$12 Million Integrated Logistics Deal
Cherry Hill, NJ, May 31, 2007 – NationaLease has been awarded a $12 million contract to provide Integrated Transportation Logistics Services to PIC USA (Hendersonville, TN), the leading supplier of pork breeding stock in the United States. Under the terms of the three-year contract, NationaLease, in conjunction with member West Brother’s Transportation Services (Raleigh-Durham, NC), will provide TQA certified drivers, full-service leasing, customized maintenance, finance leasing, asset services, distribution routing and analysis technology, business management, and fuel and fleet support.
In addition, a proprietary automated biosecurity system from Corcentric is being customized to meet PIC’s unique requirements, ensuring that the health and welfare of the animals is not compromised from source farm to customer farm. West Brother’s will transport nearly 170,000 live animals annually, utilizing a dedicated fleet of 14 power units and 22 specialized trailers.
“The top priority of this partnership with NationaLease is to improve efficiencies while maintaining the exceptional biosecurity and reliability our customers have come to expect,” said Mark Engle, DVM MS, Director of Health Assurance and Transportation for PIC USA North America. “Transportation is an expensive and critical component of our business. We are moving breeding stock that are high-value live animals, making biosecurity during transport extremely important for the protection of our customers on the other end. In addition, the well-being and quality of the animal upon arrival is paramount.
NationaLease is working side-by-side with us to help us eliminate empty miles, improve our routing efficiencies, and develop customized state-of-the-art reporting systems that will assist our drivers with stringent delivery protocols, and educate our customers about delivery schedules that will optimize their service and rates.”
Experience with transporting live animals, combined with the expertise of NationaLease’s Dave Beaudry, Director of Logistics Engineering and Consulting, were important considerations in the awarding of the PIC USA contract, according to Michael J. Oetjen, Vice President of Integrated Logistics for NationaLease. “We know the challenges associated with this industry and are proactively designing multifaceted solutions to meet PIC USA’s efficiency requirements. These solutions rely on the most specialized drivers, equipment, and technology to ensure that the animals are humanely treated in an environment that is constantly monitored to keep them safe and secure from origin to destination.”
“The strength of our organization is the service metric,” according to Douglas J. Ostanek, Executive Vice President of the 62 year-old West Brother’s. “We will be covering a huge geographic footprint to transport these live animals and will rely on the NationaLease network to keep our equipment up-and-running and to attain the client’s continuing improvement goals. This is very different than moving a box from Point A to Point B. Our partnership with NationaLease is the bench strength we need: national capability, a multi-location service network, buying power, computer modeling, and instantaneous decision-making to help us live up to our promise of productivity in motion.”
Founded in 1944, NationaLease is the largest full-service truck leasing organization in North America, with over 700 full-service locations throughout the U.S. and Canada and a combined customer fleet of over 150,000 tractors, trucks and trailers. The company provides comprehensive fleet management services for private fleets and transportation service providers. www.nationalease.com
Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Raleigh-Durham, NC, West Brother’s Transportation Services, Inc. delivers transportation management solutions to help companies increase productivity, control cost and decrease fleet size. It is one of five operating companies under The West Companies. www.westbros.com
PIC USA is the leading supplier of pork breeding stock in the United States. Founded in 1973 in Spring Green, Wisconsin, the company leads the way in developing mutually beneficial relationships with pork producers and processors, developing products and services that will be the greatest value to the entire pork chain. www.pic.com
