Howard Gradle Email & Phone Number

Oak Brook, Illinois

Build and Manage intermodal shipments for customers throughout North America. Liaise with carriers, brokers and equipment suppliers to best accomplish a customer shipping needs. Manage carriers performance and implement corrective actions when needed. Understand customers and their shipping/receiving requirements and formulate a logistic plan to ensure smooth on-time, cost-effective performance.

Lisle, Illinois

Single point of contact for large VIP customers such as Caterpillar Inc., John Deere, Xerox Corporation, Ford Motors, and Meijer’s Food Stores. Took ownership of customer’s shipping needs from origin to final destination. Communicated with foreign office, ocean terminals, US customs and border patrol, railroads and truck lines to assure problem free, cost effective, on time delivery. Developed analytical cargo tracking reports to meet the customer’s visibility needs. Problem free shipping resulted in satisfied customers, which helped the sales team expand VIP customer account base and improve Hapag Lloyd’s bottom line.

Naperville, Illinois

Assisted Import and Export customers’ needs by booking export orders, offering pricing options and assisted with operational needs. Increased customer base by utilizing sales background to identify new shipping opportunities.Extensive knowledge in transportation provided proactive approach to customer service by recognizing problems before they occurred. This resulted in a reduction of carrier errors and increase in customer satisfaction.

Oak Brook Illinois

Designed and implemented international sales program from the ground up. Acquired sales responsibility for several of C.H Robinson's larger accounts. Trained and supervised sales representatives in the Oak Brook office and assisted smaller satellite office with international sales support.Developed an automated sales profile system to monitor sales activity for current and potential customers. This system was network compatible, allowing sales representatives, managers and customer service to view account information. The sales system was also used for company mailings, territorial reporting and budget forecasting.Conducted weekly sales meetings with sales representatives and leaders of customer service teams. These meetings resulted in several positive changes in customer service and sales procedures.Prepared the 1999 business plan for the International division of C.H. Robinson Oak Brook office.

Naperville, Illinois

Developed and managed export and import business for more than 200 clients located throughout the Midwest. The accounts base ranged from Fortune 100 corporations to small privately owned companies. Provided customers with operational and pricing options. Negotiated rate agreements. Worked with operational team to optimize customers supply chain performance by reducing cycle times and operating expenses. Successfully grew annual revenues from $3.8 to $5.5 million in a two year period.

Associates In Transporation Management, Logistics, Materials, And Supply Chain Management

Education record