Andy Plank is the president of Blue Eagle Logistics Inc., an air freight and final-mile trucking company. With 25 years of experience in the corporate world, Plank’s dream of owning and running his own business became a reality when he acquired a courier company in 2013. Since then, Plank has transformed the company into a leader in air and express freight transportation across Pennsylvania.
Plank’s entrepreneurial path is a testament to his determination and resilience. With his sons approaching college age, Plank borrowed more than $1 million to invest in the courier company that would become Blue Eagle Logistics. Along the way, he sought knowledge and guidance from industry peers, investing in educational events and joining organizations such as the Entrepreneurs’ Organization to learn from experienced business leaders. These experiences helped to shape Blue Eagle Logistics into a successful and growing business.
“Learning the air freight business was challenging,” Plank said. “Determining a strategy, after some false starts, was key in order to be successful over the long term. Developing the team and myself was critical through educational events like trade conferences in order to understand what other carriers were implementing as best practices. Joining the Entrepreneurs’ Organization was a critical investment to gain knowledge from my fellow peers who had experiences that I was able to benefit from immensely. Blue Eagle was able to take some of those experience shares and modify them to fit our organization’s culture and values and put us on a growth trajectory to success.”
At Blue Eagle Logistics, Plank envisions replicating the business’s model for air and express freight in adjacent geographies and expanding into new markets while upholding the company’s core values of customer service, teamwork, safety and communication, the company said.
Blue Eagle Logistics makes shipments that larger carriers may not want to handle due to the specialized nature of deliveries. Technology plays a crucial role in the operations, allowing the company to run routes efficiently, minimize mileage and reduce environmental impacts. Blue Eagle Logistics continuously evaluates technology advancements to ensure they operate with the most fuel-efficient vehicles, the company said.
Plank plans to expand Blue Eagle Logistics into adjacent markets across Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York within the next five years and to capitalize on the growing demand for e-commerce and specialized home deliveries.
Among the important traits of a good leader, listening is No. 1, Plank said.
“It takes great listening skills to truly understand what is happening in your organization regarding opportunities, pain points and sources of conflict,” he said. “A high degree of empathy is important to comprehend and digest what the mood and feelings of your team are on any given day, in order to keep them moving forward. A mentality of training and development is critical in order to continue developing the talent on your team so they are able to improve and go farther than they may have thought is possible.”
