Global Trade This Week – September 6th, 2022
What’s going on in Global Trade this Week? Today Doug Draper of ACME Distribution and Pete Mento of Mento LLC cover:
1:46 - Revisiting Correct GTTW Calls from COVID, to Ukraine, to Secondary Ports
11:33 -Rail Congestion & Commodity Inequity
18:20 -Halftime
29:00 -Amazon Warehouse Distribution - AWD
35:07 - Cash, Electronic, and Mobile Payments
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Keenan Brugh 0:00
You're watching Global Trade This Week with Pete Mento and Doug Draper.
Pete Mento 0:09
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the most exciting, free Internet television show about global trade of the world. That will treat this week by Pete mento. And with me as always, is my my wing man, my partner and all things global trade. Doug Draper, how are you? Doug, I
Doug Draper 0:31
am doing well. I am doing well post post Labor Day enjoying the heat,
Unknown Speaker 0:37
still. But
Pete Mento 0:40
other than that very well. I had a pretty quiet labor day it rained like hell here yesterday continues to it was in the 40s last night. So if that's any indication, it's going to be a pretty miserable fall, buddy. But I don't mind. I always say I don't like the heat. So I'm okay. With a cooling down, buddy. But enough of the old man weather talk. It's this week global trade this week brought to you by our good friends at CAP Logistics, Doug, because I kick the show off. That means you get to give your first topic power. So why don't you go ahead and bring it in?
Doug Draper 1:15
All right. Well, this one has not very creative. But it's important to let our audience know that Pete and I got your back. And as Pete mentioned at the first of the show is that free is the key word. So the information, the stories and the predictions that we make on the show, we always talk about being forward thinking is real. So go ahead and plan your budgets and everything you need to do and your supply chain around these comments. So seriously, I was thinking about this. I'm like, What can I talk about for a day, and I'm like, You know what, it's important to rewind and reset for our audience some of the predictions that we made, not necessarily on our project prediction show, although one of them is. But things that we've talked about time and time again. The first one was a headline that said, hey, there's only eight ships off the coast of LA. But there's 45 or 41 ships off the coast of Savannah. And I started thinking that yeah, because we you and I have been talking about when congestion got heavy and LA, people found second tier ports to be a priority. So the simple fact that LA is waning, and the second tier ports like Savannah, at Norfolk are growing. And oh, by the way, there's congestion out there. Yeah, that's what we talked about, who said people were going to take their freight around the horn, so to speak, and through the Panama Canal. And so yeah, they're going to be congested. So here's the forward take on this one, Pete, when the freight gets off the boat and has to go somewhere. So warehouses are going to get congested, and people have to work in the warehouses. So they're going to be challenged to find workers. And so employment, unemployment is going to go dramatically down. And I gotta send in trucks to pick all this product up. That's off the ships now in the warehouses, so there's going to be congestion. So if you are a logistician out there, and your solution to the guys in the sea level was see meaning see CFO COO is to bring things around to smaller ports, bravo to you, we talked about that earlier, but now there's going to be congestion in those markets. And then you're going to hear chirping about people talking about too much congestion too much. There's too much that kind of like to get off my yard guys. So I thought that was important, because that headline in and of itself on August 30 validates it. The second thing we talked about Pete, is that the big boys are going to start owning the rails and acquisitions in 2022 are going to be off the charts. And we could go back and look at all of the different companies that major asset providers have acquired, but the latest one was on the 31st of August Maersk is adding L F logistics, e commerce, contract warehousing inland transportation, and it's just added to their supply chain portfolio. So we've talked about how owning the rails gives you control. And this is another example of a steamship line jumping into warehousing, you know, rewind, pre pandemic, Pete, that never would have happened. And you and I spoke about a month ago. So the one thing I want to give you absolute kudos for is that in our prediction show in 2022, it was December 21. You specifically said by the end of the quarter, Russia was going to invade Ukraine and it happened and I was just I think about that. And I'm like that is an amazing prediction based on your incredible knowledge of global trade and how things are operate. So anyway, it's not a forward leaning topic, which we talk about. It's more looking in the past, but it's important for audience to know is that the gibberish and the things we talk about is not just stuff that we threw off the top of our heads through in depth analysis and research and pay attention to the things that we're talking about. We got your back people, we got your back.
Pete Mento 5:21
Yeah. You bring up a lot of great points there. The Ukraine thing is something. People who don't know Doug are our first real big interaction online. The one that we'd like to harken back to was you and I did a podcast in January of 19. We talked about COVID. So that was
Doug Draper 5:47
cheese. Yeah, it was before COVID. So I would have been like D February 2020.
Pete Mento 5:53
As early super early, and if. And then we just, you said no one's really thinking about the fact that serious pandemic could really affect logistics. This is beginning to spread significantly as anyone thought about if it takes that next step, but it can be globally. We didn't say, the whole world is going to shut down. We didn't you know, we didn't take that next step. But we just said, has anybody bothered to think about what happens if this thing takes the next step? Because it looks like it could I say it's going to, but no one has really bothered to think about what could happen next.
Unknown Speaker 6:29
And we got
Pete Mento 6:30
roasted, like, I don't know about you, man. But I took a lot of shit for it, Doug. And then that just made me double down. Because I'm, you know, I'm that guy. And I said, Okay, we'll find you guys want to act that way. Here you go. No one seems to have resilient supply chain, everyone is buying from one place. Blank percentage of the supply chain is coming from here to here, you know, roughly 49% of ocean going containers are going from this port to these ports. You know, me from Asia to the west coast, the United States, like I just I just tore people's backsides out online. And I said, we'll see what happens if this continues. And then I think it was maybe 1415 days later that the numbers started going like this. And I said, Oh, well, now now let's see what's going on. And then I turned into that guy, and I said, Maybe we were on to something. And that's when you and I had this conversation that we should start considering a show. We don't talk about what is happening. But what might happen. And did we have did we have the bravery I suppose to really put it all on the line. And that's what this show has always been about. So I hate the fact that what people mostly remember us for is talking about a pandemic and how it affected supply chain before we did, talking about how the global supply chain pretty much collapsed and talking about it before it did, talking about how global supply chain rates went absolutely bonkers before they did. And it did, talking about congestion racked retail before it did. And it did. And then me last year in December, just boldly saying like it jackass, Putin is going to invade the Ukraine, here's how it's going to happen, here's where it's going to happen. And here's what's going to need for global energy prices. And then, you know, recently I've been saying that financially was going to be a boon for Russia. And here's why. And I was right. And I hate that it seems that the stuff that we're right about is always this doom and gloom crap. I want to be right about some positive stuff. So I'm kind of trying to focus on finding something about that. I haven't yet. But yeah, you know, we've we've, and you know, what you just talked about, though, is kind of where I want to take this next one. You've been bringing up a lot about the connectors and supply chain, the connectors in logistics and how this is where this is the meat in the stew. This is the most important part of of what we're the recovery in our industry is going to come from do we can we can argue a complaint whatever we want about ocean carriers, there are only so many, there was an eight of them control just about the entire market. And we can we can whine and whinge all we want, they're going to do what they want to do. They went on a buying spree, and they bought a lot of companies in order to solidify their place in the industry. You go out of cash, you can do that. I think the next, the next big shoe to drop Powell is that buyer's remorse. It's going to be the next 36 months, when they look back at these massive investments and say in the document, give them the benefit of a doubt. And I'm going to say that many of them did this knowing that there was going to be some shedding that was going to need to happen that they probably overbought knowing that they were going to have to over invest. And then this was the time to over invest when they could, okay. And over the next 36 months they're gonna have to shed some things as their strategy and therefore thinking gets a little, a little better to think As you're gonna happen, they're going to begin to refine their decisions. The second thing is they're going to shed a lot of these ideas that they had, when they realize that they've, they've just simply gotten bigger and over invested in places that they shouldn't have. The good news for the rest of the industry is, there's going to be some some incredible buys. So if I were a one to $2 billion logistics company, and now there's a lot of those out, there wasn't all that long ago that there weren't any. But if I were one of those companies, and I had that money sitting in reserve, I will be waiting for that, you know, mid tier e commerce company, that freight brokerage, that that software firm that got gobbled up by a ocean carrier, that they're just going to decide we're gonna go with choice A, because we bought a, b and c, a, b, and c and put it out in the marketplace. And there's going to be some bargain basement purchases of companies that are still being developed, still having money thrown into them. They're just not going to be part of the portfolio anymore. And you know, whatever. Pete Doug's fording Incorporated, is going to be able to go out there and pick them up for a song because it's just not going to be as valuable anymore in a down market. So yeah, now I think it's gonna happen. But being bold and making predictions means we're also wrong sometimes. We have been wrong sometimes. But uh, you know, Man in the Arena, at least we're willing to go out there and try to do it. But
Doug Draper 11:26
yeah, I love it. It's good take. All right, buddy.
Pete Mento 11:31
Throw that know, what do you Yeah, first first topic is is a is an ugly one. We talk about rail a lot. I've been thinking about that, you know, probably the course of the next of the last 12 weeks, 16 weeks, I bet at least a quarter of the time rail comes up. And it comes up a lot. Because it's it's become, it's become a really troublesome topic in our industry. I was at a meeting last week, where I was discussing with her with some executives about how there's there's there's almost warehousing is a service where people are looking for slow ships, because they rather have their inventory on the way in a very slow environment. But they know it's on the way. And maybe instead of taking four to eight weeks, it's taken like 16, because it stopped in every single place along the way. But it's not their warehouse, and it's not stuck on the rail, you know, and how some people are putting their stuff on the rail, knowing it's going to take forever, because they need to get space opened up in their warehouse. But at least if it's still in transit, and hasn't made it to their door, they don't need to worry about taking any this inventory for their books. That's pretty smart. But that leads to a real problem in that we're not using the rail for what it's meant to be used for which is that all important inbound connector to the middle of the country. And from the middle of the country outbound this the rail system is it's critical infrastructure for our countries, chemicals, agriculture, heavy industry, agriculture as livestock to get things out of the country, to the outside, so could be exported. And then for parts of it like fertilizer, and the such into the middle of the country, steel, taconite, those sorts of things to be used in production. And right now, it's just inundated and overwhelmed with things that it wasn't really meant for. And it's raising the cost and raising congestion for the people who desperately desperately need it. And they can't get a hold of a dog and they can't use it. And it's becoming a real problem, a real serious problem. And I think if we could get someone with some power to take a look at this, they could probably say that there's better ways to manage this and handle it. And a great example, we're living in a time when there are so many alternate ways to manage this problem, one of the best being translated. So many companies now can take the container off of a ship, bring it to a transloading facility, take it out of your 40 Put her on 53 foot trailer, and then deliver it wherever Hello, bring it to Canada for you cross the border, you know, make make an entry at the border and bring it your facility. And then you can get that container wherever it needs to be within the same day in some instances, rather than having to worry about demurrage detention all those other problems that come along with it. Why wouldn't you do that? Instead of putting it on the rail and having to worry about what happens next over the course of who knows how long? It just seems like a much smarter way to deal with it. Is it a question of our industry just not knowing that there are better ways to do it? Or is it just an intentional decision that's being made? Because it's a cheap and convenient way to use these this connector? In a way that it wasn't meant to be done, Doug, one way or the other, it's screw and farmers. And if there's one thing that shows talked a lot about, it's two boys that grew up in farming communities that hate farmers getting screwed. I don't like it. But
Doug Draper 15:13
yeah, yeah, the rail is an interesting animal, I've leaned on the post office a little bit, for lack of being able to pivot. And
Unknown Speaker 15:26
I think the rail
Doug Draper 15:28
I don't know, man, I was, I was hyping it because the rail has so many advantages, especially with carbon neutral, and in the market inability to talk about how they can move product from A to B, with minimal impact, and carbon neutrality and all the things that we're looking on with global warming, that I was hyped about it like get out there and promote it and go, go go. But the rails, the rail man, it's going to move the speed in which it moves, and you could try to turn it and it's going to move really slow. You've seen some of the acquisitions that have come up recently, and that we've talked about, and I just don't, I don't know, I like both your points, one rolling warehouses, you got to be pretty smart, and on your supply chain game to understand how that works. Because our people that do it. Because if you're just willy nilly, you're going to be in a really bad spot. But if you have a pretty robust supply chain and got some smart people, that certainly is an option.
Unknown Speaker 16:27
But it's just, I want the rail to do more.
Doug Draper 16:31
But with you people probably look at it and say what's the cost benefit, and they're like Jesus, I just need to get my stuff off the freaking boat and off the train. So I can have control because once it goes on the rail, it does what it does. And you see it when you see it. And that's it. Sometimes that's good. Sometimes that's bad, but I don't know, there's, I still think there's there's a heck of an opportunity to pivot and talk about the carbon neutrality and all the things that the rail brings to the table if they can market appropriately. But it is what it is. And it's gonna move at the speed in which it moves. And so I don't know if there's an answer. I don't know what my comment is specifically to yours, Pete, but the rail is an interesting animal. And it, it's going to be, it's interesting.
Pete Mento 17:19
Every single mode of transportation has become more important over the course of this pandemic, and our recovery, and I think that rail has really, really gotten itself re entrenched itself. And it's done and done in a way that hasn't gotten a lot of attention. You know, they haven't they've gone out there and lit the world on fire. But what they have done is they've just reinstated just how incredibly important they are. And I think that over the next 10 years, we're going to see a reinvestment in that particular for all the things you just said, carbon neutral, great for the environment, moves a lot, a little bit of money. And it's something the federal government can do something about, they really can they can get involved, they can invest in it, they can put money in it, they can make it better. So I do think you're going to see that as a mode of transportation, it's going to get a lot more investment. And it's going to just continue to become more and more important.
Doug Draper 18:20
All right. This brings us to the halftime of our show. And obviously it's brought by CAP logistics, they enable us and allow us to pontificate every week about our forward leaning views with the supply chain, visit cap logistics.com When you get a chance. So my favorite part of the show Pete halftime fire away, I had zero idea what you're going to talk about.
Pete Mento 18:44
So just rip it. Yeah, but so by halftime is a fun one. I don't do the social media much anymore. There was a time when I love doing it, but not so much anymore. And when I was a young man, I loved back to school. And there was a bunch of reasons for it. One when I was when I was a wee little trade nerd. I love getting my new lunchbox every year. That that was great. And then also, I love going out and doing my back to school shopping for my clothes, particularly when I got older. And I got to pick what I wanted to wear. My youngest you know, my 16 year old daughter is not really into clothes. So it's not such a big deal to her. But you know, back to school. It was it was a wonderful man. I really really enjoyed it. And I had some regrettable fashion decisions because I went to high school in the 1980s My friend and I was a bit of a punk rocker kind of new wavy guy which should come as no surprise I suppose and I wanted to know, Doug. So for for my senior year I went to Catholic school. So during school days, there was one way Pete meant to address and then when I wasn't in school there was an entirely different but when I went to school, you know, it was it was khakis with the Polo with the with the collar up to your mill. Yeah. And I had my head was shaved all around the outside and on top it was all puffy on top of the big curly hair. I had my earring. There may have been some makeup from time to time. I was crazy like that. Two different colored Chuck Taylors maybe one was turquoise and one was red or blue. Who knows. Two different Swatch watches.
Doug Draper 20:49
Yes, there you go. I was gonna ask you how many swatches you had
Pete Mento 20:53
two different Swatch watches one set to London time. You know, because that's where all the great bands were from. And my senior year, I never did pack a lunch. I just I pretty much ate whatever was at school. And but that was like, that was my fashion, you know, and then out of school. It was always new wavy. T shirts. And I was really into hip hop. I was like I was like that one kid in the 1980s that was really into hip hop. Baggy blue jeans. Doc Martens Swatch watches again. Yeah, so looking like a real dirtbag, I think is what I'm trying to get out here. And lots of I played my daughter, the Dead Milkmen this weekend, bitch and Camaro and I realized that when I when I was playing that song, I'm looking at looking at it now it is 38 years old. So to my daughter, it's as old to her as songs that came out in 1948 were to me at the time. So at that time songs that charter were like the Woody Woodpecker theme and the 68th Avenue rag, you know, I mean, it is ancient to her. But to me it was a kick ass on the Dead Kennedys and stuff like that. Dirty Rotten imbeciles and in the misfits and you know, Minor Threat and suicidal tendencies like those were. That was my music and my daughter listens to it now and says What was wrong with you? How many times did Mimi drop you on your head? You eating led pain? And I listened to her music and I say your music talks about nothing? Like how benign is your culture? So dog? Global trade this week, brought to you by our good friends at CAP logistics. Our listeners and viewers want to know. Did Doug Draper show up his senior year in like a poisoned t shirt with acid washed jeans and Adidas high tops? I want to know. What did you wear your senior year of high school? Huh? Gosh,
Doug Draper 22:59
you know, believe it or not. I had more hair?
Pete Mento 23:02
Oh, yeah. Well, I
Doug Draper 23:04
believe it was. Yeah, it was kind of floppy. I did have an earring. And when I went off to college, kind of the Judd Nelson look. Well, let me back up. John Nelson, the way he wore his hair, you had to kind of like flip it back. That was me, believe it or not, but wasn't preppy. I don't I didn't really have a scene. Really. I probably just follow the fashions. A lot of Hawaiian shirts if you can believe that. So yeah, why insureds? John Nelson haircuts, like Breakfast Club. And yeah, and this is not a setup. This this is a swatch watch right here. Nice. And that's a piece of masking tape that I've put on there because the little hooker thing fell off but this officially is a swatch watch. You can get them 78 bucks or something. So big fan I wore a lot of swatches.
Pete Mento 23:59
Yeah, yeah, for for those who who have not been around for a long time with global trade this week. Doug is an unabashedly unashamed air metal fan. metal fan 80s metal fan 70s metal fan early 90s male fan and he's got them all. He's got them all these weather. crocus crew poisoned Cinderella, all of it. So I was kind of half expecting him to tell me that he had like the king of all mullets or something like that because he is a cactus guy that I didn't get that.
Doug Draper 24:32
No, not quite. Well, this one's going to be a shocker to you, Pete that? I don't know if you knew this about me. But at the end of this holiday weekend, there is a festival that happens in the Black Rock Desert outside of Reno in Nevada. It's called Burning Man. And you will be surprised to know that I actually attended Burning Man in 2017
Pete Mento 24:56
not a joke. Not kidding. I will that. And yeah, exactly.
Doug Draper 25:02
That was the expression I had. There's, there's a couple of videos all through on their best experience of my life.
Unknown Speaker 25:09
Let me say this the burn was everything I needed it to be everything I wanted it to be plus, none of that it was spiritual, physical, mental. It was everything. It was literally everything.
Doug Draper 25:23
And so here's the so if you guys don't know, the Burning Man annual event, it's in the Black Rock Desert, people around the world that kind of gather.
Unknown Speaker 25:33
In the beginning, there was the playa and Aaron plane where no seed men are beasts can find purchase and forth on this land that God is forsaken, a city arises overnight with streets and Public Works and a five star hotel. But no money.
Doug Draper 25:46
Nine days I just held on for like three and a half days. And they celebrate anti consumerism and artistic self expression. And building a community and lots of art and things of that nature. But do not ever call it a festival. And do never, never compare it to Coachella, or you'll be you'll be crushed. And it has its own vernacular. So one of the things I learned there, Pete MOOP, which stands for matter out of place, M O P and that's essentially trash, right. But the fact that they call it a completely different word gives you perspective. But my point in all this, the logistics of setting up that, that that event, it is in a desert with nothing there. 75,000 people converge for a nine day festival. And it is pretty safe, pretty darn organized. There's medical facilities, there's road infrastructure, there's trash removal, they got to figure out where they're gonna put all the art displays. There's an airfield there that handles like over 800 flights to bring stuff in, bring people in things of that nature. So it's like a perfect military logistics type of coming together. So forget the event. Right? I could talk to you for hours about the event. Party in in a 747 fuselage in the middle of the desert. Anyway, I'm not going to go into crazy stories, but the logistics of the Burning Man I'm going to find some videos and stuff and talk about unbelievable being there and seeing the infrastructure that's set up and literally within weeks after it's over. You couldn't even tell it was there 75,000 People come in and come out. So my whole halftime is Burning Man logistics. Very impressive. And I'll find some links so our viewers can
Pete Mento 27:43
not take a look. I feel like field trip coming on Doug I do. Spray what man you're on an onion with you. If I think if people watching the show said who went to Burning Man they would have thought Kenan yeah then me then you they never would have thought you know, I don't think I've ever been prouder. Frank, thank you. I'm so I'm so excited.
Doug Draper 28:07
And it's pretty, I think all told, and you don't spend any cash there, right? There's no vending machines for popsicles and stuff like that. But I think I dropped like $4,000 between your ticket and the infrastructure. We had to rent to rent an RV you got to bring all your booze and your food plane ticket, you got to get the burner bus to go out to the to the event. It's not cheap, man. If you're gonna roll in there with a backpack and drop 50 bucks and party for a week. We're not going to do that. It's a pretty expensive
Pete Mento 28:39
engagement. Yeah, again, I'm seeing a field trip. I wanted to stall go to enter Acapulco together. I want to do a q&a and I get around to the anarchist anarchist convention in Acapulco, but this may be better maybe because I have a feeling there'd be a lot more mushrooms involved. So So that's halftime by our good, brought to you by our good friends at CAP logistics for those of you who are looking for a great freight forwarder let's just provide our transportation provider please do learn more at cap logistics.com They are the ones that make all this available to the 1000s of you who watch this buffoonery every week while we play Nostradamus and talk about what happens in the logistics world, and then take a break at halftime to say whatever foolhardy stuff is on our mind. So with that, Doug, watch, give us your second
Doug Draper 29:33
second topic. Yeah, this one will be kind of short because it's another example of my initial topic which was talking about companies owning the rails and moving forward. And this made a lot of attention over the weekend because I thought about this last Friday, and this is Amazon. Getting into the fray of truth three PL services Amazon warehouse and distribution. Aw d hat. Just to have an acronym. I think it parlays a little bit with the fact that they've overdeveloped, their warehousing network everybody's heard about
Unknown Speaker 30:06
that. Talked about how they've put the put the kibosh
Doug Draper 30:10
on construction and delayed openings and things of that nature. So there's, we talked about the warehouse capacity is almost non existent outside of the Amazon world inside the Amazon world. There's quite a bit of space. And so they've jumped into the pure three PL services. Now, there's always been FBA, which is Fulfillment by Amazon, which is really from my experience designed around smaller, high volume type of type of fulfillment in E commerce. Now they're getting into, you know, wholesale distribution, delivery, reverse logistics, throwing cases, if you will, and not just going direct to consumer. So I think the trend to owning the rails is just another example of what's going on. But again, the big boys are only going to get involved with this. I think competition is good thing about Amazon is one of their benefits is they're incredibly automated in their facilities. And when he stuck it into a pure three PL model. Automation doesn't work for a variety of clients, they have to be very specific and unique with size, shape weight, to have automation kick in and really be beneficial. That's why FBA was successful, I just want to in a small box. So we'll see I mean, they are the behemoth. And could it be a game changer. I don't know if it's a game changer, it will certainly be interesting to watch. But when I read that over the weekend, I'm like, another big guy is starting to own and ride or excuse me on the rails, we'll see how this
Pete Mento 31:45
one plays out. Yeah, to about ecommerce companies getting involved in this kind of stuff. And my opinion about this is, it's one of those things where I liken it to being a Red Sox fan. For someone like you and I, and you just keep watching the Yankees get, you know, just kick your ass, it's I want to sit here and be like, golly, Amazon, you know, you're gonna die in a couple of years, now you're gonna be like, no, they're just kicking our ass. And here's why the rails, the infrastructure, what Amazon will eventually do is at the point of origin, they will create consolidations that fit perfectly into their automation scheme. So that at the point of origin, they are managing the consolidation of the container. So that when it gets to destination, the deconsolidated Breakbulk, get right so that they d consolidate it so that it is easily D consolidated by their robotics and automation to go into their warehouses. So then when it's pick pack for final mile, it's easily pick pack for final mile to go into their trailers through automation. It's just, they're just lengthening their supply chain. And they have the money to invest in it. The rest of us don't mean the rest of us are flush with cash right now, because of what's just happened. But most people socking that away for a rainy day, because we know that the suck is coming. And we want to have that therefore it happens. These guys are like, Nope, it's time to build that farm farm league. And it's time to build that farm team, Sam to go out there and pick up that first round guy and put them in our a ball team that's going to just be a crusher by the time he's 25. And everybody else is going to wish they had Aaron judge, they are just going to continue to become this omnipotent world Crusher, while the rest of us wonder how they got there. And this is how you do it. You continue to invest in the stuff that wish the rest of us are like, it's gonna work. Like watch this, we will continue to refine it and make it better over the next 24 months while you all sit here and tell us how much we suck. Because we have the money to do it. Our owner is making rockets because he's bored. So it's just the way it's going to be. And I for one, I'm here for it. I'm here for the drama, I thoroughly enjoy watching it because when they're done, we'll just take what we've learned from them and try to do it as well. You know, this is an industry that that tends to imitate innovation when it becomes financially more consistent for the rest of us to do so. Yeah.
Doug Draper 34:35
I love to take about, you know, they their whole model is around the destination once it's in the warehouse and on brown. they've mastered that. What about origin? Exactly what you just said they're going to get into the fray of forwarding, stuffing boxes overseas and stuff like that. So I love that take on it because I think you're spot on.
Pete Mento 34:57
At some point where do we just get tired of getting our asses with And that's what it feels like it just, every time I turn around Amazon is just stomping our heads or something else. Anyway, final final topic goes along with commerce. It's something that I have been noticing more and more. And that's the lack of cash in this society. And it was, it was certainly hastened, made quicker by the pandemic. I realized the other day that I have not made a transaction with cash, except for throwing my money in the in my envelope for church, the past three weeks, haven't bought a soda haven't paid for gas. I mean, I haven't done anything in cash. Most of my bills are automated. I don't write checks. I use, you know, I did, I got a new phone recently, I had to switch over all my mobile payments. Cash. Cash is one of those things where it was common, for me at least, to walk around with a good chunk of cash, because I didn't want to have to worry about going someplace. And I'm not taking credit cards or going someplace, and the machine not working or going someplace, and not being able to buy something or. And when I'm traveling, I've done Doug, the number of times that a crisp $100 Bill has gotten me out of a horrific problem would probably not surprise you, but it would surprise our listeners and our viewers. And that led me to believe if you don't think about it, what happens if the infrastructure for that fails? You were just a way this weekend in the middle of nowhere. And I'm wondering if you needed something do they take credit cards, right? Like, it's common for for people to be the middle of nowhere, I'm going away to Europe pretty soon. I'm not even worried about changing dollars to Euros, I probably won't even do it. I'll just I'll just use cards and mobile payments. But when we when we make that jump that leap, it puts a lot of responsibility onto the infrastructure. And that responsibility worries me because I am such a Chicken Little when it comes to cybersecurity. If someone were to break that infrastructure, if somebody were to just break a part of that infrastructure, so that transactions couldn't happen, because they were able to snap them snap transactional payments by packing them malware, whatever the case may be, it will have a devastating effect on our economy. And that got me to thinking about where there's a problem, there's a market. So is it only a matter of time, before we have insurance products specifically for companies to back up the fact that, you know, they weren't able to do transactions because of cybersecurity. So, you know, because right now, cybersecurity doesn't necessarily cover that a nominee by name inside the policy. So does that change things as consumers? What do we do when we're unable to get to that? Could you imagine what happens if, if the major credit card processors break down on a day that everybody rushes ATMs to get cash? I always go to the worst case scenario, Doug. But as we move to a less and less cash, transactional society, I think we're beginning to forget what happens if the infrastructure could be broken or hacked, or, you know, somehow compromised.
Doug Draper 38:52
The insurance pieces interesting take on it, you know, insure against the failure of the of the machine. So yeah, I think all guys like you and I are walking out the door. I try to use cash as much as possible. And some of it's a joke, and some of it's not, but I don't want people to know where I am when we went up to Wyoming this weekend for Labor Day. Nothing but cash part of it is because not a lot of people took cards up there, but that's me, but my I think I told you the story once I was gonna get my son. Some money. I can't remember what the deal was. And it wasn't that much. I literally had a $20 bill in my hand. She was five feet away from me. He's like, Nah, don't want to just Venmo me the money. Like it's cash right here. It's right in front of you. You don't want it it's like now just spend millions easier. And that is the key comment. It's easier. And the other thing that baffles me is when you do pay with cash, the shock of people trying to make change on cash is just mind boggling to me. We're literally hearsay They really jack them up. It's like, you know, $20 in and whatever 43 cents, and you give them like 2050. And for them to concept they mean in a younger generation to figure out how much money they're supposed to give back. It's just comical. You just tell them, here's what I need back. So I don't know, I agree that it's going to be a cashless society and the younger generation is going to continue to drive it. But old stodgy was like me, I'm still a cash guy. I think I have a whopping $11 in my wallet right now, which doesn't jibe with what I just said.
Pete Mento 40:32
But
Doug Draper 40:35
But anyway, it's an interesting thing. The insurance piece is really interesting to me. I think you're spot on where there is a situation to ensure an opportunity to make money on insurance and
Pete Mento 40:47
will happen. Yeah, well, can. It's just sitting there screaming as we talked about this, I can hear I can hear him. Alright, why
Doug Draper 40:58
don't we sign off? He's exactly going to do that. He's gonna talk about it in Bitcoin. That's great. Well, Peter, I think that's it. We're gonna wrap this one up another edition of global trade this week, Pete's on the East Coast time, inner mountain region. Pete, we can talk about that. It's a big term we use out here. And even though we're on the coasts, Keenan makes it all happen in cap logistics. So visit cap logistics.com. And we will visit you next week. We'll have more great topics, always the four lane Troy loves that aspect of our show. And I want to thank you guys for watching. So until next time, Pete Have a good one, my friend. Thanks. Thanks, everybody. All right. Take care.