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Randy Guillot is Chairman of ATA – The American Trucking Associations. He has more than 33 years of experience working in the trucking industry and is president of Triple G Express Inc. and Southeastern Motor Freight Inc., which his grandfather, Aswell Pitre, founded in 1945. Randy helped launch Triple G Express In 1985, and he now oversees, collectively, more than 125 employees and contractors. Randy has worked in all aspects of the business, ranging from sales and driving to dock work and safety.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
In the midst of the pandemic, it's time to thank a truck driver. New figures show just how much e-commerce is changing our lives. And our nation's ports continue to rebound.
Pull up a chair and join us as the editors of DC Velocity discuss these stories, as well as news and supply chain trends, on this week's Logistics Matters podcast. Hi, I'm Dave Maloney. I'm the editorial director of DC Velocity. Welcome.
Logistics Matters is sponsored by DCV-TV. Five channels of streaming video are yours for the viewing on DCV-TV. Major improvements have recently been made to the DCV-TV platform to enhance the viewing experience, provide greater search capabilities, and expand the capacity of the video library well beyond the 3,000-plus videos already in the archive. Be sure to check it all out at DCVTV.com.
As usual, our DC Velocity senior editors Ben Ames and Victoria Kickham will be along to provide their insight into the top stories of this week. But to begin, I'd like to introduce today's guest. Randy Guilliot is the chairman of ATA, the American Trucking Associations.
Welcome, Randy. Thanks for being with us today.
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Thank you, Dave.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
First of all, can you tell us a little bit about the work of ATA?
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Well, American Trucking Associations is the voice of the trucking industry in Washington, D.C. We're also a federation. So we've got affiliates in all 50 states. So, representing the trucking industry, for advocacy, on safety issues, on regulatory issues, and we carry out the mission of the trucking industry.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
This is National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. How did that come about and what does it mean? How's it recognized?
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Well, American Trucking Association started in 1988, and with the aspiration—and certainly, hopefully, we're doing that now—is recognizing the important role that truck drivers play in the economy, and to be able to show our appreciation, not only from a trucking-industry perspective, but also our shippers and the motoring public. We want to recognize the hard work that truck drivers do. And let them know that we appreciate everything that they do, especially this year in face of the pandemic.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Yeah, and of course, with the pandemic, truck drivers are more essential than ever. Can you talk about how they have been able to keep going and moving things along throughout the pandemic, and keeping goods flowing?
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Yeah, certainly, you know, especially initially on, now, the rest of the country basically shut down, and the truck drivers stayed on the road, delivering medicine and delivering food, delivered essential goods across the country. And certainly, their job, their day-to-day jobs [have] been considerably different, if you will. Travel around the country. You know, a lot of rest areas closed down. The ability for truck drivers to go into a truck stop and, not only just fuel, but to use the restroom and potentially have a meal or something, all those types of things changed on the drop of a dime with the Covid-19 pandemic. So it certainly has changed a lot. Things are different now compared to what they were back in March. But they're still nowhere near back to normal. And I'm not sure what normal is going to be for truck drivers in the future, as well as everybody in the entire population. So, you know, we really want to show our appreciation to our national truck drivers this week, as we always do, but especially in the face of the pandemic and knowing now just how important and how essential our truck drivers are to the economy.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
You had mentioned that drivers were finding it difficult to even be able to enter some of the facilities with the risk of Covid. How are drivers coping out there? Are there particular ways that they're being able to maintain their safety on the road?
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Well, you know, I would say this: that each truck driver, as is each individual across the country, is handling it in different ways. You know, the American Trucking Associations, very early on, put out free hand sanitizers. Motor carriers were out there were protective masks and gloves and so forth and so on. So, you know, we support it as an industry, but it's left up to the truck driver, and having to accommodate, if you will, each shipper and each receiver on their requirements, and each of them are different. So it's been stressful. if you will, for truck drivers out there, and we appreciate the job that they've done, and I think we're getting through it, obviously. But we've got a ways to go. And as long as the pandemic is around, things are going to be different.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Are there particular things that carriers and shippers and your organization is doing to recognize drivers this week?
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Yeah, you know, across the country, whether the American Trucking Associations, giving out free shirts and sponsoring raffles, and so forth and so on, or whether working with our state affiliates, or motor carriers and shippers, you know? For instance, in my truck line I just grilled up everybody a meal yesterday, and we normally do a lunch and, you know, of course, we did things a little bit different—social distance here—and packaged up our meals, so that they can eat and each social distance apart from each other in our facility or choose to take it in their trucks and go home with it. So everybody's doing things a little different. But yeah, we recognize them. We give them whatever, whether it's a shirt, or whether it's a hat or something like that. Meal, if we possibly can do that as well. And that's going on across the country. A lot of motor carriers are doing that. A lot of shippers are doing it. And we're glad to see that recognition out there.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
We've been hearing for years about driver shortages. And of course, we all know that capacity has been down this year with a pandemic. Has it been difficult to find drivers who are willing to drive in the midst of the pandemic?
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Yeah, I you know, as I said earlier, in our conversation,each driver, if you will, has got a different personality, just like we all do, some of which were very brave, if you will, at the onset of the pandemic and just kept on driving straight through. Others took a step back, may have had health concerns, may have had just safety concerns for themselves or their families. So some of them chose to come off the road. So, you know, the shortage of truck drivers was exponential, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, where, you know, as we all realize, some of our essential goods needed to get to shelves, supply chain was a little bit different, right? You know, we were used to having maybe restaurants and those types of services and that supply chain in one fashion, whereas the grocery stores and essential goods going to medical facilities, and so forth and so on, is a different supply chain. So, one of them got stressed, if you will, it's one side of the business got stressed initially on, and the other one, quite frankly, had exceptional additional capacity available. So, you know, things have been a little bit different, and obviously we've readjusted as an industry. Business was somewhat off a little bit. Now it seems to be very robust, so the driver shortage is now showing up as much as ever. Because we did lose some of the population to just not driving anymore, just didn't want to pursue that type of career, whether it's retirement, or pursuing other types of employment. So, as we speak right now, driver shortage is just as bad as it's always been.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Yeah, that's going to continue, I think, to be a problem for some time to come. But we encourage our listeners to thank their truck drivers, the people who are making their deliveries or carrying their goods. It's something that we recognize this week, but, again, every week, we should recognize the heroes that are out there, keeping our goods moving.
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Thank you for carrying that message out for us today. We appreciate that.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
If you would like more information on the good work that ATA plays in our industry, we encourage you to go to trucking.org again, that's trucking.org Thank you, Randy. We appreciate you spending some time with us this morning.
Randy Guillot, Chairman, American Trucking Associations :
Thank you so much. Have a great day.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Thank you. Now let's turn to Ben and Victoria to discuss some other supply chain news from the week. Ben, it's not much of a surprise that e-commerce distribution has risen sharply during the pandemic. But you wrote about some new figures to back up that high rate of growth. Can you tell us some more?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity :
Sure, Dave, and it really rings true with some of what Randy was talking about with some of the changes in the trucking landscap,e as well, during the pandemic. A lot of us have heard that e-commerce shopping volumes, as we said, they've spiked as people, following business closures and travel restrictions, have been shopping from their laptops and their smartphones instead of gathering indoors in brick-and-mortar stores. But this week, one of the fastest growing e-commerce platforms, which is the Ontario-based Shopify, shared some statistics that show the details of that. The company's chief technology officer, Jean-Michel Lemieux, said that the online retail sector across the U.S. had experienced five years' worth of growth in the past three months alone. Stats from the U.S. Census Bureau back that up. They show that e-commerce sales during the second quarter, which we just finished, were about 16% of all retail sales. and that's up from 10%, just two years ago. Lemieux did say that that curve will probably soon begin to flatten out a bit once a Covid-19 vaccine is discovered and the nation and the stores begin to open up again. But he said it's gonna certainly keep on growing and is really on track to reach, you know, online shopping could be 20%, 30%, maybe 40% of all retail in the coming years.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Wow, that is fast growth. Did Shopify say anything about how retailers are handling the logistics of that growth?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity :
He did. He specifically was talking about the importance of automation and robotics in e-commerce fulfillment. And particularly, the discussion was about collaborative robots, also known as cobots. which drive themselves around warehouses along with warehouse employees, guiding people to inventory they need to pick, and then carrying the inventory back to a packing station when they're done. Shopify has that area well covered, because it acquired the cobot vendor 6 River Systems last year for $450 million. And in fact, Lemieux was speaking at 6 River Systems' annual user conference, where that robot company was talking about some of the steps it has taken to keep workers safe during the pandemic, such as wiping down each robot between shifts, using stylus pens to operate the tablet computers, instead of requiring workers to touch the touchscreen with their fingers, and also programming the robots to drive down warehouse aisles like one-way streets, a little bit like some of us are used to doing in grocery stores nowadays, so employees can keep social distance from each other. And it seems to be all working pretty well for Shopify. Their latest earnings report came out just last week, showed that the company had generated revenues of more than $700 million in the second quarter. And that was nearly double the same quarter last year. So, big growth all around.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Yeah, it certainly is. It'll be interesting to see how the retailers handle the holiday season with e-commerce volumes expected to be much higher than ever before. Thank you, Ben.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity :
Glad to.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Victoria, you wrote this past week about our nation's ports that continued to rebound from a very difficult period last spring. Can you share what you reported?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity :
Absolutely. And this is sort of in line with what we've been talking about in terms of accelerated growth and shopping. So this week, ports on both the East and West coast posted strong cargo volume reports for August—as you said, David, to kind of continue to climb back from what they saw as pandemic-induced low levels, particularly in May. So just to give you a quick couple of points: in South Carolina, the Port Authority there said total volume through the ports was up 18% over July and up 33% since June, and officials also said that August marked the second-highest month ever for imports. Similar, in the Port of Virginia, this week they said loaded imports rose for the third straight month in August, so continuing that upward climb from May, and that overall cargo volume to the port was up 12% compared to July. On the west coast, both the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Oakland saw similar results. They posted monthly gains in August. Los Angeles reported its first monthly cargo increase in a year. Officials there are citing a 12% gain that was driven by imports. And in Oakland a similar story. Imports were up for the third straight month, and they jumped 9% compared to last August, so that was a good sign. Despite all the increases, though, all four of those ports said year-to-date cargo volume remained down, so the bottom line seems to be that we're seeing a positive trend the last few months, but year-over-year comparisons still reflect slower activity
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Is the growth that we're seeing recently due to the peak-season shipping demand?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity :
Yeah, it seems so, exactly. Most of the ports that I heard from this week, said that the surge is really in imports, as retailers restock dwindling inventory levels over the last few months and they prepare for peak season. Some of the things we're seeing coming through are pandemic-related items such as e-commerce, goods, medical equipment, PPE, those kinds of things. So, yeah, the general sentiment seems to be that the upward trend will continue into September due to peak season and holiday shipping coming, but they also say it's hard to predict what volumes will look like further into the fall. And that's due largely to the uncertainty that the pandemic is created.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
And it also looks like a lot of the investments that they've made in port infrastructure the past few years have also begun to pay off, right?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity :
Absolutely. Yeah. Particularly on the East Coast. There are some expansion projects and a lot of building going on to keep, I'm sorry, to accommodate increased activity. And much of that's driven by the e-commerce acceleration that Ben talked about earlier. Just a couple of examples: in South Carolina, they've embarked on a number of harbor-deepening projects recently that allow them to receive larger ships. And just as one example, Charleston will welcome its the largest ship ever this weekend. the CMA CGM Brazil, which is kind of making its way along the East Coast now. They're also expanding their Ridgeville Commerce Park, which is an industrial property about 30 miles outside of Charleston. And the interesting thing there is, Walmart is set to build a 3-million-square-foot distribution center on the property. The port's also announced this week that they received a federal grant to to help build out that site. The grant was for more than $21 billion and will help with both on-site and off-site improvements that, you know, will also you know, will, in addition to, you know, benefiting the new DC will help future tenants as well. So yeah, a lot of a lot of growth going on.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
Well, hopefully that demand will remain strong after the peak holiday season ends. Thank you, Victoria.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity :
You're welcome.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
We encourage listeners to go to DCVelocity com for more on these and other supply chain stories. Go there to check it all out. And thanks, Ben and Victoria, for sharing highlights of the news this week.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity :
Always glad to do.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity :
Yes, my pleasure. Thanks.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity :
And again, our thanks to Randy Guillot of ATA for being with us today. We encourage your feedback on this topic and our other stories. You can email us at podcast@dcvelocity.com.
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