• Excelerate
• Excelerate Live
• Excelerate 9000

The evolution of Hanson Cold Storage to Hanson Logistics is a success story in the making. Known for "Yes, We Can!" service, this privately-held company entered the 3PL market in 2004, expanding its service offering to provide integrated transportation and distribution services to food mid-tier and Fortune 500 food companies. Hanson Logistics recently opened its 14,500,000 cu ft. best-of-class Chicago Consolidation Center and with it Velocities^TM, a multi-vendor consolidation program. Transportation service in and out of the facility is provided by the Hanson truck feet as well as a large network of qualified carriers, all of which are managed by Virtual Dispatch Excelerate 9000.

"As a Midwest based logistics provider, with warehousing and transportation management programs, we have benefited tremendously from the use of the Excelerate 9000 technology," said Andrew Janson, Hanson Logistics Executive Vice President. "Improvements in order management, freight consolidation, customer and carrier rating, fuel surcharge administration, web track and trace and carrier selection have all come with the installation of this technology. We're handling more loads with fewer people and enjoying a greater rate of return on our investment. We are able to give our customers visibility to their supply chain via the web interface and also make their delivery documentation available to them at their desktop. Plus, we appreciate the responsive service we have come to expect from Virtual Dispatch."

The value of Hanson's Velocities^TM is in the management and reduction of LTL transportation costs by combining orders for multiple SKUs ÷ from a single customer or from many customers ÷ destined for the same or similar location. Excelerate 9000 supports the many complexities of this program, giving Hanson transportation managers the interactive tools to quickly and easily consolidate LTL shipments into profitable multi-stop truckloads. Dynamic load-building tools, including interactive mileage interface and historical carrier costs all lead to more effective tactical load planning. What's more, the system tracks order cost allocation based on a variety of methods including per-case, per-pound or per-pallet. Invoicing is now very efficient, with options for electronic or email invoicing for individual shipments, batch invoicing or statement invoicing with details for all shipments in a given time period. Traditional payment cycles are shorter and cash flow improved because customers can be invoiced on the day of delivery, with supporting delivery documentation available for review on the web if necessary.

With Excelerate 9000, Hanson customer service personal can respond quickly to rate requests from potential or new customers, and easily confirm customer specific rates for all orders. Excelerate 9000 also manages all rate schedules for Hanson feet and qualified carriers, including fuel surcharges and accessorial charges. Multi-rate tracking is particularly helpful in carrier selection and load management among the company's large qualified carrier base. Broadcasting load availability via e-mail to carriers servicing specific lanes also expedites the process and strengthens the carrier relationship.

Excelerate 9000 automatically monitors shipment order status and alerts key customer contacts of pick ups, deliveries and potential exceptions. Customer can also monitor their shipment activity with the custom web interface which allows not only the capability to send orders via the web, but also the ability to track their shipments progress in real time.

Excelerate 9000 document management capabilities enable Hanson to e-mail customers scanned copies of delivery receipts related to an order, instead of photocopying and mailing up to eight documents per order. This paperless approach is green and efficient.

Hanson tested the waters by purchasing and using Excelerate (Access version of the program) for the first year and then migrated to the more robust Excelerate 9000.

"We're growing in both volume and footprint, and it's critical that we maintain the quality of service across transportation and warehousing," said Janson. "Virtual Dispatch has been an excellent investment. They have given us a technology offering equal to systems costing much more, all with incredible ease in implementation and use."