A.N. DERINGER
HQ: St. Albans, Vermont
anderinger.com | Global

A.N. Deringer prides itself on its accessibility to its customers, something it accomplishes through its more than 30 customer service centers open seven days a week. “Deringer positions its customers’ inventory strategically for the quickest distribution,” says President and CEO Jake Holzscheiter, “either from our distribution centers or theirs.” A transparent approach works when you’ve made a good name for yourself in customs, offering services such as Surety Bonds, eManifest, Importer Security Filings as well as U.S. and Canadian Customs Brokerage. The company also has core offerings in freight forwarding and distribution. Founded in 1919, Deringer has used the straightforward approach to weather depressions and downturns and always comes back stronger.

AIT WORLDWIDE LOGISTICS
HQ: Itasca, Illinois
aitworldwide.com | Global

AIT has more than 50 offices worldwide and nearly 1,000 employees who have not only distinguished themselves in a broad spectrum of fields including perishables, life sciences, government and retail, but for working in those fields with an exceptional amount of creativity. Consider that for the recent U.S. Swim Trials to determine Olympic representatives, it was AIT that had to figure out a way to get 140,000 pounds of dismantled practice pool from Orlando to Omaha. Utilizing 11 trailers, AIT not only delivered the pool but also did so several days early. USA! USA!

CJ KOREA EXPRESS
HQ: Seoul, Korea
cjkoreaexpress.co.kr | Global

Some companies would be happy being South Korea’s largest cargo delivery enterprise, transporting more than 20 million packages daily to 100 countries, but not CJ Korea. The company announced its intention to become a top five logistics company by 2020 by expanding its reach and services through mergers, acquisition and strategic partnerships. It expanded its presence in China by taking over Rokin Logistics, which operates 48 terminals and 22 distribution centers for frozen food and chemical distribution throughout the country. Company officials are also looking to expand their presence in the global cargo delivery market—everything from nuclear to desalination plants—by pursuing additional deals.

DAMCO
HQ: Copehagen, Denmark
damco.com | Global

Damco offers a diverse set of services at more than 300 locations in more than 100 countries and recently unveiled its new Supply Chain Orchestrator program, a tower control solution enabling customers to improve overall supply chain performance by providing a single coordination point while integrating, validating and distributing data across supply chain partners. “We call it Supply Chain Orchestrator because organizations can orchestrate all the separate supply chain actions in real time from one platform,” says Damco’s Product Development Manager Neil Wheeldon. “Companies can realize significant savings in supply chain and inventory costs, improve service levels and engage suppliers in a more collaborative way.”

KUEHNE + NAGEL
HQ: Feusisberg, Switzerland
kuehne-nagel.com | Global

Kuehne + Nagel is the world’s leading ocean freight forwarder, ranks in the top five for airfreight and, through a 2013 merger with VTG, became Europe’s largest private rail freight business. With more than 1,000 offices in 100-plus countries, the company has continually expanded its business offerings. This year that meant opening Singapore Logistics Hub, or as it’s known in the company, “Centre of Excellence,” as part of regional expansion plans supporting its fast growing supply chain clientele in the region. Dr. Detlef Trefzger, K+N’s CEO, says the center will “allow us to work alongside our customers and partners in developing technologies and business strategies that are pragmatic and enhance supply chain efficiencies.”

MATSON LOGISTICS
HQ: Honolulu, Hawaii
matson.com | Global

Matson has been built on offering a network of ocean services that support a supply chain from China to virtually any point in North America. That chain is going to get faster. The company announced it’s expanding its less-than-container-load capabilities by offering direct fast transit from China to the New York and New Jersey markets. The service is based on Matson’s industry-leading China-Long Beach Express service that offers the fastest transit times in the Transpacific trade zone. “Matson created an alternative to costly air freight to the West Coast and now we are bringing expedited service to the important New York metro market,” says Jeffrey Ivinski, Matson’s director of Sales and Marketing. “To compete with air freight we not only have to be fast but also extremely reliable.”

TRANSGROUP WORLDWIDE LOGISTICS
HQ: Seattle, Washington
transgroup.com | Global

Folks at TransGroup like to say their company was built on a simple premise: to be the future of transport logistics—though no one said simple would be easy. The company has chased its mission by creating easy-to-use tools that can be tailored to meet each client’s needs while offering a balanced, cross-discipline of domestic and international warehouse distribution services that allow it to be a single-source logistics provider to a broad swath of industries. Consider that the company has 19 separate Specific Requirement Transportation (SRT) divisions ranging from TransAutomotive to TransTactical (military) to TransPharma to TransGolf, TransFurniture and TransFilm.

TRANSPORTATION INSIGHT
HQ: Hickory, North Carolina
transportationinsight.com | North America

In less than 20 years, Transportation Insight has grown from being a provider of domestic LTL transportation to a leading 3PL provider with a supply chain spend approaching $5 billion. This year it further improved its menu of services by acquiring BirdDog Solutions, a highly regarded provider of parcel logistics solutions. The acquisition widens Transportation Insight’s already proven small-package service to a more robust skillset that includes parcel logistics optimization, parcel auditing and advanced parcel analytics. “Integrating BirdDog Solutions with Transportation Insight brings our clients more expertise, tools and technology,” says Chris Baltz, Transportation Insight president and CEO.

WSI
HQ: Appleton , Wisconsin
wsinc.com | North America

Versatility connotes having a good deal of flexibility. WSI has that when it comes to the services it offers—warehousing, distribution, transportation, custom packaging and fulfillment services—to its clients in industries such as paper, building materials, chemical and consumer packaged goods. But it is not flexible when it comes to its word: “Honesty” is listed as its first and guiding principle of its business philosophy, even when it isn’t exactly what a customer wants to hear. When one client asked for a comprehensive study of its facility and distribution system, WSI came back with some hard truths that included streamlining personnel and moving to a new facility. “We were the only company that gave a true look at their entire situation,” says WSI Transportation Manager Randy Pichette.

XPO LOGISTICS
HQ: Greenwich, Connecticutt
xpo.com | Global

It’s clear the folks at XPO believe there is strength in numbers—and sometimes those numbers are in the billions. The company has built itself through acquisition into a global giant with a wide range of services. When it acquired National Logistics Management and Pacer International in a three-month span in 2013 and 2014, XPO became the largest manager of expedited shipments in North America and the continent’s third-largest intermodal provider. Its acquisition of Norbert Dentressangle made XPO the world’s second largest contract logistics provider, and its purchase of Con-Way made it the second largest LTL carrier in North America. It worked: By June of this year, XPO had become a member of the Fortune 500 for the first time.