Carlile Transportation Systems, Anchorage AK, has opened a state-of-the-art facility near the Port of Tacoma WA.
The carrier has significant tank truck, tank container, and refrigerated fleet operations.
Carlile's move from Federal Way WA to the Port of Tacoma area enables the carrier to better serve its Alaska client base and expand into the busy Pacific Northwest market, says Linda Leary, Carlile's sales vice-president.
"I can't emphasize enough how important Alaska is to Tacoma and the entire Puget Sound region," said Port of Tacoma Commissioner Dick Marzano. "Each year, more than $3.5 billion in trade moves over Port of Tacoma docks to and from Alaska on TOTE (Totem Ocean Trailer Express) and Horizon Lines ships.
The 50,000-square-foot port facility has cross-dock space and 14,000 square feet of office space on a 16 acres. It employs 110 people.
The facility features a secured warehouse and cross-dock facility with some of the latest technological advances in security. A digital security network of 80 cameras boasts more than two terabytes of storage. Physical access to the terminal is limited by computer-controlled doors and gates fitted with proximity card sensors.
According to Leary, communications is an integral part of logistics, and the terminal was therefore designed with the most extensive network in Carlile's system. Thirty-two miles of Ethernet and fiber optic cable in the office, warehouse, and yard connects more than 50 workstations and servers to the corporate network that spans Western North America, from Houston TX to Prudhoe Bay AK.
Wireless networking throughout the terminal, combined with wireless handheld computers and printers, enables a new generation of logistics applications. Leary says the new terminal allows Carlile to offer niche services to its growing customer base, including:
•Rail load/off-load
•75 foot public scale
•Covered flatbed loading area
•Container freight station (US customs bonded facility)
•Heavy haul/lowboy services
•Bulk commodities
•Third-party logistics
•Project lay-down
•Industrial shrink-wrap