Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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Innovator of the Y e a r |Boyd Bros. Richard Bailey, Boyd Bros. president, Cory Gilliard, intermodal director, and Chris Cooper, chief operations officer, accept the 2013 CCJ Innovator of the Year award. Boyd Bros.��� intermodal solution offers new opportunities for flatbed haulers By Jeff Crissey and Dean Smallwood L ike just about every other regional or national carrier in the industry, Boyd Bros. Transportation faces common challenges. Scrutiny under Compliance Safety Accountability, pending changes to the hours-of-service rule, a mounting driver shortage and increased highway congestion all constrict capacity and threaten productivity. What makes the Clayton, Ala.-based flatbed carrier different than most fleets is that it isn���t taking these changes lying down. Instead, Boyd Bros. took the bull by the horns, pioneering a solution that could offset many of these challenges while potentially revolutionizing a portion of the flatbed market. For this reason, Commercial Carrier Journal is proud to name Boyd Bros. the 2013 CCJ Innovator of the Year. 40 commercial carrier journal CCJ_0413_BusinessFeature.indd 40 Forging a new path In 2009, Boyd Bros. president Richard Bailey challenged his executive team to develop an intermodal solution for flatbed freight for long-distance shipments to increase capacity. At the time, intermodal freight was being employed by some of North America���s largest dry-van fleets, and refrigerated haulers were beginning to explore the possibilities. But because of the very nature of open-deck cargo, no one had explored a flatbed-intermodal solution seriously. ���We felt like if dry vans could do it, and reefers were starting up, why couldn���t flatbed?��� says Bailey. ���We felt like we could make the economics work.��� Boyd Bros. established a new division, Boyd Intermodal, and approached a number of rail companies about partnering to develop a solution ��� but had little initial success. The challenge before Boyd Bros. was creating a product that would integrate seamlessly with a railyard���s intermodal loading operation. ���They told us, ���Don���t bring anything into the yard that we have to set at the end of the lot and, after we load our intermodal train, have to determine how this fits,��� ��� recalls Lee Wagner, director of international sales for Boyd Bros. In 2010, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe stepped in and introduced Boyd Bros. to Raildecks, a small Canadian company that also was looking to develop a flatbed intermodal solution that would allow easy loading and unloading between railcar and trailer chassis. Together, Boyd and Raildecks began work on a flatbed intermodal concept, ultimately developing a flatbed ���container��� | april 2013 3/21/13 10:08 AM