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July 12, 2000 10:28 AM, EDT

With backing from an Atlanta venture capital firm, Thomas M. Caudell is turning the lowly business of lumping into a big, high-tech center of profits.

Caudell worked for 28 years as an executive with several refrigerated truckload carriers, including Oklahoma City-based Rocor International, where he dealt with loading and unloading problems on a daily basis. Now as president of Progressive Logistics Services in Atlanta, he runs a company that employs more than 900 loaders at 35 facilities and is on track to generate $30 million in revenue this year.

Progressive is one of a handful of businesses that are bringing professional management and technical know-how to the largely cash-based and sometimes unruly world of independent laborers, known as lumpers.

“Historically, loading and unloading has been provided on an ad hoc basis by free-lance laborers on shippers’ and receivers’ docks,” Caudell said. “Then mom-and-pop businesses began to serve single locations. Several things now are putting pressure on to take it to the next level.”

For the full story, see the July 10 print edition of Transport Topics. .