LoadProof Video Testimonial – Andrew Pollard, Better Body Foods

Yeah so Andrew thank you very much for taking the time to join this call. So yeah, I mean, you know, um if you could please introduce yourself, right, your role and your day-to-day responsibilities, we can get started there.

Yeah, my name is Andrew Pollard. I’m the director of warehousing at Better Body Foods. We have two facilities in Utah; one is in Lyon, Utah, that’s our production facility, and then we have our shipping warehouse in Springville, about 20 miles south. So we have our own drivers moving our product back and forth. I’m the director of the warehousing, so I’m over the warehousing inventory and distribution for both of our facilities.

Got it, got it. Um, Better Body Foods’ kind of our signature product is PB Fit; a lot of people know that. I see that in Costco. I always look at, oh, you know, this is our customer. I tell my wife Costco. Yeah, um, it’s great in protein shakes, working out, or just a little bit healthier lifestyle to get some protein as well as that good peanut butter flavor. So a lot of people know that PB Fit.

Oh yeah, I know that; I buy that Costco every week. Yep, yep, yep. So, what was the problem you guys had, right? I mean, you know, what was the problem you guys had and you wanted to solve it, right? Um, you know, um yeah, so when I’ve been at Better Body Foods for 3 years, we picked up LoadProof just before that time. We had a couple of main issues: one was claims—damages that happened during transit before it arrived at our customer—and we would have a lot of problems refuting that sometimes, right? It arrives like this, and proving that we didn’t ship it like that was hard.

Another issue too was packing slips and paperwork. Sometimes people would say we didn’t get this material and this documentation. So there were kind of two main things that we were trying to solve: can we have proof that the shipment left good, without damages, but also then that the paperwork was attached to the shipment correctly?

Great, great. And how did you guys find LoadProof to solve that problem? Um, I don’t know. I don’t know entirely because we had just picked it up before I came on here at Better Body Foods. Got it. I think I talked to Charles—Charles, I forgot the last name—that was the name of the gentleman that I we talked to. I mean he was some kind of a VP at that time, so there was a guy, Chris, who was the VP of warehousing when I started.

Okay, and then I took over his position. I started just, I took over the Lyon Warehouse responsibilities, and then eventually we combined the warehouse responsibilities. So Chris and I took the warehousing for both, and they had picked up LoadProof previously, and I don’t know exactly how they found it—like if they were doing research online—but I know the problem we were trying to solve, right? We were trying to refute some claims specifically with damages and then our packing slips and documentation.

Great, great. So, I mean, is it fair to ask how was it before LoadProof? You know, how was life, you know, before LoadProof? Uh, you know, um yeah, I do kind of know that because I hear some of the horror stories of we had these pallets of damages and $10,000 to $20,000 of product sometimes. That product damage or punctured during shipping—not strapped down, tipped over—and you know, it could be expensive when you’re talking about four or eight pallets of finished good material.

Those are kind of the big horror stories. And then also we ship food, right? So having our product safe and secure, following SQF guidelines, is very important. That I know this is only my product in the truck, and we sealed it, and here’s the proof of that seal, because sometimes it arrives at the place without that seal, right?

Yeah, was there other loads? Did it get stopped or unloaded and loaded back in? Correct. So those were some of the other concerns and big problems that we had before LoadProof. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and how was after LoadProof? Like, oh yeah, this is the world that I live in and I’ve lived in for a couple years now. It’s fantastic. Our material handlers in the process of loading take pictures of each and every pallet. They do it on the scanner.

That they already have yeah so the transactions that they’re doing the picking transactions and shipping transactions that they’re doing for my inventory yep they can then quickly switch and take a picture and load proof for that load yep. We have pictures of every pallet of every shipment yep, full truck loads and LTL truck loads yeah. As well as we take pictures of the documentation y so if there’s sometimes we put a packing slip that’s on the pallet yep. There’s also a picture of that that’s done, as well as a picture of the BL and the seal yep. All that information is so easy to find so if I get a claim from a carrier or they say hey this product arrived like this yep.

I type in that V number and I have a picture of every pallet and the documentation and the seal, and I know what it looked like before I left this place. Great who do you guys ship to? We ship to everybody. We’re a lot, we do a lot of business with Walmart and we use a third-party consolidator there okay, about 15 to 20 truckloads a week. Costco is another big one yeah where we do a lot of business with Costco. We talked about that in the beginning a little bit y but we ship all over the country.

To just about every grocery store that’s in your area, Kroger or Stater Brothers kind of whatever your local store is, we probably have some type of presence there. Stuff is going out all over the place every day, all over the place, all over the US, about 20 to 30 orders a day that we’re taking pictures of. And know what are what are some of the key benefits if you could list them. Hey, obviously right, it’s a nice system you can retrieve the photos faster and you know how is that saving you? Are you guys able to push back on the retailer chargebacks or is it like you know damage claims?

You know outside of the retailer chargebacks, how is that um, you know what is the majority? Yeah so for sure the number one is damage claims okay so if product arrives, pallets that are tipped over or shifted or even broken and damaged product that’s open. That’s our biggest push back and that’s also the biggest cost savings okay. If it’s multiple pallets, thousands or even ten thousands of dollars on some of our claims that we struggled with getting that back before. Having all those pictures now and the benefit for me is also that it’s so easy right like we get the claim yep and it takes five minutes to pull it up and attach all those pictures.

You know you could download them, you could save them yep. The ease of it that it doesn’t take a lot of time and then it’s a big cost savings on getting claims that potentially I might not without that proof correct. So how much time you guys spent right? One of the initial conversations is that oh we have to spend time you know capturing photos for every single shipment. Right that they look at it as oh my God know that is a lot of time but you know and then later you know how much time you guys spend and then know um how does that.

Obviously right I mean you know how did that um, how did how were you able to work through that thought as to what you know it’s worth spending that time up front? Oh yeah so there is definitely amount of time spent on the level of the order picker right and the person loading. To me it’s super easy to justify because if it’s a full truckload right where he’s going to take 30 pictures or you know 32 or 33 when you include all the documentation. That’s still just 5 minutes, one thing I talked about earlier was the ease for the actual material handler right he can do it on our scanners that he’s already doing the other work.

He doesn’t have to carry another device or something yep. So five minutes for an order that potentially gets me back a $20,000 BL is super easy to justify the $40 that I spent for that material handler right. Yeah absolutely absolutely absolutely great great so how was the you know rollout experience itself? Right I mean you know there are two types, you know two components to it right the first one is you know the technical rollout and then the people adapting to it. I mean I think you probably cannot talk about the technical rollout or whatever you can share because I’m sure you’re onboarding a new person.

You got to educate that person, you got to show them right still I could share a little bit there right. So it was already in implementation when I took over corre but the training process it’s in our SOPs now. We’ve written it into our SOPs so in the training of somebody uh it’s this is what you do right this is how you pick the order yep. Then when you’re scanning it onto the truckload yep you scan it onto the truckload and then you take the picture and it’s just part of the process. The training is super easy.

We also did a little bit of implementation in my production facility okay. We shipped not a lot but three to five truckloads a week from there so it’s not a lot but we did have to we weren’t doing that when I started and then we added that. Because three to five truckloads it does add up to a lot over the year yep. Especially if there’s a claim against one of those yep so uh but it was super easy because the process was already in place. Training and then having the value there specifically we struggled with the documentation portion Y where we often got claims of this pack slip was missing or the BL or the seal information wasn’t correct.

Y and so having all that information was really critical super easy to implement it it really was right. Yeah great great would you recommend proof to someone else that is you know in your role or in a similar role? Oh definitely I don’t know how somebody in the logistics world doesn’t have something like that right. There with all the shipping there’s a multitude of barriers and then there’s more than that of Brokers and sometimes your load is double or triple brok or it stops somewhere or picked up by somebody else yeah.

And so you just have to have something right that this is how it left I know it was safe and secure. Because you don’t know what’s going to happen right some get go to a terminal and then it’s loaded onto another truck. Some stuff is delivered directly to your carrier from your or directly to the customer from your facility. Whatever the range is that’s happening you need to know okay so I don’t know how anybody functions without that product.

Anybody who doesn’t have it I would say dude you need this yeah yeah absolutely. So is there anything else that we can do for you in load proof that will make your life even better? You know anything else that would be helpful any enhancement that would um make your life easier or anything like that? Um I don’t know not that I could think of uh there’s everything in the tool that I know that we need right. The access and the ease of finding all of those orders is super simple yeah.

And then the process of the implementation right while they’re putting all that information in yep it’s super simple. Those are the two things I care about I want the job to be easy for my material handlers that are doing it every day. Yep and light went yeah okay okay and then if I do need that information I need to be able to access it quickly and easily right. So I have everything that I need and uh load proof answers both of those questions very very great.

Great and we also have a you know we are giving that for free now there is an app called load proof viewer so you can look at the photos from your mobile device now. Oh that’s great I didn’t even know that yeah so you don’t have to go to the browser all the time. Suppose if you’re in a meeting and you want to look at the photos you can just pull that from your mobile device. You know what Smartphone do you have do you have an Android or iPhone? Um I have both okay and we have Android devices for all of our people on the floor yeah.

Great so if you want to download right you can download it and you know I can set you up as well. I mean not right now I can connect you with my technical support people you know we’ll be happy to set you up so you can access photos from your mobile device. Yeah thank you I appreciate that no problem yeah that’s all I have. I mean thank you for taking the time Andrew you know anything else that you would like to add?

Oh nothing I’m I mean I love the product I was sold immediately I thought it was in place when I started okay. I don’t know how people function without something like this so um it it’s been great and easy and it’s helped us on a number of claims to get back some even pretty large claims so great great great. It’s more than paid for itself 20 times over yeah okay awesome awesome thank you thank you very much for the time that’s all I have for today.

Yeah yeah thank you you so much have a have a great rest of the week. I’m out the rest of the week so I’m going to enjoy some days off and yeah nice nice thank you hope you have a great week thank you nice nice talk yeah bye bye.