The Port of Virginia has named case goods vendor Stanley Furniture Company its Shipper of the Year.
The award recognizes a company that has gone above and beyond the course of normal business to help the port grow both commercially and operationally. The Port of Virginia selected Stanley for the honor because of the company’s effort to champion the port’s new rail service to Greensboro, N.C., among steamship lines and other shippers, which has played an integral role in the program’s success.
“Stanley’s support of our new rail service has had such a profound effect on the Port of Virginia that there was really no debate regarding what company would be named our 2012 Shipper of the Year,” said Tom Capozzi, vice president of global sales for Virginia International Terminals, the operating company for the Virginia Port Authority. “Our new rail line would never have the success that we’re experiencing today had Stanley not encouraged steamship operators to back the rail service. The brand’s work helped overcome some resistance to change within the shipping industry and allowed other shippers to better understand the benefits that accompany a new transportation method.”
Stanley became one of the first companies to use the Port of Virginia’s Greensboro rail line, which began running in October 2011, after realizing that the service could improve supply chain efficiencies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the transportation of its furniture shipments from the port to the company’s Martinsville, Va., warehouse facility. Prior to the launch of the service, standard container trucks carried Stanley’s shipments the approximately 250 miles from the port, which is located in Norfolk, Va., to Martinsville; however, thanks to the new rail line, the company now depends less on truck transportation. Today, Stanley’s containers travel by train to Greensboro and only the final leg of the route--roughly 50 miles from Greensboro to Martinsville--is completed via truck.
“Although Stanley believed the new rail program would improve its overall supply chain efficiencies, the company’s ability to utilize the rail line relied on the cooperation of its steamship partners, who had to make operational and pricing adjustments to accommodate the new service,” said Capozzi. “Stanley’s negotiations with the shipping lines set a precedent that made it easier for other shippers to use the rail service, and as a result, our 2012 figures for the program have exceeded expectations.”
