Gateway OT/Crate and Freight/DeliveXy

In the mid 1990s the band Hootie and the Blowfish had a hit song called "Time". The first and last line of that song is "Time...why you punish me?" I unfortunately think that way too often in my business life as I deal with coordinating freight for our clients. Managing transportation services such as local pickup and delivery as well as long haul and white glove services puts a high demand on timing. whether you are a large or small transportation service provider, the economics are the same. Time is money. My blog this month is about timing. Specifically how Gateway tries to manage the logistics process to provide our clients with the most efficient and economical services to attain the optimum result. Larger logistics groups would have you believe that its just a matter of scale, once you get big enough these issues go away but after working for one of those groups I know these same issues existed back when I was managing loads for them. On a daily ...

I have recently had a number of conversations with clients and some client prospects about what we do and what in particular makes Gateway different from some of the other transportation related companies they have dealt with. In the business of supply chain and distribution services Gateway O.T is considered a Third Party Logistics company or 3PL. When I am asked what king of 3PL we are I answer: "Blue Collar White Gloves" to reinforce our company moto “We ensure shipping success”. It’s in the way we ensure this success that differentiates us from other 3PLs. We are a hands on company. Gateway can pick up, warehouse, pack and deliver your goods. This is actual blue collar work that a lot of the other 3PLs don’t offer. As a U.S Air Force veteran I know the term Logistics was first coined in the military, but the specific term 3PL began in the 70s and 80s when manufacturers and wholesalers started “Outsourcing” some or all of their supply chain needs. By uti...

We get asked a lot by our e commerce clients, those that sell their stuff online through eBay, Etsy and other e commerce web platforms, whether they need to pay tax on shipping. They come to us because we know the answer and the answer is simple: "Yes" and "No" Confused? Laughing? Have I answered your question? In Arizona we have what is called a T.P.T or Transaction Privilege Tax. The tax in essence is the cost, or "privilege" of doing business in the state. Gateway Crate and Freight for example pays a tax on the crates and packaging we build in our warehouses or on site at our customers locations. For our customers who sell online and have us pack and ship their items, it is important for them to understand the tax implications of their sale. The bottom line answer to the question comes in the form of a line on your invoice. Does your invoice to your customer show freight as a separate line item charge? If it does than that amount is excluded f...

I have written in this blog on a number of occasions about the shift in ground freight to dimensional pricing among many national and regional L.T.L companies. and today I wanted to focus on the importance of packing items for safe shipping while receiving the best freight rate. Lets start by looking at the picture of the un-boxed oven above. The actual size of which is 29 inches wide by 27 inches deep by 29 inches high. When shipping this in a class rated structure, you could box this oven and strap the box to a standard 48 X 40 pallet and send it on its way. Here's why: The N.M.F.C has this oven as a density based class with the density breakout at 6 and 10. So if the density is less than 6 this would ship as a class 200 if the density is between 6 and 10 then it would ship at class 110 and if the density is greater than 10 then this ships at a class 77.5 Before we could understand the density breakout of this shipment we need to know a little more info about the s...

Trade shows can be a boon to your business by allowing you to introduce yourself and your products to new clients. It is also a great venue to help you gauge the interest in your product and or service and help you network with the important people in your industry. This is the important part of the show, but for those with a lot of experience in trade shows, the real work begins well before the show begins and continues well after the last attendee has left the building. My blog this month focuses on the work of the trade show, the behind the scenes logistics that takes place before and after the event to ensure the trade show is successful, which for most means has a positive return on investment, let us start this with:   Attending a trade show as an exhibitor can be expensive. There are many costs involved with exhibiting at a trade show consisting of costs like how big your booth is, how much seating, furniture and tables you want to provide for your visitors, u...

A White Glove Delivery of a glass table into a home in Paradise Valley, AZ. The table top needed to be assembled Glass attached by decorative screws to the Base and placed in the home. With the continued growth of online sales, the supply chain and the understanding of how it works has literally gotten closer to home. We get tasked to manage the logistics of residential home deliveries on a daily basis, whether it is the items professionally packaged at Gateway Crate and Freight or items Freight Forwarded through Gateway Optimum Transportation. A lot of our job is explaining to customers, shippers and consignees, what the supply chain and distribution terminology actually means to them. First transport, last mile, threshold, inside, residential, lift gate, terminal pickup, white glove, product placement, assembly, installation and debrit removal are all terms that we now have to explain to customers who have had, until the advent of online retail, no past experiences with th...

Gateway Optimum Transportation manages a number of logistics services for our clients including the ever increasingly important White Glove Delivery. In today's ultra competitive online retail environment it has become important for companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors. One way they do this is by offering their client a service at their home or business, where their delivered product may be unpacked, setup, in some cases assembled, and the packaging taken away. This is called a "White Glove Delivery". So what is the service called when a company shows up at your house with a brand new furniture set you purchased and brings the couch into the living room and takes the bed into the bedroom and leaves the mattresses and the couch in the plastic and the head board, foot board and rails in their boxes and leaves? This is considered an "Inside Delivery" The Inside Delivery service is when the delivery company brings the items ...