How Carlisle Transportation Launched a New 3PL Operation in Two Months with Extensiv

About Carlisle Transportation

Carlisle Transportation runs warehousing and distribution operations in the Pacific and the far north, with facilities in Kapolei, Hawaii and Anchorage, Alaska. The team partnered with Extensiv Professional Account Services to bring its Kapolei warehouse onto Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager.

"I value the relationship we've been able to build. If you like having a strong, established connection with one of your vendors, Professional Account Services is the way to go."

Gary Sovine
Tote Resources

"I value the relationship we've been able to build. If you like having a strong, established connection with one of your vendors, Professional Account Services is the way to go." — Gary Sovine,  Tote Resources

Highlights

Challenges

• Standing up a brand-new 3PL operation on an unfamiliar platform.
• A legacy system where every storage unit was treated as a single "pallet," forcing a manual count to bill recurring storage correctly.
• Recurring storage billing that ate roughly two days of manual work each cycle — and risked charging customers for the wrong pallet type.
• Implemented Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager as the operation's system of record, configured with movable unit types that match how the warehouse actually stores product.
• Engaged Extensiv Professional Account Services (PAS) for a dedicated specialist who met weekly to translate existing processes into the platform and design the right workflows.
• Automated recurring storage charges at month-end with Billing Manager and built custom reports with Extensiv's reporting team.
• Launched the Kapolei operation on Extensiv in about two months.
• Cut recurring storage billing from a roughly two-day manual process to about 30 minutes of rate confirmation, recouping the PAS investment within months.
• Surfaced mischarged pallet types and corrected rates with the customer, backed by full inventory counts instead of manual tallies.
  
  

Challenge

Launching a warehouse with no 3PL background

When Carlisle Transportation set out to run its Kapolei, Hawaii warehouse on Extensiv, the person leading the systems side didn’t come from a 3PL background. The existing setup didn't make it easier. In the prior system, everything was treated as a single pallet, so billing recurring storage accurately meant going out and manually counting what was and wasn't a standard pallet every cycle. That took the better part of two days, and it still left room to charge customers for the wrong pallet type.

Carlisle needed more than software. It needed someone who understood both the platform and the realities of a working warehouse, and who could get a new operation live without a long learning curve.

Solution

A dedicated expert who learned the business

Carlisle turned to Extensiv Professional Account Services and was paired with a dedicated specialist who became a weekly fixture during the build. Instead of handing over software and walking away, the specialist worked through Carlisle's existing processes, mapped them into Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager, and showed the team how to use the platform's movable unit types — so a one-pallet, two-pallet, or three-pallet position could be defined once and billed automatically.

Recurring storage charges that used to require a manual count became an automatic month-end calculation. The same work surfaced billing gaps: because the old process couldn't reliably tell pallet types apart, some customers weren't being charged correctly. With accurate movable units and full inventory counts in Extensiv, Carlisle could identify the discrepancies and walk the customer through corrected rates.

The specialist also connected Carlisle with Extensiv's reporting team to build custom reports, and the relationship didn't end at go-live. The team now meets every other week to expand into KPI dashboards and to work through the special scenarios that come with a growing operation.

"It's nice to have input from somebody who has seen it work across many other companies." — Gary Sovine

For Carlisle, the difference between PAS and a standard support ticket comes down to context. The specialist already knows how the business is set up, so there's no starting over with every request. As Gary puts it, the response comes back faster, "and he knows how our business is set up. I don't have to go through the whole spiel of what we're doing and why."

Results

A faster launch

Despite starting without 3PL experience, Carlisle stood up its Kapolei operation on Extensiv in about two months, with its PAS specialist available by email and on weekly calls throughout.

Billing in minutes, not days

Automating recurring storage charges turned a roughly two-day manual process into about 30 minutes of confirming rates. "Within a few months, we've already gotten our ROI back from that," Gary says.

A team that needs less help over time

As Carlisle's team grew proficient, its annual PAS allotment dropped from eight hours to three. The team had internalized the platform, with its specialist still on call for the nuanced scenarios that are harder to solve alone.

A partnership that scales

With Kapolei running smoothly, Carlisle is extending the same approach to its Anchorage, Alaska warehouse, leaning on PAS to optimize processes that hadn't yet been using Extensiv to its full potential.

Advice for 3PLs Considering PAS

Gary's advice for teams weighing PAS is to come prepared. "Have your processes predefined and understand them well, so you can explain them," he says — and share any SOPs or documentation up front so the specialist can help faster. Good data in, good data out.

His take on when it's worth it is simple. The support desk is fine for one-off, yes-or-no questions. But if you want a reliable contact who knows your business, will brainstorm a solution with you, and can tell you whether an idea will actually work in the system, PAS is the way to go.

Runnng a 3PL is hard. Let's make it easier.

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