BLX Expedited Carriers was ‘moving medical stuff before COVID’

What works for most other business can work for the trucking industry, Brice Lukasko has found.

“No matter what industry you’re in, customer service wins all,” Lukasko said. “Where companies go wrong is, you’re paying someone hardly livable wages and you’re expecting them to provide that service.”

BLX Expedited Carriers specializes in quick responses to customers in need of rapid, just-in-time shipments.

Cedar Rapids native Lukasko will recount his experience starting the freight brokerage during a 1 Million Cups discussion, sponsored by NewBoCo, on Dec. 15.

“The services we provide are time-critical,” Lukasko said.

“That starts as soon as the quotes are sent over and how we react. You’ve got to be time-critical even before the freight’s on the road.”

Lukasko, 29, applied lessons learned at Cedar Rapids-based CRST and another local hauler in launching BLX — his initials and “X” for “expedited” — in 2014.

“It was pretty much what we’re doing now,” he said. “Same idea, different niche. We were doing full truckload (service), the niche we do now is time-critical, full expedited.”

That service commands premium rates for timely service, starting with office staff who respond to round-the-clock client inquiries within minutes. Lukasko extends premium pay for the employees who provide the service, from customer service to over-the-road drivers.

That’s helped fuel BLX’s rapid growth, paused only briefly due to last year’s COVID-19-induced economic slowdown. Josh Polansky, BLX president and partner, said revenue grew about 20 percent in 2020.

“This year our revenues are almost going to be a little over doubled from 2020,” to about $75 million, Polansky said.

“The pandemic has not really been that big a factor,” Lukasko said. “A lot of people had their eggs in one basket. We have thousands of different clients in thousands of different industries.

“We were moving medical stuff before COVID, so we’ve actually seen a spike a little bit.”

Lukasko called Polansky, a high school friend then attending the University of Iowa, soon after starting BLX.

“It was either go to law school or just dive into this,” recalled Polansky, now 28.

BLX moved its staff, now about 40, in April from the downtown Higley Building to offices in Hiawatha.

“We’re already running out of space,” Lukasko said.

Work to expand its facility is planned to start in January.

Lukasko was working in CRST’s Dallas office before starting his own company, which maintained an office there. He recently closed that branch and moved back to his hometown.

BLX also maintains an office in Chicago.

Lukasko estimates only about 30 percent of BLX’s business is full truckloads. About 65 percent is time-critical, smaller shipments.