Corporate History

The company is Incorporated as T.H.T. Transport, a sister company of Texas Highway Transport, which was a wholly owned  subsidiary of Texas Shippers Association, Inc.. Texas Highway Transport started as a piggyback drayage company operating out of Dallas, TX.  Texas Shippers was a Freight Forwarder and Motor Carrier operating primarily between Chicago, Illinois and Dallas Texas. The company's president is Harlan Kelly.

James D. Vaughn, who was then Vice President of Texas Shippers Association, met Homer Davenport of Willamette Industries at a cocktail party given at the Santa Fe Railroad headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.

Willamette's Dallas Forms plant has difficulties getting freight deliveries made in a timely manner and consistent with customer demands which was causing them to lose customers and sales. Additionally, they had problems allocating costs based on the standard method of how the freight industry billed their services.

1988

James Vaughn received a call to see if he could help Willamette solve their distribution problems in Dallas. Based on that conversation, one straight truck was obtained to provide a dedicated delivery service for Willamette Industries and to supply a custom solution outside of industry norms to their distribution needs in Dallas, TX.

The solution provided proved successful at improving service levels and allowing Willamette a method in which they could more easily break out their freight costs between customers and the decision was made to expand the service to the remaining business volumes in the local market. Two additional trucks were added to service these needs.

Stephen Vaughn joins the company and starts the process of automating the data processing, carrier compliance and billing. In addition, Stephen is given the task of creating training programs for the employees to ensure a consistent level of service between all drivers.

With the successful beginnings at providing a solution to it's customer and with increasing demand for services, the company name was changed to CustomForm Transportation and was given the sole mission of providing unique solutions to challenging service requirements based on customer needs rather than industry standards, and to do so at competitive rates. James D Vaughn becomes the company's second President.

September 1990

With the success of the service in the Dallas, Texas market, the customer wanted the service expanded into other areas. Three trucks were put into service in Houston, TX to establish the same level of service for customers in that area.

With the success of services in Dallas and Houston, CustomForm is sought out to solve ongoing service problems New Orleans, LA.  Operations in New Orleans, LA commence with three trucks providing local and regional delivery services to that market.

Due to consistently poor performance from a national warehousing company, a inquiry was made based on the service success of the delivery system, as to whether CustomForm could establish a warehousing operation in Houston, TX that would provided a higher level of service than what was available in the market and that was consistent with the services that had been developed. As a result, the Houston warehouse commenced full operation on April 6 of that year in a modest 10,000 sq. ft. of space.

After exhausting every available warehousing company in New Orleans in an attempt to get acceptable service, CustomForm is asked to open a warehouse in that market to complement the previously established delivery services.

CustomForm begins it's first trailer “shuttle” operation in the Dallas, TX area with one truck and a pool of six van trailers. This also marks the beginning of local truckload delivery service to the Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX market.

Texas Industries, a large cement company based in Dallas, TX had the desire to convert its private fleet to a dedicated fleet operated by an outside company. CustomForm successfully negotiated a solution and commenced full operation of a fleet of 42 tractors and flatbed trailers in Dallas, TX,  Katy, TX and Beaumont, TX for a five year contract, delivering bagged cement to TXI's customers.

A local lumber wholesaler who found themselves paying high rates and receiving poor service, approached CustomForm to come up with a better solution. As a result, 14 tractors and a pool of flatbed trailers were put into service for a three year contract.

Due to significant service failures at four previous national warehousing companies, CustomForm was approached to solve a national customer’s service problems for some of their largest national customers in the Dallas, Fort Worth area. Based on the success of warehouses in Houston and New Orleans, a Dallas warehouse was opened for business in a 33,000 sq ft. facility with rail service with the intent of operating for one year test period to prove our ability to successfully solve their warehousing problems that had plagued the customer for years.

Based on the successful implementation and service improvements over their previous warehouse providers, CustomForm was awarded the customers' complete contract for all warehousing services a full ten months ahead of schedule. The local operation was expanded due to the increased service volumes.

The size of the Dallas warehouse operation was expanded into an adjacent building  to 96,000 sq ft. with a combination of bulk storage, selective rack and bulk racking operations.

Due to an increasing need by an expanding customer base, CustomForm established its over the road division to provide a level of service that was difficult to get from common carriers on a consistent basis. Additionally, with the increase of retailer chargeback’s for service failures CustomForm found an opportunity to offer a more reliable solution at competitive rates.

With additional business from new and existing customers, the Dallas warehouse was expanded to 150,000 sq ft by the addition of an additional building.

James D Vaughn dies on April 2 at the age of 67. Stephen Vaughn takes over as the company's third president.

In order to increase the transportation solutions that CustomForm provided to its customers, the company activated its Brokerage Authority under a separate corporation, CustomForm Brokerage Services, Inc. and commenced operation. As a result, CustomForm now has solutions for trucking freight regardless if the highest priority is service or price.

The Houston warehouse outgrows its previous facility and the operation was moved to a larger warehouse with over 27,000 sq ft.

After finding it's Dallas warehouse at a loss for space, and with an increasing demand for services, the company moves to a larger and more productive facility with over 260,000 sq. ft.

Up until this time, the company’s growth occurred largely due to our reputation in the industry. With the desire to expand our operations further, a decision was made that a new image would better assist our efforts to inform companies outside of it's small circle of customers what it's core business was. The creation of the WhiteStar brand is put into service to better communicate our service offerings to companies that were unfamiliar with us. The CustomForm brand is still the companies legal name and is maintained as the parent company of the WhiteStar brand.

Based on the growing volume of international freight that is moved from the ocean ports via rail, the decision is made to resume intermodal pickup and delivery services in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. The addition of this service will round out our transportation offerings and position the company to be a “full service” provider in ground freight transportation in the Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX, Houston, TX and New Orleans, LA markets.

WhiteStar Logistics begins offering international ocean container shipping services through a partnership with a Tier 2 ocean carrier.

WhiteStar Logistics increases it's available services by offering LTL freight shipments throughout the United States.

WhiteStar Logistics applies for and receives Certification as an Indirect Air Carrier from the Transportation Security Administration.