Women in Logistics: Lauren Gibbons
Lauren is the beating heart of REPOWR. She was the fifth hire and trained every person on the operations team. If you have worked with us before you have certainly worked with her. Day to day she maintains supplier relationships and helps them manage their equipment through REPOWR.
There is not a better way to kick off Women’s History Month (and International Women’s Day) than to chat with our own legendary VP of Operations, Lauren Gibbons!
How did you get your start in the logistics industry?
I started working at Coyote Logistics in 2015 as an Open Deck Carrier Sales Rep. I fell in love with logistics, as we all do! After a year and half, I switched roles to become the New Hire Trainer for all of Coyote's Southeast offices. I loved teaching new hires about the business, but what gave me the most joy was seeing them succeed. To this day, I love to see their growth in any role, at any company. A few years later, I started as a Development Partner where I helped build and deliver training material on modes other than traditional OTR freight. From there I worked at RTI to help develop their training program and culture. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the REPOWR team (of four at the time) and fell in love.
Can you tell us about REPOWR and all that you do here?
I manage our supplier relationships (but that took a while to get to a simple, one sentence answer). The long answer is working with suppliers and helping them find opportunities. All enterprise fleets have trailers that sit idle longer than they want and in places they don’t need them. Connecting suppliers to carriers (large and small) that can utilize and reposition those trailers is the core of my role at REPOWR. Seeing REPOWR grow as an early employee has given me such pride and respect for anyone who works at a startup, but mostly for anyone who has the GUTS to actually start and follow through. I dip my toes in a lot of different departments at REPOWR and I love it all. REPOWR is a rocket that isn't stopping!
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the logistics industry?
The freight market dictates all aspects of logistics and no one can control it. That is the biggest challenge. Instead of waiting for an answer that will never come, REPOWR is helping everyone in logistics keep going when otherwise they wouldn't. I hope that Owner Ops, carriers of all sizes, and shippers will turn to REPOWR instead of giving up. We are here to support everyone!
What is the biggest challenge you see your supplier partners face?
Equipment is left in areas where "trailers go to die" and they have to either pay someone or bobtail a driver to get it. Both are less than ideal situations. REPOWR is here to help talk through those challenges, try new things, and work on ongoing solutions together that can eliminate out of pocket costs.
How has REPOWR helped your supplier partners with those challenges?
We are always willing to talk through ideas. We want to be a soundboard for suppliers and renters. Our goal is to help the industry as a whole. Some fun examples from the last year:
setting up storage trailers for a shipper so that they didn’t have to tie up carrier equipment
helping an enterprise fleet move trailers out of California when they closed a terminal
sourcing 20 last minute trailers for a carrier to take over a project they were awarded early
working with brokers to help them grow a customers drop and hook business
Can you share specific examples or outcomes?
My favorite example is when one of our enterprise level suppliers needed a significant number of reefer trailers for a project. We were able to coordinate a REPOWR reservation with another large enterprise fleet. One company was able to get paid for their idle trailers while the other was able to service a new project. Both companies were able to succeed and REPOWR helped make that happen.
What are you most excited about for the logistics industry?
I am excited to show the entire industry what REPOWR can do for them; especially when it seems like there are people telling every carrier that the market won't get better for a while. To bring it full circle, I want to see our suppliers and carriers succeed and flourish like new hires did when I was a trainer. Helping the logistics and supply chain industry helps LITERALLY every person in the world.
Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn.
