Chicago's Leader in Warehousing and Distribution, Presents its Blog:

Neill Cartage and Warehouse has implemented a Customer Referral Incentive Program that gives our customers the opportunity to save on future warehousing or shipments when they refer others to our services.

How The Program Works

For every new customer referral that results in the referred company establishing credit with Neill Cartage and Warehouse and stores product with us or moves freight with us, we will give the customer that provided the referral $100 - $500 credit, depending on the amount of work the referral does with Neill!

This is an ongoing offer that applies to any new companies that are referred. There’s no limit, as long as the referral establishes credit and moves or stores product with Neill Cartage and Warehouse. Here’s the process:

• Step 1: You refer a potential customer.
• Step 2: Referral establishes credit with Neill.
• Step 3: Referral moves or stores freight with Neill.
• Step 4: You receive a $100-$500 discount / gift card!

Remember, you can take advantage of this offer many times over. It pays to let others know about the perks of using Neill Cartage and Warehouse!

Call Us

Call us at 1-708-547-7676 to learn more about our referral program, or send us an email at info@neillcartage.com and we will contact you to answer any questions you may have.

Neill Cartage and Warehouse is Chicago's premier full service logistics, warehousing, and distribution company.  Servicing the Midwest since 1946. 

Neill Cartage and other public warehouses act as 3rd party logistics locations (3PL) for companies who desire to outsource their storage, transportation, and other related job function. These 3PL's put the concerns and or welfare of several companies under one roof.  Managed by a trained and skilled staff that makes each of the companies that they serve a priority, with the customers of these companies being their major concern. Advanced technology helps the trained associates keep an accurate account of each and every company’s inventory.  The job of labeling, packing, shipping and distributing together with the task of taking inventory on a regular basis makes a public warehouse’s job a very important. It serves as the link between the supplier and the customers.

3PL facilities operate on different levels of expertise, depending upon the contract terms, types of clients involved, and customer requirements, among other facets that might possibly act as variants.  There are various types of 3PL, however public warehouses fall under the standard 3 PL type. In a standard facility, logistics is not the central focus. The function of storage is the main concern with the other supply chain elements secondary to the storage components.  The goal of the 3PL is to safely store all goods, while at the same time tracking their present and future inventory levels. This difficult and timely task helps to alleviate the stress from the company’s executives who already have enough on their plates.

In brief, a 3PL is a facility that is committed to serving several companies at one location, thus specializing in their needed steps from storage to distribution. In other words, a 3PL interacts with the participating parties to ensure successful end results.

Neill Cartage and Warehouse is Chicago's premier full service logistics, warehousing, and distribution company.  Servicing the Midwest since 1946. 

Outsourced warehousing and third party logistics is ideal for growing businesses. Businesses, such as small and medium enterprises, need a streamlined system to take advantage of e-commerce activity and distribution.

In today's digital world, e-commerce is easily accessible and within the reach of most companies. A well-designed site and marketing campaign may drive sales but, the real test of any company is the delivery of products to consumers in a timely and efficient manner. Small businesses need to focus on how they can get the sold goods to the paying customer without causing a bottleneck in the process; outsourced warehousing is the ideal option. Start up businesses might lack the knowledge of logistics and transport which will cause the order flow to fall behind and unhappy customers.

Fulfilment warehouses since as Neill Cartage and Warehouse can help these small businesses with order fulfilment ensuring that their order processes are seamless. Outsourcing the logistics, storage, transport, and stock control allows the businesses to focus on developing the marketing of their products, which will inevitably lead to more sales and more shipping.

For small and medium enterprises, outsourced warehousing is really the way to go. The businesses will have limited manpower and shipping knowledge, which can slow the order processes and lead to customer service nightmares. Fulfilment warehouses can sort out the process from initial order to pick and pack to delivery of goods.

Looking to outsourced warehousing for shipping needs is an effective business strategy for growing businesses. Public Warehouse can provide their expertise in shipping to other countries saving the small businesses time in paperwork that accompanies customs and export of goods. This will also save the new business money in salaries for employees that might not be needed all of the time.

If you are looking to warehouse in the Midwest region of the United States, you can count on Neill to get you moving in the right direction!

Warehouses are no longer just for storage. In today's cost-conscious, efficiency-driven environment, many manufacturers are reevaluating their definition of warehousing. Anything that doesn't lend itself to a high-speed, highly mechanized, low-labor environment is being sent to the warehouse.

Driving this evolution is a desire to take links out of the supply chain and make sure that costs are optimized and as close to the customer as possible.

INNOVATIVE WAREHOUSE USES

As a result of this shift, manufacturers are gradually expanding the services they expect from their warehousing providers, seeking ways to increase flexibility, improve inventory control, manage costs, and streamline the supply chain.

Three services, in particular, are drawing considerable interest:

Shared space environment. Companies with dramatic seasonal or promotional fluctuations face unique warehousing challenges. They don't want to invest in space that they can't fill year-round, but they must accommodate business surges. A shared space environment accommodates shipping peaks and valleys by balancing multiple manufacturers' requirements with complementary surges.  

To manage this arrangement, a third-party provider analyzes shippers' space requirements and identifies peak periods of activity. Shippers with peaks at opposite times of the year can be paired in a single facility. For example, a sunscreen manufacturer might be paired with a holiday gift basket company.

The companies' operations are located at opposite ends of the building and ebb and flow toward the middle as required. Both companies are guaranteed additional overflow space, but only pay for the space as they need it. They're able to meet maximum requirements and accommodate business growth without having to invest in permanent space and equipment. Locating the facility in an optimal location also helps minimize transportation costs and maximize responsiveness to customer needs.

Cross-docking. As manufacturers seek ways to move products more efficiently and cost-effectively, many are rediscovering cross-docking -- moving product directly from receiving to shipping with little or no inventory and minimal handling. The process is resurfacing as a way to take costs out of the supply chain, accelerate inventory velocity, and improve service levels.  

While historically used for durable goods, high turn rates and reduced handling make cross-docking an effective solution for everything from perishable products to high-value/high-security goods. The process helps get product to market quickly and economically while reducing the need for warehouse space and inventory carry costs.

Many companies are exploring variations on traditional, "pure" cross-docking, integrating transportation strategies such as consolidation and deconsolidation to maximize savings. For example, a company may receive inbound loads daily but ship out just twice a week, reducing transportation spend while making deliveries that meet end-user requirements.

INVOLVING A 3PL

Many manufacturers are recognizing that 3PLs are often better positioned than their own internal operations to adapt to the expanded warehouse role.

Experienced 3PLs offer convenient facilities with a skilled workforce, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, and established systems and processes for peak performance. Because warehousing, packaging, and transportation operations take place under a single roof, communication and planning improve, helping to ensure performance quality and timeliness. Effective 3PLs also routinely review forecasting, scheduling, processes, equipment and other variables, looking for opportunities for improvement.

Demand for specialized warehouse services will climb for the foreseeable future as manufacturers intensify their focus on core competencies. Fortunately, third-party providers can provide innovative, flexible solutions to help streamline their supply chains, increase flexibility, and better manage costs.

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Neill Cartage and Warehouse is Chicago's premier full service logistics, warehousing, and distribution company.  Servicing the Midwest since 1946. 

The Union Pacific Railroad has opened its nearly $370 million Joliet Intermodal Terminal on 785 acres five miles south of Interstate 80 and seven miles east of Interstate 55.

Union Pacific chairman and CEO Jim Young said at Monday's opening that the new facility will increase the system's international and domestic container capacity while improving rail traffic efficiency throughout the Chicago area.

The terminal is designed to handle an annual capacity of 500,000 over-the-road trailers or oceangoing ship containers to enable Union Pacific to continue to pursue opportunities in the growing rail-truck and rail-ship markets.

Neill Cartage and Warehouse has been handing some of the Chicago warehousing and crossing-dock traffic that this terminal has created. Neill is also thinking about the possibility of opening a public warehouse in Elwood, to cut down on transportation cost. 

If you are looking for a reliable public warehouse or cross-dock facility in that area, please let us know at info@neillcartage.com.  

Neill Cartage and Warehouse is Chicago's premier full service logistics, warehousing, and distribution company.  Servicing the Midwest since 1946. 

It is important to select a public warehouse that is geographically located where transport accessibility is available. The transportation methods, such as road, rail, air, or ship should be located in near proximity to the warehouse in order to make it easy to distribute the needed products to their destinations. For a warehouse that is responsible for international exports, good locations would include a nearby airport or port.

The staff employed by at public warehouse is trained to prepare the goods for distribution to the necessary destination. This includes the inventory, packing, loading, and transporting of these materials. The steps vary according to the final location of the transport. For example, products that are going to a foreign place must be carefully packed with not only shipping invoices, but also customs declarations and necessary documentation. However, the shipping process is a lot less complex when dealing with national distribution, because the international regulations do not exist. Whatever the destination location, distribution is sometimes a 2 or 3 step process, which sometimes involves road and air or ship methods, and frequently all 3 means of transportation.

The processes of accurate inventory data are essential so that the goods being distributed and/ or transported will be executed precisely. If a public warehouse is not exact when recording inventory, then the distribution of the material may not be correct and the end results, pertaining to the customer, will be negative and/ or unsuccessful. All of the distribution costs are included in the contractual fees that the warehouse initially charges the company. In this way, the public warehouse does, indeed, have a say in the success of a company’s chain supply.

Truck drivers that distribute goods on a national/local level are employees of the warehouse and assume the responsibility for the delivering of the products in “A -1” condition. This is another instance where the insurance would kick in if the goods were damaged upon delivery.

Finally, it is good to remember that distribution is the last step that a public warehouse must complete in regard to its commitments, thus affecting the supply chain process of the business that has contracted its services. The responsibility that a public warehouse incurs is one of great magnitude, which illustrates the importance that a warehouse plays with regard to a company’s profits and/ or revenues.

Neill Cartage and Warehouse is Chicago's premier full service logistics, warehousing, and distribution company.  Servicing the Midwest since 1946. 

Firms in the truck transportation and warehousing industry provide a link between manufacturers and consumers. Businesses contract with trucking and warehousing companies to pick up, transport, store, and deliver a variety of goods. The industry includes general freight trucking, specialized freight trucking, and warehousing and storage.

General freight trucking uses motor vehicles, such as trucks and tractor-trailers, to provide over-the-road transportation of general commodities. This industry segment is further subdivided based on distance traveled. Local trucking establishments carry goods primarily within a single metropolitan area and its adjacent non-urban areas. Long-distance trucking establishments carry goods between distant areas.

Local trucking comprised 29,400 trucking establishments in 2008. The work of local trucking firms varies with the products transported. Produce truckers usually pick up loaded trucks early in the morning and spend the rest of the day delivering produce to many different locations.  Some local truck transportation firms may also take on sales and customer relations responsibilities for a client, in addition to delivering the firm's products.

Long-distance trucking comprises establishments engaged primarily in providing trucking between distant areas and sometimes between the United States and Canada or Mexico. Numbering 40,900 establishments, these firms handle every kind of commodity.

Specialized freight trucking provides over-the-road transportation of freight, which, because of size, weight, shape, or other inherent characteristics, requires specialized equipment, such as flatbeds, tankers, or refrigerated trailers. This industry sector also includes the moving industry—that is, the transportation of household, institutional, and commercial furniture for individuals or companies that are relocating. Like general freight trucking, specialized freight trucking is subdivided into local and long-distance components. The specialized freight trucking sector contained 47,600 establishments in 2008.

Many goods are carried using intermodal transportation to save time and money. Intermodal transportation encompasses any combination of transportation by truck, train, plane, or ship. Typically, trucks perform at least one leg of the trip, since they are the most flexible mode of transport. For example, a shipment of paper leaves from the mill and begins its journey when they are loaded onto rail cars. Next, trains hauls the cars across country to a depot, where the shipments are broken into smaller lots and loaded onto tractor-trailers, which drive them to printers or warehouses. Each of these steps is carefully orchestrated and timed so that the cars arrive just in time to be shipped on their next leg of their journey. Though some perishable and time-sensitive goods may be transported by air, they are usually picked up and delivered by trucks.

Warehousing and storage facilities comprised 15,200 establishments in 2008. These firms are engaged primarily in operating warehousing and storage facilities for general merchandise and refrigerated goods. They take responsibility for keeping general merchandise and refrigerated goods secure and in good condition. A growing number of warehousing and storage facilities also may provide some logistical services, such as labeling, inventory control management, repackaging, and transportation arrangement.

Trucking and warehousing firms often provide logistical services encompassing the entire transportation process. Logistical services manage all aspects of the movement of goods between producers and consumers. Among their value-added services are sorting bulk goods into customized lots, packaging and repackaging goods, controlling and managing inventory, order entering and fulfillment, labeling, performing light assembly, and marking prices. Some full-service companies even perform warranty repair work and serve as local parts distributors for manufacturers. Some of these services, such as maintaining and retrieving computerized inventory information on the location, age, and quantity of goods available, have helped to improve the efficiency of relationships between manufacturers and customers.

Many companies use just-in-time shipping, which means that goods arrive just before they are needed, saving recipients money by reducing their need to carry large inventories. These technologies and processes reflect two major trends in warehousing: supply chain integration, whereby firms involved in production, transportation, and storage all move in concert so as to act with the greatest possible efficiency; and ongoing attempts to reduce inventory levels and increase inventory accuracy.

Citation: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Career Guide to Industries, 2010-11 Edition, Truck Transportation and Warehousing , on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs021.htm.

Neill Cartage and Warehouse is Chicago's premier full service logistics, warehousing, and distribution company.  Servicing the Midwest since 1946. 

Neill Cartage and Warehouse's freight container station is in the backyard of Chicago UP Global 2 rail yard.  With Neill's close proximity they are able to offer the most competitive drayage rates around.  After a container is transported from the UP Intermodal facility to Neill's Chicago warehouse, Neill can provide transload services, warehousing, and/or crossdocking services.

Transload services: This is the unloading of the product and the transfer of the product from ocean containers into domestic intermodal, less-than-truckload (LTL), or over-the-road (OTR) trailers. 

Warehousing services: Neill's public warehousing offers flexible space at a variable cost which can expand or contract based on our customers’ specific business needs.  Long-term and short-term storage alternatives are available. 

Crossdocking services: Crossdocking is a warehousing practice of transferring (or unloading) materials from an incoming tractor-trailer truck or rail car and then reloading these materials in another outbound mode of delivery such as semi-trailers or rail cars, with little or no warehousing in between. Cross docking is done to change the type of transportation being used, to sort materials intended for different destinations, or to combine material from different shipments. Cross-docking is used to decrease inventory storage by streamlining the flow between the supplier and the manufacturer.