MISSION of Moving in the Right Direction...

In July of 2009 when the Horizon Executive Team met together to launch its new motto and logo of “Moving in the Right Direction” the team took a lot of time discussing what that meant, and what it would mean to Horizon’s clients. The goal of the Vice President of Sales & Marketing Josh Miller was to make H.T.S., the transportation company other companies in the transportation industry would strive to be. This meant stepping outside the bounds of delivering product from point A to point B. What it meant was getting more involved with their customers, mirroring their customer’s good improvements to their business. Also, getting more involved in the community around them and supporting positive growth in their community, and truly being the change which Horizon wishes to see in the transportation industry. This would include holding Horizon drivers to a hire standard of driving their customer’s premium products. For some of the executives this meant enrolling in classes and seminars to learn more about supply chain, in the future certifying a number of their team in the Six Sigma/ Lean system.

This also meant helping to improve the environment by becoming a SMARTWAY Transportation Partner, joining together with DTCC (Driving Towards a Cleaner California).  Taking the initiative on finding a smart alternative to Styrofoam, learning the basic fundamentals to clean up the transportation and produce industry. Horizon began doing intense training on insurance and claim service, so if ever a claim were to happen H.T.S would be able to pay its claims quickly and seek the best legal counsel in the Central Valley to help with this training and solve issues as they arise.

Additionally larger investments would be made to attend trade shows, in the US, Mexico, and Canada. As well as investing in the right technologies to track our trucks on the Horizon website so our customers could more easily follow along their cargo’s shipment process, and added feature where trucks would be able to logon and find their accounts payable status, and know when to expect their next payment. The H.T.S. executives invested in seminars to motivate and help their staff negotiate better rates between trucker and customer, to insure the best truck was getting a fare price and the Horizon customer was receiving the best service.

Horizon has many future plans which include adding to its tractor fleet as well as purchasing environmentally friendly reefer units to add to its customer service and community involvement plan which included being in direct contact with all drivers, and joining the local chamber of commerce in September of 2009. In 2010 H.T.S. looks forward to joining United Fresh’s Chairman’s Round Table, and being part of the supply change counsel making important legislation in US Produce and Transportation Laws. During ANTAD 2010 H.T.S., representatives were able to visit with some local Jalisco, Mexico State Representatives to discuss NAFTA, and the Mexican Tariff on US Grapes, also the water crisis in California and how these three things had affected the commerce between the two nations for the past couple of years, and resolutions to them.

H.T.S, has never been a cost based transportation vendor, our foundation is the quality of service and our investment in the right technologies and strategies. When you invest your business with Horizon you know you are getting more than what you have asked for. You are truly becoming a Horizon Partner in fulfilling its MISSION of “moving in the right direction.”