"We have close to 11,000 logistics providers in Georgia and one of our goals is to help them be more competitive and be better assets for businesses in the state," says Executive Director Page Siplon. He notes that Georgia also is rich in logistics infrastructure, being the home of the nation's fourth-largest port (Savannah) and one of the top 10 freight airports (Hartsfield-Jackson). "We have a lot of assets to capitalize on and a lot of different companies, from 3PLs, to forwarders, to carriers."

Siplon notes that 81 percent of trucking companies in Georgia have fewer than five employees and are not able to make large investments in technology. The Center can be a very important resource to these companies, "educating them on improvements that can be achieved without spending a lot of money," Siplon says.

As an innovation center, "our sweet spot is technology," Siplon says, though the center also is active in developing and supporting state policies that support the logistics industry. He notes that the Center was instrumental in developing and gaining adoption of Georgia's first statewide Freight Plan. "This addresses what the state can do to be a better partner to private industry," he says.

One program under way involves running pilots at the Port of Savannah for the use of international e-tags and RFID tags on containers, Siplon says. "Through our research institute at Georgia Tech we are working with Homeland Security to create an open set of standards for container security and piloting that through the nation's fourth-largest port."

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