Chairman's Message: Breaking Barriers to a More Seamless Industry
New FEDA initiatives to create LTL shipping standards and pilot transportation management systems promise lasting efficiencies for distributors, manufacturers and carriers alike.
By Marc Tell
CEO, Sam Tell Companies
Chairman, FEDA
When I look at all the new partnerships and technology implementations happening around the foodservice equipment and supplies industry, I often find myself wishing I were 20 years younger so that I could see how it will all come together. Much of that progress is a credit to FEDA’s Future of Distribution Council (FDC), which has done more to unite two key segments of the industry in its two years of existence than was accomplished in the past four decades. In addition to structuring work activities that directly address supply chain challenges, we’re also opening doors between dealers and suppliers who truly want to solve industry problems.
Shipping is a great example of where the FDC is making connections to solve real problems. Many dealers don’t want to have to overthink freight — we just want to place an order with our suppliers and have it show up at our warehouse or the customer’s operation on time. But the requirements of today’s complex supply chain mean it’s usually not that easy. For too many years, the industry has struggled with damage during shipment, product tracking and getting freight classifications right.
Our industry needs to do more to address these shipping challenges, which is why I’m looking forward to the FDC’s first initiative for 2026: piloting guidelines for less-than-truckload shipping and handling. For the first time, dealers will have a seat at the table for an open discussion with suppliers and carriers about proper equipment packaging, the materials used and how they are handled during transport. Being able to share our real-world experiences will go a long way toward creating standard procedures that can avoid the kind of damage that results in costly and disruptive returns and replacements.
This initiative also provides a great opportunity to streamline how distributors match equipment to the correct freight classification code. Freight classifications are important to understand because they determine transportation costs for a wide range of foodservice equipment. However, they can be confusing because products like a kitchen vent hood can fit into multiple classifications based on density or other attributes. Misclassifying a product can result in not getting enough insurance on the item or paying too much for freight. But through the FDC, we can work with partners to make freight classification easier. We can also educate them about the critical importance of entering data into the FEDA Data Portal’s freight classification fields, ensuring the availability of verified and uniform freight codes across the supply chain.
It’s hard to solve those shipping problems if we’re not looking at the same information and agreeing on what that information actually means. The second FDC initiative for 2026 will help us get on the same page. A group of FEDA members will be collecting data to evaluate how transportation management systems (TMS) can increase the abilities of distributors, manufacturers and carriers to seamlessly share supply chain and logistics data all the way through delivery. With more accurate and comprehensive data, we’ll be better equipped to pinpoint where issues are originating, giving us a chance to resolve them before they reach our customers. Manufacturers and carriers will also gain a better understanding of how individual dealers operate, which can help them identify areas of overlap and set higher expectations that benefit everybody.
I can’t predict all the solutions that will come out of these two FDC initiatives, but for an industry that has been doing things the same way for 39 years, that uncertainty is exciting. It’s one of the big reasons I’m bullish about 2026. The other is that I’ve seen more activity in the past six months than in the previous 18, as interest rate reductions mean projects that were once on hold are finally moving forward. Combine that uptick with the work going on at FEDA, and dealers are set up for success in a way that hasn’t been seen since the initial recovery from the pandemic.