CTSI and KDL Join Forces to Provide a Combined Array of Services

Business Wire, June 20, 2002

Business Editors/Shipping & Logistics Writers

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 2002

A new strategic alliance between Continental Traffic Service Inc. (CTSI) and Keystone Dedicated Logistics (KDL) has been announced by Ken Hazen President of Continental Traffic Service, Inc., and Don Varshine, President, Keystone Dedicated Logistics, and will result in unsurpassed information services in the realm of transportation and shipping data management.

This alliance will permit Memphis based CTSI to significantly boost what it offers shippers. CTSI is a freight bill auditing, payment and information company which has grown into every facet of data retrieval for its client-shippers.

Ken Hazen, president and CEO of CTSI, says that this will allow the two to introduce a complete logistics program supported by innovative transportation management and software systems. That amounts to a stronger suit in the freight payment/information industry as a full service logistics provider.

These combined systems will allow clients to create shipping documents, select the lowest cost carrier structure within selected routing guides - in effect tailoring shipping lanes and carrier charges to shippers' needs.

Management reports will be available to help the customers measure and control their total logistics costs and decision-making according to product, carrier, shipping lane, mode, time urgency, origins and destinations.

Through a web-based system, clients will be able to initiate and create their own transportation reports so they can monitor and control these costs.

Keystone is a full service logistics provider based in Pittsburgh which provides services in truckload and LTL transportation within and between U.S., Canada and Mexico, including international operations, warehousing and supply chain management. "This new venture with CTSI will provide dramatic expansion in the logistics business for both companies in the years ahead," says Don Varshine, president of KDL.

Their joint mission is to provide expanded services in all areas of logistics to both firms' account bases. Services offered will include rate negotiations, inbound and outbound freight management, management routing guides, tracing, shipper routing compliance audit, integrating software with shippers' own information systems and freight bill pre-audit and payment.

Rather than automatically recommending programs for clients, the two companies analyze past, present and potential logistics programs of their clients to ensure efficiency, improvements and cost savings.

CTSI and Keystone are counting on their longevity and reputation in the business as well as extensive databases to carry a real competitive edge. That's because manufacturers have an ongoing demand to be able to track their cost of shipping as a percentage of sales and allocating to respective divisions.

For many of the companies they represent, the duo serves as their IT department, offering layers of data allowing their clients use of the information according to their own specific needs.

Drawing from comprehensive information updates on transportation providers along various transport modes, CTSI's on-line service can build models with "what if" scenarios, giving clients insight into options of relocating distribution centers setting up new shipping lanes, cost savings through pool distribution or load consolidation transportation.

"The applications are many for our customers," Hazen says. "They go on line to use our analytical tools to help them determine the least-cost carriers across all modes of transportation, tracks thousands of shipments at the 50,000 foot level or drill down to isolate and check one shipment by customer or destination," he added.

"We're taking giant steps together with these advanced internet tools in areas of data analysis, online rating modeling and archival reporting," Hazen says.

In summary, the alliance will provide the following:

-- Improved bottom line results for clients without incurring additional major
capital costs

-- Reduction of overall logistics costs in transportation, distribution and
warehousing

-- Improved customer service levels while streamlining distribution networks

-- Improved cashflow, return on investment and return on assets while achieving
greater financial flexibility in the process

-- Combined professional logistics experience

-- Improved product flow that reduces order cycle time

For more information, visit the Continental Traffic Service, Inc. website at www.continental-traffic.com.