Cory Teams with Demountable Concepts, Penske Truck

June 16, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Delivery on June 2008 Cory Home Delivery Service, Secaucus, N.J., has formed a strategic three-way partnership with Demountable Concepts Inc., Glassboro, N.J., and Penske Truck Leasing, Reading, Pa., designed to streamline deliveries and storage for furniture retailers.

The essentials of the “Warehouse on Wheels” delivery system are two pieces of equipment: a convertible base frame equipped with legs that fold underneath for truck body transport and unfold during free-standing storage, and a chassis-lift system installed onto preexisting or new 26-foot “swap” body trucks.

“The Internet and manufacturing abroad are rendering traditional business models obsolete,” said Joseph Cory Jr., vice president of marketing for Cory Home Delivery Service. “Products that cannot be easily returned must arrive from central locations damage-free, and customers are no longer willing to wait six weeks for delivery. Demountable service is a fascinating concept utilizing interchangeable truck body systems that empowers retailers to expand delivery area, increase profitability, decrease costs and improve efficiency.”

Cory said the demountable concepts seamlessly combines premier delivery service by Cory with engineered fleet equipment by Demountable Concepts and trucks provided and maintained by Penske Truck Leasing without the retailer spending unnecessary capital to open remote cross-docks or purchase new tractors or delivery trucks.

“For retailers today, operational challenges can be daunting. For those with locations hundreds of miles apart, it can be even more so. The demountable system, which expands the radius for efficient regional delivery from 100 to 300 miles, is a boon for stores in cities nationwide serving outlying areas,” Cory said.

He cited the new high-end Younkers Furniture Gallery in Green Bay, Wis., opened recently by the Bon-Ton Stores and serviced by a distribution center 225 miles away in Naperville, Ill., as a case in point.

A cross-dock operation was out of the question because of the extra handling and the potential for damage. Every piece must be removed from packaging, inspected and “deluxed” prior to shipping. Moreover, capitalizing on the Illinois warehouse and inventory to service the outlying store was a must.

For Bon-Ton, the process begins with two bodies that are loaded at Naperville with furniture and transported overnight on a semi-trailer to Green Bay. There they are demounted or taken off the semi and left free-standing on their own support system in the local Penske Truck Leasing yard, and the semi returns to Naperville with empty bodies from the previous day—to come back fully loaded again the next evening. First thing next morning, local driver teams quickly mount the free-standing bodies to 26-foot straight-body trucks and proceed with deliveries.

With the ability to load two truck bodies standing one in front of the other at once to increase warehouse efficiency and dock door availability, the demountable system eliminates double product handling and the need to use hard-to-come-by Class A CDL drivers. Local drivers spend their time delivering product instead of loading trucks and operate in areas they are familiar with.