Join Grace Sharkey and Blythe for the latest installment of Freight Friends, where they give some love to the unsung modes of shipping: tugboats and barges. Grace also gives us insight into Uber's third annual Carrier Summit, and gals close out the show by talking about the illegal ivory supply chain, Hubble Network, and good freight marketing.

QUOTES:

• "Conventionally, tugboat captains move close to the assisted vessel to be able to grab the messenger line from the assisted vessels troops, often even under the bow or in the turbulent. A minor floor in the maneuvering can result in major damage or injuries of the deck crew of both the tugboat and the assisted ship." - From the video
• "Most of the sales processes are very manual, and you got to talk to a lot of people, depending on what you're doing, you may be coordinating across 3456 different parties, each of which you have to communicate individually, depending on your use case. And that creates a really high barrier of entry for shippers." - From the Open Tug video
• "So we simplify that we're the first digital marketplace to connect bulk and Breakbulk shippers with transportation and terminal capacity. Customers simply search for their requirements or destinations or cargo and their timeline, they booked that shipment and they track it to their destination." - From the Open Tug video

LINKS:

• Grace's Linktree
• National Geographic’s “Warlords of Ivory”
• Uber Freight
•  Tugboat mug on Everything is Logistics 
• OpenTug
• SSBadger
• BoatNerd
• A Crash Course in Freight AI with Garrett Allen
• Lessons from 15 Years at TQL with Chris Fields
• Tenney Group
• Hubble Network

Feedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.

-----------------------------------------

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interviews powered by SPI Logistics to hear from the company's agents on how they took the entrepreneurial leap.

Shipium is the ML-powered shipping platform built by the executives that created Amazon's supply chain technology. They help 3PL & retail leaders like Stord, Ryder, and Saks Off 5th to reduce shipping costs by an average of 12% while improving on-time delivery.

CargoRex is the logistics industry’s go-to search platform—connecting you with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.

Digital Dispatch manages and maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers.