LoadProof Video Testimonial – Jaye Nardo, Kenco

All right, so Jaye, thank you very much for taking the time to join this video interview. Let’s start from the beginning. If you could please give a quick introduction to your distribution center, we can get started and dive into the problem we’re trying to solve. My name is Jay Nardo, and I’m the General Manager for the Northeastern Distribution Center. We manage drums, kegs, and cases of grease and oil. These are the engine oils we use in our cars and other vehicles.

So basically, you guys ship orders on behalf of your customers. Who are some of your main customers? Is it like Costco, Walmart, AutoZone? Our big customers include Costco, Sam’s Club, and Advanced Auto Parts, as well as multiple distribution centers within our network. What are some of the challenges you guys were facing? Approximately how much money were you losing? The biggest problem was loads leaving the site that looked good but arrived in poor condition. We had to ensure our customers understood we were doing everything possible to brace the loads properly.

We spent additional resources dealing with customer dissatisfaction, especially with retailers like Walmart, which does not accept loads that look bad. This led to losses in transportation costs and rejected loads. We handle parcel, LTL, and full truckload shipments. Walmart can be a full truckload or a multi-stop delivery to various distribution centers within their network.

How many loads do you ship per week, and how many get rejected? Early on, about 10% of our loads were rejected due to transportation issues related to the site until we purchased Load Proof, allowing us to assure customers there were no issues at our end. Typically, we ship around 100 outbound loads weekly.

So, if 10% were rejected, you would lose money on the product, correct? Yes, that’s right. Transportation costs and labor to unload rejected loads add to the problem, but customer dissatisfaction was our biggest concern. Your customers are likely frustrated, saying they trusted you to deliver quality, and then this happens, right? That was definitely the issue we needed to address.

We wanted our customers to feel assured that the material they entrusted to us was leaving our site in the expected condition. If there were issues upon arrival, it wouldn’t reflect our failure. After identifying the problem, what steps did you take? Load Proof was introduced, and we liked its user-friendly nature. It can be accessed on phones, tablets, or desktops, which is essential for our large facility and multiple operators.

With Load Proof, operators can easily take pictures and enter load information, making retrieval straightforward. When service requests arise due to issues like shifted loads or damaged products, we pull up our pictures and show that the load left our site in perfect condition. There’s no liability on our part.

Now you can show evidence that the load was intact when it left. Yes, and because we have documentation, there’s no financial responsibility for us. We can assure our customers that we met their standard operating procedures. Do you have an approximate figure for the savings you’ve achieved? While I can’t provide a specific dollar amount, I estimate we’ve saved tens of thousands since implementing Load Proof.

Additionally, there’s immense value in knowing our customers trust us to deliver their products as expected. That trust is priceless in our business. Exactly, and what other benefits have you noticed apart from that? We’ve seen several improvements across our other sites as well.

That are using load proof and what are some of the benefits that you guys, you know, accrued as you started using load.

Well, the other benefit would be that if we saw a gap in training. So, if for example, I pull a picture of a new employee who is working on a load and I can see bracing, for example, is not as it would be. That exposes to me a training gap with that particular operator. So you are preventing something solidifying in their mind in terms of how to load because it’s incorrect.

So it’s really helped us in our training for our associates. That’s been a big plus. It has actually helped in terms of shoring up our bracing. We used both airbags and we used load boards and the logistics for our loads.

We found that some of the loads, even with the design protocols from our customer, probably needed to increase our airbags, for example, or our placement for our load board. So it helped us to streamline our loading practices as well.

Got it. So now we are able to have a conversation: hey, all right, you know, we have shown we have done our job right. What is going wrong? Why is it getting messed up by the time you get to the customer? How can we do this packing or whatever, shrink wrapping, better?

That’s where it economy. Yeah, that’s a very good point. So it did show that some of our other sites—not my particular company site—but others that feed into us, their shrink wrap is not to their standards.

For example, it should be a five wrap up, a five wrap down; it’s not, it’s a two wrap or three wrap. So we’re able to show them that. We would also use it on the inbound. If we receive loads to our site that the material was off or damaged or there was some issue related to their load, it allows them to understand, okay, this is the problem we’re facing.

So this might be why I have a bit more overtime this week because I’ve had four loads, for example, this week that came in shifted, and material is jumbled in the trailer. We’re going to have to spend a little more time with that.

So it goes back to our customer being comfortable knowing that we’re always doing the right thing for them, their product, and for their customers at the end of the day. That’s really important.

Yeah, so you guys originally started using it for outbound and then realized, oh my god, we can use it inbound as well. We can give feedback to shipping to say, hey, look at it; this is how it showed up when we received it, when we opened the door, and what you guys can do better in terms of packing so we don’t receive it like this.

Absolutely, that’s exactly correct. So we’re able to use it both inbound and outbound, and that is how we do today.

Okay, so now you’re saving money both on the inbound and outbound. Because of that feedback, now those guys are doing a better job loading it, so you’re not spending time and money on overtime and all those things.

Yes, and I think it’s also very valuable for a customer. We do not determine the transportation routes they take, nor do we determine the carriers they utilize. However, they can look at the information we’re providing, as well as our other sites that use load proof, and see if there is a correlation between carriers and shifted loads.

So it allows them to have a deeper dive into their own transportation issues and what may be causing it. If it is a particular carrier, let’s isolate this group and work with them to improve or relocate the route or bring in a different carrier.

So it’s good for them too. Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so how would you describe this transformation? Right? I mean, you guys started having all these issues and then you started using load proof.

I mean, are you sleeping better? Is the team working much more cohesively now? What are some of the things? No, the team does work better. It’s lovely that we do have a repository for all of our information so anybody can track and pull the info they may need.

There is, and it’s also, again, I go back to the whole trust issue—not only with our customer but within the team. They know they have to follow certain processes and procedures, so we’re not cutting corners.

It’s documented. I mean, it’s physically documented the work that you do. So I think it does instill in our team members that they really have to follow the correct procedures at all times and ensure that the work I’m doing is accurate to our standards.

Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so that’s good. That’s pretty cool. Right now, we have a team that we can solve any problem that comes our way. That’s a great morale to have, right? Really.

So how would you recommend load proof to other people? What are your thoughts? Why should someone watching this video and they’re on the fence? Should I go with load proof? What are your recommendations?

I would say go with it. It’s a very simple program. It’s easy to use, easy to install. It’s inexpensive; it’s mobile. You can access it from anywhere. If I want to look at a load when I’m at home at 10 o’clock at night because my customer’s calling, I can pull it up and have no issue there.

The team members can utilize it. It does improve overall efficiency because their work is physically documented, and that’s very important for them that their name isn’t attached to something that’s not correct.

It saves you time, energy, and money in the long run. At the end of the day, you’re going to save time and money, and the biggest piece, as I mentioned a few times for me, is peace of mind and my customers’ confidence in the work that I do for them.

It’s to their standards, to their specifications, so they can sleep at night knowing that we got it right. Anything else you would like to add, Jay? I mean, I’m just interested from anybody that is interested or that we recommend.

Hey, this is a great tool for you guys. It always starts with ROI, right? You guys have obviously saved $10,000 or even more per month. Ten loads that are rejected is a pretty big number, and that’s a lot of expenses associated with doing all the cleanup.

Anything else that you would like to add that would be useful for anybody else that’s evaluating? I really can’t, other than it’s just easy to use. You can have somebody who’s absolutely lacking in technical proficiency, and it’s simply a click of a button and entering a number or two.

If they can dial a phone, they can use load proof. It’s very easy, and I think a lot of folks, they’re a little frightened with technology, but this is just easy peasy.

Wonderful. Fantastic. Okay, thank you. I will go ahead and stop recording this one.