TOTAL QUALITY LOGISTICS
What: Freight broker negotiates truck loads, rates and destinations between the companies that need products hauled and the truck carriers that deliver goods.
Where: Headquarters located at 4289 Ivy Pointe Blvd., Union Twp., in Clermont County
Phone: 800-580-3101
Founder and Chief Executive Officer: Ken Oaks
Executive Vice President: Kerry Byrne
Website: www.tql.com
2013 sales: $1.6 billion
Employees: 2,853 nationwide at 27 offices in 16 states
THREE WAYS THIS MATTERS TO YOU
1. BIG GROWTH. Total Quality Logistics has become southwest Ohio's largest privately-held company, based on sales. But its business can be conducted anywhere.
However, Executive Vice President Kerry Byrne said the company is rooted in southwest Ohio, where its founders live and TQL has built a strong customer base.
“We could do what we do from anywhere,” Byrne said. “However, do we feel like being headquartered in Ohio creates opportunities for us? Yes.”
2. JOBS. Total Quality Logistics, which employs nearly 3,000 people nationwide, is looking for "aggressive, hardworking" employees "committed to providing the highest level of customer service." Find more information about how to apply here: http://www.tql.com/tql-jobs/home
3. KEY INDUSTRY. Logistics has been recognized as a key Cincinnati-Dayton region industry for growth, with efforts focused on providing worker skills and to recruit more distribution and transportation companies.
Already one of southwest Ohio’s fastest-growing companies, Total Quality Logistics expects to break $2 billion in sales this year for the first time.
The freight broker’s growth trajectory has already propelled Clermont County-based TQL — which has sales offices in Centerville and West Chester Twp. — to the top of the list of largest privately-held companies in the Cincinnati Tristate region based on 2013 sales of $1.6 billion.
Last year, TQL was recognized by Inc. Magazine as Ohio's top privately-held job creator, and the country's largest private job creator from the logistics and transportation industry.
TQL now employs nearly 3,000 people at 27 locations in 16 states, said Kerry Byrne, the company’s executive vice president.
But job seekers, customers and suppliers shouldn’t expect the locally-based logistics company to apply the brakes anytime soon, Byrne said.
Noting this has been a particularly good year, Byrne said, “it took us 14 years to hit $1 billion in sales and we hit $2 billion in year 17. I’m very confident that we continue to grow and that we continue to find the right people to grow.”
“We don’t take our foot off the gas pedal.”
Total Quality Logistics, founded in 1997 by University of Dayton graduate Ken Oaks, has regional satellite offices in Centerville, West Chester Twp., Western Hills, Milford and Erlanger, Ky., in addition to its Union Twp. headquarters.
TQL is a freight brokerage, or a middle man in the transportation industry. Its staff negotiates truck loads, rates and destinations between the companies that need products hauled and the truck carriers that deliver goods.
“We’ve very aggressive in reinvesting back in the company in people and technology. We are trying to find the best person out there. The person who’s aggressive, hardworking, committed to providing the highest level of customer service, because that’s how we differentiate ourselves in this market, and then we train them,” Byrne said.
“We’ve invested heavily in training and we think that’s part of our competitive advantage as well,” he said.
Presently, TQL brokers 21,000 loads of freight a week. The company got its start moving produce from point a to point b. Due to those beginnings, at least 25 percent of business is still frozen or refrigerated food product, a specialty in the industry, Byrne said.
Despite the brokerage firm’s hard-to-believe growth rates, Byrne said there’s still room to capture more market share. Logistics is a big market, and TQL still represents less than 2 percent of the pie nationally, he said.
Total Quality competes against other brokers as well as companies that also own trucking fleets.
“We have expanded out footprint outside of Ohio and across the country, and that is to continue to search for talent,” he said.
While TQL is hunting for hardworking account managers, the logistics industry as a whole faces talent shortages, Byrne added.
“There’s a serious driver shortage out there and it’s not going to go away any time soon,” he said.
“What that does is that means capacity is tighter. It’s harder to find trucks out there,” he said. “That represents opportunities for a freight brokerage operation who has access to 10s of thousands of carriers out there to help the shippers.”
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