"Sharehousing offers shippers the opportunity to avoid large capital outlays, not only for systems, but for equipment and other capital things like racking, or pick positions, and those sorts of things. It makes operations more efficient."

- Mike Albert

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Scott Auslund: Welcome back to another episode of future ready freight. I'm Scott Auslund, the CEO of Mariner, and I have Mike here with us from our warehousing side. How are you, Mike?

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Mike Albert: Good. Good to be here.

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Scott Auslund: Well, thanks for being on the show today. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to Mariner?

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Mike Albert: Well, I've been in the warehousing business for a long, long time, probably too long, some people would say. But I came to Mariner in January 2021. And we had a full warehouse. So I spent the first three months doing sales stuff, pipeline reports, and those sorts of things. And finally, we came to you and said, "Hey, we need a warehouse, because we have nothing to sell otherwise". So we opened up DeSoto. And then we've since opened up Fort Worth, and things have been going really well for us.

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Scott Auslund: So when I think about the warehousing space as a whole, you have different size customers that need different things. And I think right now my understanding is, when you're talking to customers, you're trying to understand what the scope of their needs are. So maybe tell the audience a little bit about how you think through that, as you're speaking with customers on the front end of a sales process?

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Mike Albert: Well, sure, first of all, we want to know if they're satisfied with their current provider, or even if they have a current provider. Secondly, we find out where their pain points are, what things they don't like about their current situations, what things they'd like to have instead. And that drives the conversation into what I call Sharehousing.

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Scott Auslund: So tell us a little bit about Sharehousing, what it is and how it benefits the customer.

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Mike Albert: Sharehousing is a concept that gives the small to medium sized customer the comfort of a contract. So the certainty that the service will be there means that they'll have an ongoing relationship. But we also follow that up with a highly flexible, responsive service offering that allows the small and medium sized company access to better technology, better solutions, and overall a better experience.

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Scott Auslund: So what size customers typically would benefit from a solution like this?

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Mike Albert: Small to midsize customers, primarily large, large, large customers have a different profile that they go after, that we don't offer at this point. So when you're in the genre of shared warehousing space, it's important that we be transparent, flexible, and very responsive to our customers' needs.

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Scott Auslund: Are you seeing that, especially on the transportation portion of logistics, that more customers are asking for this kind of service where there's a warehouse piece plus other things bundled with it?

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Mike Albert: Sort of. What we find out is the small to medium size, customers aren't really aware of what might be available to them. The Transportation Management System, if they were to go out and purchase that, it's a very expensive concept to buy and own. There, they have to add people which they don't like to run the system and that sort of thing. So if we have a TMS offering, we can slide that into the customer, pull them in on a shared use environment and give them the advantage of a very high-powered transportation management system.

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Scott Auslund: And then, is it usual that they just want the system, or do they also look for us to have additional staff in assisting them -that sort of thing?

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Mike Albert: Well they find it's easy to use us because we do provide customer contacts for them in the TMS group as well as the warehousing group, they find that they have access to better rates on the transportation side which is a big plus for them. It's awesome. We've just really recently converted one of our warehousing customers to a TMS customer. And they're just thrilled with the fact that they can save close to $100,000 a year in their shipping budget, which is a big deal for them.

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Scott Auslund: Yeah, that's awesome. So as you think about the next two years, from a warehousing and transportation management vision, how do you see this product evolving as you move forward?

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Mike Albert: Well, we think it's going to propel us into a better place in the market. Word of mouth in this industry is very, very important. So if we provide good services in Dallas, that will hopefully give us an entree to move to other places, geographies around the country and provide the same services for existing customers, as well as adding other customers in those locations.

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Scott Auslund: Does it matter where the customers are? Or are you guys willing to go anywhere for the country?

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Mike Albert: At this point, it doesn't matter. We'll pretty much go anywhere.

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Scott Auslund: As I think about the different hotspots for warehousing, especially across the country, are there any markets that you're particularly interested in at this point?

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Mike Albert: Well, the hot markets today haven't changed much over the years, but we're really looking at Upper Midwest, Indianapolis, Chicago, northeast, Central Pennsylvania, Southeast Atlanta, and far West, probably. You know, that whole Las Vegas, Phoenix kind of area, is a big hotspot as well.

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Scott Auslund: When you think about the sales process, when you're talking to a potential customer, and you're trying to figure out if it's a good fit, what are some of the key questions or areas that you really want to understand to make sure it is a good fit for the customer?

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Mike Albert: First of all, there's the whole operating profile of the customer's business, it has to match what we're capable of doing in, in, in terms of being able to provide the service. But then we want to know, again, what their experience has been, how we can help them, we want to make them aware of the services we can provide. And you know, an explanation of Sharehouing becomes key to that.

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Scott Auslund: When you think about adding value, one of the big areas that I think you want to understand is why they might be looking for a new provider. What is so important about understanding why they're looking for a new provider?

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Mike Albert: Well, it's important on a variety of fronts. First of all, we want to know why they're leaving. If they're being asked to leave by their current provider, that might raise a yellow flag. But conditions around us you know, what didn't they like? What didn't they like? What are they looking for? Is there a need for greater technology on the WMS? What do we need to do from that perspective to give them not only accurate inventory control, but visibility, and the ability to manage their orders remotely?

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Scott Auslund: So when you think about the size of the customer, as well as the length of the contract term? Ideally, what range are you looking for?

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Mike Albert: Customers who are going to need some warehousing services and space. We'd like to start at about that 500 pallet level and go on up. And there's really no limit except however much space we have left in the building. But we also want to know what their activity levels are, how many shipments per day, how many cases we have to pick per day, how many pallets we have to load per day, those kinds of things. Sharehousing works really well, whether it's a short term agreement for less than 12 months, maybe just a seasonal agreement. And we can still pack all the same services and flexibility into that as we can for a longer term agreement. And our hope is that we not only win customers for repeat business, but we'll grow with them across the country.

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Scott Auslund: If a customer wants a dedicated space, so instead of being in a shared warehousing space, they want their own building and their own operation, but managed by us, is that something we would offer?

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Mike Albert: Oh, Absolutely. Those kinds of contracts tend to be much larger, they also tend to be much longer, because they require that the customer to actually make more of an investment in people, equipment, facilities and that sort of thing, because it's a dedicated space. So we can still offer a lot of flexibility in terms of staffing and equipment, as well as transportation management and those sorts of things. But yeah, we'd love to have large dedicated operations around the country. There's no question about that.

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Scott Auslund: Sure, yeah. Earlier you talked a little bit about a WMS or warehouse management system. When you think about the value that a mid market customer can benefit from. What does that look like?

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Mike Albert: Well, when I first came on board, we had a rare fairly unsophisticated 3PL management system, warehouse management system that we were using. We quickly outgrew that customers really need the certainty of lot control, the certainty of inventory accuracy, particularly in today's environment, as interest rates go up. They're keeping their eye on things like how much inventory do we have. And then we also offer what we couldn't before, a visibility portal, that gives them the opportunity to appeal to feel more involved with the operation. It ties them closer to us and our people and they can look and manage orders and ask questions and see everything happening in real time on their PC monitor. It's really, they're really looking for that level of sophistication, which many of our competitors in that space don't really have. They're using systems like we used to have. But the system we have now is very sophisticated, highly configurable, and really rock solid and inventory management.

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Scott Auslund: So, Mike, what is different about sharehousing versus traditional warehousing?

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Mike Albert: Well, traditional warehousing is very transactional in nature. Its pallets in its Palace are out, not a real warm feeling about the business of the business. Customers these days are looking for more sophistication in your operation. And we can do that by offering them easy access, low cost access, to sophisticated warehouse management systems, transportation management, and capital, they can avoid capital expenditures for things like racking and equipment. And we can provide the whole thing in a shared use environment and put that together with our transparency, flexibility, and responsiveness. And it's really a great solution for the mid size, small customer.

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Scott Auslund: Mike, what advice do you have for the current shippers out there today?

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Mike Albert: Well, the current shippers out there today, frankly, are fairly unsophisticated. They're, they're the new generation of folks coming on board. COVID has really eliminated face to face meetings, and the touchy feely ness of working with your warehousing provider. We turn that around and make it a more immersive concept or a more immersive experience for the customer. Because we get them involved with our WMS we get them involved in the TMS. We actually provide good consulting for them in terms of how we think it should be, that's our transparency piece, and we work with them to make good decisions on their behalf.

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Scott Auslund: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Mike, for being on the show. This has been another episode of Future Ready Freight.

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