Ten Transportation Companies, One Name: Introducing TCG

Shippers today face an array of challenges. From rising freight rates to tariff impacts (now you see them, now you don’t), capacity constraints, seasonal fluctuation and heightened customer demands (on time in full, etc.), there’s a lot on your plate.

The last thing you need is the added complexity of cobbling together a transportation plan that involves juggling disparate providers, or dealing with a mega third-party logistics company that saves the white glove treatment for accounts with major tonnage.

Enter TCG, the operating brand of holding company The Cox Group, bringing a 40-year legacy of service excellence across warehousing, multi-mode trucking, and supply chain services. As of today, our 10 brands sit under a single operating model, giving you what most mid-market third-party logistics providers cannot:

• Asset depth + brokerage flexibility
• Dedicated capacity + the ability to flex into the spot market
• Regional density + national reach
• Under one accountable partner

Family owned from inception, TCG is a $700 million operation with 4,000 employees across 50 sites in the US, Canada and Mexico. The company is self-funded with no VC backing, accountable only to ourselves and our valued customers across mid-market manufacturers, distributors, and product brands.

The customers who choose TCG are shippers who left the megacap 3PLs because they could not get a real person on the phone. They are the ones who consolidate vendor lists because they want one number to call, one master agreement, and one escalation path. They are the ones whose freight, if it is mishandled once, costs them dearly in lost business and reputation. TCG makes sure those customers get what they came for.

In brief, here’s the journey that got us to today.

The History

Charles W. Cox attended the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia – predecessor to Drexel University – but never graduated. A true inspiration for those that have never attended college, he succeeded through hard work and dedication to purpose.

While working as vice chairman of Daniel Construction, C.W. Cox had a contract to build chemical plants for GE Plastics in the 1960s and 1970s. Seeing an opportunity to start and grow a business supplying third-party logistics for GE Plastics, he exited Daniel Construction and founded Warehouse Services Inc. (WSI) in Mount Vernon, Ind. in 1986.

In the late 1980s, GE Plastics approached WSI about bidding on a couple transportation jobs. The company decided to branch out into transportation as a result, starting with a single tractor-trailer.

“That’s how the whole transportation business evolved,” said Barry Cox, son of C.W. and owner of The Cox Group, who has been involved since WSI’s founding. “It was just a local shuttle within a 100 to 50-mile radius. We really didn't have any interest in being in the transportation business, but we do what our customers ask.”

After the passing of C.W. Cox, his wife Jill became CEO of WSI. Not content with leased space in Greenville, SC, Jill went in search of a new location for the business. Six months later, the company purchased a former apparel manufacturing facility in Piedmont, SC, including 83,500 square feet of warehouse and 4,000 square feet of office space. The entire facility was gutted and refurbished, including the tricky disassembly and removal of the steam press system. Two facilities followed shortly in Burkville, Ala. and Selkirk, NY.

Through the years WSI experienced double-digit growth, earning a reputation for responsiveness to customer needs and delivering on whatever logistical or transportation challenges they faced. The company expanded nationally, with word of mouth and reputation a big piece of their success, with executives bringing them in when they changed organizations.

The Acquisitions

The transformation from WSI into The Cox Group did not happen overnight, but was the result of a deliberate acquisition strategy that began more than a decade ago. The company chose to expand WSI beyond its roots to create a diversified family of transportation, brokerage, and supply chain companies.

The first major step came in September 2013 with the acquisition of Contract Transport Services (CTS), marking a major expansion of The Cox Group’s transportation operations. CTS added dedicated trucking capabilities, expanding the company’s ability to control more of the transportation network.

The next significant expansion was in July 2018 with the acquisition of Walt’s Drive-A-Way, an Evansville, IN-based transportation company founded in 1972. The acquisition strengthened The Cox Group’s regional transportation footprint and added decades of trucking experience and customer relationships.

A major milestone followed in November 2021, when The Cox Group acquired three companies in a single transaction, all based in Minneapolis, Minn.:

• Total Logistics Inc. (TLI): A full-service logistics company offering dedicated fleets, warehousing, brokerage, and end-to-end logistics support.
• Dedicated Logistics Inc. (DLI): A dedicated transportation company serving regional, specialized, and contract fleet needs.
• Dedicated Logistics Services (DLS): A freight brokerage and 3PL provider supporting truckload, LTL, expedited freight, and transportation management.

These three acquisitions significantly broadened The Cox Group’s capabilities across dedicated transportation, logistics, and freight brokerage, accelerating our evolution into a more comprehensive transportation partner capable of supporting increasingly complex customer needs.

The Cox Group continued to expand our geographic reach and service offerings in September 2023 with the acquisition of Sky Transportation. The addition brought greater cross-border expertise, particularly in U.S.-Mexico freight movement, a capability that has become increasingly important for manufacturers and distributors operating across North American supply chains.

The most recent acquisition came in December 2024 with the addition of COPP, a company founded in 1989 with deep expertise in intermodal transportation and customs-related services.

Along the way, The Cox Group built three brands from the ground up: International Logistics Services (ILS), which combines an asset-based fleet with freight brokerage across the U.S., Canada and Mexico; ILSCI, providing warehousing, transportation, and supply chain support for the Canadian market; and Industrial Transport Services (ITS), with dedicated long-haul dry van and dry bulk trucking.

Taken together, these acquisitions created a transportation network with specialized strengths in dedicated trucking, brokerage, intermodal, cross-border logistics, and supply chain services. What began as a warehousing and 3PL company evolved into a collection of specialized operating brands built around the same family ownership, operating discipline, and commitment to solving customers’ most complex logistics challenges.

“Our business model focuses on developing a network of operations that are separated by no more than 500 miles,” Barry Cox said. “This benefits shippers by providing services close to their customer base. It also enables our transportation operations to move freight overnight close to the point of sale. Importantly, we’ve been able to not only expand our network but ensure a cultural fit in each case that reflects our commitment to customer-first problem solving, accessibility and accountability.”

The Launch of TCG

By 2026, it had become clear that while each transportation company within The Cox Group had earned its own reputation, customers increasingly wanted something different. They were looking for fewer vendors, greater accountability, and a transportation partner capable of solving multiple logistics challenges through a single relationship.

That realization led to the launch of TCG. Rather than operating as a collection of separate transportation and logistics brands, TCG brings together complementary capabilities under one operating company.

“Our goal is to be a turnkey solution that consolidates all our component capabilities and assets," Barry Cox said. "At the same time we are a family of transportation and logistics professionals focused on delivering solutions. Our team members have unilateral authority to work quickly to solve customers' problems. That alone makes us different.”

Just as important, customers aren't forced into bundled services they don't need. A manufacturer may begin by using TCG for dedicated transportation, later add brokerage support during seasonal capacity shortages, and eventually incorporate cross-border logistics as the business expands into Mexico. This all happens without negotiating new vendor relationships or starting another procurement process.

The same philosophy extends beyond transportation. Through The Cox Group's broader family of companies, customers can also access WSI for warehousing and supply chain services, PhishFirewall for SaaS-based cybersecurity solutions, and Industrial Plastics Group (IPG) for specialized industrial plastics expertise. The objective is not to sell more services, but to make additional capabilities available when customers need them.

For many mid-market manufacturers and distributors, that combination offers an alternative to the industry's largest third-party logistics providers. TCG provides the geographic reach of a large organization while preserving the responsiveness of a family-owned business. Customers have one phone number to call, one accountable operating partner, and direct access to decision-makers when issues arise.

For Barry Cox, that accessibility has always been intentional. "Most $700 million holding companies that grew through acquisition either sell to private equity and lose the founder voice, or they keep growing and lose the operating accessibility that made them work,” Cox explained. “We did neither. We kept the family ownership, the operating discipline, the small-shop accessibility, and used acquisitions to scale into a multi-vertical operating company.”

What You Can Expect From TCG

The launch of TCG isn't about a new logo or a corporate restructuring but making it easier to do business. Many manufacturers and distributors have reached a point where managing transportation vendors has become a job in itself. One company handles dedicated fleets, another manages brokerage, another specializes in cross-border freight, while warehousing and other supply chain functions are spread across still more providers. Every new relationship adds another contract, another point of contact, and another escalation process when something goes wrong.

TCG was created to simplify that experience without sacrificing the specialized expertise that customers depend on. Rather than asking shippers to choose between the flexibility of multiple providers or the scale of a national logistics company, TCG offers both. Customers gain access to dedicated transportation, brokerage, intermodal, truckload, cross-border logistics, and other capabilities through a single relationship, while still working with operating teams that understand their specific mode of transportation.

Just as important, customers retain the flexibility to use only the services they need. Some may rely on TCG exclusively for dedicated transportation. Others may engage the company for brokerage during seasonal capacity shortages or expand into cross-border logistics as their business grows. The relationship evolves with the customer's supply chain rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all model.

"For forty years we've built this business by listening to what customers need next," Barry Cox said. "TCG simply allows us to deliver more of those solutions through one relationship while staying true to the responsiveness and accessibility that got us here in the first place. We’ve created one unified brand so our customers better understand the value we deliver."

A New Name, the Same Commitment

TCG represents the next chapter in a story that began nearly four decades ago with a single warehouse and a commitment to solving customers' problems. Since then, the business has grown through long-term relationships, strategic acquisitions, and an operating philosophy centered on responsiveness, accountability, and family ownership.

Today, those same principles support a transportation and logistics organization with approximately $700 million in annual revenue, more than 4,000 employees, and operations spanning the United States, Canada, and Mexico. While the scale has changed dramatically, the approach has not. Customers still have access to decision-makers. Problems are still solved by people who understand the business. And growth continues to be measured not simply by revenue, but by the strength of the relationships built along the way.

The TCG name brings together ten established transportation companies under one operating model, making it easier for customers to access broader capabilities while working with a partner that remains responsive, dependable, and committed to the long term.

Interested in simplifying your transportation network while gaining access to one of North America's most comprehensive family-owned logistics organizations? Contact TCG today to learn how we can support your business.