Staying Ahead of the Brokerage Tech Curve with VP of Tech, Nick Beukema

In this episode of Inside Freight, Fifth Wheel Freight’s VP of Technology, Nick Beukema, shares how technology is transforming the modern freight brokerage. From building proprietary software inside a brokerage to navigating the rapid rise of AI, Nick discusses how logistics companies can stay ahead of the technology curve.

We cover the role of internal tech teams, how brokerages are approaching automation and data infrastructure, and what it takes to implement meaningful tech in a fast-moving logistics environment. If you’re interested in freight tech, logistics innovation, and the future of brokerage technology, this episode is a must-listen.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Our main focus is the thing. So we're we're building out um we're kind of all going towards that goal right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Yeah. We probably don't want to keep that part in.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Because we're not supposed to publicly talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

All right. Well, Nick, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Um, you are VP of Tech here at Fifth Wheel Freight. If you wouldn't mind just starting us off with a little bit about your role, your day-to-day, how you came to Fifth Wheel, just a little of your background. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yeah, I'm Nick. Been here for about two and a half years at this point. My history with Fifth Wheel Freight kind of goes back quite a bit though. We started kind of working together in a consultant role. So I was brought on to help build some custom software here, mainly the CRM and kind of the ability to kind of track sales progress and details there. So I was working at a school district at the time as a software developer and kind of moonlit that opportunity a bit. Worked for probably about three months or so in a part-time way and was able to kind of build out CRM for Fifth Wheel and launched, went great, and then continued to build on it in a part-time capacity. So from there, it was kind of like on and off with Fifth Wheel as uh the years went on. I I worked at a couple of other startups as a software developer and was, you know, we kind of teased around on it a couple of times and like it did what timing wasn't right, or it just like wasn't emphasis for fifth wheel at the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

But this was probably over the span of about six years or so that I worked on and off with them. And at one point, we were kind of looking for this VP of tech role. They asked me to help look for the role because, you know, I I knew the technology profile of Fifth Wheel probably the best. And so, you know, we we were looking out, you know, kind of kind of scoping out some candidates. And then we kind of like were sitting down, putting out the job description and looked at each other, you know, few of us on the the committee, like, wait, what are we doing? Like, could we make this work? And it did make sense. They were um wanting someone to be in a full-time role here for that. And I, yeah, I was excited to kind of come in at the time. I was working at a startup, and and yeah, it just kind of made sense to me for a number of reasons.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

But um, one, just the excitement of what freight and and the freight industry could be. I also saw, so this is in 23. I also saw the technology industry changing quite a bit and wanted to make sure that I uh kind of was ahead of it a bit, making sure like and and saw Fifth Wheel Freight as an amazing opportunity to be able to apply all this new technology that's coming down the pipe in a meaningful way at scale. That was kind of one of the things I I really uh saw coming here, the fifth wheel, and and wanted to kind of embrace.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yeah, love that. Can you talk a little bit about your team's current structure and and what your day-to-day kind of looks like, like you know, without going into detail, sure types of projects you're working on, things like that?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Sure. So we have the internal IT team that's going to be two individuals, and their their main priority is to service the people who are here. Yeah. We want to, you know, make sure that we have that support here. We want to have a friendly face to be able to help when technical issues come up, as well as um a team that's equipped to be able to handle cybersecurity and bringing on new technology and being able to support that in a meaningful way. So that's one area. I also help oversee the data team in the technology aspect. So that's kind of a co-shared uh role with operations. So operations can kind of speak to and lead and derive the like business outcomes. And then I can uh make sure that all of the technology approaches are making sense. Yeah. Data warehouse management, so on, so forth. The third kind of area that I oversee is the software development team. So we have two full-time members on our team here, and then I also partake in software development myself, but those are going to be kind of just custom software development, web development uh professionals. And the main focus is to build proprietary tech here. And yeah, as as you know, we're kind of working our main uh our main focus is the database right now. Yeah. So we're we're building out um and we're kind of all going towards that goal right now.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, we probably don't want to keep that part in because we're not supposed to publicly talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

The part where we talked about cut that.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Um so yeah, the software team is primarily focusing on proprietary technology, and that's comes in a number of flavors, automations, apps that can help and facilitate the reps day and kind of be able to kind of build on that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah. You mentioned a couple years ago noticing that tech was was changing a lot and you try to stay, you know, at the forefront of those changes. What do you do, I guess, personally and professionally, to stay sort of on the front lines of tech changes as they as they come into the business world?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Yeah, it's a good question. It's it's difficult. It's probably, in a way, it's easier than it ever has been, okay, but also harder. Yeah. And I'll kind of I'll kind of unpack that a little bit. So it's easier now because so many people are getting their hands into the onset of AI, being able to use LLMs. Like for the longest time, business professionals were only able to do as much as they could do in Excel. That was kind of their way of building apps in my mind, right? And now you see people are able to build these prototypes and actually like express their ideas in code. And I say prototype with purpose there. That's I still have I've seen quite a few people try to bring something to the fullest extent, and there are still like, how are you gonna host it? What kind of security implications are there? Those kinds of things. But anyways, so it's easier than ever to kind of keep up because there are so many voices in the ecosystem that are trying things out, posting online, posting blogs, videos, um, all kinds of things, projects, things like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Way easier to play around with tech, I guess, for lack of a better way to put it these days.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Yep. The hard aspect is also in that where it's like there's so much noise. There's so much noise. And because it's become more mainstream now, it's more susceptible to like the hype cycle and the hype effect, where it's like, oh, this one person did, you know, built out this set. Like let's use like claude skills, for example. Yeah. Built out a uh Claude skill that goes and manages their calendar and it just goes viral, and it's all the stuff that it's like that already existed somewhere else. There's you know, and and it's just like kind of when the masses get a hold of something, it can just kind of blow out proportion and and people kind of go crazy. So the other thing I don't really know is like how much of the online hype is like real people doing real things and like bots and AI actually like keeping that cycle going. So, anyways, keeping up with a few notable people in the industry who are making progress. We've spoken with all of kind of the the big AI kind of like implementers and agent-based kind of efforts in the freight tech space, seeing kind of like what they're up to and that kind of thing. Yeah. But then also just kind of general networking, conferences, kind of speaking with people who are in different industries that are applying tech in a completely different way, but also probably solving the same exact problems.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

So um that that's probably the major way. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Thanks for listening to Inside Freight by Fifth Wheel Freight, where we break down the logistics topics that matter to brokers, shippers, and carriers. FWF is a third party logistics provider headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, specializing in truckload, LTL, drayage, rail, over dimensional, and expedited freight across the US and Canada. To learn more, visit FWF.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.