What's New at New Penn

Take two aspirin and call New Penn

American Trucking Association Chief Economist Bob Costello says the trucking recovery is in full swing, citing solid freight volumes, tightening capacity and signs of a driver shortage waiting in the wings.

Juxtapose that scenario to the practices of many shippers who are trying hard to not tie up cash. Their efforts to sharply reduce SKUs and employ "just-past-time" inventory management strategies in an environment of tightening capacity can cause headaches for today's supply chain mangers.

"Today, supply chain success often means moving shipments faster," says Steve Gast, New Penn president. "Many of our customers don't want to sit on excess inventory, so they order when they need the products. Whether they're shipping a pallet or a truckload, they need it now."

In the Northeast, New Penn Garanteed delivery services provide the perfect solution. With five levels of service, you can receive shipments in the morning, process them that day and have them ready for outbound shipping the next day. And with New Penn, you experience the peace of mind that comes with our priority handling and no-hassle guarantee.

Simply choose your guaranteed delivery time:

• By 9 a.m. for when you need delivery first thing in the morning
• By noon for morning delivery needs
• By 3:30 p.m. for day-definite delivery that's not too late for you or your customers
• Precise Window Delivery: One Hour, but Less Than Two Hours for your most time-critical needs
• Precise Window Delivery: Two Hours or More for flexible precision

To find out more, go to newpenn.com or call 1-800-285-5000.

New Penn state champions move on to nationals

We're excited to announce that three New Penn drivers—Will Chrvala,Reading, Pa. (4-Axle class); Rich Gagnon, Providence, R.I. (5-Axle class); and Rich Walton, Camp Hill, Pa. (Twin Trailers class)—beat out the competition to place first in their state driving competitions.

This earns them the right to move on to the 2010 National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC) from Aug. 3–7 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.

To participate in state-level competitions, drivers must be accident-free for the 12 months leading up to the event. At the state events, drivers are challenged with maneuvering tests on a driving course, a pre-trip inspection, a written exam on vehicle operation and federal safety regulations and an oral test.

Only drivers that place first in class at the state level progress to the national championships. There, our drivers will compete against 400 others for national titles in eight different classes of vehicles and for the overall title of National Grand Champion.

"While competing is exciting and fun, the truck driving championships are really all about safety, and we take that seriously," says Steve Gast, New Penn president. "We're very proud that out of the hundreds who competed at the state level, New Penn is sending three drivers to Columbus this year. And when you consider the roadways and congestion our drivers typically face in their daily jobs, I think they are well prepared to excel on the national stage." Get the latest on our NTDC results/info online.

Return to Top

Points on Performance

Tracking a Moving Target

As the leader in next-day service in the region, things move pretty fast at New Penn. And when those things include a shipment your customer is desperate to receive, it is good to know you can provide real-time delivery status updates.

The key is the handheld onboard computers that each of our New Penn drivers carries. Unlike nearly all other transportation providers in the region, we use bar-code scanning technology, mobile wireless data communications and our website to provide status updates within 10 seconds at nine key points while a shipment is in our network:

• Pickup completed
• At origin service center
• In transit between service centers
• At destination service center
• Delivery appointment scheduled
• Out for delivery from the destination service center
• Enroute to the delivery address
• Now being delivered with arrival of the driver
• Delivery completed

With accurate and timely shipment information, including automatic delivery notification to your desktop, you can better manage your shipping processes and provide additional value to your customers.

YRC Worldwide, parent company to New Penn, is a CIO magazine 2010 CIO 100 Award recipient and understands the value technology can make in creating an exceptional customer experience. New Penn benefits from this outlook. "We know that by accelerating our business leadership through technology leadership we can better deliver on our commitment to customers," says Steve Kerbis, vice president of technology and engineering.

To add the value of up-to-the-minute shipment status to your transportation activities, schedule your next shipment with New Penn. Go to www.newpenn.com/ or call 1-800-285-5000.

Return to Top

News/Other Services

Preventing the three Ds: damages, dissatisfaction and delays

The words of the Dutch humanist, Desiderius Erasmus, ring true, "Prevention is better than cure." Following this philosophy is one reason New Penn has a cargo claim ratio that's less than half the industry average.

With New Penn, you can feel confident that your shipments will arrive intact and on time. That means:

• Less customer dissatisfaction
• Fewer production delays
• Less rework
• Less costly clerical involvement to reconcile damages
• Fewer adverse engagements between your customer and its clients

How do we do it? 

All our employees take pride in responsible LTL shipping. We make safety a priority. We look proactively for ways to reduce risks. And we invest in safety training, information technology, and modern equipment to ensure shipments arrive on time and damage-free. 

We also measure. Our Quality Freight Handling Index assesses delivery defects with a focus on eliminating them. By eliminating the defects, we also eliminate cargo claims and improve the quality of our service. Ask your account manager for a Quality Freight Handling Report.

To ship with the industry leader in claim-free shipping and a recipient of the highest safety rating from the Department of Transportation, go to newpenn.com or call 1-800-285-5000.

Delivering an exceptional customer experience

"When customers call customer service, they need something . . . a pickup, shipment tracing, an answer about their billing . . . our job is to give them one less thing to worry about during their day," says Linda Swanger, corporate customer service representative.

Handling 60 to 80 customer calls is just part of a day's work for New Penn customer service representatives. Taking ownership for each caller's shipping needs and being empowered to satisfy those needs is part of the New Penn culture.

Joining the New Penn bookkeeping department at the tender age of 19, and moving into customer service 17 years ago, Linda speaks from experience, "I think our customer service is a step above. Our customers seem very impressed when we take the extra steps to make what needs to happen, happen.

"Oftentimes when a customer calls us, it's not about making them happy with our New Penn service," adds Linda. "What the customer really wants is for their customers to be pleased with their service. In that way, it's like we're an extension of our customers' customer service department."

"We know that we have the responsibility to satisfy the needs of our customers, and we work together with others throughout the company to get the job done. Within customer service, we know we can rely on each other for backup, so that customers are taken care of. We're very customer-service oriented at New Penn."

"I've worked with Linda for 13 years, and she epitomizes the concept of owning each customer's call," says Ken Carpenter, senior director of Administration. "And that's part of the culture at New Penn: Do the right thing for customers. It's a culture that breeds itself, and Linda's actions are part of that process."

Linda is just one example of the people and service that keep customers coming back to New Penn. Experience New Penn service for yourself—schedule your next shipment at newpenn.com or call 1-800-285-5000.

Return to Top

A place New Penn calls home

A place New Penn calls home: Lebanon, Pa.

Ever since 1931 when Henry Arnold and Cloyd Erdley started New Pennsylvania Fast Motor Express, we've called Lebanon home. Recognized as the second-least-stressful city in the United States, we're proud of our city's low crime, low divorce rates, short average commute times, strong work ethic and skilled work force.

Take a stroll through our numerous city parks, including the beautiful Coleman Memorial Park, which includes the "North Lebanon Furnaces," dating back to 1847 and 1848. And for fishing, camping, and wildlife, Stoever's Dam Park is the place to go.

Step outside the city limits of Lebanon and enjoy the beautiful countryside of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Drive the Dutch Country Roads; you'll find all the photo ops you could hope for and more.

Lebanon is near the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Lancaster County, where horse-drawn buggies, covered bridges and windmills are frequent sights. Visit on a spring Saturday, and you may catch a "mud" sale, named for the thawing ground, and its auction of quilts, crafts, furniture, baked goods and more.

We're just 11 miles from our sweet neighbor, the town of Hershey where visitors enjoy everything from a chocolate spa treatment to the rollercoaster rides of Hersheypark and the water slides of the Boardwalk. You might even find a chocolate treat or two in town!

We're also only 25 miles to the state capitol, Harrisburg. In addition to the grand capitol building, the city offers scenic views of the Susquehanna River valley, the emotionally moving National Civil War Museum, the historic mansion of Simon Cameron, President Lincoln's secretary of War, and the diverse and tasty offerings of the Broad Street Market (the oldest continuously operated market house in the United States).

New Penn knows Lebanon, and shippers know they can count on New Penn, the leader in next-day service. To schedule a pickup, go to newpenn.com or call 1-800-285-5000.

Return to Top

Industry News

Motor carrier tracking information may guide infrastructure planning

Data collected by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration helps identify road congestion, information that can be useful to federal, state and local governments making spending decisions. In the ATRI's recently released 2009 Bottleneck Analysis, Chicago's I-290 interchange with I-90 and I-94 was identified as the worst bottleneck in the country.

U.S. goal to double exports generates nation-specific plans

President Obama's five-year plan to double exports has led to commercial engagement strategies for Brazil, India, China, Vietnam, South Africa and other nations, according to Francisco Sanchez, undersecretary for international trade at the Commerce Department. Sanchez says the Commerce Department has plans to work with companies that are new to exporting and expand the focus of those already selling abroad.

Durable goods orders up in May

Excluding transportation equipment, durable goods orders and shipments rose 0.9 percent during May, suggesting continuing recovery for core manufacturing.

Return to Top