Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast

Inside Talaria: Transporting Cannabis and Cash with Ari Raptis

• John Farquhar & Chris Harris • Season 2 • Episode 99

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Transporting Cannabis and Cash: Insights from Ari | Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast

In this episode of the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast, Chris interviews Ari, the head of a vertically integrated transportation company specializing in the safe and efficient transportation of cannabis and cash across 28 states. 

They discuss the unique challenges of transporting these high-value commodities, the regulatory compliance across different states, and the robust security measures, such as using vehicles with GPS tracking and cameras and employing retired law enforcement officers. 

Ari also shares insights on the company’s growth plans, aspirations for international expansion, and commitment to green transportation solutions.


00:00 Introduction to Cannabis and Money Transportation
00:24 Meet Ari: The Man Behind the Company
00:48 The Logistics of Cannabis Transportation
02:23 Challenges in Cannabis and Money Transportation
04:17 Safety Measures and Team Composition
10:09 Green Initiatives and Future Plans
21:27 Hiring and Employment Opportunities
25:06 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Ari Raptis, CEO and founder of Talaria Transportation:
Ari Raptis is a dynamic leader, successful entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of three companies that provide logistics, supply chain and cash management solutions for highly regulated industries throughout the U.S.

After identifying a lack of crucial infrastructure for the burgeoning cannabis industry, Raptis founded Talaria Transportation to revolutionize the logistics system for the ever-changing compliance demands of the alternative health industry. Talaria provides trusted, versatile, secure transportation of wholesale and B2B products for licensed retailers, cultivators, labs and brands.

National Secure Transport (NST), is a full-suite cash management and logistics company that specializes in the secure, efficient movement of cash. The company provides customers with the latest fully integrated currency transport, cash-in-transit, cash vault, change orders, smart safe, financial institution depository and ATM services, and utilizes proprietary software to provide a seamless customer experience.

Raptis’ direct-to-consumer platform, Melly Home Delivery, provides compliant, safe and reliable products delivered right to the door. 

Raptis was recognized as a Top 40 Under 40 Rising Star by Marijuana Venture when he was 29 years old, and has been dubbed the “Greek Transportation Tycoon of Cannabis,” in homage to his family’s Greek American heritage. He is actively engaged with lawmakers and industry stakeholders to educate and to develop best practices for emerging industries.

About Talaria:
Established in 2017,  Talaria Transportation, LLC is a privately held company specializing in secure and trusted logistics for the legal cannabis industry. Talaria provides a critical infrastructure for the highly regulated industry and serves all states with legal programs. Providing optimum systems for every facet of the market, including product and lab testing transportation, Talaria is a reliable and trusted resource for the logistical needs of the legal cannabis industry. With a professional team of retired police officers and military veterans, the company is dedicated to delivering cannabis in a safe, secure, and compliant manner. For information, visit Talaria.com

HOSTS:
John Farquhar
Summit Risk Solutions: summitrisksolutions.ca
1 226 802-2762
John@summitrisksolutions.ca


Chris Harris
Safety Dawg Inc: safetydawg.com
Chris@SafetyDawg.com
1 905 973 7056



Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
#trucksafety #truckinsurance #truckpodcast

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Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Cannabis and money. Are you interested? This week on the Trucking Risk and Insurance podcast, we get into a segment of the industry that I haven't had a guest here before. Transportation of both cannabis and money products. That's next. Welcome to the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast. Ari, welcome to the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast. Can you tell us a little bit about what your company does and its unique, uh, niche or niche?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Thank you, Chris for having me. Uh, Talia, uh, is a vertically integrated transportation company providing the invisible infrastructure to help the cannabis industry move. Uh, we are a two PL service and a three PL service. Allowing us to transport cannabis from a cultivator to the dispensary or a cultivator to our warehouse and then to the dispensary. Handling that fulfillment arm in the, in the cannabis industry has proven a necessary front as industry grows. Similar to any other industry from beer to alcohol to pharmaceuticals, there, there are, there is a transportation and distribution model and we're, we're, we're fitting that mold, uh, for the cannabis industry.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And I mean, we got to delve a little deeper because I love the, sorry, I shouldn't say I love the product that you're dispensing. Um, uh, when I was a teenager, I really loved it, but, uh, you know, nowadays it's a little different. However, Uh, can you introduce yourself? What makes you qualified to head up a company like this?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Chris, I'm a serial entrepreneur. Uh, I'm a business guy through and through. Uh, for us, it's all about customer service and providing an efficient operation. And that's what you need in the transportation business. You need to be able to show up on time and able to be able to shake the hand of your customer and look them straight in the eye and make sure that their deliveries get there on time. We do that daily across 28 states, uh, with thousands of customers daily, and we're, we're able to prove that we are a, uh, a successful company.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Yeah. It's, and I got to believe a growing company because more states keep, um, legalizing the use of cannabis for many different reasons. Uh, certainly here, you're talking to a Canadian, we've legalized it right across. Uh, the whole country. Any thoughts of expanding transportation into Canada, just as an aside?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Always aspirations. We want to be an international company. Uh, currently we're in 28 states. Our goal is to touch every corner of the state nationally and then, uh, expand our, our, our, our, our business across the borders. You mentioned Canada. Uh, and we look at Canada as a, as our fortune teller, as our, our crystal ball. And the way Canada has legalized cannabis and the industries that have spun off from it, for example, product transportation and how products being moved, cash in transit, where we have a sister company called National Secure Transport that handles all the money movement in the industry that handles the pick up the cash at the dispensary, handles the money counting for the dispensary and the financial institution and handles the delivery to the Federal Reserve and then our home delivery business. We modeled that after the Canadian market where we seen the fruitful, uh, businesses and operations come into fruition and also learn, learn, learn from the, the, the history of Canada actually going through it as well.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Yeah, it's, well, as I say, it's a really interesting market and you've spread into several different, um, aspects of it, your company. So you handle the distribution or the delivery to the stores. Um, you handle picking up the money and taking it away from the stores. What are some of the challenges in both of those? I, on your website, I see that most of your vehicles are two person vehicles.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

That's exactly it, Chris. Uh, another key policy we have is requiring two team members in every vehicle at all times. This approach adds an extra layer of accountability as both team members are responsible for ensuring the journey runs smoothly and safely. It helps us mitigate risk. Risky behavior is like distracted driving or taking shortcuts, which can happen more easily when someone is working alone. Additionally, having two people. In a vehicle means that in the event of an emergency or an issue on the road, there's always someone to assist.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

How far are some of your trips? I mean, distributing from a warehouse location to the store, I think is short. But are you crossing state lines?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

So for, for cannabis, we're, especially here in the United States, it is state specific. So we go as far as our borders allow us and we play a ping pong game against the borders of whatever state we're operating in. So we'll, we'll, we'll be driving across the, the, the southern border of Pennsylvania and We need to take a short, a different road to avoid us going into the Maryland state below us, just to make sure that we are state compliant, uh, and apply under the legalities of the federal government where you cannot cross a federal line. You cannot cross the state line with cannabis. So our 28 states have 20 different operations and we stay within the states. Uh, it's been a huge undertaking to be compliant across, uh, a national footprint. But we want to make sure that we're, we're leading the industry with our right foot forward and providing that infrastructure, that invisible infrastructure that's needed to, to continue with the, with the. I

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

think this is going to continue to be really a growing industry. Um, what challenges are you, are you seeing now in the industry?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Challenges. Uh, it comes down to state legislation, allowing, uh, the red tape that each state has from a compliance standpoint and applying to it. There's, there's no industry standard or national standard for transportation or distribution. For us, we had a team of 12 people in our compliance and licensing team where we respectfully look at every state law and making sure that our drivers, our team members are applying to those state laws. Having it be state specific from a compliance and legality standpoint adds a lot of operational inefficiencies when you need to apply a different SOP within each state. But we do it. We do it out of sheer grit, willpower, an amazing team that we have across the board.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Operating in 28 states, it's got to create a lot of different challenges, as you say. It's slightly different in each jurisdiction that you're operating in. So, it's got to be a huge problem. Does money transportation follow the same type of delivery? Or does it have like the state rules as well? I got no idea.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

It does not have specific cannabis rules, but it does follow a, a armored car trucking rule. And for us, we, we operate under, uh, under our financial institutions to help move cash. So we do it in a secure fashion, similar to how we move product. We move cash in a secure fashion. So in any sector, whether the product in the back is cash or cannabis, uh, we move it in a secure van, uh, under camera, GPS tracked, uh, with two drivers at all times. And mind you, our team members, and we have a team of 300 team members today, and all drivers are all retired law enforcement, retired state police officers, retired police officers, retired military. And we take pride in providing employment to, uh, the retirees where they've worked a full career of protecting and serving us here in our country. We're, we're happy to provide them employment that is flexible and easy and And fun for them to do post retirement.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Just getting into, um, trucking a little bit. What types of equipment do you have? Do you have tractor trailers right down to delivery vans? What type of equipment are you using?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Yeah, so we're in discrete, uh, unmarked vans, whether they're small Metris vans or big Sprinter vans. Uh, we, we use, uh, new vehicles. They, they, we, we rotate them every two years. Now, at Solari, we've integrated an advanced system that allows us to dispatch teams to continuously monitor each vehicle in real time. So the technology in the vehicle collects data on everything from speed to location. Idling time, getting full visibility to our fleet, uh, fleet's, daily operations. These reports aren't just for tracking as well. They allow us to pinpoint and efficiencies, enhance safety and improve overall performance. For example, if a driver's spending too much time idling, we can address it quickly to save fuel, fuel and reduce emissions.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

You don't know this about me, but I'm, uh, a bit of a green guy. I do think that we can do a better job as an industry. Reducing our footprint here because bam, we're destroying the planet. You know, you're smiling.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

I'm the same way. I'm a green guy too, whether we're moving cannabis and it being a, a true green, green, green plant or the Tesla that I just bought, uh, and being a fully electric guy now, uh, I'm, I'm a true believer in green. I wish we could switch our fleet into, into electric vehicles. We just don't have the capacity today to our, our, our vehicles travel anywhere between 200 to 500 miles in a day, and the, the truly electric cars is don't have the capacity for us to, to truly optimize those routes and we're, we're crossing our fingers to those, those bigger batteries that can go into the more efficient. Electric vehicles. When that does, you'll see us go fully green, fully zero free emission.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Well, that's exciting. And off camera, I'll talk to you about Tesla. Cause I too am a Tesla owner, have been for four years and a few days. It comes up, you know, Chris,

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

I just bought it about a month and a half ago. And I feel like I'm part of a small community. When I pull up to a charging station, just the conversations that you have with other Tesla owners at the charging station. I had no clue how to charge my Tesla. One of the other Tesla owners came out and we chatted for 30 minutes about why he loves his Tesla so much. I feel like I'm part of a new community now, and it's amazing.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

It's fun, but you do have to put a charger in at home, because I'll tell you, I still own a gas car, of course, but I bet you it's been over a year since I pulled into a gas station, because I don't drive that car. But anyways, let's, let's leave, um, Tesla out of the picture. Unless, as you say, it's relative to your industry, uh, to go green because it is getting possible now. I'm not sure of the range of the vehicles, but I do see Amazon has purchased some vehicles and range and range anxiety, as you know. Is a real thing in alternate, alternative fuel vehicles, not just electric. Have you started, as a company, have you started testing any green vehicles yet?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

We have it. Uh, and personally it's on a roadmap for a couple years down the line when we can see vehicles that hold a capacity of four or five hundred miles in a single charge. We do see them coming. We are talking to our manufacturers and they say these vehicles are coming. When they do, uh, we're moving over. Mainly based off the security of the product that we're moving, whether it's cash or cannabis and the high value behind it. The idling time at a charging station, the safety risk where it's in an open field as opposed to a quick fuel up where we can pick any gas station allows us to be more safe, be more efficient with our routes. We do want to switch, but we would like to have that in a full charge before we do.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Yeah, and I think. In the trucking industry itself, fuel of course is a significant expense. Personally, and this is way off topic, but I'm not sure electricity is going to be the vehicle of the future. It might be hydrogen. There's great roads, um, or great inroads being made in hydrogen vehicles and stuff like that.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

You, you, you knocked it right on the head. And fuel and efficiency today is a big expense for us. And one key benefit of our tracking system is the ability to analyze data and improve our delivery routes. By monitoring variables like idling times, fuel consumption, and traffic patterns, we continuously optimize routes for maximum efficiency. This means fewer delays, more cost effective operations, and a better experience for our clients. Over time, these adjustments have led to significant savings, not only in fuel costs, but also in vehicle maintenance, as we're reducing unnecessary wear and tear on our fleet.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Yeah, I mean, if you can control fuel, idling is evil for today's engines. That's the easy way to say it. But of course, speed as well is another one of those situations. If your vehicles can go a couple of miles per hour slower, Then when they do hit that invariable bump in the road, because Lord knows our highways are falling apart in North America, um, it's not as hard on the vehicle and therefore reduces your maintenance costs, which is another area that I'm sure you try to control as much as possible. What are you doing in regards to maintenance of the vehicles? Because obviously a breakdown would be a significant safety risk.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

It really is. And for us, we have a Uh, fleet and maintenance team that constantly monitors our vehicles, but not only is the team monitoring the vehicles, we have top state of the art technology within the vehicle to alert our dispatch at our central control center when a check engine light goes on. So real time access to what the vehicle equipment is into our control center, and when that light comes on, our team knows first. Our team in our headquarters knows, and they're already on top of Of that with the drivers, make sure that the drivers are driving safe, that the vehicle is performing in a well mannered mannered fashion, and that we're, we're moving in, in stable and reliable cars.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And this is the trucking risk and insurance. So you mentioned in one of the talking points that you've reduced your incident rates in 22, since 22, by 58%. So let's first talk about what an incident is to you because it could be a failed delivery or it could be a vehicle crash. What are you calling incidents?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Accidents, a failed delivery, and it all comes down to, to respectfully, but in this scenario it comes down to accidents and, and respective collisions to make sure that we're driving safe. And as a result, we, we have comprehensive and upgraded our policies and we've seen a massive improvement. And as you mentioned, between 2020 and 2022, we reduced our rate by 58%. This decrease is a direct reflection of how our focus on technology, route optimization, accountability, and continuous monitoring of our, continuous monitoring has transformed our operations. We're proud of these results. And as these demonstrate that investing in safety and efficiency, not only benefit our company, but also our clients. I'll

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

tell ya, your insurance company loves the reduction. What you probably don't know is, my former, my last employer, was a trucking insurance company in the transportation industry. And, so, they love it when their clients take technology and safety seriously, blend the two together, and just have fewer crashes.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

You know, you said it Chris, and safety is always our priority. That's right. And one of the most effective ways to maintain it is by ensuring our drivers stick to predetermined secure routes for us. Our system tracks every vehicle in real time, and it sends immediate alerts if a driver strays off their assigned path. That allows us to intervene promptly, whether it's guiding the driver back to the correct routes, or assessing potential safety risks. By closely monitoring these route adherences, we're able to prevent incidents before they occur and maintain a high standard of security for our deliveries.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And, I mean, with two people in every vehicle, I gotta believe you don't have a lot of off route deviation unless, you know, there's construction that you didn't know about, the dispatcher didn't know about, because I gotta believe the second person is gonna be going, WTF? What are you doing?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

And that just adds on to our operational efficiency, making sure that we have forehands when we only need two hands to make sure that the product gets to, to our destination in a secure way. I

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

got to think forehands is better than just two, just because of the commodity, um, the two main commodities that you're. Transporting, it's either cannabis products or cash. And both of which are, I'm sure, highly sought after, um, in the market that you don't serve, the thieves and the bastards out there, but you know, what do you, how do you keep your employees? I know they're all ex, uh, military or most of them, of the drivers are ex military, ex enforcement. But how do you keep them safe out there? It's, it's gotta be a concern.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

It is a concern. And one thing that we do is making sure that we hire the hire right first. 85 percent of all thefts happen from an internal, internal conflict. And internal theft is the driving factor. So we make sure we hire right. We hire the right team members from the very, very beginning and bringing on a retired law enforcement, retired state police officer, retired military. They lived their life by following the code, doing the right thing and staying on the straight line. And for us, the way we mitigate safety and concern of that 85 percent where internal theft happens is by hiring right, making sure that we listen to our team members and that we. We, we respectfully, uh, make sure we bring on the right person. And mind you, we, we, we do have, uh, a catalyst to that 85 percent to make sure that we are protecting and serving our customers, that we are managing team. Also our retired police officers. So the, the drivers are retired law enforcement, the director, the director of our, our, our team members are, are, are retired police officers. So we, we, we're a team. We're pretty much a small little army when it comes down to, uh, protecting and serving in our industry.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And just, are you hiring at the moment? If I was ex law enforcement or military, are you looking for people at the moment?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

We're always hiring, uh, and we need more team members. Currently we have about 300 team members today. We'll be okay if we have 360, but we have growth plans. For this upcoming year of 2025 to be at 580 employees. So we're looking to nearly double our team members, um, at the current moment. And we're eager to bring on more law enforcement, more team members, uh, and provide an amazing employment post the retirement. And

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

therefore I give a shout out, reach out. Ari's contact info is in the show notes down below. So, um, What would you say is one of the attractive reasons I should come and work for you?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Flexibility. Uh, and as a retired law enforcement, we allow flexibility where you've worked a full career, uh, working 20 to 25 years in, In your, in your career as a, as a police officer, as a law enforcement. Here, come, work part time, take off a month, two months, go visit, go visit your, your daughter at school or your son at school or take a vacation that you're well deserved and you come back to us. We offer flexible part time employment as well for our retirees. It's you're, you're committed to us. You can get out of the house, but, and you can also, uh, have that flexibility of truly being retired.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And I would assume though, you, you can offer if the person wants full time employment as well.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

And we do have full time, uh, we offer that, that range between part time and full time, uh, based off of the, the need of our, our, of our team member, we have full time work and we're happy to bring on members full time. But what sets Teleria unique to any other secure transport is we offer that part time employee, we call it the retirement part time work where, uh, we have a lot of our retirees that want to jet out during the winter or take a two week hunting trip in, in, in the mountains. We allow that. And there's, we, we allow that unlimited PTO for our retirees.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

And that's gotta be huge because Hey, I look at my age, I'm close to retirement. And yes, I do want to get out of the house sometimes. And yes, I want to remain busy because you know, currently I'm in good health. I don't want to sit around the house all day long. So having something to look forward to on a daily basis or on a semi regular basis would be a very intriguing. So you got to bring this to Canada. I'm not an ex enforcement though, but

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

damn. Well, Chris, uh, that's exactly it. We want our retirees and our, our, our, our, our team members to enjoy life. Whether it's going on a vacation to Disney World with their young kids. Or whether it's jumping in a car with their, with their partner and driving across the state and just remembering the good old times when they were on the law enforcement and, and, and shoot stories back and forth. That's, we want our team members to have fun, whether it's working or not working, and we want to be able to offer them that flexibility as well. So, Chris, when we do, we do branch out to Canada, I'll give you a call for a ride along.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Okay. Thanks. And last question, uh, as we are, uh, do you give any free samples? Either of the cash or the cannabis?

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Uh, our hands are tied there. We, we work as a fulfillment arm and, uh, our product is not even our own. We, we move the product on behalf of our, our customers. One day, uh, I'll, I'll, I'll buy some cannabis and drop off some samples for you. And, uh, you might have

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

to cross the border. That's

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

no, when we're in Canada, well, that, that will happen.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Okay. Um, cause that'll, uh, yeah, that'll raise red flags. Um, and I said, that was the last question. Just out of curiosity, how many states are, is it now legal? Uh, cannabis,

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

uh, about 38 between medical and recreational.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

Okay. And you're in 28 of those. We're

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

in 28.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

So you still got expansion opportunities.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

My, uh, as far as we can reach, we're, we're, we're growing and we're moving fast. We're hiring team members, uh, as fast as we can hire them. And we're, we're growing in an industry that keeps on growing. No pun intended.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg:

No, the pun was intended, but that was good. Ari, thanks so much for coming on the show.

Ari Raptis, Talaria Transportation:

Thank you, Chris. Thank you for having me and have a blessed weekend.

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