Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast

Is Racklify the Missing Link in Your Supply Chain?

• John Farquhar & Chris Harris • Season 2 • Episode 106

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Revolutionizing 3PL Connections with Racklify featuring Bill, CMO of Racklify

In this episode, we welcome Bill, the CMO of Racklify and COO of Shipmate Fulfillment, to discuss their innovative tech solution, Racklify. 
Bill provides an introduction to the platform, which launched publicly two weeks ago after a six-month beta phase. Racklify is the largest online database of 3PLs, helping merchants find the ideal 3PL providers based on extensive data. 

The service includes an RFP process and will expand to recruit transportation providers in the second quarter of 2025. The episode also touches on industry trends, challenges, and the competitive landscape. 

Additionally, Bill shares his prediction for the upcoming Super Bowl, humorously highlighting his enthusiasm as an Eagles fan.

Reach out to Bill:
https://racklify.com
bill@racklify.com
570 516 7508

Your Hosts:
John Farquhar
National Risk Services Specialist, Transportation, Gallager GGB
https://www.ajg.com/ca/
M: 437-341-0932
John_Farquhar@ajg.com

Chris Harris
CEO, Safety Dawg Inc.
905 973 7056
Chris@SafetyDawg.com
https://safetydawg.com/


00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:43 What is Racklify?
01:55 Racklify's Services and Public Launch
03:05 Transportation Section and Future Plans
05:57 Distribution Strategies and 3PL Collaboration
07:23 Challenges and Evolution in Logistics
20:07 Using Racklify: A Step-by-Step Guide
22:36 Final Thoughts and Super Bowl Predictions
26:47 Closing Remarks and Audience Engagement

Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
#trucksafety #truckinsurance #truckpodcast

Do you need a "Truck Driver Safety Policy?" Get it today! https://safetydawg.com/policy

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

All right, Bill, welcome to the show. We're talking about Racklify. Can you please, for our viewers and listeners, give us a short introduction.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah. So my name's Bill. I'm the CMO of Racklify, but by day I'm also the COO of Shipmate Fulfillment. So I've been running a 3PL for. 10 years now and decided that there needs to be a change in the way we're doing 3PL sales and lead gen. So I developed a tech solution called the Racklify that helps connect merchants with their ideal match in 3PL.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

See, and this is when I was surfing the web, your website, I'm going, God, I thought he sold racks, but no.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

I got, I got that a few times, but you know, it does have the rack and the lift in it with the like Latin suffix, if I like to become like, that's kind of where it came from is like. You know to become a rack or a lift

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Yeah, so explain the service that you are offering. What is it?

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

So what we what we do is we're the largest database of 3pls online Um, we just launched six months ago in the beta and we launched our Uh, you know Public release back on the 6th. So we're about two weeks into actual public launch. So what we do is we go out, we find a bunch of three PLS. We collect all the data, all the information on what kind of products do they handle? What kind of products don't they handle? How big is their facility? Where's it located? What's their geographic footprint look like, what kind of carriers they use and compile all that information into one place. So that way, when a merchant, say an Amazon seller or a Shopify seller, or even a physical retailer is looking for space, they can go to one place, compare the three PLS and can, uh, you know, right there on the site. exchange with the 3PLs and, you know, find their ideal match. So it's, it's been a venture trying to get 3PLs on here. So now we have the store stocked and we're looking for, you know, merchants to get on there and really grow that side of things. And then I want to touch on it briefly, but what applies to you guys is we also have a transportation section on Racklify, which is going to be a huge project of ours, probably in the second quarter, trying to recruit trucking companies on their operators and also bring them into the pool.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

If I could say it another way, is this true? I I've got some merchandise and I've run out of warehouse space and I need some place to store it. So if I need some place to store it, I can go to Racklify, find a empty rack space, if you want, and make the arrangements to store out of 3PL.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah, so that's exactly it. So whether you know, you need additional space or you're looking to change uh, warehousing providers or whatever. Um, we have a 3PL that can fit basically every need from pharma to cold storage to industrial. Um, you name it everything from supplements and clothing all the way up to tires and chemicals.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

All right. And before we get any further, I got to say to the audience here, this is we are doing the recording. Not sure when this is going to be released, but the recording is two weeks before Super Bowl. And you can see Bill has his team jersey on just to throw that in there.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

After, after 55, 23, you cannot not wear the jersey the next day.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

There you go. At the time of release, if this is after the Super Bowl for 2025, we don't know whether Bill's crying or just inside himself.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

You, you can, you can use your imagination, you know. Either way, it'll be in front of my shrine, the Nick Foles, so we'll see how it goes.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Alright, so I just had to throw that out there, but let's get back to Racklify. So, very shortly, so we're in the first quarter of 2025. You said about the second quarter of 2025, you're going to be looking for transportation companies as well?

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah, so we're gonna start putting our marketing efforts into, you know, recruiting transportation providers for the platform. So right now, the transportation section is live, right? You can sign up as a trucking company and owner operator and get a profile. It's absolutely free. Um, you know, and start advertising your services. But in the second quarter, we're going to start marketing more towards, uh, trucking companies, transportation companies, ocean freight, air cargo, and start going that direction.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

So. John, John, you've been quiet so far, but well, yeah, well,

John Farquhar, Gallagher:

there's something I'm seeing here. My, my little wheels are spinning here. So, um, I think this is a great, a great opportunity here because you're not only trying to connect with three PLS on their warehouse space and their ability to distribute your goods on your behalf, but you could also use this as a distribution type process. I'm assuming where. Okay. Maybe I'm, I've, my product is going to the four corners of the U S. So rather than going to just one 3PL, I could be using 3PLs, four different 3PLs in those four different corners to distribute my product.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah. So there's a lot of people that do something similar to that. So there's a lot of large 3PLs. Usually they have very high quality requirements for the multi location services, but there are 3PLs that have even upwards of a hundred, 200 locations. But there are also smaller family run 3PLs that sometimes will work together. Um, but a lot of companies, what will end up happening is, let's say you're out on the east coast, you have a, you know, a manufacturing place, you're shipping your own goods, but now you don't want to mail that all the way to California. So you'll go fill in the gaps. of your own logistics puzzle by getting a 3PL provider in California. Maybe you get one in Texas. Maybe eventually you get one in Chicago and you really lower the zones that you're shipping to and it really reduces your freight costs and your parcel cost.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Sure, not that freight costs are very expensive. We're in the trucking industry, I mean.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

You

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

know, just a few thousand dollars. I mean, just to fuel up one of these tractors nowadays. Holy jump. Yeah,

John Farquhar, Gallagher:

exactly.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

It's just, it's going to be amazing. And before we hit the record button, we were talking about the new political era. And so we really, um, at least. I can speak for myself. I'm not smart enough to know, uh, what's going to happen in six months time, um, to logistics and everything. But if, if I was, you mentioned Amazon or Shopify. Can you do last mile deliveries or, uh, transportation? Is that something you're looking to get into as well? Yeah. So last

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

mile is part of our, you know, transportation category. So we do do, you know, the sprinter van type. Um, a lot of 3PLs also, you know, specialize in last mile, especially the ones in large metros. So some 3PLs actually own their own fleet and do their own fulfillment. You know, there's, there's quite a large array of, you know, things, you know, last miles, like the hot new thing that everybody's doing. Um, I, I think it's. Is it grub hub now that just got out of the whole last mile career business? One of them did one of the food delivery apps stopped their last mile service But you know, it's something everybody's talking about. There's news about it every week

John Farquhar, Gallagher:

Yeah, a lot's happening in that area by all means can this um, Can can this uh, uh platform you got can it can it be reversed to the point where three pls could also look at? clients that may fit Their warehousing, uh set up.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah, so that that's one of the things that we're currently tackling Um at the moment we have what's known as an rfp So if you're a merchant you fill out a request for proposal and what this is Is think about it like if you went to college you probably did the common app, right? So it was one application that applied to 2000 colleges Right. You can just send it to every one of them. They all accept it. We have the same idea. So what we did is we built one of the most comprehensive RFPs in the industry where you can fill that out. You can send it to any warehouse on our platform. You can download it, take it to your own provider, take it. You know, out of market, wherever you want, and you can shop for a 3PL. Now what's really cool is that the 3PLs can reverse this process. And assuming you have your account set to public, right. Saying that you're searching for a 3PL, 3PLs can see your RFP and can, you know. Reach out to you and try to win your business. Now there's other things we have in development for how we're going to be sourcing leads and, you know, starting to do a lot of that lead gen and development for the three PLS themselves. Um, but I don't want to spoil too much of that. Sure. Sure.

John Farquhar, Gallagher:

No, no. Don't give away all the good stuff. Yeah.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Oh no, this is a, a relatively new platform, correct?

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

So we just launched into beta back in July. Um, at that point we were heavily invested in recruiting 3PLs because obviously you need 3PLs to drive merchants to if you're going to start marketing the merchants. So back on the 6th we did a big press release, um, and started directing our attention to merchants. So now the majority of our outreach and marketing attempts are aimed at the merchants.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Cool. And that, as you said, is going to change in the coming months as you try to recruit. bring in or recruit, whatever the correct term is, more transportation providers.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah. So like, like I said, we have basically three core categories the way I see it. The first is obviously the warehouses and the three PLS, which is our bread and butter. That's an industry that I'm very familiar with, have a lot of experience. And, and then we also have the merchants, right? So you're. Like I said, your e commerce sellers, your retailers, and then we also have service providers. So think everything that's kind of needed in that logistics puzzle, right? So transportation is a big one, but so is packaging, right? So is software, so is consulting, right? So we're really trying to tackle all those other areas in the next coming months in order to really become what we're calling a logistics. Right. We want to be the place where people come when they are missing a piece of their logistics puzzle and want to find it. Right. Because people spend thousands of dollars and fly all over the world to go to these trade shows and spend 5, 000 on a booth. For 10 people to walk by and shake their hand. Well, you can for free sign up for a website where we're getting thousands of visitors spending six, seven, eight minutes on the site, which is really good for, you know, any kind of platform. And you can reach thousands of people by just putting up a listing. So it's really, we're trying to bring everybody together in the one place and centralize where you can find. You know, logistics providers, because the market is so disjointed. I mean, every day I'm on LinkedIn and some guy posts, Hey, I need warehouse space. And you'll get 96 responses and the guys will have like a feeding frenzy on it. And it's, um, it's a market. It's really right now just done by consultants. You know, we want to empower people and democratize the access to warehouses, trucking companies, packaging companies, and everything that is part of your logistics puzzle, because logistics is usually like a third of your business costs. And a lot of people that are, don't know that, right? Like you might pay 2 for the thing in China, but you pay 10 to ship it to your end customer. And you got another 2 in storage and a pick and pack fee. And then it gets returned and you, you got reverse logistics. So people don't understand that logistics is about a third of your business. So it's really important that it's something you prioritize, you take seriously and you. Get it right the first time.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

If you didn't get it right the first time, you better fix it, or you're going to be out of business because your competitors will fix theirs quick.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah, and it's a never, it's an ever evolving situation, right? There's the emergence of regional carriers. If you guys are familiar with that, so like it used to be, Hey, I ship it with FedEx. I ship it with UPS. Now you got guys like laser ship. You got guys like Lone Star down in Texas. You got all these emerging smaller carriers on top of the last mile and stuff like, you know, so there's a lot more options than what there was and a lot more providers. And after COVID you had this whole warehousing boom. So we went from, you know, just a couple thousand 3PLs to now estimates say there might be 10, 000 3PLs just in the U. S. alone. So we're now in a place where there's lots and lots of options and that's good for competition. It's good for driving down prices. It's good for, you know, the merchant who in this case is the consumer, but at the same time, it also means that you have to be More careful than ever when you're making these choices and making these decisions. Yeah,

John Farquhar, Gallagher:

yeah, I was gonna say one of the things that was very prominent years ago was the uh, The just in time freight movement and and you kind of scratch your head down go I'm, not seeing so much of the just in time might be Product specific, you know, but you drive down a major highway and you're seeing more warehouses pop up big storage facilities pop it up. So it tells you, okay, there's more people building more product or, you know what? I'm getting ahead of the game and I'm starting to stockpile for the later date, you know, because I've got such high demand for my product. Um, Is that what we're seeing? Is, is we're seeing a lessening of the just in time and, uh, more of this, I need to have stuff on hand or I need to distribute it to different areas? So

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

the, the incentive structure is not there for just in time anymore. So with e commerce, everything's tech. driven. So since it's tech driven, they're constantly collecting data. And one of the most important things in that data collection process is what's known as sales velocity. So a stock out now can actually kill a product. So imagine if you're taking an average of how many things you sell a day over a month, if three of those days become a zero, because you're just in time truck shipment didn't arrive. It's gonna really hurt those averages. It's really gonna hurt that philosophy and in real time Amazon Walmart all these platforms are gonna adjust and say his sales plummeted, right? And you're gonna get less and less placement less and less organic traffic and you're gonna become more and more reliant on ads Which is gonna cost More money in the long run to get that velocity going again So that's why people are kind of turning away from the just in time freight movement and pushing more towards Well, we don't want to stock out because we don't want to get penalized and we don't want to oversell and the repercussions of Not having the stock are actually greater than the repercussions of having a bunch of stuff sit around.

John Farquhar, Gallagher:

Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Well, you know what? I think that's very, very prevalent today. Taking the example of Amazon, for instance, I go online, I click a product I want and it's at my doorstep within the next day or so. Right? Large, large manufacturing facilities are wanting to do the same thing, whereas, hey, I need a truckload of those widgets to complete the machinery component that I'm building here. Yeah, just, you know, just go and let them know that we need another shipment and we'll have it here tomorrow because they've got stock, you know, versus somebody going, yeah, we got to make that. And that'll be two weeks before we get it made. And it's going to be another four days to get it delivered. So, you know, now all of a sudden it's backed up my whole production line.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah. And that's, that's a big thing too. And now, like I said, you also have more competition, right? So since there's more competition in the space, there's more options. Um, when I got into this 10 years ago, it was actually because we had a bad experience. Using a 3PL. And this was at like the dawn of, you know, the whole Amazon boom. And we had a bad experience where we sent a bunch of stuff out. The storage was high, the fees were high, and there wasn't really anywhere else to go because you'd call six, seven, eight of these places and you'd have to find one that's empty and that would be willing to take you. And once we had that experience, we started our own 3PL and started selling the service and never looked back since. But it's one of those deals where, you know, when I look back 10 years ago, it wasn't uncommon to pay 40 to store a pallet somewhere or 35 a month to store a pallet somewhere. Now in days you can do one Google search, you can find 15 empty warehouses that will fight over storing that pallet, right? It's like the whole Uber freight and like the Uber operator thing now. Now that you have access to these owner operators and these owner operators can market directly to you or go through an app like uber freight and contract it out You you have a race to the bottom on freight prices, too It used to be you call the carrier you call your broker They tell you what the price is and you nod your head and say okay if it's that price, that's what it is Now there's so many apps. There's so many You know places where these Trucking companies, owner operators, and all that are listed that you can actually do a pretty good job of sourcing a low rate if you have the time and energy to go out there. And,

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

and low rates, John and I are both in the safety side of things of trucking and low rates do not usually help. Trucking companies run safe, so it's just, it's not at all, it's counter. So, um, yeah, no, this is interesting is, you know, I'm just trying to wrap my head around how to use Rocklify. So if I was a new customer, can you describe, I'm a new customer with stuff I need stored. How would I go about? Um, using Racklify.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah, so there's really two ways you can use Racklify. The first is, um, it's like Zillow, right? So if you've ever used Zillow or one of those housing sites, you can just go on there in your spare time and scroll and check things out and casually browse till something catches your eye and then you can engage with it. Right? Because we don't keep any of the information for these companies, right? We're not trying to prevent you from reaching out to them outside the site or anything like that. So you're free to open and engage and explore. But the other side of the thing is really that RFP process that I was talking about. If you're serious about finding a 3PL and you know you're going to make a switch, or you're going to look for an additional facility. Or you're going to get into 3PL for the first time, what you can do is fill out that RFP. It's going to help you think about the things that matter to you and your business. And it's going to give you a nice document that you're able to present to 3PLs. And they're going to want to give you rates. Because a large thing that we see in the 3PL industry is everybody wants rates, right? Oh, what's your rate? Oh, how you just give me the price, right? And the thing is, these prices are determined by a lot of things. It's determined by volume. It's determined by how much are you storing? It's determined by what type of product you have, right? I'm going to charge you a lot more to store a dresser and move it around. Then I'm going to charge you to store a phone case, right? Or ship a phone case. So all these things come into the equation. And if you don't have enough information, it's hard to quote these things. So what we did is, like I said to you, we created an RFP process where you fill that out. And it's pretty much applicable to all 3, 000 warehouses on our platform. And you can get rates from any of them. And that's going to help you make a decision because One, you're going to know that they take your product type. They saw what your product type is. They saw what your volume is, right? So there's no fit issues and you're also getting rates. So it's allowing you to capitalize on both the important aspects of thick and rates rather than one versus the other.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Honestly, I think that makes an awful lot of sense for somebody who's in need of some storage facilities, right? Mm hmm Just to kind of wrap this up is is there a last word before I do have another question for you a Last word did we cover everything that you wanted to get out? About raclify.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Yeah, I'm just out here trying to you know, spread the gospel and you know, let people know about this new and exciting tool we have. Um, especially with your podcast. I, I really want to emphasize to the owner operators out there that Racklify can be a great tool because I know a lot of these guys are out here. They're using Facebook as their website, right? I get a lot of those guys and we have the ability to let you list your trucking specific information and give you a professional page. That you can direct your customers to, and they can message with you directly in platform. So this can be a great way to not just get like a backlink, but also, you know, if you're not tech savvy, you're not going to build your own website, get you a place where you can connect with people that are looking for your services and you can direct people to, to show that you have a professional brand. Sure.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

All right. So I did say I had one more question for you, Bill. Yep. I hope you won't take too much offense to this. But what's going to be the score two weeks from now, um, at the Super Bowl of 2025? Well,

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

it depends on the level of ref involvement here, because we know there's going to be a lot of yellow flags. I have faith. I don't see the chief scoring over 20. So my prediction right now is 28, 17 Eagles. Oh,

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

all right. So you heard it heard it here, right? On the trucking risk and insurance podcast, Bill from Racklify said 28, 17. Was that it? Yep. Yep. 17. It's. Yep. For the Eagles. The Eagles are going to come out on top. Yep. And as I say, Bill, jokingly, um, this episode will be released just about Super Bowl Sunday. So I'll see if I can't do this just before Super Bowl. And then the audience can leave us a comment. One, whether you like Bill's team or not. Um, two, was he right with his prediction? And three, just give Bill a thumbs up in the comments. Let him know your thoughts about Super Bowl. Because obviously, he is a big NFL fan. How long you been a fan of NFL? I've

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

been an Eagles fan my entire life. Um, you know, I have all the jerseys. I have everything. And, uh, you know, it's, it's been a good time because, you know, as long as I've been alive, the Eagles have been pretty good. I mean, you know, since the year 99, I think they've been pretty good. Before that, I couldn't walk or talk, so we're good. There

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

you go. You're speaking to a newer NFL fan. The last, I mean, because I'm a Canadian and the closest team, of course, is the Bills. It's been the last few years that the Bills have been worth cheering for. Um, including this year and unfortunately this year, uh, you know, but, and other than that, uh, I am a, uh, I guess a blue Jays fan next, which, you know, I do like watching the Jays. Anyways, we're way off topic here where we were talking about Racklify. 2817 is the prediction from Bill prediction. All right, walk it in eagles on top. I'm going to get to take it to the bank. I'm going to get this episode out before I'm going to have to delay some, I think before Superbowl, just so we could all see what the heck's going on. There you go. For all of you watching and listening, Bill's contact info is in the show notes down below. You can reach out directly to Bill to find out more about Racklify. The website information is down in the show, um, in the show notes below. Bill, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you, Bill.

Bill Carlin, Racklify:

Thank you, Chris and John. It was, it was a pleasure. Um, real great time talking to you guys and, you know, go birds.

John Farquhar, Gallagher:

Go birds. There you go.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

And thanks, Bill, you Eagle fan, for coming on the show. I don't know if you are crying or celebrating at the results of the Super Bowl. We will have to wait to find out. It's in a few days and I'm looking forward to watching it myself. What did you think? Our audience, what did you think about Raclify? And about Bill's comments of the Super Bowl. You can leave us a comment for either one and it's right over there. Click like and subscribe. Johnny and I appreciate you all watching very much. Have a great week. See you next week.

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