Colophon Client Profile: Stevens Towing

At Colophon New Media, we offer a wide range of web marketing services to a variety of Charleston SC businesses, from restaurants to technology firms to wedding photographers and a large maritime shipping firm.

Stevens Towing is a Charleston-area maritime shipping business with a long history of adjusting its services and message to fit the times. Throughout their 130-year history Stevens has been a passenger line, a produce shipper, and a tugboat and barge line. Today, Stevens operates ten tugs and towboats and more than 40 barges, and employs over 100 people.

It may not seem like an obvious match – tugboats and the web? But every business has competition, and Stevens is no exception. Sure, they compete against other shippers. But they also have to compete against over-the-road and rail shipping companies. So, like any other business, Stevens has to market any way they can, including on the web.

At the same time, maritime shipping is a highly regulated business. They have to keep precise records of their activities, including detailed and timely captain’s logs.

Colophon New Media of Charleston SC was able to deliver on both of those counts. First, we designed a new website for Stevens Towing, showcasing their inland and ocean towing businesses. We took great care is to highlight the cost comparisons between maritime, truck and rail freight. For instance, did you know that a tractor-trailer is able to move one ton of freight 59 miles on a gallon of fuel? That a rail car can move that same ton 202 miles? Or that an inland barge can take it as far as 514 miles?

As to those reporting requirements, Colophon New Media installed a remote reporting system, called Captain’s Log, to allow tug and shipping captains to file their required logs over the web instead of the crusty old phone & fax method.
Stevens Towing was happy with our work, and later returned to build a website for another of their businesses, Charleston Heavy Lift. Charleston Heavy Lift provides 500-ton lifting cranes to sites up and down the Intracoastal Waterway, and over the road.

We like to think that Colophon New Media’s services go beyond simply building a website – though we are glad to do that. With innovations like Captain’s Log, we are also helping businesses improve productivity and meet their regulatory requirements. And we can help your Charleston SC business do the same.

Colophon New Media invites you to visit Stevens-towing.com and CharlestonHeavyLift.com to check out our work. And if your Charleston SC business needs web marketing or database business solutions, please contact us at (843) 727.2990 or at info@cnmwebsite.com.