Old Dominion Freight Line recently hosted an open house to celebrate the relocation and expansion of its Dallas service center. More than 1,000 customers and local dignitaries were expected to attend the grand-opening event for the new facility at 3300 Duncanville Road in Dallas.
The grand-opening activities included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, lunch, tours of the 160,000-square-foot facility, and an autograph session with Dallas Cowboys linebacker Greg Ellis. Old Dominion says the service center, a 234-door facility on 60 acres, represents a major expansion in Dallas compared to the previous service center, which was comprised of 130 doors on 19 acres. Old Dominion’s 380 employees at the new service center will handle more than 3,000 shipments each day to cover a 150-mile radius around Dallas.
“Our previous Dallas service center was experiencing continued rapid growth pressures,” says David S. Congdon, president and chief executive officer of the Thomasville, N.C.-based less-than-truckload carrier. “In an effort to continue to provide premium transportation service to the Dallas market, we broke ground on the new service center on Feb. 17 last year and have been eagerly anticipating the opening of this state-of-the-art facility. We believe that it will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the economy of Dallas and surrounding areas.”
Speakers at the ribbon-cutting ceremony included Congdon and Chris O’Brien of the Dallas Department of Economic Development. Other participants included Bobby Jefferson, U.S. Department of Commerce; James Williamson, on behalf of U.S. Congressman Kenny Marchant; Dapheny Faine, on behalf of Dallas County Commissioner John W. Price; and Mary Nix, Dallas director of sanitation.
Old Dominion says the facility features upgraded technologies, including a dockyard management system (DYMS) that will reduce customer cost by allowing more efficient handling of customer shipments. The facility also will utilize the most recent driver handheld computer technology deployed by the company, providing for more effective and efficient delivery and route planning, according to Old Dominion.
In addition, all Old Dominion trucks will have RFID electronic tags so that drivers will not need to check in – they will be scanned in automatically as they enter the facility. Computers will be mounted on forklifts to prevent the drivers from having to get out of the trucks to enter information into ground-level computers. According to the company, all of the technology works in unison to enable real-time tracking of shipments on its website, www.odfl.com, to provide customers with true end-to-end visibility.
