Pat Gallagher / The Valdosta Daily Times Danny Helmes, Director of Sales and Paul Everett, President of yourfreightrate.com is a "one site for all your shipping needs" web page for companys with small to large shipping local to national and national to international.

VALDOSTA — Outsource Logistics, a Valdosta-based logistics warehousing and distribution company, is drawing attention to the area as a potential relocation site for business through a new online business of its own.

Similar to online travel services like Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz or Expedia.com, Outsource Logistics’ creation of YourFreightRate.com (www.yourfreightrate.com) is drawing business from California to New Jersey, from Miami to the Midwest.

And it is attracting the attention of many companies across the nation that had never heard of Valdosta, but now are learning that Valdosta is a key one-day distribution hub for the Southeast region.

The online service provides companies one-stop shopping for competitive shipping rates from regional and national freight carriers, just as a Travelocity does for airline prices or Orbitz does for hotel rooms.

YourFreightRate.com is a subsidiary of Outsource Logistics, and couples nicely with the base company’s specialty services in warehousing, distribution, transportation management and services for clients nationwide, dedicated trucking, fulfillment, contract trucking and freight consulting.

Outsource Logistics has an 80,000-square-foot warehouse in Perimeter East Industrial Park, another 240,000 square feet leased in Valdosta off site, and 860,000 square feet of warehouse space leased in Albany. It’s been in operation in Valdosta since 1999 and can handle temporary shipments and storage of single tractor trailer loads of 44,000 pounds up to dedicated management of an entire facility for Fortune 500 companies.

A diverse customer base of companies that manufactures everything from tractor lawnmowers to chemicals store their goods temporarily at Outsource Logistics warehouses for shipment to customers across the Southeast.

The Valdosta advantage is its one-day distribution location to the Southeast — the same advantage realized by Lowes and Dillards — companies that have located huge regional distribution centers here.

Since its founders Paul Everett, Lee Smith and Danny Helms launched the Web site in January, Internet business has grown to the point that Outsource Logistics had to double customer service representatives dedicated to serving YourFreightRate.com clients, from four to eight.

YourFreightRate.com has more than 250 companies as customers. Some are local, and the rest are located across the country.

“It’s exciting to us. We have no idea how big it could be,” said Helms, who is director of sales for Outsource Logistics. “That’s a lot of growth in four months. We just found out from our Webmaster in Houston that our computer system has to be upgraded because of the amount of traffic coming in here. But that’s a good thing.”

The customer growth at YourFreightRate.com has swelled so fast that its founders had to slow down Internet advertising for the online business so the workload wouldn’t overwhelm current staffing, said Everett, who is president and co-owner of Outsource Logistics.

“It’s growing like crazy,” Everett said. “This thing has grown at a rate that surprised us in a way, but not really. We knew the potential was there. We’re still spending very little on Internet advertising. We could grow the Internet business exponentially if we wanted to.”

Coupling YourFreightRate.com with the base company business should enable Outsource Logistics to meet its goal to become a $25 million company, said Lee Smith, co-owner of Outsource Logistics.

“The most surprising thing that’s happened since we launched the online business is how we can advertise on the Internet and have customers sign-up and use the system before we even contact them,” Smith said.

The huge savings that YourFreightRate.com customers can realize as a result of its founders’ expertise in the shipping business, combined with their negotiation skills realized from that experience are causing the word to spread fast across the nation about this new option for cutting shipping costs, the founders said.

“It’s so easy and convenient. Say a guy has a 1,000-pound shipment on his dock and needs to get it to New York,” Everett explained. “Go to the Web site, input the parameters of your shipment, shop for a carrier to handle it, look at price quotes, and book the shipment right there. It is a one-stop shop for all your shipping needs. You can track all of your shipments from one Web site. It’s absolutely free to use.”

The founders make a profit off the selected shipment price by adding a slight markup, but the freight rates are so competitive, and the convenience of one stop shopping is so beneficial to the individual business that a few customers have even said that even if they booked a higher than normal market price, it would still be better than trying to book a carrier by jumping from carrier to carrier, they said.

Now international customers are using the service, booking shipments of goods into the country through ports like Miami or Jacksonville. “It’s air freight flown in by plane or container freight shipped in by boat,” Helms said.

Most international customers are from South America, Central America or Canada. And now people from Canada to New Jersey are learning how to spell V-A-L-D-O-S-T-A, they said.

“This is great for Valdosta,” Helms said. “The name recognition for Valdosta is tremendous. We’re attracting attention to Valdosta all over the country. Businesses in, say, California can now investigate Southeastern markets for business without first having to take a risk and set up a permanent shop here. They can test the market first by using our services to get their products to our markets.

“And all the money comes back to Valdosta, which is uniquely positioned to gain more business as a result of its geographic location that puts it one day from anywhere in the Southeast — one day from Miami, one day from New Orleans. We’re in a better position to distribute the Southeast than Atlanta.”

Everett likened YourFreightRate.com to Sam’s Club.

“I call it the Sam’s Club approach,” he said. “We pass the savings on just like Sam’s Club does, only you don’t have to pay a membership fee.”

“The Internet really is changing the way America does business. It really is,” Helms said.