This small capital stock from the Trucking Industry of the Transportation Sector proves that the Process element of the Services Marketing Mix can be honed in to a sustainable competitive advantage.

The company covers all of North America from its base in Dallas, TX. It has a simple but powerful business proposition: door-to-door, same-day delivery within its area of operation. Such a promise is invariably far more difficult to honor than it sounds, yet the combination of physical and human resources that coordinate the company’s activities on a real-time basis is hard to match.

The company has durable Information Technology resources to back the most useful guarantee around which the business is built. Competitors may try and build the same ground networks, but will have to travel through long learning curves in order to approach this company’s standards of excellence in logistics.

Stock investors will be pleased to note that the company has been able to stand apart from the generally depressed economic trends of North America during the past few months. The company has announced Net Income of $0.33 per unit of stock for the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Though this is nominally below the $0.35 per share for the corresponding period a year ago, the reality is that the previous year’s accounts include a one-time revenue that is not related to the actual business. Business has grown annually if one removes this anomaly from the comparison.

The stock price was $25.39 at the end of the first week of May 2008. The Price to Earnings Ratio is below 18 at this price. Prospects for the rest of 2008 and beyond appear to be encouraging in view of the management’s proven capabilities.

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