The Southworth PalletPal® Pallet Inverter is the fast, safe, economical way
to rotate pallet loads. The pressure-adjustable clamp secures loads up to
48" x 48" x 60" and weighing up to 4,400 lbs. and rotates them 180°.
The uses are endless…
• Transferring to or from in-house to shipping pallets or slip sheets
• Replacing damaged items at the bottom of a load
• Turning inventory for freshness
• Replacing broken pallets
For complete details, visit www.SouthworthProducts.com/inverter
making work faster, safer, and easier since 1890
TEL: (800) 743-1000 • FAX: (207) 797-4734
SouthworthProducts.com • salesinfo@SouthworthProducts.com
One Minute With No Manual Labor
16-041 Pallet Inverter Ad-DCV.indd 1 2/1/16 9: 42 AMwww.dcvelocity.com MAY 2017 DC VELOCITY 31
centers wanted to manage fulfillment
requests for Amazon by case-pack quan-
tities. Once Barnell realized that Averitt
could provide the inbound support and
the warehouse capacity to handle goods
the way he wanted, he thought, “Why
couldn’t they be the DC?”
Fishers could have opted for a low-
er-cost inbound service provider than
Averitt. However, Barnell was unwill-
ing to roll the dice with a less-seasoned
partner in the complex and demanding
international logistics arena. Besides, the
back-end savings on warehousing and
LTL, as well as avoiding the payroll drag
of hiring an employee to manage logistics,
offset the higher front-end costs, he said.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Averitt expanded into carrier warehousing about five years ago through a
long-running delivery relationship with
retailing behemoth Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Because Wal-Mart’s vendors—who were
Averitt’s customers—already held their
goods at Averitt’s terminals, the carrier
was able to quickly move them from
the warehouse to the truck. This helped
Averitt consistently hit Wal-Mart’s four-day “must-arrive” requirements.
The model took on more relevance
after Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart
compressed its delivery deadlines to one
day for perishables and two days for dry
goods to meet more demanding e-commerce delivery standards, according to
Pierce, the Averitt executive. Through the
warehousing model, Averitt successfully
adjusted to the tighter windows, Pierce
said.
Much was riding on Averitt’s performance: Failure to meet Wal-Mart’s
requirements can result in a chargeback
to the shipper, a ding to the shipper’s
compliance score, or both.
The success with Wal-Mart’s vendors
led Averitt to push out the solution to
the broader retail market, especially with
e-commerce shippers that supply to marketplaces like Amazon and independent
merchants selling through their own websites, Pierce said.
The Averitt executive said the service is
not designed for businesses seeking tradi-
tional long-term storage capabilities. “We
are not in the storage business,” he
said. “But if a company is looking
to use our warehousing as a way to
accelerate its forward supply chain,
that’s where we can help.”
According to Barnell, there are
millions of e-merchants just like
Fishers: smaller, fast-growing con-
cerns looking to connect overseas
producers with U.S. consumers,
and trying to level the playing field
through cost-effective services like
carrier warehousing. For them, the
Averitt model may be worth explor-
ing, he said. “Averitt has been a god-
send for us,” he said.
