Trailer Bridge: Riding the logistics wave

Jacksonville-based Trailer Bridge Inc., expecting to surpass $350 million in revenue this year, is moving its logistics office within the city to accommodate growth.

The shipping and logistics company sells ocean, truckload, intermodal, expedited, specialized cargo, vehicles, warehousing and transloading services.

Trailer Bridge CEO Mitch Luciano said the company needs to double the size of that logistics office from its current 45 employees, including some corporate staff, to almost 100.

“The whole logistics piece has grown tremendously the last six to nine months,” Luciano said.

“The organic growth we’ve seen is really our way of providing a service to shippers who need a partner that has the expertise to navigate today’s supply chain challenges.”

Malcom McLean founded Trailer Bridge in 1991 to begin ocean shipping with 53-foot containers, which shippers began using in the 1990s to transition from different modes of transportation. They transitioned from 40-foot and 45-foot boxes.

The containers were shipped by barge between Jacksonville and Puerto Rico. 

Containers on Trailer Bridge’s roll-on/roll-off barges remain on their chassis. They are driven on and off the barge.

Trailer Bridge has expanded into a global transportation company with more ocean routes, domestic transportation and new international and government divisions.

The company says it offers ocean shipping and freight forwarding by air, rail and land. That includes warehousing and distribution services; customs clearance; and other services.

Trailer Bridge bills itself as a one-stop solution for customers in freight planning. It has grown into a full-service brokerage and logistics provider moving goods across North America. 

Its ocean business is barge service to the Caribbean. Its government business manages freight movements connected with the military.

Its international business handles freight movement globally.

Logistics is the freight brokerage that handles loads moving landside throughout the U.S.

Trailer Bridge has three offices in Jacksonville.

Its headquarters are at 10405 New Berlin Road in North Jacksonville near the Jacksonville Port Authority’s Blount Island Marine Terminal and off Interstate 295.

It also has a port office at Blount Island.

It will move its logistics office from 5011 Gate Parkway in JTB Center about 2 miles north to 4600 Touchton Road E., Building 200, in Deerwood North.

The size more than doubles from 6,517 square feet to 15,000 square feet.

Tenant Contractors Inc. is the contractor for the estimated $639,420 construction project that Luciano expects will be completed in the fall.

He said the two buildings are owned by the same landlord, which eases the transition. The remaining years on the current lease will be rolled into the new one.

Luciano said that 2020, when the pandemic began, was “an OK year,” with three months of little or no business from March to May.