Can providers of transportation and logistics services be everything to everyone? Some do try to do it all, with varying degrees of success. But others don't even try. In fact, they take the opposite approach: Rather than be freight generalists, they specialize in a single commodity or type of product.

Long experience and knowledge of a specific industry are these companies' stock in trade. Their focus on the unique needs of the shippers they serve can help reduce damages and improve customer satisfaction. One potential drawback: Some are very small companies with limited physical assets and few employees.

But size doesn't seem to be a problem for the four specialized providers we contacted for this article. All are growing companies headed by entrepreneurs who saw a service "hole" and knew they could fill it. All of them are non-asset-based, choosing to use their expertise to manage processes, information, and service. And they all are driven by a desire to satisfy their customers' needs in a way most "general practitioners" can't match.

Tim Higham launched Interstate Transport, a logistics company that specializes in live plants, almost by accident. The computer entrepreneur had sold his company and was looking for a new business venture. While on sabbatical, he helped load and unload trucks at his wife's plant nursery. What he saw surprised him. "[The trucks] were short weight, they didn't have the right paperwork, or they wouldn't show up on time. It was a nightmare," he recalls.

Higham realized that those problems as well as the excessive product damage he observed stemmed from poor process and information management. That was right up the IT expert's alley, so three years ago he launched Interstate Transport from a corner of an office at the nursery.

Product specialization clearly has paid off: Interstate handled more than 10,000 shipments in 2005. According to Higham, revenues have grown from $2.5 million to well over $30 million, and he expects to hit $50 million this year. Interstate's biggest customer is The Home Depot, which outsources all of its live plant business to the St. Petersburg, Fla., company.

Higham ascribes Interstate's success to several factors. First is the company's attention to the special needs of growers. Plants can't be stored for long and they are temperature-sensitive, so insulated or temperature-controlled trucks are a must. To protect plants from damage, Interstate moves some in boxes on pallets or on floor-to-ceiling decking. The company also uses display-ready shelving manufactured by EZ Shipper Racks. The pallet-mounted units, with plants secured on the shelves, can be loaded and unloaded in a fraction of the time it takes to move individual plants, Higham says.

Interstate has 22 core carriers, mostly small, Florida-based truckers. Higham says he ensures top-quality service by providing the carriers with accurate information, clear direction, monetary rewards for excellent performance, and penalties for poor service. The company also recently began providing them with backhauls to Florida.

Not surprisingly, software and automated processes play a critical role at Interstate Transport. A voice-over-Internet telephone system allows drivers to quickly update shipment status. And Higham's staff developed InMotion, proprietary transportation management software designed specifically for shipping live plants. The program has been so effective that several of Interstate's customers have licensed it for their own use, and Higham is planning to launch a separate company to sell the software.

Periship's sales brochure promises to help seafood shippers "keep your salmon in the pink and your lobsters feeling feisty." The Branford, Conn.-based freight forwarder manages next-day deliveries of perishable foods, a challenging business where even a few hours' delay may mean thousands of dollars in losses. Continued...

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