Ken Oaks spent 11 years as a buying and selling agent for Castellini Company, a large Cincinnati-based produce company. During his tenure with the company, Oaks found only one freight broker he could trust and reach at all times. Frustrated with the lack of dependability in the trucking industry, Oaks teamed up with this colleague to start a third-party logistics firm.
Oaks believed that if he was having difficulty finding and trusting reputable freight intermediaries, others in the industry probably were, too. After much discussion between the partners, the entrepreneurial venture of Total Quality Logistics began in 1997.
The partners took a big risk in starting the company. They exhausted their personal assets, taking out second mortgages and using their family savings accounts to form a company in an industry known for little or no communication and poor customer service.
They set up shop in a small 300-square-foot office on the east side of Cincinnati. Beginning that day, the Total Quality Logistics operating credo was to "pledge integrity," committing to the highest ethical standards. Today, this pledge continues to be our greatest competitive advantage.
In the first year, the founding partners worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They slept in the office and rotated overnight and weekend shifts, using a mobile phone in order to truly deliver on our company's promise of nonstop, quality customer service.
Since the beginning, the partners made it a practice to be available at crucial times when other brokerage firms were nowhere to be found. They would call potential clients in the evenings and on major holidays, when it was likely they were experiencing problems, to step in and address the issues immediately.
The risk and hard work paid off. That first year, Total Quality Logistics posted revenue of $1 million and has continued with significant growth ever since.
In 2006, Oaks purchased his partner's shares of Total Quality Logistics and became the sole owner. That same year, we posted revenues of almost $300 million. In 2007, we celebrated our 10th anniversary and moved into a new 100,000-square-foot corporate headquarters, generating over $400 million in revenues.
Total Quality Logistics is a growth company within a growth industry.
The opportunities for TQL are virtually unlimited, and we have developed an aggressive plan for capitalizing on those opportunities during the next three years.
A major step in that direction begins with hiring committed and dependable professionals who will help grow our business, while keeping our reputation and integrity intact.
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