With global worldwide e-commerce sales set to nearly double in volume between now and 2021, third-party logistics (3PL) providers are set to play an integral role in this explosive growth. In fact, the United States already boasts the second largest e-commerce markets in the world, with $340 billion dollars in annual online sales- and that’s just online! Third-party logistics providers are still in high demand for everything from bricks-and-mortar retail to B2B operations and everything in between. But with so many new players in the 3PL game, it’s hard to know who you can rely on to keep your product moving and deliver the ultimate customer experience.

If your business is searching for a 3PL solution but you’re not sure where to turn, get acquainted with these 3PL industry executives and the vast array of services they strive to deliver to customers just like you every single day.

Tony Boemi, Vice President of Growth and Development – Port of Montreal

For Tony Boemi, the Vice President of Growth and Development for the Port of Montreal, his dedication to his job is evident the first time you speak to him. Boemi himself admits he’s done a lot of jobs, but he’d rather talk about the port than his past careers.  As VP of Growth and Development, Boemi is in charge of all areas of business development, including cruise ships, liquid bulk, break bulk and of course new business.

It’s easy to see why Boemi is so enthusiastic about the Port of Montreal. The port stands apart from the other ports on the East Coast, because it does things a little differently- namely, when vessels enter the Port of Montreal, they get discharged completely.

Says Boemi “When a vessel goes to Montreal, it gets discharged completely, 100 percent. It’s not like where you have multiple stops. We have a very linear port.”

The port also has its own rail with over 60 miles of track, and its own locomotives. When a vessel comes in, its loaded onto the track and evacuated.

According to Boemi, what many people don’t realize about the port is that roughly 25 percent of their business comes from Asia, something unique for an East Coast port.

“A lot of carriers are mitigating their risks because the West Coast ports are overcrowded,” explains Boemi “We won’t replace the West Coast, but we will have a very measured growth and take a portion of their business. We’re already seeing a lot of it.”

The port also benefits from a free trade agreement between Canada and Europe, which according to Boemi is their core market.

In fact, the Port of Montreal is already experiencing a growth rate of about four percent a year, despite the fact that they don’t take mega-vessels.  Last year alone the port processed almost 30 million tons of cargo.

“When people talk about deep water and big ships, the depth of the water is the least challenging part. Infrastructure, market access, and fluidity is really what makes or breaks a port.”

To prepare for this growth, the port is already gearing up for an expansion to Greenfield, a site that is currently in use as a bulk port, and which already has much of its infrastructure in place, including rail and access to a major highway.

As Boemi sees it, the Port’s location and size is “a bit of a blessing in disguise,” he explains “We are large enough to compete with big international ports, but not so large that we can’t offer some of the value-added services we provide.”

Larry Felix – Carlile Transportation

With more than 30 years of transportation industry experience on his resume, Larry Felix, Vice President of Pricing and Business Administration for Carlile Transportation has spent most of his career in the transportation industry. After graduating with a business degree from Boise State, Felix began his career as a consolidator, and has spent the past four years as one of the senior leaders at the Tacoma, Washington branch of the Anchorage, Alaska-based company.

According to Felix, Carlile is primarily an LTL (less than truckload) and truckload carrier, but they also specialize in heavy haul, louvers and bulk operations. Carlile even has a warehousing operation for customers who need storage.

“We offer a multitude of transportation solutions,” says Felix. “In fact, we’re not just a logistics provider, we’re a solutions provider.”

Though they are based in Anchorage, Carlile has customers from as far south as Texas to the North Shore of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

“We hire carriers for pick-up, long-haul, rail and water, all the way to delivery in Alaska, says Felix.

Carlile is well-known in the Alaska communities they serve, not just for making deliveries, but for their charitable efforts, too. The company sponsors and cares for program called Carlile Outreach, which helps benefit underprivileged youth in Alaska.

With 11 terminal locations throughout Alaska and the lower 48 states, Part of the Saltchuk family of companies, Carlile is one of 28 transportation companies in the family, which also includes TOTE Maritime, Foss Maritime, and Tropical Ocean Liners, which serves the Caribbean.

Despite their numerous locations and services, Felix says what really makes Carlile such a successful company is its workers.

“The strength of our organization is in our people, and our focus is on safety.”

Jake Holzscheiter – A.N. Deringer

As the third-generation leading the nearly 100-year-old A.N. Deringer, President and CEO Jake Holzscheiter has been working for the company since he was “old enough to shovel snow” at the company’s St. Albans, Vermont headquarters. Founded by Holzscheiter’s great uncle, Alfred Neel Deringer in 1919, A.N Deringer is the largest privately-owned customs company in the United States, and the fifth-largest customs company overall.

Holzscheiter has worked in nearly every department of the family business, learning the ins and outs of each position as he worked his way up. Today, as President and CEO, he still stays as involved as possible.

“I’m very hands on in my approach to the business,” says Holzscheiter. “I spend a great deal of time working with the customers and securing new business.”

Holzscheiter says A.N. Deringer breaks down to two main areas- customs brokerage services and distribution services. The company also has what he describes as “a really strong niche” in international freight services and cross-border trucking.

A.N. Deringer is licensed by the United States Customs Service to help companies deal with all the regulations surrounding importing or exporting goods through United States Customs. The company keeps current on all laws and duty rates and makes sure every shipment is handled properly as it enters or exits the country.

It’s kind of like hiring a CPA to do your taxes,” says Holzscheiter.

Customs brokerage is yet another area where A.N. Deringer’s size comes in handy, as their smaller size allows them to work faster than their larger competitors

“Speed is critical,” says Holzscheiter. “Our customers don’t want delays. It will affect their supply chain.”

Deringer combines its customs brokerage services with the myriad other services they offer, including sending cargo to distribution centers, or directly to the customer.

“We deal with some of the largest companies in North America, to the smallest retail start-ups on Amazon. Our focus is to provide old-fashioned values and highly flexible customer service solutions. We have a very flexible IT infrastructure. It removes a lot of the internal barriers that some of the larger companies have.”

Says Holzscheiter , “What makes us unique is that we develop customized, very flexible customer service and electronic solutions for our clients. We do a lot of one-offs. A lot of our competitors are large, national companies, and we thrive in the area of doing things our large competitors won’t. Our customers are looking for flexible unique solutions. We fit into them, instead of making them fit into us.”

Marty Wadle – Ruan Transportation

For Ruan Transportation Management Systems Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions Marty Wadle, Iowa State University is a family affair. So much so that three of Wadle’s five children attend the university, where Wadle earned his bachelor’s degree in transportation and logistics.

That degree has served Wadle well. Following graduation, he began working at Martin Brothers Distribution, where he served as a routing specialist. He then transferred to LTL for a year at Central Transport, before joining Ruan as an analyst. From there, he worked his way through the ranks from Director of Pricing and Design, to Vice President of logistics, to his current role as SVP of supply chain solutions.

The Des Moines, Iowa-based Ruan Transportation specializes in everything from dedicated transportation, managed transportation, warehouse management and brokerage- just to name a few. But according to Wadle, it’s the “Three p’s” that really set Ruan apart from its competitors

“People, process, platform,” says Wadle “We’ve invested in the best platform from a tech standpoint, but we’ve invested in people and process, so we can be as flexible as possible to meet our customers challenges.”

Wadle says Ruan also places a high value on safety – for both their employees and every driver they encounter on the road.

“We bring a wide range of knowledge that includes safety, driver hiring and retention. We have over 4000 drivers in our fleet, so we need to be up to speed on VELD mandates and safety modernization mandates,” explains Wadle.

In fact, Ruan is known as being a pioneer when it comes to safety regulations

“We set up a safety program in the 1960’s before it was even mandated, and that really set us apart from our competitors,” says Wadle.

As for Ruan’s secret for finding such high-quality talent, it goes back to Wadle’s alma mater, Iowa State.

“Not only is it difficult to hire drivers, but its difficult to hire the right logistics people. That’s why we’ve partnered with Iowa State and Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) to develop a logistics training program.”

The OTM training program is the only one of its kind in the nation- and has already trained about 500 students on cutting-edge OTM logistics software, giving them a competitive edge in the job market- and helping Ruan Transportation Systems recruit quality talent right out of Iowa State.

“We find some great candidates from Iowa state university. We are creating our own pipeline, so to speak,” says Wadle.

Randy Tutor – Approved Freight Forwarders

Vice President of Approved Freight Forwarders Randy Tutor has been in the logistics, supply chain and transportation distribution field for his entire 30-plus years career.

“I’ve worked both sides of the desk,” says Tutor “Working on the shipper side at Rockwell International and Hilti Fastening, and I’ve spent the past 25 years working for shipping companies. I understand logistics from both sides of the equation.”

Tutor began his career in public warehousing, working for several manufacturing distribution companies. He then moved on to a nationwide distribution company, before coming to Approved Freight Forwarders in 2011.

Approved Freight Forwarders has been providing consolidation and freight forwarding services to the Hawaiian Islands for over 20 years, and to Guam for nearly 30 years. The company also provides third-party logistics (3PL) for many different clients seeking services like warehousing, distribution, and management.

“One of our major focuses is handling projects, so if you had a construction site, a hotel renovation, a new store build-out- any type of project work in Hawaii or Guam, we have a dedicated department that helps manage the logistics of that project throughout the life of the project, and we also focus on retail- the final delivery, providing a consistent and dependable supply chain.”

Services like the ones Approved Freight Forwarders provides are crucial to the economies of Hawaii and Guam, because as Tutor explains it, “Hawaii is a consuming state. Every piece of everything on the island has to be brought in,”

Based in San Diego, California, Tutor works from Approved Freight Forwarders’ 110,000 square foot City of Industry, California location.

“We bring the freight into Southern California, take it to port, and send it to Hawaii. Then we go to the port, get the containers, deconsolidate, put the freight on small vehicles and distribute it to stores,” says Tutor. “We are the only consolidator in Hawaii that has their own dedicated staff. We can control our service, and we can control our cost.”

Approved Freight Forwarders also offers reverse logistics heading back from the Hawaiian Islands, and their City of Industry warehouse is available for a variety of transportation services.

“We have a very strong local transportation presence here in Southern California,” says Tutor. “We are between the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach- that puts us next to one of the largest ports in the world.”

Ultimately, Tutor believes the reason Approved Freight Forwarders is so successful in both Hawaii and beyond is because they can provide a dependable supply chain to their customers.

“There are three of us that personally manage the company every day,” Tutor explains. “my job is uncovering new opportunities with new air freight, and new opportunities for our existing import / export customers. I’m always looking for new ways to expand the services we already provide them.”

James J. White – Port of Baltimore

A graduate of Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, Director of the Maryland Port Administration (MPA) James J. White first began working for the MPA in 1993 as a director of operations and executive vice president of Maryland International Terminals (MIT). Six years later, in 1999, White was appointed Executive Director of the port, where he served another six years until 2005. In 2005, White briefly left the MPA to serve as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of stevedoring and terminal operations company Ceres Terminals in New Jersey. In 2007, after two years with Ceres, White returned to Maryland and the MPA, resuming his role as executive director, where’s he’s been ever since.

It’s easy to see why White would want to return to the MPA and the Port of Baltimore. Originally built as an access point in for the tobacco trade in the 17^th century, the historical port is located in the deepest harbor of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is the closest port on the east coast to the Midwest and is within an overnight drive to one-third of the United States population.

“The Port of Baltimore is a very diverse port,” explains White. “Its public marine terminals handle autos, farm and construction machinery, forest products, containers and project cargo.  Its private marine terminals handle coal, sugar, salt, gypsum and many other bulk commodities.”

The port is also responsible for generating almost $3 billion dollars in annual wages and salary, as well as over $310 million dollars in taxes. The port itself employs over 13,000 workers and is responsible for an additional 127,000 supporting jobs.

The Port of Maryland stays competitive by actively engaging with commercial real estate developers and brokers and developing strong working relationships with those entities.

“By doing this, we help them understand increased international freight demand, key components that drive our mutual customers’ needs, and regulatory/logistical issues that may impact site selection,” White explains. “Conversely, they are part of our extended sales organization and can articulate our value proposition when new potential customers are examining their next location.”

This team effort has proven to be a beneficial partnership for both the Port of Baltimore and the developers and brokers they work with, having yielded millions of square feet of DC space, with millions more coming on-line in the future.