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| Carlisle Carrier Corporation Celebrating Its 10th Anniversary | |||||||||||
(2000) - Central Penn Business Journal: Ten years ago, the trucking industry was in the midst of one of the worst recessions it had ever seen. Undaunted by declining industry traffic and profits, David Metzler took his two decades of industry experience and opened the doors of Carlisle Carrier Corp., a motor carrier specializing in the transport of foodstuffs. Starting with just five trailers, four owner-operators and one client, Carlisle Carrier has experienced significant growth in the past decade. Anticipating revenues of $25 million this year, the company has a fleet of 150 tractors and 450 trailers, has created 185 jobs for area residents, and makes more than 36,000 shipments annually for 115 active clients. “The dedication of our employees, the loyalty of our clients and our commitment to outstanding service are the elements that have fueled this company's growth,” explains Metzler, company president. “Controlled growth and strategic focus have provided the parameters we've needed to experience continued prosperity.” Carlisle Carrier focuses on the transportation of food, instead of diversifying into multiple markets. “Consumers may not purchase a refrigerator during tough economic times, but they'll always need to purchase food,” Metzler notes. “Our territory contains 67 percent of the nation's population, which offers us a captive audience.” Carlisle Carrier services the Northeast region of the United States, bounded to the west by Columbus, Ohio; to the east by the Atlantic seaboard; to the north by the New York/Canadian border; and to the south by the Virginia/North Carolina line. While Carlisle Carrier sees enormous volume in its territory, many of the company's competitors have shied away from servicing the area, due to frequent traffic delays, bad roads and the potentially high cost of operation. Initially located in Carlisle, the company relocated to a 10-acre Mechanicsburg site in 1994, and is significantly expanding its current facilities. In addition to enlarging its current shop from 9,000 to 12,000 square feet, Carlisle Carrier is building a 16,000-square-foot building that will provide 12,000 square feet of office space and 4,000 square feet for a cross dock. The company also purchased and improved an additional 9 acres across the road from its current location that provides an additional 225 spaces for trailer parking. “Our current expansion endeavors will give us the capacity we need to stay and grow in this location,” notes Metzler. Other capital expansion includes this year's purchase of 25 tractors and 50 trailers. In the fall, the company will negotiate for the purchase and trade-in of 50 tractors. While Carlisle Carrier has grown significantly over the past decade, Metzler says growth could be greater. “The growth of our company and the industry as a whole is 15 percent less on an annualized basis than it would be if the industry could attract and train more qualified men and women to drive trucks,” he explains. Metzler is concerned that the current driver shortage could become worse if new regulations proposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation are adopted. “The intent of of the proposed regulations is to eliminate fatigue related accidents, which is admirable and I wholly support,” Metzler says. “But I believe their proposal will have the opposite effect and result in more accidents. To implement the proposed changes, there will need to be 125,000 more trucks on the road, which could lead to the recruitment of younger, less experienced drivers. In addition, drivers would be logging more daylight hours and interacting more frequently with automobile traffic, resulting in higher traffic congestion.” Carlisle Carrier diligently recruits conscientious, qualified drivers and carefully tracks their hours and safety performance. The company is currently analyzing the potential acquisition of two carriers, one in New England and another in New Jersey, that would increase the company's capacity by adding 110 drivers to the team. These companies will become part of Carlisle Carrier, but will maintain their own identities. “My experience says that the culture of a trucking company begins to change once you reach 225 to 250 drivers,” Metzler notes. “Drivers are no longer individuals, they become numbers, and they corporate culture becomes much mor administrative than paternal.“ “We're successful because we treat each other with mutual trust and respect,” Metzler continues. “We understand that each person's contribution is required to make the whole process good.“ Mutual trust and respect are values the company incorporates into client interaction as well. “Our client philosophy is to deliver more than we promise,” Metzler says. “We're good at foraging out the customer's hardest jobs and handling them effectively.” One of the ways Carlisle Carrier accomplishes this is through direct store delivery (DSD). Usually, the company picks up products at a warehouse and delivers them to a distribution center, which is then responsible for delivering the products to the individual stores within its jurisdiction. With direct store delivery, Carlisle Carrier eliminates the distribution center and delivers the products directly to the stores. Timing and dependability are critical in direct store delivery, because companies create a demand through advertising and consumers expect the products to be on the shelf as promised. “It's one of those jobs that can't fail,” Metzler says. “We deal in hours, not days. We have little margin for error.” Metzler believes that initiatives such as direct store delivery are an important way to add value for the client and position Carlisle Carrier ahead of its competition. “We're willing to work with our clients' difficult customers,” says Metzler. “Whether the customer has stringent delivery restrictions or limited delivery capacity, we'll go the extra mile to get the job done and satisfy our client.” One of the company's most noted recent growth endeavors is “breathing significant life” into their third-party logistics services division, Carlisle Logistics Services (CLS). CLS provides customers with information management services, which involves analyzing the flow of shipments and the opportunities for optimizing consolidation, as well as traffic management. This helps customers make transportation decisions or enables Carlisle Logistics to make them on behalf of the customers. “The development of CLS gave us the opportunity to grow our company by applying trucking-related disciplines in an non-asset based way,” Metzler explains. “We're offering value-added service to our clients and setting the stage for other non-trucking growth, such as custom manufacturing.” Carlisle Carrier stands poised for the future, as it remains committed to controlled growth, superior customer service, and a culture that guides and drives everyone involved in the company, from the drivers, to the clients, to the president. For more information on Carlisle Carrier, please call (717) 691-8600. Back to top © 2008 Carlisle Carrier Corporation. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement | Contact Us |