Brokers and logistics companies are participating with gusto in the fifth annual National Driver Appreciation Week. The celebration takes place from August 12 to 19. Throughout the country, governors and mayors are being asked to proclaim the special week. Celebrations are being held and drivers are being honored.

    Jeff Banning, president of Trinity Transport, Inc. has requested that the Honorable Thomas R. Carper, Governor of the State of Delaware, proclaim August 12-19 as Truck Driver Appreciation Week in that state as well. Jeff told Governer Carper that truck drivers are "the unsung heroes of the American highway and the U. S. economy."

    With corporate headquarters right on busy Route 13 in Bridgeville, Trinity has the perfect site for hosting drivers. That's just what they're going to do on Friday and Saturday of the special week. A 30 foot sign along the highway will thank drivers for their work. A huge tent on the front lawn will house refreshments. There will be a display of antique trucks. Veteran drivers will be on hand to share stories.

    Vendors will display truck driver products and there will be demonstrations of how a trucker can run his business on a lap top, right from the cab of his truck. Lapel buttons with the message, "Thank You Drivers" will be distributed to all drivers who attend.

    The official Driver Apprecation Week logo and appropriate write-up have appeared in all three newsletters published by the firm - for carriers, customers and an internal issue for staff and agents.

    The American Trucking Associations are sponsors of the special week. For months, ATA has been hawking tee shirts, hats and other novelties with the declaration, "Drivers Deliver Safely."

    The activity is meant to acknowledge the work of drivers and the part they play in the American economy.

    Truck driving men and women deliver the goods that keep our economy going and growing. They keep the shelves of our local supermarkets fully stocked. They deliver blood, medicine and diagnostic equipment to hospitals and clinics. They are a vital chain in the link that brings the newspaper to your front door every morning. In short, if you got it, a truck driver brought it.

    Flynn Transportation, Inc. has posted the official Driver Appreciation Week logo on the home page of their web site. Said owner Chip Flynn, "It was a salute to drivers from our entire team." The brokerage, in Delray Beach, moves largely for the audio/video industry.

    At Megatrux in Brea, drivers come first each day of the year. The firm publishes "Tips for Truckers from a High Volume Strategic Partner," showing how to make the best impression. The firm has a national reputation with drivers for understanding them, supporting them and demanding that they be given the co-operation and respect they deserve.

    In San Ramon, Mike Rogers, President of 4Way Logistics Inc. points to his company motto, "You'll swear by us, not at us." He adds, "We could not make that pledge without knowing there are drivers on whom we can depend." A salute to drivers, complete with the Appreciation Week logo, appeared in Mike's newsletter too.

    In Pittsburgh, GMI, Inc. has used posters in their warehouse and office to acknowledge the special week. Staff members have gone out of their way to wish drivers well and voice their support, particularly during this special week.

    More than three million heavy-duty truck drivers nationwide travel over 150 billion miles a year, hauling more than six billion tons of freight. Trucking accounts for more than 80% of the nation's freight bill.

    "Will there ever be robot brokers moving cyber freight in ethernet trucks?" That is the intriguing question posed by the New Jersey Chapter of the Transportation Intermediaries Association at their last meeting. It was a way of gaining attention to the many freight exchanges popping up on the Internet, that offer to match freight to trucks.

    "What they are really doing is brokering." That's the opinion of William Tucker, well known veteran broker who has taken his Tucker Company of Cherry Hill, New Jersey into the digital age.

    "Disintermediation is the intent of this Internet exchange process," stated Tucker. He is amused at the prospect of moving freight through automated means, without human intervention.

    "The uninformed, the techies, those who have never done this before, feel they can just automate. But our business is so much more than just technology. Techies feel they can displace the broker. Actually, to be successful, they must become the tools of the broker."

    A freight exchange is a service offering to match loads with trucks over the Internet for a fee. Tucker explained that this is different from the traditional load-matching offered by firms like DAT Services or by early enablers like The Internet Truckstop, where no transaction fee is paid.

    "DAT is a totally neutral force," said Tucker. "They are astute. They know the guts of trucking and brokering. They studiously avoid any hint of brokerage. They are well aware of who their market is, and they don't cross the line."

    With almost no barriers to market entry in the Internet economy, online exchanges are popping up everywhere. Some are shoestring operations; some are financed from deep pockets. They all look good on paper, or a computer screen. The question is how many are prepared to provide the administration, customer service and transportation acumen provided by today's transportation intermediaries.

    Start-up dot.coms get big media attention. The novelty turns heads and interests buyers. Often the follow-up does not match the promise. Electronic trading exchanges were introduced in the transportation industry as early as 1985. Although the marketing was slick and inviting, the technology could not support the claims and hopes.

    Today, the back-end technology allows participants to sort out the type of equipment they need, and even automatically match freight needs to equipment capacity.

    "Actually, you could have a trading exchange for doctors or graphic artists on the Internet," noted Tucker. The question is, would you want an MD to match your symptoms to diseases without hands-on consultation? Would you turn over the production of your company literature to a graphic artist who, for all you know, specializes in drawing cartoon teddy bears?

    Tucker believes that human intervention, analysis and decision-making play the most important part, whether the issue is health, creativity or transportation.

    "A shipper has a responsibility to be sure the person who is delivering freight to THEIR customer is qualified, responsive, dependable and capable. Brokers know how to make that happen. It does not happen by using an electronic matcher, on its own."

    Tucker noted that shippers are not known for spending large amounts of money on transportation technology.

    "High tech has not made it to the traffic department," said Tucker. As technology becomes an ever-greater part of transportation, shippers have looked to companies who stay on the cutting edge of transportation technology, and are contracting them to perform these important services.

    "Shippers are spending money on technology for THEIR core interest," said Tucker. "They know that brokers and logistics firms make significant investments in technology for THEIR core interest - moving freight. Then they get the benefit of that technology by hiring the third party to provide it. The technology alone would be about as much use to them as a computer that has not been turned on."

    Tucker estimates that at least 50% of freight movement today is arranged by a third party - a brokerage, contract logistics firm, the brokerage division of a carrier, a freight forwarder or other type of transportation intermediary.

    The largest trading Internet exchange to date is Transplace.com, the consortium created by six big truckload carriers. Fueled with $30 million in seed funding, Transplace.com has been smiled on by industry analysts who see it as the start of a move toward industry co-operation.

    Billed as a supermarket for transportation solutions, the online venture merges the non-asset-based logistics services of J. B. Hunt Transport Services, Werner Enterprises, Swift Transportation, M.S. Carriers U.S. Xpress Enterprises and Covenant Transport. Total logistics revenue for these carriers last year was $650 million.

    Mused Tucker, "Cartels, throughout time, have the history of coming apart fast."

    At a recent industry event focusing on trading exchanges, consensus was that exchanges are falling flat - so far. The prediction, however, was that their time is coming. At a freight e-commerce conference in June, workshop speakers sang the praises of exchanges to a highly skeptical audience. The event was sponsored by First Conferences of London.

    One third party logistics provider who spoke out was Tom Wessel of Maersk Rail Van in Worthington, Ohio. After explaining the personal service provided by Maersk, Wessel told a Transport Topics reporter, "Big shippers are dealing with more than just a physical move. Companies that do business with us do it because we do major, major sucking up."

    Although stated bluntly, this total commitment to customer service may well be the trump card held by transportation intermediaries against any move toward disintermediation. Brokers go out of their way to please the customer. Logistics firms "cover" their clients, no questions asked. Freight forwarders go above and beyond. Computers can't do that; people can.

    "The exchanges claim that they will displace the broker and the shipper will deal direct with carriers within e-commerce and all will be fine. The shipper is not buying it! If they have excellent brokerage going for them providing lower freight prices and a higher level of service, why would they do things differently?"

    Tucker points out that the change would involve hiring personnel who are savvy with what broker knows and buying expensive Internet internal processors.

    "Then he still has to do qualification for driver level, carrier level, hand carry, train, ship, reconsign, reroute. Who wants to take back all that responsibility?"

    Albert J. Giunchi, director of distribution logistics at Hartz Mountain Corp agrees that peripheral efforts are underestimated. Speaking at the Bear Stearns Technology Conference in New York this spring, he pointed out that on-line services still leave a lot of administration to be done.

    Addressing online freight auctions specifically, Giunchi said they would only be of interest to shippers if they were free.

    Bear Stearns counted 54 "horizontal freight transport exchanges and auctions" currently in operation, with even more in the works. They concluded that there are too many freight transportation procurement sites on the Internet and a shakeout can be expected.

    Graham Newland, director of virtual services at software provider Manugistics, says he has seen estimates predicting 10,000 trading exchanges being introduced globally in the next two years. The predictions also say that four years from now that number will have dwindled down to 2,000 with 1,000 survivors left, a year later.

    This is not unlike the environment when trucking was first deregulated and transportation brokers flooded the market. In the twenty years since then, the ranks of brokers have been thinned significantly. Demands for high levels of knowledge and transportation acumen have combined with the need for financial investment in technology to weed out those who could not keep up.

    Tucker does not for a moment question the place of technology in transportation. He was an early adapter to taking his firm onto the Information Highway. He uses DAT's National Accounts program as well as other load matching services. The difference is that he sees the value of technology as a tool for the use of intermediaries, rather than a replacement.

    "If exchanges are to be successful, they must be tools for brokers to use," said Tucker. "They are already starting to realize they can't do it without people."

    Recognizing that people are as important as technology, Yellow Corp. has launched an online transportation marketplace with former DOT Secretary Samuel K. Skinner as chairman of the board. It remains to be seen whether celebrity figures with national visibility will draw customers, or whether shippers will stick with "the folks in the trenches" who know what's happening and how to make the system sing.

    Tucker worries about Wall Street investing in trading exchange IPOs. He is concerned that there "could be some very sad investors."

    "There are products being ballihooed out there that do not yet exist. Conceptually, it sounds like just the thing," he said, warning against vaporware. "But there could be a lot of money left on the table or lost if trading exchanges turn out to be frivolous or ineffective."

    Not to be considered technology adverse, Tucker stated, "I have all the respect in the world for what technology has accomplished. Massive changes have happened overnight and will continue. When we see proven Internet tools and we can step through the Internet provider's system and see it and feel it, then we get excited."

    Tucker sees a bright future for transportation intermediaries as the users of technology on behalf of e-commerce clients.

    "E commerce is a just another way of handling business," Tucker noted. "It is Internet-assisted commerce. We're already using the Internet effectively and I'm sure we will continue to do so, whether our customers are selling their good from a storefront or from their website. The latter just makes it Internet-enhanced. It does not make the freight any different.

    E-business has become a primary market enabler so fast that it has sent traditional business into a tailspin. Brokers, like business owners everywhere, are struggling to innovate. The process is particularly confusing when a company tries to accommodate the Internet within their present business model. It doesn't work, costs money and creates frustration.

    The truth is, the business model on which most brokerages are based cannot be tweaked and turned a bit here and there. Rather, the entire business model needs to be realigned. To remain competitive and viable, the Internet must be looked at as a central platform for the core business of transportation, not just an add-on for automating the company brochure.

    With business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce now a full blown reality, brokers and smaller logistics firms need an e-commerce strategy. Having a plan helps direct the purchase of hardware and software. It dictates the kind of professional development that must be planned for staff. It may move marketing away from one audience and turn up an entirely new profit center.

    Web interfaces are becoming the most common front end to networked applications. The move is so pervasive that Web interfaces are quickly becoming the front end of choice.

    As an example, have you registered online yet to attend an event? Millions of people do. Speakers are being chosen, based on the content of their web site - which may even include video clips of their presentations. Instead of calling and asking about payment, some brokers can pull up their carriers' accounts payable on the Internet and find out whether the check has been sent. None of these interfaces were even available a few years ago. Now they are common practice.

    This two part feature presents a four step process to start planning your e-commerce strategies. Components include:

1. Customer-based Vision of Your Operation
2. E-business Implementation Plan
3. E-business Evaluation Plan
4. Budget

1. Customer-based Vision of Your Operation

    In the traditional model, you built your operation for convenience and effectiveness for you and your employees. It was formulated around your being in one location on the planet, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your time zone, five days a week. You interacted, face-to-face.

    By contrast, an e-business strategic plan sets out an Internet-oriented, customer-focused vision for your company. The plan creates a framework for the innovative, flexible organization you will become. Engaging in the exercise of e-business planning forces owners and executives to think outside the 20th century box and become future focused.

    Forget the way you've always done business. That won't be easy. You've been thinking traditionally for all these years. Yet it is necessary. You may need help; people to keep bringing you back to the essence of the new work platform that is so foreign when you start addressing it.

    Today, it doesn't matter where people are located or what time of the day or night they work. They may be your employees, or someone else's or they may be entrepreneurs - outsourcers who with niches of knowledge. You communicate by machine, not in person. Sometimes it's faster and easier, sometimes not. But you must admit, it's different!

    You will not be taking incremental steps, when you start thinking about a new business process. You will be taking quantum leaps. You will rethink the way you do business, the relationships you have with vendors, the speed with which you can respond. You'll reinvent the benefits and services you provide and the audience to whom you provide them.

    If you keep thinking the way you always have, you won't be able to make the leap. You will keep getting dragged back to thinking the way you did when the telephone, fax and computer were your tools, without the Internet.

    To prepare you to think differently, read books on the subject. Subscribe to Fast Company magazine. Bring in some college seniors or graduate students and ask how they see things. Spend a few hours in a cyber café. Visit cybersavvy customers and collect intelligence on how they are operating today.

2. E-business implementation plan

    Implementation of an e-business plan requires consideration of numerous components:

          Technology blueprint
          Customer communication
          Technical integration
          Front interface
          Back end power
          Budget

    This is where you prepare for the future by creating utter chaos in the present.

    Your technology blueprint shows the kinds of technology you need to implement your e-business strategies. It includes software, hardware, networking, telephone service, high speed access to the Internet. It considers whether to have an ISP or ASP and who will host your website - not just for promotion, but to fulfill your business mission.

    It will be expensive, involved and eventually, liberating - but only eventually.

    A key factor will be the amount of customization you want to offer. One logistics firm, for instance, captures information on all the special service provided to each client during the month, at the time it is provided. Every solution that is applied, every change that is made that saves money, every innovation adopted is captured.

    Once a month, a newsletter is prepared - for each client individually. It does not report on industry trends or tell which staff members got married. It reports everything the third party has done to earn its keep for that client that month.

    How customized will you make your communication with your clients?

    Your implementation strategy will address the integration of Internet data with an organization's back-office systems. It will consider the vendors with whom you have or will have collaborative e-business relationships.

    Your new business model creates a structured approach to the redesign of existing business processes, functions, and workflow. It streamlines business processes. It eliminates duplication, removes redundancy and realigns functions with the technology strategy.

    Rather than entering data over here in the database, over there in the accounting system and somewhere else for marketing, all three functions will be handled with one data entry. Your implementation plan must assure that one system can talk through to another to accomplish your goals and fill your needs.

    You'll need to think about the future, as well as today. Make a list of those questions that should be answered in your e-commerce strategic plan. Here are some samples:

• What kinds of personalized information ( business intelligence) do you need to do e-business?

• What kinds of intelligence must you provide to your customers and clients?
      Status of freight movement?
      Payment history?
      Statistics on costs?
      Changes in fuel costs and their impact on shipping costs?
  Up-to-the-minute industry statistics? Increases in savings over time due to your manipulative expertise?

• Does the information need to be provided in real time?

• Can it be?

• Should it be?

• What are the ramifications of each decision you make?

• How could your best ideas come back to haunt you?

• How might you be cutting too deeply into profit to implement some of your more innovative ideas?

• Could collaboration allow you to provide them?

• If so, with whom should you collaborate?

• How sure are you about their dependability and ability to stay alive and well in the e-business environment?

• How can you self-empower clients to access information without your delivering it from one person to one person?

• Where and when should you make sure your service is still being offered one-on-one?

Annette E. Petrick is a business and marketing consultant to transportation companies - www.transportmarketing.com / anetrick@shentel.net / 540-459-8390 / FAX - 540-459-3440.

    Members of the businessINSIDER advisory board met to set the tone, policies and direction of the industry's first independent publication for transportation intermediaries - brokers and small contract logistics firms.

Left to right above -

• Boe Davis
  L & M Transportation Services, Inc.

• Ray Clavette
  Vimich Traffic Logistics

• Charles McAlpin
  McAlpin Corporation

• Annette E. Petrick
  editor and publisher

• Edward Forman
  Prophesy Software, Inc.

• Karen Pelle
  Megatrux, Inc.

• Alan Huttmann
  HA Transportation Systems, Inc.

    All board members pictured above are the presidents and/or CEOs of their companies. For full list of advisory board members, see the sidebar next to this issue's editorial.

    Billions of dollars worth of freight now flow through the hands of transportation intermediaries. You make markets, cut costs for shippers and generally contribute to the health and welfare of the trucking industry and other modes of transportation.

    Such growth and success naturally lead to creation of a trade publication to report and view your unique business. That's what businessINSIDER is all about. We cover the mature, sophisticated, service-centered business you have become. You'll read about the trends and issues before transportation intermediaries. You will meet those who provide services for small and mid-size companies, as well as the giant 3PLs and their Fortune 500 clients.

    The print edition uses a quick-read format. Short articles, fast forwards, bulleted lists that are easy to read and absorb. The web edition then presents most of the same stories - covered in-depth. It was expected to be 12 to 24 pages. There is so much to report that our issues have been more like 36 pages long.

    You can read businessINSIDER on your computer monitor, complete with full color photos and graphics - or print it out, in full color or in black and white.

    You can self-select those articles that are of most importance to you, or those which you'd like to circulate, and just print those out.

    Save the print edition to a folder for easy reference.

    Save each Web-delivered edition on your computer - or simply search the archives online for old editions down the road. It's innovative, it's different - just the kind of thing that entrepreneurs would understand and appreciate.

Website Design - Aaron Collegeman
Print Graphic Design - Deborah Ranson
Editing - Kathryn Rosypal

Published by
Petrick Outsourcing Unlimited, Inc.
Management and Marketing Consultants
to North America's Transportation Companies
679 Hottel Road
Woodstock, VA 22664
www.transportmarketing.com

Subscriptions/billing
Sandi Thomasson
540-459-9632
Fax - 540-459-8775
sthomass@shentel.net

Advertising
Lea Frazier
540-459-8390
Fax 540-465-9487
lafraz@shentel.net

    Language is a very powerful business tool. The words you use to describe your operation paint a visual image of what your company is about, and how you operate.

    It occurs to me that "digital broker" is a good, descriptive term for the type of company successfully offering third party service to small and medium sized manufacturers and distributors today. The digital broker is cyber savvy, uses technology to expedite transactions and understands the implications and constant new potential of the Internet.

    The digital broker uses the power of the Internet to move more freight faster, because their dispatchers and dispatch assistants are using the tools available. You've probably heard that most companies use between 10% and 40% of the tools provided by their computers. Imagine the advances you could make by just doubling your knowledge and use of those tools. It would still leave a long way to go.

    Hearing rave reviews about OUTLOOK as an organizational tool, I bought the program, took one look at the thick manual and went to put it on the shelf. But no, it had too much potential to give it up. Instead, members of my team agreed to learn the system; each taking specific portions to master.

    Within a month, they were ready to tutor the rest of us on exactly how to use the tool, for the things we wanted to do. Instead of the ethereal instructions of the manual, we were receiving real world advice on how to provide the assistance we had been craving on specifically what each one of us does. What a difference.

    The Key Operator approach may work for your organization too. It could be your first step in becoming a digital broker.

    We are truly challenged as early adopters in the digital business age. We have to accept that decisions made correctly today, will be totally obsolete in a year or two - or even in a few months. Shelf life of software gets shorter and shorter, as innovators find ways to cut corners and automate processes. We have to guard against letting fast trump careful.

Annette E. Petrick, Editor and Publisher

pFreight Integrates Industry's Top Service Providers Into a Single Resource Designed to Streamline Trucking/Transportation Administrative Functions, Allowing Drivers to Focus On Core Competencies

    Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE:R - news), a leader in logistics and transportation management solutions worldwide, today announced it has funded a new Internet-based freight marketplace - pFreight ™ (www.pFreight.com).

    pFreight brings together a consortium of participating service providers (PSP's) to form a single resource capable of streamlining business and administrative functions for individual drivers, small fleet owners and private fleets in the trucking and transportation industry over the Internet.

    ``pFreight was developed with the driver in mind,'' said Gregory T. Swienton, Ryder's president and chief operating officer. ``The goal is to help raise the driver's profitability by lowering the costs and hassles associated with administrative functions and to get the driver back behind the wheel generating revenue, not at a desk filling out paperwork. Additionally, pFreight provides individual drivers or small fleet owners the tools needed to compete against larger companies in the industry,'' he added.

    ``pFreight is a key addition to Ryder's e-Commerce platform of solutions and technologies geared to meet and exceed client expectations and will be an important service for Ryder's private fleet markets.''

    ``pFreight delivers a total service package to drivers via the Internet and other in-cab communications media,'' said Mike Shelton, Ryder's senior vice president of sales, marketing and e-Commerce. ``Driver services include everything from load matching to assisting drivers in filing all tax and regulatory reports required by governmental agencies. Standardized contract administration, carrier ratings, universal track and trace, on-line paperwork, electronic billing/payment and elimination of administrative duties are all features of the pFreight system. It's the paperless, profitable way to run your business,'' he added. ``Ryder believes the electronic transfer of information will revolutionize the inefficient mode of operation currently prevalent in the industry.''

    For those with freight, the pFreight interface creates a standard format to deal with a myriad of small, medium and large trucking companies. pFreight will also optimize broker capabilities by providing instant and powerful dispatching engines to find loads, find available trucks for loads, communicate with drivers, coordinate payments and arrange services for clients.

    ``Many niche players have developed leading-edge capabilities for their particular product or service, but lack the completeness required for a comprehensive product offering,'' said Scott Moscrip, president of pFreight and founder of The Internet Truckstop.(www.truckstop.com). ``For the individual driver, pFreight provides the tools needed to make his/her business more profitable. For the private fleet, it can dramatically reduce the time and costs associated with administrative burdens. For shippers, pFreight provides the geographic reach and value-added services of a national carrier, with the quality service you can expect from a local owner/operator.''

    pFreight.com is a brand identification created by P3 Systems. P3 Systems was founded to implement the next step in the evolution of trucking on the Internet. pFreight combines the expertise of a group of the industry's top service providers into a single interface to create the most comprehensive suite of tools available to individual drivers, fleets and shippers. The strategic alliances developed at pFreight enable each partner to concentrate on its core competency. This creates efficiencies that lower costs and give clients access to companies with proven records of service and performance. The sharing of information also enables pFreight to create all new, value-added services that were inconceivable before. To learn more about the exciting future of trucking on the Internet, visit www.pfreight.com today.

    Ryder (www.ryder.com) provides a continuum of leading-edge logistics, supply chain and transportation management solutions worldwide. Ryder's product offerings range from full-service leasing, commercial rental and programmed maintenance of vehicles to integrated services such as dedicated contract carriage and carrier management. Additionally, Ryder offers comprehensive supply chain solutions, lead logistics management services and e-Commerce solutions that support clients' entire supply chains, from sourcing of inbound raw materials through distribution and delivery of finished goods. Ryder serves client needs throughout North America, in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

    Fortune magazine ranked Ryder as the most admired company in the highway transportation industry in 1997 and 1998 and second in 1999. In 2000, Ryder received a higher overall rating than any of its competitors in the Fortune survey. For the second consecutive year, Inbound Logistics magazine recognized Ryder in 1999 as the top third-party logistics provider.

    Members of the businessINSIDER advisory board met to set the tone, policies and direction of the industry's first independent publication for transportation intermediaries - brokers and small contract logistics firms.

Left to right above -

• Boe Davis
  L & M Transportation Services, Inc.

• Ray Clavette
  Vimich Traffic Logistics

• Charles McAlpin
  McAlpin Corporation

• Annette E. Petrick
  editor and publisher

• Edward Forman
  Prophesy Software, Inc.

• Karen Pelle
  Megatrux, Inc.

• Alan Huttmann
  HA Transportation Systems, Inc.

    All board members pictured above are the presidents and/or CEOs of their companies. For full list of advisory board members, see the sidebar next to this issue's editorial.

    Billions of dollars worth of freight now flow through the hands of transportation intermediaries. You make markets, cut costs for shippers and generally contribute to the health and welfare of the trucking industry and other modes of transportation.

    Such growth and success naturally lead to creation of a trade publication to report and view your unique business. That's what businessINSIDER is all about. We cover the mature, sophisticated, service-centered business you have become. You'll read about the trends and issues before transportation intermediaries. You will meet those who provide services for small and mid-size companies, as well as the giant 3PLs and their Fortune 500 clients.

    The print edition uses a quick-read format. Short articles, fast forwards, bulleted lists that are easy to read and absorb. The web edition then presents most of the same stories - covered in-depth. It was expected to be 12 to 24 pages. There is so much to report that our issues have been more like 36 pages long.

    You can read businessINSIDER on your computer monitor, complete with full color photos and graphics - or print it out, in full color or in black and white.

    You can self-select those articles that are of most importance to you, or those which you'd like to circulate, and just print those out.

    Save the print edition to a folder for easy reference.

    Save each Web-delivered edition on your computer - or simply search the archives online for old editions down the road. It's innovative, it's different - just the kind of thing that entrepreneurs would understand and appreciate.

    Ray Clavette heads a logistics management firm in Tecumseh, Ontario, Canada. Vimich Traffic Logistics (www.vimich.com) works primarily with auto parts manufacturers and distributors in supply chain management. Now in their 16th year of business, Vimich has fine tuned their systems and information management to the point where Ray says, "We have expanded on the logistics management consulting field to create a class of our own. Vimich is a "Logistics Management Agency."

    Services encompass both domestic and international logistics, warehousing, facilities location studies, and carrier negotiations as well as freight bill audit, payment, and reporting.

    As a logistics management agency, Vimich offers a new type of service that cuts across the traditional lines between shippers, carriers, and third parties by coordinating and integrating their activities. Using logistics engineering, Vimich works to improve service and reduce costs for all parties involved.

    Vimich provides continuing support with systems, procedures, and measurements to ensure a world class logistics operation. These systems track cost savings and service improvements for clients. The firm has earned ISO9002 certification. It has been featured by Inbound Logistics magazine as one of the top logistics management firms serving North America.

    To better serve its international market, Vimich now has offices in Koln, Germany and in Michigan, USA. The Ontario office is now fully staffed, 24 hours a day, to accommodate time zones of international of clients.

    Ray came to the logistics field with a background in Accounting and Materials Management. He has applied both job skills to developing and growing his business. An early adopter of technology, Ray recently moved the firm's vast store of information to a scalable Oracle 8I platform using a Quad processor SQL server.

    "This hardware allows us to utilize new, high speed Vimich Model software to create a heady new level of knowledge and communication with and on behalf of our clients," says Ray. He explained that the system creates an Internet port for open connectivity and real time activity.

    "This extraordinary investment puts us in the most powerful platform in computerization," Ray noted.

    Professional memberships of the firm include the Alliance of Manufacturers and Exporters, Canada, Canadian Association of Logistics Management and the Automotive Industry Action Group, USA.

    N'Amerix Logistix Inc., a rapidly growing Canadian full logistics provider, has opened a 100,000 sq. ft. storage and distribution center in Toronto. The firm specializes in freight transportation between Canada and the USA.

    David Patti has been named Senior Vice President, Operations for American Trans-Freight LLC (ATF). Announcement of the promotion was made by Thomas S. Tranovich, president. ATF's recent acquisition of the assets of Redwood Systems, Inc. puts the firm near $100 million in yearly gross revenue.

   In his new position, Patti has full operation responsibility for the truck line division, including all company owned equipment, and the 3rd party logistics division. American Trans-Freight is a full-service transportation company with comprehensive capabilities in trucking, intermodal, logistics services and dedicated fleet operations. The firm owns or leases in excess of 400 power units, 800 trailers, and has contracts with more than 5,000 motor carriers.

   Patti joined ATF in 1991, with more than twenty-five years experience in every phase of truck line management and transportation regulation. Beginning as a dispatcher, he learned the industry from the ground up, adding expertise in technology as the business demanded it.

   "Dave's understanding of the multiple aspects of carrier operation serves ATF well, as a company on the move, growing through acquisition agency and owner-operator development and client business expansion," stated Tranovich.

   Patti is also the company liaison with more than eighty agents throughout the country. Agent offices and the national headquarters are connected through a virtual internet to expedite communication and transfer of data.

   American Trans-Freight is a full-service transportation company with comprehensive capabilities in trucking, multi-modal transport, logistic services and dedicated fleet operations with solutions by transportation professionals using high-speed, integrated technology.

    Trinity Distribution Service has moved from the Trinity Transport corporate headquarters in Bridgeville, DE to a 45,000 square foot warehouse in nearby Seaford, DE. A complete computer system and server have been installed at the warehouse for use of both the LTL Department and the Truck Department.

    More than 1,400 logistics professionals visit the LogiSTAR site each month. It is known as a portal to logistics services. Logistics professionals who use LogiSTAR are looking for computerized solutions for logistics applications.

    LogiSTAR.com has announced new HOT SOLUTIONS; links flashed to its visitors. Hot Solutions links provide a direct connect to the advertiser's web site.

    Schneider Logistics has announced a strategic alliance with ContractorHub.com to bring online shipping and logistics management to www.ContractorHub.com, a business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplace for the construction industry.

    This move will provide users of the Hub a means to automate shipping, fulfillment and order tracking, expanding ContractorHub.com's comprehensive RFQ-through-payment system and broadening the user base for Schneider's portfolio of logistics products and services.

    Schneider's system will run seamlessly within the ContractorHub.com online marketplace and enable suppliers to price shipping as they bid on customer RFQs reducing the legwork in negotiating for materials. Schneider Logistics' SUMIT system will provide instantaneous, customized transportation; aggregate and manage multiple modes of transportation capacity; provide real-time information such as rate quotes, order status, and delivery confirmation; and most important, bring substantial savings to ContractorHub.com members.

   A Schneider spokesperson said, "Leveraging the expertise and experience of the largest truckload transportation and logistics company in North America lends credibility to both buyers and sellers conducting business at ContractorHub.com."

    "Our goal at Schneider is to be the logistics and transportation provider of choice for B2B Internet marketplaces," said Chris Lofgren, chief operating officer for Schneider National. "Servicing freight transportation today is as much about information and communications as it is about tractors and trailers. We are strategically poised with our real-time technology to manage the physical movement of goods for e-commerce."

   Since its inception in 1999, ContractorHub.com has attracted a core group of general contractors, large subcontractors and suppliers. Headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, the company has offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and Atlanta.

    Mexico's first freight matching service became operational today. Micarga.com is a joint venture between The Internet Truckstop in the United States and GRYSAM, Inc. in Mexico.

    The new service provides the power of the world's largest Internet-based freight matching service, with real-time information on loads and trucks available in Mexico.

    "This is a major achievement for trucking in Mexico," stated Telesforo Fernandez, president GRYSAM, a commodities trading company with domestic and international ties. Frustrated with his experiences over the last decade as a domestic and cross-border shipper, Fernandez sought a way to improve communication between shippers and carriers. He felt that would result in high quality delivery.

    His research brought him to The Internet Truckstop, which developed freight load matching technology five years ago and has been expanding and upgrading it ever since. Truckstop's customized load matching now includes food-specific equipment and proprietary listings available only to preferred customers or carriers.

    Micarga.com will list loads and carriers in a special international portal of The Internet Truckstop. The information, posted in Spanish, has a tremendous potential to increase back hauls. Postings will include border exchange of trailers along nearly 2,000 miles of the maquiladora - the border of the United States and Mexico - and all major gateways.

    "We expect the use of this technology to benefit shippers and carriers on both sides of the border," Fernandez stated.

    The large segment of domestic shipping done by Mexican owner/operators is expected to be significantly affected by Micarga.com.

    "Easy access to information on loads to backhaul could make a significant difference in the cost of doing business," stated Fernandez.

    Fernandez serves as president of the food sector of the national Transformation chamber, and has been secretary of the wheat milling chamber as well as member of the board in several Mexican companies. He sees the next level of development for Micarga.com in the area of mileage and routing. Mapping could come next.

    You have a truck in Anywhere, USA and you need it back in Sometown. Ideally, you identify a load to haul back near Sometown and you negotiate a decent rate. Great! But if you haven't identified a load, or you have additional capacity on that truck back to Sometown, there's another source you can access to really MAKE IT COUNT.

The cargo: Humanitarian aid - Medical equipment and supplies, food, clothing, educational materials, etc. Origin: Cities throughout in the U.S. Destination: Communities in need here in the U.S. or to a port city or airfield to be shipped abroad. The Shipper: HART (Humanitarian Aid Resources & Transportation, Inc.)

    Established by a grant from the Rotary International Foundation, Humanitarian Aid Resources & Transportation, Inc. ("HART") is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting and strengthening humanitarian efforts through the identification and development of cost-effective (yet safe and secure) transportation sources. HART assists Rotary clubs and other non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada with logistical support while identifying the most cost-efficient avenues for the delivery of humanitarian cargo.

    While there is no shortage of life-essential items available for redistribution, shipping fees and other transportation logistics can create a prohibitive barrier in delivering commodities to where they are most critically needed.

    Upstate New York Rotarians volunteered to accompany a medical mission to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. A severely understaffed hospital is located on the reservation to serve the residents of this expansive community. Entire families travel to the hospital from remote areas of the reservation to seek treatment, staying for hours and sometimes days at the facility.

    As there was no play areas for children who are receiving medical treatment or accompany their families, in addition to providing healthcare, the volunteer Rotarians decided to construct cupboards and provide children's books and toys. Books, clothing and toys were collected from generous donors in their local communities in New York. Having dedicated their time and energy to this mission, this group was stopped short when they learned how much it was going to cost to transport 6 pallets to South Dakota.

    K J Transportation, Inc. of Farmington, NY was contacted for assistance and responded with transportation services free of charge - making this mission possible. As the means by which toys, books, and desperately needed clothing were delivered to this poor, desolate community - K J Transportation is truly a local hero to the children who visit this hospital.

    While we understand there are a number of factors that affect a transportation organization's ability to offer help. We are in pursuit of donated or reduced-rate shipping opportunities that may be provided in back-hauls, d-heads and available space on pre-scheduled transports. These are the most ideal situations that can create an effective partnership to ensure the completion of a humanitarian effort.

    HART assists in pre-qualifying cargo it helps to facilitate to ensure:

1. The aid is being provided in response to a specific humanitarian need;

2. The items being sent are in good condition and in proper working order;

3. The recipient is able to safely use any equipment provided;

4. The shipment is properly packed and palletized;

5. When shipping abroad, written government approvals are obtained waiving tax and duties or a written commitment is obtained from the donor to pay such fees;

    A distribution plan is in place with individuals committed to and responsible for the execution of the plan to ensure the aid is received and effectively used by those for whom it was intended.

    Along with K J Transportation, Inc. HART would like to recognize the Transportation Intermediaries Association (www.tianet.org) and Best Transport.com (www.besttransport.com) for their support and assistance. Without the help from generous organizations such as these, HART's mission of facilitating the safe delivery of humanitarian aid worldwide would be severely limited.

    In an effort to reduce roadside truck accidents, a public awareness campaign, "Drive Safe - Park Smart," was launched at a Capitol Hill press conference today by NATSO, the association representing travel plazas and truckstops. The kick-off featured comments from Honorable James L. Oberstar, Ranking Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as well as the chairman and president of NATSO.

    "In recent years, there has been a tremendous focus on ensuring safer truck driving, and we've seen dividends from that effort," said NATSO Chairman James A. Cardwell, who credited the nation's truckers with being among the safest drivers on the road. "Now we want to raise awareness about safety once it's time for a driver to stop for the night. That's what 'Drive Safe - Park Smart' is all about."

    Through a year-long series of ads in national trucker publications, the "Drive Safe - Park Smart" campaign will target professional drivers and trucking companies, reminding them about the perils of illegal roadside parking, a dangerous practice that is unlawful in all 50 states. In addition, the safety initiative will encourage drivers to plan their routes carefully to ensure they can find safe parking at the end of their legal driving day.

    Each year, needless tragedy occurs when vehicles run into illegally parked trucks on roadway shoulders. In 1998, for example, a bus struck a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder of the Pennsylvania turnpike. Seven people were killed and 16 others injured in the accident. Last summer, five people died when a truck outside Tennessee collided with a tank truck that had parked along the outside edge of an acceleration lane. Roadside crashes are five times more likely to cause death than accidents involving other vehicles.

Here are the top-5 voice-mail pet peeves, according to the Telephone Doctor, a St Louis-based customer service training company:

    The overall market for third-party logistics providers (3PLs) remains in transition, responding to changes in customer needs and values by expanding their service offerings, including e-commerce and other information technology capabilities, according to a recent study.

    The study also finds that 3PLs have historically been viewed as vendors whose key themes were cost control and service performance. However, today new partnerships are emerging and the emphasis has shifted to value, innovation, and performance in an increasingly global context.

Top findings of the study include:

• The market for 3PL services is growing 18%-22% annually

• Nearly 90% of customers are satisfied with their logistics service providers

• Almost 100% of respondents who said they used a 3PL to meet certain objectives indicated their objectives were met by the 3PL, including asset reduction, strategic/operational flexibility, and expansion of geographic coverage, both domestic and global.

• There is a shift from the use of transportation-based providers to providers that are oriented toward warehousing and distribution.