Logistics warehousing: A. Duie Pyle expands warehouse presence in Northeast

Less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier and integrated transportation provider A. Duie Pyle has opened a new 243,000 square-foot rail-sided warehouse in Westfield, Mass.

Jeff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 11/18/2009

Less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier and integrated transportation provider A. Duie Pyle has opened a new 243,000 square-foot rail-sided warehouse in Westfield, Mass.

The company said this is its seventh warehouse facility, bringing its total warehousing operations in the Northeast to more than 2 million square feet. ADP's other Northeast-based warehouse locations include: another Westfield, Mass. facility, two facilities in Parkesburg, Penn., one in West Chester, Penn, and one in New Castle, Del.

ADP Chairman and Owner Peter Latta said in a statement that the company's warehousing continues to grow as companies look for better business opportunities in the Northeast market. He added that the company's Westfield campus accommodates both warehouse facilities, which comprise about 700,000 square-feet and are located in close proximity to four of its New England-based LTL service centers, which Latta said provides a one-stop shop for integrated transportation and distribution services.

A company official told LM that part of the reason for this Westfield expansion was due to a client's business growth that required indoor storage for increased inventory requirements that their current provider could not meet. They also needed a warehouse provider with the flexibility and experience to handle volatile seasonal order processing requirements in the Northeast.

"With the advantage of an existing warehouse facility in Westfield, we knew that we could custom-build a second facility in close proximity to it that would provide additional efficiencies for our client," said the spokesperson. "With a ‘Campus Model' approach, we could allow for labor and storage capacity sharing. This creates the flexibility required in today's distribution models for tight inventory control and 100% order fill, as well as on-time order processing and delivery to customer. We worked together with our client to develop a solution for them, and within 14 months their distribution system was up and running."

The spokesperson also said that all of ADP's warehousing facilities have the flexibility to accommodate shippers of all sizes, with varying square footage requirements, whether they are looking for short-term or long-term storage, or fully integrated distribution. He said it is difficult to pinpoint an exact number for the number of shippers the new facility will serve, because it really depends on the customer's needs.

"While we have already hit 70% capacity in our Westfield facility, we could serve as few as 2-3 customers or as many as 12-20 and that number could grow, with the demand for seasonal space on the rise," he said.

When asked what the biggest benefits of this new facility are for shippers, the spokesman said shippers can be more responsive to their customer's needs and can get product to their customers quickly. The Westfield facility is centrally located in the Northeast, as well as geographically centered in the New England Region with quick/easy access to travel East/West (Turnpike) and North/South (Rt. 91 and NY State Thruway).

Rail-sided facility: As a rail-sided facility, this new location allows rail service providers to stage railcars to be processed inside ADP's warehouse facility. The rail siding, or "railroad track" is laid inside the building so that the rail provider can pull into the warehouse and be level with the dock platform, much like a subway system or underground train station.

"Indoor rail-siding not only speeds the loading and unloading of railcars for shippers using the facility , but it also eliminates the safety and product integrity concerns of outside rail siding which is susceptible to weather conditions," said the ADP spokesman.

"Our Westfield warehouse has the ability to stage four rail cars at one time at our dock. For many customers, when the rail cars arrive, we unload their products and store them in the warehouse for future distribution. For others, utilizing our indoor rail siding means they can also cross-dock their products to the end user."