Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: We're gonna drop 10 trailers there. You're gonna fix your inventory. We're sending this guy over that we know. He's gonna move the trailers for you, load them up, move them back. We've got this all color coded for you in a spreadsheet of who's picking up what when.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: We've had scenarios where like, hey, a driver's got either an emergency or something's happening. His appointment's at 6pm he's there on site at 10am can we drop a trailer and you can work it in?
[00:00:21] Speaker A: I would love. I almost wanna ask people to start drawing pictures of what they think a yard jockey is because they automatically think it's a horse.
[00:00:27] Speaker C: And calling all CPG shippers, truckers and logistics pros.
Welcome to the truck. Yeah Podcast. Your ultimate cheat code for smarter shipping, smoother logistics, and dominating the shelf where it matters most. Buckle up. It's time to learn, laugh, and get your freight on.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another edition of the Zipline Logistics podcast. My name is Jesse Jewett. Joined with me as always, take Teddy Lee Knox. Hello, Teddy.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Hello. How are you?
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. We're coming in hot today. We got a great topic. We're Talking Drop Trailers 101 Flexible Delivery Strategies CPG Brands should not overlook.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Are you excited about that?
[00:01:16] Speaker A: I am excited about that. Very excited about that.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: I know certainly in my almost 20 years of transportation and you're close to 15, we both dealt with drop trailers on both the pickup and deliver side. It can be a very, very valuable solution.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Certainly for, for shippers. It's funny, now that I think about it, my first job was all about managing drop trailer pools.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: And was it really?
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Yeah. The outbound Campbell Soup Maxton, North Carolina plant working from Chicago, managing the outbound drop trailer pools and their three shifts of work that they, they handled on the Maxton, North Carolina. It was very interesting.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: That is interesting.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Coming fresh out of being a golf pro, diving into drop trailer pools.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: The thing I think is so interesting about drop trailers is actually just the term drop.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Like with logistics. We've talked about this in other podcasts. Like that can mean seven different things in this industry and I think a lot of times it's confusing.
So like this is something that you shouldn't overlook. Also means something that you need to learn and it's, it's very confusing. You know, the different parts of logistics. If you're in supply chain, dropping something can mean something different than what we. Even the five ways that we consider it in the actual trucking part.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah. You definitely want to clarify and over communicate the expectations for the facility that you're dropping at. You're absolutely right. Some folks may believe that dropping means placing it into a door.
Other larger shippers or receivers mean backing it into a yard space to have
[00:02:51] Speaker A: their a lot of times too.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: But yard jockey, can't you just leave it like.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: No, you can't just leave a trailer anywhere, right? Yeah. Yard jockey, that's one of my favorites. Everyone is very confused by this like the training aspect of like coming into this industry.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: I would love. I almost want to ask people to start drawing pictures of what they think a yard jockey is because it's.
They're very confused. They automatically think it's a horse. They think it's, you know, like a person moving it, not with equipment.
So I feel like there's. There's so many aspects that are confusing. And also when you're a shipper, things that you need to have set up correctly in order to utilize this.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: That's a great definition and thought process of understanding the nuances. But we're going to start from the beginning. So we're talking about drop deliveries in this case. So a drop trailer program allows. Or this is like how it works. Right. A drop trailer program allows loaded trailers to be delivered to designated locations, warehouses, distribution centers. But they aren't unloaded immediately because the trailer can be unloaded at the recipient. The consignees convenience. A drop trailer program eliminates the need for live loading or unloading, thus streamlining operations.
So we handle a number of shipments that drop at delivery. Sometimes it's unloaded within an hour or two, sometimes it's unloaded within a day or two. That's another critical element of understanding.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: In the cases of retailers, it can be unloaded in weeks.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: And that's different modes as well that
[00:04:25] Speaker B: you have to remember. Yeah. Understanding those expectations. So let's just kind of go through some of the benefits.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: So handling peak season inventory surges. Yeah, this is great. And a lot of this is, you know, I. Bandwidth probably comes to mind.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Labor availability. So being able to move something, offload it, put it where it needs to go and then continue to do that over and over again. So when you're doing a drop trailer, you can have multiple drop trailers be placed in a yard and then inbound it based off of need, based off of next steps, cross docking, whatever is there that allows you to make a strategy and that goes into overcoming limited doctors. I'm sorry I cut you Off.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: No, no, no. That's great. That's certainly part of it. Limited. Doctor. So I was just gonna say a lot of products have seasonality, but think of like toys or electronics or yada yada. There's, there's a timeframe. Let's call it Q4 holiday seasons. Right. So if you operate your warehouse that you can unload, let's call it just 10 loads a day.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: And then all of a sudden peak season comes out, Black Friday surges and for the next three weeks you're expected to handle 30 loads a day.
You can staff, you don't have the dock doors which we're going to talk about, but you have the room in your yard to have the trailers dropped.
That's the key that you can kind of maybe extend your receiving hours. You don't want to do live unloads at 8pm at night, but you have a crew that can unload the trailer if a yard jockey backs it into a door.
So that's some of the benefits and that's how it would work.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: What's up, truckers? Zipline Logistics is heading back to Natural Products Expo west once again this year. We'll be there in Anaheim March 3rd through 6th and we are really hoping to see you there. Since Zipline exclusively serves CPG shippers, showing up for the CPG community is kind of our thing. And that's why in 2026, we are proud to be the only platinum level logistics sponsor of the event. Still need your Expo pass? Use our discount code 10953 for 10% off or just click the link in the show notes below. Let's link up at Expo West. We are so excited to see you there.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: I'm having, I'm struggling to explain a lot of this right now because I keep thinking, you know, I guess what a lot of my expertise is is in that retailer side.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Which is not always the same scenario.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Set up with drop trailers and they do what they want based off of purchase orders, preferred carriers, tariffs. There's so many different things versus when you're, you have the warehouse and you are taking inventory for an upcoming Black Friday thing. It's, it's very, very different.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Different prioritization. So I feel like there's just so many different, different scenarios that it goes into that. Again, that difference between dropping, marking, delivered, marking inbounded and marking available for, for picking, for placement, for purchase, whatever it might be are such a different things.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: So those kind of, those. Certainly those last couple things you mentioned were very retailer vc. Specific. And we talk, we're talking Costco, Walmart, Sam's Club, Kroger, Giant Eagle, etc.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Which is most of our business. Right. And so I think we, we were touching on the benefits. Right. Limited dock doors.
So m. The example I gave about extending the hours. Right. You know, if you've got a, a typical DC that receives from 7am to 3pm Right. With drop trailers, theoretically you could staff up. Maybe you have a staff that's handling outbounds from 3pm to 9pm now with drop trailers for the receiving. You've now extended it. If they've got time, they can unload those drop trailers. Because you only have three or four dock doors dedicated to unloading during that 7 to 3pm window. Now it's extended. Et cetera, et cetera.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: So that's a great point. What are some of the other benefits?
[00:08:31] Speaker A: So utilize the yard for extra storage. So not storage and the fact that you could just run out to that trailer and pick something up and take it. But it allows the space for you to use the floor and the stacking or whatever is available in that warehouse for what is the priority and then be able to bring in more product once you have the, the right, the right space and time or need that specific product. So of course within recommendations for that specific product, I wouldn't drop a trailer in, you know, a winter storm of sparkling water.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: You want to make sure that that stuff is cared for correctly. But you know, depending on the needs of that product to keep the integrity of the product where it should be, this works really well and provides storage, provides visibility, provides flexibility to move things around the way that needed so orders can continue to, to go in, go out as needed.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: That's a great consideration of the type of product that you're dropping and weather related issues. We're going through that right now while we're recording this. I'm not going to tell you what day it is, Teddy.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Figure it out.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Eternal.
The last benefit is reducing freight expenses.
Really what comes to my mind is detention.
Right. If you're thinking going back to that 10 unloads per day example, if you have a surge where there's 16 or 20 or 24 again, you're not going to be paying $50 plus an hour or whatever your contractual detention agreement is. If you have a surge of inbounds and you can't unload them within that two hour window, that's a problem that adds up quickly.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: It can also add up because there's other things at play here like Hours of service.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: If that comes into play, you could be looking at layover and late fees.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Mm. So we wanna avoid those at all cost.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Do you have any. We're not gonna talk name. We're gonna name names here today. Teddy. But you know any examples of a drop trailer where it's helped out quite a bit.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: So thinking of very specific scenarios. So importing drayage, being able to drop trailers based off of when product is coming in before it's even configured and used for transfers or retailer shipments. I think that can be really helpful because it. It doesn't always come in palletized, so it's going to take more time. So dropping the trailer and allowing time for it to be unloaded and configured the correct way I think is awesome because they also. It comes in on the port schedule. Not necessarily a schedule for domestic logistics.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: That's one too. You got to get it out of the port within a certain amount of time.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: So maybe you can pull it from the port. Obviously you have to get it back to the port once it's pulled too. But maybe that that window's extended.
So having it be there at the receiver ready to be unloaded is. Is like you said, critical.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: It's one of those exceptions in logistics where transit time is not taken into account. It's there. Get it out.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Figure it out. So that's extremely helpful. Other things are to what you mentioned with, you know, inventory launches, new launches, upcoming launches. You have to be prepared for those.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Sometimes you know, like six months in advance. So having the product ready to. To do, whether that's a repack project, whole new launch that I think is very impactful for those drop trailers as well. But then also if you're doing any sort of transfers, getting new warehouses, having that drop trailer program is really helpful there. We've also, we've helped a lot of people create this strategy in their network.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Which I think is really great is to be able to do those things. Of course, product dependent. That it can, it can be sustained and that you have the right yard, the right capabilities and security involved.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Yeah. I was thinking of promotions into retailers. That's a really good one. When you have a surge like a Costco mvm. How about that?
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Great call out. We're dealing with it right now. Weather, considering the product, making sure that, you know there's not going to be a massive problem with. With extreme temperatures, either cold or heat.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: And there's always weather, wind, there's always
[00:12:29] Speaker B: problems drivers can get. We've had scenarios where like, hey, a driver's got either an emergency or something's happening. His appointment's at 6pm, he's there on site at 10am can we drop a trailer and you can work it in or can we in that case either in the yard or in an actual door, he's going to go home, take care of something personal and then come back and grab it or another driver will grab it later. Drop trailer on the shipper side, providing valuable time and storage space to some, some unique examples like picking and packing an order that's kind of ongoing that we just need to have it go straight into a trailer to be able to depart right on time.
That's, that's critical. So we, I've dealt with that in all, all the years. Again, my first role in logistics was helping manage that yard in North Carolina. And that was super helpful, is that they tried to work ahead. And so having the drop trailers in the right spot in their yard allowed them, hey, the second shift from eight to four is actually running ahead of schedule.
These trailers that are scheduled to be picked up at 7pm at night and third shift, we can pull them up at noon and load them early.
That's super helpful. So kind of driving efficiencies, right?
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
We've also done a lot of scenarios where something comes up with inventory quality control where it may not be a facility that is used to having drop trailers. They may not have a yard jockey, but they have a secure yard. So we've been able to provide solutions that we're going to drop 10 trailers there, you're going to fix your inventory. We're sending this guy over that we know he's going to move the trailers for you, load them up, move them back. And we've, we've got this all color coded for you in a spreadsheet of who's picking up what, when and you know, providing those types of solutions because just because they don't have familiarity with it doesn't mean that they can't make it happen. Like, yeah, again, look, we are calling it a yard jockey, but it's not the same type of equipment. It just happens to be a tractor.
Little different.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: You nailed it. I think what's most important is, you know, that element of communication. We can help you either develop a drop trailer program or handle a drop trailer shipment on the fly. You know, again, it's about communication.
Certainly a program is consistent daily.
We actually have a canopy tool that, that helps manage those, those yards and those trailer pools.
But then the one off shipments. That's just what we do here. We provide logistics solutions.
There will be a blog post on this topic. It'll be in the show Notes as always, if you want to give us a call and talk drop trailers 888-go-zipLine www.ziplinelogistics.com don't ever be afraid to call
[00:15:20] Speaker A: and ask what the differences are too. Like it's not clear. There's differences by mode for live loading drop trailer. There's differences by product.
So if you feel like you can't ask that, just call us. We won't judge. Give us a call. We can help explain it to you.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: And after you talk to us, hop on Apple Spotify. Leave us a five star review. We appreciate you listening. Thanks again for joining us on another edition of the Zipline Logistics Podcast. We'll see you next time. Thanks, Teddy.
