MD Logistics’ Ground Transportation Department, MD Express, Provides Expedited Shipping for Pearson Education
BACKGROUND | Printer Friendly PDF
Pearson Education purchased DK Publishing and was subsequently consolidating facilities in order to save costs. Over three months, Pearson relocated 970 truckloads, 20 million units, of DK publishing materials from a facility in LaVergne, Tennessee, a southern suburb of Nashville. The items were shipped to the Pearson 1.2 million-square-foot facility in Lebanon, Indiana, a northern suburb of Indianapolis.
CHALLENGE
The 970 truckloads represent 53 trailers with 26 pallets of materials on each truck making at least 18 trips between the two facilities. Since the task meant one-way loaded trips of only 357 miles each without a back-haul assignment, most suppliers were not interested in the job. Also, the economy was picking up, and a shortage of drivers and equipment had developed.
WHY MD LOGISTICS WAS THE SOLUTION
Matthew Friars, transportation manager for Pearson Education, called on MD Express for assistance. As a broker, MD Express has relationships with a pool of suppliers and was able to commit two to six trucks per day for five weeks. In addition, MD Express was able to find back-haul work for two trucks each day to make the assignment more attractive to the drivers and more cost-efficient for Pearson.
On a periodic basis, MD Express receives 40-foot containers for devanning and palletization per Pearson’s warehouse specifications. Pearson’s Lebanon facility is a high-volume distribution center which ships 80,000 order per day, 40 to 50 inbound trucks. As such, the Pearson facility is not equipped to manage the special handling required by the container loads of floor-loaded products.
RESULTS
“The DK Publishing consolidation project was very successful,” reported Friars. “We were able to meet our deadlines because MD Express supplied the equipment required.”
“On the ocean container project, everything comes in to us per Pearson specifications,” Friars explained, “which saves us time and allows us to exercise the appropriate use of manpower and equipment.”
BENEFITS TO THE CLIENT
Control of service-to-costs ratio
MD Express is providing Pearson Education with assistance that helps the educational materials company keep an appropriate balance of service and costs in accomplishing its daily work.
Control of deadlines
In addition, MD Express is supplying appropriate equipment and services that help Pearson meet deadlines.
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