Business View Magazine | December 2018

246 247 of the 400 loads we’re doing today, what five are at risk? And, if you know your data points, you can look at the five and have people address the issues. By doing that, we offer our customers a lot of transparency and confidence. If we have a load to deliver, it’s going to be delivered, and if we have an issue, you’re going to receive a call from us. Another competitive advantage that we pos- sess is that we’re very strategic about the facilities in which we operate.We only operate in facilities that have strong value, that are in a smart loca- tion for the customer, and that can be used effi- ciently.We’re constantly thinking about how our facilities can drive value for our customers.” Another way in which MHX provides customer value is by publishing all of its data on online web reports so that its customers are always in the know. “Our President, Vincent McLeod III, says, as individuals, we take our money and put it in a bank and expect the bank to be able to tell us, at any time of day, where our money is,” Smith ex- plains. “Our customers just take that money and turn it into a commodity, and they should be able to ask any question, and we should be able to give them an answer. For instance, is the material on the rail? Is it at one of our warehouses? Is it sitting on the back of a truck or has it been deliv- ered? We should be able to push that information, so they can make smart decisions themselves, in real time and, in turn, grow their business.” Growing MHX’s business is high on Smith’s agenda. “We spent the first year and a half of our merge building a strong culture for the company,” she reports. “We spent a lot of time focused on that culture, and now we get to grow.We’ll con- tinue to grow adding new trucks, assets, facilities, and more drivers.We’re currently focused on expanding our container division.We recently have introduced rail in our heavyweight corridor facility and we’re really excited about the impact that this will have on our ability to offer custom- ers huge cost saving per ton by running contain- er to rail distribution through the heavyweight corridor.” (The heavyweight, or heavy container, corridor was created by the City of Los Angeles, the City of Long Beach, and the State of California Department of Public Works to aid in the move- ment of overweight, 40-foot or larger ocean-go- ing containers on designated City streets in and around the Port of Los Angeles.) “Over the next five years, we plan to expand MHX PREFERRED VENDOR n Hub International www.hubtransportation.com outside of California,” Smith adds. “We plan to move to strategic locations that can affect our current customers and can also help customers that we don’t currently reach.We want to find smart facilities that are strategically placed where you can get materials inbound via rail or boat but still need that last mile delivery.” Smith believes the trucking industry can some- times have a negative reputation and that people don’t think that a logistics company, such as hers, can affect the supply chain in a positive way. “We work to challenge that status quo,” she states, “we are a company that makes it simple; giving that confidence to our customers that materials can move with predictability; that it can be done with poise; that it can be done well. I look forward to seeing how the industry will progress in the future; hopefully, we can convey the message that trucking companies can be predictable, strategic, and dependable.” “When people ask how we do that, it’s by data analysis and staying true to our values,” Smith says, in conclusion. “We believe in numbers; we believe that you can capture data and can find trends, and you can use those, strategically, to ben- efit your customers. So, we will focus on constant improvement and our values as a company: the well being of others, integrity, accuracy, custom- er focus, and constant improvement. By thinking about those five values daily throughout MHX, we believe we can change the market and support our customers to do their job with less concern around the supply chain and for less cost.”