Con-way, TNT Form Atlantic Alliance

Con-way Freight is spanning the Atlantic with express transport giant TNT in a bid to load more European freight into U.S. trucks.

The alliance with $14.9 billion TNT will rely on the Dutch transport operator’s express and air cargo operations to bring European freight and parcels to Con-way, a $5 billion company that includes Con-way Freight, Con-way Truckload and Menlo Worldwide Logistics.

The service will connect TNT's express road network and intercontinental air cargo operations with Con-way’s less-than-truckload freight network to provide door-to-door service between Europe and the United States.

The initial target is freight shipments weighing more than 150 pounds originating in Europe heading to any city in the United States. The service will also be a conduit for TNT’s “Economy Express” parcel business.

It’s Con-way’s second attempt to span an ocean, and a challenge to trucking competitors such as YRC Worldwide and expedited carriers UPS and FedEx. It's also the latest overseas expansion by a U.S. LTL trucking company. ABF Freight System, YRC and Old Dominion Freight Line are among the LTL carriers partnering with international transport providers to extend their reach into global supply chains.

In 2006, Con-way launched a trans-Pacific alliance with ocean carrier APL to funnel Asian freight into its U.S. delivery network.

For a U.S. trucker, international reach is “a key differentiator in today’s global economy,” said John G. Labrie, president of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Con-way Freight. The partnership will bring shippers significant benefits, he said, including lower overall logistics costs, shorter supply cycles and faster delivery.

The agreement gives TNT extensive reach into North America and the kind of presence it has not enjoyed in the United States since it sold the trucking companies that later became USF, now part of YRC Worldwide.

The partnership also keeps TNT in the market for freight, which it withdrew from to a great extent, selling its contract logistics and freight forwarding units to focus on its postal and express businesses.

In the program’s first phase, TNT will manage cargo pickup in Europe; consolidation, tendering and management of air cargo service; and customs clearance and deconsolidation at TNT’s U.S. gateway at New York’s Kennedy International Airport.