With refrigerated transportation indexes pointing to pending capacity restraints and Chicago area warehousing needing additional deep-frozen high-turn space, Hanson Logistics announced it has taken several key steps in its single-source marketing program.
First and foremost, the company has completed its expansion of the temperature-controlled Chicago Consolidation Center, located in Hobart, Ind. Consisting of new office areas and 2.5 million cubic feet of warehousing space, the expansion includes 8,000 new pallet positions, staging and dock space for frozen and refrigerated foods. The flagship Chicago Consolidation Center – a three-phase, 14.5-million-cubic-foot facility now in its third full year of operation – is designed specifically for high-volume throughput, including flexible racking for quick-pick consolidation and cross docking of temperature-controlled food products.
Secondly, Hanson has expanded its transportation management services. Don Romniak has joined the Hanson team as the director of distribution services. Romniak, who is stationed at the Hanson Chicago Consolidation Center, brings a great deal of experience and knowledge to the department, and will play a large role in the future success of Hanson transportation. The company also is implementing an electronic payment process for its carrier community.
“We really do work tirelessly to be a carrier-friendly organization,” says Andrew Janson, president of Hanson Logistics. “We make every attempt to tender the best loads to the best carriers, to reduce dwell time at our docks and to treat drivers with respect, including fast payment.”
Hanson Transportation Management Services provides inbound, shuttle service and national truckload service, as well as Velocities Multi-Vendor Consolidation (MVC). Velocities delivers scheduled shared truckloads to major retail, wholesale and foodservice distribution centers throughout the United States.
Hanson says the Chicago Consolidation Center and Velocities bring “final mile” and national distribution efficiency to food manufacturers of all sizes, including mid-tier volumes that traditionally are unable to gain the economies of truckload delivery. The facility will be built out in three phases with a total of 45,000 pallet positions in deep frozen (-20 degrees Fahrenheit) to frozen (0 degrees Fahrenheit) and cooler areas (28- 42 degrees Fahrenheit).
