H&M Bay was established in 1982 by Walt Messick and Lawrence Hayman and has since become one of the nation’s premier LTL (less than truckload) brokerage firms. Following the deregulation of the trucking industry in the early 80s, the two founders recognized the unfulfilled demand in the frozen and refrigerated LTL market and formed a business with the tagline “service is what we sell…and we won’t see you short.” This vision holds strong today as almost four decades later, H&M Bay delivers excellence in service and operations, transporting 20 million pounds of food across America each week. H&M Bay is honored to repeatedly be recognized with leading industry awards, including being a Top 3PL Provider by Food Logistics for 13 consecutive years.
H&M Bay is a reliable cold & frozen transport partner who understands that there’s no room for error when it comes to perishables.
Practical knowledge, driven ambition, and dedication to exceptional customer service have led H&M Bay to become one of the top LTL brokerage firms in the country today. H&M Bay has remained a driving force of excellence from their very first load almost four decades ago to the impressive amount of cold and frozen food and commodities it currently transports each week. The organization is proud to provide logistics, cold storage, and temperature-controlled LTL delivery of goods through the food supply chain, focusing on customer satisfaction that is stronger than ever. The specializations include frozen and refrigerated LTL transportation for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors who rely on high-tech logistical expertise to deliver baked goods, dairy products, meat, seafood, prepared foods, and more.
H&M Bay is a reliable cold & frozen transport partner who understands that there’s no room for error when it comes to perishables. The organization invests in innovative tech along with an impressive independent trucker network, so with H&M Bay, the temperature is always right, from storage to delivery. H&M Bay strives to beat competitive pricing to win new business and have the opportunity to prove its operational excellence & superior service. Customers appreciate their industry award-winning logistics, as the technology of H&M Bay allows real-time communication, paired with warehouse consolidation expertise that maximizes timeliness and efficiencies into final delivery destinations. The nationwide storage facilities allow re-routing for temporary or long-term storage as needed.
H&M Bay’s state-of-the-art technology allows members of the supply chain to know where each load stands. The automated web-based systems, barcode technology, and intuitive mobile app provide the team, trucker network, and valued customers real-time data from the order through delivery. When a client starts working with H&M Bay, they partner with an industry-recognized leader with proven customer service and operating performance. The H&M Bay family sees it as their personal duty to stay well connected and provide superior service to every customer.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as many states have undergone unprecedented changes, many activities have reduced; so volume reductions and pick-up/delivery cancellations are happening due to safer-at-home orders and catering, event, and restaurant closures. H&M Bay is working in real-time with customers to re-route and store their refrigerated and frozen food until it can be rescheduled. The logistics team and drivers are working overtime helping food companies keep up with demand surges as consumers stockpile groceries and reduce trips to supermarkets. With truck stop closures and unforeseen obstacles for some drivers, the organization is helping everyone stay connected via their hi-tech customer portal and mobile app to navigate through these challenging times and pivot where needed successfully.
With an increased need for temporary storage space for commodities that have delayed scheduling. H&M Bay has been happy to offer overflow storage space across its 9 facilities nationwide to customers who lack space and have experienced inventory build-ups. The customers associated with H&M Bay are reinventing how commodities are packaged and delivered, from the intended foodservice packaging and deliveries to creative redirection for grocery warehouse redelivery. Last-minute cancellations require hi-tech communications and re-routing efficiencies.
Technology has enabled widespread growth in the trucking industry. From the invention of refrigeration and the first portable air-cooling unit allowing cold chain transport back in the 1930s to technical advances in corporate offices of trucking companies, to the very trucks themselves, technology is a critical part of today’s cold chain. Supply chain management software (SCMS) helps streamline operations with incredible efficiency. Trucks are equipped with smart technology to track temperatures for food safety, enhance communications, and provide geo-location data. Mobile apps offer instantaneous notifications across the chain, allowing information to be shared in the event of redeliveries, delays, road condition concerns, and confirmation of deliveries. There are growing technological advances that allow H&M Bay to offer superior service, security, and transparency to customers.
Through H&M Bay’s hi-tech systems, the customers enjoy real-time status reports on orders and delivery for LTL cross-dock information and a host of other valuable on-demand, web-based services, and data. Barcode technology and computerized dispatch allow automated identification and tracking of pallets in select storage and consolidation centers. The use of barcoding allows faster and more accurate tracking of pallets in cross-docking, reducing downtime and saving time and money. Since implementing barcode pallet tracking in July 2012, H&M Bay has significantly improved its receiving process without the need to wait for RFID readers to recognize the tag, or the dreaded manual data entry and downtime resulting from an inaccurate reading. Employees can scan these larger barcodes on the move from up to 45 feet away, making them easier to read than the previous RFID tags.
H&M Bay takes great pride in its national footprint with 9 locations across America. The LTL cold storage, consolidation centers, and pick-up areas provide regional pick-up and nationwide delivery. The organization intends to complete a rollout of the latest in barcoding technology across all facilities by the end of 2020. Superior customer service and hi-tech communications paired with competitive pricing and operational excellence, offer significant added value for customers’ temperature-controlled LTL shipments, storage, cross-dock, redeliveries, and unique or late requests. H&M Bay works with the mission to remain faithful to the connected roots of hard work and customer satisfaction as the organization continues to provide hi-tech logistical services through transporting over 20 million pounds of temperature-controlled LTL freight across America each week; when keeping it cold counts.
