“Atlanta is a powerhouse for transportation and logistics, ranking fourth in the nation behind cities more than twice its size like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago,” said Michael Porter, a Harvard-based economic development expert. “In the last 15 years, Atlanta has grown jobs in the logistics industry faster than any of the top 20 clusters.”

Porter’s 2001 economic development study spurred the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to create the Logistics Industry

Development Initiative, cited by the International Economic Development Council as a best practice in cluster-based economic development.

The city’s development as a logistics center has been an important spur not only for the local economy but for the broader economic life of the entire Southeast. It provides a foundation for manufacturing and transportation growth from Virginia down to Florida and across the large swath of the South below the Ohio Valley.

Atlanta has the nation’s deepest pool of logistics talent, said Karl Meyer, co-founder and and CEO of 3PD, a provider of last-mile logistics and delivery services.

The presence of world-class logistics organizations such as UPS and at Home Depot provides fertile ground for talent. 3PD itself is home-grown; Meyer founded the company in 2001 after serving as a logistics manager at Home Depot as the company transitioned from a company-based delivery model to an outsourced one.

Meyer plucked all of his industrial engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology. The company has doubled in size in each of the past four years and now has 30 facilities nationwide.

“The challenge of finding the right people is reason enough for a 3PL to move here,” said Meyer.

With 553 million square feet of warehousing and distribution space, Atlanta is the nation’s fifth largest industrial real estate market, behind Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Northern and Central New Jersey, said Blaine Kelley, senior vice president of real estate services provider CB Richard Ellis’ global supply chain practice.

Atlanta is the operating hub for Norfolk Southern. The railroad’s intermodal facility in Austell, Ga., is the company’s largest, handling upwards of 300,000 lifts per year, said Mike Miller, general manager of supply chain service. Along with Chicago and Harrisburg, Pa., the Austell hub forms the railroad’s core service triangle for serving 22 states east of the Mississippi River.

“Savannah, Jacksonville and Charleston all flow through there, and it connects with the West Coast,” said Miller.

The CSX Intermodal Hulsey Yard in Atlanta provides access to transportation

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The city that was an anchor rail hub for the country in the 19th and 20th centuries now is a major force as a logistics and transportation center, and it is still the anchor for distribution across the burgeoning economy of the Southeast.

In 1994 there were 42,000 logistics employees in the city. Today there are 103,000, according to the Atlanta Logistics Innovation Council, an arm of the Chamber of Commerce. Thirty-two percent work in the air cargo sector; 21 percent in trucking; 19 percent with 3PLs; 12 percent in warehousing and distribution and 9 percent in logistics technology.

Atlanta is served by three major interstate highways. More than 80 percent of the U.S. population is within a two-hour flight time and can be reached within two truckload delivery days. Twenty-three of the top 25 3PLs operate in Atlanta, said Rob Pertierra, the chamber’s vice president for logistics industry development.

The catalyst for Atlanta’s emergence as a hub for logistics innovation and entrepreneurship is the Georgia Institute of Technology. The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, a unit of Georgia Tech’s H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, is the world’s largest logistics research and education center. The Stewart School is consistently ranked first in engineering by U.S. News and World Report.

Georgia Tech programs include the highly regarded Executive Masters of Logistics program and the Supply Chain Executive

Forum for senior logistics executives. Forum members include premier logistics organizations such as Cat Logistics, Dell, GM, Home Depot, Intel, Ryder, YRC Logistics and Schneider National.

Georgia Tech’s Enterprises Innovation Institute helps companies, entrepreneurs and communities with applied science,

technology and innovation. Home-grown logistics companies include 3DP; supply chain consulting firm Chainalytics; supply chain software provider Logility; high value shipper Eggs Overnight and intermodal giant RoadLink.