CRST International |
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Official Site: CRST.com
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History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's CRST page on 2 February January 2017, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
CRST International is a freight company based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Founded in 1955 by Herald and Miriam Smith, it is a privately held company with a current fleet of about 4,500 trucks and annual revenues of $1.5 billion.
CRST was founded in 1955 by Herald and Miriam Smith. They bought a chicken coop for $125 and with no trucks or customers, started their company. Herald Smith saw his opportunity when he noticed truck drivers hauling livestock to Chicago and returning empty. He convinced Chicago firms he could save them money, and he loaded those empty trucks with steel on their return to Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids Steel Transport, as it was then known, was born. Herald Smith did eventually purchase his own trucks, and also expanded beyond the Chicago to Cedar Rapids route. By 1963, CRST had reached its first milestone of $1 million in revenue.
Hitting many more milestones along the way, Herald’s son, John, eventually took over as President in 1983. John received his Masters of Business from Cornell University and worked his way up the ranks of CRST for a decade.
Under John’s leadership, CRST began acquiring niche carriers. The most significant purchase was Malone Freight Lines, Inc. out of Trussville, Alabama, which allowed CRST to expand its territory into the Southeast of the United States.
In 1997, with revenues topping $300 million, John Smith purchased CRST from his family.
In 2010, David Rusch moved into the position of President and CEO, and John moved on to become Chairman of the Board.
CRST entered a phase of mergers and acquisitions in the 2010s. CRST acquired Specialized Transportation Inc. out of Fort Wayne, Indiana in 2011. It went on to purchase the Special Products Division of Allied Van Lines in 2013. That same year, CRST acquired BESL Transport of Cincinnati, Ohio, which specializes in short haul flatbed. In 2015, CRST purchased Pegasus Transportation which is a high security, temperature controlled freight company out of Louisville, KY.
In 2014, CRST began building a new office building in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It will be the first office building of size built in downtown Cedar Rapids since the late 1990s.
Founder Herald Smith died in 2015.
CRST began a program in 2014 called "Gold Rules". Its purpose was to shift the corporate culture to focus on the drivers needs.
| 11 January 2017 15-55556 Robin Anderson v. CRST International, Inc. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit An appeal from the district court's summary judgment in a Title VII case. Download 15-55556 Robin Anderson v. CRST International, Inc. - 314MB - 36:17 |
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