From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs: Optimizing Inbound Freight

Narrator: 

Welcome to Beyond Point to Point, the podcast where we go beyond pickup and delivery and dive deeper into the world of logistics, freight, and supply chain management. From industry trends to expert insights, we're here to help you navigate the complexities of modern shipping. Be sure to subscribe to Beyond Point to Point wherever you watch or listen to your favorite podcasts. Now here's your host, Joe Greek.

Joe Greek: Welcome to another episode of Beyond Point to Point. I'm your host, Joe Greek, and today, we're zeroing in on one of the most critical and often overlooked segments of the supply chain, inbound cargo. From geopolitical uncertainty to the ripple effects of warehouse bottlenecks and port congestion, shippers today are navigating a lot, but while we can't control tariffs, global conflict or the economy, we can't control how efficiently we manage the freight we bring in. In this episode, we're taking a fresh look at inbound cargo strategies.

You'll hear from three perspectives, leadership, operations, and technology on how companies can take back control and reduce costs and create a smarter, more resilient supply chain. For the first point in today's route, I'm joined by Ed Smith, Vice President of Distribution and Fulfillment at Averitt. Ed oversees our port side operations, including our transload network, fulfillment centers, and drayage fleet. He's seen firsthand how the traditional inbound model can break down when too many hands are involved and how a more consolidated strategic approach can change the game. Let's dig into how supply chain leaders should be rethinking inbound freight in today's environment. Ed, thank you very much for being on the show today. It's great to have you here.

Ed Smith: Thank you.

Joe Greek: Now, you've been with Averitt for 21 years now and you've been at the forefront of the historical development of distribution and fulfillment. Could you walk me through that and give us a quick overview of what Averitt distribution and fulfillment actually is?

Ed Smith: Sure. So, first of all, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure being here with you and the opportunity to share a story about our fifth vertical. It's always exciting for me. So, the opportunity just to rave about it is always a plus. The best thing that I can tell you from a history standpoint of distribution and fulfillment, we started doing this in multiple regions over the years and we were just dipping our toe in the water to see what our customers needed and all these wonderful things. But then as we started to grow from a port side standpoint, warehousing became synonymous. It was a time for us to really put those two together. So, we built our first hybrid physically in Charleston, South Carolina, and back in 2017, we opened that building and we had the ability to service our customers at all levels.

So, it was a drain, a transload, and then a warehouse, full-blown distribution. We even opened up our first e-commerce customer, direct to consumer through there, which is very exciting at the time. Little did we know markets like Charlotte had a warehouse already where we were doing multiple things for multiple customers, but we never really had everything under one umbrella until we brought it to the executive team. We created distribution and fulfillment, and it was started in its inception with Eddie Adkins. What a great Averitt associate for so many years, missed greatly.

But at that point in time, we had to switch gears and decide, "How do we put this under one fold?" It came under our group as a PortSide distribution and fulfillment, and our team started to run with it, built SOPs, and before you knew it, we were up and running in Nashville and then Atlanta and then Dallas and then so on. Here we are now with three million plus square feet across the platform and continuing to grow and learn every day.

Joe Greek: Well, for those that might not be familiar with PortSide, what is that?

Ed Smith: So PortSide is simply our offering that we started back in... It was in 21 years ago now at least, that we started PortSide offering. The PortSide simply meant that any cargo coming into any port, whether it was an inland port or whether it was a port along the seaboards, we could handle them within our footprint. That gave us flexibility for our customers to bring import business into our facilities. We would typically transload that, move it out on our truckload division, start engaging other verticals, and before you know it, that grew. In typical Averitt fashion, we decided to do it really well. We offered it to the customer service base for everyone to have, and it took off. So, here we are again, just another piece of that vertical growing and offering things to our customers.

Joe Greek: That's great. It's been an incredible growth for distribution and fulfillment over the years. So, it's been wonderful seeing how it's evolved with we've got facilities by the major ports on the sea, we've got them inland, and we've even got them along the border.

Ed Smith: This is correct. It just shows the true testament to our ability to be nimble. You never know where our customer's going to need us, so let's have an infrastructure and a plan in place. So, when they do, we're the first ones on the spot to help.

Joe Greek: Yeah. Well, speaking about inbound cargo supply chains, we live in a quite tumultuous time right now, and so there's a lot of shippers that are trying to rethink their strategies, figure out ways to save costs, and get more efficient. Given the nature of the times we're in right now, what would be your advice to individuals looking to rethink their strategy?

Ed Smith: So there's really three things that you can think about when you start looking at the times we're in currently, and we've been through these before. It's just been different times, different errors, different ages, even different inflections of what we're dealing with currently. So, definitely draw on your experience, but one of the things that really comes first and foremost, what I see people do fourth quarter last year into the first quarter of this year and even a little bit further, they've been planning ahead. That inbound cargo has been rushed into the US prior to tariffs hitting.

Now you have inventory sitting at the same old rates that you were currently enjoying as a BCO, and it really had the opportunities for them to say, "Let's stage inventory where we need it, and then let's see how the tariffs roll out." So that's a very forward-thinking way of looking at it. You also have to continue to look at where your product's being sourced. That's the second big thing. Do you have to continue to move it from China or Vietnam or Pakistan or Mexico as we've even heard? How do you move it to avoid tariffs in certain situations? The other side of that coin is are we really trying to force more manufacturing back into the US? And then your distribution model is much easier, correct. Source it right here in the US and build it and move it wherever you need it, direct in to your consumer.

That's always been good. Then the last thing that I think people need to understand in times like now is it's a famous saying that we've always heard, you hear it in many different levels of your life. Be patient. This too shall pass. Let's see where it goes. We have a lot of our customers that are reevaluating their supply chains today and saying, "Maybe we should hold off shipping for the next two, three, four weeks and determine where we go from here." But I think all those three things are a key to success for inbound cargo.

Joe Greek: Well, what are some of the critical areas in the supply chain right now that you think shippers could take the opportunity to make some drastic improvements upon?

Ed Smith: Well, I think the opportunity right now for all shippers is to reimagine your supply chain and determine who the best fit as a partner is. So, when you have someone like Averitt that has all five verticals that they can offer, so literally from an inbound standpoint, no matter where your cargo is being sourced, Averitt has every functionality in the supply chain that we can offer. So, if you look at integrated on the international side that can bring in a container, that's wonderful, gets it over the seas, brings it into whatever port you want to angle it into, and then from there, we start picking up distribution fulfillment in PortSide, grabs it, determines where you want to take it. At that point, you can either bring it to our facilities and we can distribute it.

We can transload it or we can do direct trade to your facility. Any of these things work. But again, that's two of the first legs that you really need on an inbound cargo side of things. Once you move that product inward and you want to get it out to the customers, you start engaging LTL. You're back into integrated if you need expedited services. Then there are customers out there large enough to this day in point that come and our distribution facilities and we feed our dedicated team that moves this product just to them all day every day. So, I think that is valuable. When things are tumultuous, a company like Averitt stabilizes your supply chain and makes it to where you almost have no worries.

If you start piece mailing those things together, then that's where it weakens the chink in the armor because right then you start to have gaps, whether it's communication gaps, visibility gaps, and I think for a customer, gaps mean fear. It says to them, "Oh, my goodness. I can't see something or I don't understand what's happening with it right now. Where is my actual inventory?" I think we fill all the gaps, we keep it seamless, and you lay your head down on your pillow at night better knowing where your inventory and your cargo is.

Joe Greek: Well, 2025 has been off to an interesting start. There's been fluctuating tariffs across the board. One day, it's this. One day, it's that. I know that gives a lot of shippers apprehension on what they need to be doing right now and in the future is that moving their supply chain elsewhere, but those are really big decisions and big moves. So, what practical advice would you give to an individual today?

Ed Smith: So the first thing I can touch on it again, and that is patience, the ability to wait and understand exactly what the market's going to do. A knee-jerk reaction can often lead to tumultuous time within your own company. So, why have that ripple effect, right? If you look at Averitt's soon to be 54-year history, we've been very patient as a company and sometimes that patience looks like you're stalling or looking for an answer when actually you're finding the best path. To me, that's super interesting for all of our cargo owners as well. As these tariffs come out every day, it changes, when they're going to hit, how long they're going to be here, what the percentages are, what lane they're coming from. It's just too volatile right now to make large changes.

The best thing to do is stay the course and again, find a partner that offers stability, that has all the services that you need and is a true value when you start asking the questions. For me, that's the key to Averitt. We're not just a company that talks about trucking. We're a company that actually offers solutions to our customers about their entire supply chain. That's a huge statement to make as a company in my opinion. It puts us in the forefront of being someone's sounding board when things get the way they are right now. The other side of that coin is when you demonstrate that level of commitment to the partnership in your customers, they come to you.

When they start looking around the room and going, "Hey, who do we need to talk to about what's happening in the marketplace? How to get the inventory to our customers, speed to market when it's tumultuous and the seas are rocky?", literally they come to Averitt and say, "Well, let's go talk to them. Let's see what their take is on this." We constantly have our ears to the ground trying to figure out what's coming next. We stay in touch with everyone that we know within the marketplace.

So, whether that's our ports, our relationship at our ports are wonderful. They know before we do what the beneficial cargo owners are going to do. They hear what the bookings are, they understand what's coming next, and they give us a playbook that really helps our customers understand this is where we go next and Averitt's telling us how to get there.

Joe Greek: Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate you, Ed.

Ed Smith: Thank you. Appreciate it, Joe.

Joe Greek: With Averitt PortSide services, the complexity of cargo management is washed away. From draining your containers to or from the port to ensuring seamless customs clearance, your business is in expert hands, moving smoothly from ship to shore. With transload solutions for worry-free inland distribution and warehousing for your inbound cargo, with WMS visibility and customized inventory management services, our port side services help you achieve more. Averitt, that's the power of one.

Now for the next point in our journey, we're heading to the shipper side of the story. I'm joined by Matt Klause, Chief Operating Officer at DiversiTech. His team faced major inbound challenges from warehouse congestion to rising demurrage costs, and they needed a better way to handle their freight flowing through the Port of Savannah. He shares what it looked like before, what changed, and how a new inbound strategy gave them better visibility, flexibility, and control. Matt, welcome to the show. I really appreciate having you here today. Now before we jump into the logistics behind DiversiTech, I'd really appreciate if you could maybe tell us a bit about the company.

Matt Klause: Oh yeah. DiversiTech was founded in 1971 by Charles Lipscomb with a focus on providing parts, supplies, and accessories to the HVAC industry. Most of our business is within the United States and Canada, although recently we've opened several locations in Europe as well. So, over the years, we've grown essentially from our foundings of equipment mounting accessories, all the way into broader way of product families that we serve, mostly the residential HVAC industry with.

Joe Greek: Well, just like Averitt, you started back in 1971. I would assume it was a small business and over the years it's grown and grown and grown. Like with many companies, growing pains occur along the road and particularly when it can come into supply chains. So, I understand that a lot of your volumes are coming in through Savannah, and over time, you guys identified potential issues within your supply chain. What were you seeing at that point? What was your supply chain looking like?

Matt Klause: Yeah, so about 50% of what we sell we make in the United States, the other 50% comes in from around the world. Like you mentioned, our primary support port is in Savannah, Georgia. So, where we started running into problems is we had such volume coming into there that staying in control of that volume, where it is, when it's coming in, getting it off the port, getting containers back before the merge and delay fees started became essentially more than we could handle. So, we needed a new thought around how we were going to handle this. We needed new partners that could help us handle that so that we could focus on our customers and not necessarily have to provide a lot of our resources and time focusing on what was coming in through the ports.

Joe Greek: Got you. Then I believe at some point, the teams here at Averitt as well as with DiversiTech team got together and started looking at your supply chain from a higher level. Could you tell me what we're doing now and what problems that may have solved for you?

Matt Klause: Yes, the partnership at Averitt has been fantastic. So, we went from not knowing when our freight was coming in, not knowing when it was going to get picked up, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in delay and merge fees for trailers and carriages to a partner with Averitt who goes to port, picks our stuff up, brings it in. Another piece of what Averitt started doing for us was taking our floor load of containers and palletizing that material for us and then holding it at their terminals in Savannah, so that we could bring it into our warehouse and outside of Atlanta when our warehouse was ready for it. What that did for us is it took out 100% of our delay and merge costs.

We see zero since we've partnered with Averitt, which I think is just a great testament to your customer service, the same type of service we try to provide to our customers in addition to the flexibility that we need, warehouses, depending on we're a very seasonal business. So, when we're out of season, we can usually take things the minute it comes into the port, but when we're in season, that's when it really matters and that things have to be really scheduled in and we need the flexibility. Averitt and the site there, the customer site you have there in Savannah has been a real competitive advantage for us, keeping our supply chain under control within the capacities that our warehouses can handle.

Joe Greek: Well, at Averitt, we don't see ourselves as really a service provider. We see ourselves as a partner and I think companies like us, we share some strategic cultural values that comes with the longevity of being around for almost 54 years each. That culture is built over time and it's something ingrained within our companies. So, from your perspective, why do you think the relationship with DiversiTech and Averitt is thriving the way it is?

Matt Klause: Well, I think we have a lot of the same focus in our core values. Now, we go by a core value of our first core values. So, focus, integrity, results, safety, and teamwork is what we try to work and I think very successfully work into really how we think about solving our customer problems or issues, how we solve and lead our teams, and then how we partner throughout the network.

Obviously, you have different core values, but I think at the core of them, it's about people. It's about making sure that people understand what it is that we're trying to execute for our customers and for each other and live those values. Peter Drucker has a saying that I think is a great saying, which is culture eats strategy for breakfast. That's true. If you can set the right culture, you can really provide the customer experience that you need to grow, not just your employees but your customers as well.

Joe Greek: Great. Well, thank you very much for your time. Before I let you go, I want to switch the questions up and maybe go to something a little more personal and just ask you over the course of your career, I know you've probably experienced challenges as a leader and when it comes to operations, management, but what has been some of the best advice or a learning moment that you recall?

Matt Klause: I think very early on in my career, I was fortunate to have a leader who was very involved, more as a mentor than a boss, somebody who really cared about seeing you develop. What he used to do is all the time he used to say, "You want to earn the trust of the people that you work with, the people that work for you, solve a problem for them, make their jobs easier, that they can execute what they're being asked to do."

I think that's really the number one focus that I try to do with my team even today, 25 years later, is what are the problems we have? How can we work together to solve those problems? How can we make our jobs easier so that we can provide the customer service and the experience that we need for our customers? We've lived by that. I've lived by that no matter where I've worked and with DiversiTech itself, and it's delivered for us and for our customers.

Joe Greek: Well, I think that is great advice that our viewers and listeners can take off into their own careers, and I really appreciate your time today.

Matt Klause: Great, thank you.

Joe Greek: Thank you.

Narrator: With Averitt Distribution and Fulfillment, we turn your complex logistics challenges into seamless solutions. From streamlining your inbound cargo pickup and staging your freight in one of our state-of-the-art facilities, featuring nearly five million square feet of distribution space, you have real time inventory and shipment visibility at your fingertips. No matter where your business is heading, whether it's LTL, full truck load, or final mile residential delivery, we have you covered. Averitt, that's the power of one.

Joe Greek: For the final point on today's route, we're talking technology. I'm joined by David Miller, Vice President of Customer Success at Extensiv. Their platform powers the visibility tools Averitt uses in its distribution and fulfillment centers, helping shippers know where their inventory is, what's moving, and what needs attention right now and in the future. With so much unpredictability in global shipping, David shares why connected data and smarter tech are key to staying in control. All right. David, thank you very much for being on the show today. Before we get into my main line of questioning for you, for those that are unfamiliar with Extensiv, could you give us a quick overview of what it is and how it supports logistics operators and shippers?

David Miller: Yeah. Extensiv is truly at the core, a WMS program that really helps with things like inventory control, visibility, connectivity into the larger supply chain ecosystem. So, anything that's going to happen along the lines of your inbound, your operations, your outbound, your picking, packing, shipping, et cetera, we're really going to be at the control panel that manages all of those things from warehouse to door.

Joe Greek: I like that. So, it's like the command center of all your inventory management. When it comes to supply chain challenges, on this episode, we're really talking about inbound cargo, stuff moving in from the port off the rail hubs or even off the tarmac. Visibility can be a huge challenge with inbound inventory. So, how does a program like Extensiv help in that area?

David Miller: So when we think about inbound freight and things coming to a warehouse, that really becomes a really large bottleneck for warehouses. When things show up and we don't know what's going to happen, we don't know which employees to have on site, we don't know which equipment we need, we don't know what hours we need to be open, those types of things. So, Extensiv is really going to allow you to take almost like an advanced shipment notification for all of the things that are coming, combine that with things like dock scheduling, partnerships, et cetera.

So, you truly do know what's coming to you days, weeks, sometimes months in advance as to what's going to be there. It really allows you to help with your labor planning, your equipment planning, your hours of operation, et cetera. Then ultimately, once things get there, you can get all of the full visibility of what's actually being received against what you were expecting.

Joe Greek: That's great. So, it's not just focused on what is right there at this very moment. It's the bigger picture.

David Miller: It's a little bit bigger picture. So, you talk a little bit about the entire supply chain and the hardening of all of the things, whether it's coming rail or ocean or air, whatever it may be. The ability to start tracking those things early on in the life cycle really helps with all of your planning going forward.

Joe Greek: That's great. Well, as you could probably agree, we live in a very unpredictable world, rot with geopolitical, turmoil, macroeconomic fluctuations with terrorists, severe weather, wars. We can just go on and on and on.

David Miller: For sure.

Joe Greek: How do you position Extensiv as a way for them to manage what they can manage throughout these turmoil, hot topics?

David Miller: Yeah, so there's a bunch of things that we're starting to see on those notes. So, you mentioned geopolitical and tariffs, et cetera. That's really timely right now because we've got a lot of businesses that are trying to bring a lot of inventory into the United States right now to maybe avoid some of those tariffs going forward or at least so they don't have to pay them right now and they can worry about that later. The idea around space and availability, where should I put my product? How should I get it there? Where is the availability?

When you can look at your entire supply chain ecosystem and see not only your own corporate warehouses, but maybe your partner facilities, and how do I connect with someone that may have some overflow space, a piece of technology that really gives you that end-to-end visibility of all things within inventory control. That's where someone like Extensiv is really going to come in play because you really truly can see across your entire ecosystem and know, "Where should I be putting something? What's going to be closest to the point of consumption? How am I going to get overflow capacity today, right now when I need it?" Those are the types of things that we can offer from a visibility perspective.

Joe Greek: That was very insightful. At Averitt, we use Extensiv in all of our distribution and fulfillment facilities. We provide access for free to our customers, and I think it's more than just a technology and a service. It's a combined solution that we are offering to the marketplace that is fusing the relationship between your technology and our operational efficiency and infrastructure to really deliver what we like to call the power of one solution, one place you can go for it all. What advantage do you see in that type of partnership versus using a disjointed tech stack or outdated tracking system?

David Miller: It's really just all of the digital connectivity that's really starting to flow now, whether that's EDI for retail compliance, whether that's API to be able to link billing systems and tracking systems and external point solutions or whatever it may be. I think that the fact that we're working so closely together, it really allows us to build for the future. We can see a world in which we exist today, and we can start to see, "Well, what are the iterative steps that we can take to make this better?"

Joe Greek: You guys work with a wide range of customers from small to medium to enterprise across literally every industry and sector. So, when you're talking with prospective customers, what are some of the common pitfalls that you see that they're experiencing on that inbound cargo?

David Miller: I think sometimes they just don't know what they don't know. I think that usually becomes one of the earliest pitfalls of these things. Again, I think that really comes into play with not knowing what questions to ask, not understanding the manufacturing process, the time to market. So, again, it really becomes almost like a planning issue. So, if you're not asking the right questions, you don't know when the inventory is going to arrive, you don't know how to plan for it, that starts to become really the main driver of the entire rest of your operation. If you don't have a good inbounding process and visibility, it's hard to put things away correctly.

It's then hard to pick those things correctly to be able to ship them out, all of your warehouse operations and efficiencies really start with a good receiving process. If you're not prepared for that, it's really going to be a snowball effect on the outbound side of your operation as well.

Joe Greek: I guess a big challenge there is knowing whether or not you have a problem.

David Miller: That's probably a good way to think about it.

Joe Greek: Well, last question I have for you, as shippers are starting to think that they really want to get their hand around their inventory data, they want to improve their inventory management and transportation services and solutions and even their procurement strategies, what kind advice do you give to somebody who's just now going to start researching the market for solutions? What should their first step be?

David Miller: Yeah, there's probably a couple of things that we see customers or prospects really starting to be successful with. The first is sometimes it just makes sense to hire a consultant or get a trusted advisor, whether that's another 3PL, whether that's somebody that you have inside of your organization, whether that's a technology provider, just someone that can come in and really evaluate the entire situation from an independent third-party point of view and then also has the ability to compare that to what's happening with other like-minded businesses or in that sector. You get that benchmarking down and all of those other things. So, being able to level set and understand, where am I today? What should I be aspirational to?

So once we can level set and understand where can we possibly be, it's a really good first step. The second part of that then is in order to get there, you've got to have access to your data. So, if you don't have systems or tools in place today that are going to give you that information, really starting to implement those types of things so you can start to run your analytics, you can start to run your BI, and from that, you can really start to make that analysis and understand how are you going to make better business decisions going forward. So, again, access to your data becomes a really important part of how you're going to be able to improve going forward.

Joe Greek: That is some great advice. Well, David, I really appreciate having you on the show today, so thank you very much.

David Miller: Thank you so much for having me. [inaudible 00:29:23].

Joe Greek: Let's take a moment to recap. We kicked things off with Ed Smith who challenged us to rethink the way we approach inbound freight, fewer touch points, greater control. Then we heard from Matt Klause who walked us through DiversiTech's transformation from bottlenecks and backlogs to visibility and efficiency. Finally, David Miller gave us the technology lens, reminding us that real-time data and integration aren't just nice to have anymore. They're essential.

If you're looking to dive deeper into how to streamline your inbound cargo strategy, be sure to check out our white paper, Streamlining Inbound Cargo Logistics. It's packed with insights on reducing touch points, improving visibility, and turning your inbound supply chain into a competitive advantage. Download it today at Averitt.com/InboundCargoLogistics. Thanks for listening to Beyond Point to Point and be sure to subscribe. So, you don't miss what's next. We'll see you on the next episode.