#283 - Tips For Transporting Your Vehicles

You are listening to the Independent Dealer Podcast with hosts Luke Godwin and Jeff Watson.

Hello and welcome to the Independent Dealer Podcast brought to you by Buckeye Dealership Consulting.

Post.

Covid. Luke, Covid's over. There's no more supply chain issues. There's no more complaints. Gas prices aren't $5 a gallon. Why, why, why am I still paying ridiculous money to transport cars?

Well, you know, this, this is one of the most overlooked aspects of a dealer's dealership. The transportation of units to and from auctions or to and from customers, depending on what your, your model is. I've been buying cars all over the country for 10 plus years and I've been booking my own transportation. And you know, prices go up and down depending on the season. But let me tell you, they don't ever go down.

They only go up.

No, they go down sometimes, but they're still. This is a man. This is such an overlooked aspect of your dealership that can make you so much money if you do it properly or save you so much money if you do it properly. And today, luckily, we got some folks that know the business way better than I do, I promise you. And they are Auto Hauler Exchange, right?

That's correct.

We've got Royce and Dana. Guys, introduce yourself to the community real quick. And then we are just going to hammer you guys with some questions and you're going to tell us what we're doing wrong with transporting and how us dealers can do it better. So, Royce, let's start with you.

Yeah. I'm Royce Neubauer, founder and CEO of Auto Hauler Exchange. I've been in the freight world for roughly 23 years. I've been in the vehicle logistics world for just over two and a half. In the vehicle logistics space is. It's interesting, it's broken.

It's the Wild West, Royce.

You'Re talking about.

Describe it that way.

Well, you're talking about, you know, shipping vehicles and the costs are continuing to climb or they're staying high, Right? Well, in the freight world, freight contracts, shipping freight in the US have hit a two year low. So why is it the reverse in shipping cars? Right. And we'd like to get to the bottom of that. But I'll let Dana dive in and introduce herself as well.

Yeah, I'm Dana Randazzo. I'm the chief operating officer for Auto Hauler Exchange and I've been in transportation. Now we're double digits, so that's where we are at.

Now, you've been in vehicle logistics for.

Double digits yeah, vehicle logistics double district. Then I was in freight for a couple years prior to that as well. So. And then I transitioned. So I went from freight this beautiful organized and I thought I like a little bit of chaos in my life, right?

Everything's in a little box, a little shipping container, right. They all just kind of come prepackaged in those things.

And I know, I mean they're, they're timed by, we're talking like 15 minutes, right? Like if you're 10 minutes late, 15 minutes late for a pickup or delivery in the freight world, it's it, you're out, you lost your appointment.

How about, how about five and 10 days late? That's, that's the world of, of automobile, automobile logistics. So don't get me wrong, there are tons of things, you know, I used to ship cars to customers all over the country back in, in the early 2000. We were selling a bunch of cars on ebay and, and we were using brokers because central dispatch at that time was essentially faxing. You would fax it in and come back anyway, you'd post things. It was, it was really weird. So anyway, I had a broker and I kept telling our customers where we were sending cars all over the country. Hey, it's not like shipping an envelope. It's not like you're FedExing this car. It takes time.

So.

I understand it takes time, but why are, why are vehicle logistic providers so, so used to over promising and under delivering what's wrong with it?

I mean from my perspective, like I said, I came in just two and a half years ago, almost three years now, and I had no preconceived notions, I had no blinders on. I was shocked at the inefficient processes, the lacks of trans, lack of transparency, the lack of communication just in the space in general. Right. So I started interviewing carriers around the country about what their expectations were and their expert. They, their expectations were extremely low. I was shocked. They didn't expect people to communicate with them. They didn't expect to have correct information when going to pick up. There was a lack of trust from the shipper perspective on if they were, if the bins were even there with certain shippers. Right. So expectation level on both sides I thought was lacking trust and lacking transparency. And in the end you have way too few partners that control way too much of the, the, the volume. So there's a, there's a handful of very large fleets out there that consume most of the OEM freight. They bid it at a price that is not manageable and not serviceable for most carriers to survive. And then they broker out the majority of that freight and just drive a rate down. That, that doesn't make sense. So when I just really started to examine it, we decided to take an approach that was more freight driven. Expectations need to be high, transparency needs to be high, communication needs to be high, and the expectation level needs to be high on both sides of the paradigm, the carrier and the shipper and that communication needs to go coexist together. I think brokers get in the way in this space way too much. It's just that simple. I think they're consuming way too much of the volume and they're clogging up that communication and that trust factor across the entire industry.

That's interesting. You bring up brokers because five times out of 10 you post a car on central dispatch, you get a call from someone and the person you think you're dealing with is not the end provider. Nine times out of 10, I think it's more like five out of 10, but it might be nine out of 10 for me. And, and what'll happen is, is they'll say, hey, I'm going to pick your car up on, on Friday and I'm gonna have it to you Monday morning. Okay. And what shippers may not know out there is if a car leaves a Mannheim auction, I know because I get a text on my phone when it leaves that auction. Okay? So they're going to, and then they say, I posted for 500. Well, we're going to need 600 to do that. And right then I figure it's probably a broker upselling, upselling the freight. And so I'll say, no, I'm not.

Going to do it.

But anyway, let's say I do say they're going to do it for one. They don't pick it up on Friday, they pick it up on Monday. And then I text them Monday, hey, when's my car to get here? I don't hear anything from them. Right.

Yeah.

And then finally, well, I need to check with my driver. Well, I thought you were the driver. Right, so the broker, the broker side of it, I think you're exactly right. Is really creating a problem. I got a question. When a broker is involved, whose insurance covers my car?

Yeah, I, I, I, I own a brokerage as well. I've been in the brokerage space for a long time in, in the freight world and even vehicle logistics. They, you know, we move cars as well. On that side of the business. We're responsible the carrier is outright responsible, number one. The carrier is, their insurance is, is the responsible party. But if something happens and that carrier isn't able to take coverage, then the broker's insurance needs to kick in, knock on wood. We don't have a lot of issues on that side of the business. And there's two things you have to look at there. If you're posting vehicles on, on a board that's not vetting the carriers or betting who's pulling those vehicles off, then you're putting yourself at risk, Luke. Right. Because you don't know who's insured. You don't know if their DOT ratings are secure. You don't know if they're even a legal carrier to be moving those vehicles. Right. So I would, I would be. It goes back to the wild, wild west logistics, I think, you know, there are some things that we've built into our product and there's some things that we just have taken from the freight world that we just feel make sense. And carrier vetting is, number one. You need to make sure that that is a legitimate carrier that's moving that vehicle, that have strong safety ratings, that have good insurance, and that they can insure that vehicle because ultimately that carrier is who is responsible.

You know, what we're acting like here is that freight movement across the country is not regulated. It's probably one of the most highly regulated businesses in the country.

Yeah. And that 100%.

And that the biggest problem with posting on a board, nobody's vetted that. That blows my mind. And I know that I'm rolling the dice every time I use a new carrier and probably sometimes when I'm using an old carrier. How do you get around that? What's the best practice if you are using a board?

Well, I would make sure that that board is vetting the carrier for you. There are technologies out there that have back end processes where any carrier that's allowed to shop on that board or work on that board has to be vetted. And it's, it's no different than working with a good broker. If you're working with a good reputable brokerage, they should be vetting the carriers. If they're not, you're not working with a reputable brokerage. The brokerage process is very regulated. We have rules that, you know, brokers have rules they have to follow, and if they're not following those rules, they're putting you at risk, they're putting themselves at risk. So if you're working on a board or posting on a board, and it's just a post and pray model, which is what most people have used for the past decade in this space. Then to me, that's. That's not a very, I think, safe way to be moving vehicles. Anybody that's involved in that transaction could be at risk. It could be liable if there's an accident of that nature. Right. Except for the board, because the board is basically saying we're, we're not. We're not responsible here.

Good.

All right, guys, real quick, just to jump in here. I'm going to jump in on us jumping in on top of Luke and tell you about Primaland because they are still a sponsor of the podcast. Can you meet? Imagine that.

Luke, I tell you, primaland is a sponsor of the podcast. They're a sponsor of the independent dealer. They work hard to make sure that we know what the heck we're doing. If you see every convention, they're there. They're teaching us something. They're teaching us how to manage our cash flow. And if you need cash, in my opinion, they're the best one to go to.

Yeah, you know, it's so interesting. So everything about convention and everything about my recent 20 group meeting was guys buy here, pay here is going into its season. Right. Interest rates are up, banks are tightening. A lot of lenders are getting out of the market. Now is going to be a good time for us to go a little bit harder and build our portfolios over the next few months, years, whatever. So having cash to do that is, like, crucial. And I'm looking everywhere to make sure that I have enough to take advantage of this opportunity. So if you are looking, obviously call the guys at primaland.

Yeah.

What I find sometimes is I go out to my normal carrier, my normal transporter, and if I. And. And I don't know what happens after that. I honestly don't know who he. Because I know when the car shows up at my place, he's the one that's taking it on the last leg. So I know he's the one dropping it at my door, but when I order, when I get. I don't know that he's the one picking it up from the auction. I'm under the suspicion that he's, you know, hiring these out to other people. If they're outside of his normal leg, he's basically becoming a broker, a transporter becoming a broker to get these other cars. And I don't know who he's sending those out to. Is that something I need to be worried about? Do I need to Be as a dealer, do I need to say, hey man, if you're not the one pulling this from the auction, I need to know who is pulling it from the auction. Does it matter that I'm that involved.

Or is it, if, if it were me, I would want to know, right? And that the reason behind that is it goes back to the regulations of, of having a brokerage. If that carrier is literally handing that off to another asset based carrier and there's no brokerage agreement or no alignment there, then the liability really falls back on, on you, the dealer, because you're the one that made the original agreement, right?

So I definitely see in a situation where I'm like, this car didn't show up or this is damaged, now I'm going back to the carrier. And then he's like, whoa, I didn't pick that up from the auction. I send it to Bob's transport. Yeah, wait, but I sent it to you. You know, you're the one reason. No, I'm, I, it was, it was at the, you know, it's like this whole blame game thing that definitely makes me quite a bit nervous. Right?

You find out who's Bob's, who's Bob's boss. Where's your, where's your certificate of insurance? Where is it? Where's your insurance?

Do they even have liability insurance? Do they have parking insurance?

With, with like a little bit of technology in the transport in this business, you could have a lot more transparency and a lot more reassurance, right? Like, and I know some carriers probably do this. They, you know, you take a picture at the auction, you scan the vin, you update the status, you update the location, you take a picture when it moves from one truck to the next. And this is all on a platform where the, where me, the dealer would be able to have access to it right now it's like this whole, like, I have to prove that that bumper wasn't scratched at the auction, right? I have to be the logistics guy to be like, wait a minute, I caught you. And then they're like, oh, you caught me. And then they have to like, I got to compare my pictures to their pictures, if they took any, right? Like, it's this, it's this crazy game and with my cars it doesn't really matter. I mean like, you could probably flip a freaking carrier upside down and my cars. But, but why, why is technology not more even just from an asset tracking standpoint? Like, I would love to know where that car is at. I don't know. I mean, I guess it's like this black mystery box where I send it out and then maybe seven days later it shows up at my doorstep.

Well, that technology should be an expectation, right? There should be a standard standardization across the board. When it, when it comes to moving vehicles and in the freight world, there is, you know, when I'm picking up produce, there is a set model that we follow on every single shipment. Every shipper has the same expectation, every receiver has the same expectation, every carrier has the same expectation. For some reason in vehicle logistics, that does not exist. So, so we've moved out to kind of create that standardization and tracking is part of it. That should be, that's so simple. Tracking has been around for eight years now. There have been hundreds of tracking apps that have hit the market over the past seven, eight years that if you don't have a carrier that has a tracking capacity, I wouldn't load the carrier. If you don't have a broker that has the tracking capacity, I wouldn't load the broker, right? So that should be the simplest form of technology that you guys are utilizing. But then the inspection reports, the inspection reports should be uploaded, they should be digitized, they should be visual to you prior to that car move. And if there is dings and dents that you don't know about, you should be able to see that through those pictures before that car ever leaves that auction or ever leaves that lot. Right? So these are expectations that aren't consistent across the network that we're trying to make consistent, right? These should be expectations that every dealer has, that everybody that's buying cars as a consumer has and that the carrier has the capacity to provide. Because these technologies aren't non existent, they're out there.

So let's, let's talk about other technology. I think that's really lacking in the current environment in this logistics process. And that is payment. This is such a, let me tell you this, just some of the things that, that we've had happen. So we post on the board, hey, this is check on delivery, right? Well, 10 minutes before the guy gets there. So I need cash. Well, no, you sign this check on delivery and that's what you'll get. Well, I'm not taking your car off the board, off the truck until you give me cash. Well, I guess we're just gonna, I guess we're just gonna be in a stalemate here.

Cause you're gonna guess you're gonna take it back wherever you're going.

I don't really care. And then, but then also you write a check and you, and you give it to the carrier and next thing you know, you get these weird withdrawals coming out of your, your checking account. And those weird withdrawals are somebody that's kited your check. Well, wonder where they got those numbers from, because it happened the day after this. So should there be a standardization on, hey, we send it through this website, as soon as the delivery hits and we verify it's okay, you get your funds.

Right?

I mean, how, how hard would that be?

It's not very difficult at all. There's companies out there in the freight world that are doing that today. You know, it's another part of our product that we've built in where, you know, number one, you guys should be able to see as a dealership what your spend is on a weekly, daily, monthly, quarterly basis of what your logistics spend is. We've sat down with dealers before and said, what's your weekly spend? What's your monthly spend? And they have no clue. They're pulling out stacks of W nines to see which carriers are written checks to which drivers they've handed cash to. Where's the petty cash? What's going on here? That shouldn't be your problem. Your shop, you guys should be buying and selling cars, right? And the payment processing side should be simplified. It should be easy for the carrier, it should be easy for the dealer. And back to the payment side of this, though. A lot of carriers work specifically for brokers because brokers are going to pay them quicker than a shipper will. They're going to pay them quicker than an oem. Well, so if, if you've got a technology out there that's building in the payment side of it, it needs to be to the carrier standard. So if the carrier wants same day, quick pay on, on delivery, once we see that proof of delivery, boom, they're paid. And then we're just sending our shippers, you know, a weekly invoice. So you guys can see your spend and you can see your spend even out of markets. If I'm buying a car out of Florida versus Georgia or, or West Virginia versus Virginia, what is my transport cost going to be? Am I going to get the revenue back on that car that I want? Once that transport cost is taken care of, we should be able to. Your transport cost should be able to help you understand where to buy cars, when to buy cars, and how to ship.

I don't even want to talk about the Nightmare of the W9 in this whole process.

Yeah.

Oh, my, oh, my gosh. That is, that is brain damage, 1099s and W9s and. And all that.

Every so often, if I buy. I buy most my stuff through Mannheim. Right. And so if I have a car that I know is off the beaten path, I will just pay Ready Logistics Manheim, you know, in the purchase price to just ship it. Right. And it's. I mean, this last one took two weeks to get me and it was, like, not that far away. Am I grossly overpaying in that situation if I just say, Ready Logistics, handle it. I'm going to pay when I buy the car and let Cox do it. Is that crazy?

Hey, guys, hate to break in, but we got to talk about our boys at Buckeye. Jeff, do you have your reinsurance? Are you reinsuring everything?

Yes. Yeah, so I went over that just recently. I am my CPI product, so my collateral protection insurance is where I'm struggling. I don't have good enough penetration on that product for the losses that I'm taking currently. Seems to be I'm only getting the worst of the worst on that product. So I've got to change my sales process and teach my salespeople that this is the way to go for everybody, not just the ones that can't get insurance. Right.

Yeah. I tell you, I've worked hard on CPI this year, and we're getting better at it. Losses do come. You know, it's one of those things. Reinsurance is there because you do have losses. If you don't have losses, I don't know what you do it. Anyway, I even. I was talking with Jason yesterday and we came up with another thing we can reinsure in our service department. So there's always. Buckeye is always looking for new ways to help you ensure the losses that are coming. And I just. I even wonder, Jeff, talking about transportation, can we reinsure our transportation? You know, you never know if there's an accident during transportation, can we set some money back just in case? Anyway, I'm just thinking outside the.

I don't see why not. That seems like the most obvious insurance. If you're saying, hey, I'm setting aside in case my carrier's not covered or in case I have a loss that's not covered.

Hmm.

Yeah, it seems a pretty obvious one.

You would think so. Anyway, call the guys a Buckeye. They'll get you straight. They'll make you more money than you can ever spend.

You know, I. I can't say because I don't have the specific example right, but I think you waiting two weeks on a vehicle is. Is that's just a wow factor for me.

Crazy. Yeah, crazy.

That's insane. You should never wait two weeks for a vehicle unless it's coming from Alaska. But you know, I, I think that part of it is, is the, the lack of expectation from them, Jeff. That's why you're not expecting that car any sooner.

But what I'm saying is, are we under the. I mean, obviously Cox through Ready is marking up the cost. They're just brokering out to Joe Schmo Transporter. Because when Joe Schmo Transporter shows up and brought me my F150, he gives me his business card and says, next time just call me directly.

Yeah, right.

Because he knows that I just paid $600 to have this car brought and he dropped one off down the street for 300.

300, right. But then not only that, I mean, maybe you did pay a good freight rate on. Maybe you did pay a good trucking rate, but it took two weeks to get you there. What's your total holding cost? What's the depreciation of the vehicle? How much did you lose in sales? That's your total cost. So many people want to just look at the cost to ship that vehicle. And hey, you guys are 100 bucks more than this board says. But this board's going to take 10 days. You guys get it there in three days. What's better? Is it better to pay the $100 now versus the depreciation of the vehicle, the holding costs, loss of sales, loss of trust by your customers? I, I say get the car moved, get it on the line.

Yeah. What do you think your holding cost.

Is per parking spot? Probably, I think 26 or $9 or 26 or 29 a day. So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's a big deal and dealers don't look at it that way. There's nothing worse than, than having a car that's already sold that you can't get moved. Because I've had it happen numerous times. I've had people back out because they had to have it. So, yeah.

Even worse if it's sitting on your flooring line, by the time you get it there, you're already aged out and you're making curtailment payments. Right.

Yeah. I would never deal with that two week deal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The other thing I'd add too, about the Ready Auto piece is that. And not to say about them, again, I don't know their business or their model exactly. But what happens a lot of times is that maybe they put themselves in A box. Like, hey, you paid this amount, so you're going to be lower on the totem pole because that's the amount that you're going to pay. That's the amount that we were supposed to pay. So we're going to give you. Like I said, you're lower on that totem pole. You're. You're not getting that in three days. Right?

Yeah, that's exactly.

They kind of box himself into that price.

So no way.

They're like, oh, whoops, I guess no one wants to pick it up for that money. It's going to sit there, right? And you're like, well, you told me someone would pick it up for that money. It wasn't me dictating the price. You dictated the price to me, so make it happen. You know, that's. That is definitely frustrating because many times when I do post on Central, I got to go back and up the price. Right? Like, I throw it out there. I get it. No one's biting. Okay. Or someone calls and I'm like, all right, fine. Do you see are per mileage rates? Is it. I mean, I know it's not consistent across the country in all routes because. Right. You have hot routes going one way. Like, I guess if you're trying to get something out of Florida in the winter, it's impossible. And into Florida in the summer. I don't know what the snowbirds.

No, it's. It's just, it's just the opposite. It's a snowbird flight in the spring. You can't get anything out of Florida. But every time. All the, all the rest of the time you can, but it's never going. You can't get it down to Florida in, in, in the winter time. In the winter time, yes. Yeah, but the start of the winter. Yes. I mean, is there, is there a number that you. We should be paying per mile to transport a car or truck? I mean, it's. Is that a industry standard?

I wish I could say there is. It's just like any other commodity in this country. Freight rates fluctuate up and down daily. Right. And it's, it's market dictated. Like you said, the snowboard situation, as we know, is a challenge at times. Vehicles that are out in the middle of nowhere, off the beaten path can be challenging at times. So, you know, there's no specific number. It is all market related. But what I'll tell you is there's technologies that are being created, including ours, that'll give you a better idea of where that moving target is. Right. And I'll kind of let Dana kind of dive into that.

Yeah.

I mean, it's. When it's funny, you think about, is there a set number? Well, a lot of times you would think that shorter, you know, that shorter run might be a lower cost, and it's actually usually a higher mileage per mile cost. You know, if you're like in that inner city or because it's those shorter runs that those drivers don't necessarily want. So, you know, drivers are looking for to fill up their trucks, Right. So depending on what type of truck you have, it's a four car, you know, to nine car hauler. They want to fill up that full, that full load. So helps if, you know, the more vehicles you ship or whatnot, that helps to bring the cost down. But again, it fluctuates all year round. You know, fuel surcharge changes all year round. We'd like to say there's a set rate, but I can say when you do, if you run similar lanes or if you have drivers coming in and out of you, that you get to know, that you get to learn, you know, that is when you can start, you know, maybe negotiating those rates a little bit more, so getting a little bit more pattern. I know with dealerships that's a little bit harder. But like Jeff, like you said, if you're typically just buying from Mannheim, you know, if you're typically buying those Manheim routes, you know, maybe you can add something to it and something that, with our technology we've worked on is the whole goal is to, you know, reduce miles and add more to these vehicles, to these carriers, trucks. So if you just, you're buying, maybe it's an off lane for you or Luke, or if it's an offline for you or something like that. Well, our goal is, is to like fill up that truck. So maybe that driver is already going that route, right? And so you're like, hey, I just bought two vehicles from Manheim. It's a lane that you're not typically familiar with. But our goal is to have these drivers come on to our exchange, check out the lane and say, you know, I actually have two spots if I'm looking for two vehicles to move. So that'll cut the cost down. So it's like adding maybe those lesser vehicles. So it's not that full truckload onto these larger truckloads. They're already going that lane. And so that'll help cut spend and cut costs.

You know, that's an interesting thing. And I can ask you this Is this part of your technology? Because for me, I only buy, I do a 500 mile radius, right? Because after that I start saying, oh my goodness, I cannot spend more than, you know, five, six hundred dollars to get a car here. Like people are paying $1,000 to have a car shipped from Texas to frickin South Carolina or somewhere like Florida to frickin Massachusetts. Like is there kind of a dollar or where a. It becomes like reasonable. But is there some sort of technology where I could be like, oh, I actually thought this was outside my market. But because it's such an empty route, you know, maybe going from Denver to Southern California, I see so many carriers come empty right past my dealership. I could be buying outside of this mileage range because people just want cars and I can get a super cheap rate. Is there some sort of a matrix that can show me that?

Yes, and I'm glad you asked that question because this is kind of what helped kind of conceive the idea of the exchange is in the freight world, you can't see empty opportunities inside of a trailer because it's enclosed and you can't see in there on the freeway.

They're like, where are you going empty?

Here in metro Detroit, we have auto carriers driving through our streets daily with empty spots on that trailer. And it was just driving me crazy. So as I started talking to different carriers and different shippers around the country, it was, man, I wish I could just find extra capacity. I, I don't need the full truck, I just need two spots. I need one spot, I need three spots. So what we found is let's just market that capacity together. Now you and Luke may not buy the same cars from the same places, but they might be in the same region, right. And they might be going right past each other to a location that you're trying to drop off. And you don't need to share your data together. But if the exchange, if you had an environment, an ecosystem that just had thousands of opportunities out there, the carriers could kind of pick and choose what fit on their truck on a daily basis. That's how you truly collaborate. That's how you become transparent and that's how you start to really maximize capacity on these trucks. And we've seen that, you know, a driver will pull into a auction in Memphis and you know, it might be a four car hauler and they were just happy to get two cars because it was taking them back to Cincinnati. Well, all of a sudden two more cars popped up that were going to Dayton, Ohio. Holy cow. Now this guy just filled out his truck. Each dealer is paying less per VIN because they're not paying for that whole four car hauler now they're just paying for the two spots on that truck. So it's saving the dealer a little bit of revenue and the carrier's making more money by filling up their truck. Now that's truly collaborative, right? That's truly, you know, maximizing the empty miles, maximizing that capacity of that truck. And, and we're seeing it every single day on the exchange where a driver will pick something up and just start heading down a route that made sense for them and then all of a sudden event will pop up in that route and then the carrier pulls it off and they go pick that one up and they just made more money. And that shipper is paying for one car spot, they're not paying for the full truck.

And so as me, the first guy who booked two spots on that truck, if Mr. Shipper goes out of his way to pick up two more and my cars show up a day later, do I get a discount on my original contracted rate?

The mindset is that your vehicles show up on the time that they contracted. Right. So we're monitoring the system kind of monitors that for you and it's going to give you updates. So when a carrier selects a vehicle off the exchange, they're going to tell you, hey, I can pick it up at this time and I can deliver it at this time. And this is what I'm committing to as a driver. Yeah. So that's what the expectation is. And as a shipper, you have the ability to flag that carrier as, you know what, this guy did not do what he said he's going to do. I don't want them having visibility in my opportunities anymore. Or you can, or you can bump them up and just start marketing directly to that carrier because you love their service, you love the way the driver worked, the way the driver communicated. So it goes both ways. If the carrier does what they're supposed to do, then. Then you continue to work with them. If they don't, then you pull them out.

Yeah, well, I mean it was just, it was a.it was a blown tire, it was a breakdown. It was. Why, why are transporters always.

I'd say I have so many transporter.

Trucks right now, whether they are or. It's just such a good excuse.

I had one last week. Well, my trailer broke down well on Friday. I said, well, you were supposed to pick it up on Tuesday. And it still has it. It still hasn't left the auction. So I don't care that you truck broke down on Friday. Then they get, then they get mad.

Right?

But this has been super, super educational. Jeff.

Yeah, tell me this guys, I want to ask one more question. So when I start using an exchange, whether it's you guys, central ready, whatever, and then I take the carrier off the exchange because he gives me his business card and asked me to text him directly, what is the risk of, is there a risk in that where I, where I just start dealing directly with a carrier now by text message or something?

I don't think there's a risk to it. If you're vetting the carrier and you make sure that they're, they've got the right insurance and they've got the right authority. That's, that's your prerogative. And I think when you look at an exchange like ours, our thought process is never to get in way of the transaction. Our opportunity is we're providing as a marketing platform for dealers to market their vehicles to thousands of carriers. Inside or outside their network. Doesn't matter. It's up to you guys to decide who you want to work with. And it gives carriers an opportunity to work with partners around the country that they didn't know that that existed, that they didn't know those opportunities were there. If they decide to work together, that's their prerogative. It's up to you guys. If you find a great carrier partner, heck yeah, I would reach out to them and I would communicate with them, but then I would also find a monitoring system that you can utilize that does what our exchange does and it monitors that carrier's insurance daily. It monitors their authority daily. So if anything happens and they lose insurance or they get in a crash, all that's going to be flagged in our system and it's going to protect you. So if you're going to work direct with a carrier, you need to make sure that you're monitoring that, that data. Because ultimately, Jeff, if you decide to hire that carrier and something bad happens, they're coming, they're coming after the biggest, the biggest wallet. And it's probably not going to be that asset based trucking company that has one or two trucks.

Yeah, yeah, they can't even keep tires on it, let alone so, so much this issue, you know, I know as dealers it's always like, okay, well this guy will do it cheaper. Right? Is this like a self inflicted thing that we as dealers do to ourselves? Because we're always looking for the cheaper guy. And then we end up stumbling and we're like, well, this guy's a bunch of crap and he wrecked my car and didn't take responsibility. All shippers are dumb. And you're like, well, no, you just tried to find the cheapest one out there and it bit you in the butt. Are we doing it to ourselves sometimes? Yeah. Answer is yes. So it's like it's a race to a bottom. So there's just like that standard of like if you use an exchange that has that minimum standard, Right.

Like you can expect minimum standard insurance.

They've got to be professional, the cars are tracked. Then I can argue to bottom dollar. And yes, I might find it cheaper if I just grab Joe Schmo off the street. But I know within this standard of professionalism and quality control, I can try to find the best rate amongst these guys. Right?

Yeah. And rate goes back to more than just the cost to ship that vehicle.

Right.

Rate goes back to how quickly are you getting that vehicle on your lot? How quickly are you moving that car? Right. So if, if you are just trying to pay the lowest amount and you want to wait 14 days, then that's your, your product.

Yeah.

But if you have a system of record that's going to show you what the market rate is in that area, which our system allows for, then that's going to give you a good idea on how to price the vehicle prior to buying it. On the shipping side of it. Right. We want our dealers to understand what that shipping cost is before they make that purchase. So they can go directly on the exchange and there's no charge for them just to get a quote. Right. So they can go in and say, all right, the, the average rate out of that market to my market is going to be X amount of dollars. So if I plug that into my purchase price, all right, I can move that car at that rate. Let's go throw it out there. If you want to throw it out there for 30% less, then you're probably not going to move that vehicle very quickly. Right. So it's, you got, the market dictates what the rate is. And whether you're dealing with a broker, dealing with an asset based carrier, or working on a, on a marketplace like ours, the market's going to dictate how quickly that vehicle moves. And if you have the right tools to give you the right idea of what that market is, then it's going to set you up for success. And it's not necessarily about the exact cost to move the car. It's about what's. What's the total cost of that transaction going to be for me?

Hey, everybody, one more time. Want to make sure you know about the unfair advantage mastermind group going on at the Carolinas Association. Right, Luke, you're going to be there?

I'm going to be there. I'm going to be speaking on Friday afternoon. I hope everybody's there. We're going to be talking about measurements and how it affects the people that work for you. But I can tell you this, the one thing that will affect you other than the convention is going to this mastermind group. Tracy and Troy, two really big friends of the show. There'll be tons of marketing. There'll be accountability. And those guys, man, I'm just telling you, the people in that room know what they're doing and they want you to get better. They're going to help you. So make sure you sign up. It's free, Jeff. It is freaking free.

Yep. Yeah. Those are the best education sessions of every convention are the hot topics. You know, the dealer mastermind groups, the asking each other how you're doing, what type situations, man, they are by far where I get the most value when I go to a convention. So make sure you get out there a day early. Check it out.

I've seen. Yeah, I mean, that totally makes sense. It's a true capitalistic exchange. I've seen this, and I don't know if you can even speak to this, but I've seen this on a couple different sites lately where people have. Have used a carrier from an exchange or whatever, and the car disappears and there's bad actors out there stealing cars. Can you talk any about that?

I mean, it goes back to the vetting system, right? I mean, if we're using the proper tools, if the technology has the proper back office tools, you shouldn't run into that issue. Right, Right. So the technology that we're using that we're utilizing tracks the VIN of the trailer, the VIN of the tractor, and the licensing of the driver in that vehicle. So we will know prior to ever approving a carrier through the exchange, if that's a legal, legitimate carrier. And it goes back to the whole double brokering concept that we were talking about earlier. Right. Where you've got a carrier doesn't have a brokerage authority sending it to somebody El. That's where these cars are disappearing because they don't even know who the hell they sent it to. Pardon my language. That's all right. But our system doesn't allow for that so if. If a carrier is in our system and they're. They're booking 50 loads a week, but they only have two trucks, but they're hitting way stations around the country, our system will flag that, saying, hey, this particular DOT number has hit way too many way stations for two trucks to even legally do. Let's flag this as a double broker carrier, and it'll pull it directly out of our system so it goes back to your vetting process loop. That's how cars are disappearing, because the carrier themselves are not being vetted by the party that's booking the vehicle.

Man, sign me up. Sign me up on this.

And then. And then there's. If you ever sit outside your Manheim, there's, like, mailboxes with, like, 15 million lock boxes hooked to a metal pole somewhere. Who knows who has the code to that lockbox with just keys jammed in there? Yeah, it's. I mean, if I just like, freaking hung out down there around the shipper, I could probably pick off a few cars here and there.

We could have some nice cars. Yeah.

Yeah.

So to wrap this up, guys, let's give you an opportunity to.

To.

To tell everyone how they get a hold of you. What I want to ask first, and we're going to talk specifically about auto hauler exchange for the last couple minutes. Are you guys. Is it. Are you regional? Are you national? Like, I know you guys are based out of somewhere in the east side.

We're in Rochester, Michigan. We're in Rochester, Michigan.

Okay, so is your service national? Like, if I'm over here in California or Utah, can I. Are you guys functioning on this side of the country?

So it's the concept of the auto hauler exchanges, and I'm going to let Dana dive into it, but it's a little bit different than anything that's out there. We are a true B2B marketplace. We are not a load board. We are not a brokerage board. We do not get involved in the transaction. We provide the technology for shippers of vehicles to connect directly to vehicle haulers in a safe, vetted format. And then we'll handle the payment processing just to keep the process more streamlined, more efficient, more transparent for all parties involved. Go ahead, Dana.

Yeah, so we talked about, you know, using the world Central dispatch, and it's not a word I like to use, but to give an example of a true marketplace, it's like an Amazon, right? I mean, you have a seller or a shipper, so the seller uploads their information. Hey, these vehicles moving from point a to point B. And then we have. So that's the. The shipper side, the seller side. And then we have the other portion of the exchange, which is the carrier side. So it's our vetted carriers, like we had said, and true carriers only. There's no brokers, anybody else on it. So it's just true carriers. They go through our vetting process.

Say that again.

They're monitored 24 7. Huh?

Dana, you got to say that one more time. I want to make that a point because I think that's huge.

It's only chippers, no brokers on the. On the exchange.

That. Like that. That, like Luke said at the beginning, that is the most infuriating thing in the world. When I get a call from ready logistics, and I'm like, dude, what are. Gosh, if I want, I. Anyways, go ahead, keep going.

Yes, yes. So we. There's no middleman here in this transaction. So the carriers are the ones who are seeing your vehicles. Right. And like I said, it's continuous 247 monitoring. So even in the process. So say you upload some vehicles and hey, I need to pick up today's the 19th. I need them delivered by, you know, say, the 25th. If that carrier, if they have any type of. If their insurance is going to expire, whether it's like cargo liability, whatever it is, like it's monitored and they're no longer on the exchange, if it's going to be expired within that timeframe and they're no longer allowed to see. They can't see those vehicles. They actually can't even be on our exchange. It automatically kicks them out. So they have a login, password, everything, and it won't work until their insurance is upload, updated. So the true carriers, they see what you're shipping, and they literally check it out. They add to cart. They check out, and then they receive all the information that you have provided. So it's a true partnership between the shippers and the carriers, really? Because we need your information, and the shipper is providing that information. Right. So we need qualified, you know, pickup and delivery information for those carriers because once they receive that information, we want the process to be between you and the carrier. Right. Once that does happen, though, you receive the notification. Right? If the vehicle has been booked, you have a carrier on it. You have your own portal into our system as a shipper, you see the carrier name, you see the driver's name, you see the driver's cell phone number. All that's visible and available for you. We also have availability. If you ever, if you wanted to see the insurance prior to, we have a record of that, you can go ahead and you have that record yourself of their insurance. So you can actually download that and save that, or we can send it out to you, whatever you'd like to have. And then now it's in the driver's hands. Right. So the driver does provide a pickup and delivery date. And then once that process starts, you receive a tracking link, and it's a live tracking link to the driver. So you see where the driver is at all times. You can click on that 247 and you'll see where that driver is with your vehicles.

And back to that original point you made earlier, Luke. Like if driver's supposed to pick up on a Friday and you find out Monday that they. They didn't pick up. In our, in our marketplace, as soon as a driver is assigned or carriers assigned, you get that information emailed to you. There's a notification. You can log in and see what's in there, everything about the carrier. You're going to have driver phone numbers, you're going to have dispatcher phone numbers. You're going to have the mc, all the information on that carrier.

Yeah.

So if you want to call them and book them directly on the next one, that's up to you. Or you can just let this exchange manage the process for you. But you have all the details that you'll need to collaborate with that driver so you don't have to worry about Monday morning. Did that car get picked up? The exchange is going to notify you that, hey, driver checked in. Vehicle's loaded. Here's your pictures. Driver's on the way. You get the tracking link, and you're just seeing that dot move across the map until delivery.

Luke loves that micromanagement thing. He wants to be on the phone with the guy, like, where's my phone? Focus. You don't have time to stop at Burger King. Don't you stop. I see you're stopping.

You don't have to make a phone call. The process is digitized for you. The only time you'd ever want to call is if, if there was an issue in transit. You. If, if somebody's falling behind, the system will flag it, let you know, and the driver has your information. They're going to have your, your whoever's handling that receivership of that vehicle. You're going to want to put that information in when you market that vehicle so the driver can communicate with the receiver of that vehicle.

So am I paying you guys a monthly fee as a. As a dealer to be on your platform or are you just taking a. Do I pay a fee on each booking?

It's a fee on each booking. There's a transactional fee that goes through. It's about a third of what a brokerage fee would be. Typical brokerage fee in the industry is much higher than what we would charge. I don't want to get into those numbers because people like us.

It's a set rate. You see it and it's. It's not for using the exchange. It's for when a vehicle is actually picked up and delivered.

Vehicles actually picked up and delivered? Yeah.

Well, that's what I was going to ask. So we pay you off. We were talking about central dispatch. I pay a fee regardless, right. Just to, like, have a login. And I haven't. I've used them twice and I've been paying for, like, two years. Right. So I would love to have a place where, yes, I don't need you all the time, but when I do.

But when I want to have a.

Marketplace I can go to without paying.

This month, that's exactly what we've done. There's no subscription fee. There's no annual fee. It's when you move a vehicle successfully through the exchange, you pay the fee. That's it.

I'm signing up today.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Cool, guys. Anything else? How do we get a hold of you? I don't. The dot com is.

Go ahead, Dana.

Autohaulerexchange.com autohauler exchange.com Luke's gonna sign up. He's gonna report back to us. Let us know how it goes. Guys, thank you so much for being here. Dana Royce. Great information. I think all dealers are going to learn something. I've definitely learned something. So thank you.

Yeah. Thanks for being with us.

Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

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