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FreightWaves LIVE recap: Final-mile challenges and opportunities created by pandemic

Bringg’s Klein said COVID showed it’s tough to scale up quickly when you need to

This fireside chat recap is from Day 1 of FreightWaves LIVE @HOME.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Practical challenges logistics providers face

DETAILS: What are the last-mile opportunities and challenges that arose from the pandemic?  

SPEAKER: Larry Klein, vice president of logistics for Bringg, is interviewed by FreightWaves’ Kevin Hill.


BIO: Klein has more than 20 years of experience leading sales, customer service and operational teams in the transportation and logistics space, having worked in management for RR Donnelley Logistics, Echo Global Logistics, DeliveryCircle and 1st Choice Delivery. He manages Bringg’s logistics efforts with a focus on helping organizations better navigate their final-mile operational and technology options.

KEY QUOTES FROM KLEIN:

“We could see that a lot of the legacy technologies built in the last 10, 15 or 20 years were probably not built for what was coming.”

“The big thing that we saw across shippers and logistics providers is that they struggled to scale. I think what is amazing to me is even if you look at the biggest of the big, even those world-class companies had a tough time scaling for this unpredictable amount of volume.”


“You can handle anything by throwing people at it, but it is not overly sustainable or profitable.”

On survey results: “What was interesting is that retailers placed a higher level of value on visibility, but the logistics providers said they get asked about it but weren’t planning on investing in it.”

“What we see is that technology can be a reason for a driver to stay or go. One thing about the independent contractor model is that they are under no obligation to show up tomorrow. So we’re competing consistently to attract and retain drivers. It is an everyday thing.”

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.