Today, many logistics service providers appear to be focusing their efforts on serving large multinational shippers. But a new model of service provider is taking a different approach and focusing on small and medium-sized shippers.

Earlier this summer, six companies announced that they had formed what they referred to as "a groundbreaking venture designed to transform the $50 billion domestic expedited and international heavy-freight transportation industry." Partners in the new venture, known as Integres Global Logistics Inc., include the cargo divisions of United Airlines and American Airlines, national LTL motor carrier Roadway Express, international freight forwarder UTi Worldwide, G-Log, a provider of transportation information systems, and Unisys, which has long been active in developing information systems for the airline industry. James Hartigan, recently retired as vice president of United Airlines Cargo and former head of the Cargo 2000 airfreight standards organization, leads the Rancho Cordova, Calif.-based consortium.

According to its founders, Integres aims to combine Internet-based technologies with its partners' transportation and logistics-management capabilities to offer time-definite transportation to small and medium-sized customers at prices that are now available only to the largest shippers. The new company intends to bridge the gap between transportation providers, online logistics information providers, and freight forwarders by creating a "virtual integrator" that subscribes to a single operating standard. That is, Integres will enable its carrier and forwarder participants to interface their existing information systems through a common Web-based information platform developed and managed by Unisys. To the customer, company executives say, Integres will act as a single point of contact and information, but it will be able to draw on the resources of multiple providers.

Roadway's participation is somewhat surprising, given that all of the other partners are firmly planted in the airfreight industry. Michael W. Wickham, Roadway's chairman and chief executive officer, says that participating in Integres will allow the motor carrier to broaden its own domestic and international service offerings for existing customers while providing access to new business opportunities.

Some freight forwarders are questioning whether this one-stop shopping concept is a good model for the airfreight industry, which traditionally has relied on airlines to provide transportation and on freight forwarders to manage all other aspects of airfreight transactions. David Wirsing, president of the Airforwarders Association, has been a vocal critic of Integres' approach.

It's not the concept so much as the competitive issues that worry his group's members, which are small and medium-sized forwarders, he says. At first, Integres was presented as a company that would provide services to freight forwarders. Now, however, it appears that it will compete with them.

"If they are just another freight forwarder, welcome to the fold—we get new competition every week," Wirsing says. "But this freight forwarder just happens to be financed by a couple of airlines, a motor carrier, and some others." That raises concerns about the possibility of preferential treatment, he says. "How can you maintain the integrity of your product when you own the freight forwarder?" Forwarders also are leery about the direct involvement of American and United, which several years ago had tried to bypass forwarders and sell service directly to shippers.

Representatives of the air forwarders' group have spoken with Integres executives, seeking clarification of their business plan and what relationship they might have with freight forwarders. The answers to those questions remain unclear, Wirsing says. "We received some conflicting information," he reports. "There's still some confusion out there [about exactly where Integres will lead]."

Integres executives were asked to respond to the freight forwarders' statements but were unavailable for comment.