CCJ

March 2015

Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal

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COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | MARCH 2015 49 INNOVATORS A&R LOGISTICS Louisville, Ky. Right" safety steamroller picked up the pace. Seeing an opportunity to capitalize on favorable trends in the chemical and plas- tics industries, private equity fi rm Mason Wells and industry veterans and investors Holden and Rich Mitchell – now A&R president – acquired the company, along with members of A&R's management team and other investors, from private investment fi rm FdG Associates. "We were excited about partnering with the A&R team," Holden says. "We viewed the investment in A&R as the fi rst step in our long-term goal of build- ing a diversifi ed global transportation and logistics company focused on bulk materials." Holden says that since the acquisition, the company has spent $24.4 million to re- pair, fi x and upgrade its fl eet and has made safety its top priority. "The fi rst two years were a lot of turnaround work," he says. For proof of the company's safety com- mitment, one need look no further than its latest Compliance Safety Account- ability results, which were its best since the program's inception in 2010. Its point values in the Unsafe Driving (18 per- cent) and Hours of Service (25 percent) BASICs were its lowest since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rolled out CSA. "Our safety culture starts at the top," Holden says. "This latest accomplishment refl ects that our focus is delivering the results that we demand and our custom- ers expect." The strategies behind A&R's safety I f you're going to do something, you might as well do it right. For A&R Logistics, "Doing It Right" is its corporate mantra and its pledge to its customers to maintain the highest standards for safety, compliance and service. The Louisville, Ky.-based company has made signifi cant investments in assets, technology and operations while continuing to grow to accommodate today's U.S. manufacturing expansion. "We're walking the walk, making strategic investments in equipment, training and facilities," says Mark Holden, chief executive offi cer. "Not just because we're forced to, but because it's the right thing to do." A&R provides dry bulk delivery solutions to numerous multinational companies in the chemical and plastics industries. The company's suite of supply-chain services includes over-the-road transportation, transloading, packaging, distribution and logistics solutions, warehousing and end-to-end outsourced transportation manage- ment through a nationwide network of 25 facilities, a combination of company-owned equipment and owner-operators and a nonasset-based transportation management division. A&R's commercial headquarters are in Houston, and its customer service head- quarters are in Morris, Ill. The company has a fl eet of more than 800 trucks and 1,200 trailers, and in addition to its substantial infrastructure, it is backed by $1 billion in private equity. Safety first A&R had been a dry bulk transportation staple since its beginnings in 1969, and when new ownership took the reins in December 2012, that's when the company's "Doing It The bulk-haul transportation provider's safety initiatives allow it to post its best CSA scores. A&R Logistics reinvents itself for safety, growth BY DEAN SMALLWOOD

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