ABOUT US
3RD PARTY LOGISTICS
ABOUT AVA LOGISTICS
AVA Logistics is a non-asset based third party logistics company (3PL) that finds underused or unused space and fills it with the goods of companies who do not own enough or use any of their own trucks.
AVA Logistics was founded in 2009 with the goal of bringing efficiency to an inefficient industry. Since then, AVA has grown from a small operation to a multimillion dollar brokerage house with customers located throughout North America. AVA ships for a multitude of companies in a variety of industries ranging from auto-recycling to renewable energy and from mom and pop shops to Fortune 500 companies. Additionally AVA works with trucking companies of all sizes, from owner-operators to companies with fleets in the thousands.
Andrew Kirst
CEO
Prior to founding AVA, Andrew worked as a team leader for Schneider Logistics, a subsidiary of one of the nation’s largest transportation companies. As CEO of AVA he has helped global fortune 500 companies execute efficient movements in the North American transportation markets. He sat as Vice President on the Council of Supply Chain Management Professional’s local branch. He has guest-lectured at the University of Nevada Reno through their MBA / Supply Chain program.
Keith Minnucci
CFO / CIO
Keith took over accounting operations a few months after AVA’s inception. Prior to that, Keith worked in administration for the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments in Fort Yukon, AK. Before his time in Alaska, he was with Nordstrom in their Seattle office. More and more he focuses his time overseeing the development of our in-house transportation management program – LAVA.
Charles Kirst
COO
Charles joined AVA in 2013. Prior to that he worked as an institutional equity salesman at Jefferies & Company, Inc. in Los Angeles and Global Hunter Securities in Newport Beach and San Francisco, CA. He has worked to overhaul each department in AVA and has helped create a scalable, sustainable, and profitable freight brokerage model.
James Scholl
President
James has held positions at some of the largest freight brokerage houses in America. After a sales role for PepsiCo he went to Schneider Logistics, where he met Andrew. He worked for OHL and Turbo Logistics until they were acquired by XPO Logistics where he was a top salesman. He manages day-to-day operations on the AVA floor and works closely with Charlie in refining our model.
BACKGROUND OF AVA LOGISTICS
AVA Logistics buys and sells space on trucks and trains then manages shipments as they are in transit. We are authorized to broker freight on specified equipment operated by North America’s fleet of commercial vehicles. We are a conduit for information, gathering and providing accurate information to our customers and carriers as quickly as possible. Our focus is to streamline data and reduce waste in the North American transportation industry, saving both time and money.
America deregulated the truck fleet with the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. Truckers were allowed to set their own rates, and the pricing market was created from which freight brokers are born.
Through deregulation, small trucking companies were allowed to work directly with the railroads to create multimodal shipping. A company’s freight container, filled with consumer goods, would move across the country from truck to train then back to truck again. The space on trucks and trains could now be filled and moved economically by small outfits and independent owner operators. Brokers helped set prices and added a layer of service and transparency to the markets. More and more brokers are marrying trucks and trains to cargo loads through software and hardware development.