Shipping with Heart: How Fun, Innovative Culture Drives Exceptional Service [VIDEO]

When we talk about company culture, we tend to focus on what’s happening within our own four walls, so to speak. But in the transportation industry, culture is an important factor at every step in the supply chain—certainly within your own company, but also in the partners, vendors, and suppliers you choose, as well. 

You’ve probably heard the expression, “You’re only as strong as your weakest link.” Across the supply chain, you need the dedication, consistency and efficiency that results from exceptional culture. It’s critically important in a business like ours, where people are constantly challenged to quickly make sense of complex customer needs and the myriad factors involved in moving goods from point A to B as safely and efficiently as possible. 

Positive Culture a Must in a Transportation Logistics Partner

Research shows that when employees feel their voices are heard, they are over 4x more likely to feel empowered to do their best work. Highly engaged teams also show 21% greater profitability, with less absenteeism and reduced turnover. Culture touches every aspect of your business, from employee satisfaction and retention to productivity, innovation, and the level of service you’re able to deliver for customers.

We know that as a customer in the transportation industry, our culture affects you and your business, too.

That’s why we’ve made it our top priority. When Mitch Luciano took over as CEO of Trailer Bridge in 2015, it was clear from both employee and customer feedback that our culture was sorely lacking. At some point, it had stopped being fun and rewarding to come to work. That needed to change, from the top right on down.

And it did. It didn’t happen overnight, but we’ve transformed our company culture together. Today, it’s something we’re all working together to continue to build and protect.

How People Drive the Success of Supply Chain Management Processes

The positive company culture we’ve worked hard to build earned Trailer Bridge recognition from Inc. recently as a “Top Workplace for 2020,” and it’s a benefit that we’re delighted to pass on to our customers, too. When we won the 2019 Quest for Quality Award for Top Ocean Carrier, it was a direct result of that laser focus on building a remarkable culture—on empowering our employees to serve our customers’ needs to the very best of their abilities in every transaction, now and for years to come.

Whether shipping via ocean (containers, over-dimensional, NIT, or SOL), full truckload, less-than-truckload, rail, or expedited, we make it happen through each team member’s unwavering commitment to 12 core values:

1. Deliver exceptional service to everyone
2. Be kind & fair
3. Be honest & fearlessly authentic
4. Act with integrity
5. Be passionate & determined
6. Be flexible & embrace change
7. Be accountable for your actions
8. Build open & honest relationships with communication
9. Create & be fun
10. Be curious & adventurous
11. Pursue growth & learning
12. Be fast & accurate

People who do what they love, serving people who love what we do—it really is that simple. 

So, what does an exceptional service built on the solid foundation of a fun, innovative culture look like? Check it out:

(Full video transcript available below)

The Story of a People-centric Business Led With Love – Full Video Transcript

Narrator – 00:00

There are more people living on earth today than at any other time in history. In fact, the world’s population is expected to hit 9.9 billion by the year 2050. With more people than ever, more cargo is being moved in every direction and in every way. 

One would be hard-pressed to find something in their home or office that wasn’t moved at some point in a container, either by land or sea, barge or truckload or rail to name a few. This increased need to move cargo has resulted in the rapid growth of the logistics industry.

Eric Massoti, Vice President of Logistics – 00:39 

Transportation itself is over a $600 billion dollar industry and when you look at the domestic landscape, there are tons of technology factors that are really changing the game. It started out as a notecard/phone system about 20 years ago. Today, big data and information technology play a huge part in how you can match the best truck with the specific shipment in order to have a reduced cost to both the shipping company and also the end-user.

Mitch Luciano, CEO – 01:02 

I joined the organization back at the end of 2012, about a year after they came out of a bankruptcy in 2011. I joined the company as the VP of Logistics. During that period of time from the end of 2012 to the end of 2014, we had four CEOs in the organization. At the end of 2014, the board decided to offer me the opportunity of being the president and CEO of Trailer Bridge. 

Since I had two years already at the organization, I quickly realized it was the morale and culture of the organization that wasn’t focused on positivity or growth. We were continuing to have large losses and so we had to fix that. We focused on the employees of the company. We did it with the basis of love and kindness, and we did it by holding leadership accountable for listening to the employees and ultimately that led into results that were positive. In 2016, we were voted number eight in the best place to work in all of Jacksonville. In 2017, we were voted the best place to work in Jacksonville—#1.  

The employees embraced the changes that we were bringing in and everything around this organization—whether it’s the foosball table, whether it’s the pool table, or whether it’s just listening to the employees—really resonated and brought them huge amounts positivity. 

Our customers love us; they voted us #1 in service. We know them and they’re like family to us, too. So it really created an incredible organization that’s growing, from $100 million to $200 million in just a three-year span, plus having huge positive results behind it.

Jeff Vaughn, CCO – 02:28

The key point of contact in the industry was to have multiple facets of the service lines in the supply chain, from scheduling to documentation to booking a request to booking a container, to moving freight from A to B, and the multiple individuals that they’re communicating with. We try to make sure that we have a single point of contact for that customer, so they build trust and a relationship with one individual that will start to promote additional opportunities. They build trust quicker in that aspect and also it’s sustainable, so we develop that going forward. We have a single point of contact through every part of the supply chain with our customer base.

Narrator – 03:08

When a company culture bolsters a family dynamic where everyone can thrive, especially in a fast-paced industry such as the logistics industry, the employees succeed. The company thrives and the expectations of customers are exceeded, projecting entire industries forward. At Trailer Bridge, we love what we do and we’re different because of it.

Kerry Shugart, Director of Terminal Operations – 03:28 

We strive for the highest levels safety levels when we’re operating by having accountability for all of our actions, whether it’s regulatory or whether it’s safety. The safety of our personnel is our priority and then we follow up with the integrity of the cargo we pass along to the customers. 

We strive to always hire the best talent. I really base it on finding people with the personalities that are a great fit for our culture. Then we try to mirror that with a high level of intelligence in technically sound people in the industry. But first and foremost, looking for people that fit our culture as well as having the industry talent—this is going to help us succeed.

Narrator – 03:58

Trailer Bridge has discovered that there’s a direct correlation between business growth and applying a philosophy of fun, innovation, and exceptional service to both employees and customers.

Indie Bollman, VP of Corporate Development – 4:08

Here at Trailer Bridge, we understand the importance of culture and we also know very well that it begins at the point of application. Getting the right people on board is important to keeping the culture alive and it’s also important to change it when it needs to change. But that starts with identifying what you’re looking for in those employees. What are they bringing to the table? 

For us, it’s a half-and-half thing—it’s half character; it’s half type-A, go-getters, drivers… And here’s the thing: the other half is skill, so we love those type-A, great people who are nice. A lot of people would say, ‘Well, that’s not possible.’ I happen to know it’s very possible and we welcome them onboard every day.

Mitch Luciano, CEO – 04:46

Our number one goal is to continue the culture that we’ve built at Trailer Bridge because as any company grows, focusing on that culture is going to be incredibly important. We, as an organization, have doubled in size over the last three years and our goals are to even do that again over the next three years. In doing so, we have to remain focused on the people, especially since we’re opening up branches around the country. It makes it more difficult; they’re not in one central location and so getting people out there to see them on a regular basis, and bringing them here to see what the culture is, listening to them whether they’re in Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Puerto Rico wherever they might be—it is very, very important that we sustain that culture because that’s only going to help us sustain that growth and double in size again over the next several years.