Our Team

Learning the intricacies of logistics and transportation at aerospace and manufacturing companies, the way Jose works is always characterized by “wearing many hats and deep diving on operations to optimize performance wherever possible. I love the challenge of putting the puzzle pieces together so everyone’s job can get a little better.”

Presented with the opportunity to start his own small trucking company, Jose embraced the new challenge of successfully shipping a wide variety of products for an even wider variety of people. “I love the amount of interesting people I get to work with and seeing how what we do for them is part of this much bigger picture.”

And his decade of experience as a shipper means he is driven by the philosophy of having the answers before the question can be asked. This philosophy helps Jose direct his team in the fine art of anticipating the question as though the shipment was the most important thing in the world to you. 

That mindset comes from taking the time to understand more about every shipment and every customer, “because often, it may be the most important thing in the world that day or that week to a customer, and our job is to make sure we match that importance with how we work and communicate.”

This is where much of the pride at Pride Logistics can be found; valuing the people and services who make it happen. Because empowering his team to go the extra mile, to devise the best solution and not just the good enough one, and to take a personal interest in every customer and their needs are just the basics of how you treat someone.

With 60 years in the transportation industry, Richard Thorne has seen it all. Starting his career in the field as a driver in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Richard built up his own air freight business before heading out to California. Landing in Los Angeles, he continued his path of helping transportation companies build from the bottom up and became known for his ability to make every shipment work out.

In all these years, Richard has been driven by one thing: “passion for people, for helping them, for creating situations where they can take charge and succeed.” This passion extends to employees and clients alike. 

When starting Pride Logistics in 2010, Richard fully adopted his motto, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll get it taken care of” as the mantra of the company. With expert knowledge of every mode of transportation and personal relationships with people in a host of industries, Richard knew without doubt that Pride Logistics could deliver on that promise.

For Richard it’s simple: “I love people. I love the excitement and challenge of delivering a successful project, and I love the relationships that get strengthened in those moments. We want to be the people who get the job done for somebody, but they also like talking to us on the phone because we care.”

From fancy designer dresses to landing gear for 737 airplanes, to an antique crystal chandelier, Richard believes the best solutions always come from “building a solution together that meets every need the customer has along the way, not just the final delivery. If the customer is happy, you don’t have a problem. We only count success by our customer’s happiness.”

Getting talked into a job in dispatching ended up being the best thing a friend had ever convinced Paul to do. “I thought I would hate it, and I loved it.” Building a strong background in expedited loads, Paul joined Pride Logistics and has been thrilled with how openly everyone learns from each other and shares deep knowledge and experience to make the team as a whole stronger. 

From Paul’s previous experience, “cross-departmental training and sharing just wasn’t a thing. And when I got to Pride Logistics, I immediately saw that we operate in the exact opposite way. That means we can be more creative, more innovative, and overall deliver more for the customer, every single time.”

And that customer success is directly tied to how Paul rates not only his own success but his growth. Paul views every customer interaction, every logistics puzzle, and every successful delivery as a chance to learn and grow. “I feel one of the best ways I can serve our customers is by never feeling like I’ve got it all figured out. Every customer, every situation, every load is unique and needs to be approached like that but with all the insight from previous ones.”

Being the newest member of the team, Paul thinks he’s been able to immediately see what customers love about Pride Logistics: “They see that we operate as a family. Everyone is incredibly supportive of each other and we all will step in to help or troubleshoot or just be a sounding board.” 

Working with customers, Paul has zeroed in on the fact that Pride Logistics is not just fulfilling a role of moving goods; they’re delivering an experience. Whereas most organizations can figure out how to move something from point A to point B, no one else can make “customers feel that what they’re getting from us is a team effort from a group of really dedicated, caring individuals whose main job is to fulfill customers’ needs before they even realize they have them.”

Growing up with a truck-driver father doing oversized heavy haul runs, Mary has been around the industry her entire life. These days, her brother and her son can whip a big rig around on a dime having learned from her dad. “It’s my heart, my soul, it’s like it’s bred into our family’s blood. Technology is necessary, but there’s nothing that helps technology be the best it can be like hands-on knowledge of the trucking world.”

And Mary’s hands-on knowledge is built from years of being “out there helping to park loads, riding forklifts clean to the top to throw tarps over them, and driving state to state making deliveries and pick-ups.” There dedication and commitment in every little thing Mary does, no matter the scale.

Mary’s decades of experience have shown here that everything succeeds because of the details. With more companies offering quick quotes based on little information, Mary knows the way to limit surprises for customers is by helping them deliver the right details the first time, so their shipment is perfectly prepared for every step of the journey.

And those little details about Pride Logistics are the things she loves the most: “We make a phenomenal team. We all learn from each other and love the part of the day where we can step back after hearing from a customer with a smile in their voice, look at each other and be each other’s biggest fans.”

Mary lives by the motto,

“you never leave a customer hanging.” Because no matter what, their world is resting on information only you can provide. “It’s a lot of responsibility, and I cherish the trust our customers place in us. And if I can reward that trust with a joke and a smile on top of a great delivery, then all the better!”

Years ago, Natalie got her start with Pride Logistics working side by side with Richard. He taught her everything he knows about working with carriers and getting creative to deliver on customers’ needs. That time learning the ins and outs of the industry was indispensable, but it also showed Natalie that “there’s always something new that needs to be figured out, and trusting you can do it and relying on your team to help makes it all come together.”

Natalie’s friendly personality means she is never phased by difficult requests or new customers, because she “can always find something to talk about with customers to put them at ease and remind them that they’ve got real humans on the other end of the line who care just as much about them as their shipment.”

Doing the hard work that makes every transaction a breeze for the customer is what Natalie feels is both the most difficult and most rewarding part of the job. “If I have to take twenty steps, I’ll do it, and only share step twenty with the customer. They shouldn’t have to handle any part of making sure their shipment safely clears customs and crosses the border for delivery. That’s what I’m here for.”

Natalie takes great pride in the fact that every day, she delivers on what was promised. “It’s the way the company operates, always has been and always will be.” Natalie has never met a challenge she couldn’t overcome, and with the team at Pride Logistics, she imagines that she likely never will.