TheAlliedLog
ALLIED LOGISTICS
THE OFFICIAL COMPANY PUBLICATION | FALL 2014
PER
SPEC
TIVE
Allied’s focus on the long view
can help you thrive into the future.
Entry
PORT OF
Bound
FOR THE FUTURE
Allied’s forward vision
a key for shippers in
an era of transition
in transportation
T
NO DOUBLE-STACK TROUBLE: Norfolk Southern’s Heartland Corridor, accommodating double-stack cars, is a game-changer.
he tension is as old
as commerce itself,
but the circumstances
differ from those that
prevailed in business
for decades entering
the Great Recession.
Shippers are pushing for an increasingly wider array of services. Carriers
are battling to enhance profits, partly
in an effort to build a cushion against
the potential impact of a nationwide
driver shortage.
In the gap stands Allied Logisitics.
“Our job is largely about relationships,” said Jeff Smith, president of
Allied’s West Virginia operations. “We
have relationships with our customers, whom we serve, and our vendors, who help us serve our vendors.
Having strong relationships with our
customers helps us understand their
2
T H E ALLI ED LO G WAREHOUSE TO VESSEL: Allied Logisitics offers across-the-board logistics expertise.
needs and having strong relationships
with our vendors helps us meet those
needs.”
But needs occasionally clash. Both
shippers and carriers are out to maximize, one, services and the other,
TOP: NORFOLK SOUTHERN
Frame
MAIN
profits. And the issues aren’t simple.
Transportation costs add up — to
more than 5% of sales for more than
a fourth of shippers, according to
the recently completed 23rd annual
Survey of Logistics and Transportation
Trends by Logistics Management, a
national trade journal.
The publication’s contributing
editors, Mary C. Holcomb and Karl
Manrodt, refer to it as the “tug of war,”
and while it’s age-old, the differences
of the modern era are distinct.
“The Global Recession signaled
changes to the operating parameters
of the game that most of us didn’t fully
understand,” Holcomb and Manrodt
wrote. “It has given temporary advantages to carriers, much like the shippers had in earlier times. Yet, like tug
of war, the game results in one winner
and one loser.”
Allied works to ensure its customers
win operating on what the company
refers to as its “best-value promise,”
moving beyond short-term thinking to
ensure strong returns on investment.
“That’s why working with the right
vendors is so important to us,” Smith
said. “Part of the service we provide is
utilizing vendors who have the same
customer focus we do, and that means
we’re not looking to work with vendors whose interest is in short-term
gain. We’re looking for vendors with
whom we can form relationships, just
like our customers.”
It’s a philosophy that partly revolves
around the use of Allied’s family of
companies to help get effective solutions for customers by expanding a
wide net.
“We work with a simple thought in
mind,” Smith said. “When our customers succeed, we succeed. Customer
success is job one.”
TheAlliedLog
THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF ALLIED LOGISTICS
ON THE ROAD ... FOR NOW: A national truck driver shortage is raising concerns.
Ready with a plan
for driver shortage
D
river shortages long
have been a fact of life in
the world of transportation, where trucks remain
the top means of shipping goods
from one point to the next.
But the latest shortfall differs from
others, to the extent that interest is
growing outside the industry as concern mounts over the impact. The
American Trucking Associations,
a national trade group, estimates
the current shortage at 30,000 and
projects it will reach more than
200,000 over the next decade.
It comes at a time when truck
orders are on the rise in a sector
that already accounts for more than
two-thirds of domestic shipments.
“This is definitely something we’re
watching closely,” said Jeff Smith,
president of Allied Logistics’ West
CHAIRMAN & CEO
LAKE POLAN III
Virginia operations.
Turnover in trucking is startlingly
high, averaging more than 100 percent annually, although insiders say
those data can mislead — turnover
in the first 90 days is especially
common. Other issues: the average age of drivers steadily has been
increasing, ranging from the late
40s to mid 50s, and baby boomers
are flowing into retirement.
Allied’s family of companies is
ready with answers. Reo Distribution
has added trucks and drivers, so the
company is ready to send rigs out
wherever they might be needed.
“The good news for our customers,” Smith said, “is that we are
looking ahead and preparing so that
we can continue to provide the high
level of service that we and our customers expect.”
PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA OPERATIONS
REO B. HATFIELD
PRESIDENT, WEST VIRGINIA OPERATIONS
JEFF SMITH
Warehousing
Processing
Delivery
C O R P O R AT E H E A D Q U A R T E R S : 20 26th St., Huntington, WV 25703-1242 | 1-800-218-4246
A D D I T I O N A L LO C AT I O N S I N W E S T V I R G I N I A : k e n o v a | c h a r l e s t o n | p a r k e r s b u r g | i n v i r g i n i a : w a y n e s b o r o
TOP: WIKIPEDIA
FALL 2014
3
haul inside allied
Heartland topic at conference
BACK
Rahall Transportation Institute
T
HUNTINGTON
he subject was a
familiar one for
Allied Logistics
Chairman
and
CEO Lake Polan III.
He was among a group
of business leaders who
gathered here in September
for the West
V i r g i n i a
Economic
Development
Council’s
annual
fall
conference.
POLAN
A leading
theme:
Diversification,
something that’s been integral to Allied’s success over
four generations.
Among the topics was
the Heartland Intermodal
Gateway in Prichard — a
point of particular interest for Polan — and threedimensional printing.
Heartland is among the
GATEWAY TO THE FUTURE: The Heartland Intermodal Gateway
in Prichard, a centerpiece of the Heartland Corridor.
most significant developments to affect West
Virginia’s economy for
years. The gateway covers
about 100 acres in what’s
known as the Norfolk
Southern
Heartland
Corrodor. It was among
sites toured as part of the
conference.
Along with the tours,
the conference featured
Polan, U.S. Foodservice
20 26th street | huntington, wv 2703-1242
President Russ Bailey
and Appalachian Power
President and COO Charles
Patton as speakers.
Polan is bullish on the
state’s future, especially
with Heartland and the
gateway in place and the
expanded Panama Canal,
doubling the locks’ capacity, expected to open in
2016.
“It’s an exciting time
in West Virginia,” Polan
said. “We’ve taken significant strides to ready ourselves for the opportunities
that will be available as a
result of the Panama Canal.
Heartland is key to that.”
The evolution of the
state economy and the
Huntington area’s role
in that process made the
town the ideal location
for the conference, Gary
Walton, Huntington Area
Development
Council
President and CEO, told
the Herald-Dispatch.
“I took an industrial
prospect down to the intermodal facility [recently],
the second within the last
several months,” Walton
said, referring to the gateway. “These companies are
already looking at the logistics possibilities that will be
generated as a result of the
new facility.”