Result 30% faster cycle times. 3 commodities handled simultaneously. Zero product loss.
A logistics provider operating a distribution hub in the Southwest was running three separate rail-to-truck transloading streams — liquid chemicals, dry bulk agricultural product, and packaged goods — through a facility that had been set up to handle one commodity type at a time.
The result was sequential bottlenecks. When one stream backed up, the whole facility slowed. Truck detention costs were climbing, rail car dwell times were exceeding Class I free time windows, and the customer's distribution commitments were starting to slip.
They needed the three streams to run concurrently without cross-contamination risk and without adding significant headcount.
CRMS conducted a facility assessment and redesigned the transloading workflow to support three simultaneous streams. This involved reconfiguring the unloading sequence, adding dedicated staging lanes for each commodity type, and deploying specialized equipment to handle the liquid and dry bulk streams in parallel rather than in series.
Our team managed the full transloading operation — coordinating rail car spotting, product transfer, truck scheduling, and documentation for all three streams. A dedicated CRMS supervisor on-site maintained the sequence and caught potential cross-contamination risks before they became incidents.
Within 60 days of the new workflow going live, average cycle times had dropped by 30% and truck detention events had dropped to near zero.
"We were leaving money on the table every time one stream backed up the other two. CRMS looked at the whole picture and fixed the system, not just the symptom."
