LoadMatch Logistics was awarded as the 2010 Coastal Entrepreneur of the Year this morning at UNCW’s Burney Center. About 350 people attended the Coastal Entrepreneur Awards today presented by the UNCW Entrepreneurship Center and the Greater Wilmington Business Journal.

Ten entrepreneurs were awarded in their specific industries out of more than 100 applicants. Proficient Learning won in the health care category. Loadmatch Logistics won in the distribution category. Kids Making It won in the non-profit category. Rogo, LLC won in the emerging company category. Holt Oil Company won in the retail category. CMS Tool & Die won in the manufacturing category. N2 Publishing won in the professional services category. Cucalorus Film Festival won in the film category. DigiEffects won in the technology category. CorTech Solutions won in the biotechnology category.

About LoadMatch Logistics

Started in 2006 by Gary Winstead, LoadMatch Logistics arranges the transportation of shipping containers from ocean ports in the Southeast for import clients and then utilizes those containers for export shipments when they are returned to the port instead of being returned empty. For example, without LoadMatch Logistics services, a truck driver would pick up a shipping container of imported freight at the Port of Wilmington and transport it to an N.C. distribution center.

The truck would then return to the port with no container. The cost for the round trip transportation was paid for by the importer. With LoadMatch’s service, this empty truck would be matched with a container bound for the port.

The service saves the importer money, increases revenue for truck drivers and reduces the number of empty trucks that are traveling on the state’s highways.

LoadMatch Logistics has developed a proprietary web based system to match imported shipping containers with those bound for export.

It automatically notifies clients of delivery and pickup appointments, pickup and delivery confirmations and generates paperless invoicing, all via email.

“Many times per day there are empty containers passing each other on the highways and our goal is to eliminate that,” said Winstead.

He developed the system because he saw a need to find a way to make exporting materials less expensive. According to Winstead, most exports from the Southeast are “high volume, low value” items such as cardboard, wood and other raw materials. This cargo is sent to China and other countries to be manufactured into products and packaging that will be sold back to American markets.  

Only 18 months ago, there were four import containers for every one export, but “capacity is way down today.”

According to Winstead, the average round trip container move is about 400 miles. Fuel efficiency for the typical container tractor is about 5 miles per gallon. Every matched container results in one round trip eliminated, thus saving 80 gallons of diesel fuel and related emissions.

LoadMatch Logistics does business with the largest exporters of containerized cargo out of the U.S. as well as the largest shipper of forest products from the U.S., Winstead said. LoadMatch Logistics also manages containers in the Southeast for the largest global transportation company in the world, DHL Global Forwarding. “These companies have attempted, but been unable to replicate the service LoadMatch provides and are loyal customers who have contributed greatly to the success of LoadMatch Logistics,” Winstead said.

LoadMatch Logistics currently has ten employees and facilitates the match of between 1,000 to 1,200 containers per month for ports from Baltimore to Jacksonville, Fla. The company ended 2009 with $5 million in revenue and since August 2006, a monthly increase of gross profit of 13.8 percent.

“We have just begun to serve the Southeast. We think we can grow to 10,000 containers per month,” he said.