OmniTRAX, Inc. appoints Phillip Hoskins as Vice President of Transload. Also, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association reports that Kelvin “Kel” MacKavanagh, former Director of Short Line Marketing at Conrail and long-time New Jersey Short Line Association member and ASLRRA volunteer, has died.
OmniTRAX on May 21 reported naming Phillip Hoskins as Vice President of Transload. The appointment, it said, follows a $100 million commitment from its real estate affiliate, Broe Real Estate Group, “to grow its industrial rail real estate platform into a national network of industrial outdoor storage (IOS) and multimodal logistics hubs that serve evolving domestic supply chains.” Through OmniTRAX’s 35-railroad network, these hubs connect industrial customers to the North American freight rail system, including interchange with Class I railroads and access to five major ports, it said.
Hoskins previously led network expansion and infrastructure development at Savage Services. He has also worked for BNSF, spending 16 years in railroad field operations, commercial sales, and business development in the energy-by-rail markets. He holds a master’s degree in marketing from Regis University and a bachelor’s degree in administration and management from Phoenix University.
“Phillip is a proven commercial executive with a tremendous record of providing logistics solutions for an impressive clientele of Fortune 500 companies,” said Ryan Dreier, who earlier this year signed on as Chief Commercial Officer for OmniTRAX, the transportation affiliate of The Broe Group. “Given the rapid expansion of the OmniTRAX Rail Network into new markets across the nation, Phillip’s industry relationships and deep rail and supply chain knowledge are the ideal skills to serve an expanded customer base seeking optimized multi-modal logistics solutions.”
“OmniTRAX has a proven record of successfully pairing rail and real estate expertise to optimize supply chains,” Hoskins said. “I am excited to help clients access those efficiencies through new transload solutions across the OmniTRAX network.”
Further Reading:
Kelvin ‘Kel’ MacKavanagh, former Director of Short Line Marketing at Conrail and long-time New Jersey Short Line Association member and ASLRRA volunteer, died May 10, ASLRRA reported in the May 20 edition of its weekly e-newsletter, Views & News. He was 89.
According to the Association, MacKavanagh got his start in railroad marketing with New York Central in 1964. He also worked for Penn Central before joining Conrail in 1982.
“Conrail had a lot of short line connections and was one of the first railroads to create a dedicated marketing position to act as liaison to the short lines,” Everett Railroad Company President Alan Maples told ASLRRA. “Kel was, as far as I know, the first person to be a director of short line marketing. Kel was more than just Conrail’s ambassador to the short lines; he was our advocate within the company. Kel believed that Conrail would profit from the short lines’ entrepreneurial approach to business, and he believed in the importance of face-to-face meetings between the short lines and Conrail’s marketing staff.”
In his work at Conrail, ASLRRA said, “MacKavanagh was credited with helping the railroad win two Golden Freight Car Awards” sponsored by industry magazine Modern Railroads, which was established in 1946 and absorbed by Railway Age in 1991. He also helped create the Standard Transportation Commodity Codes for hazardous materials, it noted, and played a role in initiating the Association of American Railroads (AAR) program for handling bulk shipments of hazardous materials in container-on-flatcar (COFC) service.
MacKavanagh worked for CSX Transportation after Norfolk Southern and CSX acquired Conrail, and later started his own railroad consultancy and was a consulting editor for The Official Railway Guide. He was secretary of the New Jersey Short Line Association for many years, and in 2005 won the its Benjamin J Friedland Award for meritorious service to the short line industry.
“From our working days together at Conrail, to his immersion in the New Jersey Railroad Association, Kel was a tireless advocate for the short line industry and a fount of knowledge that all of us who knew him benefitted from,” OmniTRAX Senior Vice President, Government Affairs David Arganbright said.
According to ASLRRA, MacKavanagh was a “familiar face, giving his time generously to the Association”; he served as a judge for the Marketing Awards (now the Business Development Awards) and as “de facto photographer” at annual conventions and other events.
“Kel served for years on the Business Development Award team, reading nominations and selecting the winners,” ASLRRA Senior Vice President, Communications Amy Krouse said. “He loved to highlight the successes of the nominees and wrote overviews for Views and News of each of them. He was an important part of the events teams, volunteering and taking professional photographs, capturing important moments in ASLRRA’s history.”
MacKavanagh served in the Army Transportation Corps for three years, after which he continued in the Army Reserve for 25 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He was an active volunteer at Christ the Redeemer Church, Virtua Hospital and The Fountains retirement community.
MacKavanagh is survived by Marion, his wife of 60 years; children Karen, Mark and Jill; and five grandchildren.
“Everyone at ASLRRA extends their deepest sympathy and condolences to MacKavanagh’s family, friends and former colleagues,” the Association said.