Last month we celebrated the transportation and logistics companies that our readers selected as the "best of the best" in our annual Quest for Quality issue. Now that the confetti has been swept away, it's time to take a look at how readers perceive their own performance as well as that of their service providers.

This month marks the 13th year Logistics Management has presented the results of its "Masters of Logistics" survey, an industry report card that's earned the reputation of being a key indicator of emerging logistics trends and a barometer of overall service performance.

Executive Editor James Cooke joined the survey team of Dr. Karl Manrodt of Georgia Southern University, Dr. Mary Holcomb of the University of Tennessee, Capgemini's Peter Moore, and Oracle's Jeff Abbott. From start to finish, the project took six months to complete, and we'd like to thank the team and the student researchers who helped make this report the preeminent logistics benchmark it is today.

What the team found this year shouldn't take anyone by surprise. The fact that rates are up in all modes has shippers rethinking their core-carrier strategies and shopping around for better rates. Validating this point, we found that shippers are using more carriers in just about every mode.

Given that shippers are paying more and spreading their business around, it follows that they're also reporting lower service levels than they did last year. Scores for equipment availability, on-time delivery, freight loss-and-damage, and billing-error rates all indicate that service levels have slipped, albeit by only a percentage point or two.

Cooke offers a summary of the survey results on Page 34 of this issue, and will join the survey team to present the full Masters of Logistics findings at the Council of Logistics Management's annual conference in Philadelphia on Monday, October 4.

One last note: As our work on the Masters of Logistics indicates, gone are the days when a business magazine could function solely as a print publication. Today, Logistics Management has evolved into an integrated franchise that includes e-newsletters, online resources (including our Web site, logisticsmgmt.com) and a growing lineup of educational webcasts.

This evolution continues next month as Logistics Management, in partnership with Supply Chain Management Review and Modern Materials Handling, presents the 2nd Annual Global Supply Chain Conference. This online conference will deliver world-class education directly to shippers' desktops October 20–21.

The medium may change, but our mission of helping today's professional navigate the changing logistics and supply chain landscape remains steadfast. Go to www.scmr.com/gscc to register, and I'll see you online on October 21 and 22.