535: Experience A New Industry Standard In The Yard, with Terminal Industries

Darin Brannan talks about Terminal Industries & what they do; building the industry's only Yard Operating System; & reinventing the future of logistics. IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: [03.25] An introduction to Darin, his background, the recipe for business success that led to the founding of Terminal, and why Top Gun might just have inspired his University degree. "I started, deep in Silicon Valley, as a VC investing in start-ups. And there was a point at which it looked like it could be more fun across the table as an entrepreneur, taking big ideas and revolutionizing the industry." [08.59] What Darin has learned from advising and investing in companies at the intersection of AI, logistics, and vertical SaaS, and the power of being AI native. "These businesses are disruptive. We're delivering products that are 10 to 20 times the capabilities of the market, at half to one third of the price, with one third of the deployment time, that are three times easier to use." [12.39] The big inhibitors to success in the yard logistics market, why SaaS doesn't work, and an overview of Terminal Industries – who they are, what they do, and how they help their customers. "There's been a massive adoption problem with technology in the yard logistics sector. It's a headscratcher given it represents a third of all supply chain movement! Why is yard logistics such a laggard?" "We're on a bold mission to make goods flow better, faster, cheaper and cleaner every single day. It will help businesses thrive, and consumers live better." [17.18] Why Terminal is 'not a typical start-up,' and why a commitment to co-creation with industry sets them apart. [21.18] The ideal customer for Terminal Industries. [23.36] The biggest challenges in yards right now, and how the issue of yard blindness and fragmentation is creating big problems downstream. [27.32] How Terminal reinvented a customer's yard logistics and reduced check-in time from 14 minutes to 34 seconds, which in turn had a transformative downstream effect in the warehouse, and a closer look at the modular, configurable, AI-native yard operating system that makes it possible. "It was designed with industry titans for high velocity complex sites all the way down to mini sites… And it's end-to-end, which is unlike any system in the market." "Fancy tech is great, but it's all about solving problems in an economical way." [34.16] The difference between a Yard Operating System and a Yard Management System, and why the Yard Operating System is the future of logistics. "The minute a new transformational wave comes out, the incumbents say 'we're just going to bolt that on.' Within the last 12 months, every SaaS company has said they're agentic. But 99% of them are just bolting a chatbot onto their system." [41.00] A case study detailing how Terminal helped a big customer, that was losing 15% of their gate and yard capacity leading to big costs and downstream impacts, improve throughput and accuracy, boost gate capacity, reduce costs and improve employee experience, delivering three to six times ROI within 12 months. "A lot of what we sell is change management. How do you go from how you did things in the past to how you're going to do them in the future? It has to make people's day better and make them champions, and have a real cost benefit – not in three years, but in 12 months." [47.01] Terminal's focus for 2026, and the next big transformation they're driving for yard logistics in the future.   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED: Head over to Terminal Industry's website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Terminal and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) or YouTube, or you can connect with Darin on LinkedIn. Check out our other podcasts HERE.