GEORGIA:
MAGNET FOR GROWTH
SMC³ has greatly increased the use of videoconferencing and online media in its new educational programs for the freight industry. Additionally, it hosts monthly hybrid learning programs with panels of guest speakers discussing critical issues facing the freight industry and solutions to those issues. SMC³ now offers Dynamic PriceBuilder ® , a new application that lets carriers develop rates dynamically and enables them to make better pricing decisions. Through the tool, carriers can manage yield versus volume with on-demand control pricing and access levers, including location, weight, density, day of the week, and calendar date. “With this dynamic solution, carriers immediately feel the impact of enhanced visibility into load-level costs, pricing, and profitability paired with their custom business rules engine to provide the data needed to quickly offer customer-specific pricing on a shipment-by-shipment basis,” Thompson says. SMC³ continues to develop integrations to connect shippers, logistics service providers, and their asset-based providers across the freight industry. “There is a tremendous demand to digitally connect and leverage data to create automated solutions that result in savings and more effective management across the supply chain,” Thompson says. “SMC³ is the premier provider of API and EDI integrations for the less-than- truckload industry.” RECRUITING THE BEST For Atlanta Bonded Warehouse (ABW), the Southeast’s leading provider of temperature-controlled 3PL warehousing, co-packaging, and LTL/TL transportation services, the new year has brought about a heightened focus on recruiting and hiring the best of the best among Georgia’s superior logistics workforce. Hal Justice, ABW’s vice president of sales and operations, says this focus means finding new ways to attract a new generation of technology-savvy employees. “Our wage and benefit packages are exceptionally competitive for our industry and for the markets in which
Atlanta Bonded Warehouse is a leading provider of temperature-controlled 3PL warehousing, co-packaging, and LTL/TL transportation services in the Southeast.
we have operations,” he says. “But today we are recruiting a different generation of 18-to-26-year-olds who do not respond as well to the recruiting efforts that have been historically successful.” Both the demands of the industry and the skills and expectations of potential employees are putting a premium on applications of technology. ENHANCING TECHNOLOGY “We’re enhancing our technology beyond just pure materials-handling movement and engaging automation where it makes sense and is cost-effective,” Justice says. “It’s not just moving pallets. Paying people for hours to move pallets from one end of the warehouse to another does not add value to our business process, and does not develop the skills our employees want or need. It’s not a good use of resources.” Such tasks are not especially attractive to upward-bound workers either. Having almost halved the progression from starting wages to mature wages was helpful but still not enough. ABW is aggressively recruiting online for new employees for positions in warehousing, transportation, and co-packaging. The growth in the company’s business means opportunities for new employees and for promotion for existing employees.
“We get lots of online inquiries every day,” Justice says. “We get from four to six inquiries every day regarding employment. When you think 20 a week or 1,000 a year is pretty good, you need to realize this is only the top of the funnel. Successfully recruiting, training, onboarding, and ultimately retaining is a long way from the top of the funnel.” ABW is considering hiring a full- time recruiter to enhance its efforts to keep its workforce on top. At the same time, the company continues to measure productivity through “engineered standards”—using technology to carefully measure workers’ time management. The combination of these efforts enables ABW to mitigate cost increases—and, as a result, its costs to customers. Automation is not a panacea, Justice
says. Equipment must be carefully selected to fit the application, then
calibrated and continually monitored to make sure it is doing what you tasked it to do. “Quality and safety remain most important,” he says. “Nothing suffers.” ABW pays keen attention to industry measurements of success. “We’re holding our own in the industry with KPIs (key performance indicators),” Justice says. “I would put our numbers up against any of our competitors and we have some great competition.
46 Inbound Logistics • March 2024
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