Powell Logistics

- Truck transportation services revenue estimates approximately $43 billion annually and employees close to 400K people in Canada.

- The trucking industry is composed of three types of firms; for-hire which transported goods for compensation, private carriers that maintained their own fleet, and private owners who used their own trailers or other equipment to haul merchandise.

- The for-hire sector accounted for close to 40 percent of the industry in Canada.

- The Canadian trucking company is facing three major issues;

1) The cost of fuel has increased due to supply of oil, forcing the industry to implement fuel surcharges.

2) The rise of the Canadian dollar decreases sales and the movement of goods between countries.

3) The declining popularity of the trucking occupation, industry is facing shortages of workers.

- The transportation industry is extremely competitive with many options for transporting goods. Larger companies often acquire their own fleets.

- Often for-hire carriers needed to resort to competition to move goods in "lanes" not commonly used to accommodate their customers order.

- Travelers Transportation Services is a direct competitor of Powell Logistics Inc. They have lower prices and focus on both LTL and TL services. They also had cargo vans to accommodate smaller customer orders.

- Yellow Transportation is another direct competitor of Powell Logistics Inc. They compete on a global level with large financial resources and access to capital. They have advanced on-line tools to customer service their cliental, yet restricted the kind of personalized customer service offered by smaller companies.

- Powell is fully licenced servicing as a for-hire transportation company and specialized in LTL and TL shipments. Powell operates a fleet of straight trucks, tractor trailers, in addition to brokerage service, providing local and regional services in the Greater Toronto and Southern Ontario area.

-Powell employees 80 drivers who work five days a week. Drivers pick up goods and deliver goods to one of five Powell Logistics sorting facilities for consolidation.

- Powell strategically focused its operations on the LTL service in order to capitalize on the higher margins associated with these services, this strategy required more effort and expertise to co-ordinate shipments. Powell was equipped with state-of-the-art technology such as an advance dispatch system and satellite tracking system. One late delivery could cause clients to switch carriers.

- Services are required year round,