Supply chain headwinds are windfall for Willow Run-based logistics company

by KURT NAGL   

When an automotive plant is on the brink of a parts shortage, as many have been recently, keeping the assembly line moving becomes mission critical.

That's where Ascent, a Van Buren Township-based expediter of freight, makes its bucks.

"We often very much act as the emergency room of this industry," said David Keller, director of operations for Ascent. "Our phone rings as soon as there's a gap identified in their supply chain."

These days, there are gaps galore, and the phone has hardly stopped ringing.

The supply chain snarls of the past two years have led to soaring sales and a fivefold profit increase for the asset-light logistics firm, whose job is to broker expedited freight transportation, or haul the freight itself, to keep auto plants and other customers operational.

The company, which traces its roots back to the founding of Active Aero Charter at Willow Run in 1979, has grown into a behemoth. It is on track to increase annual revenue by a third this year to $2 billion. Responsible for more than half of the continent's cargo lift, Ascent is the largest domestic ground and air expedite company in the country.

That growth has been fueled by the supply struggles of customers across industries, including major OEMs such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV and their suppliers. The microchip crisis, parts shortages and backups at the ports — and the recent Ambassador Bridge blockade — have kept Ascent's expedited freight services in hot demand and its fleet of 25 USA Jet-branded cargo aircraft and 70 semi-trucks running full tilt at Willow Run airport.

 "They're looking to us to manage that activity for them and find the best options as far as timing, the best quality service at the best rate that meets the plant needs," said David Camden, Ascent's vice president of operations. "We're doing emergency shipments, getting freight to assembly plants or wherever emergency freight needs to go to."

Ascent saw a bump in business when protesters blocked access to the Ambassador Bridge for six days in February, Camden said. The closure forced some companies, including GM, to charter planes full of car parts over the blockade to keep plants running.

Southfield-based IAC Group, which supplies GM, Ford, Stellantis and other autos, has become a regular Ascent customer over the past year, said Timothy Morrisey, senior manager of logistics and customs for IAC. On average, the supplier is running more than 100 shipments per month through Ascent, substantially more than double the freight it expedited before the pandemic.

"All premium freight is unwanted," Morrisey said. "When we get into a crisis situation, and we need to make sure we are protecting our customer and we have hot premium freight, that's why we have Ascent."

Air freight, which can cost up to 10 times as much as ground shipping, is usually the last resort for companies, but global supply disruptions have sometimes left no other options.

Chartering a plane, the priciest option, sometimes makes sense for companies, Camden said. Ascent does around 6,000 charter flights each year and is investing millions of dollars to expand its fleet by converting six MD-88 passenger aircraft to cargo planes.

However, charter flights are often too slow, especially when it comes to securing the coveted microchips. Receiving clearance from China for an emergency flight to Shanghai is at least a 10-day process, Camden said. A plant may already be shut down by the time the chips make it there.

In many cases, the method of transport is much more basic: personal luggage. That's the onboard courier side of the business, and it has exploded the past two years, Keller said.

Last month, for example, IAC had door handles stranded in China, and it couldn't get normal cargo service because of COVID-19 lockdowns. So, Morrisey ordered an onboard courier, who had it to him in two days.

"We would not (have been) able to build or finish our product in order to supply it to the OEM so that they don't have a problem," he said.

Tracking down microchips

An unrelenting challenge for the automotive industry, microchips have been a major windfall for Ascent. Facing sporadic plant shutdowns due to a shortage of semiconductors, automakers turn to the company to fetch them from Asia in whatever ways possible.

Ascent contracts 140 onboard couriers across 15 countries, including 20 in Detroit, who are ready to grab up microchips and other goods at a moment's notice. Camden said the company has at least 10 couriers in the air at a given time.

Once an order comes through, Ascent connects a courier with the supplier and puts them on the soonest passenger flight to the customer, often an automotive company. From the overhead bins and baggage carousels at Detroit Metro Airport, the microchips are hurried to plants, Keller said.

 He estimates that the company has moved upward of 225,000 microchips or microchipped parts in the past two years. The company has seen a 55 percent increase in new onboard courier customers, and microchips account for 30 percent to 50 percent of that business, he said. It has moved as many as 20,000 microchips at once and has had orders as small as one data card for a piece of assembly line machinery.

"Think about it like this: If you have a robot on an assembly line that clips the front bumper onto an F-150, and that robot goes down, you're not building anymore F-150s today because you can't sell a truck without a front bumper," Keller said.

Airlines struggled with a shortage of passengers during the pandemic, but their underbellies and overhead compartments carried plenty of cargo. Commercial airlines carried 29.5 million pounds of cargo into Metro Airport in February, up 12.5 percent from the same time last year, according to the most recent data from the Wayne County Airport Authority. Around 340 million pounds of cargo landed at Metro last year, up 2 million pounds from 2020.

Growth on the ground

The air freight division is just part of Ascent's rapid growth. USA Jet Airlines was a standalone air cargo company at Willow Run before becoming part of Illinois-based logistics giant Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. through a 2014 acquisition. Then in 2020, Roadrunner spun off Ascent, creating a multimodal freight expediter and establishing its base at the airport in Van Buren Township.

Camden said the company has 400,000 ground shipments under its management. With supply chain challenges continuing, he said he doesn't see business slowing down anytime soon.

Earlier this month, the company acquired Central Minnesota Logistics, based in Sauk Rapids, Minn., a heavy haul logistics company with revenue over $25 million, expanding its ground transportation footprint. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Annette Luyten, senior vice president of domestic brokerage for Ascent, said the acquisition diversifies the company's services and enables it to provide more solutions for unique customer needs.

"If there are plants that have machinery break down, or windmills that shut down, all of those types of scenarios where there are immediate on-demand consumer needs, which escalate the challenges of the shippers that look to somebody like Ascent to help resolve," Luyten said.

Ascent employs 1,029 globally, including 485 in metro Detroit, and it is looking to grow that number quickly. Camden said the company recently brought on new recruiters to help it triple truck driver count to more than 200, ideally by the end of the year.

Since January, the company has hired more than 150 employees. It aims to continue to ride the wave of supply chain disruptions with both organic and inorganic growth, Luyten said.

"We help shippers through these chaotic times," she said.