Lawry Freight System Inc

Industry:	Freight & Logistics Services
Revenues:	$1.5 Million
Employees:	7

Description

Lawry has been serving the needs of the transportation and warehousing industry since 1978. The company's founder, Bill Lawry, had recently ended a 15-year management career with Kansas City-based Yellow Freight System, Inc, when he started Lawry Freight System, Inc.

At about this same time, deregulation of the air freight industry occurred. The knowledge and experience gained at Yellow Freight allowed Lawry to recognize that the motor freight industry would eventually follow. With that, he took a chance and established his own air cartage company.

"With my background in trucking," he said, "it enabled me to stay focused on one simple objective: somehow or another the freight needs to get from the shipper's dock to the airport." Those early years at Lawry were very different from his years at Yellow Freight, a $3 billion less-than-truckload carrier.

After establishing an "office" in a Palmer, MA phone booth, the young company went 13 days before receiving it's first call - a call that would generate $12.42 in revenue. A short time later, a traffic accident demolished the phone booth and the company was forced to move to Union Street in Westfield, MA.

As Bill had expected, the motor freight industry was deregulated in 1980. This change would prove fortuitous. Lawry immediately applied for trucking authority in the six New England states. After posting the necessary bond and receiving the authority, the company sought and was awarded a 48-state authority. They were now ready to roll.