amount of time to enjoy that product is the name of the game, and with that comes some challenges and some headache and some heartache. But we really strive to do the best that we can and have a reputation of doing so.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Nice, and how do you ensure ATS is consistent when it meets those reliability standards? I mean?

Speaker 2: 2:16

that's got to be hard too. Yeah, so it really comes down to our vendors. Without them we're nothing. You know we've been doing it for 40 years. We have a handful of carriers that have been with us those 40 years. We really value the relationship of a great carrier. We're not the load board guys. We're not looking for the one and done or the cheapest truck we can find Just for our business niche. That you're not going to be successful. We go, we visit with our vendors, we see what kind of equipment they have. We look at their operation. You know just the service level that we expect. You know, if we're not getting it, it's probably not going to work out for us and our customer and it's a two-way relationship with our vendor and our customer. So, keeping that in mind and for the best interests of all parties, that's really enabled us to develop those longstanding, solid relationships to help drive us to hold the standard.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Makes sense.

Speaker 2: 3:24

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:25

You know the steps to take to maintain integrity for temperature sensitive. I mean I used to do HVAC and it goes down. I mean that's a huge bill or a huge claim for the insurance for temperature sensitive freight. I mean you got those reefers running nonstop. Hopefully they never, you know, mess up the load, um man. So what steps do you take to maintain that integrity?

Speaker 2: 3:52

Yeah. So going back to kind of the last question, it really comes down to our vendors. We really try and put our our feet on the ground, meet with them, look at their equipment, see their equipment. From our experience you have a pretty good idea or understanding of someone's operation or their equipment just by going to their yard, going to their office, going to their shop. You know we've seen everything from the A plus rated guys to you know the probably D andF guys and you kind of learn in between and see things that say, hey, like that's important to my customer. Or you know, maybe that carrier should be working on this. They're not doing that, and just having that in place that's the biggest.

Speaker 2: 4:38

The next thing is just doing it. You know from me being a driver hauling refrigerated freight, like I understand some tips and tricks and we really push that onto the vendors that we work with and even down to the driver. I mean we're pretty driver sensitive. We like to speak with the driver. We want to dispatch the driver, explain to them how to pulp the product if it's pulping in the incorrect temperature. You know it's an all-stop call us, let us get involved. So really, from what we've gathered is, you know, as long as you put it on the correct set point and you pulp that product and it's good when you put it on the truck Very minimal issues, I mean. We are very blessed to not have a lot of claims just because of the effort that we put in on the front end to make sure that you know the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed does it get?

Speaker 1: 5:45

I mean, maybe is there something you could share like a story, or I mean some red flags that just go off when you go to check out a vendor or a carrier yeah, you know, you can just tell by their equipment, you know, you see, you know, maybe a torn chute or chutes that aren't in great condition.

Speaker 2: 5:59

You see reefers that are aren't in great condition, um, you know, maybe they're just pulling in the yard and parking them. Then you see other guys that their operation, as soon as that truck hits the lot it's getting an inspection from their mechanic on site. You know, and they got, one side of the yard has loaded trailers that you know they're monitoring the temperature for the trucks to come, the long haul drivers to grab those trailers and goes the other side of the lot is all the empty trailers, washed out, clean, inspected, ready for the local driver to come pick it up and go pick up a load.

Speaker 2: 6:41

So you know and everything in between go pick up a load, so you know, and everything in between. So when you see that kind of extra standard operating procedure that a carrier is putting in place on the front end, you know it makes us be able to go to a customer with confidence.

Speaker 1: 6:58

Nice, I mean you got to even Thermo King itself. I mean that's a huge company to be in a partnership with. What is it like working with those guys?

Speaker 2: 7:08

Yeah, so Thermo King Carrier, either one, I'd say we have a pretty robust network of experts in the field nationwide. I'll say that you know, if there is an issue, they seem to be pretty much everywhere nowadays, which is very helpful. You know, obviously, if it's in the middle of the night or something like that, you really got to pay. But it's probably more beneficial to pay that overtime fee to get someone to come down and make sure that that unit's operating correctly when there's a $250,000 load of blueberries on there, rather than just chance it. So it's, you know, just knowing what to do. You know Thermal King, they'll work with you Great.

Speaker 1: 7:58

So the refrigerated transportation market is expected to grow significantly in 2027,. It says you know the experts, so what do you think this will do to the industry? How would it impact it as a whole?

Speaker 2: 8:12

Hopefully it gets a little better on the carrier side. You know, I can tell you, all the experts in the world seem to think that this deal is turning around. We just went through another round of bidding and I didn't feel that. Uh, you know, I felt like there was still a heavy demand, uh, to push down on the rates. Um, even coming in at what we thought was competitive, still heavy downward force, uh, from the industry. You know, we're not the cheapest game in town, where that is not our business model. We're not trying to be that. But we do understand that there is some happy medium for the customer to stay competitive.

Speaker 2: 8:57

But we really do believe that, you know you're going to pay for what you get for or you're going to get what you pay, so you know you're going to pay for what you get for or you're going to, you know, get what you pay. So you know, if you're looking for rock bottom pricing, you're probably going to get rock bottom service.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Absolutely. I mean, that's a old saying you get what you pay for, yeah. So um, are there areas where you see opportunities for small carriers or independent truckers to capitalize on the growth potential?

Speaker 2: 9:26

Yeah, absolutely. I mean as hard as it is out there. I feel like there's just an abundance of opportunity and it's just really what you make of it. Nobody's going to hand it to you. It's not given out for free. You really got to put the work in and go get it, but, um, it seems like daily, you know there's just more and more opportunity available. Um, I feel that's out there, that you know anybody can go and get, whether you're a small asset-based carrier, 3pl, non-asset based, whatever the case is you, you know the opportunities there.

Speaker 1: 10:05

Okay, um, thinking about technology staying adaptable and changing industry. Uh, in logistics, uh, the industry requires consistent adaptability. How has ATS managed to stay ahead of that curve? Maybe technology or something like that?

Speaker 2: 10:19

Yeah, absolutely. So I can tell you from a technology standpoint, we were actually behind. We were behind the curve and we were starting to feel it, and two years ago we made a decision that we weren't going to be behind the curve anymore. So we ended up making some substantial investments in some technology to get us, you know, to where we can be at a level playing field with some other non-asset-based carriers that are in our space. It's been a substantial investment. I believe it has paid off.

Speaker 2: 10:57

I believe that technology was long overdue in our business and it's been, you know, kind of really, really fast, because I think the tech or the industry as a whole was behind. We were behind Um, but the more that we're kind of open to it, it's it's been really helpful. I don't think that it's gonna um replace a human being and what we do, but I think it'll definitely make human beings in our office more readily available for things that customers care about, like customer service or dealing with a vendor and having that technology help with maybe some tasks that you know a bot or AI can kind of do with some oversight of a human.

Speaker 1: 11:53

Nice. I mean it's good to see that humans still have a factor. You know a lot of automation coming through and people get worried. You know about job security, but it's nice to know there's an industry that there's still a lot of stability for the human factor. I mean, what would? What advice would you give other companies for the uncertainty? Let's say, what advice would you give other companies for the uncertainty? Let's say, what advice would you give them, the professionals facing similar uncertainties in the industry?

Speaker 2: 12:19

Yeah. So that's a great question and the best way that I've kind of found to answer that. Obviously that's something that I think about, but at the end of the day, you just have to remember that everybody's in the same boat. Nobody really, or you know something of that nature, but at the end of the day, nobody really knows with 100% certainty what's going to happen, how it's going to happen, when it's going to happen, how violently it's going to happen. So you know, I think, just trying to remember that you know, nobody knows. Everybody's in the same boat. You just got to make the best decisions with the information that you have at that time and if it changes, then be open to change, whether it's good or bad.

Speaker 1: 13:23

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the relationships we build with each other is so critical. You never know when we need each other. So I mean, I think that's a critical factor that people tend to forget, you know 100 percent it's.

Speaker 2: 13:36

This is a. This is a people business.

Speaker 1: 13:38

Yeah, for sure, that's what drives a consumer. Yeah, I went to a place the other day, got my tires my snow tires put on. Service was phenomenal. I mean I still don't. And the service was phenomenal. I mean I still didn't, but once I got helped, it was so good that I forgot about being in line. It was great, that's awesome, yeah, so I think customer service is going to come back.

Speaker 2: 14:05

I'm hopeful. Couldn't agree more with you. Couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1: 14:11

The value is huge because you're adding to the experience and people want a good experience, absolutely, yeah. So building a strong supply chain relationships how do you balance, uh, client demands with maintaining collaborative partnerships? I know you mentioned when we we got on the call. I mean it was a busy day for you, putting out fires and and you still got to keep those relationships going. How do you do that?

Speaker 2: 14:31

Yeah, you know, you just, uh, put your best foot forward and you know what we're looking to do is we want everybody to win. Uh, we want our customers to win, we want our carriers to win, we want to win. And when you have that kind of mindset and your vendors and your customers know that that's your mindset you can get a lot of things done. When people aren't worried about you trying to pull one over on them or you're gonna get one over on them on this one and they're gonna have to tip for tat and get you back. Things really seem to fall in place.

Speaker 2: 15:06

So, going back, you know it is a people business, being able to work with people. Obviously, working with so many people just, um, try not to take anything personal. You know emotions can get pretty heated, things can get heated. You know, don't take it personal, let it roll off your back, live to fight another day and just kind of having that kind of mindset, um, and and doing the right thing. You know people know when you're doing the right thing and obviously, when they keep coming back, you know that's kind of their way of showing that appreciation of you. Know you doing the right thing.

Speaker 1: 15:49

Let's say something happens, there's a disruption. How do you guys handle that? Rebuild trust or those relationships with something you remember, you can share?

Speaker 2: 15:59

Yeah, sure. So just you know, I mean claims happen. That's probably one of the bigger ones that are a little bit difficult to work through, just looking at all the facts, laying it all out, and not looking at could-bes or what was like, hey, here's what we have. This is factual data, this is what the temp recorder said, this is what the download said, this is what the USDA federal inspection said. Like, this is concrete detail and making that decision off of the information that we have, not what we want to think or what they want us to do. And sometimes that means, uh, sticking up for your carrier, which can be very difficult in a freight market like this. You know, I don't want to say battling, but having a hard conversation with your customer.

Speaker 2: 16:56

that you know, hey, we're not in the wrong here and here's why. And you know there's a lot of ways to work those things out. You know, when you got a customer that you're doing work with all the time, or a carrier that you're doing work with all the time, there's a lot of ways to bury things like that over the course of a year. So, just being open to different ways of mitigating those or working them out between each other, out between each other, and you know that's the best way that I, you know, we found is just being fair, looking at the facts and, um, even when it's hard you know, sometimes it can be very, very hard- I like that look at the.

Speaker 1: 17:45

You know, don't look at just what happened. Let's look at the a span of time um that we've been working together.

Speaker 2: 17:52

Yeah, yeah, and how can we work this out? Right, you know, I mean, if you do five, six thousand loads a year, you know, and you've got one that's got an issue, it's pretty, pretty easy to just, hey, let's bury this over the course of the year, or something like that, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:11

I mean there's a lot of ways, there's a ton of ways and it's a true leader um taking those um faults and failures and owning them instead of trying to brush them off on someone else. I like that and just explaining what happened. Um, your career spans from truck driving to uh leadership. I mean, how has your hands-on experience as a driver influenced the way you lead today?

Speaker 2: 18:37

Yeah, so kind of from the driver's seat to the C-suite. You know I'm blessed man to have the opportunity that I had to start on. You know that I had to start on. You know rock bottom. I didn't know anything about refrigerated trucking. I started, I learned from the bottom up.

Speaker 2: 19:02

You know every facet of, from being a driver to being a forklift driver, to loading, to building loads, to delivering loads, dispatching, load planning, customer service, sales. So when you have the opportunity to kind of start from the bottom and learn, you know every little different position within the not the supply chain, but within you know, from driving and delivering and sales and leadership. You just you know, you can visualize it in your mind. You know when a lot of these places that we go to, like I've delivered there, I picked up from you know, I know, you know someone's trying to tell me something that's like, sir, I've been to that facility. You know, like I think you're at the wrong one, or you know you're you're at the wrong check-in or whatever the case may be. But having that, um, real world experience is just, you know, invaluable yes, it is man and it shows it, especially for your drivers.

Speaker 1: 20:02

When they see that, I mean, they're more inclined to follow someone like that as a leader and trust them. I mean, it's uh, I don't know it, ma'am, it's uh, builds that trust. You know that you can't replace. Yeah, it's in the seat and tries to take the helm. Well, you don't know what we're going through down here on the bottom. You know, yeah, volumes. I'm not saying that no one can't do that, but you already got that headstart. When you do, it?

Speaker 2: 20:28

Yeah, absolutely, and if you know, you asked me to jump in a 18 speed right now. You know what I mean. I could click them off, no problem. So, uh, it's been a little while, but I'm sure you know it's just like riding a bike, yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:44

I love driving. Um, that's how I got into the industry. I said, man, what is it that I love to do? And it's like driving.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:57

I just make that a career. Right, that's it. Yeah, so, uh, that's huge man. So one of the most uh uh impactful lessons you've learned throughout the career in logistics can you share a little bit of that with the listeners?

Speaker 2: 21:06

yeah. So something that, uh, I kind of got beaten to my brain uh, you know, early on was if you're not good at it, don't say that you are. Um, obviously, customers are calling all the time looking for this or looking for that, and when you're trying to, you know, be a new business or, you know, young salesperson, you're probably saying yes to a lot of things and you might end up wasting your time trying to cover or do something that you have no business doing. And not only are you going to waste your time, you're going to end up wasting your customers time and ultimately, you probably are going to fail and let that customer down.

Speaker 2: 21:53

And when you get that opportunity with one, with a customer, you literally have one shot. So you better make sure that when you're given that time to take your shot, that you know what you're doing. So just staying in our lane, you can see people that will go from reefer to hopper, to drive-in, to flatbed, to step deck, heavy haul. They're all over the place and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not telling somebody how to run their business, but what we've found is staying in our lane, staying in our niche, specializing in a certain area and trying to be the best at it has helped us substantially grow our business.

Speaker 1: 22:38

Awesome man, that's huge. That's a great lesson to learn. I think I was told that as well. If it's something you want to do when it comes to business, it needs to be one thing that you provide and you need to do it well. Right, that's huge. I mean especially niche. Yeah, that's great. Right, that's huge. I mean especially in the niche. Yeah, that's great, Absolutely so. In the industry, innovations and the road ahead. Technology is transforming logistics and we talked a little bit about that. How has ATS leveraged innovations to to like telematics, data analysts or to improve efficiency and service on that particular aspect?

Speaker 2: 23:18

yeah. So, going back to when we talked about technology a little bit earlier, two years ago, we made a commitment, we were kind of behind the ball, uh, on a few items and, uh, we made the commitment to improve those and just staying con with, you know, the current technology, that's kind of normalized. I guess that they expect you to have having that, making sure that it's running well and always just kind of keeping your eyes open. You know I'm pretty open. You know you get a tech sales hey, this, hey, that like I'm interested, I want to see what is it. You know I might.

Speaker 2: 24:01

You know I'm probably not going to buy it, um, but I'm just trying to keep an open mind, um, with a lot of these new technology companies that are specific to transportation and how that can help with what we have. But what we've really kind of looked at is you know, you go get a new, robust TMS. There's so much capability with those and really we've kind of not stepped back but said, hey, let's look at what we have and make sure that we're using it to its full potential before we go put something else on top of that, because a lot of these TMSs they're great, they're awesome, they have so many different options and add-ons and whatnot, but it's like if we can't use the basic stuff, well then there's no point in adding to our tech stack yeah, it's another expense, another thing that you never know.

Speaker 1: 25:08

Um, yeah, absolutely, problem, absolutely. And you know, speaking with the hot topic, I mean it may not be much for reefers, but what do you think about autonomous trucks and the role it plays with the future of logistics?

Speaker 2: 25:22

You know, I think there's probably a place for it. I don't think it's in highly perishable food and produce. I think you know perhaps something dry that doesn't you know, isn't critical, has a long shelf life. Customers have a ton of it on hand and I think in certain areas you know, I think in the long stretch, maybe from Kingman Arizona out to Oklahoma City, somewhere in there on I-40 or somewhere off of I-10, from Tucson to Dallas, maybe there's some opportunity there. Obviously there's got to be some infrastructure with some sort of yard kind of out in those areas on both sides, but there could be some opportunity there or something that's not critical to be trucked across parts of the United States in an area that's not super inhabited to relieve some pain. I'm not looking to go 100%. Obviously I'm human first. You know I really believe in humans can do a better job. But I think you know there could be some opportunity there in that niche area nice?

Speaker 1: 26:45

yeah, I think so too, and it's been a consistent answer for for a lot there. So, yeah, just kind of fight back on some of the misinformation that's put out there. You know some people think it's going to take over, but it's good to hear from the experts themselves that what their take is what the future is going to look like. Yeah, yeah, as someone deeply involved in the logistics.

Speaker 2: 27:12

What's one misconception that you think you can speak on or you would like to address? That not all brokers are bad. You know you can go on social media and it just seems like the brokers just get trashed. You know trash talked and I get it. You know, in every industry, in every profession, there's bad actors. They're out there. You're never going to get rid of them.

Speaker 2: 27:33

But there are still a lot of good, non-asset based brokerages that carriers are aligned with. That they make a living. That's a great customer for them and they're not easy to find. I mean, like us, we don't post a lot of freight, so we probably post maybe 2%. If we're hung out somewhere can't get a truck. So unless you get a referral or you know who we are, you're not going to find us on the board. So that's probably for a lot of other good brokerages that have good carriers that work with them on a consistent basis. They don't need a poster freight. They're not looking to post their freight. That's not their business model. Um, so I I think that probably answers that pretty well yeah, it does.

Speaker 1: 28:28

Thank you, uh, for speaking on that, um, and where can our listeners connect with you or ATS to learn more about the work you guys are doing or approaching in the future for logistics, something you want to share, for them to reach out to you, and get the word.

Speaker 2: 28:41

Yeah, so I'm on all social media platforms Instagram, facebook, tiktok, linkedin, youtube. I mean we're all on there. And then also you can go to our website, advancedtransportationservicescom. Um, send me an email, call my office. You know multiple ways to get ahold of us.

Speaker 1: 29:05

That's awesome man Getting it done. Would you like to share with the listeners before we wrap it up? Uh, something, give a shout out to truckers out there or anything else you want to do.

Speaker 2: 29:18

Yeah, I just want to appreciate everyone. I'm not sure when this is going to go out, but we're recording the week of thanksgiving, so I appreciate everybody in the supply chain that's, uh, unable to be with their families, um, on this holiday. I know that's tough. We really, really appreciate it. You're you're doing America a great service and, um you know.

Speaker 1: 29:43

Thank you Simply put it right, yeah, and thank you guys for working hard behind the scenes as well. All the things that you do that we can't do while we drive. Uh, i's huge. It gets missed. Sometimes it looks like, you know, the driver is against the person in the office, but really, if we work together we can bring about some great things. So, yeah, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. Your insights into the refrigerated transportation building supply chain, building those relationships, staying adaptable in a changing industry, is invaluable. Really appreciate it Absolutely. Thank you, and to our listeners, make sure you follow Colby and ACS for more updates and logistics innovations. You're doing a great job out there, so stay tuned. Follow us if you like, give us the feedback if you need it, send us reviews we appreciate that or any ideas for a show that's coming up. So until next time, that's Deliver.