By Al Muskewitz
 
TLD Logistics Services has been delivering consistent, quality and on-time service to its customers in the automotive and food supply industries from the time its first trucks pulled off the lot 11 years ago. With that experience as the foundation, the company is adding another division it believes will enhance its profile in the industry, strengthen its bottom line and provide lucrative opportunities for the drivers hired on to service it.
 
Earlier this spring the Knoxville-based carrier launched a specialized transportation division to its lineup of services, specifically the hauling of construction-grade glass. It’s the first product line TLD has added to its offerings since 2016, when it began refrigerated delivery of processed meat.
 
“We really started looking for something that set TLD apart,” president and chief operating officer Jim Peters said. “We wanted to get into some kind of specialized transportation opportunity. We looked around and realized this was out there and actually had some people with some expertise in it who expressed an interest in joining TLD.
 
“As we learned those people and got to know them we felt this was a good direction for us to go. One of the things that was most attractive was it’s not something that every trucking company out there provides. We felt like it was a unique delivery experience that we could really work on perfecting and we could accomplish a lot of goals of trying to be a preferred employer and increase the driver wage. I think this really will become a huge staple in TLD.”
 
It comes with significant investment. The average trailer hauling glass costs about three times as much as a traditional trailer, but because of the specialized nature of the freight each truck can generate nearly $100,000 more in revenue.
 
TLD hired Mark Means to get the operation underway. Means has been in the trucking industry 20 years, with more than half the experience in glass transportation. He is currently developing a driver training program to help transition the carrier’s existing van drivers who are interested in moving into the glass operation – and there are several. But they are seeking more.
 
There are currently seven TLD trucks in service to the glass operation, but company officials expect to grow that fleet to more than 200 (in addition to the 450 vans already in service) over the next three to four years. Because the work requires a more specific set of skills, drivers hired on to the service are likely to make $15,000 to $20,000 more a year than their van counterparts.
 
“The physical demands are different than van operations because it’s a flatbed operation,” Peters said. “There’s a fair amount of training that goes into it. Making sure that load arrives with no damage is paramount.”
 
The glass customers TLD have attracted so far are companies that service the construction industry. One of its biggest clients is based in North Carolina, but TLD is looking to eventually domicile its glass-hauling trucks closer to where their customers’ manufacturing facilities are located.
 
“I was very surprised to find out what the demand was for this particular product, and it’s pretty strong,” Peters said. “It really mirrors to when construction runs … Just the little bit of experience we’ve had so far in developing a couple of customers is they need a high volume of trucks and they’re willing to pay a reasonable rate to do it.”
 
With parent company Toyota Tsusho always looking for opportunities to invest, the glass division might just be the tip of TLD’s expansion iceberg.
 
“Although we’re targeting glass, we really think what we’ll look to attract long term is more specialized transportation where there’s not 10,000 other vans waiting to pick that freight up,” Peters said. “We’re looking to be in a market where maybe there’s only two or three other large competitors, so that’s where we feel like we can set ourselves apart.”
 
Al Muskewitz is the Editor of Wright Media. He can be reached at musky@wrightmediacorp.com
 
For more information on TLD Logistics Services and its glass division, click www.tldlogistics.com