Rolina Camello With Trans International Trucking Inc.

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:20] Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Rolina Camello with Trans International Trucking. Welcome.

Rolina Camello: [00:00:33] Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:36] Well, before we get too far to things, tell us about trans international trucking. How are you serving, folks?

Rolina Camello: [00:00:42] So what we do is we do container drainage. So all those containers at the Port of L.A. and Long Beach, those big ships that are there, our trucks go in and we pull those containers out. We bring them to local distribution centers here in Southern California.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:55] Now, for the people who aren’t super familiar with supply chain and logistics, can you explain the importance to that activity you’re doing and just the activity in and around transportation that a lot of people don’t realize the importance of it. And I think they’re kind of the unsung heroes of this economy.

Rolina Camello: [00:01:17] Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of us seem seeing that in the in the media this over this last year after the pandemic. But the importance is that it’s not quite the end of the of the the supply chain, the end route, but it’s the major point where the containers are going to the warehouses. And from the warehouses they pull the freight off. And the commodities that we’re moving is anywhere from clothing, apparel to important items like, you know, essential goods that we need to have on the shelf for retail. So it all kind of plays a part in this. That’s why they call it supply chain. So we’re part of that chain of bringing the containers to the warehouse distribution centers. So it’s very important. It’s very vital because there’s a lot of different regulations to that we have to pull through to stay operating here at the Port of L.A. and Long Beach.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:11] And it’s one of those things where it’s just very complex. A lot of folks touch each thing and it all has to kind of work seamlessly so the consumer gets their what they’re looking for in an efficient manner. And it just it’s this remarkable dance that I just don’t feel like people understand how hard it is to do because it looks so easy when you just show up at your store and there’s always the thing you want on the shelf.

Rolina Camello: [00:02:36] Correct? Correct. And there’s there’s a lot of challenges that come into play. You know, a lot of things could happen. And right now, the inventories are so high, which is actually a good thing. But the volumes that we’re seeing coming in from Asia is very low. But yes, we do play a very intricate part. There still is another part where we do and we also trans international does this part of the transportation to where we have trucks that pull from the distribution centers to the actual store door. So we actually do deliveries like to the Coles and to the Rosses of the world for retail.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:13] And what’s your story? How did you get involved in this line of work? It’s fascinating.

Rolina Camello: [00:03:18] So very fascinating. And I actually started just as a job doing data entry for a trucking company here in Long Beach. And it was so interesting to me. I grew up in Long Beach and I saw the port structure grow from a kid going to high school out here. And I just kept staying with it. I did different jobs within the trucking company. I took a global logistics specialist course at Cal State University, Long Beach, and realized that, wow, it’s not just dredge. There’s a whole supply chain of different things that happen. And I just found it so fascinating that I made it my career. And I’ve been here for about 23 years plus in the industry. But that’s how I started. I started just doing data entry and then customer service and then working my way up.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:04] Now, how have you seen the industry evolve? Because it’s probably not your grandfather and grandmother’s supply chain as it was when you were starting out.

Rolina Camello: [00:04:16] Right, Right. Well, it’s very interesting, you know, how the containerization changed and the Pacific, East and West trade out of Asia. It really started to get its boom in the eighties. I see. Just by some of the studies that I did. And they started to realize, you know, all these steamship lines started building bigger ships and bigger vessels. And as they started building, so did the port structure grow? And if you go over the bridge there, you can see there’s it’s just an ocean almost of containers everywhere. And I believe that, you know, as as as the global economy started to grow, so did the ocean freight. And so it just kind of took off from there.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:58] And when more when the ships were putting more and more containers on them, then they had the ports had to dig deeper and deeper. Right. Like this was kind of a domino effect. If you want bigger boats, then you have to have bigger ports to handle that size of of a ship.

Rolina Camello: [00:05:17] Yeah. And and believe it or not, they’re still working. They’re still dredging more space to offload more container ships. I mean, that that I think is going to be an evolution that never changes. Now the terminals are working on automation just so that they can operate more efficiently. So it’s really come a long way. There’s been tremendous growth in just over the last few years, you know, having the influx of many vessels calling at the terminal at once and being able to handle all those container moves, you know, I think we’ve kind of seen the need even more and we’re really still working on the infrastructure as well. But yeah, it’s it’s definitely, definitely an ever evolving industry challenges every day. And that’s, I think, one of the reasons why I stay in this industry. You know, never a dull moment.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:08] Now on the boats are those containers that like every container kind of goes on to an 18 wheeler chassis so that it could be sent. How many containers can fit on on some of these large vessels?

Rolina Camello: [00:06:25] Some of them are about 8000 to 10000 we call them t use, which is a 20 equivalent unit or a 40 to 40 equivalent unit. So a lot of these vessels are about 8500 or even 10,000. We even have some that are up to 18,000, not too many of them. But yet we they can go up to bigger than the Eiffel Tower.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:51] And it’s one of those things if you’ve ever had the opportunity at a port to see one of those ships coming in, it just boggles the mind how many containers there are. It just the size is just it’s just difficult to really imagine unless you see it with your eyes and then just look at that. That’s going to turn, you know, all that’s going to hit a highway somewhere or hit a warehouse somewhere. And it’s just crazy the amount of goods that are transported this way.

Rolina Camello: [00:07:20] Yeah, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:21] Now, for your work, who is your ideal customer? Who? Who are you good partners with?

Rolina Camello: [00:07:29] So there’s a variety of different partners that that trucking company who does drainage and over the road works with primarily we we always like to work directly with the with the shipper or we call it the BCL, the beneficial cargo owner. But we we have relationships with them as customers. But another partner that’s very strategic for us is also the steamship lines. They already have the relationship with the BCOs and they’re also helping what they call door deliveries. So they’ll orchestrate and communicate with us and have us pick up the container for them and bring it to their customers door or to the warehouse. So it’s kind of between those two. And then there’s also another party, which is a freight forwarder, and they actually contract freight as a third party through the steamship lines. And so they can also be a customer of ARDS as well. So it kind of gets a you know, there’s a broad spectrum of folks that we work with that need their containers delivered. And usually, you know, it filters right down to the VCO, which is why that’s those are our major players.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:35] Now, for you personally, as your career was starting to blossom, did you get involved in any trade associations or business associations to kind of immerse yourself in the industry?

Rolina Camello: [00:08:46] Yes, I did. In fact, that was that was one of the the key things that kind of opened my eyes to so many different facets of the industry. And the first trade association that I signed up for was the Los Angeles Transportation Club. And I’ve always been a big believer on staying involved in a lot of these social networks and associations because you you meet other colleagues in your field as well as others that are in other fields, and you learn about their challenges and we start to work together. And I feel that from right now in 2022 compared to 1998, we’ve opened up our eyes and we are all working together as a team to try to have the cargo move fluidly and try to help each other, help each other, if that makes any sense. But I’ve always been big on pushing folks to come to these meetings, learn about what each other is doing, learn about what challenges are ahead, and then also learn about each other’s successes and how we can operate our business more efficient.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:47] Yeah, I think that’s great advice, especially to young people that are new to an industry. It’s such a wonderful way to kind of learn more about the industry and also demonstrate some leadership by getting involved in volunteering and meeting colleagues that could help you get your next job or, you know, just really influence your path in your career.

Rolina Camello: [00:10:11] Yeah, absolutely. And and that’s kind of what happened. And through the years, I’ve made some really great friends, great connections and business connections as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:20] So now in the association you’re a member of today, are you taking up leadership positions like what’s your roles in them?

Rolina Camello: [00:10:30] So, so now I’m involved in the FTA, which is a foreign trade association, one of the board of directors for that that conglomerate. And they’re there primarily of customs house brokers. So they handle all of the legalities of cargo that’s moving from overseas here and then also export and import side so that this organization that I just became involved in over the last few years and it’s been kind of it hasn’t there hasn’t been a lot of activity because we’ve all been working from home. So there’s been a lot of Zoom calls meeting with the team. But, you know, they’re a great organization for me. I’ve learned so much about some of the challenges that they have overseas with factories and such and what Customs is doing as far as clearing cargo and things like that. Another association that I’m involved with in I am not a board of directors, but I’m a very active member, is the Harvard Trucking Association that that organization is a key player for you if you are in the drug business. And it’s because they they do a lot of of battling for us over rules and regulations that we don’t even know about that’s coming our way. You know, I hear there’s there’s about 100 new laws passing monthly, almost four against our trade, and we don’t even know about them. So it’s very good to stay involved and keep our company abreast of what challenges are ahead so that we can make sure that we operate efficiently.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:00] Yeah, that’s a key point that a lot of these associations are advocating for the people that are doing the work in the industry because sometimes politicians are making rules and laws that impact your industry and they don’t really understand maybe the full scope of the ramifications of some of those rules and laws.

Rolina Camello: [00:12:21] Yeah, absolutely. And, and, and that’s another thing that I do too. Besides the being involved in the association is I’ll meet with other colleagues weekly just to touch base and educate them on what I’m experiencing here. And we have some challenges ahead of us. We have a new car ruling coming out where they will ban trucks that are 2010 and older out of the Portobello and Long Beach, which is going to drop about 30% of capacity. And that’s just around the corner. So a lot of folks don’t know about that. And so, you know, just a lot of educating and just cross-referencing to find out like what you’re doing about it. Do you have the right key players in place so that you can continue to operate efficiently through these challenges?

Lee Kantor: [00:13:05] Yeah, education is so important and it’s also you have to get ahead of these things because I see it so many times that that rule is passed or regulation is passed and they don’t understand the unintended consequences of that. You know, a couple of years down the road and then all of a sudden everybody’s scrambling and they’re like, how did this happen? You know, it could be one sentence in a big, you know, legal proceeding that happened. And all of a sudden now it’s a fire drill for everybody.

Rolina Camello: [00:13:36] Right. And one of the things to Lee about being ahead of the curve is that there’s also incentives in play for those who who want to be ahead of the curve. Ev trucks is another big term that we’ve been all dancing around here over the last year. Electric trucks. Years ago, it was LNG. It keeps getting more and more complex and we have a big goal to hit zero emission here in the next five years. So, you know, I always find it fascinating educating myself so that I can educate my team here at Trans International and what regulations are coming up and then what options do we have for electric vehicles and electric trucks And then how is that infrastructure going to look? How is it going to roll out? What days and what locations are they looking at, putting this infrastructure in place? So there’s a lot of things that you can do. And I feel like knowledge is key and it’s it’s almost like you’re investigating every day on on what new things that you can do and what things you can take advantage of as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:38] Now, what other trends do you see kind of moving ahead in the trucking world? You mentioned electronic vehicles. What are you seeing any of these autonomous vehicles popping up or is this kind of still a science fiction dream?

Rolina Camello: [00:14:53] You know what, it’s funny you mention that. I was just talking to a colleague yesterday and it is very real. I’m not sure the rollout date. I know there’s a good handful of people that are for it just for for safety reasons and also because capacity. I my opinion might be a little bit jaded on that. I mean, you hear what’s going on with Tesla and their, you know, automated driving system and it’s just I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but I don’t think that’s something that we that’s pie in the sky. I think it will it will come to pass. It’s something that that I think it’s inevitable and there’s lots of different ways to use that automation. It could be just on a local move or, you know, something to that nature. There’s a lot of the rigs at the terminals that run automated and they move containers and there’s nobody even in the truck driving it. And that happens now through, I believe it’s Magnetic Technologies.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:51] Now, what about the kind of driver shortage you been hearing a lot of that. Is there some room in that area for some solutions that can alleviate some of that?

Rolina Camello: [00:16:04] You know what? That’s I think the driver shortage problem is something that I’ve seen throughout my last 20 years in this industry. We’ve always had difficulties keeping drivers and retaining drivers, fighting to get the drivers paid properly and things to that nature. It’s always something that a lot of people are now thinking drivers and we have driver appreciation days and such, but it’s always been a challenge to keep drivers and to bring new drivers into the community. One of the hopes that I’ve heard out there with my associations is that with these new electric vehicles and newer truck models, it’s a lot different, right? It’s not like riding your normal diesel truck. And so it makes it a lot, I guess, a lot more attractive for younger drivers to step into the seat and take up that gig.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:54] Now, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Rolina Camello: [00:16:59] You know what I would say? Nobody really knows who trans international is, and I’m trying to market my company. A lot of people don’t know who we are. We’ve been in business for 25 years, but we’ve been very busy with our customers that we’ve had long term relationships with. And we’re ready to grow. We’re going to be starting up a new operation out in Houston, Texas, and Savannah, as well as we see continual container growth and movement out that way. So just marketing and telling folks about trans international trucking and in what we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:34] And then if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website.

Rolina Camello: [00:17:41] Our website is w ww dot trans i n. T. T r. U c k. I and g. So that’s trans int trucking dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:54] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Rolina Camello: [00:17:59] Thank you so much, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:01] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on Association Leadership Radio.