Transportation Joint Venture Provides 'Big Chill Advantage' To Puerto Rico

Compiled ByTraci Purdum FFE Transportation Services Inc., a subsidiary of Frozen Food Express Industries Inc. (FFEX), and International Transport Logistics Inc. have formed a partnership to provide temperature-controlled and non-temperature-controlled trailer service into and out of Puerto Rico via 53-foot highway trailers. Currently, 40-foot refrigerated ocean containers that have no wheels, must be lifted by crane onto a chassis for highway transportation and lifted from the chassis onto ships dominate the market. The benefits to having longer, highway accessible trailers are reduced customer costs per shipment due to larger capacity, simplification of the freight-transfer process since the trailers can drive right onto the ships and less potential damage to temperature-sensitive goods because there is no need to remove freight from one container to another, according to the companies. However, the companies do not expect the service, dubbed The Big Chill Advantage, to be an overnight success. "The ocean carriers own the containers and contractually obligate shippers into and out of Puerto Rico for a certain number of container shipments per year," says Stoney M. Stubbs Jr., chairman and CEO of FFEX. "We expect our business to expand as the contracts expire." FFE Transportation Services is based in Dallas. International Transport Logistics is located in Jacksonville, Fla.