ContainerPort Group Celebrates 50th Anniversary in 2021

CLEVELAND, OH…  ContainerPort Group (CPG®) is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2021 with a week-long series of events for employees and customers. 

Jack E. Hunger founded Rail Container Services in 1971 with only six employees. At the time, containerized freight was just being introduced, and the St. Lawrence Seaway had only been open to oceangoing vessels for 12 years. This put Rail Container Services in a position to innovate and become a pioneer in the early days of container movement. They did so by listening intently to their customers and evolving to meet the needs of a changing industry.

One of the growing needs was moving containers inland from port cities. In 1973, Midwest Container Services was opened to move containers via rail across Ohio and the Midwest. The two organizations merged and rebranded as ContainerPort Group in 1986, leading to decades of growth across the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Gulf, and Southeast regions.

“Not many organizations get the opportunity to celebrate 50 years in business,” says Michael Smith, CEO of World Group, the parent organization of CPG. “It’s an honor to come to work every day because of the legacy that was here before me, and I’m comforted to know that we’re putting the organization on a path of continued growth and success.”

“Jack was a savvy businessman and saw the opportunity that containerization presented,” says World Group Chairman Fred Hunger, son of company founder Jack Hunger. “It’s been a joy for me to be a part of the organization from its very beginnings. To see that we’ve carried forward the core values and the focus on the customer, I think Jack would be incredibly proud and humbled to see what we’ve accomplished.” 

Today, CPG operates 26 trucking terminals and employs a fleet of nearly 1,300 independent contractor drivers. In the year 2020, they performed nearly 284,000 container moves, which is approximately 1,090 per day. More than 350 employees are spread across the country, including over 90 at the corporate headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. Over the last three years, the company has been ranked in the Transport Topics Top 100 For-Hire Carriers, Transport Topics Top 10 Drayage Providers, the American Journal of Transportation Top 100 Trucking Companies, and the Commercial Carrier Journal Top 250, further demonstrating the strength and focus of the organization. 

Throughout the week of October 18, 2021, CPG will celebrate its history with employees via internal social campaigns and virtual events. The company invites the public to participate by engaging on our social media platforms.

If you have a memory, story, photo, or video to share, we invite you to do so with the hashtag #CPG50Years on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. 

To learn more about the history of ContainerPort Group, visit the “Our History” section of our website.

To learn more, contact us: https://www.containerport.com/contact/