By Brett Bennett | Senior Vice President and General Manager, Crowley Logistics
The transportation and logistics industry faces seemingly unprecedented demand as supply chains stretch and pull to meet industry and consumer needs.
For supply chain companies, Jacksonville and Florida will continue to play unique roles as we seek to address and overcome shippers’ challenges. We serve as partners using data-driven, tailored solutions across the value chain.
With Trans-Pacific routes congested, customers have sought out us and logistics providers for alternatives. East Coast locations offer a strategic opportunity to meet these challenges by helping diversify customer supply chains through the leveraging of different, more efficient trade lanes.
This opportunity is even bigger now as strategic manufacturing and distribution centers are moving to Latin America to reach U.S. East Coast access points more swiftly and cost-effectively. In doing so, disruption from Asian lanes is avoided and quicker, more seamless supply chains can be used connecting the U.S., Caribbean and Central America.
The same innovations by sea can serve as an alternative to congestion on the road. For example, at Crowley, we can leverage the “Blue Water Highway” to get cargo off the road and out of congested ports more quickly via ocean carrier service instead of transporting cargo units by road.
The future of supply chain management is leading companies to be partners beyond traditional operational services – hence our Crowley mantra, “Carry the World. Forward.”
These relationships mean customers can come directly to us for research and trend-based strategy and solutions to meet their shifting logistics needs. By using – in a secure way – the vast data available, this digital transformation helps customers have nimble and resilient supply chains that help manage inventories and transportation schedules.
Digital transformation has taken on more forms than cargo efficiency. We also must meet the demands of customers as well as communities to account for and reduce our carbon footprint. Crowley has a net-zero commitment that leverages the Salesforce Net Zero Cloud and PwC services to use the data toward fulfilling our responsibility.
Our goal should be preserving and improving supply chains with reliable, dynamic and comprehensive services – being resilient, sustainable and repeatable – from the point customers start considering what to do, to final cargo destination.
Brett Bennett was named senior vice president and general manager of Crowley Logistics in 2020.