Over the past year, seven of the fleet profiles published in Bulk Transporter highlighted tank truck carriers that are heavily involved in truck-rail transloading. Two of these transload specialists are featured in this issue, which is dedicated to bulk intermodal operations.
These features paint a picture of an industry that is quite optimistic about its future. Demand for bulk transloading service continues to grow as shippers and their customers look for ways to reduce transportation costs as diesel prices soar.
The transloading growth isn't occurring only in the US market. Transloading has proven to be just as dynamic in Canada and Mexico. In fact, two Mexico-based fleets were among the transload operators profiled this year. They describe a major market shift toward bulk shipments of plastics and other dry bulk products that is occurring in Mexico, and the potential that holds for the transloading sector.
With all of this in mind, Bulk Transporter has made some significant changes in the Directory of Bulk Truck Transfer Facilities that it has published for 22 years. The directory has been moved online to the Bulk Transporter web site (bulktransporter.com), where it is now instantly available to a much wider audience.
A number of changes are planned during 2008 to make the directory as useful as possible to those who rely on it as an up-to-date, comprehensive resource of transload service providers across North America. Most importantly, we're making it more searchable.
Initially, users will gain the ability to perform geographic searches for transload facilities within a specific state or province. Ultimately, we hope to combine the geographic search with service and product search criteria. That should enable users to develop very targeted searches.
Directory listings can be customized for each transload facility. Enhancements can include logos, web site and e-mail links.
With the directory online, we can update listings as often as needed. We're no longer limited a once-a-year update. Our plan is to use Bulk Logistics Trends (our weekly e-mail newsletter) to announce directory updates several times a year.
We'll do everything we can to keep listings to listings fresh for our users. We want to make sure that all of the information is accurate and complete. We invite users to contact us if they find inaccurate information or other problems in the listings.
After all, our objective is to build the most comprehensive, user-friendly, and useful transload directory in the industry. With the help of our readers, we know we can meet that objective.