Wherever possible, try to get other people in other systems to be handling, you know, the bulk of your freight and trying to stay away from direct LTLs to customers as best as you can.

Welcome to the Startup CPG podcast. I'm your host, Jesse Freytag. Bonus episode time. At Startup CPG, we recently

curated another new and free resource, the first list of freight carriers and brokers just for

CPG companies. I had the pleasure of helping build this resource, and I thought it'd be fun to

bring on one of the many brands who submitted their freight providers to be added to the list to chat about some of the challenges and tips

they've encountered related to freight. This episode will include an interview with Alex Cree,

co-founder of Bousa, and a few stories and insights from me. Listen in as Alex and I share about

the process of finding freight partners, stories of freight gone wrong, and tips from getting your pallets from A to B safely and on time in a challenging environment.

I still remember my abrupt entry into the world of freight. I was on the phone with Edison Green in California and they said, your pallet is on the dock ready for pickup. I said, great, when will it be here?

She said, you need to book an LTL pickup and send me a copy of the BOL. I went cold inside and said,

I'm going to stop you there. What do you mean by LTL and BOL? In the back of my mind, I'm thinking,

I grew up on a farm driving trucks of wheat during the summer.

Maybe I need to just get in a semi and drive from Oregon to California and go get my palate.

Thankfully, she was kind enough to give me a quick LTL Freight 101 lesson.

I booked my first less than truckload using a broker, downloaded the bill of lading,

and had everything scheduled on time.

Then the shipping lane closed and the shipment was delayed and we had to stop lip bar production

for a few days. Yikes. After that mishap, I decided I need to delve into the world of freight.

I found the right broker, updated all my lead times and reorder points, and that didn't happen

again. But that moment of feeling left out to dry,

in the big scheme, no one cared about my single palette that my business hinged on. I don't want

our startup CPG members feeling that moment, which is why I'm so glad we've been able to release

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