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Last Mile, Lasting Impact: Innovations in Zero Emission Delivery · Speaking of Supply Chain

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a Meeboch podcast.
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Speaker 1: This is a show for logistics professionals looking to learn
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Speaker 1: more about the latest innovations in supply chain. Each episode
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Speaker 1: will feature a conversation on topics such as mitigating supply
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Speaker 1: chain disruption and reducing risk, current automation trends, sustainability initiatives,
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Speaker 1: and more. Let's dive right in.
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Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where we
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Speaker 2: explore trends, current events, and innovations impacting logistics and supply
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Speaker 2: chain industries. I'm your host, Ellen Wood. From the bustling
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Speaker 2: city centers to quiet suburban streets, the demand for swift
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Speaker 2: and reliable deliveries is exploding. But can we satisfy this
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Speaker 2: craving without sacrificing our environment. Let's unpack the challenges and
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Speaker 2: potential solutions in the battle for last mile sustainability. My
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Speaker 2: guest today is markus Hood, co founder of dutch As,
1:02
Speaker 2: the largest zero emission last mild delivery fleet in the US,
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Speaker 2: to share his insights. Marcus, great to have you with
1:10
Speaker 2: us today.
1:12
Speaker 3: Hallen, nice to meet you.
1:13
Speaker 2: Thank you all right, So onto our topic, which is
1:16
Speaker 2: last mild delivery and sustainability. So tell us a little
1:19
Speaker 2: bit about Dutchacks.
1:21
Speaker 3: So, as you mentioned in the intro, we are the
1:24
Speaker 3: largest only zero emission last mail delivery company mid Maul
1:29
Speaker 3: and lost mail delivery company in the United States. So
1:33
Speaker 3: we are really fully working in zero mission environments. We
1:37
Speaker 3: started the company what is it now, about eleven years
1:40
Speaker 3: ago where we imported the traditional Dutch cargo bikes from
1:45
Speaker 3: the Netherlands here to New York City. When I say here,
1:47
Speaker 3: it's New York City. It came up with some challenges
1:50
Speaker 3: at that time. First of all, cargo was not really
1:53
Speaker 3: moved by companies outside ups FedEx and from a partial perspective,
1:58
Speaker 3: it's called it the large four companies who are out
2:00
Speaker 3: there in the market. Number one. Number two was that
2:04
Speaker 3: to do this with bikers did not really exist. It
2:08
Speaker 3: was mostly like the traditional couriers who were going like
2:12
Speaker 3: crazy through New York ra all these movies about and
2:16
Speaker 3: doing very rapid on the men's speedy deliveries. But it failed.
2:21
Speaker 3: There were a couple of reasons why this filed at
2:23
Speaker 3: that time. Was number one reason is the cost of
2:26
Speaker 3: the bike was at that time very very expensive. They
2:29
Speaker 3: were not available in the United States. So we needed
2:31
Speaker 3: to import them from the Netherlands. Number two parts were
2:34
Speaker 3: not available, so we had to import also the parts
2:37
Speaker 3: and then the third part. Now you have all the parts,
2:39
Speaker 3: but who is going to maintain and fix the bike?
2:43
Speaker 3: Because they were not really bike repair or maintenance guys
2:47
Speaker 3: out there are girls to do this because it did
2:50
Speaker 3: not exist there yet in the United States. So from there,
2:54
Speaker 3: that part of our operations at that time didn't work.
2:57
Speaker 3: From there, we transitioned very quickly to a much broader
3:00
Speaker 3: walker model. It means that we had walkers on the
3:05
Speaker 3: street who are doing the last mile of the deliveries
3:09
Speaker 3: out of At that time, there were no zero emission
3:11
Speaker 3: trucks or events. It was all based on field riven
3:14
Speaker 3: trucks which we had parked across the city, and from
3:19
Speaker 3: there we were doing the lost mile deliveries. In twenty nineteen,
3:24
Speaker 3: it was kind of the first solution that came out
3:26
Speaker 3: in the market with a bike and a trailer. It
3:30
Speaker 3: was a little bit before that the wereld Whady some
3:32
Speaker 3: existing bikes and trailers who could potentially do the last mile.
3:35
Speaker 3: But in our perspective, because safety is key in our operations,
3:41
Speaker 3: so we found in twenty nineteen the first let's say
3:44
Speaker 3: more safe environments or safe equipment to start this operation.
3:49
Speaker 3: That's when we really dived again much deeper into how
3:54
Speaker 3: can we do last mile, mid mile and lost mile
3:57
Speaker 3: parcels in a real zero and environment. We see this
4:02
Speaker 3: really as we need to change the planet, and we
4:06
Speaker 3: need to do this all together. And this I really feel,
4:09
Speaker 3: and we really feel and are very enthugiastic. We are
4:12
Speaker 3: really obsessed with everything that has to do with the environment.
4:16
Speaker 3: So where we are now, we have a fleet of events.
4:21
Speaker 3: We have a very small fleet currently stale of eat
4:24
Speaker 3: trucks and this is mostly because of course and efficiency.
4:27
Speaker 3: And then we have a larger fleet of e bikes
4:30
Speaker 3: and equads across New York City and the boroughs.
4:33
Speaker 2: So right now you're supporting and servicing the New York
4:38
Speaker 2: metro area. What about other geographies, I mean, what are
4:42
Speaker 2: some obstacles that logistics professionals are facing when they're trying
4:47
Speaker 2: to implement similar last mile solutions. Yours is New York.
4:50
Speaker 2: There's density, there's volume of packages that need to be delivered,
4:55
Speaker 2: there's space. I mean, it's very dense, but it's also
4:58
Speaker 2: very large. So those situations, those obstacles still exist in
5:02
Speaker 2: other geographies. How are they going to overcome them?
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Speaker 3: I think that's a I love the question, by the way,
5:08
Speaker 3: very thoughtfulward. The part is is that if you look
5:11
Speaker 3: at the operations, if you take New York City as
5:13
Speaker 3: a city, and you mentioned it yourself, it's a very
5:15
Speaker 3: dens city. So here the EBI can equad operations, especially
5:21
Speaker 3: in the smaller partial areas, can work very very well
5:25
Speaker 3: because of the speed, because of the easiness of maneuvering
5:28
Speaker 3: through traffic, because of the density, the amount of stops
5:31
Speaker 3: you have per block, et cetera. You can get to
5:33
Speaker 3: a relatively very high DPH, which is delivery per hour.
5:37
Speaker 3: And as we are a fully W two environment, so
5:40
Speaker 3: we only work with we have only employees, we don't
5:43
Speaker 3: have any independent contractors as well as in our mid
5:46
Speaker 3: mile as last mile operations, we need to get to
5:49
Speaker 3: the highest dph possible. But if you go into the
5:52
Speaker 3: more outlines of New York and then I'm really speaking
5:54
Speaker 3: about the boroughs as an example, certain pockets within the
5:58
Speaker 3: Boroughs have also quite high density, but the further you
6:01
Speaker 3: go out, the less density you have. And that's where
6:05
Speaker 3: we have been building this multi mobility solution hybrid model
6:09
Speaker 3: where we can utilize as well as light vehicles as
6:13
Speaker 3: well as events as well as in certain pocket. As
6:17
Speaker 3: I mentioned before, still the equals and this is also
6:19
Speaker 3: why we have a multi mode mobility, because that's the
6:23
Speaker 3: only way it can potentially work in every city. I'm
6:27
Speaker 3: getting reached out by many cities across the United States,
6:30
Speaker 3: especially on a governmental level from city hall. You mentioned
6:33
Speaker 3: to the dot and see what do we need to
6:36
Speaker 3: do to get you guys operating in this particular city.
6:40
Speaker 3: And then for us, it's really working with the density,
6:43
Speaker 3: looking at the city very very well, looking at the
6:46
Speaker 3: amount of parcels, and then from there building the model
6:49
Speaker 3: out of this multi model system of getting still the
6:54
Speaker 3: last mile done in a very efficient and cost efficient way.
6:58
Speaker 3: It's an interesting point. There's a perception in the market,
7:01
Speaker 3: especially when you speak to logistics operators, logistics managers, director
7:06
Speaker 3: of logistics even up to a level of CFOs, that
7:10
Speaker 3: the cost ultimately for zero emission deliveries is higher than
7:15
Speaker 3: their current providers. I don't think it is really higher.
7:19
Speaker 3: It is we are quite if I look at the
7:21
Speaker 3: price points that I see from our customers which are
7:24
Speaker 3: currently paying with other providers or with us in some
7:28
Speaker 3: cases cheaper in other cases slightly slightly more expensive, but
7:32
Speaker 3: it's really slightly And then if we are slightly more expensive,
7:35
Speaker 3: then the question is as a company, what is your
7:38
Speaker 3: initiative to save the planet? Are you willing to pay?
7:42
Speaker 3: I'm not speaking about dollars more for speaking about literally
7:45
Speaker 3: like a couple of cents. Are you willing to spend
7:48
Speaker 3: these couple of cents more? And it's really like and again,
7:50
Speaker 3: but I said before, I would say eighty percent of
7:52
Speaker 3: the cases, our price points are very similar than their
7:56
Speaker 3: current providers.
7:58
Speaker 2: Well, sure, and you mentioned something a moment ago. You
8:01
Speaker 2: were talking about the technological angle of this and building
8:04
Speaker 2: the models for what that delivery network could look like
8:09
Speaker 2: in that potential city. So there's multiple different vehicles, they
8:13
Speaker 2: have to have a certain your KPI of deliveries per hour,
8:17
Speaker 2: So how can some of these emerging technologies really support
8:23
Speaker 2: that route optimization? Are you using AI yet? I mean,
8:26
Speaker 2: these are some of the other buzzwords that are going
8:29
Speaker 2: around the industry right now. How are they helping your
8:32
Speaker 2: business to really roll out and build this capability that
8:37
Speaker 2: could be then marketed and deployed in other cities.
8:42
Speaker 3: It doesn't everybody use AI these days? I don't know. Yes,
8:44
Speaker 3: I think we do everything, but those everything that you
8:47
Speaker 3: read about technology, it's all AI. I don't even know anymore.
8:50
Speaker 3: What is How do people determine what is AI? But
8:54
Speaker 3: leave that on the side. I think that yes, we
8:56
Speaker 3: are utilizing, we're utilizing AI. We have been building together
9:00
Speaker 3: with we're using on the shelf of the shelf. So
9:03
Speaker 3: we have our own technology team, including our own very
9:07
Speaker 3: experienced data team, who are working very closely together. So
9:11
Speaker 3: we have real utilizing and of the shelf products customized
9:16
Speaker 3: it to our needs. And then our technology team and
9:18
Speaker 3: data team have been building this further out to really
9:22
Speaker 3: create kind of a solution what can support this multi
9:28
Speaker 3: model last model delivery. Because if you take most of
9:32
Speaker 3: the of the shelf products which are out there, they
9:35
Speaker 3: don't keep fully in mind they're very fuel driven. What
9:38
Speaker 3: means we also have constraints with the distance. We also
9:41
Speaker 3: have constraints with battery life, we have constraints with bettery
9:45
Speaker 3: charging infrastructures. So from those perspectives, within the routing and
9:50
Speaker 3: I even think within our routing, we build an even
9:52
Speaker 3: more efficient routing tool that can bring us to a
9:56
Speaker 3: higher DPH than most of the shelf solutions because we
10:00
Speaker 3: have to be very very smart about we go with
10:04
Speaker 3: our OPS clock, but then the OPS clock of the vehicle,
10:07
Speaker 3: not the OPS clock of the operation itself, but what
10:11
Speaker 3: the vehicle can run and what is the mileage this
10:14
Speaker 3: vehicle can do, and making sure that we're not getting
10:16
Speaker 3: stuck somewhere but an empty battery, because that's the worst case.
10:19
Speaker 3: And I on woods till the day of today. As
10:24
Speaker 3: far as I know, I have to ask more opsteam.
10:26
Speaker 3: But as far as I have heard, and I don't
10:28
Speaker 3: have hurt any complaints, we never had a vehicle or
10:32
Speaker 3: a bike running out of.
10:33
Speaker 2: A battery, and I'm sure it will happen at some point.
10:37
Speaker 2: But that's really interesting that you've had to make some
10:41
Speaker 2: changes and some developments to that off the shelf. Do
10:44
Speaker 2: you think that as a business that might be where
10:48
Speaker 2: you're able to deploy this is through a software that
10:52
Speaker 2: enables this or are you only going to focus on
10:55
Speaker 2: the execution of the delivery and not so much the
10:59
Speaker 2: tech chnology. I know that's that's a tough question.
11:04
Speaker 3: Is it a tough question? I think that we want
11:07
Speaker 3: to as we are currently New York, we are expanding
11:11
Speaker 3: to the LA and to the Miami market, I think
11:14
Speaker 3: for us to really start to deploy this technology in
11:17
Speaker 3: a broader way instead of us just really doing the
11:20
Speaker 3: entire last mile delivery ourselves, I think we need to
11:24
Speaker 3: test this also in different environments than just New York City.
11:27
Speaker 3: We have shown the success in New York. We cover
11:30
Speaker 3: the five boroughs, we cover into Long Island, we cover
11:33
Speaker 3: the first line in New Jersey. So our coverage has
11:36
Speaker 3: been growing quite rapidly, and it's working there or it's
11:41
Speaker 3: working here in New York. But now it's for us
11:44
Speaker 3: very important also to see that even in more challenging cities.
11:48
Speaker 3: Take La is an extremely challenging city. Traffic is out
11:51
Speaker 3: of control. They have just really pockets within the city
11:55
Speaker 3: who are very dense. And then from there we have
11:58
Speaker 3: our own UCCS urban Consolidation centers where we are consolidating
12:04
Speaker 3: the products and routing it out of there, patching it,
12:07
Speaker 3: routing it, sorting it, and then it goes out to
12:10
Speaker 3: the last mail deliveries to really strategically position them in
12:14
Speaker 3: those particular cities. And when we are there, I mean,
12:17
Speaker 3: we have a team already out in the LA market,
12:19
Speaker 3: so we're planning very soon to start to launch there.
12:22
Speaker 3: It's the same in the Miami market. But these uccs
12:26
Speaker 3: for US has to be strategically placed because that's how
12:29
Speaker 3: we get also, from that perspective, the highest efficiency out there.
12:34
Speaker 2: That kind of leads us. And you mentioned something earlier
12:36
Speaker 2: about talking with local governments and there's interest in this
12:40
Speaker 2: solution in other geographies. So what role do collaborations between
12:47
Speaker 2: the retailers and maybe even other logistics providers you mentioned
12:52
Speaker 2: some of the other parcel delivery services or those local governments,
12:56
Speaker 2: what kind of collaboration could enable them us to grow significantly?
13:02
Speaker 2: Or conversely, what are those players doing that are making
13:06
Speaker 2: it hard for you to bring this solution to other cities.
13:10
Speaker 3: I don't think that the other place are making it
13:12
Speaker 3: hard for us, okay. I think there's more a perception perspective,
13:16
Speaker 3: especially from the retail site, that there is still You know,
13:19
Speaker 3: it's interesting when you speak to the larger retail partners
13:24
Speaker 3: and companies, they have almost you speak before the different
13:27
Speaker 3: divisions you have the CFO or call it the financial area.
13:32
Speaker 3: They're just looking at the number, what is this extra cost?
13:35
Speaker 3: And if the cost is slightly higher or it's the
13:40
Speaker 3: same or a little bit lower. You see them jumping.
13:43
Speaker 3: If you are the same, they're fine with it. If
13:45
Speaker 3: it's higher, that question is what can we do to
13:47
Speaker 3: make it cheaper. Then you have the sustainable divisions himself,
13:51
Speaker 3: because if you take the let's call it the top
13:54
Speaker 3: five hundred retailers in the United States or in the world,
13:57
Speaker 3: a lot of them have their own sustainable division, which
14:00
Speaker 3: is very focused in certain cases on products, on office environments,
14:05
Speaker 3: on their entire real estate. You mentioned it. When they
14:10
Speaker 3: hear US, they start already jumping from beginning, and they
14:13
Speaker 3: are in many cases our biggest advocates within the companies.
14:18
Speaker 3: Then you get the logistics side, where the logistics side
14:20
Speaker 3: is always a little bit more concerned and also conservative.
14:25
Speaker 3: And I can imagine this because when you have been
14:27
Speaker 3: operating for the last fifteen years with the same provider,
14:31
Speaker 3: and I don't think that any provider is great besides US,
14:35
Speaker 3: I think that many of them have some legs and
14:37
Speaker 3: challenges where I think that we have figured it out
14:41
Speaker 3: very very well. Besides what is the needs of our customer,
14:46
Speaker 3: which is in this case the retailer, but also what
14:49
Speaker 3: is the need of the consumer, especially in the small
14:52
Speaker 3: partial or even also in the large partial world, or
14:54
Speaker 3: in the heavy and bolky, partial world. What is this
14:58
Speaker 3: need of a consumer? What is the visibility that those
15:01
Speaker 3: particular consumers would like to see and would like to have,
15:05
Speaker 3: and also to understand by utilizing this company a Dutch X,
15:10
Speaker 3: what is their benefit from this particular model. And I
15:12
Speaker 3: think that this is where you see, especially on a
15:15
Speaker 3: logistics perspective, there are sometimes some worries, but I can
15:19
Speaker 3: give plenty of references of companies we are working with
15:23
Speaker 3: and they're like, I wish you guys did this already
15:25
Speaker 3: ten years ago because it would have made our lives easier.
15:28
Speaker 3: It reduces cost also on a customer service perspective, because
15:31
Speaker 3: we have much bader and much more visibility too as
15:34
Speaker 3: well as the customer as well as the consumer, we
15:36
Speaker 3: have many more communication lines out there to almost every
15:41
Speaker 3: single level in the supply chain who can follow and
15:43
Speaker 3: track and trace and everything else in a live environment.
15:46
Speaker 3: I really see this as some of our other advantages
15:51
Speaker 3: compared to this large three, four or five our one
15:54
Speaker 3: define them companies in the United States.
15:58
Speaker 2: Well, and you bring up an interesting point that in
16:00
Speaker 2: the past four or five years, the customer expectations have
16:04
Speaker 2: changed drastically since we lived through COVID and had to
16:09
Speaker 2: just change the way we approached being a consumer, whether
16:14
Speaker 2: it buy groceries, buying gas, buying home goods, whatever, all
16:19
Speaker 2: of that has changed. And the expectation of the customer
16:21
Speaker 2: is I want it, I want it now, and I
16:25
Speaker 2: want you to get it to me, whether it's within
16:26
Speaker 2: an hour, by the end of the day, tomorrow, overnight.
16:30
Speaker 2: I know all of these options are available to me
16:33
Speaker 2: in the city where I live, which is not a
16:35
Speaker 2: tiny city, but it's not New York. And these customer expectations,
16:40
Speaker 2: that shift is permanent. No one's going back to I'm
16:44
Speaker 2: going to wait ten days for a shipment from something
16:47
Speaker 2: that is local. That's unacceptable. So are those demands also
16:54
Speaker 2: not just for the customer service level of receiving their
16:57
Speaker 2: product that they wanted, but for the sustainable activity? And
17:03
Speaker 2: does it matter to the customers that this fleet that
17:06
Speaker 2: brought them their package is carbon neutral or do they
17:12
Speaker 2: care that it's zero emissions? Does it matter to them
17:15
Speaker 2: or does it only matter to your customer?
17:18
Speaker 3: You know what's interesting? You see you listen and everybody
17:21
Speaker 3: has twenty fifty is the year? Does the consumer really care?
17:27
Speaker 3: I think it's still a lot of education to do,
17:29
Speaker 3: because I don't think that the education here is there
17:32
Speaker 3: as off yet or really what does it mean? And
17:35
Speaker 3: how is the climate changing? How is everything else changing?
17:38
Speaker 3: And we see the climate changing New York hits. I
17:40
Speaker 3: think the hottest July we ever had. It was every
17:44
Speaker 3: day here, like you could barely go outside. It was
17:48
Speaker 3: steaming hot, humidity was on extremely high. It was just
17:52
Speaker 3: not nice. And this will only get worse and worse
17:55
Speaker 3: and worse. So does the consumer really care? No, Do
17:59
Speaker 3: I think that the consumer believe that it is an advantage? Yes?
18:03
Speaker 3: Are there many consumers and do you see at the
18:06
Speaker 3: moment that this number is growing and growing and growing
18:08
Speaker 3: who are more aware of the environment. Yes, there is,
18:13
Speaker 3: and this number will only grow over the coming years
18:16
Speaker 3: because things need to change. And I think that the
18:19
Speaker 3: awareness from a consumer perspective is getting there and we
18:24
Speaker 3: can see it and hear it very very very clear.
18:27
Speaker 3: The other thing is, and this is an interesting point
18:29
Speaker 3: you brought up, like you have this speedy on demand
18:32
Speaker 3: quick deliveries. I think as a consumer from a consumer perspective,
18:37
Speaker 3: and then I'm not speaking about the food side, because
18:39
Speaker 3: I think foods you order thirty minutes and you want
18:43
Speaker 3: it warm, so you order thirty minutes before you want
18:45
Speaker 3: your dinner, and I hearing certain cities it's an hour.
18:48
Speaker 3: But let's say I'm lucky, we live in New York
18:50
Speaker 3: and here it's the twenty to thirty minutes. I see
18:52
Speaker 3: this really as an on demand product which you need
18:55
Speaker 3: to be as fast as possible. With the large e
18:58
Speaker 3: commerce sites out there who are almost promising you same
19:02
Speaker 3: day or otherwise in most cases next day. I think
19:04
Speaker 3: that this is where you see a lot of each retailers,
19:08
Speaker 3: threepls and warehouses are still kind of challenging and struggling
19:12
Speaker 3: how to compete with especially for them that's called it
19:16
Speaker 3: the smaller brands and also the large companies. By the way,
19:19
Speaker 3: how can we compete with these giants out there who
19:22
Speaker 3: can get it to us like as soon as possible
19:25
Speaker 3: and almost's call it same day, because I think that
19:28
Speaker 3: on demand is extremely expensive, especially in a W two environment,
19:34
Speaker 3: and I think that the consumer itself should really look
19:36
Speaker 3: at themselves as said, what do I really need right now?
19:41
Speaker 3: But if I need something today, I get that we
19:44
Speaker 3: are really as a company focused on the same day deliveries,
19:48
Speaker 3: which can be utilized out of a retail location. As
19:51
Speaker 3: an fulfillment center to a threepl or their own warehouse,
19:55
Speaker 3: and of course the next day, second day, and third day,
19:58
Speaker 3: because this is really where were are focusing on. We
20:01
Speaker 3: do not believe besides food, And don't get me wrong,
20:05
Speaker 3: in this un demand partial deliveries because I think that
20:10
Speaker 3: the cost for this is consumer is not willing to
20:13
Speaker 3: pay for it.
20:15
Speaker 2: So what are some of the challenges and solutions that
20:20
Speaker 2: are going to be different for New York versus let's
20:25
Speaker 2: say a smaller town. Are they going to be able
20:29
Speaker 2: Is there enough demand for a delivery service that they're
20:33
Speaker 2: going to be able to utilize this type of technology
20:37
Speaker 2: and this initiative, or are there small towns or geographies
20:44
Speaker 2: or areas of our country that are just not going
20:47
Speaker 2: to be able to capitalize on this and make it
20:51
Speaker 2: cost efficient.
20:53
Speaker 3: I think this is all far in the future, to
20:56
Speaker 3: be honest and fair with you, because then again it
20:58
Speaker 3: all comes back to density, et cetera. Do I think
21:02
Speaker 3: that same day delivery in small towns are going to
21:06
Speaker 3: be doable? I don't believe that I'll be there or
21:10
Speaker 3: in an honest wa next day can become in certain
21:14
Speaker 3: ways challenging in a zero mission environment because of the density.
21:21
Speaker 3: But we based on the map that we have created eternally,
21:25
Speaker 3: we can reach relatively rapidly sixties to seventy percent of
21:31
Speaker 3: the US population. When we can reach sixty to seventy
21:35
Speaker 3: percent of the US population, this ultimately can mean for
21:38
Speaker 3: us that our network gets broad enough from that perspective
21:42
Speaker 3: that we can start servicing the smaller towns, because this
21:46
Speaker 3: will mean that even the less dense areas can be
21:51
Speaker 3: built within the model of the larger areas which we
21:55
Speaker 3: know we can serve. Will always be certain areas where
21:59
Speaker 3: with the current battery and charging infrastructures with electrifications which
22:06
Speaker 3: will currently not be reached. Yes, because there are challenges
22:09
Speaker 3: with energy, there is challenges with the distances event can drive,
22:14
Speaker 3: et cetera. So currently can we really cover the US? No,
22:20
Speaker 3: will we get there? I'm one hundred percent sure, and
22:22
Speaker 3: I'm sure that we will get anywhere in the United States.
22:25
Speaker 2: That sounds amazing, And I think one of the more
22:29
Speaker 2: interesting initiatives that you've got going on right now, and
22:31
Speaker 2: I was on your website earlier today checking to see
22:34
Speaker 2: if it was still going or if there was any news,
22:37
Speaker 2: and that is your Blue Highway initiative tell our listeners
22:40
Speaker 2: a little bit about that, because that may be one
22:43
Speaker 2: of the ways that you get to some of these
22:44
Speaker 2: other geographies.
22:46
Speaker 3: So it's all really my initiative. It's something that we
22:48
Speaker 3: have been working very very I wish I could say that,
22:51
Speaker 3: but no, I have to be honest there as well.
22:53
Speaker 3: I've been working very closely with partners and governmental institutions
22:57
Speaker 3: to see how can we enroll this, how can this
22:59
Speaker 3: be done in and in a very efficient way. We
23:03
Speaker 3: are launching and it's a very very small, minor test
23:08
Speaker 3: in September to really see from a test perspective based
23:12
Speaker 3: on small parcels, how is this going to work and
23:14
Speaker 3: how can this work very very efficient. We are working
23:18
Speaker 3: on creating barges or not for ourselves, but again together
23:21
Speaker 3: with the government, to create this broader infrastructure to bringing
23:26
Speaker 3: more parcels into New York City and do this correct.
23:30
Speaker 3: I think that a fair date, I think two thousand,
23:33
Speaker 3: twenty five, twenty six, we will have this infrastructure in
23:37
Speaker 3: a broader way out there, because again, if you identify
23:41
Speaker 3: certain territories in certain areas, because even New York City
23:45
Speaker 3: small parcel deliveries, and then utilizing the waterways which are
23:49
Speaker 3: the outliners of New York where for example, commercial vehicles
23:53
Speaker 3: are not allowed, so you have to start utilizing equads
23:56
Speaker 3: and e bikes in those perspectives. So from there need
24:00
Speaker 3: to create the volume and the density to get it
24:04
Speaker 3: out because if it's just a couple of routes, it's interesting.
24:08
Speaker 3: But I think the broader, broader picture is really to
24:11
Speaker 3: build this more lost mile mid loss mile terminal infrastructure
24:17
Speaker 3: where you can sort on one side of the city,
24:19
Speaker 3: which is in this case or Brooklyn Queen's Bronx, or
24:22
Speaker 3: even the Jersey side, bring it already sorted and routed
24:25
Speaker 3: into containerized solution to the Manhattan market. Then we have
24:29
Speaker 3: all these solutions ready, by the way, because start if
24:31
Speaker 3: we want tomorrow, and we also have the clients who
24:34
Speaker 3: are very interested to start operating this. So on until
24:38
Speaker 3: we are ready to go. I think there are still
24:40
Speaker 3: more decisions also made on the governmental site is where
24:44
Speaker 3: are these barches, because there are not really cargo barches
24:47
Speaker 3: out there yet. In New York. We are working with
24:52
Speaker 3: commuter terminals. The Coastguard is not crazy about it because
24:56
Speaker 3: they don't want to mixed cargo and commuters and doughty.
25:00
Speaker 3: Commuter terminals are post COVID only thirty five percent utilized,
25:04
Speaker 3: so their utilization went down really a lot because post
25:08
Speaker 3: COVID peopole are not coming over to New York City
25:10
Speaker 3: anymore by faerry or by vessel. So there are still opportunities,
25:15
Speaker 3: solutions and opportunities we need to work through. But we
25:19
Speaker 3: are very very close to start our operations wonderful.
25:23
Speaker 2: I am going to keep checking on the website to
25:25
Speaker 2: see if there is any more news about that. So
25:28
Speaker 2: I think the last thing is do you have a
25:31
Speaker 2: customer story or a success or just maybe even a failure.
25:36
Speaker 2: Some failures are interesting to hear about. But tell us
25:38
Speaker 2: about one of your favorite stories. Something you would tell
25:41
Speaker 2: a potential client that is looking for a parcel delivery
25:46
Speaker 2: solution and they're comparing vendors you against the other top five,
25:50
Speaker 2: top four, top five, what would you tell them to
25:53
Speaker 2: try and convince them to go with dut checks.
25:56
Speaker 3: Well, you ask me, this is a good question. What
26:00
Speaker 3: is a good what is our top story? I can
26:03
Speaker 3: go back to COVID, but I don't want to go
26:05
Speaker 3: back to COVID. That does it that some of our
26:09
Speaker 3: customers are left Candy's outside for our delivery guys, their kids,
26:14
Speaker 3: and some of the kids they were getting left notes
26:17
Speaker 3: outside to our delivery associates to say thank you so
26:21
Speaker 3: much for giving us food. I don't want my mom
26:25
Speaker 3: to go outside because I'm scared she's going to get sick.
26:28
Speaker 3: But do we really want to go there? I don't.
26:31
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's not something that The only thing
26:34
Speaker 3: but I can say is that because we have the
26:39
Speaker 3: full transparency of the lost mouth delivery, we have a
26:43
Speaker 3: much higher success rate of fulfilling the lost mouth and
26:48
Speaker 3: being successful of doing the lost mouth delivery and not
26:52
Speaker 3: bringing it back because customer was not home or other
26:55
Speaker 3: things and what we have seen there and this is
26:57
Speaker 3: not something that I get a compliment for or it's
27:02
Speaker 3: really like amazing. But that being said, and I just
27:07
Speaker 3: take myself as an example, I don't have time to
27:10
Speaker 3: go to stores. I wish I had. Everything we order
27:13
Speaker 3: is online and for me to know I can expect
27:18
Speaker 3: my parcel tonight, even it's a birthday gift for my son,
27:22
Speaker 3: my family member or whoever it is, my wife, but
27:25
Speaker 3: you mentioned it and knowing that it's un route and
27:29
Speaker 3: I will get it tonight at five forty one pm,
27:32
Speaker 3: this can mean I can be home at five forty
27:34
Speaker 3: one pm. I can ask somebody else to be home,
27:36
Speaker 3: but I know that my parcel is arriving the day
27:40
Speaker 3: and the time that I needed to arrive at my place.
27:44
Speaker 3: And I think that this is I don't want to
27:47
Speaker 3: call a success story, but I do know that if
27:50
Speaker 3: you have an important gift which you bought yesterday from
27:53
Speaker 3: a website and you expected to be delivered today and
27:57
Speaker 3: you want a ninety eight percent success rate of your delivery,
28:01
Speaker 3: we've fulfilled this for you. And you know already from
28:04
Speaker 3: a much earlier time window of what time you can
28:07
Speaker 3: anticipate to receive your paggage, so you can plan also
28:11
Speaker 3: in that perspective, especially for important parcels your day, to
28:15
Speaker 3: make sure that there will be or somebody home, or
28:18
Speaker 3: you can whatever needs to be done to receive that
28:22
Speaker 3: particular parcel. And I think that this is I don't
28:25
Speaker 3: think a success story, but I do believe that we
28:28
Speaker 3: can make more people happy there.
28:30
Speaker 2: I absolutely think that is a success story and a
28:33
Speaker 2: selling point. The marketing person in me says that this
28:37
Speaker 2: is a value proposition that your accuracy for your routing
28:42
Speaker 2: and on time delivery is so high that it can
28:46
Speaker 2: be down to a five minute window. That's significant. And
28:50
Speaker 2: if you're able to deliver that on a consistent basis,
28:53
Speaker 2: you should be screaming that from the rooftops because that's
28:57
Speaker 2: not something that the Amazon drivers do, it's not something
29:00
Speaker 2: Ups does, it's not something the postal service can do.
29:04
Speaker 2: If Dutch x is able to meet those expectations that
29:09
Speaker 2: are set, you're the one who says when it's going
29:11
Speaker 2: to be delivered. But if you meet that goal, if
29:14
Speaker 2: you meet that expectation that you've given to the customer,
29:17
Speaker 2: that the end consumer, that is going to make a
29:20
Speaker 2: huge difference to all of these retailers that want to
29:25
Speaker 2: work with your company and use your delivery service because
29:29
Speaker 2: their customers want to have their item on time. So
29:33
Speaker 2: I disagree that that is not a great story. I
29:36
Speaker 2: think that's a fantastic story.
29:38
Speaker 3: No, but I thought you were looking more for it,
29:39
Speaker 3: really like an amazing story, instead of bringing up a
29:42
Speaker 3: sales it's not a sales storys It's true, by the way,
29:45
Speaker 3: it's really what we do, but it's I didn't know
29:48
Speaker 3: what you were looking for, but that's it, and it
29:50
Speaker 3: is the case, by the way.
29:51
Speaker 2: Well, I think that that is a huge selling point,
29:54
Speaker 2: and I'm sure there are a number of stories like
29:58
Speaker 2: you were talking about, where the end can is just
30:01
Speaker 2: so happy to see that delivery, whatever it is. I'm
30:03
Speaker 2: sure that happens in any number of delivery and parcel
30:07
Speaker 2: delivery industries where you get delivering flowers or delivering chocolates
30:13
Speaker 2: or whatever the occasion is, that you're able to meet
30:17
Speaker 2: that person and have that connection for that brief moment,
30:21
Speaker 2: for that small transaction that is really in the scheme
30:24
Speaker 2: of things, nothing but could be something so huge, and
30:28
Speaker 2: so I'm sure there are a number of stories about that,
30:32
Speaker 2: but I think that brings us to the end of
30:34
Speaker 2: our conversation today. Thank you so much, Marcus for joining us.
30:39
Speaker 3: Thank you Ellen, it was a pleasure.
30:42
Speaker 2: I had a lot of fun learning more about your company.
30:45
Speaker 2: At first, I thought, okay, it's another parcel delivery service,
30:47
Speaker 2: it's last mile delivery. And the more I read, the
30:50
Speaker 2: more I was interested in the goals that you have
30:53
Speaker 2: and the way you're raising the bar in the parcel
30:56
Speaker 2: delivery service on sustainability measures is incredibly admirable. So thank
31:01
Speaker 2: you so much for joining us today.
31:03
Speaker 3: Thank you for your kind Wertzen. Thank you.
31:05
Speaker 2: If any of our listeners out there have a suggestion
31:08
Speaker 2: for a topic or another guest you'd like to see
31:12
Speaker 2: on the show. We'd love to hear from you. You
31:14
Speaker 2: can contact me at podcast at meebock at any time
31:17
Speaker 2: to give us your ideas or to request to be
31:20
Speaker 2: a guest on the show like Marcus. As always, thank
31:23
Speaker 2: you for listening to Speaking of Supply Chain. If you
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31:42
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