Trinity Logistics Honored with BBB’s 2011 Rush Award

It’s fairly common for companies to operate according to a mission statement. For Trinity Logistics, winner of the BBB of Delaware’s 2011 Rush Award for excellence and integrity in business, that purpose is “to continually improve people’s lives by constantly striving to be our best.” But the Seaford-based, third-party trucking company goes a step further by outlining the corporate DNA that informs its mission and purpose.

The strands of that DNA, according to Trinity president and CEO Jeff Banning, include honesty/ethics, trust/loyalty, focus/compassion, servant leadership/wisdom, teamwork/creativity, customer service/work ethics and continuous improvement.

That focus on serving others has enabled the family-owned company to thrive financially—it is currently ranked 20th in the nation among providers of its kind, with revenues in 2011 of $215 million. Trinity moves some 700-800 shipments daily, most of them truckloads. It employs 115 people in Delaware and an additional 210 nationwide.

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Yet the company’s financial success tells only part of its story, for Banning and his family are just as concerned with operating ethically, treating their employees well, and giving back to the communities in which they work.

Trinity was founded in 1979 in Cambridge, Md., by Jeff’s father, Ed Banning. Jeff and his two brothers and only sister grew up in the business in which they all still work. In 2007, with Jeff at the helm, the company moved to Delaware. That’s when Trinity joined the BBB of Delaware.

“We value being part of an association with other companies that are committed to ethics and are striving to do their best,” Banning says. “The credibility and reputation of the BBB is something that every business should want to be associated with.”

“Trinity has great core values,” says BBB of Delaware president Christine Sauers. “They treat their employees like part of their family and they have a really strong focus on the community.”

From left: Trinity president and CEO Jeff Banning, co-founders Ed and Deanna Banning, purchasing’s Christy Gorski (formerly Banning), executive vice president of agent division Billy Banning, and president of distribution services Darrel Banning. The focus on community is so strong, in fact, that in 2005 the company established the Trinity Fund, a 501(c)(3) to handle its employees’ fundraising efforts and donations from their paychecks. The company matches what employees raise each year.

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The main national charities that Trinity employees support are the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. Delaware employees participate every year in the ACS Relay for Life in southern Delaware and raise funds in other ways, such as through a cookbook they are publishing this year.

Employees at each site also choose their own local charities to support. The Delaware Trinity team, for example, supports Taylor’s Gift Foundation by raising funds and awareness for organ donation. In addition, each year, Delaware employees purchase gifts at Christmas for needy families in the community. They also have taught leadership and business principles to youth leaders through the Delaware Youth Leadership Academy.

“Our community outreach is very broad,” says Brandy McMullen, Trinity’s director of marketing. “Any team member can make a request for any charity that touches their heart, and the foundation will consider it.”

The Banning family also created a foundation of its own, which is run by family patriarch, Ed Banning. “We’ve been blessed, and so we give back,” Jeff Banning says. “It all ties back to our purpose and what we try to entrench in the company and our employees through our DNA.”

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