In this episode of Dealer Talk, join hosts Herb and Charity
as they welcome Mike Trudeau, the Executive VP of Business Development for
Montway Auto Transport. They discuss the challenges dealerships face in
inventory management and the future of the automotive industry and explore the advancements
in car transportation technology and the evolving automotive landscape. By
leveraging innovative technology like Montway Auto Transport’s automation
portal, dealerships can streamline their car transportation processes and
overcome inventory challenges, ensuring efficient operations in an
ever-evolving automotive industry.
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⏰ Highlights:
00:00 Introduction
21:21 Mike Trudeau: Streamlining Sales Processes
22:02 Mike’s Background in the Automotive Industry
23:28 Challenges and Trends in Inventory Management
26:18 Insights on Electric Vehicles and Transportation
30:09 Montway Auto Transport’s Automation Portal (MAP)
31:54 Simplifying Car Transportation with MAP
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interest rates, payment-driven cars, challenges in inventory management,
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Transcript:
Intro 0:00
Welcome to the show. We hope you have a blast. Thanks for making time for the alerts out pod. Another business leader, here’s a penny for you to say no regular conversation between us that deal itself.
Herb 0:12
What are welcome to another episode of the dealer talk podcast. This is your host, Herb Anderson. Thank you so much for tuning in. Let’s check in I don’t even want to say co host anymore because of the conversation we had on the last one. Let’s just check in with charity. What’s up charity? How you doing?
Charity Ann 0:31
Pretty good. I have to tell you that I cannot hear you say Tekken anymore without
Herb 0:38
without hearing chicken. Let’s check in just waiting for me to fail.
Charity Ann 0:45
That’s no I know. Oh, no, I don’t think that’s a fail at all. Are you kidding me? You speak two languages fluently. three languages. Like that’s not a failure. I was just gonna say again, re language I speak 1.1 length.
Herb 1:07
Pretty good on our Spanish meeting the other day. So you said Hola.
Charity Ann 1:17
You know what threw me off about that meaning?
Herb 1:20
I know what threw you off. I’m gonna say You said something in English. And he responded to your what you said in Spanish and you’re like, oh, shit, he knows what I’m saying?
Charity Ann 1:33
Well, yes, I thought that but then I was also did he just respond to me? Was he responding to me? Where was he responding? Yeah, that threw me off. How do you do that? And, okay, from the perspective of knowing, like, a 10th of a 10th of the language, right? You’re, it’s overwhelming. And that’s just if they’re in English, or in full Spanish, I don’t know how you flip back and forth.
Herb 2:07
I don’t know how my brain is gotten used to it. But I still I mean, I’ve been here since in the United States since 1999. I still think in Spanish. So I’m always constantly translating. Like that. It’s just, it’s just weird. And then my girlfriend speaks four languages in her first language is like this native language. So she she’s got even worse. And you can just see sometimes, like, I can see a lot of that when we talk as both of us are like translating. It’s the funniest thing.
Charity Ann 2:41
Okay, but it’s pretty crazy.
Herb 2:45
And it happens like in a millisecond.
Charity Ann 2:47
Oh, yeah. So when I was like, 20, I worked at a hotel. I started in hotels to do now that
Herb 2:59
I do now,
Charity Ann 3:01
do you know, and my boss was bilingual. It was in Phoenix. And I was doing a crossword puzzle one time. And the question was something about sleepwalking. Like, what is another word for sleepwalking? Right? How do you say sleepwalking in Spanish?
Herb 3:18
Um, in conversation coming under load meal.
Charity Ann 3:25
Cuz that wasn’t it? It was ambulating. And it was or something like that. And she knew the answer right away, because she knew the Spanish word for it. And that was just this aha moment for me where I realized that if you know multiple languages, this is gonna sound so dumb. But if you know multiple languages, you know, your vocabulary is twice as big as mine. So that means that your girlfriend’s vocabulary is four times as big as mine.
Herb 4:03
And so here’s where here’s where we’re at depends. So it depends on languages that you speak because she speaks English and Spanish. So those are good ones, but the other two are languages that not a lot of people speak. So, you know, to Naylor to once called one Annie, which is her native her native language and then French. So not a lot of people speak French. It’s not at the top. I mean, like I speak English, Spanish and Mandarin. So I can pretty much talk to anybody, for the most part, because there’s a top three languages, right? So it just depends on what languages you speak. I mean, look for your brain and stuff. Like it’s amazing to have that flexibility of being able to, to go between languages and stuff. I think that’s that’s pretty incredible. But when it comes to speaking to People that language is the type of language that you speak. I think it’s more important than how many you speak.
Charity Ann 5:13
Which languages you speak versus how many speak? Right? That’s okay. So well, I don’t
Herb 5:20
know. I don’t know. Like, maybe that’s because now that I say that what if you speak 10 languages? Like, that’s pretty dope. I mean for your mind. Right. So
Charity Ann 5:34
I can see what you’re saying like if, you know, the, my ex husband went to law school with this guy that was from Africa, and he spoke like 10 languages and we were like Dotto, cool, what do you speak? And then he would weirdly back down because most of them were just were weren’t just but they were dialects of the same language. And he just counted them as different languages. Right? So, I mean, I would count them as different languages. I speak English. My I’m very unimpressed with my linguistic linguistic skills. Well, it’s something I’ve always
Herb 6:14
called Duolingo. I use Duolingo, 10 minutes a day, or what is it 15 minutes a day. You will, you can speak multiple languages very quickly. That’s not a plug for Duolingo. It’s not product placement. Dwelling was not paying us anything. We’re not just
Charity Ann 6:34
a soap has been this goes on. So we were just talking off camera and about being good at a lot of things or being really good at one thing. So what’s the difference between the way that herb and I, we both like Knowledge Seekers, but herb likes to be hyperfocus knowledge seeker and charity wants to know everything all the time. And I actually am jealous of the way that you want to know knowledge. And I want to be more like that. And I can’t figure out how to do it feels like walking into a store when you’re trying to decorate your room. So you walk into a store and then you grab everything that makes you feel happy. And then none of it matches. That’s what knowledge feels like in my brain.
Herb 7:23
Yeah, but what’s the point of it?
Charity Ann 7:25
Right? Like, that’s just a cluster.
Herb 7:29
Here’s the thing, like, I think we’re in an age, with technology and all these things where we can learn even at a more accelerated pace than before. I think there’s a lot of people out there that say that you don’t learn as well from audiobooks as you do from reading them, I kind of disagree, like I saw, I think it was 20. It was right before the pandemic, so it must have been 2019. I read like 53 books, 56 books, something like that. Maybe it was more, but it was more than one book a week. And it was so many books that I had this plastic one of those plastic tubs full from bottom to top full of books. And then I started this new commute, where I’m driving like four hours a day, and I’m in you know, in that it’s been like three years now. And in that timeframe. I’ve been listening to books, you know, and I don’t read them at all anymore. In the beginning, it was like, I would listen. And then I would read and then it was like, I just couldn’t do both. My brain was just exhausted. And so I was just just doing the listening. I feel like I’ve learned more in the last two and a half years by listening to books. And when I read a book a week, I feel like my mind is just more like I’m absorbing the information better. I find myself applying it quicker. I don’t know, maybe that’s just the way that I learned. But or maybe it is to your point, maybe it’s because I’ve been reading like all I’ve been listening to for the past two and a half years has been biographies, like biographies of like people that I admire people in, you know, business settings, all the way from, like Napoleon to Steve Jobs. So in that spectrum, so then I don’t know, maybe just because I’m in that groove, and I’ll listen to multiple biographies on the same person and I kind of already know, so when I listened to different versions or something I you know, I kind of feel like I already know what’s going on and it’s just maybe easier for me to absorb the information.
Charity Ann 9:38
Well, and then an audio book is better than no book. Like if you’re not gonna read the book, then listen to it on audio. I saw something that said that. If you listen to music at the gym, you’re cheating and I thought if you’re at the gym does it like you’re at the gym? Come on. Like to make the bed isn’t bad for
Herb 10:03
that’s totally cheating. Absolutely, yes. You you listen, you
Charity Ann 10:09
know, I mean like music and
Herb 10:11
stuff. No, you can’t be listening to music while you work out. That’s dumb. No, it’s
Charity Ann 10:15
not. I feel like it’s like stuff perfect game out without music is
Herb 10:22
like the perfect time to read or to learn. Get your mind 10
Charity Ann 10:26
times harder for me get your mind but I also use the music I have a specific playlists because I use the beat to pace my run.
Herb 10:36
Well, yeah, it depends what you’re doing. Like when I run I like to. I don’t know, man, like, I guess I gotten to know you’re making me think about it. I’ve gotten to this groove where I just automatically listen to listen to stuff while I work out. Yeah, I think it’s been a minute since I have. So especially when I run for sure I’m listening to a book.
Charity Ann 10:59
Well, and then it’s also you know, Pavlov’s dog. I just couldn’t remember which one was the cat which one was the dog if you listen to it over and over and over and over again now if I listened to that song and I’m not running, I want to go running
Herb 11:20
like I just have this that’s that’s good. I like that. That’s really good. Hi, No, I’ve never thought about that. But there’s a nice that you know that you could put that that you noticed that beat will get you in them in the mood so when you’re not when you own you’re like ah fuck I don’t want to I don’t want to run today. Just listen to that song. And it’s like whenever I watch the whenever I watch Rocky movies,
Charity Ann 11:43
you want to go punch something
Herb 11:44
as soon as he does. As soon as the montage is over. I’m like, Dude, I want to go I want to do push ups. I want to hit back I want to do something
like whenever I don’t want to whenever I don’t want to work out I’ll always just go to YouTube and put like, rocky three What is it a fighting prep? Is it’s hilarious. Do you remember if no tomorrow like that apart? It’s always starts like that. There’s no tomorrow. There is no tomorrow and I’m like shit. I just get in the groove. Well, I Okay, it was go.
Charity Ann 12:27
You remember that motivational one that I sent you? It’s probably been two, three years. That’s like Oh, it’s good. It’s like 30 minutes and it starts with Arnold Schwarzenegger talking and then it goes into but it’s got the music behind it and then it goes into that at the on your deathbed. That one’s one of my favorites. All of the like potential standing around a you have you. You know that one. That one kills me.
Herb 13:02
It’s funny because I had William Hollis on the program. I think it was for season six or season five. It was right after my divorce was probably season six. And he he talked about like, I asked him what was the future of the motivational industry instead of the automotive industry. And he said something to the effect. I’m totally paraphrasing here. But he said, You know, it’s probably going to be something of words and music together. So motivational words with music and stuff. And now when I look at Instagram, and I see this stuff, I’m like, Dude, this guy was so dead on. You know what I mean? That’s like, I feel like, that’s what you see now. So yeah, I remember I remember that one in particular that you sent me because that was one of those that had made me think of that conversation I had with him.
Charity Ann 13:57
I liked that kind of stuff. And that’s, yeah, I like that kind of stuff. I like motivational stuff like that. I like to use music to motivate. I literally, do my own Pavlov’s dog with myself. When it comes
Herb 14:13
Yeah, you can’t hear nobody else can motivate you. You gotta motivate yourself. We’ve had this conversation already before we agree to disagree. But going back to the book thing though, here’s a question that I have. What do you think is better? Reading a bunch of books or reading one book a bunch of times? Mm hmm.
Charity Ann 14:36
I think it’s the same concepts.
Herb 14:40
Know, how is it the same concept?
Charity Ann 14:42
No, I know. The same concept is what we were just talking about. Hyper focusing or lots of little things.
Herb 14:52
So listening to one book, read a book or listen to the same book for an entire year. Better than reading 50 books in a year.
Charity Ann 15:02
I, I like the idea that you have sorry. I like the idea that you have other way you listen to the same book like five times the 577 times. Me. No, I’m like, this is a thing. You’re the one who taught me this. You listen to
Herb 15:25
my rule. My rule is if you have a really good book that you really, really, really like, you should listen to it or read it at least seven times. Back to Back. Yeah, like, like don’t stop just read it and read it and read it and read it. And every time you read it, you’re like, oh, shit, I missed that. How can I miss that?
Charity Ann 15:43
I did that with the obstacle is the way and then I went right into the subtle art of not giving a fuck and
Herb 15:52
oh, the obstacles away what a great book. Don’t shut off the riser. So
Charity Ann 15:55
good. So good. And I There are so blurred together in my head now that I don’t know which one is which
Herb 16:05
egos the enemy to right after? That was a great book. Have you read that one?
Charity Ann 16:09
Do I need that one?
Herb 16:12
Yeah, you need that one. Egos the CEO of your brain or something like that? I was like, Holy shit, dude.
Charity Ann 16:21
I’ve been listening to Extreme Ownership. I like that one. I’m listening to that one right now. And then I can’t like halfway through how to be a monk. And then there’s this point at which it gets like, I’m just like, ah, blah, blah, blah. I don’t want to hear anymore. Like it just kind of annoying. So I kind of stopped on that one.
Herb 16:47
Right now. I’m listening to one just because of some of the projects that we got going on for this year and stuff that we’re that we’re, you know, hopefully getting ready to share here with with everybody soon. I’ve been reading to this book called The founders. That’s the story of PayPal. I don’t know everybody that that was in that. I mean, there’s Reed Hoffman, there’s I can never say this guy’s last name. Alex. Zack check or something like that. Elon Musk. Peter Thiel, like all these amazing dudes that started that company that all are on doing like these
Charity Ann 17:26
emails. Musk was part of PayPal. How did I know that?
Herb 17:30
Yeah. So PayPal, there was was it configure it and then something x and they merged and it became PayPal, they overturned Elon Musk twice. And he was he was the the main investor, the majority investor, and then he walked away with $180 million from that deal. Then this guy took 70 million put it into Tesla and 100 million into SpaceX.
Charity Ann 17:59
Like, that’s what I freaking love though. I love the story where it’s like, I took this I got 180 million and so I turned it around and what put it right back in like that kind of stuff. I love the stories where it’s like I got this much money and then I went and bought this and this and this and this and this. Oh, that kills me.
Herb 18:19
Yeah, but look, there’s only so much money you can spend when you’re at that level anyway. And he was already a millionaire when you started that company that merged with with to become PayPal, he had sold something to do he started had started this business with the Yellow Pages. Something to do with like digital Yellow Pages are like a digital phonebook or something like that. And I can’t remember the name of the company escapes me but he sold that and I think he walked away from that deal with like 28 or $30 million and so he took that money and started Yeah, so
Charity Ann 18:55
that’s why I’m any good at like and then all
Herb 18:59
the risk in the story is great man like you know, it’s it’s, it’s so crazy to me how Pay Pal even was able to survive because PayPal became a platform inside of eBay. And eBay was already successful, instead of them creating their own platform, which they had iterations of it, but they just never worked. PayPal had better customer service and a better experience and they just they couldn’t compete. They thought that PayPal was eating. They ended up buying it for like I think it was a billion dollars. So but think about it,
Charity Ann 19:38
it’s not part of eBay now or no,
Herb 19:40
it’s Yeah, it is. Well, I don’t know. Now. It’s, it’s there’s it’s been years since I’ve been on eBay. So I don’t really know. But I know that
Charity Ann 19:47
I use Pay Pal more now than I ever ever have in my whole existence.
Herb 19:53
Well, it’s a $350 billion company, but if they don’t get their shit together, they’re gonna they’re gonna go backwards they think about it like eBay already super powerful, successful tons of resources. Come in comes this company pay pal starts doing something that already had a lot of competition in the market. Right? Like there were other platforms that were that were allowing you to transact digitally, and they just freakin destroyed. And I don’t know, man. It’s just something very odd.
Charity Ann 20:33
Yeah, all kinds of motivational stuff that you can get
Herb 20:35
out. Yeah. It’s a great book. It’s a fantastic book. So I’m, I’m only on my first read. So I’m going to, you know, next time I talk about it, I’ll know more. Did you just start
Charity Ann 20:46
a book club? Can we have a book club?
Herb 20:51
Now, dude? Oh, come on. Now, like 70 year old?
Charity Ann 20:57
My mom has a book. Right? Anyway, okay. And do you have Mike Trudeau on the on the pot? Yes. Tell us about Mike. He is the executive VP of Business Development for montway auto transport. Right on further ado,
Herb 21:21
let’s get him on here.
Mike Trudeau 21:25
Now more than ever, businesses need more efficient sales. That’s why 1000s of dealerships trust for us to help with things like automated inventory, email updates, and ensuring all of your leads get into the CRM. To try four eyes for free. Visit four eyes.io/dealer talk. That’s four eyes.io/dealer Talk.
Herb 21:49
Am I Mike? Welcome to the show, sir. How are you? I’m good. How are you? Doing well doing well. Thank you for joining us, we kick things off with an intro. So tell us about you.
Mike Truedeau 5 22:02
Sure. So I’m currently the Executive Vice President at montway auto transport been in the car Hall and industry for the past eight years. So I’ve seen both the acid side and the brokerage side and my time in car Hall. Before then I spent time with enterprise rent a car there I was in the in into remarketing us rental vehicles. And then I ran a enterprise car sales lots in Michigan for about four years before I left to join the vehicle transportation world. Right on that’s pretty much me in a nutshell.
Herb 22:41
Awesome. Awesome. Did you say Michigan?
Mike Truedeau 22:44
I did. Michigan? Yes.
Herb 22:45
All right on. I’m from from Dearborn heights.
Mike Truedeau 5 22:48
Oh, really? Yep. I live out in the canton, Plymouth area.
Herb 22:51
Right on. Very cool. Very cool. So yeah, man, you know, this, this year is going to be super interesting and in inventory is going to continue to be one of those things that is either going to make or break dealerships and you know, some of the groups that I’m talking with right now, in consulting and stuff, that’s one of the things that we’re trying to get kind of locked that in man, it’s very, very difficult. What are your thoughts? 50,000 view? Where do you see things going for 2023?
Mike Truedeau 5 23:28
So I think a couple of things, you know, could happen, obviously, we know that interest rates on vehicle loans are going up. Anything you read says that they’re going to continue to go up, which I think that you know, for for dealerships, in general, that means that payment is going to become really important again, and really finding those payment, those payment driven cars. It’s not going to be as easy as it was back in like, oh, eight and, you know, when this happened last time, because the average price of wholesale vehicles are you know, plus 20,000. I mean, the days of the $15,000 retail retail piece are, are not as likely harder, there’s not as many out there anymore. So I think that, you know, it’s going to be like, in COVID when supply was low, people had to search all over the country to find the right car. You know, we saw that on the transport side. I think that trend is going to continue for a different reason, which is people are going to be trying to find the right car that fits into the right payment. And you know, they’re gonna have to look, you know, in all 50 states to find that car that you know, they can make that good front end.
Herb 24:41
Yeah. So let’s talk about that a little bit. I have a little bit of a of a thought when it comes to that. I don’t disagree with you. But what I do think that is a little bit different that we are not considering a lot of is that backing away we have to surplus of inventory and this time around, we don’t. And there’s a lot of people. I mean, Cox automotive had some crazy numbers out there, I think they said 5 million. I don’t think that it’s that high. But there’s at least two to 3 million people that have been on standby or on hold, waiting to see where things are going to fall. And they haven’t transacted. So we got to take that into consideration. And then the other thing, too, that’s, that’s interesting to me this time around, is that we don’t have inventory. So if you look at SAR, pre COVID, and then we look at it now obviously, there’s a big deficit in units. And I think that those things are going to carry us Do I think that it’s going to be like last year in 2021? Hell no. I think the people that are buying now are people that just were waiting and waiting and waiting, and they prominent situations now that they can’t wait any longer. And so I think that that’s where things are going to tip a little bit in our favor. But yeah, I I definitely agree that there’s going to be challenges, slow downs. If you’re still focused on profits and things of that nature, you’re not pricing your inventory correctly. I think you’re gonna have a rough year. So but we’ll see, you know, it’s kind of early to tell.
Mike Truedeau 26:18
I agree with what you’re saying as well.
Herb 26:21
Yeah. So what do you think is happening right now with with EVs let’s talk about that. And on the transit transportation sidenote, we were pretty heavy into that topic last last season. And there was a lot of talk about weight, and, you know, some potential, trying to
Charity Ann 26:47
expand, remove
Herb 26:48
some of the restrictions and things of that nature to make that more more of a viable situation. Any, any insights on that for 2023.
Mike Truedeau 5 26:57
I mean, they definitely affect the load factor of a load. So I mean, it, you know, because of the weight. So, I mean, you know, in terms of, you know, cost. I mean, if you’re shipping a full truckload, I mean, it’s going to cost it’s going to cost more than your typical and you’re basically be paying for eight or nine slots on a truck. And you know, with those, you’re talking about six units. We haven’t in the remarketed side, and even in some of the new, we haven’t ran into very many problems thus far, you know, and just in general, with transport vehicles, with the exception of they just take up more spots on a truck at the current moment in time.
Herb 27:39
Right on, but are you seeing, so you don’t think that they’re posing challenges for, you know? Like, if you’re like, do you think that that’s causing delays or anything like that? Because you can take a full truckload? Or is that not the case? Like, what? How is that whole thing?
Mike Truedeau 5 27:56
I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen it in like the used car space yet? On the new car space? I mean, yeah, I mean, for sure. But even, you know, was the company out in California, when they were shipping that, you know, every end of the quarter there for a couple years, there’d be a huge rush to, you know, get as many Tesla’s out of California as they cut, it sent transportation prices through the roof. They’ve obviously changed some things up, because we haven’t seen that in probably over a year now. So I mean, it’s mostly stabilized. So now I haven’t seen too much in terms of the terms of EVs affecting anything in the transportation in terms of delays. Okay, so
Charity Ann 28:41
he was he would disagree with the assessment that it’s going to cause problems in the future, or you just don’t see them now.
Mike Truedeau 5 28:49
I don’t see them now. As as they become more prevalent, or there’s more in abundance, then there probably will be some challenges, you know, from the fact that they’re going to lose the if they lose charges. How are we going to get them on trucks? I mean, right now, I mean, you know, there’s could be a lot of problems that could eat up capacity, you know, when there’s that many out there, but there’s just not enough out in the secondary market to cause delays. I don’t I don’t see that happening this year. Probably not next year, the year after that, but maybe in three or four years. Yeah.
Herb 29:27
Yeah, I mean, we’ll see especially if they’re going to hold this soul 2035 which are 2030 Whatever it is. I’ve forgotten now but which I don’t, I don’t think it’s gonna happen. But anyway, go ahead. Charity didn’t mean to cut you off. I mean, I do.
Charity Ann 29:42
That’s fine. You did cut me. I’ll see. Now I can’t remember what it was gonna say. Okay, okay. We can move on.
Herb 29:49
No problem. I’ll take it from the top.
Charity Ann 29:50
You can be the host I’ll be the co host you
Herb 29:53
can be the co host. So So Mike, what do you guys do like to Tell us what what are you? How do you alleviate these problems or these potential problems for dealers? Like, tell us a little bit about what you’re offering us?
Mike Truedeau 5 30:09
Sure. So, you know, for us, you know, I always, like I said, I’ve been in the industry for seven or eight years. And, you know, from a technology standpoint, car hauling has has been in the past, you know, you can make an argument that, you know, we’re still stuck in the 1990s. And, you know, we need, we need to jump now. Well, I guess it’s almost three decades now, I used to say it was two decades. But we pretty much need to jump three decades. And one of the few of the products that we brought to the market for dealers is one is our montway automation portal, or what we call map. And, you know, we have this in probably over about 100 dealerships now. And we really, really hit it hard here at to start the year. So the adaption has been pretty quick. And what it does is it allows dealers to put a car, quote, a car, book a car, and track the vehicle all in one portal. So instead of having, you know, 5050, carriers, calling them for that one unit that they have sitting in Michigan, and they need to get back to California, all they do is put put in the VIN number book, the quote, put in the address, and the car gets, you know, the car is dispatched to our dispatch within 2.5 days on the average, and we have it on their lot, you know, in Milan, California to Michigan is probably about five days. So in seven days,
Herb 31:32
I’m sorry, I’m just trying to understand how this works. It’s just the way my mind operates. But so if I’m hearing you correctly, I go into your portal, there’s a bunch of transporters connected to it someway, somehow, I put in a request, say I need this car picked up, whatever, whatever. And then they they bid, they give me an estimate of time delivery costs, all that stuff, and I choose the one that’s quicker, a
Mike Truedeau 5 31:54
little a little different than what you’re thinking, but close. So you know, for us, for us, it’s just one price, you know, that price is going to come in, let’s say, you know, California or Michigan to California and that price comes out to $1,000. That’s the price you pay. And that’s it. And then you bucket. So I mean, what’s nice, what we’re finding is, you know, dealers are able to run quotes before they buy cars. So they have an idea of what that transportation cost is, before they even bid on the unit. So they can they can kind of have that transportation cost that extra $1,000. So if you know they can buy that car for 20 grand, they know that Trent, you know, the by fees, the buy fee, and then the $1,000 for transport, they know what they’re into that car for before they even purchase that car, they know what their their top their top money that they’ll pay for it is. So we’ve had some success stories where, you know, there’s some bigger dealers that are using it down in Texas right now. And you know, the lanes that they said they were buying now we’re finding they’re buying different lanes. So you know, kind of ask them what changed. And they said, you know, the ability to quote, and no one know how much it is, you know, like Kansas City isn’t a place I’ve ever really bought from. But frankly, the transportation is better than me buying in Georgia. And so now and they also have the cars I want in Kansas City. So then they get the book and they get it. Another thing that dealers like, is that, you know, they can put they can put the orders in on Saturday, if they’re buying if they’re sitting in the store on Saturday, they bought a few cars, they put the orders in on Saturday. And you know, we’ve had a few times where they put them in on Saturday. And the car has been showing up on Monday night or Tuesday morning right on their lot, versus having to wait till Monday, you know, put the car in, you know, they and get in the car Wednesday, Thursday, we’re really increasing increasing what we you know, are decreasing their overall cycle time. And making you know, and adding a couple days back to their turn that usually are eight up and transportation.
Herb 33:54
So how so Okay, so can the reason it saves you time is why because you because you’re connecting them to a multitude of potential transporters and they can consolidate or how does it save the dealer time?
Mike Truedeau 5 34:12
Sure. So we’re, we’re a, we’re a third party logistics company, right, you know, or what the industry term is as known as broker. The difference between us is, you know, in a regular broker is that we just, we’ve been in business for 16 years, we have a network of carriers that are really good at moving one car at a time. So once that dealer places that order, we have a whole operations and dispatch team that are calling the carriers and taking that and assigning that order to them, you know, offering them that we’re basically shopping that for them. So we’re kind of like that managed service operation. So where we saved them time is one, they don’t have to go they don’t have to feel the phone calls from carriers If they’re, you know, using like a public load board. So I mean, that’s one of the things, we’ve had a few GMs, you know, that have seen the demo and say, Yeah, I want that, because I want my used car manager desking deals, training their salespeople and developing them not talking to transport companies. So that’s, you know, that’s, that’s one big benefit in terms of time saving. The other one is, is that we do move the cars quick, you know, our average days to pick up by the time you place an order, we average 2.5 days, and then it’s just the transit days after that. So that’s where we really picking up even more time or speed,
Herb 35:35
and the experience for the customers, I’m assuming it’s a platform that you log in, and you have access to and you can, you know, quote from there. Yep, exactly, is it doesn’t cost anything for the dealerships to be on it. Or they can go and do their business. They’re the only pay if they if they actually use the services. Yeah, they only
Mike Truedeau 35:55
pay if they book the order, and we move the car.
Herb 35:59
That’s pretty cool. Man. I know, in this in this market that we’re in, in this environment, I mean, dealer shopping everywhere. So that speed of you know that that frontline ready time has significantly been impacted. Right. And so anywhere that you can save even a day, it makes all the difference in the world. So yeah, that’s pretty cool.
Mike Truedeau 5 36:26
Yeah, and I mean, one of the other things we do as well as, with larger with larger shippers or larger dealerships, I mean, we’ll get in, we’ll get in there. And we’ll do a monthly review of performance, you know, with what the what sometimes it’s the dealer principals, sometimes it’s the controller, sometimes the GM, sometimes you use car manager, and go over, you know, our performance, whether it’s in, you know, certain lanes where we’re quicker, where the cost is, you know, if it’s possible to shift to this area, you can even save more cost and transportation. So, you know, we do our best to provide, you know, a good ROI for using our using our technology, and just really trying to, you know, manage costs, right? I mean, ultimately, transportation is a pure expense. It’s not going to it can save you money, but can’t make you money. Right. So I mean, that’s, that’s kind of where we look to partner, you know, with our customers to figure out, hey, what’s the best thing we can do for you and take that consultative approach?
Herb 37:29
Yeah, no, I mean, obviously, there’s a bunch of benefits there, if you can, if you can, like I said, if you can reduce that time of, of pickup and delivery, I mean, that’s a way to kind of make, help that dealer make money quicker. And then obviously, the sooner you get the car, they’re available, the more chances you I mean, I’ve seen stores that the car gets, or it’s already 50 days, or 30 days or 40 days old, and you’ve lost that time of profitability, right? Especially because they’re keeping these I don’t know why they do this, but they put all their inventory on the website, even if they don’t have the car. And so they kind of turn the clock on and that on the age of that unit. So
Charity Ann 38:13
I have a question, but it’s kind of a it’s a pivoting question.
Herb 38:16
Pivot away. Pivot.
Charity Ann 38:21
You said that you started in rentals? I did. Yeah. So is that kind of a natural progression? It seems like it would be a natural progression rentals as you guys are talking. I think, obviously, we’re working in use cars and logistics a lot with rental companies. So is that a natural progression into hauling? But normally what people progress?
Mike Truedeau 5 38:54
I’m not necessarily. I think that I think that the customer mix is really similar, right? I mean, when you’re when you’re working in rental, I worked in remarketing. So we were wholesaling the rental cars back to the dealerships, selling them at the auctions, etc. And then when I when I came into car hauling, you know, the company wanted to go after the secondary market or the used car market. So, you know, having that familiarity with dealerships, having sold some cars, you know, on a small scale with enterprise car sales, I was able to be able to identify and build a more of a sales organization that was able to go after, after that, that piece of the business. And I mean, car hall itself has been it’s been a fragmented industry, you know, and it’s built up of a lot of small business owners. And the one thing that small business owners can’t do is they can’t be their own sales force and drive their own truck. They do and they do a great job, don’t get me wrong, but on a mass scale, right, if that’s not scalable, and that’s where, you know, third party logistics companies like montway can come in and be their sales arm, right, and ultimately be the person that sell, you know, sells for them, and then provides them the work. So, you know, and that’s kind of starting to defragment defragment ties, you know, what is a fragmented industry, which, in the long run is good, because I mean, as you guys know, you know, our industry, in general, the auto industry is becoming a little more corporate ran, you know, dealership, dealership groups are combining, you know, acquisition is a huge thing. And, you know, it’s the the guy they are the owners now are more can be more boardroom people to now. And it’s just a more of a corporate structure. And, you know, things are looked at differently, as as you evolve as a business, and you have that corporate structure. So it’s a good thing to have a logistics partner managing that, especially when you have, you know, 810 2035 stores, because you can see the overall costs at each store, because there’s some stores that are doing it on their own may be getting a great deal. And then your sister store, you know, 100 miles away, might be overpaying. So at the end of the day for the overall Corporation, is it a good deal to not centralize the transportation? I think, overall, there’s a cost savings there, when you look at centralizing the transportation and use the managed service like montway.
Herb 41:40
Well, expanding on that a little bit. Like the future, I first see a gap in the market, kinda like the guys that started Oh, man, the thing with the pot, right? So he this guy had, he first started, like, you know, with those buildings that you you know, those places that you build a storage and people go, and then he was like, man, there’s just, this seems very old fashioned, like, there’s got to be a better way. And so he came up with the container ID and all that jazz, right, and then it evolved the industry. I think we’re at a place right now in the automotive space, where that’s, we got to start thinking about single unit transportation. Right, because if this thing really goes in the direction that everybody wants it to go, and it’s pushing for, and I’m Listen, I’m not saying it’s gonna happen tomorrow. But you know, within the next 10 years, I do foresee online purchases becoming more and more of a thing. And so it’s not convenient to or you can offer the Carvana esque type of experience with the traditional way of transportation, right? So I feel like there’s an opportunity for an innovator or somebody in the space, you really come in, and hey, you, Mr. Dealer, do your thing. And I’m going to offer you the transportation that is personalized to your customer or something to that effect, right? Where the customer does everything somebody goes, picks up the car and takes it directly to the customers front of their house, drops the car off, do the pay the whole do the paperwork, all that stuff, and then the driver leaves. I don’t know, what are your thoughts on that? Do you agree, disagree? What do you think?
Mike Truedeau 5 43:29
No, I agree. I mean, it’s, I think that’s something that all transport companies are trying to figure out with, you know, partners. You know, it gets into the whole my favorite topic, digital retailing, because I think I think everyone needs to who knows what digital retailing means today,
Herb 43:47
right? To me, it means glorified lead widget. That’s it. So it certainly doesn’t mean buy and sell, buy your car online and just wait at home in your pajamas for your car to show up. It does not mean that at all. So I mean, we have
Mike Truedeau 5 44:02
we actually have a we have a home delivery widget that dealers can put on their VDP page, right, and it gives a transportation quote, etc. And they can book now and you know, my way itself, we were we were founded 16 years ago, moving one car at a time. And originally we were founded for moving consumers, you know, whether you’re moving whether you’re a snowbird you know, going from Michigan to Florida or, you know, the northeast of Florida, our if you’re moving you’re moving your house or you know just in general a car enthusiast moving cars. Part of the reason I joined my way was for what you what you exactly said which is, you know, we I saw the market, you know that moving single units was going to be really important. Now, did I know COVID was going to happen? Absolutely not. But you know, that’s kind of where I thought it thought the market was going and I thought pairing up with a car company that specializes in that would be, you know, a fantastic thing. And it obviously, unfortunately, COVID did happen. But moving single cars is why our specialty, you know, when I talk to dealers and customers, and I say that we love moving singles, they say that I’m the first person that’s ever said that to. So that’s pretty good. Yeah. So
Herb 45:23
you guys should you guys should buy Carvana. And then you have the infrastructure, and then everybody wins. Carvanha becomes a single transportation company, and no more selling used cars. And we take that back to the dealership, you save them make money. There you go solve that.
Mike Truedeau 5 45:43
Like. Yeah, but you know, the piece. I mean, we do a lot of home delivery. But the piece that you said is that’s the tough piece. Right? That’s the piece everyone’s trying to figure it out. Sure. How do you do the paperwork?
Charity Ann 45:57
Yeah, what’s gonna be my question is because I’ve been hearing a lot more about dealerships running into fraud situations. And so you’re literally your driver is becoming your, your notary. Is that like, are they? I
Mike Truedeau 5 46:16
mean, we don’t get it. That’s really hard to do. And I mean, yeah, you know, we’re definitely trying to be innovative and try to think of ways to do those type of things. But
Herb 46:26
mobile finance office, that’s the answer to that. Yeah,
Mike Truedeau 46:30
I’d have to agree with you. I’ll let you open that one up the
Charity Ann 46:33
herbs. Yeah, I
Herb 46:34
mean, you have the driver go up there’s a comp there’s, there’s a there’s a mobile finance office that does business, do you the transportation, they connect, the mobile office goes to the place they do the deal right there with the customer, while they’re lowering the car, and all that stuff, and then the driver leaves in the mobile office guy leaves and there you go. Solved solve that one too.
Complicated stuff, it’s not that complicated. Let’s just, you know, we have the technology. Like, let’s just get this thing done.
Charity Ann 47:06
What’s next?
Herb 47:07
I mean, if you guys saw that movie, what was it called? Oh, come on. The car dealership movie where they take the desk outside the guys like, oh, man, they were on my podcast, I can I forget this. Ah, I’m gonna feel like such an ass. Anyways, we’re gonna have to reference it in the show notes. I’m drawing a blank. But anyway, the guy is like, I’m not going inside. And then the salesman brings a desk outside and does the deal outside. Like, you know, like, let’s make the shit happen, man.
Charity Ann 47:38
We were just, I was just having a conversation with on a different episode. And we were talking about how the automotive industry has, like the way that we the type of car that you buy has changed so much. There’s like so many different options. You know, it was the Model T and now it’s like anything you can possibly think of under the sun. And we’re still stuck on these olds. You either buy it in the dealership, or you buy it from Carvana. Like there’s one or the other. There’s not really any kind of nuance to that, then the dealerships are doc, with these absolutes, and in an environment of non absolutes.
Herb 48:25
And but they’re not really I mean, dealerships have been selling cars online for men for years before Carvanha wasn’t as a matter of fact, they just don’t promote it. Because they want control and they want people in the box. And they want to you know, they want loyalty,
Charity Ann 48:40
right? All you have to do is take the desk outside or like, come to the customer offer a solution to the customer.
Herb 48:50
Look, look, I say that and I don’t know, maybe there’s some some rules or something. Why the why somebody hasn’t come up with a mobile Office Mobile finance.
Charity Ann 48:59
I said that I was like, it’s not all you have to do because like what you’re gonna make all of your drivers, notaries like Yeah.
Herb 49:06
So anyway, Mike, thanks so much for doing this man. It’s been good conversation. I really appreciate it. There is one question that we ask everybody that comes on the show. And that question is, where do you see the automotive industry headed in the next five years? And why?
Mike Truedeau 5 49:24
Five years? That’s a good one. I’m just hoping to figure out this year. No, I think that I think that, you know, we’re gonna we’re starting to return to that pre COVID cycle. In my opinion. You’ve seen the you’ve seen the residual values of cars go up in January and February, you know, and a lot of people were surprised but by that, you know, outside of the industry, but it is getting to be tax time. I think there’s going to be some stabilization at some point between March April. March, April, May, June. And then I think that some inventory is going to show back up in August and September, I think there’s going to be a chance rental car companies get the refreshing up their fleet, getting the purchasing cars from the manufacturers. And when that happens, that’s usually starts to have a surplus in the market. I think that the big the big caveat, I think is you’re going to probably see the repossession business pick up over the next couple of years, which also puts more cars back into the marketplace. So I think, knock on wood, I do believe in the next call it year and a half, you’re gonna start to see more cars in the market. If you ask me about the next year, three, four, and five, if it follows a typical cycle, interest rates will eventually go back down. There’ll be another election and you know, we’ll see what happens there. But hopefully interest rates and inflation and everything starts to go back in the other direction. And, you know, then we’ll be be cruising in 2425.
Herb 51:01
There you have it, folks. Mike, thanks again for joining us. And thank you for tuning in. That’s all the time that we have for today. And as usual, we’ll talk later
Intro 51:13
we only hosted were restricted to the vendor. LexisNexis we also did judo market. We inspected with our DC vendor management.
Mike Trudeau 51:23
Now more than ever, businesses need more efficient sales. That’s why 1000s of dealerships trust for us to help with things like automated inventory, email updates, and ensuring all of your leads get into the CRM. To try four eyes for free. Visit four eyes.io/dealer talk. That’s four eyes.io/dealer Talk
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
