Pilot de Mexico open for business!

Planting Pilot roots in Mexican soil has been in the works for some time and I am happy to announce that we've officially expanded our operations to Mexico, where we’re now doing business as Pilot de Mexico. The first station under the Pilot de Mexico brand, located in Mexico City, is a full service operation and will address customers' transportation and logistics needs within the city and the interior states of Mexico.

During our national meeting this year, the growth of the Mexican economy was brought up in almost every breakout session. For example, Gordon Branov, executive VP of business development, pointed out that Mexico’s economy is the 11^th largest in the world, making the region an obvious choice for our growing international footprint. Phil Annese, director of automotive, noted that in the next two years, Mexico is expected to surpass Japan in automotive business, opening up doors for our eager sales reps to make an impact in the country.

Under the management of Alberto Ochoa, a 17 year industry veteran, along with the continued support of sales, customer service and the Pilot community, I have full confidence that Pilot de Mexico will exceed expectations. And because of the potential in this market, I don’t anticipate Mexico City being our only station in Mexico for very long.

Thank you to everyone who played a role in making Pilot de Mexico a reality!

Pilot opens first European station

Back in January, I mentioned that there was big news coming for Pilot this year, including new locations both here in the states and abroad. After months of hard work by Gordon Branov, Gilles Auzanneau, Alexandra Ryan and many others, I am excited to announce that Pilot has opened its first European station, in Amsterdam.

Opening a full Pilot station in Amsterdam (AMS) will transform our company. Today, our customers' businesses often rely on international shipping or logistics. In order to offer the best possible customer service and transit times in Europe, as well as our sophisticated logistics solutions, we simply had to have our own people in place. And Amsterdam was the clear choice for where the first European station should go.

Amsterdam's Schipol airport and the Port of Rotterdam are two of the largest cargo portals in the world. Because of this, Amsterdam is home to enormous logistics programs, and is the perfect gateway to Western Europe. Its central location will allow us to offer overnight service to several major destinations, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland.

Additionally, AMS will give companies exporting freight from Europe easier access to our network in North America, Asia and many other countries around the world. While we expect much of the initial traffic through the Amsterdam station to be coming from the U.S. to European destinations, we anticipate that over time we'll see many more European companies taking advantage of our well-established domestic network.

The Amsterdam station will be managed by two Pilot veterans, Gilles Auzanneau and Alexandra Ryan. These long-time Pilot employees and international shipping experts are both previous winners of Pilot's Globetrotter award, and will bring the mix of operational and sales expertise that our customers expect from Pilot. The station will be overseen by our executive vice president of business development, Gordon Branov.

This is an important shift for Pilot. It marks our commitment to our international product, and stakes our claim as a global force in transportation and logistics. We expect AMS to lead to additional stations in other international locations. Stay tuned for more announcements later this year!

How valuable is your 3PL?

After putting together her last article on how 3PLs can minimize risks and handle challenges, Gail Dutton from WT100 Magazine turned her attention to how 3PL providers can provide the most value to customers.

When I spoke with her on the topic, we discussed the importance of various factors in the 3PL relationship, including having a strong process in place and having good local knowledge, particularly in the case of international imports and exports.

As I told Gail, the key to success in the logistics process is to “partner with the right vendor and document expectations as well as how the process will actually work. Having a clear statement of work, and understanding what the customer wants, makes it easier to design an efficient system for them.”

To read the full article, head over to the WT100 website.

Risks and challenges in the 3PL world

Earlier this year, I spoke with one of the writers from WT100, Gail Dutton (who interviewed John Kelemen last year), and her latest story has come out—focusing on how 3PLs can minimize risks. In the article, Getting Past the Fear Factor, Gail addresses various issues of concern for shippers, ranging from delays and damaged cargo to civil unrest and regulatory changes. More importantly, she covers how 3PLs and transportation providers are helping their customers navigate these issues.

I talked to Gail a lot about how Pilot is helping our clients move into new markets—specifically in Latin America and Europe. We're seeing more and more customers showing interest in Latin America, thanks to the closeness to U.S. markets, and the availability of inexpensive labor. I explained that one of the best tactics in working internationally can be choosing great local partners. These partners are carefully vetted by us, but often have far more expertise on their region than we do, allowing our customers to benefit from that knowledge.

We also spoke about the growing trend of "merge and deliver" services, and how these can really help ensure customer satisfaction. Historically, manufacturing or service companies would ship parts directly to the customer before an install. That led to delays and confusion, as components were invariably misplaced. However, merge and deliver services eliminate that issue by having the different deliveries ship to Pilot sites. Before an installation team is scheduled, Pilot confirms that all the components have arrived at its warehouse, and coordinates their delivery with the installation team and the store.

To read the full story, head over to WT100’s website.

High praise for Pilot

More than anything else, Pilot’s success depends on our ability to provide our customers excellent value, and unmatched customer service. When you think about it, those two things are not only the core of our business, they determine the future of our company.

That is why I could not be happier to tell you that Pilot has been awarded a Quest for Quality Award from Logistics Management for the 21st time! For the first time this year, we were recognized not only in the Freight Forwarders category, but also as a Third Party Logistics provider. More importantly, among the freight forwarders we ranked number one in the nation in both the Value and Customer Service categories. This is great news for Pilot and a wonderful testament to our employees, who make the customer experience a great one.

In other good news, for the first time since adding third-party logistics services to our list of offerings, we were included in Inbound Logistics' Top 100 3PL Providers list. For a company that is relatively new to this sector of the industry, being recognized as a top provider nationally is remarkable. Our team has worked extremely hard over the past few years to build our 3PL services, and their success so far is only a hint of what is to come. Great work, everyone!

Thanks to the editors and readers for recognizing our hard work! And thanks to all of the Pilot employees who work hard for our customers every day.

Closing out Q2 with a bang

After a tough year industry-wide, I'm very happy to share the fact that Pilot just closed out the second quarter of 2010 with the largest volume month in company history! In June, we handled a larger number of shipments, and larger total weight than ever before. On top of that, it was the second largest revenue month we've ever seen.

This record month closed out a strong quarter for Pilot, with more than 27% growth over Q2 of 2009. I'm especially pleased to report that this growth was not in one particular segment of our business, but spread across the company. Every segment of our business was up in Q2, including automotive services, international shipping, logistics, home delivery and domestic expedited air freight.

Hopefully the new record set in June won't last long, as we're expecting to see continued growth through the remainder of the year.

Keep reading to see the full press release we put out today.