FreightWaves LIVE recap: How logistics companies can overcome today’s industry challenges

This fireside chat recap is from Day 1 of FreightWaves LIVE @HOME.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Moving forward from the pandemic

DETAILS: Erin Van Zeeland shares career and industry insights on what it takes to be competitive with Haley Evans, TriumphPay’s vice president of sales and marketing.

SPEAKER: Van Zeeland is the senior vice president and general manager of Schneider Logistics.

BIO: Van Zeeland is responsible for all aspects of Schneider’s logistics service offerings, including transportation management (brokerage), supply chain management, transloading and distribution, warehousing and port dray. She ensures that more than 34,000 third-party carriers and service providers are effectively utilized to meet supply chain needs, service and profitability objectives across any mode of transportation and logistics services.

Van Zeeland started her career at Schneider in 1993 as a service team leader at the Harrisburg Operation Center. She was recognized in Computer World’s Premier 100 IT leaders in 2009, was a WIT finalist for the 2019 Distinguished Woman in Logistics Award and was named the recipient of the Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s first-ever Women in Supply Chain award.

KEY QUOTES FROM VAN ZEELAND:

“You can really expand and create a differentiated seamless experience if you back up that [client] relationship with technology and information and insight. So, we’ve been deeply invested in tech, deeply invested in relationships with tech leaders in other areas of our industry and we’re really bringing together the full experience so that shippers can get the greatest benefit in working with Schneider and carriers can have a terrific experience working with Schneider.”

“The biggest challenge for the industry is having enough professional drivers in order to move all the product that needs to get to market and making sure that that is a great investment for an individual to determine to leave their house and go and drive over the road. And so everything that we can do to help drivers and carriers be really efficient in working with us, both from respect of their time and really the compensation they get for choosing this profession, is absolutely critical.”

“[The pandemic] created some change that I think will have long-term benefit in how people want to engage and how we can make it personal. … It doesn’t matter where they are in the world. The amount of work that we won’t have to get on a plane and go and do because we can have a strong discussion virtually I think is great.”

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