Quarterly Update!

During the past 4 months, Elite jumped head first into an industry that is booming in comparison to only ten years ago. While many other companies have been weary in joining in the craze, Elite was not intimidated of the flow of products from this upcoming industry, e-Commerce. This e-Commerce boom has come from companies from the likes of Amazon, providing services such as electronics, furniture, and even fresh groceries to be delivered right to their residence. The services like this are what provide the e-Commerce industry its foundation.

The true definition of e-Commerce is any transaction, such as buying or selling, over the internet, however, that might raise questions as to how that affects assets such as drivers or our warehouse. Well from the online order, the freight has to be moved from Point A to Point B somehow, and what better way to do that but with a 3PL? After seeing the industry’s success, Elite decided to try our hand at this.

Through different segregation methods such as weight and size, we were able to experience first hand how important the e-Commerce industry is to modern-day society. After shipping different expensive cargo pieces on multiple pallets, the importance of the 3PL in the e-Commerce industry is very high, just as it is outside of the industry as well.

E-Commerce is the new face of the freight/shipping industry, and there is no denying that. With Amazon’s success story, and other outlets of online shopping such as e-Bay, this just gives another greater demand to the stretched industry. However, this does open up more jobs and fields of work people may not have ever been exposed to. Since e-Commerce is done, electronically, or over the internet, that offers more opportunities for businesses to offer more services online, which creates separate jobs for those other services that may not have been offered before.

Not-So-Flawless August

August was the beginning of a slow month for the freight business for a couple of reasons. With August being a month that doesn’t have any notable holidays, or any upcoming events that could speed production, a lot of slow moving business and cargo kind of find their way into the mix. Part of this is from a large impact from select European countries that take an extended vacation time, varying between the end of July and most August. Not only the activities in Europe, but the United States also had its fair share of issues as well with  the quick approach of Hurricane Harvey.

Very prominent carriers overseas in Europe came to a halt this past August, giving their employees their yearly vacation time. During this vacation time, the whole industry slows as a whole, because of the workers obviously not working. This vacation time slowed freight tremendously because of the large companies being located in the countries that took this extended monthly break.

Just when things start to pick back up in the industry, the Gulf Coast was hit hard with a strong Hurricane named Harvey. Harvey hit the Texas coast as a category five hurricane, flooding the plains and ruining others homes. Not only affecting the people, but the industry itself was hurt as well. Flooding both Port Beaumont and Arthur, shipping ocean and air both had stopped for close to a week. The flooding also caused fuel prices to fly way high across the entire east coast, being one of the main intakes of oil from the gulf.

August’s events have been crucial to the growth and consistency of not only smaller companies, but as well as larger companies who receive often from overseas. Now that September is rolling through, we could be expecting things to return to normal in the industry, so we hope.

Millions of Pounds, Millions of Smiling Faces

Over the course of the past 3 months, Elite Logistics workload has been doubled since building a partnership with a major notable carrier, to help move their freight in a more efficient manner. Not many companies get this opportunity, but this is just another branch of connections built since Elite's own Justin Taylor winning the 2017 ATL Cargo Person of the Year award, held by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.. Once a name is recognized, people soon learn for what goes on behind the name. This just proves this is not just a "Justin Taylor" thing, this is an "Elite" thing.

"People thought i was crazy," says Taylor, " as soon as I walked in this warehouse, I had tape, scattered everywhere on the floor, mapping out exactly where everything was going to go, racks and all." I am sure that no one could have predicted the growth in such a small time. The warehouse would soon go from being loaded with just about 600,000 lbs to over a million in one month.

Although these numbers are merely numbers to Justin, who during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, moved frequently high volumes of freight through the entirety of Georgia. Knowing what it feels like to move lots of freight at once definitely helped ease the quick transition into place.

The respect earned by people and companies around the airport has been overwhelming and heartwarming, which gives this small town company, a big time name. Now not only do they have a very sturdy track record, they also have an efficiently proven one as well, with the numbers to prove it.

2017 ATL Air Cargo Person of the Year

Such an honor to be awarded 2017 Atlanta Air Cargo Person of the Year.

On Monday, June 26 2016, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport officials, as well as the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Atlanta Air Cargo Association hosted there annual recognition to the companies and employees who create a positive impact on the cargo community around the area. As well as other import individuals that were there, two people stood out over the others, Elliott Paige and Roosevelt Council, Jr. Mr. Paige is the director of air service and strategy for the most busiest airport in all the United States, as well as directs under Mayor Kasim Reed for any type of discretion or concerns. Mr Council is the Deputy General Manager, as well as the Chief Financial Officer for Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. With these high ranking officials in the building, it shows the importance of the event as well as the impact the awards have to the Atlanta cargo community. During the luncheon, very few awards were given out to select companies to show the airports appreciation, but only one single person out of the whole community was chosen for their impact to the scene. Out of every employee, everyone company owner, every donor, anybody that has made an appearance in the cargo community, only one person was selected as the 2017 Atlanta Air Cargo Person of the Year, and that person, was Justin Taylor. This award was awarded to the person who not only made a large impact in the community, but also proved excellence in his trade and leadership to his fellow peers and coworkers. This award was presented by Mr. Paige to Justin to show that this wasn't only was this a small community decision, but as well as a decision that was made very carefully and precisely by the people that see it most fit.