Moving with Speed

Business First of Buffalo - March 16, 2007

by David Bertola

Business First

Has someone ever asked you to deliver a package because he or she knows you'll be traveling in that direction? Has someone asked you to help them move something heavy because you own a truck? In 1946, these favors blossomed into opportunity for the Savarino family. And that's how and when Speed Global Services was formed.

Carl Savarino's uncle Vincent and grandfather operated a West Side grocery store in the 1940s. When Savarino's father, Joseph, returned to Buffalo after serving in WWII, he and Vincent launched the trucking business when they began filling empty grocery truck space to help local companies make deliveries. Eventually, the pair made deliveries on two trucks throughout Buffalo, Jamestown and Rochester for paying customers that included The Sherwin Williams Company, Pratt and Lambert Paints and Hooker Chemical Corp.

"This was the basis for our trucking business," said Savarino, Speed Global Services' president.

What's Happening: Speed Global Services had previously been referred to as Speed Transportation and Trucking Co., and prior to that, Speed Motor Express. The company, which for years had dedicated most of its warehouse space to servicing the automotive industry, re-invented itself. It targeted other industries and developing partnerships with customers worldwide. Today, the company provides services including warehousing, fulfillment, transportation and international freight forwarding, which includes coordination of air or ocean, anywhere in the world.

"The industrial base in the area was declining, so we needed a more global approach, more diversification, to our business," said Savarino. "We needed to be a global company. Not a local company."

The company expanded its distribution and freight forwarding after acquiring G&W Freight Forwarding in 2005.

The company's trucking division and officers have offices at our truck terminal on Military Road. These offices will be moved to the Kenmore Ave. location by the end of April, and the entire trucking operation will be operated out of Kenmore Ave. by the end of 2008.

Who's Who: Carl Savarino, president; Joseph Berti, vice president of distribution; and Michael Diati, vice president and general manager of transportation.

Products and Services: Today, Speed does more than just deliver paint and chemicals throughout Western New York.

"We're a one-stop shop for clients, and if something goes wrong, we have only ourselves to blame," said Diati. Accountability to customers, said Savarino, is what the company was founded on and what drives the company business plan today.

Speed trucks are often deployed to pick up containers after they get unloaded from ships in New York City. They'll truck them cross-state, warehouse them in Tonawanda, provide pick and pack services and put them on one of its 48 trucks for delivery to customers.

Speed's four Tonawanda warehouses total 600,000 square feet, and are stocked to the ceiling with protective eyewear, household items, health and beauty aids, and a myriad of products from the Far East, Europe and Canada.

Employees: 110

Largest Expenditure in 2006: Software. And plenty of it. Speed spent somewhere between $600,000-$700,000 last year to improve its warehouse management system that includes radio frequency scanning for providing customers with up-to-the-minute inventory reporting information. The expenditure allowed the company to equip all its trucks with GPS systems. Speed provides customers the opportunity to track any aspect within the distribution process ... from how much of a particular product is on a warehouse rack, to pinpointing the location of a truck in transit, to information about who signed for the delivery.

Proudest Accomplishment: "Transforming the company from a company that had offered trucking services locally to one that offers a variety of services worldwide," said Savarino.

Biggest Challenge: "Changing customers' perception that we're a local company," said Savarino. The company is also trying to reach out to smaller customers who may not consider working with a company like Speed to make them aware of the services they provide.

What people may not realize about this industry: It's a 365-day a year job, and it's 24 hours a day. "If a customer absolutely needs something, you have to take care of it, no matter if it's a Sunday, Christmas or New Year's Day," said Berti.