A. Duie Pyle, a transportation and logistics services company, will turn 100 this year. Since its inception on April 1, 1924, the company, named after its founder, has been family-owned and operated. The company kicked off its centennial year with the opening of a new facility in Maine. John Luciani, A. Duie Pyle COO, said it would be the first of many this year.
Pyle (No. 79 on the 2024 FleetOwner Top 500: For-Hire) currently owns 4.4 million square feet of warehouse space, and the opening of an additional five facilities will add thousands to Pyle’s total footprint by the end of the year. The company has experienced growth over its 100-year history, but it wasn’t until 1994 that physical growth began.
“From 1924 to 1994, we were a one-terminal operation servicing southeastern Pennsylvania,” Luciani told FleetOwner. “From ‘94 to where we are today, we've opened 20 additional service centers, and we've got plans to continue to grow further expanding our service and direct footprint in the Northeast.”
Pyle previously leased one terminal to the now defunct Yellow Corp. in Queens, New York, which will be converted to a Pyle service center later this year. The carrier also purchased four additional terminals, previously owned by Yellow, through auction. Once those terminals have been brought up to the company’s standards with repairs, repaving the yard, and other maintenance—or “Pylized,” as Luciani said the Pyle team calls it—those facilities will also support Pyle’s existing network. Luciani said the plan is to open those facilities by the end of the second quarter, bringing the total number of Pyle facilities to 34.
This growth has allowed Pyle to serve customers across the East Coast from North Carolina to Canada and as far west as Cleveland, Ohio.
Investing in growth
Luciani joined A. Duie Pyle in 2010 when the company had 13 LTL service centers. Luciani attributes the company’s growth to “competitive opportunity,” but most of the growth, he says, spurred from the quality services it brings to its customers.
“What's driven our growth is the quality of our service, our longtime service performance, and requests from customers looking to have a better-quality service in a specific geographic market,” Luciani told FleetOwner.
Leadership is another factor that Luciani said contributes to Pyle's growth.
“We've had the same family ownership since April 1, 1924,” Luciani said. “They always put their money where their mouth is and pledge the profits of the business back into the business. As a result, we've grown pretty significantly.”
The company may be turning 100, but its leaders think progressively and want Pyle to be an “employer of choice” by offering career growth opportunities to the 4,000 employees that have made Pyle what it is today, Luciani told FleetOwner.
“We create service to the efforts of people,” Luciani said. “If the people believe in what we're doing, and they trust what we're doing, and they're proud of where they work and what they do, and they make a fair rate wage and have solid benefits—it's a good recipe for long-term success.”
Celebrating Pyle’s people
To celebrate A. Duie Pyle’s 100 years of success, multiple events have been planned to show appreciation for its employees, customers, and some of its vendors. At these events, Pyle will treat its full-time, part-time, and retired employees, as well as their spouses or significant others, to a dinner with employee recognition and celebration. Employees will receive a history book of Pyle, a commemorative coin, and a special edition 1918 International model truck—the same one owned by the founder when the company began.
It’s important to the Pyle team to include retired employees in the celebration because they helped create and build the foundation that Pyle continues to build on, Luciani told FleetOwner.
“It's a people business. Whether it's somebody loading the truck, unloading the truck,or doing the final-mile delivery, it's always going to be a people business,” Luciani said. “We want to make sure that we take care of our Pyle people, because it's more than just a tagline on our trucks. Our logo, ‘Pyle People Deliver,’ ... that's our culture.”
