Dooner and The Dude welcome a big slate of guests during a special episode of WHAT THE TRUCK?!? at the FreightWaves Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Summit.
They start off talking to Forward Air CEO Tom Schmitt about what it takes to attract and retain great talent. They discuss why capacity constraints limit recruiting and how companies can build relationships with their drivers to keep them in the seats.
Next is Echo Logistics Senior Vice President of Marketplace Solutions Jay Gustafson to continue that conversation about relationship building, but this time around your 3PLs. Gustafson talks about why owner-ops should see brokers as strategic partners in logistics success and not just people to seek out in the spot market.
The guys welcome Jaime Hagen, owner of Hell Bent Xpress to the show to talk about the challenges of building and maintaining a small fleet. They discuss why fuel efficiency is so crucial for budgeting and why fuel cards feel like “a million-dollar investment.”
The next guest is Mike Wells, senior vice president of operations at DCLI. He answers all the questions about chassis supply chains and how DCLI has been working hard to keep owner-operators unaffected by shortages.
Lastly, Dooner and The Dude bring on Ashwin Vasudevan, director of marketing at KBX Logistics. Vasudevan talks about how the pandemic has shown the need for adaptable supply chains that can be nimble in the face of adversity. He also talks about the way things will change going forward out of the pandemic.
You can find more WHAT THE TRUCK?!? episodes and recaps for all our live podcasts here.