On August 31 IDS hosted a local Congressional candidate with a clear interest in logistics industry issues and the President of the International Warehousing and Logistics Association (IWLA). The event was well attended by other local third party logistics companies and companies with large logistics operations. We appreciate the time provided by Indiana Secretary of State and Congressional candidated Todd Rokita to share his views with this audience and to Joel Anderson (and Barbara), President of the IWLA, for attending and speaking at this event. IDS continues to seek ways advance our industry in a manner consistent with balanced national, state, and local interests and appreciates the work that the IWLA does on our behalf and the approach taken to governance by Indiana’s Secretary of State, Todd Rokita.
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This month IDS kicks off a new service: home delivery of oversized products. Combining IDS’s expertise at order fulfillment and distribution center management and a partner’s network for in-home deliveries, IDS is extending our fulfillment services to products either weighing-out or dimming-out of the regular parcel networks. Just another example of IDS’s leadership in fulfillment services. The efforts being put forth in establishing IDS as a premier IMC (intermodal marketing company) is paying off. The Union Pacific door-to-door intermodal service named IDS as one of their top 5 producers for the first quarter of 2010. This award could not have been accomplished without our customers entrusting us with their business, our employees providing service that is unmatched in the industry and the tremendous relationship we have forged with the UP team. Thank you to all and look forward to continued success. Rick LaGore Three weeks until the DSA Annual Conference and IDS is honored with being a finalist for the DSA Partnership Award recognizing outstanding performance by suppliers to this industry. We are very appreciative that our many years of providing fulfillment services to companies served by the DSA has been recognized by the industry. IDS has worked hard to develop outstanding fulfillment services, especially for companies with complex orders, programs, and inventories as is generally the case with party-plan and MLM companies. Special thanks to our clients that supported the nomination effort. See you in San Francisco in June! It snuck up on us, but our company was founded 50 years ago. Most companies never see their 50th birthday but here we are – growing, strong, and focused! How do you make it to 50? Good staff is key: We have several associates that have spent 30 or more years with us. Our average tenure is over 12 years now even with recent hiring. Creating an environment where people can have some security is very important. Commitment from employees starts with commitment from the employer. It’s not that we haven’t seen some periods of big change and insecurity over 50 years, but the core commitment has always been there. Commitment from employers and employees enables a company to commit to customers. Our customers know we will be here for them, not checking out our next opportunity. Change: You can’t stand still. The core skills embedded years ago in running a high performing logistics operation are still there. However, instead of being focused on automotive components, groceries, and US made home electronics (we shipped a lot of console record players in our days!), we keep reinventing applications for our skills. Our days of staffing big buildings with relatively low employee counts are long gone – a million square feet of refrigerators doesn’t necessarily mean many jobs. Today our company focuses on order fulfillment at the case and unit level to multiple channels – from compliance with major retailers’ receipt requirements of LTL, truck load, or parcel orders to direct to consumer fulfillment of individual orders. Fast, accurate, and in compliance. Technology: We’ve always sought and used the best available. At first, this involved manual tracking of inventory on index card like forms. Then a room devoted to a punch card inventory control system (a few here still remember those days). Now IDS supports our clients with state of the art warehouse management and transportation management systems that perform most of the communication with our clients automatically and provide 24/7 access to our employees and our clients. Focus: Stick to your core competencies (have one first!). We are good at what we do – order fulfillment primarily at the case pick and unit level. And we focus on programs with relatively high degrees of difficulty – food, cosmetics, over the counter pharma items, programs with very high SKU counts or other inventory complexities, clients with complex packing requirements (party plan and MLM), highly seasonal operations, and other program issues that enable us to demonstrate the skills that the average logistics companies don’t bring. The same with our transportation team – we don’t seek every load or client but for the ones whose needs fit our focus areas, we are the best. Talented, committed, and skilled staff focused on core competencies supported by state of the art technology and embracing productivity change. Just add good customers and you find a 50th company birthday has snuck up on you. An article in this month’s Journal of Commerce Magazine highlights a real shift in the way intermodal is seen by, and supported by, the government. The Obama administration has a stated goal of getting more trucks off the road and, as Deputy Transportation Secretary John Porcari said, to “keep movement on water as long as possible, and then on rail as long as possible, and truck it for the last miles.” Their ultimate goal is to shift 25 percent of freight traffic from trucks to rail with a potential fuel savings of 15 billion gallons per year. To further spur the development of rail as the major mover of freight, the administration included several billion dollars in the 2009 economic stimulus package. Not surprisingly, the trucking industry is not happy with the direction and diversion of DOT resources away from road construction and repair projects. Regardless, it’s clear that intermodal is on the rise. And, IDS can help you make sense of it all. Click here to learn more. Under the American Recover and Reinvestment Act, President Obama and the White House awarded $8 billion to 31 states for development of high speed rail along 13 key transportation corridors. Many lauded the move as long overdue given how passenger rail in other parts of the world is much more advanced than here in the U.S. Environmentalists liked the idea of reducing cars on the road and thereby greenhouse gas emissions. Economists saw it as another move to reduce dependence on foreign oil. And, freight transporters saw some real benefits too. A Logistics Management article points to the CREATE project in Chicago as a way passenger rail and freight rail can co-exist and, moreover, improve each other. Money from the Act will create a flyover for the commuter lines rather than a grade intersection thus removing 78 conflicts per day for the lines carrying freight. The article also cites the potential of a third track being added for passenger rail along the Washington D.C. to Richmond, VA corridor, a major north-south route for CSX. Warren Buffett’s big investment play last year on rail is looking pretty smart right now. And, many smart IDS clients are starting to see the benefit of including rail in their intermodal transportation strategy. Last year marked one of the worst years on record since 1982 for the industry. But, things are looking up for carriers. American Trucking Associations’ truck tonnage index shows the strongest increase since January 2005. The group’s For Hire Truck Tonnage index climbed 3.1 percent in January. Year-over-year, truck tonnage shot up by 5.7 percent. ATA says they’re also hearing directly from more carriers and buyers that some sectors of trucking capacity are getting tighter and putting an upward pressure on rates. Meanwhile Transcore, owners of a load-matching network, reported a 54 percent increase in activity from a year ago on spot trucking demand. While a little inventory correction is good for everyone, IDS continues to seek out the most cost-efficient transportation options for our clients, including LTL and intermodal transportation. The recession has sharpened supply chain leaders focus on efficiency and has driven a push towards a variable-cost versus fixed-cost approach. This shift is largely due to uncertainty over whether customers will ever return to pre-recessionary levels says Simon Ellis, analyst with IDC Manufacturing Insights. If current levels are the “new normal,” modernization of the supply chain and strategic outsourcing of select segments will accelerate as we emerge from the recession. Ellis shares his “Top 10 Predictions for Global Supply Chains” in the February issue of Logistics Today. It’s well worth a full read by visiting this link. Among those predictions we found interesting was that “supply chains will put a broader visibility burden on supply chain organizations.” Simply put, manufacturers will be looking for greater access to information about their warehouse inventory and transportation activities. (To see how IDS provides 24/7 access via our Warehouse and Transportation Management Systems, click here.) Additionally, Ellis predicts that the cheap transportation of 2009 will come to an end in 2010 and manufacturers will need to find new ways to enjoy transportation cost efficiencies. We think one key way is through strategic use of intermodal transportation. Do you ship only from a West Coast facility? There’s a very good chance you can easily and quickly provide much faster deliveries to your customers AND significantly cut your costs. BETTER SERVICE AND LOWER COST! |
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