Transcripts
Welcome to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:I'm your host, Lori Boyer from EasyPost, and I am really
Speaker:excited about today's topic.
Speaker:So we talk about shipping all the time on Unboxing Logistics, obviously,
Speaker:and everything that goes with that.
Speaker:But today we're going to be talking about a little bit of
Speaker:a challenging shipping market.
Speaker:We're going to be talking about pharmaceuticals.
Speaker:And I have not had anyone yet, John, on my show talk about pharmaceuticals.
Speaker:So I am really excited to kind of drill in.
Speaker:Figure out all the best practices around pharmaceuticals, what our community out
Speaker:there who's watching should know about pharmaceuticals, anything about kind of
Speaker:shipping some of these specialty items, really of interest, really exciting.
Speaker:So I have John Golden from ParcelShield here.
Speaker:He is going to share with us today and be our guru, our head of knowledge.
Speaker:But John, will you introduce yourself to our audience?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Thank you, Lori.
Speaker:I'm John Golden, vice president of sales with ParcelShield.
Speaker:I have over 20 years experience working in specialty pharmacy, that's sales,
Speaker:marketing, managed care for companies like Accredo for 10 years prior to
Speaker:Express Scripts, and then ultimately Cigna acquiring Accredo, Accredo.
Speaker:Now it is the specialty of pharmacy for Cigna.
Speaker:That's, I started out really in the field as a field sales rep.
Speaker:And I ultimately ended up leading their sales organization, and I also
Speaker:led a sales organization for a company called Emeriton, especially infusion.
Speaker:I led their sales team for 5 years.
Speaker:They're based on Denver owned by BrightSpring.
Speaker:I started by knocking on doors for positions, selling the benefits
Speaker:of home infusion services, and I'm intimately aware of shipping related
Speaker:issues that impact far more than the pharmacy responsible for the shipping.
Speaker:For the past few years, I've been working with ParcelShield, helping
Speaker:pharmacies ensure mission critical shipments arrive on day to a
Speaker:patient in viable condition for use.
Speaker:Wow, awesome.
Speaker:Okay, before we get started, couple of things.
Speaker:First, I've been asking all my guests this season.
Speaker:What is your go to comfort food?
Speaker:I think I'm just getting ideas.
Speaker:So if you are having a rough day, you know, what, what is going to cheer you up?
Speaker:Well, I live in Texas and I love a good chicken fried steak.
Speaker:Chicken fried steak.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I was just literally researching the other day.
Speaker:I went out to dinner with some friends and they got chicken fried chicken.
Speaker:And so then I had to do all this research into what is the difference between just
Speaker:chicken fried chicken and fried chicken.
Speaker:But you like a chicken fried steak.
Speaker:It's kind of in the way they cook it in the batter, right?
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:And I'll have either one, but I have to have mashed potatoes alongside it.
Speaker:Mashed potatoes, comfort food all day long.
Speaker:You got that one down.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:John, before we even really dive into all the ins and outs, all the
Speaker:little nitty gritty around pharmacy.
Speaker:I always like my guests to be able to share one or two takeaways that you
Speaker:absolutely, what is most critical?
Speaker:If somebody doesn't remember anything else from today except for that our hair
Speaker:looked amazing of course, point number one, but if they don't remember anything
Speaker:else today what is it you want them to take away with them after today's episode?
Speaker:I think the biggest takeaway is that shipping medication is a risky
Speaker:business, but it's also critical to hundreds of millions of those that
Speaker:are depending on pharmacy services.
Speaker:There's a lot that can go wrong during a package journey.
Speaker:And, you know, pharmacies and patients feel helpless when that occurs.
Speaker:So, thankfully, there's technology here to help pharmacies prevent risk
Speaker:to improve on day delivery so that they can focus on the business of pharmacy.
Speaker:And there's no need to wait to access those tools.
Speaker:The future is here today.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I love that you brought that up.
Speaker:I did some research around this, wanted to check into the pharmaceutical
Speaker:industry, and super fascinating.
Speaker:And my hunch is a lot of this has changed due to COVID, but in
Speaker:2020, the pharmaceutical logistics market was, I'm going to look at my
Speaker:stats here, 72.6 billion dollars.
Speaker:It's expected, forecasted to reach 114, almost 115 billion by 2026.
Speaker:And I think that as COVID hit, a lot of us just got a lot more comfortable
Speaker:with receiving things like prescriptions in the mail, things we maybe we
Speaker:would have done in person before.
Speaker:Unfortunately, I'm going to check my number again.
Speaker:The industry, pharmaceutical industry loses 35 billion a
Speaker:year due to logistics issues.
Speaker:So as you said, it's kind of high risk, high reward, baby.
Speaker:This is the kind of industry we're in here.
Speaker:There's a lot of potential for some big time money.
Speaker:Loss, though, is a big deal.
Speaker:So, John, what are the challenges that are kind of bringing
Speaker:about some of these losses?
Speaker:What are the unique challenges facing those who do want to get into this or
Speaker:currently are shipping pharmaceuticals?
Speaker:There's quite a few challenges.
Speaker:And the company I work for, we have a motto, and our motto is it's not
Speaker:just a package, it's a patient.
Speaker:And I think that motto really permeates everything it is that we do.
Speaker:And that needs to be the attitude of anybody that's going to be
Speaker:shipping pharmaceutical products.
Speaker:So, you know, many of them, many of the pharmaceuticals are time sensitive.
Speaker:They're temperature sensitive.
Speaker:They're highly regulated.
Speaker:And, you know, frankly, as you mentioned for specialty.
Speaker:They're expensive.
Speaker:They're also life sustaining.
Speaker:I think even with careful planning, our clients can't predict risks
Speaker:that are associated with preventing on day delivery and in our case,
Speaker:life sustaining patient medications.
Speaker:So there's risks out there like flight delays, like extreme weather, like
Speaker:traffic, or carrier dependability, or even, you know, recipient risk.
Speaker:So the risk of the patient not being home to deliver when the
Speaker:patient, when the package arrives.
Speaker:Is that a fairly common situation.
Speaker:I know a lot of packages in general.
Speaker:I think I read 20 percent of all packages are not delivered the first
Speaker:time they were tried to is, is that a similar number in pharmaceuticals?
Speaker:It is a very common reason for a package not being delivered on time.
Speaker:Customer not available is one of the most common.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So, so go on.
Speaker:How then, if you are facing all these challenges, you know, flights do get
Speaker:delayed, weather happens, you know, certain roads and routes, all of that.
Speaker:We know it's the industry.
Speaker:So what are some of the ways to kind of hone in and alleviate
Speaker:some of those problems?
Speaker:Much of that has to do with with technology.
Speaker:So that is where you can, you know, leverage things like predictive
Speaker:analytics and machine learning, which happens to be the specialty
Speaker:of the company that I work for.
Speaker:And and looking for advanced warnings looking out for weather,
Speaker:looking out for extreme events.
Speaker:That could be wildfires.
Speaker:It could be hurricanes.
Speaker:It could be, it could be Mardi Gras.
Speaker:It could be Super Bowl.
Speaker:But technology exists to be able to provide what we would call an early
Speaker:warning system to help to avoid shipping medications into a high risky situation.
Speaker:Is that when maybe a notification goes out and says, hey, you
Speaker:really need to come pick this up somewhere and not have it delivered.
Speaker:How does that work?
Speaker:If so, let's say you get a red flag.
Speaker:Do not ship.
Speaker:What, what happens next?
Speaker:Yeah, that is an option, and that's the option that we
Speaker:would provide to our customers.
Speaker:So our customers could actually use their transportation management system
Speaker:and turn off entire zip codes or entire areas to let their warehouse personnel
Speaker:know not to ship that day and actually prevent it from being shipped that day.
Speaker:So it doesn't lead into, it doesn't, it's not shipped into a risky situation.
Speaker:Okay so you talked about machine learning, predictive
Speaker:analysis, analytics, all of that.
Speaker:What what are we looking at when you when you do that?
Speaker:So let's say that somebody has a system of their own.
Speaker:You know what, what kind of events or or things are should they be looking for?
Speaker:Well, it's easy if you just want to go on to weather.com
Speaker:and see what the weather is.
Speaker:But tools like ours.
Speaker:Across all the country!
Speaker:Across all the country.
Speaker:Or local or look on your phone, but our tool takes carrier data into account.
Speaker:So historical carrier data from the major carriers and looks back over 15 years to
Speaker:look at routes and to look at challenges for specific routes, whether it's related
Speaker:to hurricanes, whether it's related to extreme weather events, but really the
Speaker:carrier performances themselves, because carriers do vary carrier to carrier.
Speaker:So we know by looking backwards and utilizing machine learning and
Speaker:predictive analytics, depending on the carrier exactly where that
Speaker:package should be at any given time.
Speaker:And we're looking for not only package scans from that carrier.
Speaker:We're looking for lack of scan and a lack of package scan is going to
Speaker:be the first thing to indicate to us that this package could be delayed.
Speaker:Now, maybe it's not delayed because maybe a scan was just missed and
Speaker:we're going to pick it up on the next scan, but it is an early indicator.
Speaker:And one of the examples of how advanced advanced machine learning that that
Speaker:are tools that are available here at ParcelShield helps our clients to be able
Speaker:to avoid shipping into risky situations.
Speaker:But also, once a package is in flight, how, how can we help?
Speaker:And how can we identify that that package is at risk?
Speaker:And what can be done about it?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So there were a couple of key things there that I caught.
Speaker:15 years.
Speaker:I thought that was a great kind of benchmark.
Speaker:So looking back over, you know, at least if you're going to do, you know, obviously
Speaker:you could use incredible companies like ParcelShield who have all that data.
Speaker:If you're trying to do it on your own it's hard, but be
Speaker:looking at least 15 years.
Speaker:Is that where you say?
Speaker:At least 15 years?
Speaker:Should it be 10 years at least?
Speaker:You have recommendations for how many years of analytics people
Speaker:should be trying to review.
Speaker:I think that would be a challenge and I'm, I'm frankly unaware of how someone
Speaker:without the tools and technology of a ParcelShield could look back, you know,
Speaker:on their own having that, that, that amount of data to be able to pull from.
Speaker:Yeah, so, but if you are looking at anybody or any sort of system, make
Speaker:sure that it's not like 2 years, make sure that you're checking at
Speaker:least a good data set that they have.
Speaker:A lot of past information, you know, like, like ParcelShield may have access to.
Speaker:In addition, I loved that red flag of things not getting signed.
Speaker:I love anything that's going to show up a potential red flag.
Speaker:So let's say through this scenario, maybe walk me through a scenario.
Speaker:What would be a common situation or something you particularly have faced
Speaker:at ParcelShield with a customer?
Speaker:Yeah, so an example would be, for instance, utilizing our
Speaker:predictive analytics to to identify risk level of zip codes.
Speaker:And for instance, if if I happen to live in Houston, a hurricanes coming
Speaker:the one recent hurricane came, we didn't expect it to come, but, but
Speaker:ParcelShield did have some advanced warning that a hurricane was on our way.
Speaker:And so that would allow our customers to be able to close down
Speaker:zip codes in the Houston area.
Speaker:So a package wouldn't be shipped.
Speaker:I mentioned that during shipment, we provide early detection
Speaker:that a package is at risk.
Speaker:And our customers, and we would alert our customers that there was a delay.
Speaker:And another example is we would set up rules of engagement
Speaker:with each one of our customers.
Speaker:So our customers could determine how that package should be
Speaker:handled based on certain criteria.
Speaker:And then we can automate those moves if necessary.
Speaker:And all of this is based on predictive analytics.
Speaker:Wow, interesting.
Speaker:Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker:Can we talk about temperature issues?
Speaker:So I, my guess would be within pharmaceuticals, temperature sensitivity
Speaker:is going to be a big issue when it comes to reliable shipping and whatnot.
Speaker:Do you have recommendations?
Speaker:Best practices?
Speaker:How, how do these companies manage temperature issues?
Speaker:Yeah, first, a lot of the products are very sensitive to temperature and
Speaker:that's going to determine your pack out, meaning how many hours that your
Speaker:product is going to remain viable during shipment and and how those
Speaker:packages are going to be shipped.
Speaker:All of that increases cost and all of that increases risk.
Speaker:You know, when it comes to temperature also, there are,
Speaker:there are regulatory requirements.
Speaker:And that, those regulatory requirements, they require some
Speaker:pretty meticulous documentation every step in the supply chain.
Speaker:And that all necessitates both administrative burden and robust tracking
Speaker:systems, which ParcelShield does include.
Speaker:So yeah, I want to talk tracking.
Speaker:I just have kind of a random question.
Speaker:So let's say I got a package.
Speaker:I ordered something.
Speaker:In fact, recently my husband got a prescription sent to him.
Speaker:One of my first that was sent in a cooler or whatever, you
Speaker:know, with all the ice stuff.
Speaker:It needed to be refrigerated.
Speaker:Keep cool.
Speaker:Now I live in Dallas and it's super hot.
Speaker:So, and I wasn't home.
Speaker:And so then I was feeling really nervous, like, oh no, I wonder how
Speaker:long this can be left out on the porch, you know, when it's 110 degrees.
Speaker:Are there, what happens, let's say if somebody isn't home for a few days,
Speaker:does that package get sent back?
Speaker:Do they have a notification of, oh, if you haven't taken this in
Speaker:your house for a certain amount of time you should dispose of it.
Speaker:How does that work?
Speaker:Yeah, the first thing that I think that you should do, especially in that, in that
Speaker:case, if you have concerns is to contact your pharmacy and get, get recommendations
Speaker:from your pharmacy as to what to do.
Speaker:There are pack out requirements to make sure that those packages
Speaker:maintain a certain temperature throughout the package journey.
Speaker:And you mentioned that you're in Dallas.
Speaker:The package, though, travels throughout different cities.
Speaker:And depending on the length of time that that package is going to be in each
Speaker:city, there are temperature variations that could impact that pack out.
Speaker:So, if a package happens to be delayed in Arizona for too long.
Speaker:Perhaps that package is no longer viable.
Speaker:And that's where the tracking and monitoring really comes in.
Speaker:Also predictive analytics.
Speaker:So, as we're making recommendations for what that pack out should
Speaker:be, we're looking at where that package is going to travel.
Speaker:How long that package is going to be there.
Speaker:What the extreme temperatures are in those different locations in order to make
Speaker:those recommendations for our customers.
Speaker:Could it be then a system can take those predictive analysis, analytics
Speaker:and say, hey, I think we should switch routes because 80 percent
Speaker:of the time there's a lengthy delay in Phoenix or something like that.
Speaker:Let's go through Minnesota.
Speaker:And I don't know.
Speaker:I'm just making these up, but you know, somewhere where
Speaker:it's safer temperature wise.
Speaker:That is another way kind of the analytics are used.
Speaker:Yeah, some of the analytics that are available today you is through AI,
Speaker:we are able to look at the different routes and predict the lowest level
Speaker:of risk of that package being delayed.
Speaker:And then we, we include costs associated as well for our customers and their
Speaker:contracted rates with with their carriers and say, not only is this going
Speaker:to be the lowest level of risk for your package to arrive in viable condition.
Speaker:We take rates into consideration and say, this will be the lowest cost as well.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So AI is a really cool way.
Speaker:That's I, those of you who listen regularly, you know, I always say I feel
Speaker:like AI in some areas in our industry is overhyped and not really being used yet.
Speaker:Route management, price comparisons, those are absolutely ways that you should
Speaker:be taking advantage of AI, predictive analytics machine learning, all of that.
Speaker:That is in our industry, you know, bread and butter of being able to use AI today.
Speaker:So absolutely make sure you do that.
Speaker:Are there ways, so if you had a customer, for instance, who was a pharmacy,
Speaker:let's say it was a pharmacy who sent that prescription to my husband,
Speaker:could they have had the option to say somebody needs to sign for this?
Speaker:You know, looking back, I think maybe we should have picked that.
Speaker:Or is that something that companies should typically have an option or should
Speaker:be offering that to their customers?
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:So proof of delivery is something that can be offered it for, for
Speaker:pharmacies that are requiring that.
Speaker:There's also, proof of delivery is really important, and we may talk
Speaker:about it a little bit later on, but being able to capture that signature
Speaker:to show that that package was actually signed for and arrived and being
Speaker:able to recall that signature on your fingertips is also critical.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So somebody doesn't say, I never got it.
Speaker:And then you're like, here's your signature.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We've mentioned tracking a little bit.
Speaker:I want to get into that real time monitoring, tracking.
Speaker:You know, we have kind of a wide range, everything from like, every single
Speaker:instant on GPS, you know where a package is, to like some systems that are very,
Speaker:you hardly know from point A it left and who knows where it went between the last
Speaker:two weeks and ended up at the house.
Speaker:So, you know, what kind of analytics do you recommend when
Speaker:it comes to tracking for pharmacy?
Speaker:What, what points are critical to make sure that you're
Speaker:knowing where the package is?
Speaker:Yeah, there are just some some some basic tools that are available.
Speaker:For instance, you can log into the carrier.
Speaker:You can put it in your tracking number.
Speaker:You can get a status update.
Speaker:Most of our customers utilize multiple carriers, so you'll want what we call
Speaker:carrier, a carrier agnostic solution where you can have dashboards and you
Speaker:can have alerts for monitoring shipment space, you know, all in one place.
Speaker:Combining what we talked about predictive analytics for early disrupting
Speaker:and detection and intervention.
Speaker:Should that package experience a delay?
Speaker:You're going to want an all in one solution.
Speaker:So, everything that will provide your recommendation for the shipment
Speaker:method at the lowest risk that we talked about, along with the lowest
Speaker:cost tracking and monitoring along the journey we provide all of that.
Speaker:But now, but now with our partnership with EasyPost.
Speaker:It's going to allow customers to utilize our tool to print labels
Speaker:directly through our software, and that's going to dramatically improve
Speaker:the efficiency of the workflow.
Speaker:And that's going to reinforce the all in one solution.
Speaker:A couple of other things that you'll want to look for, you'll want to have a
Speaker:tool that has a watch list, because there could be specific patches, packages.
Speaker:You mentioned your husband, and you could have had an issue with this in the past.
Speaker:And you'll want to say, okay, as a pharmacy, I want to make
Speaker:sure I'm monitoring that package and it gets there on time.
Speaker:I want to separate that from the rest.
Speaker:So this could be a package recipient that's had prior challenges.
Speaker:It could be a VIP.
Speaker:So you want a tool that will be able to let you identify a specific
Speaker:package that you want to monitor throughout the package journey.
Speaker:And and then you're going to want to be able to collect all this data so they can
Speaker:use it for reporting purposes later on.
Speaker:That's, that's two really great points there that I really
Speaker:wanted to highlight again.
Speaker:Multi carrier, I think the risk, we all know if you are stuck with a single
Speaker:carrier and something happens, whether it's a strike or whatever risk wise,
Speaker:you're going to want to be able to quickly pivot to a different carrier,
Speaker:whether that's a regional carrier, a local carrier, a, you know, another
Speaker:one of the big ones, however it is.
Speaker:But also I feel like just from the consumer standpoint, thinking about
Speaker:the consumer experience as I think about my husband's experience, you
Speaker:know, I didn't have a very good experience because I felt uncertain.
Speaker:I felt like I didn't get communicated well with how quickly I should be
Speaker:knowing and when it was going to come.
Speaker:I didn't have the notice.
Speaker:It came a day earlier than I expected, which was, you know,
Speaker:often you think, oh, early package.
Speaker:Huzzah.
Speaker:In this case, I thought I'm not home that day.
Speaker:What am I supposed to do?
Speaker:So any recommendations for, let's say, pharmaceutical companies out there
Speaker:or something when it comes to that customer experience in communication
Speaker:how often, what should they be doing?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Now that kind of goes back to the all in one solution, because if you could
Speaker:have a solution that could look at look out from before you ever ship that
Speaker:package and provide your recommendations all the way to proof of delivery,
Speaker:customer communication is critical.
Speaker:And it's critical for providing visibility to customers to let them
Speaker:know that a package is on the way.
Speaker:And so make sure that you have a method for alerting a patient
Speaker:in our case, that a package is leaving, a package is on the way.
Speaker:It's in route.
Speaker:It's delayed or it's there.
Speaker:Our solution happens to even have the extra step to say, if you have
Speaker:a notification that your package has arrived and it hasn't arrived, there's
Speaker:a little button that you can click that just says my package hasn't arrived.
Speaker:And that can start an investigation.
Speaker:So all of these tools are available today and all, again,
Speaker:it's more than just a package.
Speaker:It's a patient.
Speaker:More than a package.
Speaker:It's a patient.
Speaker:So when you're looking for technology out there to help make sure,
Speaker:obviously with pharmaceuticals, you're going to need to use technology.
Speaker:You're going to need to use analytics.
Speaker:You're all of those to reduce that risk factor, which is a
Speaker:high challenge in this industry.
Speaker:When you're looking for tools, make sure that it's got a lot of
Speaker:those, you know, customer patient friendly methods that are available.
Speaker:I really love that at parcel show that you do have that button.
Speaker:They could click find out, though, do your due diligence when you're
Speaker:looking into technology, make sure that you're not going to end up
Speaker:having the experience that I had.
Speaker:What about regulations?
Speaker:So that kind of brings me up to kind of the regulations,
Speaker:compliance sort of issues.
Speaker:If you are looking through technology so let's say even let's just use
Speaker:ParcelShield as the example here, then.
Speaker:How how does ParcelShield, how should technology be
Speaker:able to help with compliance?
Speaker:So, one of the things I think with compliance to consider, we talked a
Speaker:little bit about it, is proof of delivery.
Speaker:So there are regulations that are going to say, hey, if if a package was shipped
Speaker:and you're billing for it, we need to be able to make sure that, you know, we paid
Speaker:you as a, as a government, or as a PBM, we're going to want to know that there's
Speaker:evidence that that package had arrived.
Speaker:So, what that can do from a compliance standpoint is it
Speaker:could create a compliance audit.
Speaker:That audit could then the internal audit could then cause governments and
Speaker:PDMs to claw back the money that they paid you for those those medications.
Speaker:If, in fact, you're not able to produce proof of delivery.
Speaker:So we happen to maintain proof of delivery for 10 years, which is which
Speaker:is, which is something that's going to be important from a compliance standpoint.
Speaker:Okay, really interesting because obviously across the industry,
Speaker:we always like to show, oh, yeah, look, your package arrived.
Speaker:You can't just get a refund.
Speaker:But in this case, we're facing additional compliance issues.
Speaker:And so that proof of delivery is no longer just a nice thing.
Speaker:It's an absolute must have.
Speaker:And the storage of it.
Speaker:So that kind of brings up another question makes me think
Speaker:you're storing all this data.
Speaker:We have all this information.
Speaker:Obviously, in healthcare, there are additional HIPAA, you know, issues.
Speaker:Data, you know, security when it comes to a person's identity and what's going out.
Speaker:What, how does that play into the logistics industry?
Speaker:Yeah, I think secure storage of delivery data, it, it ensures
Speaker:protection as you mentioned mentioned in compliance with HIPAA.
Speaker:There's other industry specific standards.
Speaker:There are fines that can be associated with with delivery data being out.
Speaker:If they can connect it back to the patient and the medication that
Speaker:they're on, there are legal issues associated with data breaches, they
Speaker:can cost thousands, if not millions of dollars, you know, and even lead
Speaker:to imprisonment for severe violations.
Speaker:So, secure data can help safely store data, can be analyzed to reduce shipping
Speaker:times, prevent delays, discover any other issues that can be managed to lead to a
Speaker:better resource allocation for savings.
Speaker:So, what when you say securely contain the data, what does that look like?
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:That means the steps that an organization would take when they're, when they
Speaker:are absorbing data and making sure that that that data is secure and they
Speaker:are meeting security standards that are going to make sure that that
Speaker:data does not leave the secure space.
Speaker:And then, in fact, put a patient's identification and the
Speaker:medications that they're on at risk.
Speaker:Okay, so make sure that you're looking into whatever SOC 2 or whatever standards
Speaker:companies have to make sure that they are securely holding that data.
Speaker:And you as a pharmacy, as any other, you know, company shipping
Speaker:pharmaceuticals is not liable for any of that kind of data challenges.
Speaker:What do you see as where I feel like this industry and what studies show
Speaker:is just going to continue to grow.
Speaker:People are going to become more and more comfortable with just getting their
Speaker:medications shipped directly to them.
Speaker:That does bring more challenges as always.
Speaker:What, what are you, if you were going to look into John's crystal ball, what are
Speaker:you seeing the future in this kind of logistics and shipping industry going?
Speaker:Yeah, no, that's a great question.
Speaker:And like I said, kind of in, in some ways, the future is here.
Speaker:We talked a lot about AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics.
Speaker:If a pharmacy has a manifest of shipments and and the next step is usually to
Speaker:print labels and have a carrier or courier come pick them up, then that
Speaker:it's kind of cross your fingers and hope.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So, you know, what if you could feed that manifest into a platform?
Speaker:That would then analyze it using AI machine learning to for your shipments.
Speaker:They'll identify the risks.
Speaker:They'll provide you with the shipping method with the lowest level of risk.
Speaker:And now at the lowest cost.
Speaker:That exists today at ParcelShield.
Speaker:I think, you know, home delivery of medications.
Speaker:It's there's there's a rise in telemedicine and it's, it's driving
Speaker:an increase for you know, direct to patient models where pharmaceuticals
Speaker:are shipped directly to patients homes.
Speaker:And that necessitates new logistics solutions that ensure safety and
Speaker:efficacy for those deliveries.
Speaker:And, you know, ParcelShield protects those shipments today.
Speaker:So, and I also think in the future, you know, further collaboration, bringing
Speaker:complimentary services together, like ParcelShield and EasyPost, that improve
Speaker:improves the employee experience.
Speaker:The employee that's actually putting that label on the package and delivering it.
Speaker:It creates efficiencies at a company level, and it ultimately
Speaker:benefits the patients.
Speaker:And, you know, together, we're, we're taking the best care that together
Speaker:us and our partners are taking the best care of patients that's possible.
Speaker:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:So a couple of things that I've heard you say that echo what I'm hearing
Speaker:other people just in the industry say.
Speaker:Partnerships.
Speaker:So a lot of you pharmaceuticals, a lot of you in the health care industry are
Speaker:kind of new to the logistics industry in a way, you know, a long time ago,
Speaker:everything went straight to the pharmacy.
Speaker:So in the logistics industry, partnerships, relationships
Speaker:are so huge and so critical.
Speaker:So you can, so if you are, you know, an EasyPost customer, a
Speaker:ParcelShield customer, please don't hesitate to always reach out to your
Speaker:partners and the tools you're using.
Speaker:Talk to them when you have questions, ask about best practices.
Speaker:We literally are here to help every day if you do have questions, and
Speaker:this industry is incredible that way, whether it is your TMS, whether you
Speaker:know, whatever it is you're using a lot of those partners have resources
Speaker:to help you on this kind of journey.
Speaker:But also another thing that you pointed out and that have I feel like has
Speaker:just really been reiterated today.
Speaker:This is a, again, a high risk, high reward kind of industry.
Speaker:Absolutely to lower those risks to as low as possible.
Speaker:Technology, AI, machine learning, all of that is going to be your very best friend.
Speaker:Get into that now.
Speaker:So that as the industry continues to grow, you're going to have kind of a lower
Speaker:risk, high reward kind of experience.
Speaker:You can lower those risks, but you have to absolutely use technology
Speaker:to the best that you can.
Speaker:Would you agree with that, John?
Speaker:Is that a couple of things that you're saying?
Speaker:Well said.
Speaker:Well said.
Speaker:We live it every day.
Speaker:We do.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I have a couple of questions that came in just from kind
Speaker:of our community around this.
Speaker:Some of them we've kind of already touched on, but I want to make sure I get to them.
Speaker:What best practices can smaller companies maybe implement to
Speaker:again, reduce those risks?
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I mean, I think that's a good question.
Speaker:Some people say to me, yeah, well, I wish I had enough money to buy
Speaker:into all this amazing technology.
Speaker:What, what is the minimum?
Speaker:How should they start?
Speaker:That's a great question.
Speaker:And something that we've considered as an organization as well.
Speaker:So obviously technology can be costly.
Speaker:So can lack of technology.
Speaker:You know, small, smaller companies that don't require as much intervention.
Speaker:And we talk to them all the time.
Speaker:You know, there's kind of a threshold where they're like, going,
Speaker:we still, we still have a person that is monitoring this for us.
Speaker:But at some point, you've grown to a point where you have to have technology.
Speaker:So I'd say, I'd say, you know, consider.
Speaker:We've considered that as well for our potential smaller clients, and
Speaker:that we have a plan that includes just tracking and monitoring only.
Speaker:And that provides really good visibility, regardless of the carrier of where the
Speaker:packages at any point in the journey.
Speaker:It alerts them of risk and and provides communication to the end recipient.
Speaker:So, you know, while we're focused on health care and pharmaceutical
Speaker:medications, you know, most most times we don't know what's in the box.
Speaker:So that means our technology works for anyone sending packages
Speaker:through the supply chain.
Speaker:We have there are some reasonable cost options for smaller companies
Speaker:looking to protect themselves from shipping related risks, and, and, you
Speaker:know, we're happy to discuss those solutions with those that are in need.
Speaker:Yeah, and I just echo that as well.
Speaker:As I've talked to so many people across the industry, there are a lot of programs
Speaker:set up where you can get, you know, maybe it comes with tools A through Z and
Speaker:you only need A and B and C right now.
Speaker:You should be able to find those options that are free or that are very low
Speaker:cost, that are, but you've set yourself up kind of for a foundation for as you
Speaker:grow, and as this industry explodes, you can add on additional features.
Speaker:So don't be afraid to think like, oh, well, I shouldn't get technology at all.
Speaker:I've still got Bob over here checking everything.
Speaker:At some point, if Bob gets overwhelmed, you know, you have some of those
Speaker:automation options available to you.
Speaker:Okay, let's talk about integration.
Speaker:So I do get questions around what kind of challenges can companies expect
Speaker:when they're trying to integrate?
Speaker:Everybody has a tech stack that I feel like is so high some days.
Speaker:So integrations, any, any recommendations when you're trying
Speaker:to integrate with your other tools?
Speaker:Yeah, I think, you know, integrating new logistics technologies with
Speaker:existing systems can always present challenges for pharmacies and for others.
Speaker:You know, systems need to talk to each other.
Speaker:And and that's why you know, ParcelShield can provide our
Speaker:customers with API connectivity.
Speaker:Data can flow into their current pharmacy management system and, you know, another
Speaker:benefit, though, of our partnership for logical customers is that EasyPost
Speaker:has already built a model that lets data flow from one system to another.
Speaker:So that solves the connectivity issue, making integration an easier lift.
Speaker:You know, there's other other things for technology in terms of, you
Speaker:know, what companies may be facing that there's implementation costs.
Speaker:There's resource requirements, there's training involved, but we
Speaker:have an implementation team that walks our customers through and and
Speaker:then, you know, an account management team that supports our customers.
Speaker:After the fact, so they're assigned to an account to ensure success.
Speaker:They assist with any training or troubleshooting or
Speaker:suggestions for improvement.
Speaker:So those are, but they are some real challenges that that they, you know,
Speaker:companies face when they're integrating new logistics into their systems.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:And, you know, my final question was just around balancing costs and reliability.
Speaker:I think that's a question for everybody across the industry all the time.
Speaker:One of my personal tips is, you know, figure out what
Speaker:your service level agreement.
Speaker:What are you willing?
Speaker:How far are you willing to risk?
Speaker:And make sure that you're again using multiple carriers and different things
Speaker:where you can balance those costs.
Speaker:John, do you have other tips, though, around the constant balance
Speaker:between cost and reliability?
Speaker:Yeah, it's a huge issue in healthcare and, you know, most of
Speaker:our customers are self insured.
Speaker:That means they assume risk for 10, 20, 30 thousand dollar medications
Speaker:traveling through the supply chain.
Speaker:And at the same time, you know, reliable delivery, it's essential for
Speaker:maintaining those products and making sure that the product integrity is there.
Speaker:Patient safety is there and we're complying with all of our regulations.
Speaker:So, you know, what I'd say is.
Speaker:If possible, leverage predictive analytics technology tools that are available today
Speaker:to predict and prevent delays before those medications ever leave the facility.
Speaker:That's, to me that's key.
Speaker:If you can prevent something before you ship it, instead of
Speaker:during shipment, everybody wins.
Speaker:If you can utilize real time monitoring for products that are
Speaker:in transit use on demand services to intervene or rescue a package.
Speaker:If something does happen to prevent expensive reships, you know,
Speaker:sending out a courier to rescue a 20,000 dollar medication to
Speaker:deliver it safely to the patient.
Speaker:It's pretty easily justified for both the pharmacy and the benefit of
Speaker:the patient when it comes to cost.
Speaker:So, and the last thing I'll say is, use data and analytics
Speaker:for decision making, you know.
Speaker:Use performance metrics, look back, analyze, adjust your strategies based
Speaker:on those metrics to maintain the balance between between cost and quality.
Speaker:Yeah, so I, I agree with that 1000%.
Speaker:This is absolutely an industry where you need to be proactive and not reactive.
Speaker:Reactive becomes incredibly costly in this industry.
Speaker:And my husband's medication that we've discussed.
Speaker:I'm sure he loves it so much, but it was a 25,000 medication.
Speaker:Which, thankfully, we had insurance and, you know, didn't have to pay
Speaker:25,000, but it is a lot of money.
Speaker:And so, you do not want to be reactive when it comes to shipping and logistics.
Speaker:This is an industry where you really, really need to stay ahead, be
Speaker:monitoring, keeping your eyes on it, and using that technology and data.
Speaker:Fortunately, there are a lot of options, places like ParcelShield and other
Speaker:tools that you can choose and use to make sure you're staying ahead.
Speaker:Completely agree with you on that, John.
Speaker:We're out of time for today.
Speaker:We've covered so much.
Speaker:I feel like we really have a good feel on this, but do you have any other
Speaker:advice or tips that we may have missed?
Speaker:Also, you know, if people want to learn more about pharmaceutical logistics,
Speaker:you know, where can they go and also how can they connect with you?
Speaker:Sure, no, that's that's great.
Speaker:And I'll, I'll try to be brief, but I will say for final thoughts
Speaker:or advice, companies that are struggling with shipping challenges.
Speaker:Some of those can be addressed with technology.
Speaker:And particularly, like, we talked about predictive analytics and
Speaker:machine learning to avoid risk.
Speaker:And when you combine that with giving recommendations for the lowest level
Speaker:of cost for a shipping alternative, there are solutions out there.
Speaker:And, you know, that solution also provides real time visibility and
Speaker:tracking and intervention capabilities and lots of data analytics.
Speaker:And and now, with the partnership with EasyPost, we can streamline the
Speaker:shipping label process, and that lets our customers print labels directly
Speaker:for FedEx, UPS, and other regional carriers directly from our platform.
Speaker:So what I'd say the future's here, solutions now.
Speaker:Happy to discuss with you.
Speaker:Any of your podcast listeners, if they want to discuss with us, my contact
Speaker:information, johng@parcelshield.com.
Speaker:You can go to our website, parcelshield.com.
Speaker:You can request a demo there.
Speaker:There are some other resources that help to to provide some regulations and some
Speaker:recommendations around pharmacy itself.
Speaker:That's going to be your National Association of Boards Pharmacies,
Speaker:ACHC, URAC, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations,
Speaker:but again, parcelshield.com if you want information from me.
Speaker:There are blogs and there's a way to schedule a demo there.
Speaker:So I just want to thank you for inviting me to talk to your podcast listener.
Speaker:And share this news about this new, exciting partnership with EasyPost.
Speaker:Really appreciate having you here.
Speaker:It's been really fun.
Speaker:Everyone again in this industry, if you are interested in, if you do
Speaker:pharmaceuticals, if you're interested in expanding into it, absolutely make
Speaker:sure that you're just doing a little bit of your due diligence and making
Speaker:sure that you're proactive, staying ahead, and using great partners to
Speaker:make sure that you're staying as secure and low risk as possible.
Speaker:So again, thank you, John.
Speaker:This was fantastic.
Speaker:And we are so excited to have learned from you today.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Can people connect with you on LinkedIn as well?
Speaker:Are you on LinkedIn?
Speaker:I am on LinkedIn.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:John Golden, LinkedIn ParcelShield.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Hit him up.
Speaker:So we'll see you all next time.
