About Transatlantic Express
Two Decades Of Moving Other People’s Promises
We are a freight forwarder built by operators rather than by a spreadsheet. Every service we sell is one we run ourselves, every deadline we accept is one we intend to keep, and every file has a name attached to it from quotation to final signature.
Started on one lane, grown on referrals
Transatlantic Express began in 2006 with a single weekly groupage box between New York and Rotterdam. There was no marketing budget and no sales team. Growth came from importers telling other importers that somebody had finally answered the phone at four in the morning.
Twenty years later the network reaches 180 countries through 210 partner hubs, but the operating rule has not moved: whoever quotes the job stays attached to it until the cargo is signed for. There is no handover to a faceless operations pool and no shrugging at the border. If we sold you the transit time, we own the transit time.
We are privately held, which matters more than it sounds. It means we can turn down volume that we cannot execute properly, invest in our own dock crews and brokers instead of subcontracting the difficult parts, and keep pricing honest rather than defending a quarterly growth number to outside shareholders.
We are also deliberately unfashionable about technology for its own sake. Customers get live milestones, documents and dashboards because those things genuinely help. What they also get is a human being with the authority to make a decision, because no portal has ever rescued a shipment stuck at an inspection bay.
- Founded 2006 on the New York to Rotterdam groupage lane
- Privately held, no external shareholder pressure on pricing
- Employed dock crews, packers and licensed customs brokers
- One named specialist and one permanent deputy per account
- Control tower staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
By The Numbers
Scale That Still Answers The Phone
Big enough to hold space in peak season, small enough that your account manager knows your cargo without looking it up.
How We Work
Three Commitments We Can Be Measured On
These are not values painted on a wall. They are the three things every member of our staff is reviewed against each quarter.
We quote what we can deliver
If a transit time is tight, we say so at the quoting stage and offer the alternative. Nobody at this company is rewarded for winning work we cannot execute, and no bonus is paid on a booking that later needs an apology.
- Written routing with cut-offs before you commit
- Surcharges disclosed at quotation, not on invoice
- Realistic transit windows, including customs time
Cargo is handled, not just moved
Our packing crews and dock teams are employed, trained and audited by us rather than hired by the shift. That is the single biggest reason our claims rate sits well below the industry average.
- Photographic record of packing and loading
- Lashing and securing to written method statements
- Damage investigated with root cause, not just paid
Information beats apologies
You should hear about a delay from our control tower before you hear about it from your own customer. Every confirmed exception triggers a phone call with options attached, not an email that hedges.
- Exception call within thirty minutes of confirmation
- At least two costed recovery options each time
- Weekly performance reporting on request
Our Timeline
Twenty Years, One Operating Standard
Each step below was driven by a customer problem rather than a strategy document.
- 2006
One weekly box, two people
Founded to move consolidated freight between New York and Rotterdam for importers who could not get straight answers from the large forwarders. The first office was a desk, a phone and a shared warehouse bay.
- 2010
Own dock crews and packing standards
After one too many claims caused by somebody else’s handling, we brought packing and loading in-house, wrote our own method statements and started photographing every load. Claims fell sharply within a year and never went back up.
- 2014
Brokerage brought in-house
Licensed customs brokers were hired directly rather than subcontracted. Average clearance on core lanes fell from thirty-eight hours to under nine, because classification questions stopped travelling between companies.
- 2019
Control tower goes 24/7
A round-the-clock exception desk launched, with milestone feeds pushed straight into customer systems. The rule from day one was that a deviation triggers a call to a human, not a status code on a screen.
- 2022
Bonded warehousing and fulfilment
Bonded storage, pick and pack and returns handling added so importers could defer duty until goods sold and stop paying for empty committed footprint through the quiet months.
- 2024
210 hubs, 180 countries
The partner network was consolidated under one operating standard, one reference number and one invoice, ending the era of customers chasing three suppliers for one shipment.
- 2026
Rail corridors and emissions reporting
Scheduled block trains added between inland hubs and seaports, with per-shipment carbon reporting so procurement teams can compare cost, calendar and carbon on the same page.
The desks behind your shipment
We are organised around cargo, not around job titles. When you open an account you are introduced to the people who will actually touch your freight, and they stay with you rather than rotating through a queue.
The freight desk owns quoting, booking and day-to-day contact. The control tower owns exceptions and works to the clock rather than to office hours. The brokerage team owns everything a customs authority might ask, and the warehouse team owns condition, count and packing. All four sit on the same file, which is why nobody has to say they will look into it and call you back.
- Freight desk: quoting, booking, documents, daily contact
- Control tower: milestone monitoring and exception recovery, 24/7
- Brokerage: classification, entries, deferment, audit trail
- Warehouse and dock: packing, loading, condition and count
- Claims and quality: root cause investigation and prevention
Compliance is a service, not a hurdle
Our brokers hold licences across nine customs territories and file the majority of declarations before the vessel berths. Where a shipment needs duty deferment, bonded movement or inward processing relief, it is arranged at booking rather than discovered at the border.
We treat classification as an ongoing responsibility. Tariff codes are reviewed annually per product line, preference claims are checked against the actual rules of origin rather than assumed, and every entry we file stays retrievable for seven years. If an authority ever questions a declaration made on your behalf, the file is already assembled and waiting.
- Licensed brokerage across nine customs territories
- AEO and trusted-trader programmes supported
- Tariff classification reviewed annually per product line
- All-risk cargo cover arranged at declared value
- Audit-ready documentation retained for seven years
- Dangerous goods and lithium battery competence in-house
Responsibility
Moving Freight With Less Waste
Sustainability in freight is arithmetic, not marketing. Fuller loads, shorter detours and the right mode do more than any pledge.
Mode shift where it works
Rail on the inland leg cuts roughly two thirds of the emissions of equivalent road haulage, and on dense volumes it often costs less too. We price it alongside the road option so you can see the trade-off.
- Scheduled block trains to and from seaports
- Rail plus road combinations for final delivery
- Per-shipment carbon reporting on request
Fuller boxes, fewer trips
Load planning is done properly rather than by eye. Consolidating two part loads into one protected slot removes a whole journey, which is the only emissions saving that is also a cost saving.
- Load plans modelled before collection
- Twice-weekly consolidations on core lanes
- Packaging reviews to remove dead air
Packaging and returns
Reusable transit packaging, right-sized cartons and a returns process that refurbishes and restocks rather than writing off. Waste in the warehouse is waste on the invoice.
- Reusable and returnable transit packaging
- Right-sizing to cut volumetric charges
- Returns triage, refurbishment and restock
Come and audit us before you trust us
We would rather be checked than believed. Ask for a reference on your own trade lane and we will introduce you to a customer shipping something similar, then leave the room and let them do the talking.
If you want to go further, visit a site unannounced, sit with the control tower during a night shift, or run a parallel trial on part of your volume and compare the numbers against your incumbent on real shipments. Every claim on this page is one we are willing to have tested.
- Reference calls on your specific lane and commodity
- Site visits to warehouse and control tower, day or night
- Parallel trials on part of your volume before you switch
- Open-book reporting on transit time, cost and claims
Questions
What New Clients Usually Want To Know
Straight answers, including the ones that are not flattering.
Are you a forwarder or an asset-owning carrier?
We are a freight forwarder with our own warehousing, dock crews, packing teams and licensed brokers. We buy vessel, aircraft and rail capacity under contract rather than owning ships or planes, which means we can route you on whatever is genuinely best rather than defending our own equipment.
Is there a minimum spend to open an account?
No. Groupage exists so a single pallet can travel on the same protected schedule as a hundred. We have customers moving one box a month and customers moving several hundred containers a year, and both get a named specialist.
What happens if something goes wrong on my shipment?
You get a call from the control tower within thirty minutes of a confirmed deviation, with the cause and at least two costed options. If cargo is damaged or lost we investigate root cause, not just liability, and we tell you what we changed afterwards.
How do you price, and can I see the build-up?
All-in landed pricing with the surcharges disclosed at quotation. On contract lanes we will show the cost build-up line by line, including where our margin sits. Duty and tax are shown separately because they are government charges we collect rather than revenue we keep.
Where are you based?
Head office is at 120 Harbour Point, New York, NY 10004, with our European gateway at 44 Waalhaven Quay, 3089 Rotterdam. The two centres share a shift pattern so somebody is always awake and looking at your cargo.
Can you take over a lane from our current forwarder?
Yes, and we prefer to do it gradually. We run a trial on a portion of your volume, handle the migration paperwork ourselves and only ask for the rest once the numbers support it.
Twenty years of freight, one phone number.
Tell us the lane and the deadline. You will get a costed routing option within one business day, and the person who quotes it will still be on your file when the cargo is signed for.