People First, Pt. 3: Meet the Extra Mile Award Winner, Clay Vines

We’re continuing with part 3 in our employee recognition People First series, highlighting our most recent award-winning employees. We’ve always been a people-first business, and we think it’s important to recognize our people who go above and beyond to provide premier service to the shippers and carriers we work with every day. In our last post, we introduced you to Trip Smith, a winner of our first-ever Extra Mile award. And today, we’re meeting the other recipient of the same award, Clay Vines.

As you may remember from our last post, the Extra Mile award recognizes employees who have played a large supporting role in helping to achieve the goals of their teammates and TA Services as a whole. Like Trip, Clay is being recognized for his exceptional aid in a large military cargo transportation project.

“Clay was absolutely instrumental to the success of the mission. He hustled up and down the staging area, documenting all of the cargo and facilitating the ordering of specialized assets to help throughput the equipment to Texas. Clay quickly adapted to the environment and likely relied on his Marine Corps’ experience to flawlessly execute the operation.”

Kevin Drew, SVP of Business Development at TA Services

ICYMI: Kevin was recognized with the Make.Ship.Happen.® award for his determination in securing the project and leadership on-site. 

Clay spent two weeks on-site at the port in San Diego, marshaling trucks at the port, managing the staging area, taking daily freight inventories, and providing communication to all parties involved for constant visibility. We sat down with Clay to learn a bit more about his background and his experience on-site.

Q: How did you first get started in the world of logistics?
A: As a logistics coordinator, I’m responsible for getting things from point A to point B. I did something similar during my four years in the Marine Corps as part of a team who was responsible for the movement of aircraft equipment. It’s not exactly the same, but a lot of the skills cross over.

Q: What lessons or skills did you pick up during your time in the Marine Corps that you’ve brought into your career at TA Services?
A: In logistics, things are always changing and sometimes it can feel a bit chaotic. Appointment times move around or a carrier is having problems with their truck. But you have to be able to roll with the punches. Being in the Marines, I learned how to handle changes and work well under pressure.

Q: You were recognized with the Extra Mile award for your work on a large military cargo project. Were there any challenges you faced during your time on-site?
A: Since this was a military project, we were moving a lot of large military equipment that doesn’t fit on your average flatbed trailer. We often had to roll with the punches and find alternative solutions when the original plan changed.

Q: And what are you most proud of from your work on this project?
A: I was just happy I was able to help. I was originally only supposed to be there for four or five days, but my trip ended up getting extended to two weeks and I was more than happy to stay on and help see it through to the end.

Q: When you went on-site for this project, you were still relatively new to the TA Services team. What did you learn from being on-site so early on in your career?
A: Being on-site allowed me to experience the whole process up close, from an empty truck to a loaded truck rolling off the lot and ready to make a delivery. You don’t realize just how much work goes into it — getting the trailer loaded, making sure everything is secure, organizing all the paperwork — until you see it firsthand.

Q: And lastly, what does it mean to you to be recognized with the Extra Mile award?
A: It was definitely unexpected, but it felt really good. Going the extra mile is about rolling with the punches and being willing to do what you have to do to get the job done and get the job done right. I felt really proud that I was able to live up to those expectations.

We’re so proud of Clay and all the hard work he put into this project. We hope you’ll join us in congratulating Clay on receiving the Extra Mile award. Be sure to tune in to the next installment of our People First series to follow along on our employee recognition tour and meet another award-winning member of our team.

Contact TA Services Today to start your logistics career and work with an extraordinary team dedicated to helping you succeed.

Get In Touch with our logistics experts to have an all-star team Make.Ship.Happen.® for you!