On the move: American Fast Freight: American Fast Freight was born in Alaska to serve the nation.(Cover Story)

American Fast Freight will move it for you. Anything. From a ton of iron beams to a carton of eggs, AFF will arrange for the transportation of your merchandise to its destination and get it there on time, says Mike Jones, Alaska's general manager for sales and operations.

AFF, a $100 million transportation and logistics group that began in Anchorage, now has its headquarters in Seattle. There are many things that separate AFF from its competitors, according to Jones. Technically, AFF uses the most up-to-date software and computer systems to organize and track projects. Also, there is a corporate philosophy to embrace challenge and be creative when necessary.

"All those years I lived in Alaska, I figured if we could create a freight company that had a can-do spirit and resolve, we could be successful everywhere," said Tim Jacobson, corporate CEO and one of the founding fathers. "We had to get products into a market without superhighways and expanded rail systems. That uniqueness forced us to be innovative to survive."

EMPLOYEES A KEY FACTOR

Another key factor in the company's success is its work force; AFF's employees take pride in their capacity to make transportation projects easy for their clients.

"As an example," said Jones, "someone can call us from Chicago, who wants something transported from Virginia, and he'll say, 'Take care of it for me.' And we do it. That customer doesn't have to make another call and can rest assured the more will happen and he'll be satisfied.

"Most other companies don't have the same reach as we do. When someone calls them with a similar situation, they may have to call several other companies, but we just call one of our terminals and ask them to take care of it. We are a very customer-oriented company."

AFF is also a very employee-oriented company that promotes from within; Jones is a good example. He grew up in Kenai and is a 1992 graduate of Soldotna High School who majored in business management at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Jones, 32, did not start off in his current managerial role. After high school, he worked as a blue-collar man, kicking boxes in the warehouse, before moving up the corporate ladder. In 2002,Jacobson relocated to the Lower 48 to take over the day-to-day management of the entire group of companies and Jones was promoted to replace him.

"That's another thing that I think separates us from our competition," Jones added. "Since AFF likes to promote from within, we know what we're getting and don't have to always be training new people. That makes a difference in our ability to provide good service; it also gives us a more close-knit, dedicated work force."

According to Mike Schuller, vice president of marketing, American Fast Freight today has about 325 employees, not counting seasonal and part-time workers. Included in that number are the 115 employees that comprise the labor force in AFF's three Alaska terminals: Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kenai-Soldotna.

SERVICES NATIONWIDE AND BEYOND

AFF has seven other terminals strategically located in the Lower 48, not including corporate headquarters in Seattle, and a 100,000-square-foot storage facility in Tacoma. American Fast Freight also operates container freight stations in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Honolulu, plus a sales and customer service office in Maui.

According to Schuller, AFF can also arrange for movement of cargo to ports at St. Thomas and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In 1990, soon after expanding its services to Hawaii, under the name Hawaiian Ocean Transport Inc., AFF opened American Relocation Services. It is a household goods moving and storage operation, which often services the military community and uses the terminals in Alaska. In 1997, AFF also acquired a company in Puerto Rico that provides ocean-freight services between the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

American Fast Freight came to life in 1982 when two entrepreneurs, Matt LePage and Jacobson, saw a better way to more cargo to and from Alaska. Coupled with hard work and vision, they turned a remote local cargo-transport company into a national, full-service transportation and logistics corporation.

Along the way, there were others who shared their dream and hard work. Many of them are still with the company. Kurt Thompson, for example, was drafted by LePage to develop the sales force; he is now vice president of corporate development and managing a number of the company's premier accounts.

Karl Brehm, who is now director of Alaska pricing, also started in the warehouse before going to the original billing department and then to his current job.

A year after the company started, Bruce Brown joined the group; he and LePage formed the investment company, which provided the capital for the purchase of the company's fleet and other freight-handling equipment. Like the others, Brown is still with the company and serves as vice president of operations.

A MIXED WORK FORCE

Over the years, women have also shared in the success of American Fast Freight. While transportation was once considered a career field for only "manly" men, according to Schuller, that has changed. Currently, women at AFF manage three of seven terminals in the Lower 48, and a number of females also serve as line supervisors and product managers.

Further up the chain-of-command is Julie Herrero. Schuller says she started off in the accounting department at Northern Air Freight Corp., until it was purchased by American Fast Freight in 1994. Since then she has fulfilled various leadership roles. In 2003, Herrero was promoted to vice president of corporate services, which answers to only the president of the company.

The great majority of the work force at American Fast Freight shares in the ownership of the company's success, which accounts for its fast growth and great success over the years.

"Little did we know when we started this," said LePage, "that not only would we grow to our present size in Alaska, but also we'd be in Hawaii and Puerto Rico. We couldn't have come this far without the core team we built ... most of whom are still with us."

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