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 CEO: Ken Oaks
PRESIDENT: Kerry Byrne
WEBSITE: www.tql.com
2015 SALES: Approximately $2.2 billion
EMPLOYEES: About 3,800 nationwide at 41 offices in 20 states
Despite opening at least 10 new sales offices nationwide and adding about 800 employees to its roster in 2015, the Cincinnati market’s largest privately-held company expects to expand its footprint to even more cities in 2016, said President Kerry Byrne.
Freight brokerage firm Total Quality Logistics now operates or has announced plans for 41 sales office locations in 20 states, according to the company. Last year saw the firm enter new territories such as Las Vegas, Nev., and the first West Coast office in the Portland, Ore., area. Additionally, Total Quality is adding sites in its home state of Ohio, with new office openings planned in the Akron, Toledo and Youngstown regions.
Expect for more than 15 new offices to be announced in the year ahead, Byrne said.
“We have the opportunity to grow in any decent-sized city,” Byrne said.
Clermont County-based 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. Staff negotiate truck loads, rates and destinations between the companies that need products hauled and the truck carriers that deliver goods.
After posting sales of over $2 billion in 2014, Byrne said the company beat its own sales record again in 2015, reaching about $2.2 billion. Brokers last year arranged almost 1.2 million truckload shipments across North America, about a 20 percent increase from the year before, according to the company.
“It may seem to some that $2 billion is big, but in relation to the market that we’re in, it’s really not that big,” he said. “We feel like we still have a tremendous amount of runway here to grow.”
As a sales business, Total Quality could conduct deals from anywhere. But adding new sales teams across the country helps achieve several goals: finding new talent, developing leadership in charge of new locations, and being closer to potentially new customers and truck carriers, Byrne said.
Total Quality now has approximately 3,800 employees nationwide.
“Is there a limit? Not that I’m aware of,” Byrne said.
However, Total Quality has a competitive, high-energy, fast-paced environment and it’s not a job for everybody, he said.
"It has been and will continue to be the search for talent. It's a difficult job and we know that. That's why we put so many resources into training and that's why we're so meticulous about our training process," Byrne said.
“Yes, we have turnover, we always will. We’re a sales organization. We focus on getting the right people in here,” he said.
In addition to geographic expansion, Total Quality Logistics’ growth is being fueled by more businesses outsourcing freight functions to third-party logistics companies, he added. Additionally, Total Quality’s growing scale in the industry feeds sales numbers thanks to greater name recognition and the ability to meet needs of large, multi-state shippers, Byrne said.
“With our footprint as well as just our size, most of the big shippers know who we are now. We’ve gained credibility in the market. We’ve earned it,” he said.
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