28: Shipping Beyond the Mainland: Logistics Insights with Chas Gorham

Chas Gorham: 00:00:00

So we provide shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, APFO and US territories.

So we sort freight here at our sort centers in the us we fly them every day to our locations in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and then get them delivered with our partnership through the post office.

Intro: 00:00:16

Step into the future with shipping Smart. Outside the box is where the journey starts. From borders to buyers, we break it down fast. Nick and Jason deliver knowledge that lasts.

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Go outside the box with Asendia USA.

Nick Agnetti: 00:00:35

Welcome back to Outside the Box with Asendia USA podcast. I am Nick Agnetti, one of your co hosts with my other co hosts Jason Rowland.

Jason Rowlan: 00:00:42

Hey everybody, welcome back.

Nick Agnetti: 00:00:43

We have a very special guest today, back for a second time on the world famous podcast, Chas Gorham, vice president of sales from International Bridge. Thanks Chas.

Chas Gorham: 00:00:51

No problem. How you guys doing?

Nick Agnetti: 00:00:53

Doing great, thank you.

Chas Gorham: 00:00:54

Great.

Jason Rowlan: 00:00:55

Yeah.

Nick Agnetti: 00:00:55

Doing great. All right, so we're here today. The topic today is non continental US Logistics. Talking about market and customer expectations.

So International Bridge is a partner of Asendia's and we utilize our services.

Thankfully they have their services and we're excited to bring that to you today just to give you some options and to really kind of open up maybe some of your mind space when it comes to what do you do with some of those non con areas. So.

All right, Chas, so if you could just take a second, introduce yourself, maybe provide a overview on International Bridge and just how you guys help shippers brands.

Chas Gorham: 00:01:29

Love it. Absolutely.

So yeah, International Bridge, we're a regional carrier, but we say we don't compete with regional carriers because we go to areas where no one else goes to. Okay. So we provide shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, APFCO and US territories.

So we sort freight here at our sort centers in the US we fly them every day to our locations in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and then get them delivered with our partnership through the post office.

Nick Agnetti: 00:01:58

Okay, excellent.

Jason Rowlan: 00:02:00

Yeah. So today a topic of non continental. Right? What for our listeners, people may have heard that term before.

Chas Gorham: 00:02:07

What are we talking about? Well really it's offshore. Right. So you have the lower 48 states and then everything else we call non continental.

So you're Alaska, your Hawaii, Puerto rico and the U.S. territories.

Jason Rowlan: 00:02:19

Right.

Chas Gorham: 00:02:19

Because you know, we could go to any zip code that the postal service goes to.

Nick Agnetti: 00:02:25

Okay, that's a good point. So, so like Guam or you guys do and you do APO fpo.

Chas Gorham: 00:02:31

APO fpl.

Nick Agnetti: 00:02:31

Okay, interesting.

So let's talk a little bit about some common maybe misconceptions about maybe shipping direct to consumer parcels to some of those major markets such as Puerto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii.

Chas Gorham: 00:02:42

Right. So I think a misconception was that there's not a lot of options.

Jason Rowlan: 00:02:47

Right.

Chas Gorham: 00:02:47

Which everyone just thinks about. UPS, FedEx, Postal Service for sure.

But they don't realize there's other services out there like IB and what we really say we're offering an air service at ground rates because when they think about shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, they either say oh it's too slow or too expensive, which is the case. But then we come in, it's the best of both worlds. We've been doing this 20 years.

We have the relationship, we have the density, we have the shipments and the customers. So when we sit in front of a customer say hey, this is another option that actually will not just save you money but save your transit time as well.

Jason Rowlan: 00:03:27

So on that a little bit about the differences between what you're offering and what the typical courier delivery options would be for those kinds of markets, what specifically about International Bridge is different than this?

Chas Gorham: 00:03:39

Yeah, I think because like I said, we've been doing this 20 years and we do have the relationships with the airlines. Right. So we get really good deals to fly since we're flying every day.

And then we have boots on the ground in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico there are employees, our buildings so we can control from, you know, pickup through getting it to postal for the final mile delivery. And that's what they're really good at. Right. Postal, you get it to their, their local post office that gets delivered same day, next day.

Jason Rowlan: 00:04:05

Right.

Chas Gorham: 00:04:05

They, they do a great job. Six days a week, every day they're out on those routes.

Jason Rowlan: 00:04:09

That's great. Being able to leverage those kinds of pulses final aisle is, is a huge plus.

Nick Agnetti: 00:04:14

All right, I'm going to go a little off script here. Sure. I realize. So, so let's talk a little bit about. If we look at Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska, what's the biggest volume wise?

Chas Gorham: 00:04:25

So biggest volume wise would be Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is just growing leaps and bounds. Then Hawaii, then Alaska. Alaska, you think? Yeah, it's the biggest.

Nick Agnetti: 00:04:34

Is it all due to Bad Bunny or is there another reason that it's growing so quickly?

Chas Gorham: 00:04:38

You know, I think that if you look at not just Puerto Rico, but Alaska, Hawaii, they don't necessarily have the infrastructure we do in the lower 48 where a lot of times you can't just go across the street to your local walmart and buy something. Right. Or, or some of the retailers don't have stores all over the islands. Right. They maybe have one and you know, San Juan or one in Honolulu.

Honolulu. So we live outside of it.

Nick Agnetti: 00:05:03

So you're gonna trek to go get.

Chas Gorham: 00:05:05

Right. So online ordering is more prevalent and they may order multiple. Right.

Instead of just one T shirt they say okay, well I'm gonna order a few because you know, I can't just go across the street, you know, and buy something from my local store. Unless you're in a bigger city. Right.

Nick Agnetti: 00:05:22

So adding on to that.

So if you can you walk through the life cycle, a little bit of your guys service, just you know, somebody places an order, somebody lives in Puerto Rico.

Chas Gorham: 00:05:31

Yep.

Nick Agnetti: 00:05:31

Places an order. What happens next?

Chas Gorham: 00:05:34

So they place the order to a retailer. Yep. One of our partners and just like any other carrier, they print the label and then we pick it up.

Nick Agnetti: 00:05:45

Okay.

Chas Gorham: 00:05:46

Once it gets to our hub, either in Cincinnati, Chicago or la.

Jason Rowlan: 00:05:51

Yep.

Chas Gorham: 00:05:52

That day we're flying it out to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, same day. So all as long as it gets there, you know, we're flying without that same day.

Nick Agnetti: 00:05:59

That's amazing.

And I don't, I don't want to stop your thought but so, so what if shippers located in brands located in New York that's still going to Cincy or Chicago.

Chas Gorham: 00:06:08

Yeah, right now it is. We're looking to expand our sorts and have one this year in New Jersey.

Nick Agnetti: 00:06:13

Nice.

Chas Gorham: 00:06:14

Which will help, it'll help in transit. An extra bay because typically if it's coming from the east coast to Cincinnati, it's an extra day of transit. But because we're flying every day.

Jason Rowlan: 00:06:24

Oh yeah.

Chas Gorham: 00:06:25

To Alaska. Like Puerto Rico. A lot of times customers aren't even expecting their shipment for like if it comes in a week, it's fast.

Well, our service is two to five day if we're hitting 45% to Honolulu in two days. So if you add extra days, three. It's like okay, well that's unreal. It's still very, very fast too.

Jason Rowlan: 00:06:44

So what for those destinations, Puerto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii. What are some like alarming or major statistics that you guys have come across lately that maybe people aren't aware of?

Chas Gorham: 00:06:54

Yeah, I think the interesting one, like you look at Alaska, you're like, who lives in Alaska? But they, they, they spent $4 billion on e commerce last year.

Nick Agnetti: 00:07:04

$4 Billion.

Speaker E: 00:07:05

Yeah.

Chas Gorham: 00:07:05

Market to get a piece of. Well think of it too. Alaska's even more, I mean the good thing is postal.

They can take a bobsled and Go to the mountains up in Alaska and get stuff delivered. That's how we can deliver to every zip code in Alaska with our partnership through them.

So a lot of these people, I mean they're ordering significant amounts of bills.

Nick Agnetti: 00:07:24

I mean I did it for a summer, the Alaskan bobsled, mail delivery. But I'll tell you, it's. It's a tough.

Chas Gorham: 00:07:30

No, I'm just kidding. I did.

Nick Agnetti: 00:07:32

That's a tough go though. That's wildly. All right, so what about. Is it the same as all the other e commerce stuff that we're.

You know, because our, our, our bread and butter obviously is cross border, right? So you're looking at apparel, cosmetics, skincare.

Chas Gorham: 00:07:45

Same, same thing. Okay, okay.

Nick Agnetti: 00:07:48

All right. Can you talk a little bit about the Asendia and International Bridge Partnership?

Chas Gorham: 00:07:52

Yeah, definitely. And I think this is where really, if you look at really up to five years ago in the logistics world, there really wasn't any partnerships going on.

Jason Rowlan: 00:08:03

Right.

Chas Gorham: 00:08:04

It was really your, you had your coopetition. It was usps. Ups.

Nick Agnetti: 00:08:08

That's a good word.

Chas Gorham: 00:08:09

Giving. You know, using the USPS for final mile, for zip codes they didn't want to go to. Right. They weren't partners. They just transactional.

Here, I'll pay you. But then really, if you look at it after Covid Econ blowout, right. Everyone's starting to order. Even you know, my grandma was.

I can order stuff online. I'm like, they delivered to my house, right? Like so now customers are looking for solutions.

And a lot of us in the industry do a lot of good things, but not everything. We can't be everything to all. So what I started looking at is really like, okay, who does they do well?

Who would fit well as a partner to help both grow. And Accendia was a perfect fit. You know, a lot of background between the two companies, especially executive leadership.

And we said, hey, you guys do cross border. Amazing, right? What if you add Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, people think that's cross border anyways.

Nick Agnetti: 00:09:04

Honestly, they did exactly.

Chas Gorham: 00:09:06

Well, if you're using FedEx, you need to put a commercial invoice and CM22 paperwork to Puerto Rico.

Nick Agnetti: 00:09:13

Even though you're skipping ahead a little here, Chas, but go ahead, keep going. No, no, no, you're good, you're good.

Chas Gorham: 00:09:17

So, so it was just really a perfect match between Asendia and IB you know, with the customers you have, you know, you do what you do well, we do what we do well.

And, and now you're able to offer your customers additional services to these areas Saying, hey, if you also have Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, I send you, we can sure get you guys every there. And so it does.

Nick Agnetti: 00:09:41

You know what? I forgot to. So I had a customer recently. We enabled the international Bridge solution on and they're a huge Amazon seller and it works seamlessly.

I mean, so that's something good to bring up too. Cause we know, obviously everybody knows the depth of Amazon in terms of how big that scope is. Right. But all we did.

So my process was we've been handling their international for five years and all of a sudden I said, you know, hey, do you have stuff going to Puerto Rico? You know, Alaska, Hawaii? And he's like, yeah. And it's, it's a pain.

Chas Gorham: 00:10:16

It's awful.

Nick Agnetti: 00:10:17

I said, all right, I'm going to turn this solution on, test it out, let me see what you think. And it never looked back. I mean, it's. You guys are doing a great job.

Jason Rowlan: 00:10:25

Yeah.

Chas Gorham: 00:10:25

And we really just wanted to kind of stay in our lane. We know what we do well and we said we're just going to keep doing this because no one else really is thinking about doing it.

Like, why would a regional carrier expand to those areas? The cost of infrastructure and adding that for a small percentage of someone's overall spend. Sure. But it's pain points for customers.

Jason Rowlan: 00:10:44

Yeah, do what you do and do.

Chas Gorham: 00:10:45

It well, you know, and they say until someone comes to them and the CEO says, hey, why did that shipment take 20 days to get to my vacation house in Hawaii?

Nick Agnetti: 00:10:54

Did that happen?

Chas Gorham: 00:10:54

Yeah, for customers. And they say, and they're like, oh, well, you guys can get it there consistently because you're flying.

So we can tell our customers, hey, it's a two to five day, you know, transit consistently because we're flying every day and we're handing it off every day.

Nick Agnetti: 00:11:09

ant message. I mean, we're in: 2026

Don't be afraid to look at alternative carriers, you know, even in your mix. Right. So, you know, you may be a FedEx or UPS house or whatever it may be. Right.

But if they're doing it better, cheaper, faster, better, why wouldn't you look at them? Right. And you know, even if it is, let's say, 2% of the overall spend or I don't know what that number usually is for you guys.

Chas Gorham: 00:11:35

I mean, usually it's like 1 to 2% of their overall shipment volume.

Nick Agnetti: 00:11:38

But if you can make a significant impact, why wouldn't you look that.

Chas Gorham: 00:11:42

Exactly. And typically it comes up. And when it does come up, it's a pain because you're like, oh, we have to deal with this.

Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico shipment. Now, out of millions of packages, we do, this one comes up because it got there super late. Or. Or it was like, why did this. Why was this?

$35 And it was 10 ounces to.

Nick Agnetti: 00:11:59

Ship and it went on a barge and it took three weeks to get to where it had to go. Hey, thanks so much for being on.

Chas Gorham: 00:12:06

Jason.

Nick Agnetti: 00:12:07

Do you have anything else you want to.

Jason Rowlan: 00:12:08

Was there anything else you want to share? Anything exciting you guys got coming up?

Chas Gorham: 00:12:10

Yeah, I think, you know, we're expanding. You know, like I said, we're looking to open up a few more stores.

Nick Agnetti: 00:12:16

Yeah, I like that.

Chas Gorham: 00:12:16

Which will even enhance our transit times. Right. And, you know, I think the whole partnership with Asendia is going to keep growing. I mean, it has been over the last year and a half.

You guys are a great partner, you know, and we appreciate it.

And, you know, other than that, I mean, you know, there's a lot of, you know, especially at Manifest here, a lot of, you know, customers that are interested. Right. Looking at alternatives big time, that Asendia and IB offer.

Jason Rowlan: 00:12:45

Yeah.

Nick Agnetti: 00:12:45

All right, well, thanks so much, Chas. Always a pleasure.

Chas Gorham: 00:12:48

Definitely.

Nick Agnetti: 00:12:49

And for everybody listening and watching, thank you so much for watching Outside the box of Asendia USA podcast. Special guest today, Chas Gorham from International Bridge.

Jason Rowlan: 00:12:57

Thank you, Chas.

Chas Gorham: 00:12:58

Thanks so much for being here.

Jason Rowlan: 00:12:59

Thanks everybody.

Speaker E: 00:13:00

Share subscribe and download our podcast to learn more about today's topic or for a free consultation, email us@ecommerce USAeSendia.com Come back for more insightful discussions on E Commerce shipping to Canada, Mexico and worldwide.