Successful online retailers stake their reputation on offering customers the best price and the most convenient shopping experience, from great product selection to timely delivery.

That's where we come in.

We helped support our customer's redesign of their distribution network. We improved their velocity through mode and carrier rationalization, implemented regional cross-docks, and consolidated and routed outbound shipments via expedited carriers to increase delivery velocity to the customer.

In the end, we helped reduce transportation costs by 35%, enhance supply chain visibility and improve inventory velocity by 5%.

While most might think that transportation for one of our large retail customers involves consumer goods, very little freight we manage actually ends up on the shelves." We focus primarily on the delivery of construction materials and fixtures for new store construction, major store renovations and activities involved in closing down an existing store.

New store construction requires transportation of steel roof trusses, flooring, display cases, refrigeration equipment, shelving, back room racking, cardboard recycling compactors and, in the final stages, the shopping cart fleet. Major renovation projects include installing new components, such as shelving, in-store kiosks, departmental themed cabinetry, displays and point-of-sale items.

As our customer is an environmentally conscious organization, we provide reverse logistics solutions in conjunction with the completion of the overall project. This includes shelving, display cases, auto center lifts and other removable items, all to be returned for refurbishment, reuse, resale or recycling.

Through effective communication with construction contractors and installers for key component deliveries, data accuracy and high on-time service for delivery, we provide a comprehensive solution that keeps their business running smoothly.

We understand that wind energy is a vital resource. We take the responsibility to optimize transportation of any and all wind energy components very seriously and with great care. In Worthing, S.D., we created a wind turbine transload and storage center that provides a wide range of services and benefits.

Services offered at our Worthing location:

• Component storage on 8 acres
• Heavy lift with cranes, stackers and forklifts
• Railcar spotting with up to 77 spaces
• Directly served by BNSF Railway

The site serves as a rail distribution point for South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. It helps save time, money and provides greater visibility. We operate wind energy transload through a current network of fifteen transload locations positioned to meet industry needs. Where there is a need, we have a solution.

We were contracted to provide comprehensive transportation and logistics management services to Rio Tinto in 2003. Since that partnership began, we've developed a broad spectrum of services, including local parcel consolidation and mine site delivery, LTL and truckload highway transportation, heavy haul transportation, railcar fleet management and railcar transportation services.

Our team works closely with contacts at each Rio Tinto site, providing the transportation management for all outbound shipping as well as much of the transportation for inbound equipment and repairs.

In order to reduce the number of expedite shipments and enhance safety at mining sites, we established a dedicated courier service to the mine locations that consolidates all parcel shipments, local pickups and suppliers as well as the daily mail service that delivers to the mines. This minimizes the number of outside vehicles entering the mine operations and ensures the operator of the vehicle is fully trained in operating safety requirements.

We currently oversee overdimensional and overweight transportation, both inbound and outbound, via highway and rail. Through working with the operating site personnel, we plan and execute each move to meet the specific needs of Rio Tinto and keep their sites as efficient and safe as possible. 

BNSF Railway invests billions of dollars in the maintenance and emergency repair of their worldwide infrastructure. Renovations and repairs consume large quantities of heavyweight and overdimensional commodities, while also necessitating the site delivery of repair equipment to job sites to make the required repairs or revisions.

We currently manage the total transportation need for these projects, including the support equipment and supplies for the crew's needs. Shipments encompass everything from LTL shipments of bottled water for the crew, expedited shipments of parts and components, flatbed shipments of pre-fabricated sections of rail and heavy haul deliveries of major construction components. All of these shipments are coordinated closely with the contractors and supervisors.

Emergencies can and do happen, and it requires quick responsiveness on a 24-hour basis as well as the ability to acquire non-standard transportation services for expediting components to the job site. In the event of a derailment, we arrange for the prompt rental and delivery of storage trailers to job sites for projection of salvageable commodities and eventual transportation to disposition sites.

We operate under strict time constraints to obtain capacity as quickly as possible in order to help rail routes open faster and efficiently, helping business stay on the right track.

We began working with wind turbine power generator manufacturer Gamesa in 2009, managing the rail and over-the-road transportation of components from the part and manufacturers to support the development of a new wind farm in Illinois.

After receiving the imported parts from the Port of Houston, TX, we completed the delivery of 147 wind components to a nine-acre transloading site, where they were loaded onto railcars. Our in-house engineering team crated a detailed plan of where each component would be stowed in the distribution operation.

As the components arrived, they were transloaded off the railcar and either stowed in the yard or directly loaded onto outbound trucks for delivery to the Illinois wind farm installation field.

In 2008, we were selected by international freight-forwarder Martin Bencher to manage the domestic transportation of wide-span intermodal container crane parts from a manufacturing plant in China to final U.S. job site deliveries. The parts were shipped from the Port of Houston, TX for final delivery to intermodal hubs in Memphis, TN and Gardner, TX, for assembly.

We were responsible for managing the transloading, stevedoring, lashing and securing, as well as final transportation and unloading of the of the crane parts. The project included overseeing 22 rail flatcars and six flatbed truck moves, all efficiently managed to meet Martin Bencher's needs.

After opening an operations center in Jamestown in 2006, we became aware of the challenge in exporting agriculture commodities, as well as the challenge faced at obtaining oil & gas exploration commodities. Therefore BNSF Logistics provided the "ag in a box" solution. International containers imported with oil & gas commodities then agriculture products could be exported in the same container.

In a joint venture with North Dakota Port Services, BNSF Railway, Ocean Carrier Partners and the shipping community, we leveraged the eastbound flow of containers loaded with ceramic proppants (frac sand for drilling) as part of a new and innovative "shared supply chain" solution.

We currently balance the import and export customer demand to build the density needed to support consistent, train-load quantities. We also manage ocean carrier contracting, rail and ocean equipment inventory management, waybill organization and supply chain tracking. A single coordinated freight network that benefits all shippers.

We were faced with a challenge to transport a large inventory of 60-ton salvage Army tanks for Melrose Air Force Base. Our task involved moving all inventory in a short period of time while providing a cost-effective and comprehensive transportation solution.

Since railroads alone don't provide door-to-door service, we created a solution that involved packaging rail service with specialized trucking. At each destination we utilized cranes to place the tanks in specific locations. This innovative and creative solution allowed us to answer the challenge.

BAE's manufacturing facility in Sealy, TX, lacks the ability for direct rail service, and the excessive height of its X-van truck requires specialty equipment and permitting for legal highway routing. The cost for shipping via truck is substantial and the Army is continually concerned about the availability of special truck equipment. That's why when they were contracted to supply Army trucks, they called on us to help get the job done.

As most major U.S. military installations are direct-rail served, and BAE's X-van load ratio for truck to rail is 2-to-1, it made rail transportation a viable option. We covered the load planning and scheduling for the origin dray from plant to rail loading yard, procured rail equipment, managed all rail loading activities on site and handled EDI waybilling.

To date, we've coordinated shipments of more than 150 railcars of X-vans, saving BAE about 30 percent in transportation costs when compared to using truck.