Tennessee-based Averitt Express freight company has opened a new service center in Kernersville.
The facility features a 46,000-square-foot dock and 102 truck doors. It’s meant to handle the flow and distribution of freight in the region and outside of it.
Averitt first opened a facility in the area in 1990. In the summer of 2018, the company purchased about 30 acres of land for this new center.
The pandemic has hurt a lot of businesses; however, major segments of the transportation supply industry have remained strong due to additional online purchasing and other factors. The Kernersville area, near Piedmont Triad International Airport, has been a popular place for supply chain companies.
The company’s expansion in North Carolina follows recent openings in Atlanta and in Houston.
Averitt provides freight transportation and supply chain management that extends into more than 100 countries.
This new location will offer the company more room, and help it broaden its services, in North Carolina. It includes a mechanics shop with three truck bays, four fueling stations and a drive-through truck wash. The new service center also has a “driver support center” offering drivers things like Wi-fi, laundry facilities, workout equipment and showers.
There will be some local job gains as well. As a result of the expansion, Averitt expects to hire more than 25 new drivers and other employees. The company will also offer a paid, on-the-job training program that pairs new drivers with experienced Averitt drivers who can show the newbies the ropes.
Wayne Spain, Averitt’s president and chief operating officer, said he was delighted with the prospects for the new, larger service center.
“We are excited to increase our ability to serve the business community in and around the Piedmont Triad and the shippers throughout the country that move freight through the region,” Spain said in a Tuesday, Oct. 6 press release. “Our new service center is nearly double the size of our previous location, and it will allow us to handle the region’s growing volume of freight delivery and distribution needs.”
“For years, we’ve seen the demand for freight distribution grow in the region,” Spain added.
He said a center in this region is a vital for shippers throughout the South as well as along the East Coast.
The is a real business; not propped up, or the result of make-work government schemes.
This is actual job-creation. Private business.
Not sure what kind of “paid on-the-job training” they offer but the website clearly says;
“We ARE NOT a truck driving school, you must have your CDL-A to join our team.”