“We aren’t going to equal team truck transit that some customers are used to, so we need to help them understand what we do,” Van Kirk notes.
Tiger Cool Express sees its greatest challenge in communicating its services to potential customers and gaining greater marketshare. We want to offer something unique and untapped on the commercial side while maintaining our footprint in the produce world,” she adds. “We are really focused on getting in front of larger customers and building out what we do and what we offer at a time when the market is eager for new capacity solutions. To expand its customer base, Tiger Cool Express has begun amplifying its marketing plans, which Baird says is evident through its digital and social media work. We are working with larger commercial customers and targeting customers in the wholesale food distribution, beverage distributors and other commodity types.” “The company has done a nice job in the produce environment – they know who we are and that we provide a reliable solution for them. “Because we are relatively new to the service and industry, the exciting thing is now brand awareness and recognition,” Baird says. The company has since expanded its capacity to serve the confectionary, beverage, meat, seafood, dairy, processed food and health and beauty sectors. “When we developed the business plan, we really felt the last frontier for intermodal was perishables – specifically produce – because it was a long length of a haul, and that’s traditionally where intermodal has succeeded,” Prince says. Tiger Cool Express got its start in the produce industry and is now well known as a reliable carrier in that sector. “For a new company, there is a lot of information at our fingertips that allows us to remain nimble in decision-making,” she adds. She says one of the things that has impressed her the most since coming aboard is the level of technology in terms of containers and operating systems. “The refrigerated temperature-control intermodal opportunity is massive and has barely begun.”Ĭhief Commercial Officer Leslie Baird joined Tiger Cool Express in October. “I had worked in the intermodal industry and what excited me about Tiger Cool Express was the conversion of temperature controlled truckload freight to intermodal is the last great frontier that’s out there,” Van Kirk says. He previously served as president of Swift Intermodal for five years and spent 12 years at Schneider National leading commercial, logistics and intermodal groups. Van Kirk joined Tiger Cool Express in September.
The company employs more than 40 people today and its staff includes a mix of industry veterans and newcomers. Tiger Cool Express specializes in arranging movements of refrigerated cargo containers in the intermodal truck and rail business. “Because we’re a young company, a lot of people wouldn’t realize that.”Ĭhairman Thomas Finkbiner and COO Theodore Prince, both industry veterans, founded the Overland Park, Kan.-based company with a goal of conquering a final frontier for long-haul shipment of perishables. “I believe one thing that would surprise people is that we are already a top 25 refrigerated transportation company by revenue,” CEO Steve Van Kirk says. In just four years, the company has grown quickly into one of the country’s leading cold chain carriers. Tiger Cool Express shipped its first temperature-controlled refrigerated intermodal container in 2014. Tiger Cool Express focuses on building brand awareness to become the largest refrigerated intermodal carrier in the United States.