SIDNEY — Continental Express Inc., headquartered in Sidney, Ohio, is a privately held logistics company specializing in the truckload transport of temperature-sensitive food product. The company celebrated its 35th year of business in 2019.
The highlight of the year for the organization was the completion of a 5,000 square foot addition to its corporate headquarters in Sidney. Continental expanded both the administrative and operation wings of the building adding a total of 35 new work spaces. The organization also completed a renovation of the existing office space in conjunction with the building expansion. The building interior received all new carpet, paint, LED lighting, window treatments, and cubical and office furniture. The new space is modern with an open concept feel.
“We are growing and really needed the additional space,” said Russell Gottemoeller, president of Continental Express. “It’s wonderful to be able to provide our employees with a fresh, new and modern work environment on top of having the greatly needed additional space.”
His report continues:
With the new space, came additional jobs, and as expected, the company grew in size. Continental currently employs 615 people; 465 of those are drivers, and the company added 40 new jobs in 2019.
The company was also able to start hiring drivers from its Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana terminals this past year. The additional terminal locations allow Continental to better serve its customers while accessing a larger pool of truck drivers.
Continental continued to put an emphasis on work-life balance and driver wages in 2019. Continental’s top driver earned well over $100,000, while the average driver pay was $72,000. Continental strives daily to be an industry leader in pay and benefits for its employees. The men and women who are out on the road driving for Continental are extremely important, work very hard, and dedicate much of their lives to this industry. People often forget that without truck drivers, we wouldn’t have food on our tables or the shirts on our backs.
Continental finished the purchase and installation of video cameras for all of its trucks. The cameras are really “computer vision” that can record collisions, report risky behavior and analyze real world objects. Continental began to install the new cameras in 2018, but since it has completed the installation and began to fully use them in 2019.
We’ve received a lot of positive feed-back from our drivers regarding the cameras. Not only do they help drivers become a better and safer version of themselves, but they have also saved us and our drivers a lot of grief when they are wrongly accused in an accident situation.
Continental also introduced a new driver safety training program in 2019. The new program allows drivers to download either through an app or a website, short interactive safety tutorials. The program is designed to be short in order to keep each driver’s attention, yet frequent and impactful, so that safe driving habits are constantly on the forefront of each Continental driver’s mind. Safety is Continental’s No. 1 priority. The newest technology has allowed Continental to become a safer organization overall.
Continental Express purchased 50 new 2020 Freightliner Cascadia semi-tractors in 2019. These trucks are all very “smart” and are equipped with the newest state-of-the-art Detroit Assurance Suite of Safety Systems, which includes adaptive cruise, lane departure, side collision prevention and auto brake technology.
Continental Express’s corporate headquarters are located west of Sidney on State Route 47. Continental Express has also terminals located in Gaffney, South Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; Danville, Virginia; Louisville, Kentucky; Indianapolis, Indiana; Columbus, Ohio and a dedicated operation in Portland, Oregon.
For more information, visit Continental Express’s corporate headquarters located at 10450 State Route 47 W., Sidney, Ohio or Continental Express’s website, www.ceioh.com.
