Lacona-based logistics company celebrating 30 years in business
By Stefan Yablonski
Laser Transit keeps on truckin’ decade after decade after decade.
What makes Laser Transit so successful all these years?
“Not a single attribute, but several factors contribute,” according to founder and CEO George Joyce.
“We were actually formed on Dec. 31, 1994. But ’95 is when we first began operations,” he said. “I haven’t really thought about [celebrations]. But certainly, we should mark the milestone somehow. It’s a big deal to get to where we are today from where we started. I’ve been doing this a while, since I graduated college in the early ‘70s. I’ve been in the logistics business for more than 50 years.”
They literally started on a shoestring and managed to move quite a ways, he added.
“We’ve managed to work with just about all the major companies in Oswego County — we’ve watched a lot of people come and go, also,” he said. “I feel good that we are still up and running and really still thriving. So I’m pretty happy about that.”
“Literally, we started out with just one [vehicle]. When I say shoestring, it really was a shoestring,” he continued with a laugh. “Originally we were just doing some transportation brokerage, farming loads out to other carriers and truckers. Then we started doing stuff for International Paper with one truck at the time. That was the first truck I ever bought and then from there we ended up buying a couple of trucks. Over the years we’ve managed to get up to around 20 trucks. We had more when we were running more long-distance operations — literally across country and then everywhere east of the Mississippi. Now we are really a New England regional based company [into Ontario, Canada]. We’ve narrowed our geography. It is what suits us, gets our guys home every night, every weekend. That helps us attract drivers. When you’re trying to hire new drivers it seems there are less that want to do over the road and a lot more want to do local and short haul. We’re seeing a little more interest; but finding drivers is still a challenge.”
Laser Transit employs about 35 people.
“It’s been pretty steady. We are facing some of the same issues that everybody’s facing,” he said. “Boomers are the largest segment of truck drivers — we’ve had people retire. These jobs are good jobs and pay pretty well. We try to recruit — we would like to grow a lot quicker. But you can only grow based on the availability of skilled workers.”
The company is also trying to participate in programs from Oswego County Workforce New York Career Center.
BOCES has jumped in and partnered with the company, too. It’s been a pretty successful program, Joyce added.
“We want to expand,” he said. “I am a firm believer that if you’re not growing …there’s no stability in businesses; you’ve got to adapt, you got to grow.
“You think you’re competing locally — which you are for some business — but more likely you are competing with the entire industry because trucks are mobile assets. There is always that push-pull of competition.
“On the other hand without collaboration you’re not in business for long, either. You can be good competitors; but you have to be even better collaborators. It’s an interesting business.”
“You have to adapt, diversify. When I first started, we were doing just dry vans. We adapted and went to flat bed,” he said. “Our distribution warehousing part has allowed us to have some diversification as well.”
Forest products, that’s part of the reason they moved to Lacona, he explained.
“Paper making has declined in New York. But one of our good customers to this day is Felix Schoeller; as well as a variety of other paper companies in the region. We did business with Container Corporation, Miller Brewing, Owens Illinois — I actually did a little business with the Ivory Coast company that came to take over Nestle. We do a lot of business with Novelis,” he said.
Laser Transit currently is more centered in serving manufacturing and larger industry and doing a little bit of retail, smaller shipments of parcels.
A small business needs to have its ears to the ground and be agile enough to adapt to markets, but also to overall economic conditions, Joyce said.
“Positioning your business for opportunities and prioritizing your efforts are key to long-term success,” he added. “Yes, you need business acumen and the ability to hire the right people with the right skill sets — but to remain in business and become successful, the essential and overarching element to all your interactions with everyone including employees, customers and vendors, is developing trust and demonstrating respect.”
That means communicating — whether by voice, email, text or in social media — your values, not just your value proposition, he said.
“Recognize everyone has a voice and listen to their concerns. Lead by example, involve yourself with the community and let people know that your actions match your desire to perform in their best interests,” he explained. “Your premise should start with delivering products or services that meet or exceed their expectations, but your ability to frame their long-term experience depends on the culture of your organization and how consistently the outcome speaks to an expression of best intentions.”
Joyce said he is always looking at where is the growth in this market.
“You have got to adapt, you’ve got to grow — do all those things to stay in business. Adapting is one of those things that keeps people interested and challenges them as well. It’s nice to have a few challenges — that forces you to be innovative, to work a little harder,” he said. “Change is good. I think change is good for any business; it’s good for everybody’s mindset, too.”
At a Glance
Founded in 1995, Laser Transit, Ltd. packages logistics services including transportation, distribution and warehousing, third-party logistics and outsourcing services to primary industries throughout the region.
The company has its main offices and 225,000 square feet of rail-served distribution facilities in Lacona, adjacent to I-81. It operates another 100,000 square feet in Oswego.
Company fleet operations with both flat bed and dry van divisions annually deliver approximately 10,000 truckload shipments throughout the Northeast as well as Ontario, Canada.
