Ryder System just broke ground for its new Transportation Management Center (TMC), home of Ryder's logistics network at Alliance Industrial Park, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
The TMC will incorporate several transportation services and logistics functions into a single network that supports global transportation needs. The facility will open in November 2000.
"The new centralized facility will fully integrate Ryder's three transportation management functions - shipment management, carrier management and freight management - which will create synergies to enable Ryder to grow these product offerings at a faster pace as well as provide its clients a cost-effective, centralized support service to manage their transportation business needs," said Miles Raper, Ryder's senior vice president of Transportation Management Services.
The new center will centralize the management of all planning, routing and execution of shipments via truck, air, ocean and rail, as well as leverage the matching of shipments with Ryder's dedicated contract carriage and lease fleet clients.
The TMC, a 42,000-square foot facility will have the ability to house approximately 270 employees, with expansion capabilities of another 42,000-square feet and another 270 employees.
The center will have five giant 9' x 18' automated reader boards to display operational activity by Ryder's shipment management, carrier management and freight management solution groups.
The Shipment Management solution provides traffic department capabilities to clients, including planning and executing of shipments, selecting the most efficient and cost-effective mode, method and carrier. In addition, the center will provide automated tender and dispatch, expediting tracking and reporting capabilities.
Ryder's Carrier Management solution provides the procurement of transportation and leverages the company's buying power in the industry to negotiate the best rates and service possible for its clients. Ryder provides carrier selection and negotiation, routing instructions and management reporting. Additionally, Ryder manages clients' billing, auditing and payments processes, handling in excess of 60,000 freight bills weekly. The carriers invoice Ryder; in turn, Ryder audits the bills and pays the carriers. Ryder presents a single bill to its clients.
Ryder has contracts with nearly 900 carriers and manages $1.6 billion of Freight Under Management with a variety of carriers for its clients.
Ryder's Freight Management Solution provides brokerage services to move freight by matching loads to other carriers and a back-haul program providing one-way service to fill a truck with available capacity by connecting it with another Ryder dedicated or lease client. Last year alone, this service generated 19,000 loads and $17 million in savings, Ryder says.
The integration of Ryder's transportation management offerings will help standardize their processes and procedures, the company says. Back-haul matching opportunities between Ryder-managed shipments and the Ryder dedicated and leased fleets will be more easily identified and implemented.
Dallas-Fort Worth, recognized as a key transportation hub, was chosen as the home of Ryder's TMC because of ease of travel in and out of the Metroplex, prospective area growth by 2010 and a Central time zone that is conducive to doing business with the rest of the United States.