Everyone always asks me if it was hard transitioning from being a shipper to brokering. If we are being honest, I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I definitely didn’t think it would be this hard…

Before Candor Expedite, I was a plant-level supply chain manager for a global food manufacturing company. I oversaw all our orders, including our purchase orders, manufacturing orders, and customer orders. I was mainly scorecarded on two things – inventory levels and service levels. I had to maintain inventory levels within the business unit’s guidelines, and my service level expectations were 98.5% or higher. What does that mean? All customer orders that came through were to be accepted and completed within the lead time agreement that we had established with each one of our customers. Both KPIs rely heavily on getting shipments in on time and getting shipments out on time. I know the struggles brought on by unreliable brokers and late shipments all too well because my job, and sanity for that matter relied on my ability to weed out the bad apples and create strong partnerships with the few good ones.

I was never specifically seeking out going to the carrier side of things; it was more or less that I saw the values instilled in the companies that Nicole Glenn was working for and running. I was immediately down to make the switch when Nicole started her own gig. Like I said earlier, I knew it would not be easy, but I definitely didn’t think it would be this hard. I thought being at the plant level and managing day-to-day operations would make going to the brokerage side easy. I truly did not realize how many different modes of transportation there were, how chopped up it was, and all the different companies that service those modes. In my previous positions, the transportation guy would say, “here are the 10 carriers you can use,” and that was it. We normally would end up picking a couple and then use them regularly. They would typically not be the cheapest but would provide great service, at a reasonable rate.

At this point, now being at Candor for over 3 years, I have been through all aspects of the transportation business. From the shipper side to operations to sales, operating forklifts, managing warehouse folks, managing whole supply chains, to now brokering. I am so fortunate that my transition to becoming the Director of Business Development at Candor was backed by such vital experience. When I am selling, I know my customers’ struggles because I experienced those same hardships firsthand. I am sensitive to my customer’s needs because I once was in their shoes.

At the end of the day, I have learned a lot, but the main thing is trusting myself and the process. I know more about shippers than most brokers, when I get on calls, I relate to them. As long as I am myself, everything will take care of itself. Stay tuned for more blogs; I am going to keep documenting my journey and bring you along for the ride!