Global Trade This Week – Episode 229
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Keenan Brugh 0:00
You're watching global trade this week with Pete mento and Doug Draper,
Doug Draper 0:10
Hello and welcome to another edition of global trade this week. I am one of your hosts. My name is Doug Draper, and I am coming to you from the great state of California, excuse me, Colorado, and my partner in crimes on the other end of the United States, that is the one and only. Mr. Pete. Mento Pete, how are you doing today?Pete Mento 0:28
Doing Right? Buddy? The sun shining in Virginia. Maybe some of the snow will melt. It's been what I got, it like, 11 days since the storm. We haven't gotten above in the 20s. So we're not really equipped for this pal.
Doug Draper 0:42
Yeah. I just wow. I saw a thing yesterday on TV that basically said maybe it was a movie like when you officially just start leading every conversation with weather, whether you are officially old, and that's as much as we try not to Pete, and trust me, I love talking about the weather. That's pretty much what we lead into every single week.
Pete Mento 1:03
Well, it's a pain in my ass. Dude, like he kept me from going to Chicago last week because all the flights were canceled, and now they don't know how to clear a parking lot. So I go out to get in my park, get my car. There's seven, 810, 12 inches of snow all over the place. The guy who's been clearing our parking lot convinced he's on peyote buttons because nothing's straight. He's just all over the damn place. I did see him out yesterday when I was working in his little, you know, Bobcat out there, and I thought about going out there and saying, I will give you $500 in cash. I have it in my wallet right now, if you will let me finish this for you, because you're making me crazy. I know how to drive a tractor. I'll knock this thing out. Just go wait in your car, listen to podcasts, and let me do this for you, because watching you is making me anxious. So we do this for you. It was incredible.
Doug Draper 1:53
Well, I'm glad that you didn't make that offer. So I don't know. Where do you run? Yeah, all right. Well, let's get this let's get this let's get this show started. I know we got kind of a tight window, but that doesn't mean we're not going to skip halftime. So let's just get this thing started. Pete, you roll with it.
Pete Mento 2:10
Yeah, we so the first we're doing is Panama, right? Yeah, yeah, that's fine, yeah. So the people that, that that had purchased, owned, were operating the ability to manage the Panama Canal. Got told kick rock nerds, get out of here. It's No, I don't think so. And it's a great thing for a lot of reasons, not the least of which American security, but it's it's also going to mean, hopefully a little more stability in the operation of that particular port. Doug, I had the chance as a young man to go through the Panama Canal. I don't know if I've talked about that on the show before, and I have a number of classmates that are actually pilots on the Panama Canal. For those of you that don't know, when the vessel comes to the canal, they bring on a pilot, and the pilot takes over operations. Dude, it is, it looks like something that someone in a steampunk convention put together like it is, it is, it is not this. I'm sure 100 years ago, it was a marvel of modern technology. It's not anymore. The people who are operating it need to be held responsible for managing it, upgrading it, making it better, let alone making sure that we have a safe way of getting stuff across that canal. It's an important part of global trade. So who they have running it matters. It matters a lot. And the fact that America did use some influence to try to get something done down there. I hate to say it, because, you know, I feel about government influence. It actually worked out damn well for stuff. So I'm here for it. I'm happy about it. I'm glad that it happened.
Doug Draper 3:35
Yeah, I saw that. And yeah. CK Hutchinson, I think it was, there's like, a incredible dotted line, right? CK Hutchison is sort of Chinese government. But if there's the Panamanian group that's owned by CK Hutchinson, that's actually doing it, but regardless, they're out, like you said, hit the bricks nerds. And I was thinking, like, what does that mean? So I'm gonna take two, two takes on this one for the Joe Blow that's moving cargo that needs to get their, you know, their stuffed and plush toys to the East Coast. Day to day operations. You know, there's procedures, processes, compliance, safety, things, of schedules, all that kind of stuff. So the day to day, regardless of who is managing. It really isn't impacted, but ports Pete means access to data, right? The cargo the customers. Does that have military implications? They just know what is moving through there. Right? It also has influence during like disruptions, right? We saw some of that with the drought, right, strikes, congestions, you know, kind of emergencies. And then this is where you just nailed it on your last comment, the long term, kind of geopolitical situations, right? Right? Like the sphere of influence hasn't leaned in our favor now as far as the United States, so day to day operations, yeah, it's no big deal who's running it. This is my opinion, but the ports give visibility influence and geopolitical power. It is what it is, and we're in a better position now than we were yesterday.
Pete Mento 5:21
Let's just keep this crap open, dude, like between the Red Sea and Panama Canal crises, it's like just another damn brick in the wall, right? The things we've had to manage and deal with over the course of the past five years had it, bro, I've had it. So hopefully, you know, this change can bring some stability down there, some long term stability the world needs. It, not just us? Yeah, yeah. Valid. Frankie Doug, I'm cranky, huh? This is a cranky old man edition of global trade this week. I don't know
Doug Draper 5:51
for sure. All right, does that mean we're going into halftime?
Pete Mento 5:53
Because this truncated version and this abridged version of global trade this week? Yeah, go ahead yours. I got a lot of opinions on yours, buddy.
Doug Draper 6:03
All right. Well, it is. So Olympics are coming up. It's the opening ceremonies this Friday. Super excited. I'm an Olympic guy. I love it. And I'm even more of an Olympic guy because of ski town, USA, Pete. This is not my question to you. This is a statement. There are nine Olympians from the town of Steamboat Springs that are going to be participating this year. Six of them are new people that haven't done it. And on Saturday night, they had a kickoff at the base area of the resort, which was totally amazing. They had and the athletes are gone. They weren't there, but we had 24 former Olympians that that came from steamboat stand up and talk and get people pumped up. We had parents in there. They lit a cauldron, you know, so to speak, to celebrate all the all the athletes are already over there, but it was cool. They had a drone show and a big video, and then people, I'm not even kidding, at the end of it, the USA chant came in, and it was it was amazing. It made me have a sense of pride for my community. And there's been a total of 106 Olympians since the Olympic Games started that have either been born here or trained here in Steamboat spring. So it's kind of cool. So look for names that say Steamboat Springs, Colorado or Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club is the big, big group here. So anyway, I wanted to say that because I have a platform in order to do it, and I'm super excited and proud of my my town. Now, the question to you, Pete, is the Olympics number one, are you a winter or summer Olympic guy? And then what is your favorite event and what is your least favorite event?
Pete Mento 7:47
So for I'm not, I'm not a winter guy, but of all the Olympic events, summer or winter hockey is my favorite. So I love the Summer Olympics for other reasons, but my favorite Olympic event is International Hockey now that all these pros are playing, now that there's so much parody around the world, to a degree, with the professionals that they get the fact that a smaller country like Sweden, you know, could make the final, that Norway could make the final, that's awesome. I love that. I also hate it, because Canada seems to whip our ass every time like some improbable way, and I got to hear it from all my candy friends, but I just, I love hockey. I don't I love the NHL style with the violence and the speed. I love that. But I think that for for the fact that we don't want these guys to get hurt, they can still play for us, I appreciate the Olympics. No, Doug, I'm a Summer Olympics guy. I'm on my best day as an athlete, I was mediocre. And I played sports my whole life. You know, long into my adulthood, I played, I played men's league rugby. It was never very good. You know, I tried very hard. I really enjoyed myself, but I was never fantastic at it. To see these people, particularly like sprinters, rowing, which your your family is really tied into to see the level of athleticism, the type of focus, the the will that it takes to win at a sport like that. You are just physically destroyed at the end of these contests. I love the Summer Olympics for that reason. Like, like a sprinter, the men and the women when they sprint, I think that's probably the peak of human performance. Yeah.
Doug Draper 9:23
I'd say I am as well a summer guy, even though the rant I just summary I gave here at the beginning, I like all the sports, so let's go to winter, right? I'm a summer guy. I grew up swimming. My family grew up swimming. People think it's incredibly boring, but I really enjoy watching it, right? They've done a nice job of promoting it and making it a premier sport in the summer. So I like the swimming. I don't want to end on a negative note, but Winter Olympics, it just seems like figure skating is non stop, right? And it's dancing, pairs, singles, double. Polls, all kinds of, I don't know how many different types of figure skating is in the Olympics, but it gets to a point where I get a little I just It gets boring and annoying, to be frank with you. So anybody out there that's figure skating, I do apologize. It's just always on, which makes it
Pete Mento 10:21
difficult for me to watch. Well, Doug, we are not the target market. I don't think for the first of all, second of all, I love figure skating, because I can never do it, right? I'll watch it. I'll watch, like, the big metal rounds, but it's just so it feels arbitrary. It's like speed skating. The person won the speed skating was a fast across the line, right? Hockey, whoever scored the most goals, skiing, whoever got the bottom of that hill? Like an absolute psychopath, those guys are nuts, right? They're the winners. And the same thing with I've recently started caring more about long jump, because a friend of mine's daughter is quite good at it. The ski jump. That's like this math, like one is better than the other. It seems that figure skating, so much of it comes down to individual you know, what they thought about it. Summer Olympics, were you the fastest? Did you throw out the farthest? Did you pick up the most? You know, that, to me, really gets me going. And I absolutely love it. I love it.
Doug Draper 11:16
Yeah, well, regardless of whether you're a summer or winter guy, the Olympics are here, and it's exciting. Well, and it's
Pete Mento 11:23
exciting on that. Doug, right? So I would love to, I would love listener comments, right? What is the most difficult Olympic sport to be fantastic at? I think you got to put a couple of them in there. It's swimming, absolutely. You got to be some kind of absolute unit of a human being to be able to do what they do. Wrestling. I think wrestling takes is it still in the Olympics? I hope that it is, you know, wrestling. I think that's got to be one of the hardest. And, you know, sprinting, the field games, long distance running, that's got to be really, really hard to do. I just wonder what people think the hardest? I think it's going to be probably, in my opinion, one of those three, wrestling, swimming, or the sprinters. Those are probably the three artists, in my opinion. Probably, yeah, yeah.
Doug Draper 12:05
Well, yeah, it would be fun. I like to call out see if there's other folks that listen to the show would give us their feedback on what they think is anybody out there?
Pete Mento 12:15
My halftime, of course, me, look behind me. It's Super Bowl weekend. Everybody? Okay? It is, it is time for Pete's in or out Super Bowl edition Doug. All right. Are you ready? Fire? Okay, patriots or Seahawks. Seahawks, okay, chicken wings. Do they have to be there? Yes or No, sure. Yes, yes, yep, okay, watch it at home. Go to the game. Oh, watch it at home. I agree. Big party at home with a couple of people.
Doug Draper 12:51
I've done both, and I like both. So
Pete Mento 12:55
both, this is in or out Doug, you have to pick one.
Speaker 1 12:59
Okay, I would say big party, then, okay,
Pete Mento 13:02
bet on the outcome. In or out.
Doug Draper 13:05
I would bet on the outcome, not all the nuances within the game,
Pete Mento 13:10
office squares for the Super Bowl in or out. Ooh, I like that. Yes, in, okay, halftime show, in or out. I'm in, I like it commercials in or out. Love it in. Really, you're pretty confident with that one. A lot of people like commercials aren't good anymore, celebrities on camera, at the game, in or out. A lot, you know, the Swifties and constantly sharing people that are watching I'm in, I'm in, flyovers in or out. Love them
Doug Draper 13:41
in, okay,
Pete Mento 13:43
that's, that's it for in and out. Basically, Doug and I are all in on the Super Bowl, and Doug, I am. I love to bet. I don't bet a lot of money. That's my thing. Like, it's like a lottery ticket. I don't think I've ever made a bet for more than $100 in my life, but I've bought squares from a friend of mine, sons athletic team, excited for that. You know, it's, it's just by chance. I bet the Patriots, just because I believe in my variable, and I like pissing off people from the Pacific Northwest, but I do all the weird bets, like I will bet the coin flip, I will bet what color the Gatorade is. I will bet who the MVP will be. It's a lot of fun for me. It's just adds to it. And at our parties, we'll play commercial bingo, so we'll make a bingo card, and everyone's a little bit different. But if certain things happen in the commercials and someone gets bingo, if they don't, whoever got the closest to bingo wins, interesting.
Doug Draper 14:39
Yeah, I love all of it. It is a event, not just a football game. There's, there's a good football game in there, but there's so many things around it.
Pete Mento 14:47
Yeah, I love it. My daughter hates sports. There's no no toys about she can't she's a theater kid, man, like no one's dancing and singing arbitrarily out of nowhere. She doesn't quite get it. She loves the Super Bowl because it's. Snacking, and it's funny commercials, and there's usually somebody playing in halftime that she's excited about. I will be in Miami, Doug speaking the next day, so I'll be watching it from a hotel bar in Miami. I will probably be in the only place in America where everyone's really fired up about that bunny. You know, they're happy that in Spanish. You know what I mean. I love his music, so I I'm excited for that too. Nice, nice.
Doug Draper 15:25
All right. Well, that was half time. I think that was majority of the show so far. Pete, but we get this sounding board thanks to cap logistics, to talk about whatever we want. Sometimes it's not always global trade, but mostly global trade. So good deal. All right. Well, our second topic, I'll let you run with it, and I'll finish it.
Pete Mento 15:41
No, no, I started the first. Started the first one. You start the first Oh, okay, cool. Well, this is
Doug Draper 15:47
our friends at Amazon, and I just saw that they are soft releasing an LTL service, right? And what this means? Yes, they've had LTL service, so to speak, where they bring product into their distribution centers, right like, hey, we'll handle that final mile delivery, if you will, from the port into our DCS. But now they are starting to entertain and actively reach out to prospective clients to handle LTL services that does not touch their network, doesn't originate from or go into their network exclusively, and everybody's a little bit like, what does this mean, right? So Morgan Stanley had done a little bit of research, and apparently, whatever data set that they did an outreach to other different customers, 11% of that data set said they have already been contacted in some form or fashion by Amazon, and 81% said they would kind of entertain a discussion. So the traditionalists are saying, Listen, you can't come in here and start an LTL company and be competitive. And I would say the answer that is yes, 25 years ago, even 20 years ago, right? But Amazon does things differently, right? They're going to find out, you know what works. They're going to start small. They said 26 terminals is where they're going to going to, you to roll out so it's small, but Amazon starts small and then scales quick, right? And so here's the two things. One is the technology is there that will allow customers and people to select carriers before. You know, back in the day, it was like, I just signed a contract with this one carrier, and I got this rate tapped me on the back. I did my job. Now you can see it mostly in parcel, right? Where you can essentially rate shop, FedEx, UPS, and then the regionals, all the regionals, the parcel techs of the world, the one tracks, all these super regional carriers that are now part of the solution, right? So the technology is there to say, hey, Amazon only services this part of the country for now. Let's go ahead and use them. And that's going to be the, the the jumping off point. But here's the big baller, slash OG move these guys see what comes into their warehouses every single day, right? There are multiple carriers. So hey, everybody is shipping stuff into our warehouse. Where did this shipment come from? Oh, you and I are making, you know, some garments in our DC is in Chicago, and we're sending, I'm just making up numbers, 20 LTL shipments every single day out of Chicago, going to the different distribution centers, so they have visibility of what's coming into them, which will enable them to analyze what works and what doesn't work. So what's the next lane they're going to open, or what's the next region they have data, because everybody's sending product into their into their facilities, right? So I think that's the OG move, which is going to really allow them to scale quickly, yeah. Man, like,
Pete Mento 19:02
this is a company that has 1000s of data scientists. You don't think they haven't sent someone you know said to a couple of kids with PhDs in math, figure out if this is going to be a good idea, right? And second of all, like everything else Amazon does, they'll stumble at the beginning. They know that they've probably already done the math on that. Like, yeah, beginning, there's gonna be some problems, but they have such deep topics and pockets and the ability to build technology with their own foundation, right? They'll figure this out. There seems to be this misconception by the angry, you know, people like me, oh, no, it should be in our business. It hasn't been our business. No, they can do it. If the idiots like me can figure it out, they certainly can. They've got the money and the people that do it, and it's a matter of time before companies like this become a real gripping story about what can and can't be done. So for those I was looking on LinkedIn today when we brought this topic up, and I was just searching people's reactions. People are pissed. You know, they're angry, and they they're saying, How dare they know the rest of it. Dude, how dare you right? It's, it's, it's called capitalism. If they find a way to do it and do it, well, so be it, you're gonna have to find a way to battle that, and I don't know how you're gonna do it. It's not my job. But if you're as good as you think you are, you will. So I'm here for it. Dude, I think that this is a, not only going to be an impactful I think there won't be the last company to consider doing it.
Doug Draper 20:25
Yeah, it'll be, it'll be interesting, but I have seen some, I have seen some haters on LinkedIn as well this morning.
Pete Mento 20:32
So yeah, I had a boss, and he regularly watches the show, and people who know Him will know who it is, but I'm not going to say his name. When they first started doing free delivery on everything and free returns on everything, he would buy 50 pound bags of dog food and have them delivered to his house and have them returned over and over and over and over again, because he said, eventually they're going to tell me. No, they never did. Amazon knew. Amazon knew there were going to be idiots like you know me and and old curmudgeons like him that we're going to keep doing this to see how far they could push it. Guess what? It was in the math, he got tired of doing it before they got tired of coming and getting it. These are people with deep pockets, deep will, and shareholders who want to see expansion. Don't count on Amazon. Man, yep, agreed. All right. All right. Well, that's going to do it for this week at global trade this week, brought to you by our good friends at CAP logistics. Please do share the show, subscribe if you can. Does help with numbers. We want to thank everyone at CAP logistics for their unwavering support of the show. Thanks for Keenan back at the booth, and thank all of you for showing up week after week. As we always say, it's happening in global trade, talking about here trade this week, take care, all right. BP, you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai