Riches in niches
Dec 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By David A Kolman
For more than 50 years now, Howell's Motor Freight has been providing temperature-controlled truckload/linehaul, less-than-truckload (LTL), pool distribution, and trucking and warehousing services throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. From its start as a carrier doing LTL cartage and meat deliveries, it has transitioned to specializing in servicing the wholesale and retail food and grocery industry, and its suppliers. Headquartered right off Interstate 81 in Cloverdale, Virginia — a suburb of Roanoke — it also operates several distribution terminals, dedicated and regional operations, and truckload division, along with a logistics division.
The company has grown continually over the years by taking a professional approach to its business, focusing on the fundamentals, hiring top-notch quality people, and developing and providing only the highest quality service to its customers. As a result, it has attracted and maintained a long list of satisfied customers. These include well-known market leaders in the confectionary, meat, refrigerated, and frozen food industries, along with notables in the pharmaceuticals and dry goods markets.
Howell's Motor Freight's fleet is comprised of 257 company-owned trucks, 36 owner operator tractors and 650 trailers. It has six terminals, all but one of which has temperature-controlled warehouse space. They are at the company's headquarters, with 22,000 square-feet of temperature-controlled space; Portsmouth, Virginia, 25,000 square-feet; Raleigh, North Carolina, also 25,000 square-feet; Charlotte, North Carolina, 72,000 square-feet; and in its newest terminal in Atlanta, Georgia, which has 29,000 square-feet of temperature-controlled storage, and 70,000-square feet total storage.
The Charlotte and Atlanta terminals also have dry storage available. Its terminal in Columbia, South Carolina, is a dry-storage-only facility. All terminals accept “drop-in” freight for re-delivery.
The core of Howell's Motor Freight's business had been pooling, cross dock, and dedicated operations. In the early 1990s, the company added a truckload operation as a way to expand its business with its customers. That now accounts for about 50 percent of the company's business.
“Expanding current business is considerably easier and less costly than generating new business, although we continually seek out new customers as well,” company president Harry G Norris says. “Our overall business is up around three percent over last year.”
Basically, pooling is an alternative to less-than-truckload distribution. A customer ships a truckload of freight with multiple orders going to various customers in the area of a terminal. These are unloaded, broken out, and then delivered.
Cross docking is where shipments are delivered to a terminal, sorted, consolidated, and stored until the outbound shipments are complete and ready to ship.
Appointment driven
“One of our advantages is that we are the only temperature-controlled carrier that has terminals and assets in the Southeast,” says Norris. “Another advantage is that we specialize in dealing with the wholesale and retail grocery outlets. We've grown up with the distribution centers in our area so we truly understand how these operations work, and we have long-standing arrangements with many of them.”
