The Dalton Highway begins in Fairbanks, Alaska, and travels north 414 miles to the Prudhoe Bay oil fields near the Arctic Ocean. It runs parallel to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which transports approximately 700,000 barrels of oil per day to the Valdez Marine Terminal.
There are only three small towns along the remote road, with more bears, caribou, and sheep than people. The road climbs up to 4,600 feet through the Atigun Pass of the Brooks mountain range. Since Prudhoe Bay is the largest oil field in North America, delivery of supplies on this road is continuous regardless of the weather.
During snow storms, high winds of 50-60 mph blow snow across the Dalton Highway, creating white-out conditions. With zero visibility, the road closes until the storms pass. While there can be snow in summer, the road conditions worsen during the winter. Despite the winter hazards, there are more trucks traveling on the highway during winter because the ground at the oil fields is only hard enough to support heavy equipment for construction projects during the winter months when the tundra hardens.
One of the logistics companies arranging delivery of supplies to Prudhoe Bay is StoneLand Global Logistics of Humble, Texas. The company was started by Rob Shannon in 2009. Their 18,000 square-foot warehouse is near the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, just north of Houston, with easy access to major highways such as the East-West Interstate Highway 10 and North-South Interstate Highway 45. These major expressways enable travel between all points in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
To coordinate all their shipments, they use the Magaya Supply Chain Solution. They chose the software not only because of its warehousing and shipping features but for its EDI capabilities. StoneLand uses the Magaya XML-API to receive purchase orders via EDI transactions from their customers.
“Your IT team has been phenomenal,” said Lisa Shannon, Vice President of Operations. “Your team worked with one of our major customers, a drilling company, who told Magaya exactly what they needed. When it was done, they just told us how to use it, and it has worked great ever since.”
The drilling company needed to send their purchase orders (PO) electronically to StoneLand Global. With the Magaya XML-API, other systems can integrate with the Magaya system and convert all the data. This reduces errors and speeds up processing by automating data input.
“When we receive the items at our warehouse, we check them against the PO,” Ms. Shannon explained. Then they convert the PO into a Warehouse Receipt in their Magaya software. “Previously we used spreadsheets, but this is faster,” she said.
They also add fees to the warehouse receipt for handling, documentation, and packaging. These charges are transferred into invoices by Magaya software.
StoneLand Global also builds custom crates and heavy-duty skids to transport project cargo and oversized deliveries. They track the raw materials that they need to build the skids by entering the items into their Magaya system and keep track of the costs. “I absolutely love the inventory part of the system,” Ms. Shannon said. “We have a customer that we build 15 different skids for. I can see how many we have built. I have the automated charges input so it works wonderfully.”
The majority of their business is ground shipments of oil supplies, but they also ship other commodities, including 50-foot beams, boxes of small screws, beer, all kinds of oil field equipment, flooring, and metal baskets.
They also shipped FEMA homes to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and spools of wire to cable the power lines after a huge ice storm knocked out power in the Northeast.
“We also ship via air, vessel, rail, or hot-shot – that’s a shipment that the customer says, ‘I need it now no matter what it takes to get it there.’ Our network of contacts enables us to meet that kind of emergency.”
“Most of our shipments are domestic within the US or to and from Canada and Mexico. We don’t dabble in areas where I can’t give that customer 100%,” she said.
Although there are very large corporations in the same commerce park as StoneLand Global, they compete with them on the basis of the quality customer service.
“Customer retention and customer service is huge. Anybody can move freight, but why do they choose us – for our customer service,” Ms. Shannon said. “We keep in contact with our customers so they don’t feel like a number. I don’t want a customer to call me and ask, ‘Where’s my truck?’ I want to be the one to call them to tell them if there is a delay. We live by the motto, ‘It’s never our fault, but it is always our problem.’ We don’t call them just to tell them about a problem but to offer a solution.”
The slogan on their company website is “Local Services, Global Presence”. Talking about the company, Ms. Shannon praised her employees. “We have a staff of seven people who are competent and knowledgeable.” She said she loves getting on the radio to talk to the truckers. “I enjoy what I do, and the Magaya system has made it a lot easier.”
