Walmart’s Rosser sees company culture as driving force for top retailer’s logistics success

As senior vice president of transportation for the world’s biggest retailer, Tracy Rosser relies on the company’s three basic beliefs to achieve supply chain success for Bentonville, AK-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. In his 18th year with Walmart, Rosser is also committed to ensuring that the megaretailer’s tagline – “Save money. Live better.” – is integral to the process of transportation. Whether through execution and efficiencies in its private trucking fleet or extensive use of intermodal rail, Rosser is strategically positioning Walmart to reduce transportation expenditures and pass the savings along to the more than 140 million customers who shop at its U.S. stores in a typical week. In an exclusive interview with the American Journal of Transportation, Rosser shares these business insights plus offers a glimpse at his role as a father and husband. I know you are committed to the Walmart culture, as it were. What makes this so special? It’s not just a tagline on the wall. It’s what we believe. It’s how we operate. Walmart’s three basic beliefs drive everything our team does at Walmart Transportation.

Service to our customers, striving for excellence and respect for the individual – those are things that are extraordinarily important to the company. I think it’s kind of a secret sauce that enables us to be successful, doing everything with a high degree of integrity. It’s really the driving force of everything we do. I tell my folks, as you make decisions, just run it through the filter of our three basic beliefs and you’re probably going to be making the right decision. How has your background at the store and regional management levels helped you in developing companywide transportation strategies for Walmart? I’ve been with Walmart just over 17 years, after nine years in the trucking industry. Right after graduating from the University of Alabama, I started working for Poole Truck Line [now part of Schneider National Inc.] in Evergreen, Ala., doing everything one could do at a trucking company. I came to Walmart in 1997 and started in our private fleet trucking operations. I used to be responsible early on for our trucking operations in the western half of the U.S. when we were a much smaller company. Then I was given the opportunity to manage a distribution center in South Carolina for a couple of years before moving back to Bentonville and leading our U.S. inbound transportation operations. In that role, I was responsible for moving merchandise from our supplier base to our distribution center network. Next I had the opportunity to work in store operations, so my family and I relocated to New Orleans, where I was responsible for our store operations in Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. Overall, I have more than six years of pretty intensive store operations business experience. About a year ago, I had the great opportunity to move back to Bentonville to lead our Transportation Division. Our team is responsible for vendor-to-distribution center moves from around the world, so it includes global transportation of freight that originates at our vendors located anywhere around the world, shipping to other markets via ocean carriers. Then, once the freight arrives, we are responsible for the customs brokerage side of the business, which we call our direct import operations, and, from there, our inbound transportation operations team moves the freight from domestic vednors to our distribution centers. We buy transportation services across all modes. We utilize the rail extensively, LTL [less-than-truckload] and truckload carriers, consolidation networks, etc. We also operate a private fleet that consists of just over 7,000 drivers, 6,000 tractors, 50,000 trailers. We service all facets of the company, Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club, Walmart.com and any other needs the company has domestically. In the low-margin world of retailing, saving on transportation costs is obviously critical, and, therefore, it must be particularly essential for the world’s largest retailer. What are some of the ways in which Walmart is helping drive down logistics costs? I think it all goes back to understanding the culture of the company. First and foremost, we strongly believe in our purpose of saving people money so they can live better. We feel like we are an advocate for the customer. I really had my eyes opened to that even more so when I was supporting our stores and engaging with customers firsthand. Our model is to operate for less so we can sell for less and help our customers save money. When I was working in the stores, I had the opportunity to serve a customer base in some pretty low-income areas. I spent a lot of time getting to know our customers and their needs. I’ll tell you a penny means a lot to our customers. So we fight for our customers. We do that through our logistics network. At the end of the day, we feel like the more we can work together with our vendors, our merchants, , etc., to help find efficiencies in our logistics network, the more we can take cost out of moving product, and the more we can pass those savings along to our customers. That’s how we spend our days. That’s one of our core focuses: finding ways to save money by leveraging our logistics network. We look at things like investing in technology that helps us route our trucks more efficiently. We spend a lot of time listening to our drivers and shop associates – who I think are the backbone of our logistics network – on how to operate more efficiently and more safely. We’re focused on delivering more cases across fewer miles. We set a goal in 2005 of doubling our fleet operating efficiency by 2015, and we’re almost 80 percent of the way there. Being an EDLC – everyday low cost – operator drives how we allocate resources and it drives the work that we do. How is operating its own trucking fleet a key to Walmart’s supply chain success? I’m a little partial here, but I think we have the world’s best truck drivers, the world’s best shop associates and the best leadership team. If you took the fleet and thought of it as a trucking company, I think we’ve got the best trucking operators in the world. It’s just a world-class organization. With 7,400 drivers, 6,000 tractors and 50,000 trailers, the private fleet supports not only distribution-to-store shipments, but also supports the inbound, domestic, consolidation, import and reverse logistics networks. Safety and service is first and foremost with our private fleet. We view the fleet as a huge strategic advantage for Walmart. By providing a high level of service we can increase our productivity and in-stock in our stores. In times of crisis, we can position our private fleet so we canand turn it on a dime to respond quickly to service our customers and communities in ways I don’t think our competitors can do.

Increasingly, Walmart is relying upon intermodal rail for transportation. What advantages does this facilitate? We have great partners who help us with our mission. We could not do what we do without great vendor relationships, both on the store merchandise side as well as the services side. We really value those vendor relationships. We rely on ocean carriers, port facilities, the railroads and trucking companies to help move freight through our networks. We move a significant amount of freight on the railroads. It’s a great cost strategy, but environmentally it’s just the right thing to do as well. You clearly have a demanding job, but, hopefully, you find a little time for recreation and relaxation. What might we find you doing when you’re not at work? Faith and family are very important to me. I’ve got a great wife, Laura. You can’t do what you do in this business and move around as much as we’ve moved without the support of a great wife. She’s a Penn Stater and has a logistics background. That’s how we met, in the world of logistics years ago. We’ve got two daughters, Maggie and Rachel, who are 13 and 11 [respectively]. Their interests kind of fluctuate, but soccer and dance are two of the things my daughters really enjoy. I feel like my job right now and my responsibility to them is to be involved in anything they have interest in and help cultivate that interest.