UPS Autogistics and Ford have presented US rail carrier Norfolk Southern with the 2008 Carrier of the Year Award for overall logistics excellence. Norfolk Southern transported more than 1.4m Ford vehicles in 2008 and is the carmaker's largest carrier in North America, handling the majority of the Ford shipments by rail.
UPS Autogistics, which is Ford's 3PL provider managing vehicle deliveries, worked with the carmaker throughout 2008 to measure Norfolk Southern's results in terms of superior performance in on-time delivery, quality and damage-free handling, as well as total customer service. It is the second year that the award has been given.
"It is very much an honour to be recognised within the industry because [Ford and UPS Autogistics] do this for both railroads and their haulaway companies," said Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Lori Shinney, Group Manager - Ford. Haulaway refers to the truck operations that take vehicles on the final leg of the journey to the dealer.
This is the second award Norfolk Southern has received this year. In January it was given an On-Time Excellence Award and an Excellence Award for Quality in the Toyota US Partners Awards. The company transported 552,000 Toyota vehicles in 2008, including those originating from Norfolk Southern-served plants in Georgetown, Kentucky, and Lafayette and Princeton in Indiana (read more here).
