Pricing Insights from the LTL (Less Than Load) Industry with Curtis Garrett

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:  Learn why the Less-Than-Truckload industry is different from other logistics services  Discover the pricing complexity in the Less-Than-Truckload industry  Find out the different struggles within the Less-Than-Truckload industry when it comes to pricing their services   Curtis Garrett is the VP of Pricing at Recon Logistics, a world class LTL Freight Management Company. Curtis is on a mission to simplify LTL Freight. His career-long goal is to bring transparency, automation, and the tools needed to do this into the LTL industry.   In this episode, Curtis talks about the pricing design in a Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) industry, sharing the complex variables that go into the LTL price mix. He also shares some personal backstory of how he was able to advance and uplevel his pricing career, proving that you don’t need a college degree to have a great career. Take inspiration from Curtis’ success journey in pricing.    “As long as you are well aware of what your costs are, that gives you the freedom to build your actual profit and your margin in different ways. And make it a little more flexible for who you're trying to engage with.” - Curtis Garrett   Increase Your Pricing Knowledge: Become a Champions of Value INSIDER! To sign up go to insider.championsofvalue.com   Topics Covered: 01:27 - What started Curtis’ journey into Pricing  02:14 - The pricing complexity of a less-than-truckload freight business  05:44 - How Curtis’ mentors influenced his pricing career  08:16 - Does Curtis work with a team?  09:40 - Characteristics that are prerequisites for promotion in the kind of workplace that he has  13:00 - Making sure that what you’re doing in the day-to-day basis net out to the overall strategy of the company  19:03 - How hard it is to be pushing more than one wall at one time  19:37 - How not having a degree affected his career  23:02 - How he landed a VP position without having to be asked which school he graduated from  25:28 - It’s not the degree, it’s your skills that matter    Key Takeaways: “Industry-wise, LTL is somewhat comparable to airline and hotel pricing. But it's even more complex, in my opinion, because a seat on an airplane or room in a hotel, you pretty much know there's no space variable there. But with LTL freight, you really don't know the size of the freight you're going to get and how much room it's going to take up in your trailer.” - Curtis Garrett  “The balance of keeping that larger macro strategy in your mind, but in the day in, day out, or even minute by minute, making sure that what you're doing is the best possible work at that time.” - Curtis Garrett  “I don't think any wall that can be pushed over is the right wall you should be pushing against anyways. If it is something of value and the right problem to be solved, I think by default, it's gonna take a while and it's gonna be hard.” - Curtis Garrett  “I think anybody can be successful and if there are large companies out there that hold back candidates just because of that one disqualifier, then, I think they're probably missing out on a lot of good people.” - Curtis Garrett    Resources Mentioned: Todd Polen    Connect with Curtis Garrett: reconlogistics.com  LinkedIn    Connect with Mark Stiving:     Email: [email protected]     LinkedIn