Firm stays connected

MISSING LINK: Transportation brokerage firm Trans-Link LLC on clear communication with the shipper, shipment receivers and drivers do ensure timely delivery. Above, Carla Manni, president of Trans-Link LLC, meets with staff logistics specialist Kyle Badolato. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
MISSING LINK: Transportation brokerage firm Trans-Link LLC on clear communication with the shipper, shipment receivers and drivers do ensure timely delivery. Above, Carla Manni, president of Trans-Link LLC, meets with staff logistics specialist Kyle Badolato. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Trans-Link LLC is a woman-owned transportation brokerage firm that connects truckers with clients shipping everything from fresh produce to dry goods in the United States and Canada.

President Carla Manni grew up in the industry, with grandparents who each had their own trucking companies consciously splitting up territories so they wouldn’t be fighting for the same business, Manni said. At age 20, she ran a forklift for her father, Sam Badolato, in his trucking and warehouse business, she said.

Ultimately, Manni and her father went to work for different trucking companies and when Manni’s company got bought out, she approached her customers and asked them if they’d continue as her clients if she started her own business. They said they would and in May 2000, Manni launched the business she runs today.

For the first six years, she worked from home with one room, one fax line and one telephone line, but in 2006 moved to her current location and today manages more than 70 accounts, she said.

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“We find customers that need something and we find a way to connect and make it work,” Manni said.

Problem-solving and trouble-shooting are the company’s strengths. For example, a company in Las Vegas that distributes fresh basil and herbs in Maryland has a packaging warehouse in Taunton, and needed transportation from Taunton to Elkton, Md., she said.

“We found somebody to lease a refrigerated truck,” Manni said.

Her father eventually joined the firm as operations manager, and Carla Manni’s brother, Kyle Badolato, also works for the company in operations and national sales, Carla Manni said.

The firm focuses on clear communication with the shipper, shipment receivers, and drivers to ensure timely delivery, she said, and that includes communicating with the carriers. The firm employs 50 carriers not only in Rhode Island and Massachusetts but across the country.

Most of the products transported are either dry goods or refrigerated goods, Manni said.

Competition is stiff within the state, so Manni has recently embarked on a social media marketing campaign on Twitter and Facebook. The firm also has launched an email campaign to logistic managers and purchasing agents, she said.

The goal is to keep adding two major accounts a year while preserving the quality of service existing clients expect, she says.

“Still being here is a blessing,” Manni said. •

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