In this LeaderSHIP column for Inbound Logistics magazine, Mark Baker, Pilot’s CTO, discusses his technology background and current mission to lead a digital transformation at Pilot.
Groundbreaking News
This month, interior construction begins on Pilot’s new headquarters in Glen Mills! We are customizing the entire space to fit our specific requirements. As progress continues, you’ll receive video updates so you can get a better idea of the new space layout before we actually move.
There will be a brand new gym located just steps away from our HQ, outfitted with all new equipment, modern locker rooms and accessible with a key card for all tenants. The on-site grab-n-go café, located in the lobby of our building, is another great amenity. The grab-n-go will be open 24 hours a day to purchase drinks and snacks as well as be a place where you can take a short break from a busy day.
As we start off the new year, please keep in mind your personal preparations for the move. Now is a great time to develop new habits—like converting paper to electronic files—that will be a great benefit in the new building!
As always, if you have any questions, please email relo@pilotdelivers.com.
Taking Advantage of Downtime
As the seasonal push begins to wind down, many of us look forward to a traditionally quiet week at work between Christmas and New Year’s. This could be a great time to start your personal preparations for the move to our new headquarters. As we’ve shared in our last relo update, our goal is to create a more digital and environment-friendly workplace at 2 Braxton Way. Scanning documents, discarding outdated paperwork and converting paper to electronic files are all easy ways to meet that objective in accordance with Pilot’s ESG policy. In keeping with our clean, minimalist aesthetic in the new building, take note of your own personal belongings and choose a few that mean the most to make the move with you. If you make a commitment to start the new year operating with this approach, it’ll make the transition to our new space a breeze!
If you have any questions about the move, please email relo@pilotdelivers.com.
Implementing Pilot’s ESG Policy at 2 Braxton Way
Last month we announced the move of our corporate office to 2 Braxton Way in Glenn Mills. There is quite a bit of work to be done before the move, and we want to share this exciting experience with you. Over the next several months, we will bring you regular updates of what is being worked on and major construction milestones. If you have questions throughout this process, please email relo@pilotdelivers.com so they can be addressed individually, or can be included in an update email much like this one.
While it seems like ages away, summer will be here before too long, and so will the move to our new corporate office. Design plans are well underway, amenity details are being finalized and we are working on ways to be more environmentally friendly in accordance with our Environmental, Social and Governance Policy (ESG Policy).
Pilot’s ESG Policy highlights our commitment to the environment, charitable giving and quality standards. As we move into our new space, all employees will be asked to keep Pilot’s ESG policy in mind, particularly when it comes to our environmental responsibility. One of many changes that Pilot will adopt is a nearly 100% paperless setting. The space is also taking on a very clean and minimalist approach, meaning less is more. To that end, every employee will receive two bins to transport all of their personal and work related items from their current office or work station. It is never too early to begin thinking about what you will bring with you and what you may purge. Now is the time to eliminate paper and begin digitally filing and scanning. As we round out the last few weeks of 2018, we hope you look forward to 2019 with excitement and commitment to these policies and a fresh start in our new headquarters.
Pilot Freight Services Welcomes Chief Technology Officer Mark Baker
LIMA, PA – November 7, 2018 – Pilot Freight Services (Pilot), a worldwide provider of transportation and logistics services, announces Mark Baker has joined the company in a newly created role as chief technology officer. Baker is responsible for modernizing Pilot’s technology, internal and customer facing, so that communications remain efficient and customers receive superior service. This includes managing, directing and selecting cutting-edge logistics software and technology that drive Pilot’s core business processes.
Baker brings more than 23 years of senior IT management experience to Pilot, operating exclusively in the transportation and logistics industry since 2003. Most recently, as global chief information officer for JAS Worldwide, he led a comprehensive global IT integration and application development plan. At Pilot, Baker will apply best practices to the company’s existing IT infrastructure to optimize results and provide greater transparency throughout the process to improve performance and reduce costs. While Pilot has always placed a strong emphasis on technology, this newly formed role demonstrates the company’s focus on reinforcing and integrating company-wide IT solutions.
“As Pilot continues to experience record growth numbers, we must not only keep pace with our customers’ needs, but also anticipate any future technological trends that can impact our collective efficiencies and overall service. This presents unique challenges,” said Gordon Branov, CEO of Pilot Freight Services. “It requires a singular focus on our technology products to assure that we are providing the most innovative and effective solutions for our clients. I am confident in Mark’s ability to strategically plan and strengthen our infrastructure in order to maintain Pilots’ position as an industry leader, and ultimately deliver an exceptional customer experience.”
Baker reports directly to Branov and is based out of the company’s corporate headquarters in Lima, PA. Baker is a member of the Association of IT Professionals, the Georgia CIO Leadership Association and is a recipient of Computerworld Magazine’s “Premier 100 IT Leaders Award”.
Pilot Expands Logistics and Inventory Management Solutions with Salt Lake City Multi-Client Warehouse
Lima, PA – October 1, 2018 – Pilot Freight Services (Pilot), a worldwide provider of transportation and logistics services, announces the opening of a 44,000-sq. ft. multi-client warehouse located at 1711 South 4650 West, Suite B in Salt Lake City (SLC), UT. This facility supports positive growth from the existing SLC station and its 45,000-sq. ft. of warehouse space and will bolster Pilot’s network of West Coast clients to meet the needs of consumers more quickly and with greater flexibility. The opening of the warehouse is a reflection of Pilot’s ongoing commitment to serve the ever-increasing e-commerce industry.
Strategically positioned in Salt Lake City, the warehouse provides a more cost-effective solution for expensive West Coast operations by providing substantial savings which outweigh the investment of moving product from California to SLC. The warehouse is geographically situated to support two-day deliveries to most of the Western US, without taking on the tax and financial implications of distributing e-commerce products out of California. Additionally, this location will benefit from the significant ground, air, and parcel capacity in SLC. The new SLC multi-client warehouse provides a complete distribution infrastructure with reduced capital expense, which allows scaling of business needs to reach end users on-time and while maintaining budgets.
Pilot brings their decades of knowledge and resources in logistics and inventory management to the new SLC facility. Using Pilot’s shared warehousing reduces the risks and expenditures involved in opening a private facility or using a public warehouse and eliminates the need for companies to hire their own staff. This new warehouse gives clients of all sizes and scope in the West Coast market the ability to store, distribute and manage transportation operations, all under Pilot’s trusted name. Each space is customizable to specific requirements by outsourcing delivery, packaging and transportation management to highly trained Pilot employees. Pilot also has the ability to operate as a 3PL, managing patrons’ transportation providers and their contacts.
The warehouse will operate five days a week Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM MT with after-hours and holiday on-call capabilities. Hours of operation will change to meet evolving requirements and volumes throughout extremely busy and hectic periods and during peak seasons to meet custom requests timely and efficiently.
“Part of ongoing positive steps in company growth, Pilot has expanded warehousing and inventory management capabilities across US markets with new services, including the new SLC multi-client warehouse. Influenced by customer needs and demands, we are pleased to offer even greater full-service, turnkey solutions to our valued clients on the West Coast,” said John Hill, president and chief commercial officer. “We’re excited to expand our offerings in Salt Lake City, offering the Western market unsurpassed customization in their warehousing requirements.”
Pilot Freight Services Boasts Record Q2 Revenues
LIMA, PA – August 1, 2018 – Pilot Freight Services (Pilot), a worldwide provider of transportation and logistics services, announces record-breaking Q2 2018 revenues of $188.6 million. Coming on the heels of the recent strategic acquisition of Manna Freight Systems, the company reports year-to-date revenues of $353.9 million. Pilot anticipates e-commerce delivery in the H3D category will account for at least 30 percent of overall business as a result of enhanced capabilities, leading to a forecasted year-end revenue of approximately $800 million.
Pilot is demonstrating diversified gains across all categories with 21.2 percent revenue growth to date this year and is up nearly 22 percent in Q2 2018 when compared to the same quarter last year. Further indicators of the company’s growth include over one million shipments so far in 2018 and moving over 532.6 million pounds of freight, which is a 12 percent increase over last quarter.
“For the third quarter in a row, every Pilot product line saw over 20 percent growth,” says John Hill, president and chief commercial officer. “Home delivery and e-commerce offerings will continue to be a focus as we integrate last-mile-only solutions to complement our existing full-mile service offering to current and new clients.”
Pilot is committed to offering full-service customized solutions to customers and brings decades of knowledge and resources to business-to-business freight, global transportation, logistics solutions and e-commerce delivery. Investments in new technology solutions to seamlessly integrate and automate platforms while increasing transparency and efficiencies will advance the company’s aggressive growth strategy.
Pilot Acquires Manna to Expand Final Mile Delivery Services
Lima, PA – July 17, 2018 – Pilot Freight Services (Pilot), a worldwide provider of transportation and logistics services, is excited to announce its acquisition of Manna Freight Systems (Manna), a final mile logistics provider based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, in a strategic move to create unparalleled final mile service for furniture and appliance delivery with installation capabilities. Pilot will leverage Manna’s network, technology solutions and expertise in final mile delivery in the heavy and hard to handle (“H3D”) category to supplement the company’s existing strength in full mile service for its vast number of e-commerce customers.
“Manna complements our existing strengths with additional expertise, services and tech solutions,” explains Gordon Branov, CEO of Pilot Freight Services. “Just as importantly, when the passion and strengths of Manna and Pilot employees unite, an incredibly exciting future will stand before us as one company.”
The acquisition bolsters Pilot’s position as one of the top providers of logistics solutions to the H3D market. The integration of Manna is the next progression of Pilot’s e-commerce platform, offering best-in-industry practices from full mile to domestic final mile, all of which is backed by Pilot’s 24/7 national customer service. Pilot will grow its domestic final mile footprint from 71 to 83 locations, enabling even greater coverage for the company’s expanding roster of clients. Manna’s known domestic final mile delivery options will be offered to new and existing customers and promises to provide a complete package of delivery solutions. In addition, Pilot will implement technology solutions to further increase efficiency and transparency through truck dispatching, order management and real time route optimization.
“The synergy between Pilot and Manna will enable us to offer our outstanding customer base expertise not only just for full mile, but also extend to final mile delivery of furniture and appliance hook up,” explains John Hill, President and CCO of Pilot Freight Services. “As home delivery grows exponentially, this acquisition is the perfect evolution for Pilot to service our e-commerce customers at the highest level.”
Pilot Launches New Charitable Initiative: Presents $50,000 Raised in 36 Hours for Alex’s Lemonade Stand
Lima, PA – June 8, 2018 – Today, Pilot Freight Services (Pilot) CEO Gordon Branov and president and CCO John Hill presented Liz Scott, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) co-executive director and mother of Alexandra “Alex” Scott, with a $50,000 donation as part of the annual Lemonade Days fundraising at Pilot’s headquarters in Lima, PA.
The money was raised during Pilot’s annual national meeting in late April where hundreds of employees from around the world gathered to discuss industry trends, share sales tactics, celebrate one another’s achievements and meet with international colleagues face-to-face. Team building through fundraising was a priority this year and over the course of 36 hours, attendees contributed more than $50,000 to ALSF. The fundraiser was the first step in making the foundation Pilot’s official national philanthropy partner. Employees at headquarters were thrilled to meet Liz and connect with her while enjoying lemonade and water ice at Pilot’s own lemonade stand on June 8.
ALSF is a national childhood cancer foundation dedicated to raising funds for research into new treatments and cures for all children battling cancer. The founder, Alexandra “Alex” Scott, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma just before her first birthday. She held her first front yard lemonade stand when she was just four years old to raise funds to find cures. ALSF follows this mission to this day and has raised more than $150 million to fund more than 800 cutting-edge research projects at 135 institutions and develop programs to support families, like SuperSibs! to help the brothers and sisters of cancer patients.
“We’re proud to support Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and I’m thrilled, although not surprised, that the dedicated and generous Pilot employees and partners rose to the challenge of donating to such a worthy cause.” said Gordon Branov, CEO of Pilot Freight Services. “We chose ALSF as a national philanthropy partner for multiple reasons: being in the area, Alex’s is very well known to us and given their national influence we feel confident that our station managers can bring back what they learned at the national meeting about Alex’s message and mission to their communities in all corners of the U.S.”
Pilot Freight Services Implements Amber Road’s On-Demand Export Compliance Solution
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, April 24, 2018 – Amber Road (NYSE: AMBR), a leading provider of global trade management (GTM) solutions, announced today that Pilot Freight Services, (Pilot), a worldwide provider of transportation and logistics services, has gone live with Amber Road’s Export On-Demand solution to automate the restricted party screening (RPS) process.
In an era of heightened security, determining whether individuals, companies or organizations are restricted from conducting trade is essential. Exporters are responsible for ensuring that they are compliant with changing government regulations, and that their goods are not being sold to undesirable entities.
Amber Road’s Export On-Demand solution provides a secure, comprehensive method to automate the screening and hold resolution process. It enables international shippers to quickly screen customers, suppliers and other trading partners against over 590 lists from government institutions worldwide. In today’s fluid and ever-changing environment, manually determining whether a partner, customer or contact is designated a restricted party is time-consuming, inefficient, and prone to errors.
“Amber Road was selected because it is the gold standard in global trade compliance, so this partnership brings Pilot’s compliance program to the next level,” said Chris Ashiotes, Pilot’s VP, General Counsel & Secretary. “As Pilot continues to grow, the company needs a solution that reduces risk by driving educated decision-making, increases efficiency within its team, and facilitates the continued development of its overall global trade compliance program.”
The new system will enable Pilot Freight Services to perform systematic and thorough restricted party screening on transactions received on behalf of its customers. Amber Road streamlines the screening process to check whether a trading partner has been placed on any official denied persons or illegal trans-shipper list, blocked from import or export transactions, or sanctioned by a government for illegal acts such as involvement in international terrorism, narcotics trafficking, money laundering or weapons proliferation.
The solution uses intelligent algorithms and business rules that help increase the accuracy of matches. The database is highly maintained by Amber Road’s team of trade content experts. Updates are usually made within 24 hours of any changes or additions and pushed out to customers through the cloud platform.
“Pilot’s operations team has already realized the benefits from using the solution, including increased productivity for better managing restricted party screening by leveraging automation,” said John Hill, Pilot’s President and Chief Commercial Officer. “We are now able to greatly enhance our ability to safeguard our customers and shield the company against potential compliance violations.”
“The risks of non-compliance that these organizations face include substantial fines, imprisonment, and brand damage,” said Ty Bordner, SVP Marketing and Business Development, Amber Road. “The quality of the data, in addition to the functionality in our platform, provides an export management solution that can’t be matched in the industry. Important customers like Pilot prove the strength in all of our offerings.”