Case study
Neo Water Treatment scales bulk chemical shipments with a nimble logistics partner
How a fast-growing water treatment company expanded operations to meet growing customer demand
Client background
Neo Water Treatment is a global leader in water purification, delivering solutions to treatment plants across North America and Europe that help municipalities reduce phosphorus, sludge volume, polymer, pH, and more in their water supply. Originally part of Neo’s Chemicals and Oxides business, the Neo Water Treatment team began independent commercial operations in 2016 by repurposing rare earth elements for use in municipal and industrial water treatment. Their rare-earth chloride solution is an especially effective non-hazardous additive for phosphorus removal, producing less waste and requiring lower dosages than traditional hazardous commodity chemicals.
Since launching the water treatment line, Neo has expanded from a single production facility to locations across the U.S. that serve over 150 customers — but this expansion came with growing pains.
Challenge
Before we partnered with Odyssey, our struggle was getting trucks with the right tankers. Our material is a chloride based low pH. It requires trailers that are not readily or easily available — especially not on an on-demand basis.
Neo’s initial shipments originated from a single facility near Cleveland, OH. But as customer demand grew — including municipal and industrial water treatment plants across the North America — so did the complexity of their operations. Coordinating with carriers had become time-consuming and unreliable. With strict delivery windows, specialty equipment needs, and sensitive chemical handling requirements, Neo needed a partner that could adapt and scale.
“It was just a juggling act trying to see when carriers had availability that lined up with our manufacturer’s availability and our customers’ needs,” said Hock.
Dedicated equipment, real-time partnership
Odyssey Logistics began working with Neo in 2017, initially providing Neo with a leased trailer solely for its shipments. This dedicated service helped the team bypass costly washouts, chemical compatibility concerns, and inconsistent availability tied to shared-use trailers.
“They presented us the opportunity to lease a trailer on our behalf, that would be dedicated to us. And that solved a lot of problems,” said Hock.
From the basis of this relationship, Neo’s business grew from one location to four. It now ships from four of its facilities located in Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and California. As the needs of Neo’s customers expanded, Odyssey’s bulk brokerage division was able to quickly scale its level of service. Evolving from that one leased trailer, Odyssey now manages freight and trailer leasing across all Neo sites. In Ohio, Odyssey directly manages leased trailers; in other regions, it coordinates specialty carriers on-demand.
Odyssey facilitates trucking and trailer leasing out of all our locations to meet our needs, and the team has been great. Our business has a lot of moving parts. We produce our raw material all over the world, ship it to contract manufacturers in the U.S., and they make a lot of other different products for a lot of different industries. Occasionally there are issues with the manufacturers’ equipment or personnel that requires us to shift our schedule around in both time or region, and if it wasn’t for Jimmy [Clayton], Brian [Chicchella] and Ian [Reid] at Odyssey, that would be really challenging for us.
Focused service through a crisis
In 2023, a major equipment failure at Neo’s busiest production site in Ohio shut down the facility for nearly eight months. The logistics fallout could have crippled their operations.
Despite the disruption, thanks to Odyssey, Neo didn’t miss a single customer delivery.
We actually didn’t lose a single customer. There were probably 100 to 200 emails a week between our logistics team and Odyssey to schedule orders. The wrong partner could have easily broken us, but with Odyssey we never missed a shipment.
Growth enabled partnership: from start-up to national reach
With complex logistics outsourced to Odyssey, what started as 3-4 shipments a month from a single facility has grown into a high-volume logistics program with:
- 4–5 bulk shipments per week
- 150+ customers across 35+ U.S. states, Canada, and Mexico
- Bulk delivery support across hazardous and non-hazardous classifications
- Year-over-year load volume growth:
- 2023: 124 loads
- 2024: 191 loads
- 2025: On pace to exceed 2024 volumes
Flexibility, responsiveness, trust
Neo identified Odyssey’s capacity to collaborate as a key differentiator from other logistics partners.
The most important thing to me is that, when I have a problem, I can pick up the phone and call somebody and discuss what we need to do. That’s what I really appreciate about Odyssey. They always answer the phone.
“It’s frustrating how hard it is to find or develop professional relationships that should work like that, but Odyssey proves itself over and over again,” Hock added.
Neo has also found a creative and strategic partner in Odyssey, rather than simply a pure logistics provider. Odyssey has helped Neo trial new delivery models — including a recent pilot in a large city in Ohio where a trailer serves as on-site temporary storage for dosing.
“Odyssey’s people think like drivers,” said Hock. “They know what their trucks are and aren’t capable of, and what would or wouldn’t be a good idea when we get creative.”
Logistics that scale with you
When asked to summarize Odyssey’s impact, Hock puts it simply:
We’ve never missed a shipment to a customer that needed it, and Odyssey has made that easy — especially when things were really hard for us.
With Odyssey’s support and partnership in problem solving, Neo continues to grow, expand its footprint, and meet rising customer expectations — without compromising service.
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