ReedTMS Logistics

ReedTMS LOGISTICS quality equipment, and effective use of technology. Business ViewMagazine asked ReedTMS Logistics CEO, Jason Reed, Chief Sales Officer, Jordan Strawn, and National Sales Manager,Matt Castriotta for insights into their company’s strengths, challenges, and plans for future growth in the ever-changing trucking and logistics industry.The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. BVM: Can you tell us about the formation of ReedTMS Logistics and its evolution? Reed: “My father founded ReedTMS in 1996 and I was the first employee. He basically started the business to work for himself. He’d been in trans- portation his whole life, more on the air freight and LTL sides. Then, he got an opportunity to get into truckload brokerage –he was kind of a pio- neer and pretty much figured it out on his own, but he needed a partner in crime, so he hired me. From his background in air freight, he convert- ed a lot of those customers from air to expedited ground. Fast forward to 2005; we’d become a viable company with 25 employees.My dad retired,we hired my brother (our current President), and we started in to invest in infrastructure, employees, technology, and went into growth mode, reinvesting a lot of our earnings back into the business. In 2017, we closed the year out with $150 million in revenue and we’re continuing to grow. In 2018,we’ll be up another 40 percent on top of that. “We’re domestic in 48 states - primarily, truck- load.We have two business units – a logistics arm and a truckload sister company. Our total number of employees combined is between 250 and 300, with about 120 on the logistics side and the bal- ance in trucking.We’re running, roughly, 95 power units and 500 trailers in the fleet. It’s a really high trailer to truck ratio.That gives us the ability to do a lot of dedicated private fleet services for our cus- tomer base.The biggest piece of our revenue is gro- cery retail and food service.We do business with a lot of large grocery chains from the northeast down to the southeast and mid-western states. Second behind that would be the food service companies– hauling perishables and dry goods to their distribution centers in the most high- ly-populated U.S. states.” BVM: How do you differ- entiate yourself from the competition? Reed: “We’re not just a 3PL, not just a motor carrier, we’re a combination of the two, and highly focused on service.We’re not a low cost provider, but we give competitive pricing.We’re not a tech innovator, however,we do have cutting-edge tech- nology.We consider ourselves a relationship-based, asset-based 3PL, targeting customers who are willing to spend a little more on service because that’s our focus. And our technology is as good as, if not better than, everyone else’s in our sector. “Creating efficiencies and keeping up with the changing technology are key goals going forward; being able to do more with the same head count; read- ing data to help make bet- ter decisions and forecast- ing; using data initiatives and analysis; streamlining the process; and making sure you get technology efficiency that can drive automation. The guys that are ahead of the pack in that are going to be in a more competitive position in the long term.” Strawn: “We like to find solutions and that’s how we best service our customers.We’re large enough to provide services in many areas of the industry, but also small, and nimble, and private- ly-held, where we can adapt and do things differ- ently than larger companies of our same makeup. We don’t try to force customers into what we do well, we just try to find out how to do well for them. Branch expansion is important.We’re JORDAN STRAWN CHIEF SALES OFFICER JASON REED LOGISTICS CEO