American Gypsum - P&S Transportation

One phone call to P&S generates a plan to meet rising demand.

The customer challenge:

American Gypsum is one of the top five producers of wallboard in North America. It ships hundreds of flatbed loads each month. The recent recovery in U.S. construction activity has made the company particularly busy. It relies on a handful of core carriers that can provide the electronic integration and sheer capacity needed to move high volumes of drywall on multiple lanes across the country. While shipments are mostly for replenishment, next-day service is often needed, since construction companies have slashed their inventory levels.

Eric Yacula, American Gypsum’s Director of Logistics, describes his main challenge as “having carriers that can help us meet our volatile volume demands.” A case in point occurred recently, when his sales team informed Yacula that rising demand would require additional flatbed capacity out of the Georgetown plant. He contacted P&S.

The P&S solution:

“My P&S sales manager quickly put a call together, to figure out how best to help,” Yacula says. “By the end of the call, P&S had a plan in place. The solution has been working well ever since.”

American Gypsum has been using P&S Transportation since 2008. P&S picks up drywall at American Gypsum’s plants in Duke, Oklahoma, and Georgetown, South Carolina, hauling to customer yards in Texas, Alabama, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Louisiana.

Yacula notes, “P&S is pretty darn good. They’re among our Top 3 or 4 carriers. Out of Duke and Georgetown, they’ve done a really good job.”

Reliability and responsiveness are key P&S attributes. “P&S is very responsive in terms of customer service,” says Yacula. “They’re pretty quick when we present them with a problem or an issue, doing what they can to get it taken care of.” And P&S is dependable: “When we put a load on them, we’re not concerned it will be on time,” he adds. P&S is innovative, too: “P&S tries to think out of the box and stay a step ahead. The owners are forward-thinking,” says Yacula. He anticipates a productive ongoing relationship with P&S: “We look forward to continuing to do business with them. P&S has good people and is recognized in the industry as a good company to work for. Hopefully our partnership continues to grow.”