William B. Cassidy | Jul 20, 2011 4:32PM EDT
Averitt Express is shortening transit times between the Southern U.S. and Western Canada with a service that speeds freight across the border over weekends.
The trucking operator will pick up shipments in Texas and Louisiana and parts of Mississippi and Arkansas on Friday, and deliver them in Canada on Monday.
Business in traffic lanes connecting the Southern U.S. and Western Canada is expanding thanks to the growth in Canada's oil industry. Many Canadian oil and mining businesses source equipment and supplies in the U.S.
Averitt Express joins other less-than-truckload carriers cutting cross-border transit times to Canada, including UPS Freight and Estes Express.
Cookeville, Tenn.-based Averitt Express relies on its Reliance Network partner carrier Canadian Freightways to handle the delivery across the border.
“Our customers expressed a need for this type of service, and our operations team built a model that allows us to optimize freight movement from the Southwestern U.S. to Calgary and other points in western Canada,” said Phil Piece, Averitt’s executive vice president of sales and marketing.
The carrier’s “next-business-day” service moves freight across the continent in one less day than most other trucking companies in those lanes, Pierce said.
Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter at @wbcassidy_joc
