How to use the NASCO Site Selector

Logistics Today's Site Selector offers an objective ranking of 328 U.S. cities based on criteria important to logistics professionals.

This (customized listing)looks at the 25 cities and metropolitan areas located along the North American Superhighway Coalition's (NASCO) “NAFTA Superhighway,” which is made up of Interstates 35, 29 and 94 running from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.

The Site Selector matrix provides an overall ranking of each city within the NASCO region, as well as an indication of the city's national ranking. Other ranking categories include:

Transportation and distribution industry is based on businesses and employment base providing transportation, distribution, warehousing and related services.

Work force/labor is geared to existing and available logistics-related workers in the area.

Road infrastructure measures factors like available lane miles per capita, interstate highway access, miles of paved roads, etc.

Road density, congestion and safety ranks the city on traffic volumes and delays as well as accident statistics and other factors affecting the smooth flow of traffic.

Road condition draws on state performance and includes condition of highways and bridges, among other measures.

Interstate highway includes access to interstate highways, spending on highway construction and maintenance, etc.

Taxes and fees provides a measure of logistics-related costs, including highway and fuel taxes, inventory taxes (where present), etc.

Railroad offers a rank of access to Class 1 and other rail services, miles of track, etc.

Waterborne commerce includes ocean port capacity as well as inland waterways.

Air cargo ranks the city on its access to cargo services, including widebody passenger service by combination carriers, international and expedited services.

With the Site Selector users can find those metropolitan areas best suited to the character-istics of their transportation needs. For instance, a domestic shipper who is a heavy user of truckload and less-than-truckload carriers will put more weight on highway factors than air or water capacity. On the other hand, an importer in a time-sensitive market could be heavily dependent on air service and would want a location with a low number (high rank) in air cargo.