Subject: webmodal
please read the following message from dan reck regarding webmodal . thank
you .
- - - - - forwarded by cathy phillips / hou / ect on 02 / 14 / 2001 07 : 25 am - - - - -
daniel reck
02 / 13 / 2001 01 : 48 pm
to : cathy phillips / hou / ect @ ect
cc :
subject : webmodal
at monday ' s egm meeting , mike mcconnell asked me to describe the webmodal
acquisition egm made last week . following is a brief description of the
freight capacity market and what webmodal gets us :
market
the us market for logistics is $ 600 bn annually . we are pursuing the largest
homogenous segment which is long - haul truckload and intermodal . that market
is $ 50 - $ 100 bn annually , depending on who you ask and whether you include
dedicated fleets .
the interesting thing about these markets is that they are extremely
fragmented and massively intermediated . there are over 100 , 000 trucking
companies ( carriers ) in the us and thousands of independent brokers ( brokers
in this market act as credit principals ) . 10 - 20 % of all loads are conducted
in the spot market ( brokered ) and the rest are done under 1 - 3 year contracts
that are generally non - firm , but define the relationship between each shipper
and their chosen carriers or intermediaries .
on the rail side , the us railroads act as wholesalers , selling their capacity
to intermodal marketing companies ( imcs ) . the imcs then retail or broker out
that capacity to shippers . the difficult part of ground intermodal is that
the rail haul makes up only the long - haul component . the trip from the
origin warehouse to the origin rail yard and then the delivery from the
destination rail yard to the destination warehouse has to be done by truck .
this first and last mile transportation is called " drayage " .
webmodal
webmodal developed a system to price and schedule intermodal moves so they
look identical to truck . they have a database with prices and schedules from
all the rrs and 48 drayage companies that gives them complete us coverage . a
buyer can type in their scheduling and equipment requirements and receive
instantaneous quotes for zipcode to zipcode service .
because of the inherently different cost and performance structures of rail
and truck , the pricing differences between the two modes of transportation is
significant . for any move greater than 500 miles , intermodal is generally
20 - 30 % less expensive than a single driver truck move . the substitutability
of intermodal and truckload should allow us to trade the spread in price .
the webmodal acquisition gets us a team with tremendous industry expertise
and a good head start as we enter this market . the next move will be to
build a truck intermediation capability .
i encourage you to meet chris kravas the ceo of webmodal . he will be
spending all of his time in houston when he is not on the road .
please give me a call if you have any questions .
thanks ,
dan reck