Charleston metro area named one of the top logistics metros in the nation

CLEVELAND, OH — September 19, 2005 — America’s prosperity rides upon a network of air, land and sea routes that connect us not only to our U.S. neighbors, but also to the rest of the world. Businesses rely heavily upon a robust transportation infrastructure to bring raw material to factories, and to deliver finished products to wholesalers, retailers and, ultimately, to consumers.

For that reason, a metro area’s transportation infrastructure extremely important when it comes to attracting, and retaining, businesses.

“Site selection is really a competition between cities,” said Bill King, chief editor of Expansion Management. “Metro areas that offer a broad range of logistics-supporting infrastructure — ground, air, water/sea and rail — have a major advantage over their rivals when it comes to attracting and retaining manufacturing and distribution facilities.”

For the fifth year in a row, Expansion Management and Logistics Today magazines have published their Logistics Quotient TM, a study that compares 362 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) according to 10 major categories: the overall transportation & distribution industry climate; work force/labor costs, availability and skill levels; road and highway basic infrastructure and spending; road density, congestion and truck safety; road and bridge conditions; fuel taxes and fees; railroad access; water ports, both river/lake and ocean); air service; and interstate highway access. The data comes from a variety of government and proprietary sources.

MSAs that ranked in the top 20 percent (out of a total of 362 MSAs) were designated “Five Star Logistics Metros,” while metros that ranked in the 21-to-40 percentile received a “Four Star Logistics Metro” designation.

“Since most logistics decisions are driven by the need to locate in a particular geographic region, corporate site selectors can use the results of this study to evaluate how cities did on a national, as well as a regional, basis,” said King.

Expansion Management is a monthly business magazine for executives of companies that are actively looking for a place to expand or relocate their facilities within the next one to three years. Every year, the magazine’s renowned research department compares communities according to a wide variety of characteristics important to corporate site selectors.

Click here to see the list of the “Top Logistics Metros in the U.S.”

Click here to read the article.