New CON-WAY Facility Brings Additional Freight Handling Capacity
25 January 2000
New CON-WAY Facility Brings Additional Freight Handling Capacity to Local Market and Reduces Transit Times to Other Major Market Lanes
ANN ARBOR, Mich.--Jan. 25, 2000--Con-Way Central Express (CCX), announced the opening of a new freight service center covering the Charleston, W. Va. market. It was opened on Jan. 3, two and one-half months ahead of schedule.The new facility at 1100 River East Drive in Belle, W. Va. will not only provide additional freight handling capacity to customers in the immediate area, it will also have a very significant impact on a number of other major markets. The company, based in Ann Arbor Mich. is a less-than-truckload commercial freight carrier. According to company officials, the operation will now perform as a freight assembly center (FAC) in the CON-WAY North American network. The location of the facility near the intersections of interstate highways 77, 64 and 79 will contribute to reduced transit times between markets to the north and south. The transit times between the northern markets of Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky and 98 per cent of Ohio and the southern markets in North Carolina, southern Virginia and the eastern end of Tennessee will be reduced by one day resulting in next-day delivery. The transit times between these same northern markets and all of mid and south Florida will now be two days. This is a reduction of a full day in delivery time. In total, service improvements will occur on a combination of almost 3.4 million 5-digit Postal ZIP Codes.
"We've experienced excellent business growth in this market, so we had to expand," said Richard Palazzo, president and chief executive officer of CCX. "As we planned for the expansion, however, we saw an opportunity to improve the delivery transit times to additional markets in the south that are served by our sister company Con-Way Southern Express. The addition of extra doors and dock capacity will allow us to serve the local market better during normal business hours and then use the center as a key transfer point during the night for other major markets further away," said Palazzo.
The new service center has 82 loading doors, a 33,500 square foot dock and was built on 17 acres of land that was purchased by the freight company. Dan Harmon will manage the facility.
"From their very beginning in 1983, the CON-WAY regional carriers have been a leader in bringing short transit time standards between markets and the consistent performance to those standards," said John Hickerson, president and chief executive officer of Con-Way Southern Express (CSE). "As the CON-WAY carriers invest in network infrastructure to be sure we have the capacity to meet our customers growth needs, we also look for opportunities to improve service levels," said Hickerson. "This new facility is the perfect example of where the proper analysis and investment brings both better service to a local market and better service to other major markets in the CON-WAY network," said Hickerson.
Con-Way Central Express and Con-Way Southern Express are subsidiaries of Con-Way Transportation Services, Inc., a $1.9 billion company that provides time-definite and day-definite freight delivery and logistics services for commercial and industrial businesses. Within the CON-WAY family are regional less-than-truckload carriers Con-Way Central Express, Con-Way Southern Express and Con-Way Western Express; Con-Way Truckload Services, providing multi-modal, full-truckload shipping; Con-Way NOW, an expedited carrier specializing in emergency shipment service; and Con-Way Integrated Services, a contract supply chain execution service provider.
CON-WAY is a subsidiary of Palo Alto, Calif.-based CNF Transportation Inc., a $6 billion management company of global supply chain services with businesses in regional trucking, air freight, ocean freight, customs brokerage, global logistics management and trailer manufacturing.
Further information about CON-WAY and additional press releases are available via the Internet at www.con-way.com