Logistics news: Pilot Air Freight re-launches as Pilot Freight Services

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 10/9/2007

LIMA, Pa.—Pilot Air Freight, a full-service transportation and logistics services provider, said today it is officially changing its name to Pilot Freight Services.

The company said that this name change represents its broader range of shipping products and services—including freight forwarding, logistics, air, and maritime. And it added that this move better represents its growth in services and market presence.

In an exclusive interview with Logistics Management, Pilot CEO Richard G. Phillips Jr. said this name change better reflects the services the company provides for shippers.

“We have been offering many of these services that we currently have since the company first opened its doors [in 1970],” said Phillips. “These services include international, ground, expedited, and time-definite. But how we were [largely] known to our customers for a long time was in our air freight expertise. It is not just things like time-definite ground and international. We are doing logistics now and opened our logistics division in the last year.”

And as Pilot’s offerings like home delivery and logistics services grow and are used more and more, Phillips said it made sense to make this change in the company’s name.

“The debate to make this type of change had gone on within the company for years, because we have been offering more non-air products over the years” explained Phillips. “And the revenue from these products reflects that.”

In August, for example, Pilot did $32 million worth of business for the month, with $2.3 million coming from home delivery and $1.7 million from special services, and $7.5 million from international business, which also helped make the case for today’s re-branding announcement, according to Phillips.

By increasing customer awareness of its full range of services, there are several benefits for shippers, said Phillips. He added that the name change will help Pilot better communicate with its customers.

“One of the ways I hope this will help is that when shippers are looking for move non-air freight that has special needs, they will not overlook us, because they just assume we are air-only,” he said. “This lets them know that there are more things we can provide for them when they have a special need like home delivery or logistics, for example. They need to know they can reach out to us for our services.”