atlanta's logistics industry

Top 25 Logistics Companies by Employment | Top 100 3PLS With an Atlanta Presence

Global Gateway

Founded as a railroad hub called Terminus, the Atlanta region’s global reach has stretched well beyond its humble beginnings as a rail nexus. Today metropolitan Atlanta, the unrivaled transportation hub of the Southeast, is a global gateway, connecting companies to virtually every major international market in real time. The region’s efficient, effective and dynamic transportation infrastructure provides businesses with several competitive options for transporting people, goods and information: its extensive intermodal network of air, road and rail services; its connection to port facilities; and its world-reaching telecommunications network. In addition, metro Atlanta’s exceptional distribution infrastructure offers Atlanta-based businesses value-added advantages in today’s global economy. Boasting the nation’s seventh largest industrial market in square footage, the area offers a wealth of distribution options.

An Economy Built on Trade and Transportation

Metro Atlanta has become a leading global logistics center with more than half of the top 100 third-party logistics providers having operations here and home to the Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech that provides worldwide expertise for supply chain solutions. If metro Atlanta were a country, its economy would rank 21st in the world, generating more than $210 billion a year in commerce. Georgia now has the 10th largest economy of any state in the nation. While Atlanta has a diverse industrial base and strong service economy, it is first and foremost a transportation center. Several years ago in preparation for the Olympic Games, Atlanta was designated as the first U.S. Customs Inland Port – a general purpose Foreign Trade Zone that allows containers to travel inbound duty free from costal ports. The distinction helped Atlanta’s cargo business boom – the region’s cargo output now ranks 10th in the U.S. With three major interstate highways intersecting in Atlanta and an extraordinary concentration of rail systems, trucking companies, warehouses and distribution centers, Atlanta’s logistics infrastructure and capabilities are unrivaled.

Georgia’s two deepwater ports – in Savannah and Brunswick – are ranked among the best on the Atlantic Coast. Savannah is now the fastest growing container port and Brunswick, which is a major automobile entry point, is ranked among the most efficient.

Metro Atlanta’s rich heritage as a logistics city and its unparalleled population and job growth over the past decade put it in a unique position to continue unprecedented growth as a regional and global logistics leader.

Metro Atlanta Logistics Employment

Atlanta has nearly doubled its national employment share in the last decade.		2004 Employment Share by Industry Category
Metro Atlanta gained logistics employment in the last decade, rising from a 12th-place ranking nationally in 1990 to maintaining a 5th place ranking since 1998.
* 2004 employment based on Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce research and differs from Harvard’s Cluster Mapping Project definition. Source: Cluster Mapping Project, Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School.		Air Cargo includes Delta Air Lines' total company employment