Taylor Staats

LSC 4800
Dr. Terrance Pohlen
04/28/2015

Trinity Industries, Inc.

Logistics management is that part of the supply chain which plans, implements and controls the
efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services and information
between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers'
requirements. Its the management of the flow of goods, information and other resources,
including energy and people, between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order
to meet the requirements of consumers. Logistics involve the integration of information,
transportation, inventory, warehousing, material-handling and packaging.

3PL providers are continually looking to provide innovative supply chain solutions to customers
by focusing on value-added capabilities, differentiating themselves from the competition. They
focus on key objectives, such as implementing information technologies, instituting effective
management processes, integrating services and technologies globally, and delivering
comprehensive solutions that create value for 3PL users and their supply chains. This need to
partner with customers and become more integrated into their supply chain processes has created
the ancillary need to locate close to these customers.

To be a logistics winner in the coming years organizations need to use the downturn to reshape
for growth, propelled by an unshakeable conviction that the mission is still important, that more
prosperous times lie ahead, and that in some way the company infrastructure is helping to build a
better kind of world.

Logistics is inevitable in the future and essentially the management policy also has a significant
role in the future of world. Generally the study is being featured with all aspects of management
in Logistics and Freight areas including include Transportation, Warehousing, Network Design,
Cross docking, and Value Adding)

Trinity Industries, Inc., which is the business unit for all Trinity entities, is an enterprise sized
company with a user base of over 10,000 employees. The company, first known as Trinity Steel,
was founded by C. J. Bender in Dallas in 1933. The current revenue generated from all Trinity
entities is over $4.6 billion annually. Trinity Industries Inc. owns a variety of businesses which
provide product and services to the industrial, energy, transportation and construction sectors.
Trinitys railcar manufacturing and leasing companies, using the trade name Trinity Rail, are
leading providers in North America of railcars, railcar leasing, and services. Trinity Marine
Products, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of inland barges and fiberglass barge covers in the
United States. Trinity Containers, LLC is a leading manufacturer of storage and distribution
containers in North America. Trinity Highway Products, LLC and Energy Absorption Systems,
Inc. are leading manufacturers of highway products in the United States. Trinity Industries de

Mexico, under the name, is a leading manufacturer of storage and distribution containers in
Mexico. Trinity Construction Materials, Inc. is a leading supplier of lightweight and natural
aggregates to the construction industry within the Western and Southwestern United States.
Trinity Structural Towers, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of structural wind towers in North
America. Trinity Meyer Utility Structures, LLC is a leading provider in North America of utility
structures for electricity transmission and distribution.

The entity I worked for, Trinity Logistics Group, Inc., manages the trucking side of Trinity
Industries. Trinity Logistics Group, Inc. delivers premier, multi-industry logistics services to
internal Trinity Industries business units and the external market with consistent reliability, safety
and innovation. Trinity Logistics Group provides superior cargo/freight management solutions,
full truckload, less than truckload, and 3PL solutions.

TMW Suite
One role that I was tasked with was familiarizing myself with the software Trinity Logistics
Group used, which was TMWSuite. TMWSuite is an enterprise management software for the
surface transportation services industry, including logistics, freight, trucking and heavy-duty
repair and maintenance. Within TMWSuite, there were multiple modules ranging from
dispatching, order processing, accounts payable, to route optimization. The dispatch module is
the core of TMWSuite and applies to truckload, LTL/crossdock, brokerage and drayage segments
of the business. It greatly enhances efficiency by allowing users to control all dispatch activities
from one central application. Dispatchers can view all available shipments, including individual
customer requirements, to determine load priorities and needs. The second module is Real-Time
Management Reporting. This gives Trinity Logistics Group the visibility to information
management needs for better decision-making, from driver utilization to monthly financial
statements to maintenance activities and more.

Report Manager SSRS

Once I was familiar with how TMWSuite operated, I started working with Report Manager
SSRS. Report Manager is a SQL Server Reporting Service that ties in with TWMSuite to
provide financial reports for Trinity Logistics Group. When I was first given access to Report
Manager, I noticed that 95% of Trinity Logistics Group was internal revenue and 5% was
external revenue. That means, they were not utilizing themselves as a 3PL as they should but
only as a private fleet for Trinity Industries. I asked to be given access to a section of report
manager that lists every carrier that we have a credit to. Once I ran that report, I noticed Trinity
Logistics Group had nearly 200 carriers that it did business with. I exported the report to Excel

and sorted the spreadsheet by total loads in the last year and then by total revenue the carriers
had billed Trinity Logistics Group. It was astounding how much business we gave the carriers
and how little they gave to us. I brought this to my manager and asked him if we ever served as
a 3PL to these carriers that Trinity Logistics Group does business with. After doing some data
mining through Excel of the 2013 - 2014 annual revenue report, we noticed that we were giving
millions of dollars to these carriers and we were getting less than 1% revenue from them. I
suggested a plan that we get in contact with these carriers and see what they can offer Trinity
Logistics Group so we can start generating more external revenue, cutting back on deadhead
miles by taking loads from them, and utilizing Trinity Logistics Group as a 3PL. We both agreed
that this was vital in building carrier relationships with a scratch our back, scratch your back
mentality. This was brought to the President of Trinity Logistics Group and in February it was
put on the 2015 goals list that was sent to the department.

After I presented the first idea to utilize Trinity Logistics Group as a 3PL and build carrier
relations, I was curious as to how many loads per year Trinity Logistics Group was running.
Once the annual loads reports were ran from Report Manager and exported to Excel, I was able
to data mine through the spreadsheet and start finding problematic areas to improve on. This
included everything from internal/external revenue, total miles, empty miles, total billed miles,
destination city/state, origin city/state, line haul rate, fuel service charge, total revenue, gross
profit, net profit, commodity type, weight, assessorial charges, and if it was a LTL or FTL. The
first problem I noticed was Trinity Logistics Group deadheading trucks from Strathmore,
California to Navasota, Texas. The cost for deadheading is a flat rate of $2.00 per mile. When I
did a route mileage lookup in TMWSuite, the route was 1650 miles. Since this was included in
the total billed miles, Trinity Logistics Group was billing their business unit an additional $3,300
each load. This became a huge cost to Trinity Logistics Group by having a truck drop off a load
in Strathmore only to deadhead back to Texas with no freight. At 75 loads annually for this lane,
thats $247,500 additional cost per year. The more research I did on this lane, I noticed that the
commodity type was tiles. I set a radius of 100 miles from Strathmore, California to see if there
were any potential companies that had tiles that needed to be transported back east. I didnt limit
my state to just Texas, but anywhere in the Northeast for that is where majority of Trinity entities
have factories and plants. Once I saw in TMW the scheduled drop off date, I would contact a
dispatcher to find another available load for that driver to pick up. Not only did that generate
external revenue for Trinity Logistics Group but that also cut back on deadhead miles. This was
one of the ways I was able to optimize a route and create driver utilization.

Rate Adjustment Project

Each week, Report Manager sends out the previous weeks load count and lane. Included in this
report is what Trinity Logistics Group charged the business unit and what the rate we gave the
loads to carriers/brokers for. I asked my manager to add me to the Distribution List so I may
start receiving these and do a comparison to the DAT market rates of the lanes to what Trinity is

charging. The set standard for Gross Margin is 12.5%. After a few weeks, I noticed that there
were profit margins in the 20% - 30% and even some as low as 4% for the same lanes. When I
approached him about it, he said he had someone who was working on adjusting them. After the
2nd week of the same lanes and nothing had changed, I again approached him, with print outs
from the weeks previous to now, letting him know that nothing had changed. We went down to
the managers office and discussed if he needed any help adjusting the rates for the lanes and he
agreed that I could sit in and help. I gave the manager data from DAT letting him know that we
are giving away specific loads at a higher rate than the market but we arent changing the
suggested spin within TMWSuite. Doing this skews the Gross Margin when we charge the
business unit a higher rate and not account for the suggested spin adjustment. I then printed off
our top 50 lanes with the most loads of 2013 2014 and found the rates we are charging the
business unit and our carriers/brokers. Going into Excel and playing with the rates, I was able to
stabilize the top 5 lanes that Trinity Logistics Group has loads for. The following week, when
the report came out, the margins were substantially lower (down from 24% to 16%). There was
still room for improvement. Logistics is about penny pinching. How can a few pennies save the
company in the long term? A perfect example would be Granite City, IL to Eagle Pass, TX. This
rate is $1.85 line haul + $.34 fuel service charge. Granite City, IL to Eagle Pass, TX is the #1
lane for Trinity Logistics Group at 1634 loads annually. I proposed the idea of lowering the line
haul to $1.82 + $.34 fuel service change. The total miles per trip were 1085 miles. Before the
change, that lane was paying $2376.15 per load @ 1634 loads annually for a total annual cost of
$3,882,629.10. Dropping the line haul rate to $1.82 + $.34 adjusted the all-in rate to $2343.60,
which is only a $32.55 difference. $32.55 * 1634 load per year = $53186.70 in savings annually
for 1 lane. I was able to do this for their top 5 lanes with a total savings of over $173,000
annually.

Conclusion
The universe every day is witnessing unimaginable growth in majority of the industries. The
logistics and freight industry is one such industry that is rapidly growing. The trucking industry
is distinguished by fast technological advances and is growing more rapidly than most other
industries over the past years. With stiff competition around and 3PLs being added every day,
Trinity Logistics Group is likely to run into some profitability decreased. But, with proper
management of operations and by proper customer desired services also effectively utilizing, its
alliances can maintain and improve performance. The organization has enormous opportunities
to grow beyond the expectations. There are some areas where the company is not at the top-most
position but it can certainly gear up in the near future and is committed to acquire that spot. On
implementation of the above recommendations, the management can lead Trinity Logistics
Group to the top most position when bench marked in the coming years.

During my internship, I learned furthered my Excel skills by a great deal. Being able to run
queries, create pivot tables, and add formulas all in the name of cost savings. I was given the
opportunity to help bring Trinity Logistics Group to the 21st century by giving them cost savings

ideas and solutions, while at the same time building those much needed relationships to make
Trinity Logistics Group a 3PL. I learned how to navigate through TMWSuite, the transportation
management software, to analyze how to be able to give cost savings ideas on paper instead of
theory. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Trinity Logistics Group and I wish them the best of luck
in the years to come.