Meeting Title: Uttam <> Kelly-@-UPS - Intial-Rate-Conversation Date: 2023-10-31 Meeting participants: Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:00:05.300 ⇒ 00:00:18.509 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know if you want me to share my screen. I have the ray charts pulled up. I don’t know if you want me to pull them up. Okay, I’ll just share my screen. So you majority of your stuff goes residential. Right?
2 00:00:19.370 ⇒ 00:00:27.099 Uttam Kumaran: Alright. So I’m just gonna share. I have both. But I’m just gonna share my residential recharges. Let me know. You see it.
3 00:00:28.520 ⇒ 00:00:34.970 Uttam Kumaran: I see that. Yeah. And this is what I have up in front of me. The same thing. Okay. So
4 00:00:35.100 ⇒ 00:00:38.780 Uttam Kumaran: the reason that some of them are off is
5 00:00:38.800 ⇒ 00:00:46.630 Uttam Kumaran: If the weight is, I don’t know how familiar you are with dimensional weight, and how it works. Are you not familiar at all?
6 00:00:46.800 ⇒ 00:01:04.069 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so. And if you want to give me an example of one of the ones that were off. I can show you how to do it. So basically. this agreement that you guys are on, you have a 1 66 dim divisor, which means,
7 00:01:04.260 ⇒ 00:01:12.620 Uttam Kumaran: I guess the average dim divisors, 1, 39. The higher the dim divisor.
8 00:01:12.800 ⇒ 00:01:32.350 Uttam Kumaran: the more of a discount you guys will receive. So just for example, you guys have something that is a lighter weight. Let’s say it’s 10 pounds. But it’s in a really big box. So the dimensions are much larger. We’re gonna do length times width times height. And then we’re going to divide that number by your
9 00:01:32.870 ⇒ 00:01:42.549 Uttam Kumaran: dim divisor of 1, 66, and whatever that number comes out to it would probably be higher than, let’s say, the
10 00:01:42.590 ⇒ 00:01:57.480 Uttam Kumaran: 10 pound package you’re sending. Let’s say the number we get is 35
11 00:01:57.560 ⇒ 00:02:27.479 Uttam Kumaran: it? I basically it’s it’s the reason is because while the box is light, the box is big. So it’s taking up a lot of room in the truck. So I don’t want to say that you were being penalized for that. But you basically need to pay for the space that that box is taking up in the truck that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. And so that so that 1 66 like, how is that calculated? Is that like a standard or no. So standard is 139. This one, we were able to get you 1 66, which is even
12 00:02:27.480 ⇒ 00:02:30.249 Uttam Kumaran: lower. Yeah, okay.
13 00:02:30.280 ⇒ 00:02:40.130 Uttam Kumaran: but if you had no incentive on the dim divisor it would have been 139. But we did give you incentive.
14 00:02:40.530 ⇒ 00:02:43.589 Uttam Kumaran: So we got you the 1 66, just because your boxes
15 00:02:43.630 ⇒ 00:02:59.049 Uttam Kumaran: are a little bit bigger.
16 00:02:59.520 ⇒ 00:03:13.889 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like the actual shipping cost was almost double. And then I was looking at the rates. And I’m like, okay, so there’s definitely, it’s not just like variability. There’s definitely something off. So that so that makes sense. So that’s what I’ll try and do is understand
17 00:03:13.950 ⇒ 00:03:20.079 Uttam Kumaran: from our angle, like what our length, width, and height is, and then kind of be able to calculate that
18 00:03:20.280 ⇒ 00:03:22.160 Uttam Kumaran: on our end, too.
19 00:03:22.480 ⇒ 00:03:35.900 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so there, unfortunately, there’s no like rechar that I can get you for that. I could just give you like our basic standard ray chart. And then anything that does
20 00:03:36.320 ⇒ 00:03:59.889 Uttam Kumaran: is it impacted by the dim divisor? That’s sort of just something that you’ll have to do with math, but on the invoice, it will say, and I can see if I could pull up an example and email it to you after our call it will say that this cost was impacted by the dimensional weight of 160, but it does say it on the invoice. I’ll look for an example.
21 00:03:59.890 ⇒ 00:04:09.530 Uttam Kumaran: and I’ll send it to you. But do you have if you wanna give me? Do you have an example of like an actual weight and dimensions that
22 00:04:09.530 ⇒ 00:04:25.730 Uttam Kumaran: you couldn’t figure out the cost. And we could see if it makes sense to see if it makes more sense.
23 00:04:25.840 ⇒ 00:04:34.489 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, the thing is, I don’t have. I don’t think I have access at the moment to the dimensions. That’s something I need to think I need to
24 00:04:34.710 ⇒ 00:04:41.760 Uttam Kumaran: either pull from ship station or I need to get from chuck but maybe I can pull that out. But I think.
25 00:04:41.960 ⇒ 00:04:56.569 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, that makes sense just to know that it’s just the length times width times, height divided by 1 66. And then, if you have an example of the invoice, I’m actually gonna I’ll try to match that to an order that I have in the system. And then that’ll be kinda like what I do to verify.
26 00:04:57.210 ⇒ 00:05:07.740 Uttam Kumaran: That’s actually perfect. Okay, so I will. As soon as we get off this call I will and I’ll send you the
27 00:05:08.750 ⇒ 00:05:32.040 Uttam Kumaran: like. I guess if you wanna call it the formula. Also, when we get off the phone building time with times high, divided by the 1 66, and I’ll send you a few examples from your invoice, and I myself will just make sure everything is adding up but just if you, from from your point of view, if you just wanna confirm and then that happens so that happens on every calculation, but for the most part
28 00:05:32.230 ⇒ 00:05:33.310 Uttam Kumaran: are
29 00:05:33.780 ⇒ 00:05:46.360 Uttam Kumaran: it’ll it’ll be it’ll be mo more with. So you mentioned, I’m just gonna walk through it again. Explain it back. So it’s like times. What says I, divided by 1 66. And you pick. Which one is more. Is that right?
30 00:05:46.710 ⇒ 00:06:13.219 Uttam Kumaran: Yes. So if it’s a box that is impacted by dimensional weight. But like, let’s say, it’s a really big box. But if it’s if it’s a big box, but it’s also 50 pounds, it probably wouldn’t be impacted. But if it’s a big box and it’s 10 pounds. It’s probably gonna be billed at a higher weight. So that’s when you’ll hear us say, is it built?
31 00:06:13.390 ⇒ 00:06:25.419 Uttam Kumaran: Actual weight or dimensional weight if it’s built by dimensional weight. That means that it was impacted by that 166 team divisor.
32 00:06:25.440 ⇒ 00:06:36.920 Uttam Kumaran: and not all of your packages are impacted. It just depends on the what the actual weight of the packages, and it just depends on the dimensions of the package. But, like I said,
33 00:06:38.150 ⇒ 00:06:47.549 Uttam Kumaran: it will. It depends on. If it’s build actual weight or dimensional weight, which ever is the higher up to. Okay, okay, perfect. Okay, great.
34 00:06:49.130 ⇒ 00:07:01.290 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m thinking, I can send you, and let me know if this is, and I can, you know, tighten it up and make it sort of neat for you, but I can send you sort of a year to date.
35 00:07:01.740 ⇒ 00:07:08.660 Uttam Kumaran: cost analysis which could, which could show you your your shipping costs
36 00:07:08.860 ⇒ 00:07:12.240 Uttam Kumaran: with ups for the year so far.
37 00:07:12.510 ⇒ 00:07:22.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that would be great. I have a little bit of that on our end. But again, I don’t have like I want to compare it to actuals, to see how close we are.
38 00:07:22.460 ⇒ 00:07:27.340 Uttam Kumaran: And we have. We just have all the information from ship station. So
39 00:07:27.500 ⇒ 00:07:45.500 Uttam Kumaran: that’s like amazing. That’s like a bonus for me. Okay, and I will pull from both account numbers, cause you do have volume on both account numbers. Now, also, mind you, this is not for the entire 2023 year. So when did you guys on board with us? I think maybe April.
40 00:07:45.570 ⇒ 00:07:52.810 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. And as long as as long as there’s like some sort of breakdown on dates, or there’s a little bit of a range that would be
41 00:07:54.040 ⇒ 00:08:02.990 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. So in the file you’ll see all of that, you’ll see it’ll have dates. They’ll have invoice numbers. It’ll have net cost level.
42 00:08:04.360 ⇒ 00:08:16.160 Uttam Kumaran: Say it again. That’s at the invoice level. Correct. This is the this information pulls from your invoice. Okay. so it’ll be broken down by pickup date.
43 00:08:16.420 ⇒ 00:08:20.850 Uttam Kumaran: And then also in boy state. Okay, perfect.
44 00:08:21.450 ⇒ 00:08:47.560 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, I that’ll be from whenever you guys started shipping with us when you moved to volume over which I like, I said, I think was either April or May. And I think, June, you really started picking up? That’s obviously your busiest season. And is there is there any place that we can pull that online or programmatically? Or is is it? Kind of just getting it on some cadence?
45 00:08:47.980 ⇒ 00:09:04.569 Uttam Kumaran: No, not really. That’s really sort of like an internal ups data that I’m going to be sending you. It’s really just something that we pull for ourselves. Honestly. But it’s it’s your date, and it will share with you.
46 00:09:05.160 ⇒ 00:09:11.069 Uttam Kumaran: But as for pulling it yourself. I don’t. I don’t really know how you guys would do it. That would be
47 00:09:11.410 ⇒ 00:09:23.629 Uttam Kumaran: more any more simple than that. Usually like any of my customers that need sort of like a year to day cost analysis so they could. They’ll reach out to me, and I’m able to send you anything that you need
48 00:09:24.040 ⇒ 00:09:28.780 Uttam Kumaran: and then I do have one more question. So I was speaking with Chuck.
49 00:09:29.000 ⇒ 00:09:49.859 Uttam Kumaran: Well, so I’ve been trying to win. and we we won your account from Fedex back in early spring, and we were able to capture majority of your Fedex volume on the heavier weight stuff. That’s the pricing that I put in for you guys, it really captured your heavyweight stuff.
50 00:09:49.940 ⇒ 00:10:10.239 Uttam Kumaran: you also use a lot of post office that the pricing I put in place was not really competitive, for, like it captured your heavyweight stuff, but not so much your lightweight post office stuff. Now, obviously my goal in going in there was to get as much volume as we can, and be competitive as as much
51 00:10:10.270 ⇒ 00:10:16.870 Uttam Kumaran: again in as much areas as we can be. But the issue that Chuck and I had faced was
52 00:10:16.940 ⇒ 00:10:26.580 Uttam Kumaran: your shipping platform ship station is not really friendly when it comes to having multiple shipper numbers.
53 00:10:26.910 ⇒ 00:10:30.239 Uttam Kumaran: And when I try putting you guys on
54 00:10:31.450 ⇒ 00:10:53.450 Uttam Kumaran: a agreement that was cost friendly for heavyweight stuff. And then I created a secondary account number and tried putting you on a different agreement that was strictly friendly for lightweight stuff, and so, if we were able, it will. If the warehouse was able to easily toggle between both account numbers.
55 00:10:54.650 ⇒ 00:11:01.849 Uttam Kumaran: We could’ve made that happen. But it just wasn’t. It wasn’t like friendly. And Shop was basically like.
56 00:11:01.990 ⇒ 00:11:20.439 Uttam Kumaran: I want you to be able to do this blindly for the warehouse like. I don’t want there to be any confusion. I don’t want there to be any toggling between like ideally. I would really love pricing to be under one account number, your lightweight and our heavyweight stuff under everything. Well, that being said
57 00:11:20.570 ⇒ 00:11:32.439 Uttam Kumaran: most recently, the organization has come out with probably even more aggressive pricing than what you’re on right now. And it’s really just to capture any business that we don’t have.
58 00:11:32.460 ⇒ 00:11:38.940 Uttam Kumaran: So I am also going to do a cost analysis
59 00:11:39.460 ⇒ 00:11:58.370 Uttam Kumaran: compared to what you’re paying now, and see if we can save you more while also capturing any post office business that we’re not getting and it would be under one agreement, so it would sort of take away the issue we were having with toggling between 2 account numbers.
60 00:11:58.370 ⇒ 00:12:16.180 Uttam Kumaran: So would you be my go to like are you taking over any contract negotiations, or anything like that? Or is Chuck still my go-to person for that, I would say, I am helping. So I would say. On one hand, I’m kind of coming in and Chuck really like runs a ton of the warehouse. So
61 00:12:16.180 ⇒ 00:12:29.170 Uttam Kumaran: he’s like, just like Super busy with that. So I would say, probably ceasing both of us on any communication is probably best. And I’m sure you’ve you’ve met with Ben or Dan like the owners of the business before.
62 00:12:29.730 ⇒ 00:12:43.780 Uttam Kumaran: You know I actually have not II have only been in contact with. So I’m local here. As I said, I’m on the island, so I’ll go to. I’ve been to the warehouse multiple times, and I’ve met with Chuck a few times. When I did send over the pricing.
63 00:12:43.820 ⇒ 00:13:02.400 Uttam Kumaran: he sort of just went to them, reviewed it with them, got the a okay, everything looks good. And then we implemented. But I actually have not. I have not met with them yet.
64 00:13:02.420 ⇒ 00:13:29.099 Uttam Kumaran: You know the business. We’ve never done a full projection of you know we we do forecast a decent amount, but nothing granular, especially not on reducing our shipment costs, which, which is a huge margin of the business. So what I’m what I’m helping them do is for next year really understand by skew and then, of course, with information you gave me today on like the dimensional way what our shipment costs are going to be by skew, and then kind of project that out next year to look at.
65 00:13:29.100 ⇒ 00:13:35.640 Uttam Kumaran: based on, like our volume expectations. What we’re going to do. So that’s kind of what I’m preparing, you know, really to have a conversation
66 00:13:35.640 ⇒ 00:13:45.319 Uttam Kumaran: with you on. You know, where there’s opportunities for us to reduce that additionally. I’m now just getting really familiar with Sip Station, and
67 00:13:45.320 ⇒ 00:14:04.079 Uttam Kumaran: I’m literally have the same. I had this pretty much the same problem as you is like, I wanna set up some automations and there’s some trouble. So I’m likely gonna even get in contact with a ship station team and be like, there’s gotta be people in your customer ways that are doing this like, what’s the solution here? I know you. You talked about
68 00:14:04.160 ⇒ 00:14:08.489 Uttam Kumaran: consolidating it to one account, but I’m I’m gonna try and get in contact with them.
69 00:14:08.520 ⇒ 00:14:23.170 Uttam Kumaran: regardless just to get a better understanding of the platform, but I mean, I think, certainly within. I think likely by the end of next month we should have all information we need on what we expect to do next year to like kind of have a good amount of data for that conversation.
70 00:14:23.290 ⇒ 00:14:37.299 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, definitely. And if you, if you need to send me any sort of examples, or want me to do any additional pricing for you, or anything like that. Feel free to send them my way. And II can.
71 00:14:38.020 ⇒ 00:14:39.380 Uttam Kumaran: I can see if I can
72 00:14:39.470 ⇒ 00:15:04.530 Uttam Kumaran: give you like a better cost just for certain examples. If you, if you send a lot of one sized box or one weight box. And you’re like, what is this cost more than happy to do that? Yeah, you guys, you know, you had a really good summer last year, and I know you’re sort of in your slower season, so volume is sort of dropped off. But I don’t think it’s necessarily because it’s moved anywhere. I think it’s just because you’re in your slower season.
73 00:15:04.530 ⇒ 00:15:11.900 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, no, that’s exactly right. We we have a lot of concentration in the business, both in like location where we ship
74 00:15:11.930 ⇒ 00:15:37.570 Uttam Kumaran: so like on certain zones as well as time of the year. You know we’ll we’ll probably do really well, like a little bit this holiday season. But yeah, things will pick back up next, like March April, when people open their pools back up. But again, like what we’re in the process right now is like, we’re we’re ordering all of our inventory for next year, you know. And I think this this may be the I again. I only started working with the business this year. So
75 00:15:37.570 ⇒ 00:16:05.639 Uttam Kumaran: for me, what I can really help to do is set a really strong projection for next year, with alongside, like the goals that you know the owners want to hit, and then really work with folks like you on. Okay, we’re about to do this amount of business, if you can secure us, you know. Here’s the here’s the rates we’re paying right now across all of our different shipping partners like, what’s what can we do? Right? I don’t think we’ve had that level of granularity on the data side.
76 00:16:05.640 ⇒ 00:16:23.520 Uttam Kumaran: And so I think I think if we partner on that, I think there’s probably a ton of opportunities so absolutely. And I would love to expand our relationship even more in our partnership. And you know anything that I could do to make that easier. And also I’m a big believer in
77 00:16:24.000 ⇒ 00:16:48.710 Uttam Kumaran: having one carrier, not because I work for ups, but just because I think it is simplicity on your guys’s end. And I think it just makes things easier when you are trying to plan out your 2024, and and you’re doing these cost analysis. I think if we can capture everything and be competitive on your lightweight in your in your heavyweight and your long zone in your short zone, and we could get that all tightened up.
78 00:16:49.160 ⇒ 00:16:52.199 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s just a win win for everyone. So yeah, totally agree.
79 00:16:52.920 ⇒ 00:17:00.780 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, great do you have any other additional questions? I think that’s it. Yeah. And I appreciate it. I know I’m a little bit new to like this
80 00:17:01.120 ⇒ 00:17:22.649 Uttam Kumaran: part of the business. But again, for me, actually, I think it’s that calculations are actually a lot simpler than a lot of the work I’m doing on the sales and marketing side. So for me, it’s just like making it’s making it crystal clear for chalk and the business, kinda like what we’re spending on shipping. And then, of course, like working with you, I’m like, okay, where are their opportunities? So I appreciate it?
81 00:17:22.839 ⇒ 00:17:44.069 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, absolutely. Well, congratulations on the new role. Look forward to working together in my email chain. That’s my direct phone number. So if you have any issues, questions, or anything, feel free to call that number. It’s my work cell, and then I will. I could probably send you this information honestly by the end of day. So perfect. Yeah, that’d be great.
82 00:17:44.070 ⇒ 00:18:02.010 Uttam Kumaran: Okay? And then, like, I said, any issues, questions, concerns feel free to reach out. And then I will follow up with both you and chuck on some what I think could be even better pricing to expand our relationship further, and then I’ll I’ll do that probably by end of the week. Okay, perfect.
83 00:18:02.420 ⇒ 00:18:06.449 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Great. Well, it was a pleasure meeting you. Yeah, thanks, Kelly. Appreciate it. Talk soon.
84 00:18:06.730 ⇒ 00:18:08.170 Talk soon, bye. Bye.