Comprehensive Logistics chooses BestTransport.com

Comprehensive Logistics, Inc., a logistics management companies for the automotive and metals industry, has signed a user agreement with BestTransport.com, Inc.

Tom Welsh, Comprehensive Logistics’ Director, Flatbed Division said the collection and sharing of data provided by BestTransport.com and the simplified load tendering system it provides makes for better product distribution into the marketplace.

"This agreement with Comprehensive Logistics is significant in that it validates what we have been saying in the marketplace all along: We are an instrument that can and should be employed by logistics management companies to help their customers’ supply chain management initiatives," J. Vincent Ciroli, president and chief executive officer of BestTransport.com claims.

Officials of both companies expect Comprehensive Logistics operations to start on the BestTransport system by mid-February with all of the company’s accounts on stream by the early second quarter. Comprehensive Logistics’ client list includes major metals producers, value-added processors and automotive manufacturers.

"Comprehensive’s selection of BestTransport demonstrates the ASP (Application Service Provider) model has validity and value in the logistics management arena," said Rick Frio, BestTransport’s Chief Networking Officer. "Validity from the standpoint that an ASP and a logistics company can work congruently for the benefit of shippers and carriers alike and value in that both shippers and carriers can share information that previously resided separately within each entity’s operating system."

The BestTransport deal will give Comprehensive Logistics immediate visibility on the hundreds of shipments it manages daily. Joe Fleming, Vice President, Comprehensive Logistic said this will enable his company to focus its information technology initiatives up stream and down stream in the supply chain.

In addition to visibility and improved data, Comprehensive Logistics is anticipating efficiencies utilizing BestTransport. The logistics management company currently notifies carriers via a facsimile generated by its AS400 system when a shipment has been tendered. The carrier dispatch personnel then respond through an automated telephone system. Welsh said he is expecting the time it takes to tender and accept a load to be reduced significantly through the Internet-based BestTransport system.

"BestTransport has taken what we have done for years through a slow, serial fax process and made it a rapid, parallel, and real-time function," Fleming added. "As a result, they’ve also reduced human error in the equation, making the procedure of tendering and accepting loads a rapid, seamless and logic-based process."

Welsh also noted that with Comprehensive Logistics’ wide-ranging client base, BestTransport’s ability to adapt to a customer’s business rules in tendering shipments was key in the logistics management company’s choice. "With customers from one end of the supply chain to the other, each of our management programs has certain nuances; BestTransport allows Comprehensive Logistics to continue to manage those tailored programs as we always have. The system adapts to our business, not the reverse, which is not true of most web-enabled systems."

Employing BestTransport also will not mean much of a change for the Comprehensive Logistics carrier base. Because the system is adaptable, all carriers can participate, regardless of their size and technical sophistication. That is especially important in the flatbed industry, where many carriers do not have and cannot afford the latest in technology.

"A simple web browser will allow the smallest carriers to still maintain their business and service levels with Comprehensive Logistics," Frio said, "while their larger carriers can be integrated into the BestTransport system, saving them additional time and headaches."

Based in Youngstown, Ohio, Comprehensive Logistics is a provider of logistics management services to the metals and automotive industries.

BestTransport is an application service provider (ASP) of transportation management systems for shippers and carriers. The company’s web-enabled system provides shippers and carriers the ability to integrate with each other while simultaneously providing cost savings and efficiency gains for each.