Logistics Plus founder Jim Berlin let 'the cosmos lead the way' to company's rapid growth

Jim Berlin mouthed off so many times to his bosses it eventually caught up to him.

In 1996, USF Red Star, a less-than-truckload trucking company, gave Berlin his walking papers. He was 44 with kids in high school and faced the daunting reality that he might have to return to college to reinvent himself.

"I was a truck driver for 10 years and then a boss of a trucking company for 10 years, and had a big mouth for all 20 years," Berlin, now 72, recalls in a phone interview from his winter getaway in Delray Beach, Florida. "I kept getting in trouble and I kept getting fired. And the last time I got fired, the guy came into work in Jamestown, and he says, 'I'm sorry, I gotta let you go. Good luck to you,' in front of all the drivers. I said, 'You know what? Good luck to you. You are losing the best guy you got.' I walked out strong, got around the corner and fell on my knees and go, 'What am I going to do now?'"

Instead of caving to the occupational unknowns that awaited, Berlin took his stubbornness and brazenness and channeled it into a new venture. With three employees, he formed Logistics Plus.

Rapid growth

What started in 1996 with a one-year, $120,000 purchase order to manage GE Transportation's domestic inbound shipments has grown to become a half-a-billion-dollar company today that continues to expand its footprint across the U.S. and the globe.

Last year, Logistics Plus was again among Inc. magazine's 5,000 fastest-growing private businesses, having grown 80% over three years.

Five years ago, its had somewhere between 300 and 400 employees total, according to Chief Operations Officer Yuriy Ostapyak. Today, it has about 600 employees in the U.S. and another 600 internationally.

Its biggest contract is with the co-working space provider WeWork, but that's hardly the most recognizable, considering that Logistics Plus also has a contract with Google.

'Let the cosmos lead the way'

Credit Berlin's unorthodox, go-with-the-flow approach for the success of Logistics Plus, an approach that's allowed his company to be nimble enough to meet its clients' needs, even when it means working outside the box.

"There's an old Buddhist saying that 'there's no plan because it's all planned,'" Berlin said. "I kind of let the cosmos lead the way and just follow the leads."

For example, in 2013, its only warehouse space — and it wasn't even a warehouse prior to Logistics Plus' purchase — was the former Skinner Engine Co.'s main building at 337 West 12th St.

"It's an old factory with dirt floors and railroad tracks in the middle of it," Berlin said. "It was not ideal for warehousing, but we were using it for some customers. Now we have like almost 7 million square-feet of warehouse space. How that came about is not 'cause we were looking to do warehousing, but the customers we had needed warehousing. We'd say, 'OK, we can do that.'"

It recently added two warehouse facilities in Arizona, which total almost 2 million square-feet, as well as 3 million square feet in California. It also has warehouse space in Dallas, Miami, Chicago and Charlotte, among other places.

It also didn't plan to aid clients with more complex tasks that are uncommon for traditional logistics companies, like installing and configuring servers, tablets and computers, but it's allowed Logistics Plus to create a "one-stop shop" for clients and diversify its portfolio, Ostapyak said.

Other clients have seen the company's willingness to take on these new endeavors and have asked it to take on reverse, return and disposal logistics.

"In that process, we build these out as services," Ostapyak said. "Maybe 10 years ago it was pretty unheard of to have industrial and mechanical engineers working for logistics companies."

Playing a critical role

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Logistics Plus adapted to the supply chain issues posed by closed ports and airports running at low capacity to bring critical personal protective equipment into the country, using Delta Airbuses — passenger airplanes — and the Detroit airport, which is not a cargo airport, to work through those challenges.

Later, it used hundreds of cargo aircraft to bring COVID-19 test kits into the country, primarily through the Chicago O'Hare Airport.

In the same way it responded to the pandemic, Logistics Plus has found ways to aide Ukraine during the ongoing invasion of and war with Russia.

With offices in Kyiv, Odesa and Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, Logistics Plus raised more than $660,000 for relief efforts, which have included providing food, clothing and the purchase, shipping and installation of power generators.

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It has also worked with another Erie-based company, Vorex, an oil and gas equipment supplier, to move $100 million of gas pipe from China to help Ukraine and the European Union further break Russia's natural gas dominance.

The 22,000 tons of drill and casing pipe, used on drilling rigs all across Ukraine, required four ships and 1,000 trucks to transport, which took eight months. The final shipment of pipe was delivered to the port of Chornomorsk in January, becoming the first non-grain product to enter the port since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But as the website Ukraine Rebuild News recently reported, Logistics Plus employees, working from offices throughout Europe, also had to figure out how to navigate typhoon season in the Sea of China and "extreme congestion" in the port of Constanta, Romania.

Over the last two years, Berlin has been especially passionate about helping the people of Ukraine.

"I think it's big," he said. "I think it's an important deal for the world and I think it could be a great opportunity for our company, but even if it's not a great opportunity for the company, I think it's an important battle that's going on."

'Suspend your disbelief'

In the 27 years since founding Logistics Plus, Berlin says he's "calmed down a lot," but he also believes that his mindset — which he occasionally refers to "G.A.S." or to "give a s---" — plus some luck has been integral to the company's success.

"I learned a few things over the last 27 years, but that kind of 'just go figure it out, get it done' approach has been a big part of the culture for our company," Berlin said. "I think that's been a big part of the success.

"I always tell people that what GE liked about me is when the big shots saw me coming to their door, they knew I was coming with an answer, not with a problem," he said about the company's first and only customer for its first three years. "They liked that kind of mentality."

A self-described "over exuberant, Sixties radical,' Berlin says his style wouldn't work for everyone, which is why he'd name his autobiography, "Don't Try This at Home."

Logistics Plus doesn't hold large meetings. Instead, employees come up with possible solutions to problems and, as Berlin put it, "We just kind of say, 'OK, that makes sense. What's the worst that can happen?"

"There's a fine line between balls and brains," he said, "and I probably got more balls than brains."

With the growth of Logistics Plus has come more of a corporate mindset, Berlin admits.

"I tell 'em to suspend your disbelief 'cause you know this should not work, but it does. And it's worked for 27 years, so it's not just luck. There's more to it than that. A lot of them will say that this really should not work as well as it does, but it's incredible."

At 72, Berlin isn't ready to stop, either. His father, he said, worked until he was 81. But he has learned to let a new generation of company leaders take the reins.

"Sometimes, honestly, you feel like they don't need me," he said. "If I see something going a little bit haywire I might step in and say, 'Hey, what's your thought there?' But this younger next generation is sharp as hell. They're doing terrific. Sometimes I feel like I'm almost intruding."

Ostapyak said Berlin's importance to the success of Logistics Plus can't be understated.

"He has been instilling and driving this type of culture across the board," he said. "I think that that kind of mentality of finding a way to say yes, to continue to treat everyone right and to aggressively jump on opportunities — that has not changed since 1996. It's pretty remarkable what he's been able to build."

Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Logistics Plus founder Jim Berlin leads company to rapid global growth