PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Span-Alaska signs deal with Horizon Services for freight management system

Span-Alaska Consolidators Inc. has signed a contract with Horizon Services Group for new technology that will allow Span Alaska clients to track cargo as it moves toward its destination.

It will also streamline cargo moving and lead to better efficiency, according to company executives. The cost of the deal, announced Feb. 10, wasn’t disclosed.

“This new system will allow for complete supply chain visibility for our shippers on the web, as well as better internal efficiencies linking our Kent, Anchorage and Fairbanks operations,” said Tom Landry, chief information officer for Span-Alaska.

Horizon Services will develop new in-house systems for Span Alaska and guide the company’s corporate IT strategy and development.

“This is an important partnership, as Span-Alaska is one of the largest shippers in the Alaska trade,” said Duncan Wright, head of Strategic Development for Horizon Services Group. “It makes for a unique integration of both the technology expertise within the Horizon Group, along with Span’s historical excellence in handling and consolidating shipments.”

Horizon Services is a subsidiary of Horizon Lines, the big shipping company formerly known as CSX Lines.

The new system is to be installed by the end of this year, and customers will be able to access information on their shipments as early as the middle of next year.

Span-Alaska, with offices in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Kenai, Alaska, as well as Kent, Wash., has about a hundred employees and more than a hundred tractors and trailers to move shipments.