Winners Circle

Saia has recently been honored with three awards for customer service. The multiregional LTL carrier received the Ryder Transportation Management "Carrier Quality Award," a new award for excellence in the superregional service category. Crompton-Taft Logistics' "Supplier of the Year Award" for 2002 recognized the carrier's on-time delivery rate of 97 percent. And finally, Exel Transportation Services awarded Saia its "Carrier of the Year" award for outstanding responsiveness to its customers' needs.

For the third consecutive year, AmeriCold Logistics, a temperature-controlled warehouse operator and third-party logistics service company has received Kellogg's "2002 Top Gun Award." The award recognizes AmeriCold's Allentown facility as the highest-performing warehouse in Kellogg's temperature-controlled network.

For the third consecutive year, USF Reddaway Inc., a regional less-than-truckload subsidiary of USF Corporation, was awarded the "Carrier Achievement Award" by shipper Hoffman Enclosures. Although carriers in all modes are evaluated annually, the award is only presented when a carrier achieves a mark that exceeds 98 percent. USF Reddaway earned the honor for its adherence to delivery schedules, shipment performance, number of claims-free shipments, billing accuracy, and carrier relationship and services.

Global ocean carrier NYK Line has announced that 30 of its facilities in Europe, North America, and Asia, as well as all of the operations of its affiliate NYK Global Bulk Corporation, have recently received ISO 14001 quality assurance certification. NYK acquired this certification for its entire vessel fleet last year, and this recent accomplishment enables the ocean carrier to expand its coordinated environmental-protection activities to multimodal service areas that employ trucks, railroads, and barges worldwide.

Con-Way Central Express, an operating unit of Con-Way Transportation Services, Inc., received the "Best in Class—LTL Trucking" award for 2002 from Lifetouch National School Studios. The regional LTL carrier won the award in recognition of its performance in customer service, on-time delivery, and handling exception shipments.

For the second consecutive year, Schneider National has been named Wal-Mart's "Intermodal Carrier of the Year." One of nine carriers recognized, the national truckload carrier met criteria for the award that included revenue and growth, ease of doing business, communication, flexibility, customer service, and follow-up correction of errors.

Ward Trucking Corp., a mid-Atlantic regional LTL carrier, has taken second place in the General Commodities–LTL/Linehaul category and fourth place in the General Commodities–LTL/Local category of the American Trucking Associations' National Truck Safety Awards. Criteria for the awards include the ratio of accident frequency to the number of miles driven annually.

Freight forwarder Pilot Air Freight was presented with an award by the Defense and Distribution Depot San Joaquin (DDJC) for its exemplary service during the war in Iraq. The DDJC provides distribution services to the Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force. Pilot was cited for smooth handling of increased shipping and distribution services, transporting over 11,775 shipments during the early stages of the conflict.

Switzerland-based Panalpina has received an award in recognition of more than two decades of outstanding service to auto parts maker the Bosch Group in Bamberg, Germany. Panalpina provides Bosch with freight forwarding, order management, warehousing, third-party vendor accounting, and customs-clearance services.

Less-than-truckload carrier Southeastern Freight Lines received the Ryder Quality Award in the southern region category from Ryder Transportation Management for the sixth consecutive year. The award was based on the carrier's scores for on-time performance, customer service, technology, economic value, and innovative idea generation.

Horizon Lines (formerly CSX Lines) received Wal-Mart's annual "Carrier of the Year" award in the ocean carrier category for the third consecutive year. Horizon, which specializes in the Caribbean and Latin American trade lanes, met criteria for the award that included revenue and growth, ease of doing business, communication, flexibility, customer service, and follow-up correction of errors.