Plastic Express Story
We were founded in 1970 after Ray “Jr.” Kurtz fulfilled his Army enlistment. Jr. returned to Orange, California where he bought a truck and began hauling PVC pipe and fittings throughout the southwest, hence the name Plastic Express.
We purchased our first self-loading pneumatic bulk unit in 1975 which put us officially in the plastic bulk transportation business. In 1981 we branched out to New Jersey and began a steady growth period throughout the 1980s, adding bulk terminals in Arizona, Nevada, Illinois and Minnesota.
In the mid-1990s, we entered into the packaging and warehousing arena to provide our distributor customers a “one-stop-shop” in Santa Fe Springs, California.
In 1998, we partnered with a major resin manufacturer and handled all of the in-plant work to include railcar loading, rail car switching, bulk trucking, export packaging, and drayage activities at the rate of more than one million pounds per day.
In 2004, we opened our second integrated terminal and packaging operation in Raritan Center, Edison, New Jersey to handle additional growth opportunities in the Northeast as well as imports and exports through the ports of New York and New Jersey.
In 2008, we began handling food-grade commodities including Kosher foods.
Over the next few years, our growth continued to include full-service expansions in Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas and North Carolina.
In 2013, we expanded our handling to include other nonhazardous industrial products such as paper, steel, ceramic proppant, lumber and other forest and building products.
In 2014, we opened our first Texas warehouse in La Porte. Over the next few years we saw further expansions in Texas bringing on a new 400,000 Sq. Ft. packaging warehouse in Pasadena. This followed with the addition of two more La Porte Warehouses.
In 2016, we were hired to manage the transload at the Dayton Railyard for CMC Rail. The Dayton railyard is one of the largest rail yards in the world and can hold 8,500 Railcars at capacity.
In 2019, we opened a new 1.1 million square foot warehouse in Savannah, GA. The facility can package and process in excess of 20 railcars a day.
In 2022, we consolidated our La Porte facilities to a new 800,000 Sq. Ft. packaging warehouse in Baytown, TX. We also expanded into Charlotte, NC and Monaca, PA.
Today we are the largest Veteran Owned and Operated logistics company in the U.S., headquartered in Houston, TX. We manage over 50 rail yards, 4.2 Million Sq. Ft. of full service warehouses with packaging and over 30 bulk truck terminals across the country. We are strategically located near most of the major ports in the U.S. and rely heavily on our rail infrastructure to handle imports /exports as well as regional distribution. We cross into Canada and Mexico every day. We have over 500 employees that service 300+ customers around the globe. We work with every facet of the supply chain, focusing on rail, truck, and ship movements, looking for efficiencies to deliver a sustainable solution for our customers. We are Operation Clean Sweep Blue, CTPAT compliant, ISO 9001 Certified and GMPT.
Our goal is to continue to exceed our customers’ expectations every day. We have a strong team in place that serves our customers with the “can-do” attitude that has been the cornerstone at Plastic Express from day one.
