Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location opp

danielsf

Seasoned Expediter
Hi everyone,

I am a college student researching new business opportunities for Michigan-based expedited freight companies.

We are researching new industries and new locations for expedited firms whose business is now dominated by the automaker suppliers of south-east Michigan.

Does anyone know of any industries with a growing demand for expedited freight? Are there any attractive cities with a strong demand for freight outside of Michigan?

We have been looking at heavy construction, semiconductors, and medical devices as possible industry opportunities, but we are open to any suggestions.

For cities, Austin seems attractive because of Dell's operations.

Any and all suggestions would be immensely helpful.

Thank you,
Matt
[email protected]
 

kangar0085

Seasoned Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Why not save yourself some time and say "I WANNA JOIN YOU GUYS AND MAKE MONEY EXPEDITING" :9

Just kidding, expediters provide services to alot of the automotive industry all over the country.
 

kangar0085

Seasoned Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

And there are few "attractive" cities where our customers are.
 

danielsf

Seasoned Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Thanks for the reply. Are there any industries besides auto that are great for expedite?

Any cities besides detroit that are particularly attractive? I have heard that the Carolina, Tenn. area is growing from foreign auto makers building many plants in that area.
 

slfisher45

Expert Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

You ask if there are any industries besides the auto industry and then you mention TN and The Carolinas as new strongholds for the auto industry.
You first must understand what expedited freight is. Then formulate a query to ascertain what you want to know. Expedited freight is freight that is shipped expressly to "need it now" customers. It was deveveloped to elimate warehousing of large and costly automobile parts. It became known as simply, " Just in time inventory". It was determmined it was less costly to ship from suppiers on a scheduled basis rather than warehouse most auto parts.

To Expedite:
1. to speed up the progress of; hasten: to expedite shipments.
2. to accomplish promptly, as a piece of business; dispatch: to expedite one's duties.
3. to issue or dispatch, as an official document or letter.
–adjective

Almost every industry needs expediting on occassion. FEDEX, UPS and the US Postal system are prime examples of expediting. There promise to get it to point B in "X" amount of time is a call for expediting.
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

>Thanks for the reply. Are there any industries besides auto
>that are great for expedite?
>
>Any cities besides detroit that are particularly attractive?
>I have heard that the Carolina, Tenn. area is growing from
>foreign auto makers building many plants in that area.

Any industry that uses JIT but remember there are more or less established companies that you will compete with.

AND

SE Michigan is dead for most industries in comparison to any midwest city.
 

simon says

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Well said: can anyone tell me of an attractive American city?

They are all starting to look like something out a third world country!
 

simon says

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Biggest area for auto freight is no longer the US, except for the transplants such as Hyundai in AL. and of course Toyota, Honda, & Nissan. Canada is the automotive builder now. The newest plants sure aren't in Carolinas, and TN is losing suppliers as well. Mazda will be lucky to survive in the future, and it may follow in Ford's footsteps. By the way, Hyundai is rumored to be in the mix to buy Chrysler, which Daimler-Benz seems desperate to dump.

If you are really doing research, I would suggest that you talk to Panther or Fed Ex, Express-1 might talk to you. View their homepages. You can obviously google for more info on expedited freight. The present & future of expedited freight has moved farther away from auto in just 3-4 years.
 

simon says

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Hey- we still have a lot of pretty pine trees, nice lakes, moderate climate for a northern state. Besides, she a lot better looking than Engler! Just kidding- why don't you just go bash her on the soapbox, and leave all the editorializing off this forum.
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

I'd be interested to know more about your research project. Is this for a college business class? What specific questions are you trying to answer? If we know more about what you are doing and why, we may be able to provide better help.
 

danielsf

Seasoned Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Thanks everyone for the replies.

This is for an undergraduate business strategy class at the University of Michigan.

We have done preliminary research on the industry and we are now looking for opportunities in which expedite companies in SE Michigan can grow.

We understand that JIT and general manufacturing are important for successful expedite opportunities. Therefore, we have identified these industries as possibilities:
-Heavy Construction
-Medical Devices/Organ Transplants
-Aerospace
-Semiconductor Manufacturing

1. Do you have any more expedite information on the industries listed?

2. From your experience, what other non-auto industries benefit the most from expedite? What industries use expedite most often?

3. For expedite companies looking to grow outside of SE Michigan, are there any other locations with an attractive client base?

Thanks for everyone's help,
Matt
[email protected]
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Matt,

Taking each one of your selected industries, I feel that the most success you may find outside of automotive and general freight is Aerospace, followed by Medical Devices. Organ Transplants seem to be a very specialized niche and I am not really sure that any expediting companies (outside of FedEx) actually handle organs and related items, being that there are very critical requirements for some of the staff to properly handle organs.

Heavy Construction and Semiconductor Manufacturing, I assert that there would be a small market for services for these industries in this region but on the other hand you forget the petroleum market, which outside of Michigan may be a good place to focus – Wyoming, Oklahoma andTexas.

Like I said before, Michigan is a dead state until there is seriousness about attracting non-automotive industries here. I would say look at growth areas in industrialized areas; Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, comes to mind with some growth in the NE part.

I would seriously approach FedEx and specifically the freight division to see if they will allow you access to their market research.

Simon, yes she is better looking than Engler but looks don’t produce jobs and increasing the taxes does nothing but deter people from moving businesses here.
 

slfisher45

Expert Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Greg, Since you brought it up Michigan actually re-elected the worst Governor ever, two times. Granholm has her hands full cleaning up Englers mess. He dumped on Michigan baaaaad, before he left..

Post Script.... You haven't figured out why a Republican wasn't elected the last two times. Even ##### DeVos a great businessman couldn't win in his home state.
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

danielsf,

Will your work be presented as a paper? Will it be publicly available or archived in a library where others might access it? If it is, I believe a number of Open Forum members would be intrested in reading it.
 

joebob1_30132

Expert Expediter
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

Im with A-team Im interested in your research...hmmmm I would like to see the results it would be interesting
 

terryandrene

Veteran Expediter
Safety & Compliance
US Coast Guard
RE: Expedited Frieght: New Industries and Location

You might also consider our Federal Government as an industry that relies quite heavily on expedited transportation. In addition to NASA related transportation needs, the military transportation commands often reley on dedicated use, time specific, door to door methods of freight movemment. When FEMA needs freight relocated, they need it in a hurry and they heavily rely on expedite carriers to solve transportation problems.

Pharmaceutical companies place a premium on dedicated use tramsportation. Museums call upon expediters to move delicate materials on a dedicated use, door to door basis.

Consider that JIT generally applies to time specific delivery where materials might be "warehoused" on a truck for several days since picked up at the shipper. Expedited freight, on the other hand, is generally defined as Exclusive use, door-to-door, time specific. There is rarely a delay between shipment pickup and delivery. Exceptions would be weekend and holiday delays and early morning waits to accomodate consignee business hours.
 
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