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Nicole Glenn founded Candor Expedite in 2017 after more than two decades in the transportation brokerage business. Today Candor is recognized as a leading certified women-owned business headquartered in Texas, with offices in Illinois and Kansas.
Glenn has held several operational positions for a variety of transportation brokerage companies over the years. Through these roles, she learned the nuts and bolts of moving freight, along with the biggest challenges both shippers and carriers face each day. In 2008 Glenn moved to the sales side of the business, working her way up to president of K&L Freight Management Inc., and in 2016 became head of Cherry Logistics Corporation.
After 20-plus years of working for others, Glenn decided to build her own team. Candor provides hot shot ground, high-touch, time-sensitive shipments and white-glove delivery services.
Glenn is a certified member of The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). She is a member of The Expedite Association of North America, Women in Trucking, and the Transportation Intermediaries Association. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in management and marketing from Northwood University.
Glenn has received numerous accolades, including being named one of the Top Women-Owned Businesses by Women in Trucking, and a 2021 Enterprising Women of the Year Champion, an annual tribute to the world’s top female entrepreneurs. Additionally, Glenn is one of the founders of The Ladies Leadership Coalition, a new podcast hosted by female business leaders to profile successful business women.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 00:00
Steering transportation into the future. New reports show logistics growth is slowing. And the real estate market for warehousing tightens even more.
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 group editorial director at DC Velocity. Welcome.
Logistics Matters is sponsored by Yale Materials Handling. This isn't yesterday's warehouse. Today's challenges require smart, connected lift trucks and solutions like robotics, advanced power options, and Yale Reliant, an industry-leading suite of operator-assist technologies. For more information, visit Yale.com.
As usual, our DC Velocity senior editors Ben Ames and Victoria Kickham will be along to provide their insights into the top stories of this week. But to begin today: how is the transportation sector handling the challenges of today and where is it heading tomorrow? To address those questions. Here's Ben with today's guest.
Ben.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 01:09
Thanks, Dave. Yes, as you said, today, we're taking a closer look at the conditions in the transportation market and what shippers and drivers really need today. To address that, we have our guests with who's Nicole Glenn. She's the founder of Candor Expedite, a transportation brokerage firm based in Plano, Texas, with a focus on time-sensitive shipments. Nicole, thank you for joining us.
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 01:33
Hi, good morning. Thank you for having me.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 01:36
First off, we should congratulate you, because you were recently awarded the Eighth Annual Distinguished Women in Logistics recognition. That's an award that's given to industry visionaries by the Women In Trucking Association, Truckstop.com, and the Transportation Intermediaries Association. Can you tell us about the importance of that award? For example, I know you've spoken about ideas like inspiring other people to potentially become a truck driver, or for innovators to come up with the next disruptive a business idea.
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 02:08
Yeah, so Women In Trucking and Truckstop and Transportation Intermediaries Association nominate a woman that has really tried to make an effort within logistics. So, for me, as I've been saying, it's it's beyond a trophy, it's beyond just an award. It's a way to help other women step into the spotlight and take lead of what they're trying to accomplish in really any segment of their career. So, being able to be utilized as an example is very humbling to me, and it's something that I aspire to keep giving back to our industry, to invite more women into the space, to help them lift themselves in their careers, and to take those next steps when they're they're kind of scary. So, with that, I was able to develop a podcast myself with a group of six women that are focused to help other women on their business journeys that are all in the logistics sector, so it's been great. It's called ladies Leadership Coalition, known as LLC.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 03:12
Oh, great. I confess I haven't heard it yet, but I'm going to put that on my to-do list now.
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 03:17
Wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah, we've been recording for about a year now, and what we're trying to do is have panelist shows to teach, educate women on different topics that are relevant, as well as have some inspiring guests on to have them tell their stories as well.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 03:34
Super. Zooming into your business experience, you spent two decades in the transportation brokerage business before founding Candor Expedite in 2017. That sounds like some pretty tricky timing. What was it like to be running such a young business in these past five years, just as the world, of course, entered the pandemic?
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 03:55
Well, like you said, it has been tricky, and I think the number one successful trait company can have is resilience. So, when things are up, you know, trying to capitalize and work together and create alignment. When things go down, as we're seeing in the marketplace today, where things are changing, it's coming together and having that alignment to continually build our company. So, being a smaller company at the, during the pandemic time was actually a benefit for us. It gave us an ability to be very nimble, move very quickly, make great changes to get people remote, and it really didn't even create a blip on the radar with that, for us, because we do have multiple locations. But it allowed us to target, quickly, different types of commodities, different types of customers, which was really a beneficial time for us. We actually increased and grew and kept, additionally, adding team members to that double-digit growth to really meet the demand of the new clients that we had brought aboard with the shift of how our company was operating during that time.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 05:05
Really interesting. Agility seems to be a must-have for all times of business, all eras, but [indistinct word] here. But looking at the transport sector more broadly, we're currently in an area of historically very tight freight capacity and trucking. How do you balance that kind of conditions with the need to treat both your drivers and your customers right?
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 05:31
Well, it's just that transparency, you know. It's, it's working with the individuals that need solutions and trying to actually craft different solutions, you know, that come about. So, we try to approach our customers that might have capacity tightness on the truckload side, and we look at commodity. We look at volumes that they're shipping on particular shipments that potentially couldn't go LTL per se, that they're utilizing through the routing guide to just run through regular business, I guess, on the truckload sector. So, being able to identify some of those opportunities to help them save money, increase their service, as well as, you know, providing a different out-of-the-box thinking that some large shippers, to this day, still didn't even realize as an option. And then again, it's working with drivers and other companies that we've partnered with on that transparency side, because when you're in tight capacity, a lot of customers are coming to you because they need that, just spot-on service with a bow. So, with us, it's really expressing that to our partners and saying exactly what our company expectations are, as well as our customers', so we can execute as flawlessly as possible.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 06:51
Got it. That communication is always crucial for doing that. And yes, despite that, sort of that great communication, that tight rope that you're walking, there must be a lot of pressure on trucking brokerage business owners like yourself, increasingly, as we see some more recent factors like rising fuel prices, and of course, a longer-term shortage of drivers. Are fleets really feeling that pain?
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 07:16
From everything that I see and working with different providers, yes. I think our industry has always had different obstacles against it that we even saw with that tightness of capacity. Yes, rates did rise. Yes, there were some there were a lot of issues in the supply chain, but at the end of the day relationships, and moving things forward, really did do that for a lot of shippers. But when we're talking about fleets, yes, definitely. I mean, we've been reading, and I've been seeing, and I'm sure you guys have seen is, even the cost of fleet maintenance is going up. So, there's a lot of different factors and variables that are happening in the marketplace right now that will affect. You know, we had a lot of people suddenly jump in trucks and try to start expedited companies and create a solution, and I think we'll see quite a few of those ultimately fall off, due to the need in the industry, maybe their experience, or even understanding the flow of how to run a logistics company with fleet maintenance. It's a challenge, it's tricky, like you said with that other question, it's getting that right balance for a fleet to be successful, and really analyzing that cost on what they're trying to do and target a marketplace that works best for them.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 08:34
Yeah, no doubt. And to present sort of one more hurdle, you know, looking a little farther down the more distant horizon at the future. Like many other parts of the macro economy, the trucking sector runs in cycles, of course, and we've recently heard some suggestions predicting that the trucking sector could be headed, within the coming year, for a contraction or even a recession from some of these current conditions. Is it also something that you see threatening?
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 09:03
Yeah, I mean, it's something that touches all of us, you know, so I am also reading a lot of different, I guess you could say editorials. I've seen things that say "the bloodbath," but I just want to give one nugget of advice with that, because, myself, I've been in this industry for 22 years, and these are, it's a constant, and that's what I said before with having that resilience. These are the times that, when things do start dropping down a little bit, is to really hone in on those relationships and try to service and put your best foot forward to your clients and constantly try to add new. Never become a complacent company, always look for that next best thing, and it won't hurt as bad, I guess I could say. But yeah, I mean, we're going to always have that. I also went to a Vistage, it's actually a CEO, a group conference for CEOs, and we had an economist there that had said, in '23 there's going to be something even greater than the Great Depression. So, I mean, there are things that are always going to come in our way, but then you'll see the companies that just become nimble and make changes and make it through all of those changes.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 10:23
Gotcha. Really some sobering thoughts there, but some really great advice.
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 10:27
I know, everyone you could see sitting in the room, they were thinking about the year, and then you could see them doing, you know, the, the numbers in their head and where they're going to be in that much time, so it was, it was one of those moments where everyone's looking around the room. So it's very interesting to hear,
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 10:44
No doubt. Well, hopefully we'll, we would love the chance to let those things unfold, maybe touch base with you again, down the road, and we'll see how things are going.
Nicole Glenn, Founder, Candor Expedite 10:54
Wonderful.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 10:56
Thank you so much for joining us. Our guest today here on the show has been Nicole Glenn. She's the founder of Candor Expedite. Back to you, Dave.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 11:05
Thank you, Nicole and Ben. Now let's take a look at some of the other supply chain news from the week. And Victoria, the latest LMI report is out, and it shows a bit of a change in direction for the industry. Can you share the details?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 11:19
Yes, yes, that's right. So, the logistics economy continued to grow in April, although at its slowest pace in about 14 months, and it was driven by a shift in transportation metrics. And that's, as you say, Dave, according to the Logistics Managers' Index, which is also known, as you put it, as the LMI. The index registered 69.7 in April, and that's down six and a half points compared to March's all-time high reading, and it also marks the first time since January of 2021 that the index has fallen below a reading of 70. Just to give our audience some background, because they're probably not as intimately familiar with the LMI as I am, it gauges economic growth in the logistics industry by surveying logistics and supply chain managers about industry conditions each month. They arrive at a reading, and if it's above 50, that indicates growth and expansion in the industry, and below 50 indicates contraction. So, as everyone out there probably is very familiar with, the industry has been on a strong growth trajectory since about June of 2020, seeing growth, in LMI terms, in the 60s and 70s. And what that really means is, the industry has been expanding quite a bit. logistics services are in high demand. We've also seen very high prices for things like warehousing space and transportation services, and high costs in terms of inventory. So, in April, what happened was that things slowed down a bit. Again, the index dipped below 70 for the first time in almost a year and a half, and there were some changes in the transportation metrics, as I said, that the LMI researchers say may indicate a move toward more moderate industry growth in the month ahead. Months ahead, I should say.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 12:59
So, what kind of changes are we talking about?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 13:01
Yeah, the biggest one is that the capacity crunch we've been experiencing in transportation eased a bit in April, according to the LMI research. For the first time in nearly two years, the index is, the transportation capacity index expanded, and that essentially means that logistics managers reported that more capacity came online during the month. On top of that, prices grew at a much slower rate during April, so prices are still very high, but they didn't grow as fast as the researchers had been tracking over the past, you know, several months, I spoke to LMI researcher Zac Rogers of Colorado State University about all this, and he said that the long period of contraction we've been experiencing in transportation capacity was unsustainable, and that he and other researchers were expecting a shift. In March, they had actually tracked a bit of capacity expansion in some segments of the transportation sector, but it wasn't until April that capacity really opened up a bit across the board. And he said, again, that this may signal that we're in line for a period of more modest growth compared to what we've been seeing. There is concern, as Ben and our guest mentioned, about, from some of the industry, that the sort of red-hot freight market may slow too much, and we'll head toward a recession, but Rogers says, you know, we're not there yet. He'll actually be with us next week to discuss that topic and some other general issues. I should also mention that there wasn't a lot of movement in the, on the warehousing side of things according to this month's LMI. Costs continue to grow and capacity remained really tight. So, again, it seems that, it seems to be the transportation side of things that's contributing to the slower growth that we saw in April.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 14:45
So, bottom line, still growing strong, but not quite at the same pace that it had been before, right?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 14:51
Exactly. Yep.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 14:53
Thanks, Victoria.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 14:55
You're welcome.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 14:56
And Ben, you reported this week on the tightening warehouse real estate market. What does that report show?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 15:02
Exactly. Yeah, boy, it seems that, in all of our themes today on the show, we've had some, tracking some changes. We've been reporting for months, of course about supply chain backups, like delays at container ports, and of course, the capacity in the trucking sector, we were just mentioning. This week we saw a report about another logistics variable that's been causing supply chain problems, and that's incredibly tight market for warehouse space. The U.S. industrial vacancy rate sank to just 4.2% in the first quarter, and that's a 27-year low point. This is according to a report from the commercial real estate firm Savills. There are a lot of different reasons for that result, but the main idea is that the market is just very hard to predict right now, following, of course, the pandemic, that had retail store shutdowns, changes in buying habits, employment changes. And change just keeps happening. We're now, according to Savills, seeing a flatline, as they called it, of the super-hot e-commerce growth that's happened over the past year. And that comes as many Americans now begin to return to their prepandemic routines, Savills said, so maybe a little bit less web shopping and more in person. So, to guard against those kinds of surges in demand, and sudden stops in supply, it seems that companies have been keeping a high inventory of goods. And when you add it all up, those pressures have led to industrial space, in Savills' words, being essentially "sold out." That's especially true in coastal locations near the maritime ports, of course, and renters at those kinds of places have been seeing double-digit rent growth in places like Southern California, Northern New Jersey, and South Florida.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 16:48
So Ben, how is the real estate market reacting to that situation? Can't developers just build more warehouses?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 16:56
They can, and they are, but it takes time. So, because of that huge demand for DC space, we're seeing record construction of new warehouses and other facilities. Savills found that developers are currently building some 750 million square feet. In comparison, it was just over 500 million square feet that they were creating for the same quarter last year. However, the report pointed to another problem: Even when those new spaces come online, and when companies are lucky enough to find space to rent, they face an additional challenge, and that's hiring enough workers to run the warehouse. Here's a key measure to show how hard it is to find those workers: Employers are offering higher wages for warehouse jobs; that's including laborers, freight and stock and material movers. The average advertised wage for warehouse jobs has risen steadily from just below $15 per hour back in March 2021 to just over $17 per hour in March of this year. By another measure, they're also advertising for more jobs, just the number of jobs. The average number of warehouse postings per month was up 126%, so a little more than double over the past year. As a hint of who's doing that, the report actually identified which companies are looking for those warehouse workers. Looking all the way back to 2015, the companies that have posted the most warehouse job openings are Amazon — that's no surprise — and they're about four times more than the second place, which was FedEx. And FedEx was about three times more than the third place, which was UPS, followed by Home Depot and Lowe's. So, basically, it's a really tough time right now to be in the business of running a warehouse.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 18:48
Yeah, certainly is. Thanks, Ben.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 18:51
Yep.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 18:52
We encourage listeners to go to DCVelocity.com for more on these and other supply chain stories. And check out the podcast Notes section for some direct links on the topics that we discussed today.
And again, our thanks to Nicole Glenn of Candor Expedite for being our guest today. We welcome your comments on this topic and our other stories. You can email is at podcasts@dcvelocity.com.
We also encourage you to subscribe to Logistics Matters at your favorite podcast platform. Our new episodes are uploaded each Friday.
And speaking of subscribing, we encourage you to check out our sister podcast, Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. It's coproduced by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and Supply Chain Quarterly. Subscribe to Supply Chain in the Fast Lane wherever you get your podcasts.
And a reminder that Logistics Matters is sponsored by Yale. Modern warehouse challenges require modern lift truck solutions, from robotics and zero-emission power options to Yale Reliant, an industry-leading operator-assist system. Visit Yale.com for more information.
We'll be back again next week with another edition of Logistics Matters, when, as mentioned before, Zac Rogers will be with us to talk about the risks of a possible freight industry collapse, so be sure to join us. Until then, have a great week.
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