Firm connects shipping, receiving businesses

Semitrailers make up much of the nation's supply lifelines, and Pflugerville-based Tandem Logistics plays an integral role in getting the products semis carry to the consumer, said Brian Lasher, the company's vice president of sales. Tandem Logistics, housed in a 4,000-square-foot office building on A.W. Grimes Boulevard is a third-party logistics company and freight brokerage firm. The company is the middleman between shippers—the company that manufactures or harvests a product—and the receiver—the company that eventually sells the product to the consumer. "We don't own the trucks, the trains or the planes," said Phil Sneed, Tandem Logistics founder and president. "Our customers are shippers and manufacturers, and we are the intermediary between them and the receivers. We hire or—actually—subcontract motor carriers to transport goods." Sneed said the shipping industry is fragmented because of its complexity. "There are tens of thousands of motor carriers in Texas and hundreds of thousands of manufacturers," Sneed said. "As an intermediary we bring the two together." There are thousands of third-party logistics firms throughout the United States doing the same thing Tandem Logistics does, Lasher said. To have a competitive edge, Tandem Logistics must develop relationships with independent carriers as well as shippers because they work hand in hand. "If we have a bunch of shippers, but don't have any trucks then we are not moving their freight," Lasher said. "Conversely, if we have a bunch of trucks but no shippers then we aren't moving freight." Tandem Logistics operates mostly in Texas, which is a big enough market in its own right, Lasher said. "It starts here and ends here, so we feel like we have a little more control over the situation," Lasher said. "We can actually meet and have a relationship with our carrier-partners." Tandem Logistics has a list of core carriers that it uses on a constant basis. "It's an 80-20 rule—80 percent of our freight is trucked by 20 percent of our carriers," Lasher said. "We rely on those guys to run constant lanes for us. Some of our loads need to be carried in an expedited basis, so we have to negotiate a rate for that urgency. Almost every load is a negotiation." Tandem Logistics focuses on being "shipper-centric" to bring about solutions for the motor carriers with whom they work and to build and maintain relationships with their receivers, Sneed said. "We work with the truckers and make sure they have all they need to pick up a load and deliver it on time," Sneed said. "We want to keep our carriers captive within our network. We try to keep our carriers in an established geographical area, we pay them on time and we have technology to make their work and their world simpler." Sneed said he worked in the shipping business and started Tandem Logistics out of a home office in Round Rock in 1998. The company has grown to 22 employees and acts as the middleman for more than 16,000 truckloads of freight each year. "I always tell my friends that in this job I move the world," Lasher said. "Everything you see and buy has been on a truck at some point in the supply chain. The industry that we are in is endless and impacts everybody." 2911 S. A.W. Grimes Blvd., Ste. 400, Pflugerville, 512-388-9433, www.tandemlogistics.com