“Our tag line is connecting people and logistics,” says LTNA President Brad Reinhardt. “The education aspect of course is important, but our real focus is [to get] people out and networking, spending time together and learning from each other and finding that next customer, that next employee.”

Reinhardt knows from personal experience how crucial networking is in the logistics industry—or any industry for that matter. “Most of my career has been based on just networking. I own a third party logistics company and going out and networking and just expanding my personal brand has helped my career more than the work I do. I’m a huge believer in going out and networking, helping other people, always saying yes to that coffee or that lunch. Somebody’s either looking for a job or looking for that next customer.”

The goal, he explains, is “just helping them and giving back a little bit to your industry and your community. It’s good for you of course, [but also] you’re helping someone. You might not get business directly from it but it’s really more about growing community.”

COVID has made networking more important than ever. Prior to the pandemic, “no one really paid attention to how your product got anywhere,” Reinhardt says. That changed as soon as the supply chain was disrupted and consumers could no longer take a steady flow of goods for granted. “Things just moved around the world and we made it all happen and it was a great industry to be in. And then COVID hit and everybody realized, ‘where’s my toilet paper? Where’s my product?’ So it brought us out into the public eye. The President’s talking about the supply chain; everybody’s talking about products and why the supply chain is broken.”

During these high-pressure times, industry insiders with solid relationships can find support. “That networking comes in because then you can reach out to somebody you’ve met in Washington or down in Alabama or out in Seattle for assistance,” Reinhart says. “When you’re networking within your industry, or even outside it, you can get so many more resources and everything at your fingertips, rather than having to constantly research and start over every time.”

In the past, spending time with others in the industry was a given, but the digital age has created alternatives to networking face-to-face. While valuable, these remote interactions are no substitute for in-person events, Reinhardt insists. Traditionally, “networked clubs were huge. There were five hundred, a thousand people at a dinner. And then social media came and changed the networking world. People feel like being on social media or doing Zoom calls is networking—and it is a little bit. But it isn’t [the same as] going out and making those personal connections, whether it’s going to a golf tournament or a happy hour or a conference or a charity event. I think our society has lost that to an extent.”

The post-COVID world has not seen a return to pre-COVID levels of face-to-face networking, Reinhardt adds, despite the pent-up need for interaction after quarantine. “Once COVID was over I really thought these networking events were going to be packed; people were going to be itching to get out. Everybody’s events around the country are going to explode. It actually hasn’t happened. I think a lot of that is because so many people now work remotely. People at four o’clock, they’re already at home and they don’t want to go out to a happy hour dinner or anything. It was different when you’re leaving the office at five o’clock and thinking, ‘I’ll stop by that on my way home and spend a couple of hours and meet some people.’ So part of our organization’s goal is to provide people with networking opportunities, get the word out that there are networking events going on [and that] it’s still a really worthwhile thing for you to do personally.”

This advice still applies to people who are working in an office in addition to those working remotely, because you may “only know the handful of people you work with, or are in the cubicles around you,” Reinhardt says. It’s critical to form relationships beyond your office before you need them. “If you only start looking for a job when you lose your job or you want another job, that’s the wrong time. It’s almost like a sales project; you want to always have your personal branding out there and know as many people as you can in the industry.”

In addition to holding a big annual conference, LTNA works hard to facilitate local networking opportunities. The association’s website includes a list of local LTNA clubs by state and the team is always ready to assist members who are interested in forming new clubs. “I’m currently helping some folks up in Fort Wayne, Indiana start one,” Reinhart says. “I’m working down in Little Rock. We’re going to restart one in Chattanooga. We’re restarting one in Atlanta. We just recently opened one in Nashville and Kansas City.” This support comes at no cost to members. “There’re really easy to start. They don’t take any money. We’re all volunteers. We don’t have any people on the payroll.”

One of the biggest challenges facing LTNA members today is the high cost of fuel. “The diesel prices are really hurting the industry right now,” Reinhardt shares. “It’s been a struggle for the truck lines to be able to stay in business and afford to haul the freight.”

The situation has been particularly detrimental to smaller businesses. “There have been a good amount of smaller truck lines that have gone out of business here in the last two months because of the fuel prices and the softening of freight,” Reinhardt says. “So we’ve been working with a lot of shippers on trying to plan their inventories better [and getting] them to realize the ‘just in time’ model that everyone really liked to have really isn’t working in the industry we have right now because there are so many inventory issues that are out of your control. It’s better to have higher inventories right now. I think a lot of shippers are going to that model currently and I think that’ll help them get through this next little lull. We’re seeing probably next spring, next summer that a lot of these issues should be straightened out,” and everything may be “back to normal by this time next year,” he says.

As the industry overcomes current challenges, new challenges are likely to emerge. One will be the need to implement the latest technology. “Technology is definitely taking over our industry,” Reinhardt says. “Our next biggest change will be the automated trucks that are currently out there on the road. We’re all as an industry working toward how that looks, how it’s going to change what we’re doing.”

Technology is also raising consumer expectations regarding access to information. “Everybody wants the real-time tracking,” Reinhardt says. “Technology is helping people track their product from when it’s made—whether their product was made in Seattle or in China—all the way to the end user in real time.” Reinhardt and his contemporaries look forward to seeing what else is around the corner for the industry.

It’s a changing time indeed, and LTNA has been serving its members for a little over a century. The association has evolved with the industry over the years, but has stayed true to its core focus of connecting people. Whether these people are working to overcome current industry challenges, preparing for future trends, or looking to give back, LTNA is here to assist by bringing them together.

The post Connecting People and Logistics<p class="company">Logistics & Transportation Association of North America (LTNA)</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Specializing in time-sensitive short and mid-range loads—often operating within a 500-mile radius of one of the company’s terminals—Usher Transport makes routine deliveries of oil, aviation fuels, petroleum, chemicals, and hazardous waste to customers on the West Coast of the United States and Canada.

Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Bill Usher and his team, including Chief Financial Officer Dr. David Guess—who replaced 42-year company veteran Edward Watson in June 2020—Director Alan Usher, and Vice President Eric Mink, the company has flourished, even during the COVID-19 crisis.

Family values

A family-owned and operated business for the past four generations, Usher Transport was founded on integrity and respect for customers and staff alike.

Back in 1946, Harlan L. Usher purchased half a dozen trucks from a Mr. Putnam in a handshake deal. Joining forces with a man named Boyd, he founded Boyd & Usher Transport. Initially transporting gasoline in the Mayfield, Kentucky area, the company kept growing and attracting new customers. By 1960, Harlan and his son, Bill Usher Sr., bought out Boyd, renaming the company Usher Transport.

“My father was a very principled man with integrity and a lot of pride,” remembers Bill Usher Sr. as posted on the company’s website. “Only three things upset him. Disrespect, lying, and stealing—in that order,” adding that the principles of integrity—respect, fairness, and pride—“have been passed down through the generations and are at the core of our business.”

After all these years, the company operates under the Usher family name and fiercely upholds its long-held values.

Decades of success

At Usher Transport, Inc., providing clients with safe, dependable, on-time, and on-budget service starts with rigorous and professional planning born from decades of experience. Petroleum and chemical companies, such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Westlake Chemical, and many others depend on the team at Usher for their liquid bulk transportation.

Some products the company regularly transports include jet fuel, diesel fuel, solvents, and highly corrosive sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

Hauling dangerous chemicals like sulfuric acid—vital to manufacturing everything from pulp and paper to pharmaceuticals and fertilizer—is no easy feat. It requires not only knowledge of local, state, and federal regulations, including the Department of Transportation (DOT) and others, but specialized truck trailers, able to contain thousands of gallons of corrosive liquid.

Award-winning service

Over the years, Usher has constantly received accolades from customers and peers in the transportation industry.

In 2019, the company was the recipient of the Kentucky Trucking Association (KTA) Safety Award in the Tank Truck Division. This year, Usher received additional awards at the KTA’s Annual Conference, held in French Lick, Indiana. The company took the Grand Award for best overall highway safety record in Kentucky after it placed first (tank truck division) in the competitive safety contest, and nabbed second place in the KTA industrial safety contest.

“The Grand Award is the association’s most prestigious award and is given to the carrier who has the best overall safety record in the state,” said Usher in his message to his company. “These awards are in recognition of your dedication to highway safety. Having an excellent safety program does not win awards, the daily execution by company and drivers and contractors does.

“Today, I commend each of you for a job well done. Your efforts set Usher Transport, Inc. apart from other carriers and serve as a testament to your professionalism.”

Fostering a family atmosphere, Usher Transport hires the best and believes in recognizing outstanding work and dedication. This includes announcing Owner Operator Eric Marshall as Driver of the Year late last year. According to the company, the recognition, which included a monetary award and a commemorative plaque, was presented for Marshall’s tireless service and exceptional dedication as a professional truck driver. And in January, Christine Estes, the company’s Transport Safety and Recruiting Manager, was recognized as Employee of the Year for going above and beyond her responsibilities.

Joining the team?

Growing through the pandemic, Usher Transport has established new locations in Indianapolis, IN; Dayton, OH; Paducah, KY; Anniston, AL; Doraville, GA; and Savannah, GA.

As a leader in transporting hazardous and non-hazardous materials across the United States and Canada, Usher is always looking for new, great members to join its team, and is accepting applications online at https://www.ushertransport.com/careers/. Although Usher is a nationwide carrier, most drivers spend fewer than two nights a week on overnight travel, with the bulk of loads being trips of a day to a day and a half.

Drivers must be at least 23 years of age, and hiring criteria depend on the position. To become a Regional Chemical Driver-Owner Operator, candidates require one-year verifiable Class A driving experience, a valid Class A commercial driver’s license, hazardous material endorsement for all hazmat shipments, five jobs or fewer in the last 10 years preferred, and some other qualifications.

Other positions, such as regional oil driver-owner operator, local petroleum driver-owner operator, and local chemical driver-owner operator, have their own requirements, such as tank endorsement, eligibility for a transportation worker identification credential (TWIC) card, passing criminal background checks, Department of Transportation (DOT) drug screening, and passing a DOT physical.

Always helping

Recalling a time when he was head of Atlas Oil Company in 2017, Robert Kenyon testifies to how Usher was there when four major hurricanes devastated the lives of millions of people in Texas. Parts of the state were without supplies for weeks in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

“Through these challenging times, Atlas Oil Company’s Emergency Fueling Team relied on you to help those left in the dark after the storms,” Kenyon told Usher and the people at the company. “When Atlas Oil sprang into action for a record-breaking quadruple deployment, you and your team did not hesitate to join the life-saving efforts.

“Your hard work, camaraderie, and collaboration are greatly appreciated, not only by the Atlas team but by those whose lives were touched by the efforts of your drivers.”

As proven over and over, with its many dedicated staff and impressive fleet of vehicles, Usher Transport is always there for its customers through times good and bad.

The post Legendary Service<p class="company">Usher Transport</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

After nearly four decades in the industry, this company has all the intricacies of performing aviation logistics down to a fine art. It has two main areas of expertise: its fixed base operations (FBO) provides fuelling and high-tail hangar storage services for aircraft as well as aircraft loading / unloading, and it provides comfortable lounges for both passengers and crews awaiting flights.

Then there is the logistics division, offering round-the-clock charter brokerage services every day of the year with planes for both freight and passengers delivering goods and humans on a same-day, next-day, and second-day basis, depending on clients’ requirements. It also offers an onboard courier service in which a trusted delegate accompanies goods like parts and equipment on mainline flights from their place of origin to the final destination.

“People look at us as an emergency service. We’re here fuelling aircraft and servicing planes. Plus, we have every piece of ground equipment that any aircraft would ever need. If we don’t have something, we get it,” says Zach Cheema, Chief Executive Officer, who runs the company together with his brother Shaun Cheema and sister Rebekah Zimmerman.

The company also has an exclusive-use, ground-freight carrier service for third-party logistics providers. Here, Grande Aire provides road transportation for customers in need of super-fast delivery via road. Its main claim to fame, however, is expedited chartering. This service delivers in record time, making it the star service provider for well-known automotive fabricators, universities, and, most importantly, hospitals in need of transporting vital human organs to new destinations for transplants.

Booking such a specialist freight flight is simple. A single call or email to the company with detailed information on the specifications and timeline required for moving time-sensitive goods or passengers is all it takes to mobilize the Grand Aire team to secure one of the over three thousand aircraft on its books.

Another popular service is its aviation groundwork, loading and unloading as many as twenty airplanes daily. “We understand the importance of getting planes with freight moving. Our FBO [staff does] a lot of unloading of freight aircraft,” says Tony Bass, Business Development Manager, noting that, if the company did not perform logistics, it would not understand how fast freight must turn around. “We have had great success in the past three years because we turn aircraft faster than pretty much any airport in the area,” he continues.

The company was started in 1985 by Tahir and Katrina Cheema. Tahir had been working in the automotive industry when he identified a gap in the market for air chartering parts and equipment. The business grew into what it is today as the Cheemas continued to expand its capacity and services over time. Since it began, its expansion has been significant, doubling its staff and capabilities in the past eight years alone.

A passion for detail and speed are pertinent aspects of growth. Thanks to overall integrity, its devotion to people and excellence, and a solid company culture without staff micromanagement, the Grand Aire team of forty loves its mission, and this culture also explains its low staff turnover. One of the team’s greatest recent compliments came from a client who is also a competitor who let the firm know how reliable and great its people are. Gestures such as holiday activities, appreciation lunches, and other team gatherings outside of work all serve to bring everyone closer together, giving strength to the idea that teams that grow together are stronger.

Naturally, the Grand Aire leadership team could not be happier with its staff’s dedication and focus in all weather and situations. The job “gets into your blood, and then it’s hard to get it out of your head. A lot of people don’t want to quit,” says Ken Walters, Director of Operations.

When COVID-19 hit the scene, the company’s information technology department needed no time at all to set the logistics team up for remote collaboration. Its FBO team, however, continued doing the physical work on the ground to keep its clients’ flights and cargo moving. What spelled disaster for some companies, became a year of growth and advancement for Grand Aire. All because, as a broker, the company had the freedom and was able to obtain appropriate planes from reliable carriers during a time when many air carriers were overbooking and often underdelivering. As a result, the company is now in the process of developing a new state-of-the-art software system that will benefit its staff and customers in big new ways.

However, there are many ways in which this industry stalwart sets itself apart. “Our people are very knowledgeable and very safe. When you blend those two on the fixed base operations side, you get speed, [which makes] everyone happy,” Cheema says.

In addition, Bass tells us that local competitors simply do not offer anytime fuelling and loading services, making Grand Aire unique. Another advantage is its commitment to transparency and clear-cut, regular communication with customers, a trait that often garners high praise from those tired of having to guess where their freight is at any given time when contracting other service providers.

“We call them milestone updates,” Bass says, adding that the company lets the customer know “every time that freight touches base or is moved… kind of like FedEx tracking,” except that the company updates with the exact location status information. It also provides “an itinerary when they book with the estimated time of arrival of each planned leg.”

It is not surprising then that it was named Expedite Carrier of the Year in 2020 and 2021 by one of its third-party logistics carrier clients, Transplace, which was acquired by Uber Freight. The company is also certified as being a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, and as a General Services Administration (GSA) contract holder, it also supplies services to the federal government.

As the industry evolves, Grand Aire has positioned itself to move with the significant changes currently shaping the world of expedited freight. “On the FBO side, we would love to see some growth out there,” says Cheema, also pointing out that expanding the company’s infrastructure and fuel storage capacity is a priority to secure ever-growing numbers of clients.

To this end, the company is close to wrapping up an impressive renovation project on its fixed base operations facility. Earmarked to be completed in December this year, this modern port of call will soon be ready to welcome clients to an entirely new visual and business experience.

“I think our customers are going to… love being here. We’re also renovating our logistics department as phase two of this project. It’s a big deal for us,” says Walters. As Grand Aire continues to hone its services and increase its market share, the team also continues to grow. Because while a large footprint is not all that matters in this industry, bigger is always better when it comes to expedited freight handling.

The post High-Speed Air Freight on the Move<p class="company">Grand Aire</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.