Scott Quiner Profile
Growing up in Northwest Minnesota, Scott Quiner had a thirst for adventure. He satisfied his wanderlust soon after high school graduation by joining the Air Force, which gave him the chance to explore the world. His eight years in the military trained Scott in logistics and hazardous materials handling, including explosives and radioactive items.
After leaving the Air Force, Scott joined the private sector, putting his logistics training to use helping companies. In 2000, he joined GW Transportation as a dispatcher. Later he was promoted to assistant operations manager and for the past year has been serving as the operations manager. In this capacity, he interacts with customers, handles scheduling, and manages employees.
A Typical Day
Freight operations isn’t your typical nine-to-five job. For Scott, workdays typically start at 7 a.m., when Scott begins managing incoming freight requests, in addition to handling the leftover orders from the day before. The rest of the day is a busy stream of interacting with customers, quoting freight, and even dispatching. Typically, his workday ends after 5 p.m. The unpredictability of each day makes Scott’s job more enjoyable, though, and occasionally he even sees an interesting load.
Interesting Adventure
“My first military exercise after joining the Airforce was being deployed near El Paso TX in 1985.
It was a joint training venture between different branches of military and I was part of a team that was loading army vehicles on transport aircraft.
Part of the exercise was to load vehicles while in a full chemical warfare suit including wearing the mask and climbing under all vehicles and trailers chaining them down to the aircraft while it was over 95 degrees on the tarmac. Once we finished loading, the loadmaster on the aircraft figured the balance was not correct and we had to break it all down and move everything 6 inches forward.
All my other joint inspection exercises in the following years were a piece of cake compared to that one.”
Future of freight
Although the industry is competitive, Scott believes GW Transportation sets itself apart from others in its field. The personalities that make up GW’s small staff bring customers back repeatedly. But the company is feeling the pressure to keep up with the constantly-changing technology that is transforming every field. Tools like electronic load tracking are essential to serving today’s customers.
“We’re working on implementing electronic load tracking where we can track driver using his cellphone and get real-time updates until the load is done,” Scott says. “This load tracking system has the ability to integrate with our dispatch software. With use of this system, soon our customers will be able log in and look at the status of their load. So, our next step is to get a little more up-to-date electronically, including automated tracking.”
A Family Man
When he isn’t working hard for GW Transportation, Scott spends time with his wife and three kids. He considers his biggest accomplishment being married to the same woman for 33 years. But his sense of adventure has never left. In fact, he now enjoys his favorite outdoor activities with his own children.
“I would say my favorite thing to do right now on the weekends is take the boys hiking,” Scott says. “We go to Wisconsin, northern Minnesota, try to find the nicest trails with rivers and hills and climbing. In the summertime, we try to get as much fishing in as possible.”
As GW Transportation moves into its next decade, leaders like Scott Quiner will help it reach its goals. Technology plays a big role in what transportation companies do, so having visionaries in place is important to long-term success.