Carriers Gain Leverage: Become a Shipper of Choice to Win Capacity

Speaker 1 [0:00] Welcome back to FreightWaves Today, live at the Univar Carrier Kickoff event here in Chattanooga. It’s been a great event so far, and we have our last guest. We are joined with Tyson Wimberly, Senior Vice President of Sales and Revenue Management at Covenant. Tyson, thank you for coming and sitting in with us. Excited to hear you talk a little bit about what you thought of the event so far and really what it means to you as a carrier when shippers do these sorts of things. Speaker 2 [0:28] Yeah, I mean, great event. I think Univar does a great job with really collaborating with not only their key decision makers that come in that really we support with transportation operations, also their procurement, their leadership. Anytime you can do that, it’s a great use of time for our organization. You know, it’s really also good to collaborate with our peer competitors who are here. There are plenty. And I would just say that, you know, we’re in a marketplace right now where our competition’s good, but our competition’s also getting a lot better. Speaker 1 [0:55] Absolutely. Speaker 2 [0:55] There’s some fierce competition out there. And when we can do that, we learn because I think, you know, iron sharpens iron and we’re able to have great conversations not only with our peer group but our customers. Speaker 1 [1:05] Yeah. What is it in the market right now where carriers finally have a bit of leverage, right, as capacity has exited the market? What would you say that other— that shippers can do like Univar to be a shipper of choice who you all want to work with and who you would like to give your capacity to or your resources from your brokerage group? Speaker 2 [1:25] Yeah, super good question. You know, we we are really really dived in deep on visibility to their networks. You know, every carrier, every service provider is slightly different. It’s their job to make sure why we’re uniquely different in a market where we can best serve them, not only from a service standpoint but a rating competitiveness standpoint, but just a whole value creation. So when we can get visibility to their networks, how they operate, where they operate, seasonality, ebbs and flows of freight, so we can properly plan not only for now but really long-term agreements that we’re trying to focus our strategy on at Covenant Transport. Speaker 1 [2:00] Yeah. Speaker 3 [2:01] You know, when it comes to it, there’s a lot to love right now at Covenant. Speaker 2 [2:05] A lot to love. Speaker 3 [2:07] Something that not a lot of people talk about, which I think is very, very cool. And again, it’s because I study this stuff. Let’s focus on sustainability. Like, people don’t necessarily talk about that. Why is that such a niche specifically for Covenant? Speaker 2 [2:21] And what y’all been able to do. Speaker 3 [2:22] Yeah. Speaker 2 [2:23] You know, I mean, I think you guys probably had Matt McClellan on and Matt’s an ambassador of the industry. Speaker 1 [2:28] He’s keynote speaker all over the country. He’s been on the show yet, actually. Speaker 3 [2:30] He’s been on with the truck. Yeah, but it’s been a long time ago. I had a little bit more weight back then. Speaker 2 [2:35] So a little plug for Matt. Matt and I are boys. We’re out. We’re friends outside of work. And I would just tell you that he brings an immense amount of credibility to our industry and our company that I work with. And by doing that, my customers are very curious right now. And some of the things that we’re doing are really aligned to long-term sustainable solutions with alternative fuels across the network. We’re doing B100 fleets in a couple, couple accounts that we have on our dedicated space now, because at the end of the day, that has to differentiate where we are making investments and where can we deploy our capital for a sustainable piece of business that we can operate successful. So we continue to be very focused on that in our strategy and learn more. You know, at the end of the day, we’re asking our customers, if it’s something that’s important to you, it’s important to us. We would be customer-led. We will go through this journey with you. But at the end of the day, there is some transitioning of cost of equipment versus alternative ways to do it. And it’s not the most costly way. I think at some point in time we’ll get there. Speaker 3 [3:37] Yeah. Speaker 2 [3:38] It’s just if and when we get to a point where we can start transitioning some of that, it will be customer-led. Speaker 3 [3:45] I love that mentality, being customer-led, because you hear organizations, right, Julie, that say like, you know, the customer is first, the customer is always the priority, but it’s shown up and it’s shown up in ways that are public, obviously with earnings and things of that nature. Like it’s showing that this isn’t just coach speak. It’s actually a fabric of our DNA at the company. It shows up. Speaker 2 [4:03] It is. It is. And, you know, it’s co