Women In Trucking Association (WIT) named All-State Express CEO Sherri Squier as its November Member of the Month.
Having begun her career as a nurse, Sherri Squier gained an immediate life or death understanding the urgency of the word “stat.” Moving forward a few years while managing critical care deliveries on behalf of her patients, she quickly realized the same sense of urgency wasn’t often shared by the courier companies she engaged. With a dissatisfaction for the service she was experiencing, Squier did what every other entrepreneurial working woman with no time to waste would do, she started her own delivery company.
“When we started All-State Express, the initial vision was to provide superior service to several major medical facilities within the Triad Region of North Carolina. Quickly word of mouth spread and we were soon the largest medical courier business within the region,” Squier said.
After successfully building the medical courier business, around the turn of the century, Sherri and her husband Spencer, expanded their company into the emerging expedite industry. The same sense of urgency that drove the medical courier business to success also fostered success within the expedite industry. “We didn’t know that much about the automotive industry or just-in-time inventory management, but we knew how to schedule and manage critical transportation shipments,” Squier said.
Today, All-State Express, a SmartWay certified carrier, has a fleet of over 200 units, including semis, cargo vans, sprinter vans and straight trucks offering services throughout the lower 48 along with select portions of Mexico and Canada. All-State Express has been recognized by Inbound Logistics as a “Top 100 Carrier” since 2010, and was recognized as one of the fifty fastest growing companies in the triad area (FAST50) in 2012 and 2013. “If a customer has a critical shipment, then they can rely upon All-State,” said Squier, who still serves as the company’s CEO.
“The expedite industry has changed several times since the turn of the century," she said. "Today we’re seeing time-critical freight initiated less by the manufacturing or automotive industry and more often as a result of disruptions within the managed freight environment. To us it’s just a slight shift in our customer demographic, but it’s still time critical, time sensitive freight that needs communication and management – stat.”
As a woman-owned company and a member of WIT and certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), Squier says she prides herself on introducing some of the nuances a woman’s perspective can provide within an organization. “I like to think we take a little more pride in servicing our customers, drivers, and employees than some organizations," she said. "Our culture is not to always put success or the bottom line results first. Rather, we want to provide quality service first and foremost, with the belief that growth and profits will result from that commitment. We follow through on our commitments – and stand by our customers, drivers and employees. We’re trying to build All-State in the image of a company we’d entrust our children to work within because in some cases they do or will someday.”
Squiers graduated from Gardner-Webb University in 1986 and was later inducted into the Gardner-Webb University Gallery of Distinguished Alumni. Sherri is an active member of Center Grove Baptist Church in Clemmons, NC. She enjoys reading, gardening, traveling and spending time with her husband, three children, daughter-in-law and their two Shih Tzus, Coco and Mia.
