Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/466315
44 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | FEBRUARY 2015 June, it provided A. Duie Pyle with a compelling opportunity. New Century had leased and oper- ated a large facility in Westampton, N.J., on a narrow 400-yard swath of land directly between I-95 and I-295. The location was situated perfectly between A. Duie Pyle's existing service centers in West Chester and East Brunswick, N.J. "You couldn't ask for a better loca- tion for a facility," says Swart. Late last year, A. Duie Pyle purchased the facility. Last month, the company reopened it as what it says is a "fi rst of its kind" logistics center for a carrier that integrates LTL, truckload and warehousing services on a massive scale. The 32-acre facility includes a 101- door service center, 132,000 square feet of heated and racked warehous- ing space and a 180-foot-wide cross- dock operation. The facility also has a 23,000-square-foot 18-door main- tenance shop and serves as one of A. Duie Pyle's Truck Driver Academies. "With this concept, if you're a customer and your carrier is based in the warehouse, you can load directly to all sites from the warehouse, which eliminates pickup costs and driver time at the dock because that's no longer needed, as a trailer is already at the dock," says Swart. "A driver no longer has to drive out to a separate facility to pick up the freight, and there is no fuel expended to do that. That's the value-add – we didn't incur the costs, so we can share those savings with the customer, and we are both better off." A. Duie Pyle also believes its new facility concept will greatly improve service time and fl exibility. A customer can call in an order in the late after- noon, and it can be packed and loaded and out on a truck the same day for delivery the next morning, and in some cases even the same day. "When you are talking about 500 miles and being able to offer that kind of next-day service, that is a real advan- tage," says Swart. A. Duie Pyle's new logistics center also addresses the question of why a customer wouldn't bundle all of its services with one company. "Once we are adding the value as a company, you can't just break it apart because that would just add back those costs," Swart says. "If customers are getting great cost savings in addition to the service that they want, why would they? "We believe this is the model for the future," he says. "We don't believe it will work in every market, but in the major cities, it will really be big." A vision for the future Currently, A. Duie Pyle has 29 drivers operating out of the Westampton logis- tics center. The company anticipates staffi ng will grow quickly as it peels service territories away from other ter- minals that are at or near full capacity. A. Duie Pyle also sees great opportu- nities for the Westampton logistics cen- ter as part of the growing pool freight distribution trend, in which a shipper bundles goods bound for multiple destinations into a single truckload and line-hauls it across the country to a centrally located LTL carrier for fi nal- mile delivery. Swart says the Westamp- ton logistics center provides greater fl exibility for its customers using this model. "What we believe is they can fi ll up a trailer three-quarters full, and on the tail of that trailer, they can load some of their highest-moving product even if it's not sold yet," says Swart. "As it goes across the country and is delivered into the Northeast region, we can take the LTL right out for delivery and put the other product in the warehouse if it didn't sell by the time the freight reached us. When one of our custom- ers calls and says they need the product delivered tomorrow in the Northeast, they actually have some product in our inventory onsite and very close to their customers." CC J I N N O VATO R S profi les carriers and fl eets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking's challenges. If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact Jeff Crissey at jcrissey@ccjmagazine.com or 800-633-5953. A. DUIE PYLE LOGISTICS CENTER SPECS 32 acres 101 doors 18-door 23,000-sq. ft. maintenance shop 132,000-sq. ft. heated and racked warehousing space 180-foot-wide cross-dock operation Systemwide global satellite com- munications and security and monitoring systems Onsite driver academy A. Duie Pyle says its "fi rst of its kind" logistics center in Westampton, N.J., integrates LTL, truckload service and warehousing on a massive scale.