Brian Cain on Flexible Storage for Midwest Manufacturers

In this episode, host Mark Mann sits down with Brian Cain, Evansville and St. Louis General Manager of Meisler Trailer Rentals, a Warehouse on Wheels brand, to talk about the St. Louis trailer market, product piling up when production stops, fire marshals and safety audits, consolidation overflow, and what a triple net lease adds to the rent. Brian describes the night Toyota called after a broken stamp die shut its plant for about a week, a plastics expansion that WOW supported with containers on site, and an outdoor play equipment distributor that stores its year’s worth of supplies on storage trailers and has never changed buildings.

Key Takeaways

1. A plastics expansion got containers on site and its machines moved out. Brian names the three problems customers bring him most: incoming product piling up when something happens in manufacturing, safety matters such as an internal audit or a fire marshal finding things blocked, and consolidation of other facilities. When a plastics customer ran a large expansion with contractors on site, WOW put containers on site for the construction materials. Machines and products inside the building were loaded onto trailers and taken to an offsite parking lot, which gave everybody more space to move around and work more efficiently.
2. A seasonal distributor stores its year’s supplies on trailers. An outdoor play equipment distributor, selling jungle gyms, basketball goals and soccer goals, orders its year’s worth of supplies in one big order and stores it all on trailers at one of WOW’s parking lots. Through peak demand, WOW brings the trailers back to unload. The company has been at the same address since Brian was a kid and has never changed buildings or added on. By Brian’s account, the model basically doubled the size of its warehouse every year and saved it millions of dollars.
3. Triple net leases put maintenance, taxes and overhead on top of rent. Brian’s whiteboard math starts from the $6.22 a square foot Mark quotes for St. Louis industrial rents. Those warehouses are all triple net leases, so building maintenance, property taxes, parking lot lighting, employees, security and internet come on top, often on a 10-year lease or longer. With a trailer, a customer signs a 30-day agreement and flexes it as needs change. By Brian’s figures, a 450-square-foot trailer rented at approximately $3 a square foot is a 50% saving before any of the building’s hidden costs.
4. A broken Toyota stamp die had Brian at the plant that night. Toyota called around 7:00 or 8:00 at night: a big stamp die had fallen and broken in half, which shut the plant down for about a week. Toyota runs just in time, so suppliers’ and overseas freight was already on the way. Brian dropped everything, headed to the plant and started getting trailers delivered to hold the excess material, keeping domestic freight on WOW’s lot while using as much space as possible for foreign freight, which has different rules and handling. The customer’s first reaction, he says, was relief.
5. Cross-loading overseas containers into trailers cuts demurrage quickly. Brian puts the average demurrage fee for the customers WOW helps at around $200 a day. By his account, a month’s trailer rental costs about what a day or so of demurrage does, so the customer offloads the overseas container onto a WOW trailer and sends the container back to the port quickly. On the yard itself, his advice is organization: empty trailers where empty trailers belong and full trailers where they belong, so the yard truck driver knows where everything is and the dock worker isn’t waiting.

Episode Chapters

Click any timestamp to jump to that section on YouTube.

• 00:00 — Welcome to Evansville and St. Louis
• 03:23 — Space Headaches and a Plastics Expansion
• 06:42 — Seasonal Strategy and Triple Net Leases
• 11:16 — A Hair-on-Fire Night at Toyota
• 14:16 — Partners on the Ground
• 17:29 — The Whiteboard Math
• 20:28 — A Midwest Playbook
• 22:39 — Mannequins and Millions Saved
• 25:20 — Signature Round
• 28:36 — Retiring the Over-the-Road Myth

Transcript

[00:00] Welcome to Evansville and St. Louis

Mark Mann: Welcome back to The Wow Factor. I’m your host, Dr. Mark Mann. This episode of The Wow Factor explores the industrial heartbeat of the Midwest, bridging the gap between the Tri-State area of Indiana and the Gateway to the West. Evansville, Indiana and St. Louis, Missouri are two of the most resilient markets in the Midwest. From the massive automotive production lines at Toyota in Evansville to the aerospace and brewing giants in St. Louis, these cities are the gears that keep the regional economy turning.

Now, we’re seeing a fascinating shift where companies are right-sizing their footprints. They’re moving away from massive fixed leases and toward a more agile and mobile solution. The St. Louis market is currently recalibrating with a vacancy rate of 5.4%, and the team in Evansville has recently achieved milestone utilization, demonstrating the intense demand for flexible storage in these manufacturing hubs. Today’s guest oversees a critical territory that supports global manufacturing giants like Toyota and Boeing. Joining me to talk about managing space across state lines is Brian Cain, the general manager for Meisler Trailer Rentals in Evansville and St. Louis. Brian, welcome to the show.

Brian Cain: Hello, Mark.

Mark Mann: So, Brian, we’re going to dive into the market dynamics, but first we’re going to start with you. You’ve been with the team for six or seven years now. How did you first find your way into this world of warehouses and yards and the rapid-fire logistics of the Tri-State area?

Brian Cain: Yeah, no, I’ve been basically in the trucking and logistics world for about 30 years now, almost. Starting as a mechanic, work my way up, helping out customers along the way, finding solutions, and then help with their challenges.

Mark Mann: Yeah, so your whole career pretty much, right?

Brian Cain: Yeah.

Mark Mann: Yeah, so you manage operations in both Indiana and Missouri. So between the Vanderburgh Industrial Park and the busy docks of, you know, Earth City or Metro East, what does a normal week look like for you?

Brian Cain: Well, I’ll start with, let’s define a normal week. I don’t think we know what normal is. But you know, I have a team of 30 people, constantly shifting needs for my customers. You know, my day ranges from working with my staff over different challenges, coordinating dispatch with the drivers to make sure things get delivered on time, and working closely with my customers to help them with space restrictions. You know, whenever a customer faces an issue, it’s rarely at a convenient time for any of them. So I have to stay pretty flexible and ready to pivot to do whatever needs to be done.

[03:23] Space Headaches and a Plastics Expansion

Mark Mann: Yeah, you guys got a big shop there too, so I’m sure it’s important to stay nimble. Now, St. Louis is currently in the stabilization phase, kind of like I mentioned in the intro. Vacancy rates have climbed, you know, slightly as tenants are consolidating their footprints. Is that right?

Brian Cain: True, yes.

Mark Mann: So when you look at the Evansville and St. Louis markets, then, what are the three biggest space headaches that your customers are bringing to you again and again?

Brian Cain: Yeah, you know, basically three things is that, you know, space is always kind of with a manufacturing. So, if something happens in their manufacturing process or stuff, their incoming products will pile up and space becomes eliminated pretty quick. Another one is usually a safety matter, whether it’s an internal audit that they do or a fire marshal comes in and they got different things blocked and, you know, they’re calling for some help. The third thing is, you know, basically kind of what you just said, consolidation of other facilities. And then the people in the warehouses just have nowhere to put it. And so, then we come in to help out with that.

Mark Mann: Yeah, and I’ve heard stories from some of the other guests about fire marshals coming in and shutting down: until you can get the space clear and these aisles cleared, we’re going to shut you down. Tell me about a recent week in one of your markets, maybe supporting, you know, the plastics expansion there in Evansville or the automotive suppliers in Wentzville, that really shows what happens when space gets tight and the yard starts to back up.

Brian Cain: No, I’m Herb Estrada, absolutely. One of our plastics customers was doing a large expansion. And then with this, they had construction companies, contractors, I mean, all kinds of different people with various projects and everything that they are trying to do. So, we were able to put containers on site to be able to help with the construction materials and anything that they needed to store there.

Along with that, inside the building where they were doing the expansion, there’s a lot of machines, products, and different kind of storage stuff that they, you know, that they had there, and we were able to put trailers in there, get a lot of their stuff loaded on there, and we put it to an offsite parking lot. So, then it just wasn’t in their way, and it let everybody work a lot more freer, have some more space, be able to move around, and, you know, be able to be a lot more efficient.

Mark Mann: Yeah, efficient and effective. You know, I know especially when we talk about plastics, those Gaylords full of those plastic beads are heavy, too.

Brian Cain: Yes.

Mark Mann: Right? There’s a limit on what you can put on a trailer.

Brian Cain: Yes. Yes, and they test that every day.

[06:42] Seasonal Strategy and Triple Net Leases

Mark Mann: Absolutely. So, one of the goals of this podcast is to start moving our listeners from thinking about mobile storage as a short-term band-aid, and start moving them towards thinking about long-term strategy, because a lot of leaders, they see storage still as a temporary fix for a messy yard, and it’s way more than that. So, tell me about an Indiana or Missouri customer where that thinking changed, and they started to treat mobile storage as a core part of their just-in-time plan for the next 5 years.

Brian Cain: Yeah, no, absolutely. So, we got a distribution customer that does your outdoor play equipment, kind of your bigger jungle gyms, or basketball goals, or, you know, soccer goals, or just anything outside. And as you can imagine, it’s very seasonal. They have high points and low points and stuff like that. So, then how they utilized us is that when they start bulking up and they did that big order coming in, they now basically ordered their year’s worth of supplies and stored it all on trailers and stored it off-site at one of our parking lots.

And then throughout their peak demand, we will work with them and get them their trailers, and they’ll unload product and they’ll still keep their operation going. And hence, they have never changed buildings or gotten bigger warehouse, because this year is going to be bigger than last year was smaller. Like, we can flex with that, and they’ve really utilized that a lot.

Mark Mann: Yeah, so it almost sounds like you have a calendar already. There’s a strategy in place where you know when they’re going to be busy and, you know, they’ve already communicated that to you, and you already know what’s going to be going to their location. That’s fantastic.

Brian Cain: Yeah.

Mark Mann: Great. So, industrial rents now in St. Louis have kind of held steady at around $6.22 per square foot, something like that. Walk me through a time when a customer was ready to sign one of these big, expensive, you know, shiny warehouse leases and you helped them compare that to the cost savings of mobile storage instead.

Brian Cain: Yeah, no, you know, Mark, that’s a great point. So, on top of that $6.22 per square foot of a warehouse, don’t forget that these warehouses are all triple net leases. You know, that’s basically to where you don’t have just your normal lease, you also have building maintenance and property taxes and parking lot lighting, and just every single thing that goes into this, not to mention your overhead, furniture, overhead, your employees, your security, your internet, your, you know, everything that goes along with that. That can really drive it all up.

So, we were working with an HVAC company that manufactures the big condensers and AC units and heat units that you would have for different buildings. And then, you know, keep in mind that that $6.22, there’s also that 5% vacancy rate. So, there’s very little available space. So, you’re looking at building something, which also takes a lot more time.

So, you know, with that, what we can do is now with a trailer, you sign a 30-day agreement. We can flex it as your needs go. You don’t have all these overheads, all this square footage that you’re just not using half of the year. And, you know, and you have to sign a 10-year lease or maybe sometimes even longer. So, you know, we’re able to be as flexible as possible, and your building can be, let’s go crazy, a million square foot, or, what, 400 shipping square foot. It can be as big or little as you need it.

Mark Mann: Yeah, and it’s month-to-month. That’s the greatest thing, right? No contract. I mean, come on. It’s a no-brainer.

Brian Cain: Oh, that’s cool.

[11:16] A Hair-on-Fire Night at Toyota

Mark Mann: So, in these mar— Yeah, in these markets, whether it’s a surge in retail orders or a production shift at a major plant, things can break down quickly. Tell me about one of those hair-on-fire moments where maybe a supplier, you know, at the Toyota plant or a retail customer in St. Louis suddenly realized they had zero room for inbound materials. “We need Meisler right now.”

Brian Cain: Well, so one of my more wilder stories, let’s just say it’s, you know, that hair on fire. So, you know, Toyota calls me in the evening after work. It’s like 7:00, 8:00 at night. And then they were losing a big stamp die to stamp out the sides of vehicles. And for whatever reason, it fell and the whole die broke in half. Well, that pretty well shuts down the entire plant. And then also, Toyota has perfected the just-in-time approach. So then they have inbound materials coming in constantly. Well, this shut the plant down for about a week or so.

So then, with that instantly shutting down with no time, you know, to prepare or anything like this, all of their suppliers and all the overseas freight doesn’t have a time to stop. They, you know, they can’t stop. It’s all on the way. So, stuff was coming in. So, we quickly— I dropped everything I was doing at 8:00 at night. I’m heading to the plant where there’s a big meeting, we’re all getting involved. And, you know, they’ve got all this freight coming in. So, I start getting trailers delivered. We start holding all the excess material and stuff.

And then with this, we have domestic and foreign freight. So, the domestic stuff, we have a little more flexibility and we can keep it on our lot to help out, while utilizing as much space as possible for all the foreign freight, because there’s different rules and handling with all the last stuff. So, and as you can imagine, it was pretty wild. So, it was a week to remember.

Mark Mann: Yeah, so what changes for that customer’s efficiency and their blood pressure in the first 48 hours after your team lands the equipment on their lot? What changes for them?

Brian Cain: Oh, it was definitely relief. The fact that they could relax with all the incoming stuff and knew that it was getting taken care of. They could really focus on the most critical need, you know, that they had to do to get them back up and running.

[14:16] Partners on the Ground

Mark Mann: So, in those calls, what separates the customers who recover and grow from the ones who kind of stay stuck in that cycle of fighting the same problems every month? Is it strategy?

Brian Cain: Yeah, yeah, strategy, and then understanding that they’re not alone in this. You know, the customers that we work the best with are the customers that really let us in to help them out. Whenever they have an issue, they know that we can step in and help out, and it just relieves them of that pressure to be able to focus on different things.

Mark Mann: Yeah, it’s a real partnership. So, let’s stay on that topic. Let’s talk about the people on the ground. I’m sure there are warehouse managers or logistics supervisors that you’ve really built a good relationship with. Think about your favorite warehouse manager customer. How does having 50 or 100 Meisler trailers quietly make that person’s day safer and more productive when the docks are full?

Brian Cain: Yeah, so, you know, we have a large customer that obviously likes to run lean. You know, they want to try to run with as few as possible, try to maximize efficiency everywhere that they can. Well, you can imagine for the warehouse manager that it can get tight and, you know, boots on the ground, it gets a little dicey. You know, me and him has become, you know, really good friends. So, whenever he gets tight, he knows that we have a bulk of trailers just sitting waiting for him. So then I’ll get a call, or sometimes I just get a text like, “Hey Brian, I need some help. I need some trailers. You know, I’ll be over here now.” So, you know, I’m able to get him trailers right now, and then, you know, he feels safe that I’m going to be there and then we’re going to provide for him.

Mark Mann: Yeah, one thing I have heard about you is that you’re in the field a lot. You are with your customers when you can be. Has there ever been a time where you’ve been at a customer’s place of business and you’ve even had maybe a forklift driver or a yard supervisor who’s just kind of said something to you like, “Man, Brian, these trailers have completely changed how we manage our inbound flow”?

Brian Cain: Yeah, so I was there, talking to the guys, talking to the manager, and had a couple warehouse guys coming up, and this was right after one of those text messages, you know, like, “Hey, I need some trailers,” and I got them over there. I had one of the floor guys come over and say, “Hey, thanks for bringing all those trailers.” Like, he was super excited. He’s just like, “I was starting in the back of and didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t realize that he called you and asked for trailers yet anyway, cuz I was head down in the moment going for it.” And he was just super thankful that all of a sudden, “My zone trailers work. I’m not in—” and, you know, he had that relief. It was nice.

[17:29] The Whiteboard Math

Mark Mann: That’s great. So, let’s take off your GM hat for a second and put on your CFO hat. All right, let’s get into the whiteboard math of all this. You mentioned all the things that come along with a warehouse lease, you know, the overtime, the utilities, you know, security, all of those extras. Without naming names, tell me about a customer who saw a clear financial impact on their overtime or even demurrage cost by switching to a drop trailer model.

Brian Cain: Yeah, so, you know, the demurrage thing, you bring that up. That is usually, if a customer is challenged with that, that is one of the easiest whiteboards that we can really pull out, because the average demurrage fee for the customers that we help out, it’s in the realm of like 200 bucks a day. So, as you can imagine, that really jacks up a price pretty quick.

So, whenever we can offer you a trailer that basically our month rental, or between the rental fee, is basically a day or so, it’s really a no-brainer. He’s able to offload that overseas container and put it onto our trailer, and then get that container and send it back to the port quickly, to where he doesn’t have all these other fees. And that there really helps out. You know, and then that’s quick. I mean, and that’s where the black and white.

Mark Mann: Yeah, I mean, $200 a day. For $200 you can get a 450 square foot dry van and a box of, you know, Dunkin’ Donuts.

Brian Cain: That’s a lot.

Mark Mann: For that. So, for the month. Yeah. So, yeah, that’s a big savings. So, if a supply chain VP, let’s say, asked for a simple way to compare a St. Louis warehouse lease to a mobile storage plan, how would you walk them through those hidden savings?

Brian Cain: Yeah, so real quick, just like off the, you know, basically off the top: the warehouse, we were saying, is your $6.22 a square foot. Whenever we put a trailer with 450 square foot, and we’re renting our trailer at approximately $3 a square foot. So, you got a 50% savings just on building to the trailer. That doesn’t include, for the building, all the extra hidden costs that, you know, I was talking about. All the people and internet, utilities and, you know, all that other stuff. It doesn’t even put into that factor. I need a forklift driver to put it on the trailer. And that’s it.

[20:28] A Midwest Playbook

Mark Mann: That’s it. Easy. Like I said, it’s a no-brainer. So, let’s give our listeners that Midwest playbook. If a warehouse manager in Evansville or St. Louis is out of space and out of budget today, what is the first step that you would tell them to take before they call you?

Brian Cain: Yeah, so every day is a firefight. It’s real. It’s challenging. There is this scenario, I mean, you know, all the time. So, you know, what I would tell them is, you know, I always like the detach, you know, kind of mentality. You know, basically stand up, look around, and evaluate. So, let’s figure out, you know, what our challenge is. What are the restrictions? What are the options? And list all those things out and figure out what we can do to make things happen.

But, you know, you always need to understand what’s your end goal. What’s the main thing? Because, you know, I always like to say, keep the main thing the main thing. And then you don’t tend to get down the rabbit hole. So, I would understand the main thing, figure out what your options are, and we can go from there.

Mark Mann: So, what simple yard or dock changes have you seen your best customers make once they start using trailers that other customers maybe should start copying immediately?

Brian Cain: Yeah, you know, organization. Lot organization is key. To have your certain product in certain places, have empty trailers where empty trailers are supposed to be, have full trailers where they’re supposed to be. Just kind of have everything in its place. And that truly helps efficiency. It helps you run, you know, it just helps you operate smoother. The yard truck guys knows where everything is. Your dock worker’s not sitting around waiting for the yard guy to dig out whatever trailer he needs to go. The more organized that you can make it, definitely the better the life will be.

[22:39] Mannequins and Millions Saved

Mark Mann: Absolutely. So, a lot of your customers are industrial suppliers or retail. But, as you know, these 450 square foot boxes can be used for almost anything. What would you say is the most strange or unusual use case for our trailers in your market?

Brian Cain: Huh. So, I still think pretty funny. I get surprised every day in this stuff. But so then, you know, the retail space. So, I was not ready for this, and then we pop our merch— you know, I was working with a customer and they popped open a door to, you know, to unload it. And I look in there and there is a whole mountain of little eyeballs looking at me. It’s all mannequins.

So, it was a retail store, one of the big anchor stores on the mall. Well, for whatever reason, they put all the mannequins in one trailer, and it’s not like they were used. So, there wasn’t break down in it or in a box there. All standing there, all bones looking, you know, just looking real happy. And I was just kind of taken aback on that one. That has to be about the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in a trailer.

Mark Mann: And a little bit creepy.

Brian Cain: Yeah, it was.

Mark Mann: That’s funny. So, I’ve heard stories from your colleagues who’ve told me that they’ve been able to save customers millions of dollars a year by offering, you know, a couple hundred dry vans for storage instead of that big shiny warehouse space. What’s the best problem-solving or cost-saving story in your market?

Brian Cain: Yeah, so back to one of my original stories with the outdoor play equipment people. With the way that they flex their very seasonal demand, it’s— so they had a move buildings, and, I mean, I remember this company being here whenever I was a kid, at the same address, same location, and they’ve never added on. They’ve been using this model with a riser for years. And we saved them basically millions of dollars. We doubled the size of their warehouse every year. So, basically, if they had to build a whole another warehouse the same size, but they never had.

And they’ve been able to utilize this even in down, you know, let’s just say a downturn economy, where they don’t need as much space, or that year that everything blows up and everybody gets a trampoline. You know, it really helps out.

[25:20] Signature Round

Mark Mann: That’s great. All right, Brian, it’s time for the signature round. Going to get personal here. So, let’s start with you, not the title. What was the moment where you thought to yourself, “Yeah, this is my world. Warehouses, yards, trailers, the Midwest hustle”?

Brian Cain: Yeah, so me personally, by nature, I am an out-of-the-box thing or mission thinker. You know, I’ll tend to look at a challenge and I come up with kind of your not common ideas, because we all have restrictions and budgets and space and all these other things. So, you know, that is really what excites me. I’ll come up with your not so common solutions, and people just look at me like I just solved a riddle that they’ve been working with for years. And that really brings me excitement and makes me feel valuable, and that’s really just kind of what I look for, I guess.

Mark Mann: Yeah, as I interview you guys, I’m finding out you are all really great problem solvers. It’s amazing. So, when you get home and shut down for the night, what pulls you away from this world of storage and freight and space? What do you do to reset, and how does that help you show up the next week for your team?

Brian Cain: Yeah, so outside of work, I mean, you know, basically, it’s family, sports, and Scouts. Life is busy. I love seeing my kids succeed and, you know, do better in school, do better in sports. And then, you know, I also love scouting. I love to teach the youth to be a better person, to be a better partner in the community. And then, at different events and things, I’ll just see them grow, or watch them grow up and keep doing better. So, yeah, it’s really what basically humbles me.

Mark Mann: It’s all about that Soap Box Derby, man.

Brian Cain: Oh, I’m telling you, I love it.

Mark Mann: So, I want you to think about the best boss or mentor you’ve ever had. What’s the one thing that they said to you that you now find yourself repeating to your folks there in Evansville or St. Louis?

Brian Cain: Yeah, so, you know, always be supporting. So, you know, we’re all never perfect. But the thing that he does for me is, you know, it’s not a negative bash. It’s, you know, always supporting. I’m trying to do my best, but we all make mistakes. So, it’s just like, you know, he’s very calm and, you know, talks to me and helps me understand where my point of view was coming and kind of where my point of view should have been coming from. And, you know, we just continually get better and better and better, and it’s really formed me into the person that I am. And I am getting to the point to where I am now mentoring others. And I think back, what would he do? You know, so it’s always that: always be supporting.

[28:36] Retiring the Over-the-Road Myth

Mark Mann: Yep, be supportive. Great advice. So, this has been a really enlightening tour of the Gateway Connection. What would you say is one myth about storage trailers that you hope we can retire after this episode?

Brian Cain: Well, you know, that trailers are not— or semi trailers are not just trailers that go up and down the road from coast to coast. They really are a flexible storage option. Like, they are really a solution for the warehousing world. Yeah, so, I mean, they are not just the over-the-road big boxes going up and down the road.

Mark Mann: Absolutely. For anyone listening who is kind of feeling the squeeze, what’s the one thing they should do this week?

Brian Cain: Look at your, you know, look at your options and think outside of the box. Don’t always look for the easy answer. You know, be innovative and find your different out-of-the-box solutions.

Mark Mann: And if they’re in Evansville or St. Louis, they should call Meisler Trailer Rental, right?

Brian Cain: Absolutely.

Mark Mann: Yeah, give Brian a call. You can also find him at www.warehouseonwheels.com. If you need the space in any one of those areas, Brian and his highly qualified team can help you out. Brian Cain, general manager at Meisler Trailer Rentals, thank you for showing us the wow factor in the Midwest.

Brian Cain: Thanks.

Mark Mann: That’s it for this week, guys. I’m Dr. Mark Mann, and we’ll see you on the next episode of The Wow Factor.