As one of Atlanta’s premier third-party logistics (3PL) providers, Porter Logistics has built its reputation on delivering reliable warehousing and distribution services for some of the world’s leading brands across regulated industries—ranging from pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals to food, beverage, and hazardous materials.
But with rapid growth comes operational complexity. Managing a vast and evolving chemical inventory had become increasingly difficult for the Porter team—until they partnered with VelocityEHS and implemented the Accelerate® Platform.
Founded in 2016, Porter Logistics has scaled quickly to operate three large Atlanta-area warehouses totaling over 750,000 square feet. According to company president and co-founder John Foshee, their early chemical management methods—paper files, digital folders, and manual tracking—couldn’t keep pace with the company’s expanding inventory and increasing compliance requirements.
“We were a startup. We could handle things with paper and basic organizational methods,” Foshee recalls. “But now we’re handling many more products with many different chemistries… we’ve got to stay on top of things and stay compliant.”
Working heavily in regulated environments like hazardous goods, pharmaceuticals, and food-grade warehousing, Porter needed a smarter way to manage chemical safety data and meet requirements like EPA Tier II reporting under EPCRA.
In late 2022, Porter began evaluating chemical management software vendors. After considering three options, they quickly selected VelocityEHS Chemical Management for its depth, user-friendliness, and industry-leading SDS library.
“It acts as an organized repository for us,” said Foshee. “It has been able to scale with us as we continue to grow.”
Porter now manages tens of thousands of SDSs across clients using the Accelerate® platform, with employees easily locating specific documents via CAS numbers or other chemical identifiers. This capability not only supports compliance but also helps evaluate alternative chemistries and verify regulatory alignment.
The benefits of VelocityEHS go beyond hazardous goods:
With all chemical data centralized and instantly accessible, EPA Tier II reporting is now faster and more accurate, allowing Porter to quickly cross-reference ingredients against the EPA’s Extremely Hazardous Substances list.
“It’s helped us to stay organized, stay safe and stay in compliance,” Foshee affirms.
As Porter continues to expand operations—including bulk chemical transloading via its rail-served Atlanta warehouse—the team is confident that VelocityEHS will remain a valuable tool for managing complexity.
Whether managing hazardous inventory, supporting food-grade storage, or navigating the evolving regulatory landscape, Porter Logistics and VelocityEHS are proving that smart chemical management drives operational excellence.
Learn more about how VelocityEHS helps companies like Porter Logistics at EHS.com
