Bob Costello, Chief Economist for the ATA

• He said, ask eight carriers how they are doing right now and you will get eight different answers.
• Sees growth in 2010, but not “gangbuster growth”. After two horrible years, he believes this is a transition year. He believes 2011 will be very strong.
• Many good carriers have been slammed the 1st two months of the year.
• He doesn’t see inflation because companies are being so efficient.
• Warren Buffet buying the Burlington Northern caused a rail renaissance.

Bruce Carlton- President of NITL (National Industrial Transportation League)

• He is cautiously optimistic about this year. He thinks, the Great Recession is a “life changing moment” for many families. He thinks, buying patterns will be forever changed.
• Many shippers are nervous that carriers won’t want to pick up and buy more equipment, when their freight picks up.
• Many members have gotten “insane rates”.
• When talking about investing in our highways, bridges and infrastructure, he said his members are willing and ready to pay their fair share of taxes. He mentioned congress is using the additional tax revenue to pay down the deficit instead of using it where it was intended to go too.

Casey Chroust- President of Retail Industry Leaders Association

• His members range from Target, Best Buy, big box stores, to technology companies like Apple.
• It seemed to me, his members are a mixed bag. He has many discounters like Bj’s and Costco that have done extremely well. The high end stores are not building any new stores right now.
• His members have become very proficient with their supply chains. They have no extra inventory and their carrying costs have dampened.
• He mentioned Lowes will not setup up a carrier that is not Smartway certified.
• The international shift in manufacturing isn’t changing. He is seeing many companies finding new sourcing away from China to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and possibly Africa. Companies are finding even cheaper labor in these emerging markets.
• The Panama Canal is making a wider and deeper canal that will serve the biggest ships. These big ships can hold 8000 containers. Once the canal is built, the US east coast ports will take off.
• Told a great story about Wal-Mart and their power. Wal-Mart demanded that all of their laundry detergent suppliers sell them the concentrated liquid instead of the big bulky containers. By Wal-mart doing this, it saved the United States water supply the equivalent of 100 million showers a year. It also took thousands of truckloads off the road because you can get more product on a truck and saved millions of tons of plastic tonnage a year.

Kirk Pickerel-  President and CEO at Associated Builders and Contractors

• He has mixed signals about economy, but tends to be optimistic. When he looks at all the data, it doesn’t seem good.
• Backlogs have been at 20%.
• Banks have to lend more, getting financing has been a struggle.
• He has seen data that suggests the unemployment in construction is at 24.7%.
• The power sector & highway sector have both fared well. The commercial building has been nasty, companies are losing money on projects to get business and keep employees. Margins have been slashed on every job.
• Doesn’t think the stimulus money created any jobs, but saved some.
• Congress doesn’t have the “guts” to invest in infrastructure like China and Brazil. We have to find a way to fund a long-term transportation bill.

Stephen Sibert- Senior Vice President of Industry Affairs of Grocery Manufacturing Association

• They have members that range from Nestle all the way down to small companies that produce their own soups.
• He sees a lot of consolidating in his industry. The big boys are gobbling up their smaller competitors.
• Seeing major growth in private labeling.
• Higher end restaurants have suffered, but Mcdonalds and Taco bell are way up.
• Who would have ever thought Starbucks would sell freeze dried coffee? Companies are trying new things to improve sales.
• % of costs of goods for transportation have dropped from 6.9% to 6.5%! Carriers have cut costs to keep their business.
• Packages have gotten smaller, because the United States is on a healthier eating trend. He has also seen some companies have gone to square packaging to minimize claims.

“It is great to receive recognition from the chamber and our peer businesses in the Chattanooga area, said Ted Alling, Access America Transport President. The award is a testament to the hard work of our employees and their desire to see the company succeed.”

Read more on the Company News page.

* Site readiness – often times, a site can be muddy, or have a narrow or unsuitable entrance. A lot of times the specialized equipment used to move job site machinery has a low ground clearance and the load to be hauled is wide, high or long. Thus, the entrance must be level and dry, and big enough to move wide or long equipment in and out. It is not uncommon for a site to require improvements such as grading or added gravel.

* Inaccurate dimensions – Many times the owner of the freight has not even seen the commodity, or has only a rudimentary awareness of the dimensions of the material to be shipped. It is always a good idea to send a company representative to a site to verify reported measurements.

* Communication – Jobs site are often situated in rural areas with poor or no cell reception. Thus, it can be really hard to communicate with the driver or shipper during the course of loading the equipment.

You can usually count on something going wrong when shipping used equipment out of a job site, no matter how prepared you think you are. The best way to remedy this is to do a lot of research and lay appropriate ground work with your customer. Send someone you trust out to the site, or go there yourself. Make sure you get your own measurements, and get a good look at the site to see if it can accommodate the kind of equipment need to do the job. Also, make sure you have good contact information with back-up numbers in case the reception is bad at the site. Finally, let your customer know in the beginning that unexpected occurrences are a definite possibility and could result additional charges.

We have become a third party leader with our carriers, because not only do we take care and provide for our customers, we also do the same with our carriers.  We pay our carriers every 28 days, even if our customer does not pay us.  We also provide a quick pay service paid by a comcheck that only charges a 4% penalty.  This type of service is offered with fuel advances as well.

Access America Transport is also an ISO 9001 certified company and we take great pride in that honor.  We attain this by taking rigorous precautions to hire the safest carriers that we can.  We interface our software with Registry and Monitoring, a company that automatically updates our carriers insurance in our system and alert us should a carrier have any insurance cancellations or have their authority revoked.  We also check each carrier’s safety score as well as their safe stat score on Carrier 411 and even go the extra mile to check their accident reports on the FMCSA government website.  By doing this, we as a company are doing our due diligence to make sure that our carriers, our customer’s shipments, and the general public are safe out on the roads.  Without the safety and dedication of our carriers, Access America would not have a business.  Access America Transport… Driving towards a safer tomorrow.

To get set up with us as a carrier, please contact Lindsey O’Hara at 866-272-2057, ext. 147, or email at lohara@accessamericatransport.com.  We look forward to doing future business with you!

Also, what happens if you know who the carrier is, but don’t have a good discount with them?  Access America has rates with over 45 carriers and will be able to not only save you time, but most importantly money with your tradeshow shipments.  We provide free quotes so you know exactly what you will be charged before the tradeshow even begins…how many times have you come home from a tradeshow and found out weeks later that your cost changed significantly, well this will never happen again.  We will handle both shipping out to the tradeshow and handle the return shipment as well, please call us today to show you the right way to ship tradeshow materials.

Paperwork is not an issue as we handle all of the necessary Bill of Ladings for you.  We personally dispatch the carrier so we know that your important shipment will be picked up and delivered back to you as it should.  We will handle EVERYTHING!

Let’s talk about the cost of not thinking green first. Petroleum producing companies have had record profit earnings in the 200% to 400% range since the 1990’s. This does not trickle down to the long haul trucker on the road. Those record profits only mean that fuel indexes are through the roof and the driver and the consumer are paying for it. How do you combat that? Think Green. If a long haul trucker can utilize more Green efficient means of fuel consumption the costs for the trip to your business and your grocery store will be more profitable to them. In turn the operating costs will be lower and the charges to the commodity purchased by the consumer will be lower.

How about negotiating green. Purchasing managers and Suppliers have been fighting the commodity cost vs. the transportation costs for years each utilizing their strengths. “If I buy a bulk order of this product will you give me a break on transportation?” Now imagine being Supplier at the negotiating table and knowing that you hire trucking companies who utilize green transportation models and your transportation costs are lower than your competitors. Now you can forecast based on production schedules instead of fuel indexes.

Now let’s talk about growing green. The EPA started a program called the EPA Smartway Partnership Program in 2004. T he SmartWay brand identifies products and services that reduce transportation-related emissions. However, the impact of the brand is much greater as the SmartWay brand signifies a partnership among government, business and consumers to protect our environment, and reduce fuel consumption. To be a part of this initiative a corporation must also hire green. If you are a trucking company who has invested in the reduction of fuel emissions and fuel consumptions then Corporate America wants you. Fortune 500 companies are having symposiums all over the world to try and green their supply chain.

Access America Transport is an EPA Smartway Partnership partner. We arrange transportation services for several fortune 500 companies and we strive to hire trucking companies who think as green as we do. You can lose profits by not thinking green or you can negotiate better, increase profitability and grow your business simply by thinking and hiring green.

The US is also a top consumer of bulk commodities coal represents 54% of our electrical demands. The most efficient way to get the bulk commodities from the Mines to the Plants is via rail. Shipping bulk commodities has come a long way from the open car unit trains that to this day still dominate the bulk business.

Rail Shippers have the choice to also ship with super sacks. The airtight system is vented to an integral dust collector that vacuums displaced air and dust, and collapses empty bags dust-free. The bulk filled bags can be handled with the use of Loops and the shipper can ship large quantities without the need for any palletizing. Bulk commodities can be loaded onto box cars quickly, and more efficiently than before.

Clinker cars are a very efficient way to Trans load; Gypsum, Cement, Ash and other granulated or pulverized bulk commodities from the mines to distribution sites everywhere.

Access America Transport is uniquely positioned to assist in the transfer of Bulk Commodities via Rail. Our current relationships with all major US railroads enables us to use our volume purchasing strength. We can provide the bulk commodity shipper better than average rail pricing as well the advantage of capacity. Our coast to coast trans load partners enable us to efficiently transport your shipments where they are needed most.

As a company, we take a holistic approach to doing business with our customers and carrier partners. We have implemented processes that benefit our company, customers, and carriers. Access America, like many third-party logistics providers, continues to embrace initiatives such as load optimization and rail-to-truck conversions. These practices take into consideration efficiency and cost, while delivering value-added green services to our customers. However, our most far-reaching green concept has been the conversion of private non-for-hire fleets into for-hire carriers.

Private fleet assets make up roughly 50% of the trucks on US highways. Two years ago, Access America started a program to encourage our customers who operate private fleets to obtain for-hire authority for their equipment. We noticed that many of these fleets operated at much lower asset utilization levels than similarly sized common and contract carriers. According to the National Private Truck Council, the average deadhead percentage for private fleets is 28%. This is substantially higher than typical deadhead for-hire carriers. Private fleets often look at their assets as a fixed cost that is necessary to effectively service their customers or to address complexities in their own supply chain model.

Access America began marketing this additional capacity to its customers and worked closely with these private fleets in understanding their dedicated freight lanes. We have been successful in locating backhaul revenue sources that align with these dedicated freight lanes.  In many instances, we have been able to increase asset utilization by over 20%. This increase in asset utilization has resulted in small increases in fuel expenditures and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from these fleets, but has been more than off-set because these lanes were previously hauled by for-hire carriers. This increase in private fleet utilization decreases the number of for-hire carriers on the highways, which leads to an overall reduction in the industry’s carbon footprint. In addition to our success here, we also noticed many intangible benefits for our customers due to the regularity of utilizing the same trucks and the very low rate of driver turnover.

It is our belief that private fleets are an emerging market and present a tremendous opportunity to reduce the number of trucks on the road. This practice has enabled Access America to provide its customers with an opportunity to reduce their net environmental impact. According to the American Transportation Research Institute, there were over ten billion loads of freight hauled by for-hire trucking companies in 2007. If we assume that 95% of these loads were hauled by common or contract carriers, it is feasible that a 1% shift in volume to private fleets could reduce common and contract volume by 95 million loads per year. This type of reduction in volume has the potential to remove over 200,000 trucks from US roadways each year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 25 million metric tons of GHG emissions.

We believe the practice of utilizing private fleets is here to stay. Access America is continuing to search for new avenues to take more trucks off the road. These steps have helped us solidify our customer partnerships and created sustainable relationships that are mutually beneficial to each party. We continue to put resources into developing our intermodal and load optimization programs. We feel these initiatives and many more will allow Access America to contribute to the overall greening of the supply chain while helping our customers maintain a lean and efficient transportation model.

Bibliography:
American Transportation Research Institute
American Trucking Association
Environmental Defense Fund and NAFA Fleet Management Association
National Private Truck Council
Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) / U.S. Department of Transportation

Many large shippers have begun to transition more or all of their business to a single-source provider. The reasoning behind this makes sense when you begin to take into consideration what a single source provider is able to bring to the table.

Companies are more motivated than ever to reduce their transactional and contractual freight spend. A small reduction in transportation costs can result in a huge increase in savings and efficiency. These savings can be realized by implementing continuous improvement processes and effectively leveraging transportation spend. Third-party logistics providers are able to provide customized solutions for every supply chain.

Many shippers have failed to take advantage of the synergies that exist within their company. Often times this can be as simple as combining inbound and outbound freight to create continuous moves that drive down transportation costs. In addition, we have been successful in leveraging our other freight lanes to assist customers in developing these types of moves.

Access America is able to conduct an RFP with your current incumbent carriers in addition to our large base of qualified carriers. We then develop an idea of the optimum number of carriers to service your business. Many customers fail to recognize that having too many carriers can be detrimental. We believe that having too many carriers can negatively impact the pricing you are able to obtain by leveraging your current freight volume and potential for continuous moves. We have found that the most successful relationships are sustainable in the long term, so we approach each analysis in order to provide a sustainable solution for every freight lane.

Customers are running at a much higher efficiency level if they are not continually trying to replace carriers that disappeared because volumes or freight lanes changed unrelated to your business. We work to identify carrier partners that can service your business year-round and have freight lanes that are not tied to one or two core accounts. These types of carriers may include new carriers such as private fleets that you may have never considered before. In addition, Access America has thousands of qualified and vetted carrier partners all the way down to owner operators. These owner operators and private fleets may have been companies that were overlooked in the past.  We take into consideration the best long term solution for your company and identify the types of partners that will provide the value-added type of service that makes your company more successful in the end.

Access America Transport does more than just negotiate rates on your behalf. We are able to offer comprehensive solution that allows for greater visibility within your supply chain. Access America is able to streamline processes where carriers are tendered freight electronically in the order of best value. This takes into consideration service, price, and lane optimization. Our transportation management system (TMS) allows our customers to identify the metrics that are most important to them and build the program to match your most important needs. Our TMS improves load visibility, communication, and billing by providing one platform for our carriers and customers to utilize. We are also able to provide customized reporting that enables you to make better decisions related to other areas of your business.

Access America Transport goes a step beyond just managing your transportation. We also provide an added layer of protection to your transportation department. Access America has an extensive carrier vetting and quality assurance program. Our program identifies the best partners that help to mitigate risk and insure that your freight is being transported by safe, dependable partners.

These are a few of the reasons will feel Access America can more effectively provides solutions to your transportation program. We believe that looking to outsource your transportation can provide tangible and intangible benefits that are outside of just reduced costs and improved service. There are a number of benefits to working with a 3PL such as Access America Transport. Whether you are looking for one partner or a small number of partners, we believe you will be impressed by our capabilities and our commitment to making your company better. For more information about our Supply Chain Management Services, please fill out the form below.

Be extra alert as you approach a large truck. They behave very differently from cars.

Avoid blind spots around trucks. If you can’t see a truck’s side mirrors, the truck driver can’t see you. One-third of all crashes between large trucks and cars take place in the blind spots around a truck.

Do not pass a truck on the right while the truck is turning right. Trucks must swing wide to the left to negotiate right turns safely, as the rear wheels follow a shorter path than the front wheels.

Do not cut in front of any large vehicle, including a truck or a bus. Since they require much more distance to stop in comparison to cars, forcing a large vehicle to stop quickly can result in a fatal accident.

Use the proper procedure to pass a large truck or bus on the highway. Accelerate slightly and maintain a consistent speed while passing. Wait until you can see the entire cab in your rear-view mirror before signaling and pulling in front of it.

Observe a truck’s turn signals before trying to pass it. If the truck appears to be starting a left turn, check which way the driver is signaling before passing the truck on the right.

Give trucks at least four to six seconds of space in wet conditions and at highway speeds. Call authorities if you see unsafe driving.

Do not cut off a truck in traffic or on the highway to reach your exit or turn.