CHERRY HILL, N.J., 08/22/2017 - NFI, a leading supply chain solutions provider, has announced a partnership with Wreaths Across America (WAA), a non-profit whose mission - Remember, Honor, Teach - is carried out in part each December with the placement of veterans' wreaths on every marker at Arlington National Cemetery, and at more than 1,300 military cemeteries nationwide. Through its brokerage service, NFI will manage the transportation of more than 1.6 million wreaths to be laid on the headstones of United States veterans.
"With NFI managing the logistics, the sky is the limit. They will help make the entire operation more efficient," said Debbie Sparks, Director Corporate Development and Community Relations, Wreaths Across America. "This relationship is going to enable us to grow exponentially to meet [our founder] Morrill Worcester's vision to one day place a wreath on every veteran's headstone."
NFI will be managing carrier onboarding, load confirmations, distributing final bills of lading, tracking deliveries, and managing deliveries to the ceremony locations.
"The partnership with Wreaths Across America combines NFI's purpose driven culture with its industry expertise in a way that honors those who have served and protected our country," said David Broering, NFI's Senior Vice President of Integrated Solutions. "Veterans and their families connect to every aspect of NFI's business and as a supporter and employer of veterans, we are grateful for the opportunity to give back through one of NFI's supply chain offerings."
NFI's management of the transportation will be completed with the support of FourKites, a supply chain visibility platform that tracks shipments, which helps NFI proactively manages exceptions. This will give volunteers and communities precise information on the arrival of the wreaths.
"We're honored to be tracking the truckloads of wreaths with NFI as they move across the country, providing GPS updates and automated alerts every 15 minutes so that communities and volunteers know precisely when each convoy will arrive," said Matt Elenjickal, CEO and Co-founder of FourKites. "We're also excited to have the opportunity to share real-time convoy location updates with the world through a tracking website that will be available to the public."
NFI's brokerage and transportation management operations have grown exponentially, providing diverse, multi-modal capabilities to companies in industries such as retail, food, beverage, apparel, and consumer packaged goods. With a hands-on customer service approach and a carrier of base of more than 25,000, NFI provides consistent capacity and reliable service to its customers and carriers. NFI's suite of supply chain solutions also includes dedicated transportation, warehousing, intermodal, global logistics, and commercial real estate.
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About NFI -- NFI is a fully integrated supply chain solutions provider headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. Privately held by the Brown family since its inception in 1932, NFI generates more than $1.3 billion in annual revenue and employs more than 8,400 associates. NFI owns facilities globally and operates more than 33.5 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space. Its company-owned fleet consists of over 2,400 tractors and 8,300 trailers, operated by more than 2,600 company drivers and 325 owner operators. Its business lines include dedicated transportation, warehousing, intermodal, brokerage, transportation management, global logistics, and real estate services. For more information about NFI, visit www.nfiindustries.com or call 1-877-NFI-3777.
About Wreaths Across America -- Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization's mission - Remember, Honor, Teach - is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at more than 1,300 veterans' cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond. For more information or to sponsor a wreath please visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.
About FourKites -- FourKites is the real-time supply chain visibility platform that Fortune 500 companies and 3PLs trust to track shipments and proactively manage exceptions. Using a proprietary predictive algorithm to calculate shipment arrival times, FourKites enables customers to lower their operating costs, improve on-time performance, and strengthen their end-customer relationships. Using FourKites, blue-chip shippers and 3PLs can share the same, real-time shipping location and status information from more than four million GPS/ELD devices. FourKites tracks and consolidates data across modes - including ocean, rail, parcel, and over-the-road (OTR), with both truckload (TL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) - into a unified platform with complete enterprise functionality.
