Transcripts
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:I'm not Lori Boyer, your normal host.
Speaker:My name is Tim Ranagan, and we are introducing a brand new segment for our Unboxing Logistics
Speaker:listeners titled Unboxing the Trends.
Speaker:Guess what?
Speaker:We still have Lori Boyer here today.
Speaker:Well, we're gonna put her in the hot seat and I'm gonna ask her about some up and
Speaker:coming trends that she noticed in January.
Speaker:Awesome!
Speaker:I am so excited for this, Tim.
Speaker:Although it feels a little weird being on the opposite side.
Speaker:Yeah, it feels weird for me, too.
Speaker:This is my debut being involved in the Unboxing Logistics podcast, but thanks for having me, Lori.
Speaker:I'm excited for this opportunity.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:And everyone, Tim is one of my favorite co workers here at EasyPost, so you are just in for a treat.
Speaker:Well, Lori, jumping right into it.
Speaker:We wanted to discuss some of the biggest trends that we've noticed in January.
Speaker:There's been a lot going on in the news, a lot going on across shipping and logistics.
Speaker:So we wanted to discuss some of the biggest buzz that you've seen.
Speaker:Are there any trends that you've noticed that seem to have dominated
Speaker:some of the news cycles recently?
Speaker:Of course, you all know I'm the biggest nerd in the supply chain industry and spend way too
Speaker:much time reading up on all the issues going on.
Speaker:So yeah, it's 2025.
Speaker:And 2025 has been real peeps.
Speaker:It's, it started with the bang, and as I was trying to go over all the different things
Speaker:that happened just in January, you know, there were three that really stood out that
Speaker:I thought that we should talk about today.
Speaker:We started the year with kind of the port strikes over on the East Coast.
Speaker:We hit the big fires, you know, the big scary natural disasters.
Speaker:And all of the people who have been affected there in California, but that was an issue.
Speaker:And then, of course, the change of the presidency and the tariffs and all of those that have
Speaker:just blown up the news in the last few days.
Speaker:So, Tim, where would you want me to start?
Speaker:Yeah, let's let's dive into the port strikes.
Speaker:I think that for our logistics listeners, that was kind of a heavy hitting topic.
Speaker:So let's start there.
Speaker:What are your thoughts on what you saw with the port strikes and how that's affected
Speaker:some of the people in shipping and logistics?
Speaker:Okay, so the port strikes, I think, you know, we all know that they were kind of
Speaker:put on pause and came back in January.
Speaker:Resolved really nice and easily and, in a way, before we hit the deadline.
Speaker:The, you know, they were able to get the wages they wanted.
Speaker:They had a great increase.
Speaker:I think it was a 62 percent wage increase, which we would all love a raise of that caliber.
Speaker:But I think the piece that was really interesting to me, and I think will be interesting to
Speaker:our audience is the piece around automation.
Speaker:So one of the aspects that the laborers were looking for and the union was looking for was
Speaker:reassurance that their jobs were not going to be replaced by automation and by all the
Speaker:tools, especially there in the warehouses.
Speaker:Tim, I'm interested in what you think about that.
Speaker:Cause I like had some strong feelings, but I would love to hear yours.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a difficult conversation, right?
Speaker:You know, automation has been prevalent throughout history, right?
Speaker:You start in jobs where new advances in technology seem to shift the need
Speaker:for workers in a specific area around.
Speaker:And I think we're seeing that right now in shipping and logistics.
Speaker:And I think for business owners who are looking to adopt automation into
Speaker:their workforce, it's always necessary to keep the people in mind, right?
Speaker:We can find other opportunities for them adopt the technology with your people in mind and I
Speaker:think that that keeps things moving forward from a relationship standpoint with your employees.
Speaker:I like that, Tim, and really that ties back to kind of what the agreement end up
Speaker:really was with the strike, was that they agreed that rather than replacing jobs,
Speaker:that they would find use automation and still, you know, have roles for the people.
Speaker:And really that's what it's been throughout time, in the most part.
Speaker:When automation comes, it can feel scary, but, you know, we need to make sure our people
Speaker:understand that that is making their jobs easier and potentially creating new jobs.
Speaker:So that's the ports.
Speaker:Do you want me to go into the fires next before we hit?
Speaker:Yeah, let's, let's, let's talk about the, the California fires.
Speaker:And again, you know, our hearts go out to those who were impacted and affected by the wildfires.
Speaker:It's, you know, it's terrible to see people go through a crisis like that.
Speaker:And, and we wish nothing but the best for those who have been affected.
Speaker:But curious, Lori, what you've seen in the news cycles about how this has
Speaker:impacted our industry specifically.
Speaker:Work and supply chain and logistics can seem like kind of a side note when you look at all
Speaker:those who lost their homes and even their that being said, there is still business out there.
Speaker:And I was speaking with a friend at the time who was really, really concerned because he had a lot
Speaker:of stuff coming through the ports in California.
Speaker:And and, and there was a lot of concern going into it about what potential issues we may see.
Speaker:Fortunately, there were not huge hiccups.
Speaker:And I think that that was great.
Speaker:We had some short term kind of stuff, but people were able to divert and go to other ports.
Speaker:And so generally, we didn't see any huge supply chain disruptions.
Speaker:As, you know, they're rebuilding, they're anticipating a few hiccups in there.
Speaker:But for now, we're okay.
Speaker:I think the main lesson from this for everyone as we go on, it's just, you know,
Speaker:natural disasters are here and accelerating.
Speaker:We received over eight inches of snow here in, I'm here in the Dallas area, where
Speaker:Tim, I know you're in Utah and you guys hadn't seen a flake of snow at the time.
Speaker:It's almost like it skipped right over us and went straight to Texas.
Speaker:It's like the world is upside down, you know, our friends in Atlanta, it's snowing.
Speaker:I think the lesson is we've got to be prepared.
Speaker:Who knows, you know, add agility and, and being flexible right now has never.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree with that a lot, Lori.
Speaker:I think again, you know, natural, natural disasters are a hard thing
Speaker:for anybody to have to experience.
Speaker:But there's always lessons to be learned out of these.
Speaker:And for business owners, looking at this situation, we're fortunate for the people that
Speaker:you've talked about that it didn't affect their operations, but there's countless stories that
Speaker:we've heard over the years of natural disasters having a negative impact on supply chain.
Speaker:And this is a good opportunity for business out there, business owners out there to kind of look
Speaker:at what their preparedness looks like, right?
Speaker:Do they have any contingency plans for their supply chain in the event of a
Speaker:natural disaster, a wildfire, or a sudden snowstorm in an area that they don't have
Speaker:Infrastructure to support something like that.
Speaker:And so, you know, you hear more and more these days of companies adopting, you know,
Speaker:multi carrier strategies or, you know, leveraging wider based supply chain networks
Speaker:in order to make sure that their end customers aren't affected by these natural disasters.
Speaker:And I think that you can look at these situations as a reason why it's important
Speaker:to have those conversations early on instead of having them after the fact.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:I think that, you know, I've had a lot of experts on the show over the last couple of years, but
Speaker:one lesson I hear from all of them, you know, we want to be proactive and not reactive to things.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Okay, so the big elephant in the room.
Speaker:Yeah, so this seems to have dominated news cycles pretty consistently over the last several days.
Speaker:Lori give it to us straight.
Speaker:What have you been hearing and seeing over news cycles about tariffs?
Speaker:Tariffs, all of our favorite subject.
Speaker:Yeah, so obviously this last week the tariffs that President Trump had promised came into play.
Speaker:And, you know, I think we saw kind of almost some panic from some people online.
Speaker:And so I think my first message, especially to businesses who are like, oh, it's
Speaker:just like, calm down just a little bit.
Speaker:Like, let's just wait.
Speaker:And while I said we want to be proactive, not reactive, let's also not be reactive really
Speaker:fast before we see what's actually going on.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:There's a chance that some of these tariffs aren't going to stick that you know that they
Speaker:could be that things get reversed or changed.
Speaker:And so my recommendation for the next couple of weeks is sort of a wait and see and kind
Speaker:of do some of those scenario running that you talked about, Tim earlier, like sit down
Speaker:and say, okay, if these tariffs stick around for a while, what will that mean for me?
Speaker:And I have, I do follow, you know, a ton of really amazing experts on this.
Speaker:I, you know, all the biggest news people on it.
Speaker:And so here are some of the potential scenarios that you might want to look
Speaker:into and kind of just run your numbers.
Speaker:Experts say that probably the most likely impact if these tariffs stick around would
Speaker:be, of course, you know, an increase in costs for parcel shippers, especially
Speaker:like from your carrier standpoint.
Speaker:So for that, I think you've kind of mentioned it earlier, Tim, make sure you're not just
Speaker:with one carrier or stuck with this rate.
Speaker:There's a lot of tools you can use.
Speaker:EasyPost even has their own tools to shop, rate shop, make sure that you're
Speaker:finding the best options available for you.
Speaker:There may be some supply chain headaches, and this is especially, I want to
Speaker:point out, small businesses may be impacted the hardest from some of these.
Speaker:The de minimis loophole or de minimis, you know, exemption is, has been closed with this.
Speaker:And so that means for people who are shipping very low price items under 800
Speaker:per shipment they used to be able to get by without, you know, the import fees.
Speaker:That is no longer true.
Speaker:So for some of our smaller businesses, maybe if you shop, if you sell through
Speaker:Etsy or some of the Shopify's or especially Temu, SHEIN, and that kind of stuff.
Speaker:It could be if this sticks around that you're going to want to move warehouses
Speaker:closer to home where you're not going to need to import across the borders.
Speaker:I am hearing some things when it comes to shipping.
Speaker:You know, you're going to have to balance.
Speaker:There's the potential, obviously, as we have to pass prices and increases on to
Speaker:our buyers, to the consumers, we're going to have to figure out how to balance that.
Speaker:You know, how much of the burden do you take on?
Speaker:How much of the burden do you pass on?
Speaker:If you pass it on, or if you keep some, should you instead do some of it in your shipping costs?
Speaker:You know, is there a potential for not having free shipping offers?
Speaker:Those kinds of things are things that some of the experts are playing with.
Speaker:But I think really my, my real advice is just to make sure that you're doing your, you
Speaker:know, scenario, running through scenarios.
Speaker:Don't jump too fast into doing anything crazy, keeping an eye on the situation because
Speaker:it could change just as quickly as it has.
Speaker:Tim, and any other thoughts from your perspective?
Speaker:Lori, I love, I love what you've said, right?
Speaker:Let's not be overreactive to the current news, right?
Speaker:I think that that's a great piece of advice for all of our listeners out there.
Speaker:Right now is an opportunity for everyone to be a little prescriptive
Speaker:to their specific situation, right?
Speaker:You brought up some great use cases, talked about small businesses, mid
Speaker:sized businesses, enterprise businesses.
Speaker:These tariffs are going to affect each of those areas of our economy in different ways, right?
Speaker:And I think that we can be a little prescriptive now as business owners
Speaker:and say, play that what if game.
Speaker:What if this happens, then this is the direction that our company should go in.
Speaker:And, and ultimately stay informed, right?
Speaker:There's, there's a lot of news out there, there's a lot of information being shared.
Speaker:Make sure that you're staying informed and being prescriptive to your specific scenario.
Speaker:I love that you said that, Tim, because it totally brings us full circle on this episode.
Speaker:Staying informed is really what Unboxing the Trends is about.
Speaker:That's why we put this together so that our unboxing logistics community would have an easy
Speaker:and quick, like, 10 minute way to stay informed with the biggest things people are chatting about.
Speaker:Yeah, thanks, Lori.
Speaker:So, to our Unboxing Logistics listeners out there, this is a wrap on this
Speaker:first episode of Unboxing the Trends.
Speaker:Now we want to hear from you.
Speaker:We would love to get your thoughts and ideas on our next month's episode for some current
Speaker:trends that are happening throughout February.
Speaker:So if you'd like to get involved, please, please drop a comment down below.
Speaker:We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker:And we'll put Lori on the hot seat again next month.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Thanks everybody.
