DC Velocity - February 2012

newsworthy
short takes

The Ralphs-Pugh Co. is celebrating its 100th year in business. Founded in San Francisco in 1912 by William J. Pugh, the company started out as a distributor of rubber goods and products focusing on agriculture and food processing. Two years later, Pugh and his father-in-law, Isaac Ralphs, formed a partnership and began to manufacture custom conveyor belts and belt slitting machines. The company today specializes in making conveyor rollers and component parts. … Kewill Inc. has acquired the Shipping Expense Management System from Pointandship Software Inc. With this acquisition, Kewill adds cloud-based software for both parcel shipping and expense management to its portfolio of shipping (parcel, LTL, and TL) solutions. … RedPrairie Corp., a global supply chain and retail technology provider, says that more than 45,000 stores and food-service outlets worldwide are now using its Enterprise Workforce Management (EWFM) solution, which represents growth of 30 percent in 12 months. … Kenco, a provider of value-added distribution, public warehousing, and transportation services, has partnered with Aberdeen Group to publish a report focusing on operational excellence in the distribution sector. The report, titled “Fulfillment Excellence and Dynamic Event Warehousing Come of Age,” benchmarks the best-in-class companies as well as requirements for success. … Penske Truck Rental is once again supporting the Shoeboxes for Military Spouses program, providing rental trucks for 17 locations in North Carolina to help pick up and transport donated items. The North Carolina-based non-profit Support Military Spouses is the country’s only program dedicated to collecting and distributing shoebox gifts to military spouses. … 2012 marks REB Storage Systems International’s 50th anniversary providing turnkey record storage solutions. REB has expanded its locations both in the United States and internationally in order to provide local service. … Employees of Grimsby, Ontario-based RMT Robotics are donating their time to mentoring teams of local Ontario elementary, secondary, and high school students in preparation for the annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League and FIRST Robotics competitions.

Don Schneider dies at 76

Don Schneider was no Steve Jobs.

As legend has it, Jobs, the mercurial late founder and chairman of Apple Inc., once excoriated an employee who unwittingly parked in Jobs’ spot at Apple’s corporate headquarters.

Schneider, on the other hand, would give employees of the month choice parking spots next to the headquarters building, while he parked in the spot farthest away. Given the brutal winters in Green Bay, Wis., Schneider’s home base, his actions were sometimes no small sacrifice.

Schneider, who served as president of truckload and logistics giant Schneider National Inc. from 1976 to 2002, died Jan. 13 at 76 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Schneider’s vision and execution had a profound impact on his company and industry. He led the family business through a challenging transition to deregulation in 1980, and built sizable logistics and intermodal enterprises to augment its traditional truckload operation. Today, privately held Schneider, which operates 9,800 tractors and 32,000 trailers, generates about $3.4 billion in annual revenue.

Along with his chief rival Johnnie B. (J.B.) Hunt, Schneider became one of the trucking industry’s earliest and strongest converts to intermodal rail service as a way to move customers’ freight more cost-effectively than over the road. “J.B. Hunt may have been one or two years ahead at the start in recognizing intermodal’s value, but eventually they were right there together,” said Charles W. Clowdis Jr., head of supply chain advisory services at consultancy IHS Global Insight and a former longtime trucking executive who has known Schneider since 1977.

Schneider National also became known for its trademark orange tractors and trailers. Clowdis recalled that when the company was planning to expand into China, an outside consultant told Schneider that he would be unable to paint the equipment orange because it would probably not belong to him. As Clowdis remembered, Schneider stiffened in his chair, thought for a moment, and said he would agree only if there was a Chinese law forbidding him to do so. The equipment was not painted orange.

Schneider is the third trucking industry pioneer to have passed away in recent months, following the deaths late last year of Russell Gerdin, founder of Heartland Express, and Patrick Quinn, co-founder of U.S. Xpress Enterprises. It is a jarring reminder that those executives who helped make the trucking industry what it is today are departing the scene as the business enters a new and uncertain phase.

With Schneider, Gerdin, and Quinn gone, the industry has lost some of “its best innovators, best operators, best leaders, and best human beings,” said John G. Larkin, veteran transportation analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. ;